star trek picard season 3 q

Yep, The Picard Finale Has A Credits Scene, And We Need To Talk About It

This post contains  spoilers for the series finale of "Star Trek: Picard."

The third season of "Star Trek: Picard" was long ago declared to be its last . Lead actor Patrick Stewart is hanging up his communicator and the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" will finally split up for good. The final season of "Picard" largely served as their encore, a late-in-life reunion that allowed the character to have a few conversations — and to be in utter peril — one last time. It seems the Next Generation is no longer their generation. 

Indeed, "Picard" ends with a Next Generation of its own. Flashing forward to a year after the season's climactic Borg battle, a new crew has been assembled. Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharp Chestnut), the daughter of Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), is already sitting at the helm of the U.S.S. Titan-A. Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), the son of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), has passed through Starfleet (in only one year!) and will sit as the special counselor to the captain of the Titan. The captain, incidentally, is Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and her first officer will be Raffi (Michelle Hurd), her one-time girlfriend. This is "Star Trek: The Next, Next Generation."

Also, to assure that legacy is on everyone's mind, the U.S.S. Titan is, at the last minute, rechristened the U.S.S. Enterprise-G (it seems that the Enterprise-F was wiped out quickly). Jack will begin his career on the namesake ship of his father's two most famous commands. 

With the circumstances so arranged, naturally, the showrunners decided to fold in one last notable guest star to link everything back to NextGen. In a mid-credits scene, the presumed-dead trickster god Q ( John de Lancie ), alive again, appears to Jack.

The trial never ended

Q died during the finale of the second season of "Star Trek: Picard." So how can he be back to wreak inconvenience on Jack Crusher? Seeing as he is an omnipotent being that lives beyond the normal laws of time and space, there's no reason why he couldn't have lived another several billion years, only to return to the time when Jean-Luc Picard was alive to bid him farewell. He explains to Jack that humans think in linear terms and that his death was not to be taken as permanent. 

Jack tells Q that he knows all about his appearances to Jean-Luc, and how Q infamously put humanity on trial for their aggression and brutality. Q first appeared in the "Next Generation" pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint" (September 28, 1987) dressed as a post-apocalyptic judge in control of his own kangaroo court. In the show's final episode, "All Good Things..." (May 23, 1994), Q declared that the trial never ended and that Picard, through his own witlessness, will accidentally destroy humanity. It wasn't until Picard could understand the real existence of paradoxes that humanity began to show a glimmer of promise. Q withdrew, having proven his point.

Q would return a few times on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager," and would close out his story in "Picard," hugging Jean-Luc in a bizarrely sentimental farewell. It seemed that his infinite lifecycle came to an end.

But, as audiences now see, the trial seemingly continues in perpetuity. Q says to Jack that his own trial is just starting. Picard's progeny now bears the responsibility of proving humanity's worthiness to continue existing. 

What does it mean?

Audiences have long been trained to accept mid-credits teasers as previews for an upcoming film or TV series; we have the Marvel Cinematic Universe to thank for that. As such, the appearance of Q might serve as a miniature pilot for another new "Star Trek" TV series. Showrunner Terry Matalas has even said that he would love to make a series called "Star Trek: Legacy," which would presumably be about life on the Enterprise-G with a young ensign Crusher and Captain Seven seeking out new life and new civilizations. 

With a new Enterprise, a new crew, and a godlike antagonist, it seems that we're exactly back to where we were in 1987 with the launch of "Next Generation." Only this time, a whole season of television presaged it, establishing characters and scenarios the way a pilot episode might. The groundwork has been laid. It seems all Matalas needs is a green light. 

As for reusing the "Next Generation" premise of a Picard standing in as humanity's avatar while Q puts our species on trial, I have no problem. Repeating an idea may be cheap from a writerly perspective, but it makes logical sense given Q's nature. He is pretty much immortal, we see, and experiences time on a vast scale. When one can live billions of years, a millennium is but a drop in the bucket. Q knew Picard for, what, five decades? That's not even the single beat of a bumblebee's wing to Q. It makes sense that the trial of humanity would continue into the next generation, or even into multiple generations beyond. Q is the Picard family Devil now. 

Whether or not audiences see it happening, we can rest assured that Q will make Picards miserable for thousands of years to come. 

'Star Trek: Picard' Season 3 Finale Post-Credits Scene Explained: Ending at the Beginning

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This ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Actor Impressed So Much, They Made a Role for Her

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Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Trek: Picard.

After ten thrilling weeks, Star Trek: Picard has, at long last, aired its final episode bringing the final story for The Next Generation crew to an end. The long-awaited final season delivered the even longer-awaited reunion of the TNG cast for one last ride, giving them a more fitting send-off than the one fans had been left with after the last (poorly received) Next Gen movie, Star Trek: Nemesis .

Season 3 kicked off with a distress call from Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ) leading Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) into the greatest adventure of his life. When Picard and Riker ( Jonathan Frakes ) arrive aboard her ship — finding her in dire straits — they're greeted by a son they never knew she had and it quickly becomes clear that Picard is his father. The mystery that unfolds from there brings in some of Star Trek 's greatest foes and most legendary heroes. From a harrowing showdown with one of the most formidable changelings we've ever seen on screen, to the return of Picard's most personal enemy, the Borg , Season 3 is jam-packed with action, Easter eggs, and emotional performances.

The final two episodes of the series play together like a movie, bringing the crew of the Enterprise-D home to the bridge where they spent their lives learning to trust each other and defend the galaxy. In the Picard finale, Jack Crusher ( Ed Speleers ) finally discovers the mystery that has been plaguing him his entire life — Picard's fateful run-in with the Borg has made his son into a sort of human-borg hybrid. As the crew sets out to rescue Jack and save Earth and all of Starfleet from one of the most dangerous attacks they've ever faced, every member of this found family is in fine form. Picard is forced to face his darkest fears to rescue the people that mean the most to him—Beverly, Riker, and Worf ( Michael Dorn ) are action heroes, Geordi ( LeVar Burton ) takes the captain's chair, Data ( Brent Spiner ) is able to rely on his instincts, and Deanna ( Marina Sirtis ) flies the D into the heart of the Borg cube to bring them all home.

Elsewhere, Seven ( Jeri Ryan ) and Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ) serve as Starfleet's last line of defense. And when all is said and done we're left with a profound sense of hope. Flash forward to a year later, and Jack has fully embraced his father's chosen family and is now an ensign assigned to one of Starfleet's most notable ships—the Titan turned Enterprise-G. Woven into the merriment of these final moments is the sense that the game never ends, there will always be new adventures for these heroes even if we never see them again. As we close out the series with a shot that beautifully mirrors the series finale of The Next Generation , we linger with the crew playing one last round of poker. We stay here through the end of the main credits, and we're greeted with a lovely little post-credits scene of Jack unpacking his things in his crew quarters. In this final moment, Picard squeezes in one last infamous Easter egg with the appearance of John de Lancie 's Q . Though humanity's trial has long ended for Picard, Q informs Jack that it has only just begun for him. RELATED: 'Star Trek: Picard's Gates McFadden Talks 'InvestiGates' Season 2, Dream Guests, and What She Loves About Beverly Crusher

The Q Continuum is an omnipotent alien race of godlike beings that can travel anywhere in time and space and do almost anything you can imagine with the snap of their fingers. This particular Q hs appeared to Picard in both the premiere and finale of The Next Generation — as well as several times in between, and he also appeared on both Voyager and Deep Space Nine .

While Q is not exactly an outright villain, he's somewhat of an antagonist, especially for Picard who often found him to be the very bane of his existence. De Lancie has always played the character as a roguish foil to Stewart's more formal Picard, and their chemistry throughout the years created a fascinating sort of love-hate relationship that was a genuine pleasure to watch whenever the two shared the small screen.

Bringing Q Back From the Dead

In the final episodes of Season 2 of Picard , Q assumed that he was dying and fans expected to never see him again. However, it's so extremely like this trickster to rise from the dead upon learning that the son of Jean-Luc Picard has joined Starfleet. Collider's own Maggie Lovitt recently sat down with Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas to discuss the series finale, including this special moment. During their conversation, Matalas spoke about bringing the series back to where it all began. "Where better to end than at the beginning, right," he told Lovitt. "It was an honor." Q's appearance in this post-credits scene echoes his first appearance to Picard, down to his regal red and black costuming. Getting de Lancie to come back for this special moment was as easy as asking according to Matalas, who told the actor about his plans on his final day on set for Season 2 — "I told John [de Lancie] about it on his last day, and he was like, 'Absolutely, I'll come back. It would be amazing.'"

Matalas also explained that the moment serves as a sort of callback to a moment from the Next Generation finale. "That moment at the end of “All Good Things…” when Q goes to whisper about, 'There's a thing you should know, Jean-Luc,' and then he's like, 'Ah, you'll see.' Maybe that was about Jack," the writer/director told Lovitt. This moment acts as a hopeful cherry on top of the final season of Picard . With the introduction of the next Next Generation alongside so many iconic legacy characters, fans have been calling for a spin-off series . While nothing has been greenlit yet at Paramount, the inclusion of this moment certainly proves that the possibility is there. Whether we see these characters again on our screens, in comics, or in novelizations, Q's return is a happy reminder that these adventures could continue for eternity.

Don't miss Lovitt's full conversation with Matalas on the series finale. All 10 episodes of Picard Season 3 are now available on Paramount+.

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Series Finale Recap: Saying Farewell

In the end, the final season of “Picard” was a worthy send-off for the “Next Generation” crew.

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By Sopan Deb

Season 3, Episode 10: ‘The Last Generation’

“What began over 35 years ago ends tonight,” Jean-Luc Picard says, standing on his favorite bridge and glaring at his most distasteful enemy. It recalled his “The line must be drawn here!” from “First Contact.”

This was ostensibly a reference to the Federation’s longstanding battle with the Borg, but it also applies to “The Next Generation” franchise. (The show began airing in 1987 and 35 years ago would be 1988.) And if this is the last time we see these characters, that’s OK. Not because this season of “Picard” wasn’t a strong one. Quite the opposite, in fact: It was quite good and recaptured everything that made “Next Generation” what it was.

The characters all used special skills to work together and save humankind. Some of the dialogue was campy. There were plot holes. And there were classic “Star Trek” tropes, like Jean-Luc nonsensically going to the Borg cube, when he was likely the least physically capable of the old crew in fighting off the Borg.

But overall, this season was a worthy send-off for the crew. It wasn’t perfect, but neither were the show or any of the movies. But it was worth doing. The story justified its existence, advancing each of the main characters and filling in some gaps.

And it confirmed one last time that “The Next Generation” was greater than the sum of its parts. That might have been why the first two seasons of “Picard” didn’t work as well. Jean-Luc wasn’t the best character he could be without his old friends. The chemistry wasn’t as fluid, and the story wasn’t as deep.

In the finale, we learn a bit about what the Borg have been up to, though I remain baffled that no one brings up Jurati or the whole Good Borg thing from last season . (Maybe it was for the best.) There was no collective left — only the Borg Queen remained, she claimed, though we know from last season’s events that this isn’t exactly true.

It was Jack who found the Borg Queen, at least in her telling. She speaks in a way that is contrary to what we’ve known about the Borg: She says she was lonely and that the Borg were left to starve. (This kind of undercuts the Borg’s whole message of being the perfect beings.) But now, the Borg want to evolve rather than assimilate, and Jack is the perfect partner to do that. (In order to survive, the Borg Queen, I think, resorted to Borg cannibalism. Yikes! Hope those drones won Employee of the Month or something.)

The Borg and the changelings came to an agreement in which the changelings would be the Borg’s vehicle to carry out some villainous plan to help them procreate. Aside from an ill-fated revenge that they didn’t really need the Borg for, I don’t know what the changelings really got out of this alliance.

Elsewhere, classic Star Trekking happens. Worf and Riker fight off some baddies on the cube. Beverly uses her now finely honed combat skills to fire weapons. (It’s somewhat amusing that Geordi refurbished the Enterprise D for display at the fleet museum and also included a loaded torpedo system. Thank goodness he went above and beyond!) Data shows off his lightning fast piloting skills, assisted by his newly acquired gut instinct.

Beverly is faced with an impossible decision: Blow up her son and save the galaxy, or, uh, don’t. I loved that Geordi is the one who asks her permission, because he now understands a parent’s love for a child. And when it comes time to fire on the beacon, Geordi really, really doesn’t want to do it.

Jean-Luc finds another solution. He assimilates himself so he can get in contact with Jack in the Borg collective. Jean-Luc isn’t human, of course. He is an android — apparently, he can just plug himself in to the network like a flash drive. Jean-Luc tells Jack that he is the missing part of Jean-Luc’s life. (Patrick Stewart plays this perfectly.)

Jean-Luc is finally able to admit to himself how lonely he was outside of Starfleet, and that Starfleet merely covered up that loneliness rather than filling it entirely. Jean-Luc gives his son something he’s craved his whole life: approval and unconditional love. And Jean-Luc also won’t let his son go. He offers to stay in the hole with him so they can climb out together, and Jean-Luc gets to be the father he never knew he wanted to be.

Eventually, Jean-Luc pushes Jack to unassimilate himself and turn against the Queen. And that’s that: The universe is saved again. Our thanks to the crew of the Enterprise for the umpteenth time.

The episode ends in the only appropriate way for the “Next Generation” crew: They sit around and toast one another. Jean-Luc quotes Shakespeare, and then they whoop and play cards just like at the end of “All Good Things…,” the series finale of the original “Next Generation.”

The end wasn’t perfect, but it was proper. And that’s about all you can ask from a season like this. I don’t need any more — I want the Enterprise D crew to Costanza it and leave on a high note. They’ve earned it.

Odds and ends

Somewhat amusingly, Jean-Luc does not express any concern for or otherwise mention Laris throughout this season , another example of the team behind “Picard” trying to erase the first two seasons of the show from existence. But Laris, for her part, actually appeared in the season premiere and, one could argue, help put the events of the reunion in motion.

I keep thinking about that scene early this season with Riker and Jean-Luc at the bar, when Riker has to defend the honor of the Enterprise D. We didn't know it then, but that foreshadowed the whole season.

I would have liked to hear more about what Worf has been up to since the events of “Nemesis.” At the end of “Deep Space Nine,” Worf was named an ambassador to Qo’noS. In “Nemesis,” Worf somehow just becomes a member of the Enterprise crew again with little explanation. In this season, it is implied that Worf helped destroy the Enterprise E — more detail would have been nice.

The “Worf as comic relief” thing, as when he fell asleep on the bridge immediately after he helps to save civilization, also wore thin. But there is a fun callback in the last scene of the episode: Beverly saying Worf should have another glass of prune juice. A warrior’s drink!

Pavel Chekov’s son, Anton, being president of the Federation was a nice touch. Anton is likely a reference to Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the rebooted feature films beginning in 2009. He died in 2016 as a result of a car accident .

When Seven and Raffi figure out a way to transport assimilated crew members off the bridge using phaser rifles, it’s quite the deus ex machina. That technology would’ve been helpful all season!

That was a funny moment when the cook is ordered to pilot the Titan. He didn’t even finish flight training, why is Seven making him take the wheel? Have Raffi do it! (Within minutes, the cook executes complicated evasive maneuvers, so that must have been some training.)

At first, I found New Data to be jarring but after a couple episodes, this version grew on me. When he says he hates the Borg, you can see the Lore side of him burst through. It’s a fresh take on Data and Brent Spiner pulls it off.

That was a nice bit of wordless acting from Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis when Riker heads down to the cube for yet another mission with Jean-Luc. The swashbuckling Riker gives the slightest of smiles, as if to say, “You know who you married. You know why I have to do this.” And Troi reluctantly agrees. Later, when Troi tells Riker he will only have a minute or so to save Jean-Luc once the Enterprise fires on the Cube, he responds again with cool confidence in a near death situation.

There will certainly be some disappointment among fans that Kate Mulgrew did not reprise her role as Admiral Janeway this season. The events in “Voyager” presumably are the reason the Borg cube was in such terrible shape when Jean-Luc beams aboard. Given the multiple references to Janeway and what was happening on Earth, it would have been nice to have gotten a glimpse of her. (And man, how gnarly does the Borg Queen look now?)

Ah, there’s Tuvok, offering Seven her own ship. As Vulcan as ever.

In the grand scheme of things, this is still only the second most successful attack by the Borg on Earth. Sure, they get to Earth, bring down the planetary defense systems and attack cities directly, all while using Starfleet ships. But in “First Contact,” they actually went back in time and assimilated all of Earth before the pesky Enterprise crew initiated a do-over. And honestly, if Jean-Luc and his merry band hasn’t been able to rescue Earth from Evil Jack, they could have just done what they did last season or in “First Contact”: Go back in time. It’s easy!

Troi gets to drive the Enterprise D again. It went better than it did last time, when she crashed it.

Beverly is an admiral now? What a promotion, considering the decades she spent out of Starfleet running a rogue operation. I wonder if Riker, Geordi or any of the others were like, “Hey, what about us?”

Ed Speleers did an admirable job as Jack Crusher. It’s not easy to go toe-to-toe with Patrick Stewart, but Speleers fits in seamlessly as Beverly and Jean-Luc’s son. (While we’re here, what’s up with Jack’s brother, Wesley?)

I hope all of you stuck around for the post-credits scene. Q is still alive! Of course he is. We don’t acknowledge last season around these parts.

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the Culture section. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign for CBS News. More about Sopan Deb

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Star Trek: Picard Series-Finale Recap: Captain’s Log, Final Entry

Star trek: picard.

Star Trek: Picard  began as a series partly dedicated to giving Jean-Luc Picard, the aged but unbowed former captain of the  Enterprise , a late-in-life shot at returning to the stars and partly as a torch-passing exercise that surrounded Picard with new characters (a kind of next generation, you could say). Across three seasons, that mission didn’t so much drift as grow in scale. This third and final season has extended the autumnal adventures to almost all of the original cast of  Star Trek: The Next Generation  (while keeping Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd around from the preceding  Picard  seasons) and making the torch-passing theme even more explicit by bringing in Picard’s previously unknown son, Jack Crusher, and a pair of Geordi LaForge daughters to boot.

That’s a lot to ask of any series, much less one that has to give the beloved  TNG  characters the proper send-off (maybe?) they were denied by the less-than-beloved  Star Trek: Nemesis.  And, by and large, the season has shouldered that burden well. The  TNG  characters have all had their moments in the spotlight as the show reassembled the team, Ryan’s Seven of Nine and Hurd’s Raffi have had plenty to do (as did Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw, RIP), and Jack has proven to be a charismatic addition when he could have felt like an interloper shoehorned in to bring down the cast’s median age.

But does this final episode stick the landing? Pretty much, yeah. “The Last Generation” both brings the season-long story — which began as a confrontation with the Dominion before that dread foe essentially handed over villain duties to the Borg — to an exciting conclusion and gives the original cast a nostalgic valedictory moment while also leaving the door open for future adventures.

As it opens, however, any possibility of a happy ending seems unlikely. Federation President Chekov (not that one but his son) issues a dire warning that the Federation’s younger generation has been assimilated, and there’s little to be done about it, but in the words of his father, “There are always possibilities.” Picard and the crew are not an easily dissuaded bunch, and recognizing, as Data puts it, they “are the cavalry,” they come up with a plan.

Sure, it’s a desperate plan, but a plan nonetheless: Head to Jupiter, board the Borg vessel, and shut down the beacon that allows the Borg to do what they do. (And hopefully rescue Jack in the process.) For Picard, it’s personal. The Borg have his son (whom he’s come to like quite a bit despite a messy start), and he’s been plagued by their threat for over 35 years. For everyone else, it’s, well, also pretty personal. If this is truly a last stand, it’s a last stand against an enemy with whom they have a long, nasty history. The newly emotional Data sums it up as they approach: “I hate them.”

No one knows that better than Seven, of course, who leads a party to reclaim the  Titan.  She and Raffi will play a crucial role in the confrontation that follows, but it’s the newly reunited  TNG  crew that drives the action. And, in classic  Trek  faction, that means breaking into smaller groups. Picard, Will, and Worf head into the cube. (“And I will make it a threesome,” Worf says, by way of announcing his intentions.) Their farewell is one of the episode’s first heart-tugging moments. Could this be the last time these characters see each other? The look on Deanna’s face as Will walks away says it all.

On the cube, they find a lot of rotting Borg drones but little action. Then it’s time to split up after another wrenching farewell scene in which Picard can’t bring himself to tell Will how much he means to him. “You know that I know. Always,” Will says, letting him off the hook while making the scene that much more intense, with Worf’s own final words about Klingon’s not knowing the words “defeat” and “farewell” providing poignant punctuation.

When Picard reaches Jack, it’s worse than he feared. His son appears fully Borgified and the Borg Queen (voiced by Alice Krige and looking more like a nightmarish H.R. Giger creation than ever) looms over him. She’s mostly interested in mocking “Locutus,” calling his arrival a homecoming. The Borg Queen also announces that assimilation is old news. The new Borg goal is evolution. And it looks like that plan is working out for them. Thanks, unwittingly, to Jack, Starfleet is now filled with unwitting hybrids walking around with Borg DNA just waiting to be told what to do.

But despite the odds stacked against them, our heroes prevail via a series of pretty good fight scenes that mix aerial combat, a hand-to-hand battle with Borg drones, some fancy flying from Data, and a battle for Jack’s soul. The latter involves Picard plugging himself into the Borg network and selling Jack on the pleasures of life outside the Borg cube, despite the possibility of loneliness and fear. Picard’s pitch includes freely expressing his emotions (never an easy thing for the captain), including his feelings for his son. “You are the part of me that I never knew was missing,” he says. Later, they hug. (This episode just does not let up on big emotional moments. Will’s farewell to Deanna, if anything, hits even harder: “I’ll be waiting. Me and our boy.”)

Star Trek  is a franchise dedicated to following intriguing science fiction concepts wherever they lead, but it’s also one in which occasionally love saves the day, and the Borg Queen’s dying shout of “No!!!” shortly before her cube explodes signals that this is one of those  Star Trek  installments. (Even Seven’s in a hugging mood when the Borg control lifts from the  Titan  crew.) It’s a happy ending for all, and the tableau of everyone posing on the  Enterprise  bridge (an image that includes Will and Deanna embracing and Worf asleep) could be a fitting end to the series.

But there’s more to be done. That includes giving the  TNG  crew some more time together and setting up future adventures. Will’s log reveals that Beverly has developed a method to eliminate Borg DNA and scan for Dominion holdouts. Tuvok, the real Tuvok, is still alive, it’s revealed. Seven learns that Captain Shaw actually liked and respected her, even recommending she be promoted to the rank of captain. Data is still sorting through his new emotions with a lot of help from Deanna, who’s a little distracted planning a vacation during the latest of their marathon sessions. But, essentially, all is well.

One year later, the long good-bye continues as Will, Picard, and Geordi put the  Enterprise  D to bed. A bit later, Picard and Beverly escort their son to his first Starfleet assignment aboard … the  Enterprise ? Rechristened in honor of Starfleet’s fabled flagship, the  Enterprise  is now under Seven’s command, with Raffi and Jack by her side. That looks like a setup for a whole new series featuring this crew. (I would watch.)

We’re not done: Over drinks and a stirring recitation of one of Brutus’s speeches in  Julius Caesar  from Picard (“There is a tide in the affairs of men”), the  TNG  crew spends the evening in each other’s company, reflecting on their time together before, in a nod to “All Good Things …,” the original  TNG  finale, a game of poker breaks out with Picard enthusiastically participating. It’s an indulgent moment that calls on decades of accumulated affection for these characters, and boy does it work. It feels like a fitting farewell, albeit one that suggests all good things, or at least all good shows, don’t always come to an end. They just kind of lay around waiting for someone to pick them up again.

Captain’s Log

• Hello! No, I am not your regular  Picard  recapper (though I did cover the first season). I’m just filling in for the excellent Swapna Krishna, who was unexpectedly unable to cover this episode.

• This episode pretty clearly sets up a Seven/Raffi/Jack–focused series and that’s a pretty exciting prospect. Ryan is, of course, already a  Trek  legend and her reprise of Seven has broadened the character and confirmed she has a range we never saw on  Voyager . Hurd was always a  Picard  highlight and Ed Speleers has fit right in when Jack could easily have been the series’ Poochie.

• If there is a series, please, please find room for the “Ma’am, I’m just a cook!” guy. He’s great.

• Over the end credits, there’s one last surprise: Q is back and ready to put Jack to the test. Nothing really ends or dies with this franchise, does it? (Okay, except for Ro Laren, Capt. Shaw, etc., etc.) After a first season partly dedicated to putting Data down, he’s back and the Data who wanted to die got hand-waved away. Now Q’s mortality, a big part of the second season, is out the window. It’s inconsistent, but is any going to complain, particularly after a season this strong?

• That said, the sudden transition to a mostly different supporting cast hasn’t been without some awkwardness. Whither Laris?

• Is this the last time we’ll see the  TNG  characters all in one place together again? Another reunion seems unlikely, but then  this  reunion seemed pretty unlikely. If it is the end, it’s a warm, affectionate send-off. If not, let’s hope the next reunion strikes as deft a balance between nostalgia and adventure.

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Star Trek: Picard season 3’s ending, explained

Since it debuted in 2020, each season of the sci-fi spinoff Star Trek: Picard has had its own unique story and tone, guided by a different showrunner’s vision for the series. The first season was a drama about Adm. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), now a 100-year-old Starfleet legend, leaving his lonely retirement and confronting his grief over the loss of his friend, the android Data. Season 2 took Picard and his new crew back in time to our present day to save the timeline while exploring Picard’s childhood trauma.

What is Star Trek: Picard season 3 about?

Return of a familiar foe, how does star trek: picard season 3 end, where do all the picard characters leave off.

For its third and final season, new showrunner Terry Matalas has taken the series in a more traditional direction, reuniting Sir Patrick Stewart with the rest of the cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation for an old-school space adventure in the style of the classic Star Trek film series. Where previous seasons have received mixed reviews from Trekkies and critics alike, this more traditional iteration of Picard has, naturally, garnered almost universal praise from the fan base, to whom it has been painstakingly catered.

Littered with Easter eggs and cribbing liberally from the franchise’s greatest hits, Picard s eason 3 gives the people what they want: the same stuff they already have, with a happy ending and a hook for a spinoff.

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Spoilers ahead for the final season of Star Trek: Picard.

Set decades after their last appearance together in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis , Picard season 3 sees Picard reassemble his crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation , one member at a time, while trying to solve a mystery of galactic proportions. Stationed aboard the shiny new USS Titan (which they have sort of hijacked), Picard, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and a new version of Data (Brent Spiner) work alongside the Titan’s younger crew to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the entire Federation.

They learn that Starfleet has been infiltrated by Changelings, the malevolent shape-shifters from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , who brand Picard and company as fugitives in order to protect the secret of their existence. Alone and on the run, the crew of the Titan search for a way to foil the Changelings’ plans to attack the Frontier Day ceremony, a gathering of the entire active Starfleet in celebration of its 250th anniversary.

Interwoven with this larger mystery is the revelation that Picard has a son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers), who his mother, Beverly Crusher, has kept a secret for 20 years. A roguish Robin Hood type, Jack has little interest in getting to know his stiff, absent father, but when he and his mother are targeted by the Changelings, they have no choice but to go to Picard for help, setting the entire season into motion.

Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that there’s something very unusual about Jack. Though he can’t explain how, Jack gains the ability to read the minds and even control the bodies of several officers aboard the Titan, and is being tormented by strange voices and visions in his head. It’s only after the Titan has picked up the entire old Enterprise crew that they’re able to discover the secret behind Jack’s strange abilities, which propels them toward Star Trek: Picard ’s climactic two-part finale.

Though they don’t appear until the final two episodes of the season, the finale pits Picard against his greatest enemy from The Next Generation : the Borg. The Borg are a race of cybernetic beings who evolve by assimilating other species into their hive mind, absorbing their knowledge and technology. then transforming their individuals into zombie-like drones. In the popular Next Generation two-parter The Best of Both Worlds , Captain Picard is captured, assimilated, and forced to command the Borg’s invasion of the Federation. Though the invasion is thwarted and Picard is rescued, neither the Captain nor Starfleet are ever quite the same.

Picard would later confront the Borg again in the movie Star Trek: First Contact , coming face-to-face with the personification of their evil, the Borg Queen. Picard and his crew once again foil her plans, but it’s Kathryn Janeway and the USS Voyager who land the killing blow against the Borg years later in the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager . Through a combination of cunning and time-travel shenanigans, a version of Janeway from an alternate future infects the Borg Queen with a nanovirus that collapses the entire Collective, and neither the Queen nor her cyborg army have been seen since.

In season 3’s penultimate episode, Võx , Troi uses her empathic abilities to help Jack overcome a mental block and discover the source of his strange abilities. Jack is revealed to have been genetically altered before his birth through experimentation that was performed on his father by the Borg 35 years earlier. While Picard was under the Borg’s control, his DNA was altered so that his offspring would be the first of an all-organic next generation of Borg. As a result, Jack’s brain is a transmitter that allows him to connect with and control any life form whose own DNA can receive his commands.

During their infiltration of Starfleet, the Changelings altered transporters throughout the fleet to insert this receiver DNA into the genetic code of anyone who beams up or down, giving Jack the ability to reach into their minds the same way that the Borg Queen uses nanoprobes to command her drones. Through her Changeling agent, Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer), the Borg Queen has been trying to capture Jack so that she can control him and, by extension, everyone to whom his biological transmitter has access.

After learning of his true nature, a confused Jack goes looking for the Queen himself. She plugs him into the Collective, instantly assimilating countless Starfleet officers by proxy. The fleet, which is assembled over Earth for the Frontier Day ceremony, quickly falls under Borg control and turns its weapons toward the Earth. There is, however, some hope: the alterations to the officers’ DNA have not affected individuals over the age of 25. This means older people, such as Picard and his friends from The Next Generation , still have control of themselves and a chance to fight back.

Leaving the assimilated fleet behind, the old crew retreats to the Starfleet Museum, where its curator, La Forge, reveals his pet project: a fully restored and refurbished USS Enterprise-D. Too outdated for the Borg to reprogram, the Enterprise approaches the Borg’s massive control ship, where an away team of Picard, Riker, and Worf beams aboard to rescue Jack and stop the Queen’s mind-control broadcast. La Forge, Beverly Crusher, Troi, and this latest incarnation of Data remain on board the Enterprise, awaiting the opportunity to destroy the Borg Cube.

Meanwhile, the surviving unassimilated crew of the USS Titan, led by first officer Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), retakes the ship, locking away the Borgified junior officers in the transporter room. The captured Borg include La Forge’s two daughters, Sidney (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) and Alandra (Mica Burton). The Titan has no hope of defeating the entire assimilated Starfleet, but she can create enough of a distraction to draw their fire away from Earth, buying precious time for the Enterprise to complete its mission.

In-between fighting a handful of Borg drones, Riker and Worf search the Cube for the source of the Queen’s transmissions and discover that there’s a massive antenna at the center of the Cube. The Enterprise will need to navigate through a seemingly impossible maze in order to reach it, but Data believes that, despite the odds against it, he can pilot them there. Trusting his “gut” for the first time in his life — a development made possible by having fused with his more emotional twin brother, Lore — Data successfully navigates to the heart of the Cube.

However, there’s a further complication: the antenna is, essentially, load-bearing, and cannot be destroyed without bringing the entire Cube down with it. Picard, Riker, and Worf are still on board trying to free Jack, but every moment that antenna is intact brings the Earth, and possibly the entire galaxy closer, to destruction. La Forge, now in command of the Enterprise, makes the painful decision to sacrifice his friends below to save the rest of humanity, and Beverly fires torpedoes, knowing that this may mean the death of her son.

At the same time, Picard is struggling to free Jack from his mental enslavement to the Borg Queen. The Queen taunts Picard by explaining that only Jack can disconnect himself from the Collective, and that he’s too far gone to be reached from the outside. Driven by his love for his newfound son, Picard faces his fears and voluntarily plugs into the Collective himself so that he can have the chance to communicate with Jack.

Inside the digital limbo of the Collective, Picard pleads with Jack to unplug himself, but Jack, who has struggled with feelings of isolation and loneliness his whole life, finds the profound connection of the Borg hive mind difficult to resist. Picard confides in his son about his own struggle to connect with people and in the fulfillment he eventually found with the Enterprise crew, arguing that Jack can still make a life for himself in the galaxy. However, should Jack choose to stay in the collective, Picard offers to stay there with him and to be a family together, regardless of the circumstances. This act of love convinces Jack that he has something to live for after all. He unplugs himself and his father from the Collective, but only after the Enterprise has fired its torpedo barrage at the Borg Cube.

At first, it seems as if interference from the explosion will make it impossible for the Enterprise to get a transporter lock on the four stranded crewmembers. However, when Riker whispers a final goodbye to his wife, Troi is able to sense his thoughts and, by extension, his location. This is an ability she has demonstrated since the first episode of The Next Generation and has come in handy occasionally in the decades since. She beams Will, Worf, Picard, and Jack safely aboard moments before the Cube explodes, vaporizing the Borg Queen and theoretically ending the threat of the Borg forever. The assimilated young people in the fleet and on Earth are instantly freed, and billions of lives are saved.

The final episode of the series ends with an epilogue set one year after Frontier Day and the battle with the Borg Queen. In that time, Beverly has been promoted to Admiral and appointed the head of Starfleet Medical, having successfully removed the Borg programming from the young officers’ DNA and rooted out any remaining Changeling infiltrators. La Forge has deposited the Enterprise-D safely back in the fleet museum, where it will be preserved indefinitely.

Riker and Troi, whose marriage was on the rocks at the start of the season, are planning a romantic getaway together, assuming Deanna can manage some time off from the newly emotional Data’s daily therapy sessions. Worf, who is now an open-hearted warrior pacifist, is giving seminars about meditation. However, in-between their various obligations, the old gang gets together at Guinan’s Ten Forward Lounge in Los Angeles to have a drink and a friendly game of poker with Picard, echoing their game in the final scene of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Meanwhile, Star Trek: Picard ’s younger contingent of characters has all assembled aboard the Titan — or as it’s been rechristened, the USS Enterprise-G — bound for new adventures. These voyages will be led by Captain Seven of Nine, her first officer and off-and-on girlfriend Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), helm officer Lt. Sidney La Forge, and “special counselor to the Captain,” Ensign Jack Crusher, who has received an accelerated commission. The new Enterprise warps out into the final frontier in the hopes that the proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy , receives a green light.

If that’s not enough of a tease, the finale also includes a mid-credits stinger in which Jack gets a surprise visit from Picard’s old frenemy, Q (John de Lancie). Jack correctly points out that Q died during season 2 of Picard , but Q dismisses this, implying that he is a version of himself from a point in time before his death. Q tells Jack that his trial against Humanity, which has been ongoing since the first episode of The Next Generation , is now Jack’s responsibility.

To be continued, theoretically, in future installments of the Star Trek franchise.

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Every Star Trek series is someone’s favorite (Star Trek: The Animated Series stans, we see you), but when it comes to the 18-year Golden Age of Trek between 1987 and 2005, the prequel series Enterprise is easily the least beloved. Airing on UPN for an abbreviated four-season run, Enterprise was meant to shake things up after three consecutive series set in the late 24th century. Imagined as a sort of origin story for Star Trek in the style of The Right Stuff, creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted to capture the danger and excitement of United Earth’s early interstellar space program, even planning to spend the entire first season on Earth preparing for the launch of Starfleet’s very first Starship Enterprise. The network, however, had other ideas, insisting that Berman and Braga not meddle with the consistently successful Star Trek formula. Thus, despite taking place two centuries earlier, Enterprise became, essentially, “more Voyager,” which in turn had been “more Next Generation,” a once-great sci-fi procedural that was nearly a decade past its peak. That’s not to say that the series didn’t improve throughout its four-season run. After two years of struggling to justify the show’s very existence, Berman and Braga swung for the fences with a radically different third season that reinvented Enterprise (now renamed Star Trek: Enterprise) as a grim and gritty serialized drama unpacking the aftermath of a 9/11-scale attack on Earth. While immediately more compelling, the revamp failed to boost the show’s sagging ratings, and it was reworked yet again the following year, and leaned further into the “prequel to Star Trek” angle under new showrunner Manny Coto. This, many fans will argue, is where Enterprise finally found its legs, but it was too little and too late to prevent its cancellation. Still, each iteration of the troubled spinoff had its highlights and our list of the 10 strongest Enterprise episodes is spread fairly evenly throughout the run of the show. Warning: This article contains spoilers for each listed episode.

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Picard says goodbye with a mysterious hint at Star Trek’s future

The finale has one of Star Trek’s only credits scenes

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Never let it be said that Paramount Plus hasn’t brought the Star Trek franchise into the modern era of interconnected television: Star Trek even has credits scenes now.

And while the award for “first credits scene in Star Trek” would go to Star Trek: Lower Decks , with its season 3 finale, “The Stars at Night,” the award for “first Star Trek credits scene to point at a mysterious future installment of the franchise” can go to Star Trek: Picard and its finale.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the final episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3, “The Last Generation.”]

The denouement of “The Last Generation” makes sure we know exactly where our faves old and new have wound up. While the Next Generation crew largely wound up with promotions, renewed relationships, or just a return to their peaceful lives, Picard built a new future for some of its younger old characters.

Former borg drone Seven of Nine was promoted to captain of the Titan, which was renamed Enterprise. Thanks to some calculated intelligence leaks, her girlfriend Raffi’s record was cleared, freeing her up to act as Seven’s first officer, and Jack Crusher — son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher , interstellar adventurer, recently freed from Borg control — was fast-tracked to the rank of Starfleet ensign to serve as captain’s counselor.

The credits scene takes us right back to Jack, in his quarters on the newly christened Enterprise, as he’s visited by none other than the cosmic being known as Q (John de Lancie). Q was thought to have died at the end of Picard season 2, but when Jack points that out, Q admonishes him for thinking so linearly. The long and the short of it is: Q is eternal, and he has something in mind for the progeny of his longtime fixation, Jean-Luc Picard.

Does this mean Star Trek: Legacy is real?

About a month ago, Picard showrunner Terry Matalas tweeted that “#StarTrekLegacy is what I’d call a spin-off show from #StarTrekPicard. A 25th Century show that explores the Last Generation and the Next.” Since then, he’s been either teasing an upcoming show or just having a hearty good time retweeting coverage of his tweet and clips of veteran Star Trek actors agreeing that a nostalgic spinoff for 1990s Trek fans sounds like a good idea .

So it’s not entirely clear whether “Star Trek Legacy” is a real show or what. But it’s hard to imagine what else Picard ’s final moments could possibly be pointing to. The next Star Trek show on the Paramount Plus lineup is the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , then the fourth season of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks , and then the second season of all-ages cartoon Star Trek: Prodigy . None of those seem like a good fit for Picard ’s hints, being set in completely different eras or produced in a completely different medium.

Paramount has also confirmed at least two more future Star Trek projects, but they also don’t seem likely as answers either — Starfleet Academy will take place the better part of a millennium after Picard , while the recently announced Section 31 film starring Michelle Yeoh just simply doesn’t seem particularly relevant.

It’s possible that Paramount is sitting on a Star Trek: Legacy show about Jack Crusher, Seven of Nine, Raffi, and Sidney La Forge (the Titan/Enterprise’s helmswoman and daughter of Geordi La Forge) going on some epic Q-uest. But we won’t know until it’s actually announced — and so far, Paramount is keeping quiet.

Update: Speaking to Entertainment Weekly , Matalas said “Jack’s got a lot to do, let me tell you.” The showrunner confirmed that Paramount does have a plan for Jack Crusher’s character moving forward, but declined to elaborate or confirm the existence of another new Star Trek show.

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14 Burning Questions We Have After Star Trek: Picard Season 3's Finale

14 Burning Questions We Have After Star Trek: Picard Season 3's Finale

Picard is over, but plenty of questions remain about what it all means for star trek 's future..

Star Trek: Picard came to an end this week, wrapping a nostalgic season up in a tidy bow of spectacle and sentiment . And although, as Star Trek has told us before, all good things must come to an end, even now questions still linger about the future of these characters . Here’s the ones at the forefront of our mind after Picard season three .

Where’s Laris?

Oh, poor Laris. Orla Brady’s Romulan aide and former secret police badass was a stalwart of seasons one and two of Picard , and even in her brief appearance in the beginning of this season, it felt like the romantic push-and-pull between her and Jean-Luc was going to lead to something. The last time we saw her she was being sent away to the planet Chaltok IV to act as diplomatic security—a mission she was meant to go on with Picard, until he was drawn away. What’s happened to her now that Beverly Crusher has re-entered Jean-Luc’s life?

What’s the Deal With Borg-Jurati?

The final episode puts an end to the Borg Collective as we know it, with the death of the Borg Queen, her forces already devastated by the neurolythic pathogen used by Admiral Janeway in Voyager ’s finale. But... there are other Borg out there. It’s hard to say if there are any Borg still remaining in the Delta Quadrant, as what the Queen reveals here seems to imply she is the last of her kind, but the Borg Queen of the alternate timeline that assimilated and fused with Dr. Jurati in Picard ’s bonkers second season to form an alliance between this new, more amicable collective and the Federation are nowhere to be seen this season.

Early on in the season, Captain Shaw notes that this minor c ollective is still guarding the transwarp conduit that emerged in the season two finale. So they’re busy, but not “ oh so the actual Borg of this timeline are here and trying to destroy Earth” busy.

Why Did Starfleet Want “Fleet Formation” i n the First Place?

Simple answer: Starfleet command really loves bad ideas.

This is far from the first time we’ve seen the hubris of Starfleet’s upper echelons make a really dumb decision, but there’s something equally hilarious about the fact there has been, thanks to Prodigy and Lower Decks , a history of Starfleet seeing just how badly automated ship systems can go for them, and them deciding to just do it again but bigger. Never change, Starfleet command.

Are There Still Rogue Changelings Out There?

With the destruction of the Shrike and the end of Vadic’s cell, Picard pretty much dropped the changeling infiltration of Starfleet subplot dead in its tracks for its final two episodes. But one minor moment in the finale does at least confirm that elements of the Great Link are still trying to subvert the outcome of the D ominion W ar—the new transporter detection technology Beverly developed to wipe the Borg’s organic virus planted into the fleetwide system now also does an improved job of detecting changeling saboteurs , evolving as they themselves evolved in the years since Deep Space 9 .

What Happened to the Enterprise-F?

Picard ends with the Titan re-christened as the new Enterprise -G, meaning the F, briefly seen on-screen before disaster struck in the penultimate episode—and the Enterprise of Star Trek Online , where its design originated—has either itself been re-christened, or it got hit way harder in the Borg attack than we’d assumed.

We saw Admiral Shelby killed in action when the Borg assimilation spread through the fleet, but nothing about the Enterprise -F going down. A year’s passed since the Titan was re-christened though, so hopefully the Odyssey-class vessel is still out there in service, even if not as the de facto flagship of Starfleet. Hell, maybe they gave it the Titan name?

Why Hasn’t Wesley Ever Visited His Mom?

The once-again agent of t he Traveler made a brief cameo in season two ’s finale to whisk away Kore Soong as a new recruit, but is nowhere to be seen in season three , even if he is referenced a few times. H e’s spoken about in such a way that Beverly now sees Wes’ return to the Traveler sometime after returning to Starfleet by the time of Star Trek: Nemesis as the loss of her son altogether. But if Wesley could just pop up and take Kore off... couldn’t have at least said hi to Beverly and his half-brother at some point?

Where’s Admiral Janeway?

Okay, I am going to allow myself one tiny bit of Voyager fanboying amid this sea of TNG fanboying: Kathryn Janeway wasn’t there to see Seven be promoted to captain? To take command of the Enterprise !? Janeway got a nod earlier in the season at least, but still. Kate Mulgrew’s back in the Trek family thanks to Prodigy ! It would’ve been nice to see her and Seven together again, and for both she and Tuvok to see how far their friend had come.

What Happened to Soji and the Other Synths?

The last time we saw Soji—the synthetic descendant of Data and ambassador for her people to the Federation after they decided to un-ban synthetic beings from being researched and developed—she was off on a whirlwind diplomatic tour to promote her kind to the wider galaxy. And... that’s it. That’s presumably what she’s still doing by the time of season three , but not a mention goes by, either in the context of Data’s return or just, like, in general.

What Were the Klingons and Romulans Up to When Earth Was Attacked?

Starfleet’s assimilation happens quick enough that it’s probably no surprise that neither the Klingon Empire nor what is left of the Romulan Star Empire—after all, it’s still in a rough state after the events of season one of Picard and the destruction of Romulus in the 2009 Star Trek movie—have time to show up to help.

But at the same time, were there no changelings trying to infiltrate them? Yes, it was Starfleet intelligence and Section 31 who experimented on Vadic and her allies specifically, but the Klingons and eventually the Romulans were enemies of the Dominion too.

Where Did Jack’s Photo of His Parents Come From?

Considering Jack didn’t exactly have a relationship with Picard while growing up, and Beverly cut him out of her life, it’s kind of weird that Jack gets to christen his quarters on the Enterprise -G with a picture of Picard and Crusher attending some kind of fancy soiree. It’s clearly from, in-universe, a point in time during their service on the Enterprise -D, but in ours? It’s a 1988 KCET photo of Gates McFadden and Patrick Stewart.

How Is Q Alive?

Q supposedly died giving Picard and his friends the temporal energy to travel back to the 25th century when they got stuck in 2024. But he’s back and seemingly fine, just in time to start harassing Jack. How?

Well, the easy answer was that he was never really dying, and just trying to help Picard work through things. The other easy answer: Q’s always been a liar. Why stop now?

What Does He Want With Jack Crusher?

Obviously, Jack’s connection to Jean-Luc makes him a target of interest to someone like Q. But there’s also this idea of a new generation of Starfleet officers now leading the Federation’s efforts. C an Q really satisfy his curiosity with humanity if at this point Jean-Luc is just by and large out of the picture?

Are They Really Going to Do Star Trek: Legacy ?

Well, it’s hard to say. Paramount is currently in the process of consolidating a lot of Star Trek efforts— Picard is over, Discovery will be next year, Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 project has been turned into a movie rather than the originally greenlit series. With new seasons of Prodigy , Lower Decks , and Strange New Worlds all ordered, and the Starfleet Academy series greenlit, is there space to expand further with Legacy ?

It’s likely going to be more on that end than any of Picard ’s cast and creative team—who’ve been spending much of the third season’s airing openly discussing how they want to do more with these characters. The hook is there with the Enterprise -G, and that post-credit Q stinger.

And Would Patrick Stewart Return i n It?

Even if Picard ends with a not-final, but pretty-final farewell to the TNG crew and Jean-Luc, Patrick Stewart is open if there is some kind of continuity to play an occasional part.

“The circumstances, as it was with Picard , would be the important factor in all of that,” Stewart told Variety in the wake of the finale. “But certainly, there is a wonderful future for Ed [Speleers] there, I’m sure of it. And if I can occasionally crop up to offer a little bit of comedy myself, then I shall be happy to do that.”

So... it’s in Paramount’s court at this point.

Picard Season 3 Post-Credits Scene Reboots A Classic Star Trek Concept, 36 Years Later

Why is he back?

After the curtain falls on the finale of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 , there’s one last surprise in store. In a twisty post-credits scene, we revisit a classic theme from the very beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Here’s what happens, how it tweaks Trek canon, and what it might mean for a possible Picard spinoff series. Spoilers ahead.

Generally speaking, the Star Trek franchise avoids post-credits scenes. Lower Decks Season 3 had a quick one , but none of the Trek films have indulged, and even the 2018 Discovery scene where Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) joined Section 31 was released separately as a “bonus scene.” But now, with “The Last Generation,” Picard Season 3 delivers a true post-credits scene in the Marvel style that seems to tease a new storyline, complete with a very familiar character.

Picard Season 3 Post-Credits Explained

Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) pulls out his phaser in the post-credits scene of Picard Season 3.

After Geordi La Forge , Will Riker, and Jean-Luc Picard park the Enterprise- D in the Fleet Museum and play a game of poker, we jump to Jack Crusher settling into his quarters on the newly christened USS Enterprise- G. But suddenly, Q (John de Lancie) appears.

Jack wonders why Q isn’t dead, and Q says, “I was hoping the next generation wouldn't think so linearly.” So this is either a version of Q from before his death in Picard Season 2, or something else entirely. Q also implies that he’s putting humanity back on trial. Jack protests, saying, “You told my father humanity’s trial was over.” Q retorts, “But I’m here today because of you. You see yours, Jack, has just begun.” Q implies that Jack is about to have some kind of trial, though whether that means Jack is being judged or will undergo some tribulations is unclear.

Either way, Picard has brought things full circle. In Next Generation’s “Encounter at Farpoint,” Q appeared and framed the entire series as the trial of humanity. And now, through Jack, that concept has been rebooted. Or has it?

Picard's post-credits scene could set up a new Trek— but there’s a catch

Q (John de Lancie) in the Picard Season 3 finale.

A spinoff to Picard Season 3 has not been formally announced. In fact, as showrunner Terry Matalas made clear in several interviews , “there is nothing in development.” While it’s possible Paramount could greenlight a Picard spinoff, the concept isn’t on the large slate of Trek shows currently rolling out.

So is the post-credits scene just a tease? Does Matalas actually have an idea for where this new Q story with Jack Crusher would go?

“I know exactly ,” Matalas tells Inverse. “ I know how this would all go if we were lucky enough to come back.”

So, there is a story in mind that would continue from this post-credits scene. But whether we’ll actually see it remains up in the air.

Is Picard Season 3 Channeling the MCU?

Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on the bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D in Picard Season 3.

Because Picard Season 3 has several codas and endings, and a legit post-credits scene, it might seem like Terry Matalas intentionally pushed this season of Trek into MCU territory. After all, back in the ’90s, The Next Generation was responsible for a burgeoning shared universe that would eventually span three different TV shows and several feature films, a scope unheard of for sci-fi franchises back then.

“I love, love that comparison,” Matalas says of likening Picard Season 3 to Marvel. “We did try to make this big and grandiose. But I’m not sure it was entirely conscious on my part, though that is the kind of storytelling I gravitate to. There was a sense of finality to it that we were hurdling toward for sure. We wanted to make this feel like a gigantic final [ TNG ] movie.”

But unlike Endgame, Picard’s grand finale very pointedly didn’t kill off any of its major characters. The big seven of Jean-Luc Picard, Will Riker, Worf, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, and Data all lived, as did Seven, Raffi, Jack Crusher, Alandra, Sidney La Forge, and most of the remaining crew of the Titan . The writing of “The Last Generation” only made you think some of them might bite it.

“It’s good old fashion manipulation,” Matalas laughs. “We put some scenes in there that are scenes you play where characters are going to die; those goodbye scenes. Honestly, it would be very easy to kill off one of these characters, and it would be entirely appropriate. But I didn’t have it in me to do it. In a weird way, I wanted the surprise ending to be that it was a happy ending.”

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams on Paramount+.

This article was originally published on April 20, 2023

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Published Apr 5, 2021

Q Returns to Star Trek: Picard

Catch up on this, and other announcements from First Contact Day inside!

StarTrek.com

Paramount+ today revealed a first look at season two of its hit original series Star Trek: Picard with an all-new teaser trailer. The teaser trailer was introduced by series star Patrick Stewart at the top of today’s First Contact Day virtual global panels, which also revealed that season two will premiere in 2022. Actor John de Lancie made a surprise appearance during the panel, confirming that he will appear in season two of Star Trek: Picard as his iconic Star Trek character, Q.

Teaser Trailer | Star Trek: Picard - Season 2

The free First Contact Day virtual panels will be available to view on-demand on Paramount+’s YouTube Channel and on Paramount+ in the U.S., following their initial airing on StarTrek.com/FirstContact today from 12:00-2:45 PM, PT/3:00-5:45 PM, ET.

Star Trek: Picard features Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation , and follows this iconic character into the next chapter of his life. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. For season two, Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon, Doug Aarniokoski, Dylan Massin, Patrick Stewart, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers; Aaron Baiers (Secret Hideout) and Kirsten Beyer serve as co-executive producers. Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas serve as co-showrunners for season two.

Star Trek: Picard season two cast members include Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Jeri Ryan, Orla Brady and Brent Spiner.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories and in Canada, airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

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Star Trek: Picard

Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life. Follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) that centers on Jean-Luc Picard in the next chapter of his life.

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• 2.8K User reviews
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• 14 wins & 54 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Jean-Luc Picard

• Raffi Musiker

• Seven of Nine

• Dr. Agnes Jurati

• Cristóbal Rios …

• Adam Soong …

• La Sirena Computer

• Jack Crusher

• Doctor Beverly Crusher

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• Ensign Esmar

• Titan Computer …
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• Trivia The Chateau Picard vineyard first appeared in Family (1990) . It was run by Jean-Luc Picard's brother Robert and his wife Marie, and their son René. Jean-Luc would learn in Star Trek: Generations (1994) that Robert and René had both burned to death in a fire, leaving Jean-Luc as the last in the Picard line.
• Goofs Commodore Oh often wears sunglasses. Star Trek lore establishes that Vulcans have an inner eyelid to protect against harsh sunlight on their desert planet. Oh's shades are a fashion statement, not a protective measure.
• The first season features a Borg cube and the planet Romulus.
• The second season features a Borg ship, a wormhole and hourglass, and the Borg Queen's silhouette.
• The third season does not have an opening titles sequence.
• Connections Featured in Half in the Bag: Comic Con 2019, The Picard Trailer, Streaming Services, and Midsommar (2019)

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• January 23, 2020 (United States)
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• Runtime 46 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Star Trek: Picard Renewed for Season 3 — Plus, Q Gives Jean-Luc a Fresh Puzzle to Solve in New Season 2 Trailer

Dave nemetz, west coast bureau chief.

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If you’ve been waiting for news on Star Trek: Picard , we’ve got a lot of it — and it’s all good.

First, the Trek spinoff has officially been renewed for Season 3 , TVLine has learned. Plus, we’ve finally locked down a premiere month for Season 2: Picard will return in February 2022 on Paramount+. And if all that weren’t enough, we also got an extended sneak peek at what’s on tap for Season 2 in a new trailer, which includes our first look at newly added cast member Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen .

The trailer (which you can watch above) begins with Jean-Luc encountering an old frenemy: the trickster god Q, played by Next Generation veteran John de Lancie. “I am way too old for your bulls–t,” Jean-Luc starts to say, but Q snaps his fingers and zaps him into an alternate timeline where the world is now a dark, dystopian “totalitarian nightmare,” with a Nazi-like regime ruling with an iron fist (and phaser rifles).

“The only way to heal our future is to go back and repair the past,” Jean-Luc declares, so he and his loyal crew hook themselves into the Borg Queen (!) to time-travel back to 21st-century Earth, complete with non-flying cars. (Seven of Nine is quite an aggressive driver, isn’t she?) Time is running out to change the future — but with Jean-Luc Picard at the helm, we’re not worried.

Press PLAY above for a sneak peek at Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard , and beam down to the comments to share your first impressions.

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22 comments.

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Looks cool… I enjoyed the first season but this seems more classic Trek.

The entire first season of Picard seemed to be setting the table for a more conventional second season of Star Trek

I love these ten episode movies – they beat the tar out of the two hour ones. And as much as I loved the new cast (seriously, characters A+++), the alternate timeline movies just weren’t Trek. When you start by blowing up Vulcan, there is nothing good coming – I can’t get past it, or the severely non-Trek plots. Reboot time! New cast, original timeline, and dear god, (ire the alt-timeline writers and) get writers that actually have the first clue about what makes Star Trek the phenomena it is.

Season 1 was really good. A Season 3 renewal ahead of Season 2 is great news. Now if they just move forward with Michelle Yeoh’s series…

But at that point we’d have four live action Star Treks going more or less concurrently, which might be overkill. Discovery and Picard might be enough, especially if they alternate, but you throw in the Anson Mount and Michelle Yeoh series, not to mention the animated stuff, and that;s a lot of Trek

The Michelle Yeoh series has not actually been ordered to series yet… and the other series are not going concurrently .. I’d be happy if one ran into another so we had a new series moving all year long.

Time travel, again? Ugh.

Jeri Ryan is a treasure tho

Honestly, she is. The whole cast of Picard is fantastic. Ryan and Stewart are terrific (and they have the weight of previous love for their character rolling), but Cabrera and his SEVEN characters is right up there. And that’s not to shade Hurd or Pill – they’re completely top notch.

Couldn’t agree more.

Boy that was not what I expected this season to be! Riffing off of Star Trek 4 is an interesting choice, but I hope the time travel gimmick holds up. This show does not go where you expect it…hopefully for the better. (Still question the choice they made of ‘killing’ Picard last season, but i’ll overlook it.)

When do we get Guinan? Whoopi said yes to SirPatStew’s invite.

Probability in the past since she’s been on earth for centuries m

I know it’s a “me” thing, but I would enjoy this 100% more if it wasn’t for the twist/hook about Picard . I would be so much more interested if …hm…he was more himself. I don’t wanna say more in case someone watching this hasn’t watched and doesn’t want spoilers.

This is really tough to watch. As iconic a character as Picard is and as brilliant an actor as Patrick Stewart is, he’s just aged out of this role. It happened to Mark Harmon on NCIS, too. They’re just too old to make their portrayals believable.

Picard as a character has never been young though. When we first see him hes like 60. Sir Patrick Stewart has always portrayed a character older than what he is in real life on the show. In Picard Season 1 he’s like 94 too.

As the commenter “Snow” mentioned, Picard is 59 or 60 when he first gets the Enterprise according to canon. Don’t forget, this is the 24th century. Dr. McCoy was still hanging around in his 130’s.

For Harmon I get it though I haven’t watched in years. A real field agent would have been moved to desk duty when he was much younger.

Yep he was born in 2305 and ‘died’ in 2399. I think the advances in medical science in the Star Trek universe means that folk are just living longer. Its never really touched upon per say.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Not tough for me to watch at all, for the reasons given by others, and my belief that age does not necessarily strain credibility.

Video not available…….. No surprise there.

Well, I am not a fan of time travel, but I’ll make do. The trailer didn’t look bad. I’ll be honest. The trailer could have been terrible and I would still watch it. They had me at Jean-Luc Picard and especially at the mention of, “Q” returning. Yep. I’m not missing Season 2.

They could still cancel the show before season 3, but I don’t think they will. They usually do this for contract reasons or to make the filming cheaper since they can film at least parts of season 3 right after or at the same time as season 2.

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“We have three days before the future is changed irrevocably,” Star Trek: Picard’ s Patrick Stewart proclaims in the telling and time-jumping latest look at Season 2 of the Paramount+ series.

However, the future was on display in more ways than one this Star Trek Day for Jean-Luc as the newest Picard trailer (watch it above) revealed that the show will be launching its second season in February.

If that wasn’t enough for loyal fans of the former U.S.S. Enterprise captain, today’s Star Trek Day news also included that Picard will be back for a third season.

Unveiled Wednesday in the series’ Star Trek Day slot, Season 3 of Picard is expected to hit the ViacomCBS streamer in early 2023. Knight of the realm Stewart was not at the now-annual Trekverse shindig for the live panel this evening from LA’s Skirball Cultural Center. However, with apologies for his absence, Picard co-star and Seven of Nine herself Jeri Ryan took the stage to unveil the new trailer.

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In a seemingly sprawling 10-episode Season 2 that sees Picard and his crewmates view a totalitarian future and leap back to a 21st century City of Angels to make things right, the trailer that dropped Wednesday had a few more intimate peeks too. There was more of the return of John de Lancie’s Q and a first look at Annie Wersching as the Borg Queen. The latter Bosch alum was announced as an addition to Picard just a few days ago.

In addition to Stewart and Ryan, Picard Season 2 sees Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Orla Brady and Brent Spiner back in the fold and the days of future past.

Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Stewart, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon, Doug Aarniokoski, Dylan Massin, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth all serve as executive producers on Picard Season 2. Aaron Baiers and Kirsten Beyer serve as co-executive producers. Goldsman and Terry Matalas are co-showrunners for Season 2.

Star Trek: Picard is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.

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Star Trek: Picard Actors & Creative Team React To Showrunner Jumping To Marvel

• Star Trek: Picard actors and creative team celebrate Terry Matalas moving to Marvel Studios to work on Vision series.
• Jeri Ryan, Todd Stashwick, Michelle Hurd, and others congratulate Matalas on his new role with Marvel.
• Excitement and pride shine through reactions from cast members, writers, and key production personnel.

Star Trek: Picard season 3's actors and members of its creative team react to showrunner Terry Matalas jumping to Marvel Studios. Matalas, the acclaimed architect of Star Trek: Picard season 3 , was named showrunner of Marvel's upcoming Vision series , a continuation of WandaVision that stars Paul Bettany as the heroic synthezoid Avenger. Marvel's unnamed Vision series is targeting a 2026 debut on Disney+.

On X, Star Trek: Picard season 3 cast members, writers, and key production personnel congratulated Terry Matalas on his move to Marvel. First is Jeri Ryan, who played Captain Seven of Nine and has been friends with Matalas since t hey both started out together on Star Trek: Voyager :

Todd Stashwick, who played Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard season 3 and has been a longtime friend and collaborator of Terry Matalas' since 12 Monkeys offered his excitement:

Michelle Hurd, who played Commander Raffi Musiker and was the only original Star Trek: Picard character to appear in all 3 seasons, is also thrilled for Terry Matalas:

Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut played Lt. Sidney La Forge, the daughter of Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), in Star Trek: Picard season 3, and here is her reaction:

Star Trek: Picard season 3 co-executive producer Christopher Monfette offered his reaction to Terry Matalas becoming showrunner of Marvel's Vision:

Star Trek: Picard season 3 composer Stephen Barton congratulated Terry Matalas as well:

Star Trek: Picard season 3 art designer Liz Kloczkowski, who headed up the recreation of the iconic USS Enterprise-D's bridge , is also thrilled for Terry Matalas:

Star Trek: Picard season 2 and 3 production designer Dave Blass praises Terry Matalas' 'vision':

Star Trek Picard Cast & Character Guide: All 3 Seasons

Star Trek: Picard season 3's cast includes several new characters and the return of some of the biggest names and iconic characters in Star Trek.

What Terry Matalas Going To Marvel Means For Star Trek: Picard's Potential Spinoff

Things don't look good for star trek: legacy.

Paramount+ never indicated that a spinoff of Star Trek: Picard season 3 was in development at any point, despite popular demand from fans and Picard 's cast and creative team. Star Trek: Picard season 3's ending set up a continuation that was dubbed Star Trek: Legacy set aboard the USS Enterprise-G led by Captain Seven of Nine, and an end-credits scene revealed the return of Q (John de Lancie) to torment Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) son, Ensign Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers). But Star Trek: Legacy was a pie-in-the-sky idea that never became a concrete go-project.

Paramount's pending sale makes future Star Trek projects questionable, although Paramount+ is moving ahead with Star Trek: Section 31 and new seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy .

Terry Matalas moving on to work on Vision for Marvel Studios means the loss of the primary creative force behind Star Trek: Picard' s spinoff. With Vision targeting a 2026 release date on Disney+, Matalas will be deep in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the next couple of years, at least . Vision 's expected success will likely open more doors at Marvel for Matalas, which could further keep him away from Star Trek . Star Trek: Picard 's spinoff seems unlikely to happen any time in the near future, but this is Star Trek, after all, and there are always possibilities.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 is streaming on Paramount+

Cast Orla Brady, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Jeri Ryan, Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Marina Sirtis, Amanda Plummer, Whoopi Goldberg, Gates McFadden, Todd Stashwick, Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, John de Lancie, Ed Speleers

Network Paramount

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon

Directors Terry Matalas, Jonathan Frakes

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Michael Chabon

Where To Watch Paramount+

After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action. The series also brings back fan-favorite characters from the Star Trek franchise, such as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

Jonathan Frakes on Directing ‘Star Trek’: Looking Back on ‘Discovery’ & Ahead to ‘Strange New Worlds’ Season 3

For  Star Trek: Discovery ‘s penultimate episode, an icon from the franchise stepped behind the camera: Jonathan Frakes , who starred as Riker on  Star Trek: The Next Generation and reprised the role on  Picard .

And for him, it was just returning to a set he enjoys, for his eighth episode behind the camera on  Discovery . In the episode, members of the crew infiltrate the Breen ship in hopes of getting their hands on a key piece of tech for their mission to find the Progenitors’ power. But even amidst the action, there’s time for some emotional beats.

Below, Frakes takes us inside the episode, looks back on  Discovery , and teases a  Strange New Worlds Season 3 episode he directed.

What excited you about this script as a director?

Jonathan Frakes: There’s a lot more action than I’m usually given, and the whole direction, if you will, of the season was that we find more action and more levity, two of my favorite parts of the business. So I was thrilled. The ending where the ship literally flies in the tailpipe of another ship I thought was really ambitious and great to storyboard and a beautifully executed by JZ [Jason Zimmerman] and all of our friends over at the visual effects department, but also the contrast between—Burnham [ Sonequa Martin-Green ] and Book [ David Ajala ] have a story that they clearly have not found time to sort out about their relationship. They’re in the midst of all this chaos. And, the B story, the wonderful story with our Kelpian and our Vulcan with Doug [Jones] and Tara [Rosling] is so beautiful that they’re in love and about to get married during the chaos of this fight with the Breen. So the contrasts of tone were very interesting to me.

I was going to point to Michael and Book’s conversation because it’s with their helmets on, so talk about directing that emotional scene.

Yeah, Maya Bankovic was my cinematographer on that. We desperately needed a way to see their faces because I mean, I get the Breen all look alike. I get they all wear helmets, and I get that that’s the premise of the show and it’s already been established, but it’s very hard for the audience to know who’s who. I can see that Burnham’s a little shorter than Book, but I mean, they’re all wearing ridiculous helmets and costumes, and so we found a way to take the liberty of having what we would call a camera inside the helmet where we could literally see their faces. And when we tested that and everybody approved that, that let us breathe a little more easily, that when we had intimate conversations while they were pretending to be Breen, we could actually shoot it like a tight closeup. So that certainly helped.

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But there’s very little time in this story for them to [talk], and she pulls him aside in the middle of this chaos in the Breen hallways to just give them a little taste—because she didn’t have a chance. She saw him in engineering and wasn’t able to have a private moment. Then they had the meeting where they decided who was going to go there, and there was no real private moment there. I think that was a great part of the writing, that there was so much going on that these two lead characters whose lives have been altered by the information that Michael got in 508 at the library was… I think you’re waiting as an audience member, she’s got to say something to her about this, doesn’t she?

We’ve also been following Adira’s ( Blu del Barrio ) journey as they find their place, and we get to see them step into that a bit in this episode going on this mission. There’s also a slight sense of dads seeing their kid off to college when they’re leaving.

Yeah, I think that’s enabled by Tilly [ Mary Wiseman] . Tilly has been a mentor to Adira in a way that, in addition to Culber [ Wilson Cruz ] and Stamets [Anthony Rapp]  being parents, the three of them have encouraged that character to embrace their confidence, if you will. And I thought that was a very sweet little walk and talk where the three of them are walking down, like dropping them off for college. That’s a good metaphor for it. And the stiff upper lip that they took was, “I’ll be fine dad, don’t worry. I’ll be back.” And I think it was very relatable.

You mentioned that ship flying into the other ship…

That was all storyboard and we talked about it and the chaos of all that, but I didn’t get to execute any of that except shooting the plates for it. Also, that whole green ship was on the AR wall, which is a trip in itself, that set when it’s that exciting and that incredibly detailed. It’s changed filmmaking, these AR walls; instead of imagining what might be on a green screen behind you, you’re literally in a volume that has everything that the actors need and what the filmmakers need, what the camera needs to tell the story. So many of the visual effects that are not put in later, they’re put in as part of the extensive and expensive planning of the AR wall set. And that was a very successful version of that I thought.

What scene did you have the most fun directing?

I like the scene in the ready room where Burnham puts the pieces together and the decision sort of in the moment, “Well, I’m going to go and you’re going to go and you’re going to go and you’re going to go, and that’s how we’re going to do this.” I loved Burnham’s decision making. Also, I was crazy about Callum [Keith Rennie] at the end, pacing, pacing, pacing, pacing, pacing, and then deciding again in the moment, “Here’s what we’re going to do.” I like when the leaders make powerful decisions with confidence, and both of those scenes reflected that.

You’ve directed across Trek series. What have you found that’s unique to Discovery that you enjoy directing?

I have a special fondness for Discovery because it was the first Star Trek after the old ones that I was asked back onto, so that family of actors reminded me a lot of our family on Next Gen . So I have a real soft spot [for them]. [They went through] what we were going through on our Season 1, which is now we’re part of this Star Trek universe, what does this really mean? And they were the first ones back. I mean, they opened up this whole new wave of Star Trek . So there was a certain skepticism that I warned them about. I was like the elder who’d come to town to tell what it’s going to be like. I said, “Your lives are going to change.” And that’s what DeForest Kelley told me, and it was true. They did, and they have, and I think we’re all very grateful to be part of this family.

Michael Gibson / Paramount+

You’ve directed eight episodes of Discovery . What are you going to miss about this show?

I’m going to miss Sonequa. I’m going to miss Doug. I’m going to miss Anthony. I’m going to miss Tunde [Olatunde Osunsanmi]. There’s a lot of people over there that I have built long professional and personal relationships with. The cast is quite something. Mary. I mean, I remember when Blu first arrived and Anthony Rapp and I had the first scene with them in the corridor, and it was so clear to us that the talent that this actor had brought from one of the schools in London and Anthony and I had this moment where we looked at each other because both of us had been doing it a long time, and it was so clear like, “Holy s**t, this one really gets it,” and it’s been true. So watching them grow has been spectacular for me. As always, it’s all about the people. There’s nobody better as a leader than Sonequa.

Picard had that great next generation reunion, which I loved. Could we see you as Riker again? Have you heard anything?

I haven’t heard anything, but I’m available.

What else is coming up for you? What else have you directed that’s still to come?

I just finished a fabulous episode of Strange New Worlds that we actually finished editing last week, so that’s for next season. And I’ve got a couple of pilots that I’m trying to get developed and up and out, and I’ve got my son’s wedding that we’re planning and I’ve got a whole pile of conventions to go to, and then I’ll look forward to Starfleet Academy , which is coming up in the fall.

You said Strange New Worlds . Anything you can say about that?

I can say that it is maybe the best episode of TV I’ve had the privilege of directing. The story, as you’ll see, ends up being a Hollywood murder mystery, and that’s about all I’m allowed to leak.

Star Trek: Discovery , Series Finale, Thursday, May 30, Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Season 3, TBA, Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery where to stream

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds where to stream

Star trek: discovery, star trek: strange new worlds, jonathan frakes.

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Pulls It All Together For “Life, Itself”

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“Life, Itself”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, May 30, 2024 Written by Kyle Jarrow & Michelle Paradise Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi

A solid season finale ties things for the season plot and the characters, with a bonus bringing the series to a satisfying conclusion.

The Progenitors may be all-powerful, but would it have killed them to add some signage?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Let’s go get what we came for”

We are back at the binary black holes, the portal is out of reach of the Disco, there is no contact with the captain, the Breen dreadnaught is launching a swarm of fighters, and Primarch Tahal is one hour away from escalating things beyond any hope: just the kind of stakes and ticking clocks we expect for a finale. Inside the portal, Michael finds herself looking at a tunnel of seemingly infinite gateway windows she “cannot explain” to her tricorder, for posterity. She picks a bright light in the distance as her destination but when she notices an odd distortion, she is soon pulled through to a windswept desolate world and greeted by an angry Breen, who isn’t in a talking mood. After dispatching him and another Breen back in the tunnel, Moll shows up with some sarcastic praise, a bleeding wound, and a big gun. Michael offers a dermal regenerator as a peace offering. But soon enough they are at odds again, as Moll is willing to work with the Breen to use the tech to bring back L’ak and doesn’t trust the Feds. Michael has seen that dark future and isn’t going to let that happen, so cue the fight music and VFX as the pair punches and kicks their way through shifting gravities and multiple worlds like a TV-budget Christopher Nolan movie. Michael switches tactics, connecting emotionally over loss, giving Moll her personal promise to use the tech to bring back L’ak. (Remember Moll’s pattern buffer? Her heart is literally on her sleeve). Together the reluctant partnership heads off down the yellow brick road Progenitor tech tunnel.

Off to see the wizard?

“I have kind of a crazy idea”

Things are hectic on the Disco as Rayner realizes he can’t get to the portal and fight off the Breen at the same time, so Book volunteers to take a shuttle to grab the portal. Cleveland is given a short ticking clock before the black hole radiation will fry him but Dr. Culber volunteers to join anyway, as he has a weird feeling he is going to be needed. As they head off, Tilly hatches a plan involving a plasma cloud and the power of science. Back at Federation HQ, they need to divert the approaching Breen fleet, so Saru and Nhan volunteer to confront Tahal with an unarmed shuttle because for these Disco vets— and as the great Vin Diesel says —it’s all about family. They catch up with Tahal, who isn’t in the mood to have a nice chat and is curious why the Feds don’t want her finding out what’s going on with Runh’s old dreadnaught. Suru makes his first move, offering Tahal a Federation trade route through the L’Tar Nebula, which would give her an advantage over other Primarchs, but she rejects it. Nhan is nervous but Saru remains calm, even after being given 30 seconds to leave. The offer is rescinded after he calls Tahal a coward, then escalates to telling her he is a predator, she is his prey, and if she doesn’t take his deal, she will never get the Imperium throne. He now knows she already has hidden bases in L’Tar and his friends in the region will attack, diverting her attention and keeping her from winning the Breen faction war. She thinks he is crazy and bluffing but Saru compels her to look into his eyes and ask if she doesn’t see resolve. It works. Nhan is impressed: That’s some cold Kelpien cowboy diplomacy.

Sorry Commander Nhan, if one of us isn’t going to make it, I’m guessing it’s you.

“Every clue has prepared us for this”

To find their way through the endless tunnel of gateways, Michael starts thinking multidimensionally—like a Progenitor—and finds a new hidden vista, this time with flowers and a promising central dais. This whole place is the tech they have been looking for, and they are reminded of the danger as they pass a makeshift monument to the 24 th -century scientist who was killed trying to use it. The control interface is an unmarked scatter of triangles, and as the two debate how the “one between many” clue fits, when Michael can suddenly hear Book’s transmission. The distraction gives Moll a chance to knock the captain out before forming a pyramid on the interface, getting her zapped and pinned as the system wakes up with columns of energy. Outside, the portal draws matter from a black hole, impressive but not helpful to everyone out there. Tilly’s trick of blowing up the Breen fighters with a nearby plasma cloud works, and Book is ordered to grab the portal before the dreadnaught shows up, but he can’t get a tractor lock. Now Culber understands his mysterious drive to be there and relays the exact resonance frequency Book needs for the tractor beam… We’ll sort that out later. Michael wakes and pulls Moll off the pedestal, down but conscious. She works out the triangle puzzle (“one between many” means creating a larger triangle with the negative space, duh). She is rewarded by another transition and greeting from an actual extinct Progenitor, waiting to offer instructions… like Clippy , but with the power of creation. From what she heard from Book, Michael knows the portal is causing all sorts of dire problems, so the first thing is to shut it down. The Progenitor explains it is just powering up to perform its primary function: the creation of life, but it can’t bring back the dead, which is bad news for Moll and L’ak. Michael is concerned the tech can be used to create armies of destruction, but the Progenitor points to the evidence in the tunnel, all those gateways to worlds full of life. She then drops the big head-scratcher, the Progenitors didn’t create this thing, they found it. The Progenitors have progenitors? They are just part of a “cycle of creators and creations countless times over.” It’s progenitors all the way down. Mind Blown GIFs .

Let’s see what happens when I touch this invisible thing.

“It’s the right thing to do”

Tahal may have turned around, but she has sent a cloaked scout to see what’s going on. The Discovery crew can’t let that or the dreadnaught have access to the Progenitor tech, so Rayner has the craziest idea yet: Just remove all the Breen… with the spore drive. This is Discovery, where they do five impossible things before breakfast, so he rallies the crew with a speech to make it happen. Inside the portal, Michael is told she has passed the tests so she is now the “steward” of the tech. During a montage of the raging battle outside Tilly and Stamets zap the Breen away to the galactic barrier thanks to a cool saucer separation manuever. The Progenitor talks about how her race found themselves alone, so they found meaning by creating all the varieties of life throughout the galaxy, and now it’s Michael’s turn to play god. What is most meaningful to you? No pressure. For now, the captain wants the whole thing shut down while she considers her options. The Progenitor says she can wait and gives Burnham a quick data download of a few billion years of the history of life in the galaxy. No big whoop. Michael grabs Moll, lets her know about L’ak (sorry) and they beam to Book’s shuttle. Everyone reunites and hugs (Saru too, of course) but they soon debate the use of the Progenitor tech. Rayner talks of orders and Stamets of science, but Burnham is determined. They already have infinite diversity in infinite combinations, they don’t need the tech, and she’s sure Rillak and Vance will back her up. The portal is placed beyond one of the black holes’ event horizon, but the captain figures whoever made it could always figure out how to get it out if they are still around. Back at HQ, Moll and Book share a moment and her icy attitude thaws a bit; also, it turns out she is being offered a job with Kovich if she wants it. Speaking of that enigma, Kovich tells Michael the Red Directive is over, everything is classified, and that’s that. He tells her he has lived many lives and she is top of the list of aggravations, but he’s still impressed. Thankfully, she doesn’t let this latest mysterious comment go, pressing him to reveal who he really is. He finally introduces himself: “ Agent Daniels .” Damn, and I already used up all my mind blown GIFs.

Get ready for even more hugging.

“Last dance”

Cut to weeks later: We find ourselves at a beach destination wedding. Yep, T’Rina and Saru get hitched and seal it with a kiss. Aww. Everyone is there having a good time. Suru sums up the season with Michael as he looks at the gathering of diverse friends and well wishers, nothing it would make the Progenitors proud to see how “we are all in the most fundamental ways, connected.” After hearing how Tilly has a mentorship plan tailor-made for a spinoff series about Starfleet Academy , Michael finds Book and the two dip out to have a chat on the beach. He has been busy and now he is a free man, full of hope again. Both are looking to the future and agree that future should be together. “You, me, and Grudge.” More aww, more kissing, but they are interrupted: It’s a call from Kovich. Another mission. And the season ends with just the right note. “What are we waiting for? Let’s see what the future holds.” Fade to black… but wait, there’s more.

Marriage is logical.

Cut to an isolated cabin on Sanctuary Four (where Book planted that Kwejian world root, BTW). It’s Michael and Book, many years later, with gray hairs and fun banter over bad coffee. There is talk about it being a big day before a shuttle arrives, piloted by their son! He’s a Starfleet captain! She’s an admiral! New uniforms! They are not messing around. Mother and son head off, mentioning Tilly is still at the Academy, and she gives some advice for his first big speech in command. She reflects on her (classified) mission, talking of the question about what is most meaningful. Her answer, “Sometimes life, itself (title alert!) is meaning enough.” Channeling her own inner Diesel, she talks of their family, her Discovery family, and how her son will find family with his new crew. He drops her off at the USS Discovery in space dock, which is getting the -A removed from its registry as the ship is being reset to its original 23rd century design and parameters for its “final mission.” On board, the admiral greets Zora and informs the AI she will take the ship into deep space and then leave her, to await something to do with “ Craft .” Reflecting on how it’s been “a hell of a journey,” Michael sits in the captain’s chair and all the feels come back to her. We see her younger self on the bridge and she’s with her Disco family. Everyone is there, even Detmer, Owo, and Bryce. There is a lot of hugging and chatter and laughing and joy as we fade back to older Burnham coming out of the moment. The OG Discovery exits spacedock and all the ships and shuttles at HQ are lined up as an honor guard. Nice. For one last time, she orders “Let’s fly” as the classic music swells and we fade to black for the final curtain. Goodbye, Star Trek: Discovery . I really will miss you.

Zora, if you are so smart, how come you didn’t predict we would get canceled?

All good things…

This was a solid season finale that nicely tied up plot and character stories amidst fast-paced action and philosophical questions—with a few answers. Packing so much in did perhaps bloat the episode, which got even heftier when the epilogue (shot later, after the series wasn’t renewed) was tacked on. But the themes of the season were woven throughout, which in true Disco style were made clear with all the talk of connection, diversity, and family. From the beginning, this show has always been about Michael Burnham, and her hero’s journey was certainly on full display here as she was deemed worthy to hold the power of the gods, with Sonequa Martin-Green delivering a fantastic performance covering the required range needed for all the plot, romance, and action. The rest of the ensemble had hero moments throughout too, notably Doug Jones’ Saru, who ended the season strong showing just how formidable he is, without having to fire a shot (or quill). Everyone was smart, clearly worthy of their positions, and the show doesn’t need to make the baddies dumb to keep the plot moving. Even the USS Discovery itself got a hero moment, one of the many spectacular visual effects moments they saved up for with the finale. Director and EP Olatunde Osunsanmi really understands this show and these characters and knows how to pace things so that extra time did fly, although he is definitely over-enamored with the spinning camera rig.

Inside all that action were big and little moments of character to pay off elements that had built up through the season. A great example of this was Rayner, a new character introduced in conflict with Burnham at the start of the season, and who we learned later is haunted by his past with the Breen. For the finale, he spots his own errors and pivots, he has the trust of the crew, and he even has a tiny bit of mercy for the Breen. Callum Keith Rennie was one of the standouts of the season and its sad that we won’t get to see where the character would have gone had there been another season. Wilson Cruz’s Culber also had a nice bit of closure here, as the doctor’s spiritual journey brought him onto the (almost suicide) mission with Book, where he took that leap of faith and learned to embrace the mystery of how “Jinaal” has changed him. Sadly, the same can’t be said of his husband Stamets, who got the short end of the stick this episode (and all season) with Anthony Rapp mostly relegated to technobabble and subbing in as chief engineer in the weeks Tig Notaro couldn’t make it to Toronto. Stamets has looked for meaning after the spore drive and that journey will continue now that the Progenitor tech has been taken away. Mary Wiseman’s Tilly had fun moments this episode but her backstory about struggles at the Academy and her solution (a mentorship program) seems more about setting her up for the new show than servicing the character.

Did anyone see my dead husband? I seem to have lost him.

Meeting the makers

For the finale, the big bad Breen mostly took a back seat. We never got a glimpse into what was happening on the dreadnought with Moll gone. We got some FaceTime chat with Tahal, who was just as one-dimensional as Ruhn, but the various Breen ships did pose enough of a credible threat for there to be high stakes for our heroes. In the end, it was Moll who was the main adversary for the episode, as she stuck with her single-minded determination, resulting in probably too many fight scenes inside the Progenitor portal. Also, why did she fight the Breen who were supposedly working for her? The adversaries Moll and L’ak were certainly stronger than previous villains for the show, but the last few episodes didn’t really pay off some of the promise of earlier ones. Maybe her redemption was planned to come later as an agent for Kovich. Speaking of that enigmatic character, it was quite satisfying to finally address his backstory, and tying it into the Star Trek: Enterprise character of Daniels was clever and makes a lot of sense.

The biggest reveals for this episode were tying things up with the Progenitors as this season picked up the thread left by the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Chase” and really ran with it. The scenes with Burnham and the Progenitor (ably played by Somkele Iyamah-Idhalma) were strong, turning their mission of seeding the galaxy into Star Trek’s recurring theme of infinite diversity, as laid out nicely by Saru at the wedding (in case you missed it). The one thing that didn’t land was the “one between many” triangle thing, which turned out to be a basic IQ test and not something tied into the rest of the clues, tests, and cultural understandings Burnham has passed throughout the season.  Of course, Burnham was the one who was deemed worthy to become the steward, but it also fit with the character that she had the humility to reject the power and hide it away as the galaxy already had plenty of life and it was too dangerous to leave lying around. The twist that the Progenitors were only the latest in a line older than the universe itself is a very big idea straight out of classic sci-fi, and even scripture. It’s a nice touch to add a bit more mystery to all of it.

Sometimes even in Star Trek, dead is dead.

Sometimes it’s okay to cry

As for fans of romance, you got a twofer with Michael and Book getting back together and Saru and T’Rina getting married. A wedding in a finale is a bit cliché, but it was nice and used well to wrap things up. The final moment on the beach with Michael and Book was sweet and did a decent job of hinting at more to come, and it could even have made for a reasonable series finale, with an optimistic and hopeful Star Trek look to the future and the next mission, together.

But then the producers were given the chance to shoot an epilogue to wrap up the series after they found out this season would be their last. This brings us to the extra bits that start at the cabin with older Book and Michael. Wrapping things up with this kind of leap forward into the future was a bit trite, but they didn’t have a lot of time to pull it together and what they did was pretty impressive, albeit with the focus on Michael Burnham. It was still well-earned and satisfying to see her happy ending as an admiral, shepherding her son to be the next generation of Starfleet. They didn’t have to, but continuity-lovers will appreciate how they used this coda to really tie a bow onto connecting the series to the Short Treks episode “Calypso,” right down to explaining away how the ship in that future didn’t have the 32 nd -century refit. The conversation with Michael and Zora was very sweet, all part of the right tone for this coda. Things got even more on brand for Michael’s memory sequence, bringing in the rest of the cast—her Discovery family. Only Saru (barely) got an audible line, which may disappoint fans who want to know what’s up with the other characters, but the emotion of it all was there and this leaves plenty of opportunities for those characters later if they show up on the Academy series. All in all, it was very Discovery , and what more could you want to tie things up?

Did no one think to bring drinks for this party? Reno?

Final thoughts

This season had big ideas and “Life, Itself” answered the right questions and posed some more, which is a good thing. This is the best finale for the best season of Discovery , and sadly it will be their last. The show really hit its stride in season 5, delivering on the promise of a new adventurous tone while still servicing the characters and their many emotions.

Where have you been?

• At 1:25:35, the finale has the longest runtime of any episode of Discovery— or any single episode of Star Trek, not counting 2-part episodes.
• The epilogue added 15:40 to the runtime.
• Michael uses her Vulcan meditation technique to clear her head to solve the puzzle.
• The L’Tar Nebula sounds like the Lantar Nebula mentioned by Vash in “Q-Less,” but probably something different.
• After getting mentioned a lot over the last couple of seasons, we saw the Pathway Drive in action on Saru’s shuttle when it caught up to Tahal’s fleet.
• A possible continuity error: The first shot of the triangle test shows 10 triangles, but both Michael and Moll used only 9 for their different solutions, with no extra triangle.
• After Culber revealed the subspace frequency he said, “I’m a doctor, not a physicist,” classic Star Trek .
• The EV suit computer voice Julianne Grossman, who did the computer voice for the USS Discovery for the first 3 seasons before Zora (Annabelle Wallis) became the ship’s voice.
• When Kovich tells Michael that everything from the season will be classified, she says she was “familiar with how those things work now,” possibly referencing how the USS Discovery and spore drive were classified at the end of season 2 ; however, she was not present for that, as she had already jumped to the future.
• Reacting to Saru’s gambit with Tahal, Nhan said she didn’t want to play him in Ferengi Rummy.
• Book was late to the wedding because he ran into some Talaxian pirates.
• It’s not mentioned in dialogue, but Burnham and Book’s son’s name is Leto. He’s played by Sawandi Wilson.
• The registry on Leto Burnham’s shuttle was UFP 47 .
• Michael talked to Leto about recently visiting Crepuscula .
• Molly the trance worm had a baby. Aww.

Michael thinks back to Voq… yeah, she married the right alien.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery premiered on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and was broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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“He finally introduces himself: “Agent Daniels”

See, you wouldn’t have gotten that from a series inspired by the Kelvin reboot — or maybe yes since Enterprise is the only series that is canonical in the Kelvinverse. Thought it likely wouldn’t have been as satisfying…

Enterprise is actually not quite as canonical as you think it is in the “Kelvin” verse The origins and outcomes in Kelvin are vastly different from the Prime Universe. SNW pretty much confirms that. Kelvin is not as “divergent” as we thought it was. I figured he was around for the Temporal Cold War given his knowledge about Time Travel. My only gripe with Kurtzman Trek is that they act like they did not do a somewhat soft reboot of the Original Series canon and timeline which they actually did.

Exactly. Just say it’s a reboot and you give yourself freedom from the canon lawers (like me). They should have done that from day 1 of Discovery honestly. It was the perfect chance to re-*discover* what Trek is for us in the 21st century. Alas. No vision or guts.

Yeah Discovery should’ve been a reboot on day one and it could’ve stayed in the 23rd century. But as someone who actually likes that it got to do its own thing and put us in a completely new time period, I’m not too bothered in the end. But of course they could’ve just had the show in the 32nd century from the beginning and just set Trek on a completely different course in the modern era away from everything we knew making this century the ‘present day’ going forward which many fans like me wanted anyway once we heard a new show was coming.

But all of that is clearly in hindsight now.

That’s all on Bryan Fuller. Though his original plan was to set the series in a different era for each season set in the timeline of TOS, Discovery should have had a visual aesthetic that fell somewhere between Enterprise and TOS. Instead he took it in a much different direction. Had he said “It’s a different timeline!” most would have just run with it.

It was telling that when Fuller launched Discovery he didn’t bring in anyone from the Berman era to work on the series. Ron Moore, by contrast, brought in people from the Berman era to work on Battlestar Galactica, Outlander and For All Mankind.

Fuller wanted a full series and visual reboot and should have just said, yeah, this is a reboot set in a different timeline.

Yeah 100% agree.

Discovery made a lot of errors in the first season but the biggest was putting a show that was clearly meant to be a reboot in a 50 year old universe but pretended like it wasn’t a reboot.

Despite all it’s issues starting out that will always be the biggest IMO.

Actually he did bring on Joe Menosky who has worked on all the Berman shows minus Enterprise but it seems like what happened with Nic Meyer and he didn’t gel very well with the new group because he left after the first season and never talked about his time on the show.

I got the impression that Menosky was a bit frustrated by the entire experience and that he was this lone and ignored voice. Given a chance, Menosky probably would have loved working on Picard or SNW where his input would have been appreciated and not ignored.

I rewatched part of DSC S1. Still compelling television.

Aside from that, requesting the visual aesthetics of 60s science fiction? Get real. Its a tv show, not retelling of a future to come. It doesnt matter, if they say its a reboot or not. Technology advanced. Look at scripture. 4 variants of Christs story, in one book. Star Trek is art. Television has no obligation to align with anyones fantasy. Media shouldnt deliver, what people want, but what they might need. I also have an opinion. Did I like it? Dont know. Was I entertained? Yes. If this enough? Yeah, for the moment.

People creating want to create something on their own, always redesigns always new ideas, sometimes they take old stuff and build ontop of it, but usually they go rather somewhere else, like Bajor, Delta Quadrant, Child Universe. Artists are not engineers in that matter, as engineers try to make something work. Artists express themselves. So every iteration of Star Trek is different. So many new uniform styles to keep track off. The costume designers are off the leash.

But I always come back to what Phlox said to Trip about his people having something similar to television until they realized, their lives were more interesting. Live by Phlox’ wisdom!

And yet SNW updated the look to TOS without completely rewritting it and why less people have issues with that show. I been saying this literally since 2017, no one was ever suggesting to recreate what was done on TOS but to simply update the aesthetics and look in the present day and today’s standards which I think SNW has done fairly well IMO.

Why they couldn’t just do something similar instead of presenting a show that barely looked like it existed in the same period or even universe is beyond me?

And if they decided to just keep to what they did with Discovery, I have said this about more times than I can count, then just reboot it completely and do whatever you want, right? We’re not actually disagreeing, but what I find funny about these discussions is people say writers and producers shouldn’t be forced to straddle themselves aligning with canon to a 50 year TV show…as they align themselves to a 50 year old TV show canon. And then even worse instead of pulling a TNG and going forward in a time period that hasn’t been set and you DO have the freedom to do mostly what you want, instead they put it in a period everyone knows and expect no one is going to blink when you ignore the setting you decided to put your show in.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you want to reinvent the wheel and go your own way or you want the trappings of nostalgia and history or why else not just ignore it completely then?

This is the problem when you try to have your cake and eat it too.

And I’m an atheist, I couldn’t tell you a thing about scripture.

I’m so sick of them talking about canon as if they even understand it. They don’t. I’m also pretty tired of the multiverse trope in ALL of these properties. Just reboot and forget any notion of them tying together, then you can remake episodes all you want, and I really can’t complain except when they do it badly (like the Taste of Armageddon re-do). Where we di]sagree is on the visual changes. Everything WAS Canon in that realm until Discovery, but not anymore.. I guess that’s okay… but if it were just the visual, I’d agree with you. My problem is they show federation ships doing stuff they really aren’t capable of doing in TOS, and pretend it’s just a ‘visual update’. Holograms that interact with the environment they’re projected in to instead of view screens. Intra ship transport. If those kinds of things existed in TOS, some stories wouldn’t make sense. It’s fine to call it a soft reboot, so just do that instead of pretending this world makes sense. It doesn’t.

The Khan episode from SNW confirms the Prime universe rebooth. The idea they dropped around Time trying to re-insert itself is interesting. That is the freedom they needed to upend the Gorn story from TOS for example. I have no problem with the soft reboot but just say that is what you did and be done with it.

SNW has begun the process of reimagining TOS. Look as much as I love TOS, not everything about it translates into our modern era. I always thought for years that TOS needed a soft reboot. It is no accident that Time Travel was emphasized in DISCO and SNW. Kurtzman needs to just say it. JJ deicded to be coy about Khan and look how that turned out.

I had my issues with DISCO but I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2.

EXACTLY. And Discovery could have that done too with the Klingons.

If you go by that, go by the Borg. Stranded, frozen from the sphere from First contact. Found in the arctic, chased by Enterprise. Any time travel episode that left stuff in the past could upend what has been established before. Could also be an out for Pike not getting irradiated.

That episode helps confirm that the canon of the Kurtzman era is not the same as the prime. Sorry but the idea of TOS being reimagined is quite insulting to the show that started it all, I would be happier if the current stuff was separate from the Trek of 1966-2005

Again exactly. They had their chance just to do their own thing away from the prime universe and begin anew. Instead they plopped it between Enterprise and TOS and oddly thought no one would notice it’s completely out of whack between those two shows.

And on top of all that… They foolishly opted to go 900 years into their future yet they kept the PD of the SNW era and new Star Trek Discovery era awfully similar. There looks to be no real difference between the two shows at all. It’s like they make mistakes on the production end of the show and just double down on them. And goes for scripts, too.

It makes it work better for us, for sure, but the problem is the creative braintrust says it’s still within canon, that it’s not a new timeline. Which is monumentally stupid, IMO.

Not exactly.

When Beyond came out, Simon Pegg (who worked on the script) floated the idea that changes in the timeline causes ripples BOTH WAYS. So, within their creative intent, they interpret the Kelvin Universe existing in a place where there may be no continuity with anything, since there’s no guarantee any of it matches if the past has been changed too.

Well, I forgot that since Nero and Spock crossed into another quantum reality through the singularity, they were already in a different timeline even before Nero attacked the Kelvin. Just like it happened with Worf.

So, Nero’s attack need not have changed the timeline both ways since it was already different from the moment he arrived.

That whole thing was awfully silly. Since Kovich said he’s lived lifetimes it just made sense he be El-Aurian.

The statement would be applicable to a time traveler too. It’s misdirection.

I don’t think “living lifetimes” applies to time travelers. The term is meant to denote longevity. Not jumping to other eras.

Doctor Who does that whenever they do an episode in which one of his companions is left behind and grows old, then resets to their original age by the end of the episode.

But in the Who case it for sure denotes longevity, too. I cannot think of a case where “lifetimes” refers to anything but a very long time.

Lifetimes can refer to multiple lives, not necessarily longevity.

Think of every time someone in Trek experienced an alternate timeline. Each one of those would be a lifetime.

That includes Jake Sisko in The Visitor, the Enterprise-D’s crew in All Good Things, and the Voyager crew in Endgame, and all other alternate timelines in between.

For instance, Harry Kim experienced at least five lifetimes that come to mind; Non Sequitur, Year of Hell, Timeless, Endgame, and his prime timeline lifetime.

Surely there were others as VOY did multiple alternate timelines.

I can actually buy this. I think Daniels/Kovich was saying every time period he lived in was basically a different life for him. No one could really know he came from the future and he probably made a different identity each time.

I find that to be a stretch. Unless you are referring to the person existing as different people. Which means either at the same time or across eras. If different times that is quite the feat. If it’s across eras then it still refers to longevity. That is how most people would interpret the line. If their goal was to set up ambiguousness then I’d say it was a fail.

Well they could have if they decided to focus the KT on the Temporal Wars in some way but obviously that was never in the cards.

But I get your basic point and probably why in the end fans will always gravitate to the Prime universe because this is where the now thousand year old history (wow) and all the cool and old characters most fans grew up with lives.

And it’s pretty crazy that Daniels was part of the 22nd and 32nd century. He has basically bookend the entire franchise. This is why I love this show so much because of how imaginative it is!!!

Whatever cements Enterprise further into canon makes me happy.

Although that’s always been the biggest irony that Enterprise is really the only show canon to both universes.

Yep, heh. Back in 2009 the thought that Enterprise was the only Trek series that was still part of canon made me laugh because of how much “real” fans hated it when it came out.

And now a lot of fans hate the Kelvin movies today so I guess it has come full circle lol.

(But for the record I’m NOT one of them)

How goes the white whale, Captain Ahab?

I actually liked what they did with the Kelvin films. How do you reboot a series without rebooting a series? Why, set it in an alternate universe, of course! Where they stumbled was allowing four years between the first and second films and then deciding to revisit Khan instead of trying something entirely new (something like “Beyond” should have been the next film). I was hoping for a new standalone, not a retread of a TOS and the feature film it inspired.

I’d still like to see another Kelvin film and with the cast being who they are now, I think it would do well.

Yes I liked it too and in fact has defended it many times. I thought it was a brilliant idea they could expand and explore more in the future.

And then we got British Khan and destroyed everything they were suggesting in the very next movie. And while Beyond was at least decent the movies never recovered and hence here we are.

For myself British Khan was the least of the problems with that film.

Am I the only one who thought the big reveal was Kovich revealing themself to be Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan, especially given all the TNG-specific swag in his office?

Not saying I would have loved it, but it definitely felt like that’s where it was going as I watched the scene.

One of my Kovich theories was that he was EL Aurian. So close I guess.

My first thought, with the “many lives” snippet, was that he was going to reveal himself as Flint.

I thought that too, or, believe it or not, I considered he may have been Data or a Soong.

I thought a version of Data or a Soong relative at first too, there is beta cannon where Data gets an upgraded body and is able to change his appearance. But I wasn’t completely surprised with the Agent Daniels reveal as it’s been floating around as a theory for a while.

…just watched that episode an hour ago, actually. McCoy tells Spock at the end Flint is dying, will just live out a normal human lifespan.

True. Interestingly the novels (I know very much noncanon) had him fake his impending death.

Now that was not only an awesome episode of Trek but one of the best series finales in the franchise right up there with All Good Things and What We Leave Behind.

I will miss this show/cast and after 5 seasons it has earned its place as my 2nd favourite Trek show with DS9 still number 1.

Only a few episodes of Trek have made me cry tears of sadness like All Good Things, What We Leave Behind, The Visitor, Family, The Siege of AR-558 and now this episode Life, Itself joins the ranks. It was so well written, acted and directed it felt like a feature film and not just a series final of a TV Show. The Kovich reveal as Daniels from Enterprise was shocking as i never expected that but now thinking back at all the episodes of Discovery/Enterprise that Kovich/Daniels was in it makes sense to me.

Discovery separating the saucer section and using both it and the secondary hull to spore jump the Breen Dreadnought and the scoutship was amazing. One of the best CGI sequences in Trek.

Seeing one of the progenitors was cool though i would have loved it if it was Salome Jones but i understand she is in her 90s now. Also interesting to note that the ‘Progenitors’ didn’t invent the tech but found it and they themselves for creating by another race. Another mystery but maybe one that will probably best left unanswered.

As for Moll sadly she was the only thing i didn’t like about this episode. I understand her need/want to bring L’ak back but to be honest I’m not that interested in her story. But i do hope she and Book make amends with each other.

The epilogue was really nice though I wise we got a bit more of the rest of the cast. It does make sense that it featured Burnham as she is the show.

Also i loved the Calypso tie in and i do hope we find out someday exactly why Zora/Discovery has to wait in the Nebula for Craft and how did they know his name. Is it something to do with the Progenitor tech or perhaps Zora herself?.

Burnham told Zora it was a Red Directive, so perhaps Kovich/Daniels needed Craft to not die, and is no longer allowed to time travel due to the Temporal accords? An AI like Zora is timeless and can get to the future to save him in that Nebula. If Discovery still looked like a 32nd century upgraded ship, the Federation might be pinged for Temporal intervention?

Maybe we’ll get an answer, maybe it’ll always be people’s head canon?

The resolution of Moll’s arc was so frustrating. After everything she did to get to that point, all it takes is Burnham to tell her she can’t save L’ak and she’s just basically like, “Oh darn. That saddens me. Okie!”

The show should have had the guts to Toht her ass once she got her tangram puzzle wrong.

Wow! The finale episode was stunning! Lots to think about, but for now I will just rewatch and enjoy the spectacle and nice connecting of the Progenitors with IDIC and with the lives of the Disco crew.

I will miss Soniqua Martin Green. I loved this show.

I will miss Sonequa , too . But , I will follow her career. All of them, really. But Sonequa really spoke to me. Also, she was such a great Trek ambassador.

I adore her. Her grace, warmth, empathy, depth and thoughtfulness. I’m truly grateful to have had Discovery and her. What a great addition to the Trek family and herstory. From the very first episode, her complex performance really brought a depth and grounded reality to the Trek mythos for the first time in a way it hadn’t had before. Before Discovery, Trek was very stylized in its type of acting and character portrayal and SMG really made this universe we all love so much feel that more real.

Hugely underrated actress. Her performances have been richly compelling and, at least once her character initially relaxed a bit, full of warmth and humanity.

That Hope is You Part 1 is one of the show’s strongest episodes, largely due to the carefree performance she gives. I’d love to have seen more of that Burnham. SMG gave it her all to smooth over what was a fairly inconsistently written character amongst several inconsistently written characters. It reminded me of Kate Mulgrew and the shared burden they had of trying to steer a groundbreaking imperfect but semi-superhumanly capable woman through choppy waters with grace, charisma, and style. I’d be fascinated to watch a shared interview with them.

Agreed, greatly enjoyed Soniqua’s portrayal, and that of many of the Discovery crew.

Also, greatly enjoyed the poignant “Agent Daniels” moment and tie-in, thanks for that golden nugget, writers!

An enjoyable ending to a memorable show.

I will not miss her whispering during “dramatic” moments, nor her quivering lips. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Interesting how often people with little talent lash out at those that are in the public eye and celebrated for theirs. Basic people… shhh. Remember that trying to hide someone else’s light doesn’t make you shine. I’d love to see your audition for the role. Do you have a link to your acting reel?

“ It’s not mentioned in dialogue, but Burnham and Book’s son’s name is Leto. ”

Yes, it is. She says his name.

For a second I thought it was a Dune reference before I realized it was Book’s nephew’s name.

Yep, caught it too. I didn’t know exactly what she said, but as soon as I saw the “Leto” in the recap, I knew that’s what she said.

Very underwhelming. The journey was far more interesting than the destination, although inside the portal looked really cool. The payoff lacked imagination, and didn’t warrant revisiting the material… so yeah I was disappointed. The science and explanation of the past two episodes was questionable too. They should have gotten Salome Jens or at least tried to imitate that character specifically. Would have made more sense. But the conclusion of what to do with the tech.. how they unlocked it. how they found someone ‘worthy’.. it just makes the mystery of the rest of the season fall apart. So as a season finale.. it’s a fail. Even worse is the series finale coda. If you like these characters and get some of the emotion of all the hugging and stuff in the coda, cool. I never really loved these characters, so it did nothing for me. I thought seeing Book and Burnham together in old age was really nice, and I did like that. The Kovich reveal? Felt a little like the ‘My name is Khan’ reveal in STID. Why should that name mean anything? I had to go look It up. Lt. Daniels was a background character from two of the TNG moves. Whatever. More to explore with that character in Academy? I guess. At this point, I couldn’t care less about him. I guess it’s fitting that a show that has distorted canon so much, would choose to tie in its ending to an event in a small short trek show. A show that they easily just could have (and should have) declared apocryphal, and pretended it didn’t exist or exists in some alternate universe. Whatever plan Chabon had for it didn’t happen, so just let it go. Why they were retrofitting Discovery to its former look makes no sense. The reasons they were taking it there aren’t even presented clearly (or at all.. did I miss something?) It was a dumb way to end the show. I suppose that means it’s an appropriate ending for this series. The season was pretty good up to this point, though.. it was fun. But.. I’m sorry.. it wasn’t a very good season finale, and it was a terrible series finale.

“I had to go look It up. Lt. Daniels was a background character from two of the TNG moves”

Nope… Daniels was the time traveller on ENT, a very, very meaningful player in the TCW… The reveal was AWESOME. I was cheering out loud when it happened….

Ah. I’ll go back and look that one up. When I put Daniels in to memory alpha, that was the only option that populated in the search box, and I didn’t look beyond it, because he had all that TNG and DS9 stuff on his shelf so figured that was THE connection. I stopped watching ENT a year or two in, so if I did see that character, I don’t recall him at all.

I think you’re confusing him with Picard’s chief of security in FIRST CONTACT and INSURRECTION (remember, Worf was stationed on DS9 during those movies and happened to come along for the ride).

The revelation more or less worked, but I thought Daniels died in season four of ENT.

He did, but when Archer defeated the space nazi aliens he was shown alive again.

Space nazi aliens, those were the days.

Why can’t he be BOTH? He said starship enterprise ‘and others’… and TNG is way after ENT. So why can’t he be BOTH Daniels?

Also, he said “USS,” and NX-01 wasn’t a USS. :-)

“ I had to go look It up. Lt. Daniels was a background character from two of the TNG moves. Whatever. ”

Incorrect. He was a recurring character from four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise. He’s a time agent from the far future who was involved in the Temporal Cold War.

Garth Beat you to it.

Very underwhelming. The journey was far more interesting than the destination, although inside the portal looked really cool. The payoff lacked imagination, and didn’t warrant revisiting the material… so yeah I was disappointed… But the conclusion of what to do with the tech.. how they unlocked it. how they found someone ‘worthy’.. it just makes the mystery of the rest of the season fall apart. So as a season finale.. it’s a fail. Even worse is the series finale coda.

Pretty much exactly my thoughts (not for the first time, @heyberto seems to share my taste in Trek).

First off, on the epilogue — look, I didn’t *hate* it, but I found it…”superfluous” is the best word, I guess. The final beach wedding scene would have worked as a series finale just as well. I don’t see the point in revealing that Michael and Book had a son. The New Kwejian scenes looked gorgeous, but we’d seen Kwejian before; that wasn’t enough. Two minutes of hugging was *not* what we needed, and typically for the show, all the other characters were shunted aside. I also struggled to understand just why Starfleet was taking Discovery to meet Craft and how this was supposed to culminate in “Calypso.” Leaving it as Zora’s dream, as this season’s early episodes implied, would have sufficed.

The epilogue was So. Very. Discovery, in short.

As for the main act: lookit, it’s not terribly surprising that the takeaway was “the journey is more important than the treasure”; that’s almost par for the course in quest stories. Think back to “Sword of Kahless” or even “The Chase” itself, or any of the Indiana Jones movies (especially Raiders, Dial, and above all Crusade). Still, I think we needed a bit more ooph here beyond “humanity isn’t ready for this,” because it needed to be something “The Chase” was not. I would have been more impressed with the theories circulating that Discovery’s *were* the progenitors, a la PLANET OF THE TITANS. (Had they known this was to be a series finale, in fairness, perhaps they might have gone there.)

I somewhat enjoyed the revelation that the Progenitors didn’t create the technology, but I’m still left puzzled as to what, exactly, this great technology was and why it was so potentially galaxy-changing. The visuals were impressive, yes, but we’ve seen long-range, Stargate-style teleportation before: the Iconians, that Delta Quadrant tech that showed up in season one of PICARD, “All Our Yesterdays,” etc.

They spent too long dwelling on the Burnham-Moll fight scenes. One would have been enough.

I wanted to love this finale, because in the second half of the season, I actually found Discovery to be worthwhile — a word that, on the whole, I wouldn’t have applied to the series before. Moll turned out to be more than yet another courier. But they just didn’t *quite* stick the landing.

I should add that I binge-watched the last five episodes because I was out of the country and couldn’t get my VPN to work with P+. That may have favorably colored my impression of them; indeed, I suspect that a lot of NuTrek may improve with binge-watching.

of course it will because they are just too-long films. Not episodic television.

Agreed. I lot of what you said are my thoughts as well, as usual.. just stated much better. lol. I think the issue of payoff is a problem for me, not because It’s just a simple idea.. it’s that it’s not anything more than what we could come up with. Looking back, they should have not used the McGuffin of this story by getting it from a past Trek episode. If the goal is to simply tell this ‘kind’ of story, then just do that. I rewatched the Chase before this season, and I remember how I had no idea where they were going, and thinking ‘wow.. what a clever idea’. Granted it was over 30 years ago when I saw it, and I’m probably more cynical now, but I don’t think that’s it. They really needed to elevate the payoff, if they’re going to resurrect it. As you said, we’re in no different place after the episode ends, than when we were at the end of The Chase. Another case where the writer’s room just gets enamored with ideas from Trek’s past, without having a clear story to tell. The fact that they did it better in 9 out of 10 episodes this season than they have in the past is a pale consolation, now that we’re at the end. Just my take, though.

I have to say I was surprisingly satisfied with it all. The Chase had a baaad premise IMHO. Discovery corrects it by bringing mystery back to the origins of sentient life. So that “underwhelmingness” was a real, real plus to me. It´s a good resolution, with classic quest and classic Trek tropes (Michael is offered God status and turns it down).

The Daniels bit didn’t quite work for me (for a moment I thought it would be ole positronic Jean-Luc in a different golem), as didn´t the Calypso thing… but i did enjoy old Michael to my surprise, it was a good end point for her continuosly-restless-and-often-annoying-self and I found myself thinking I´ll miss her (and for a second there I thought Leto was getting the Enterprise-M or something).

Season 1 was the best for me, with 2 and 5 as close seconds. I reallly did enjoy the finale.

See, I think the Chase is fine for an isolated episode. Season 5 did a really great job of sustaining interest, and keeping up a good pace that made it feel like a light hearted romp, but with some significant consequences that felt plausible for this universe. Sadly, (and I was worried about this), the conclusion was just not fulfillable, and that’s the problem for me with the season ending. I think I could have come up with something more interesting, at the very least. It felt very formulaic, and predictable in addition to being underwhelming. I would have liked to have an ending with more stakes. I really thought Culber was going to move on to do something with it that was bigger. As for the finale Coda, it just did things it didn’t need to do. I’m with you on the Daniels thing. I think that wasn’t a bad tie-in at all, but I also thought if they had slow played that a little more after the character’s introduction, it might’ve landed better. I don’t know. I loved the Burnham/Book/Leto stuff. There was so much that wasn’t explained about taking Disco out there, to retrofitting it back to it’s original configuration, etc… Should’ve have kept the send off isolated to saying goodbye to the characters, IMO. None of this is intended to shoot down your opinion of the finale. I’m stoked it worked for you. Wish it did for me, because it was a really enjoyable season.

A good question is why waste time, effort & resources making the ship look like it’s former self? Obviously so it could tie in with that Short Trek. But man… Makes zero sense like a lot of what went down on this show.

My entire point exactly, well said. I think the original idea for what Chabon was doing with that episode got abandoned when he left the show, so they should have abandoned the tie in.

I thought this was an absolute mess.

To have the entire Progenitor story basically amount to a “well no one can be responsible with this, so let’s blow it up” plot, meant all of the running around this season amounted to a waste.

And tacking on “Calypso” because … they “had to” was stupidity on top of stupidity.

Also, for all the people who complained about “memberberries” with Picard , this entire season was memberberries but done in an awful, hacky way. The “Daniels/Kovitch” reveal both felt unnecessary (“why can’t Kovitch just be Kovitch and you reveal something interesting about Kovitch as a character?) and had elements that made no absolute sense to me (e.g., no way do I believe he would have Sisko’s baseball, there’s no way the Bajorans would ever let a “holy relic” from the Emissary sit at Starfleet HQ instead of having it on Bajor).

In Star Trek Online, the baseball is STILL on his desk at DS9, so technically, the Bajorans don’t think of it as THAT holy.

It has been hundreds of years since DS9. In that time, Sisko might have returned from the Prophets and given the baseball Daniels.

Yeah there was a ton of memberberries this season…so it shouldn’t t a shock why so many people loved it lol.

I say it again and again people complain about fan service and yet every time it’s presented the fanbase goes nuts over it.

The producers are just trying to give the fans what they want because it seems to work. Hence why Picard season 3 and SNW were partly so popular.

same thing happened in bond film ‘for your eyes only’ where after all the fighting, killing and chasing, bond destroys the McGuffin to stop falling into anyone’s hands.

I couldn’t agree more. I think the creatives behind this series wanted more to blow it all up, do it their way and comment on every contemporary social dilemma, than create great television and great Trek. The continual plot changes, character additions and deletions and never-ending changes in direction, made this a mess from episode 1. In contrast SNW’s is both classic and contemporary Trek rolled into one neat and tidy package. I sincerely hope the producers of Academy take a good long and hard look at this quagmire and learn what NOT to do. Trek can’t take too many more duds. They have gold sitting there on the table with “Legacy” – if that’s what it’s to be named) and the ongoing SNW iteration. Lets not pretend this was anything more than what many describe it as.

I still firmly believe Legacy is coming in some form…but it will take time.

95% of the episode was awesome, really a great finale but I just don’t get the “Calypso” bit at the very end. It hardly makes any sense to me: erasing the “A” from the hull, downgrading the ship and dumping it somewhere… none of that made any sense for me, other than re-canonizing “Calypso” which had already been written off by most fans as non-canonical. No explanation given for any of that. Even if it’s a secret “red directive”, why then are they given a public send-off by the entire fleet???

It would have been so easy to write that off, and just give Discovery (the show) whatever finale would have been most satisfying. It’s an odd choice for a show that had abandoned the visual aspects of Trek’s canon from it’s very first episode.

I was on that page, too. Found it odd they went out of their way to change the ship back when originally they seemed to go out of their way to abandon anything that even evoked the feel of the era they were in. Just another thing where it feels like they want to supplant the old stuff with their own stuff.

“ which had already been written off by most fans as non-canonical ”

Fans don’t decide what is or isn’t canon, though. It was never non-canonical since it happened onscreen.

I preferred the theory that Discovery got duplicated during the jump to the future personally.

I like it too. There are a million explanations that would have worked better than what they did in this finale.

Yeah, this is where I’m getting hung up too. The episode was, to me, perfect until that moment. I thought the epilogue was supposed to bring it all together, not finish it all off with deep confusion. People keep saying the epilogue “set up” Calypso, but it literally didn’t. It introduced more questions, and if those questions don’t have answers, then it isn’t a mystery – it’s a lie.

I know I’ve been ragging on Disco lately, but that was a very good finale. Sure, Moll was a dull character from start to finish, and sure, SMG ramped up her whisper-acting to an annoying level (I will not miss Michael Burnham at all). But there was a lot to enjoy about this finale, and the two hours flew by before I’d even realized it. The Progenitor world was gorgeously shot, the scenes with the Progenitor were wonderful, and the Kovich/Daniels bombshell was far more satisfying than any theories I’d come up with. Just amazing. Also, I really got a kick out of seeing the ending set up Calypso. Despite my problems with this season (and they are legion), I do have to hand it to the writers for ending it well. The final puzzle was something a 10-year-old would have worked out in five seconds, so I wish the writers had come up with something more clever and non-obvious. Still, that’s a minor quibble, given how much I enjoyed the rest of it. To my surprise, it even made me look forward to Starfleet Academy, as I’m hoping the characters who were horribly short-changed this season (Stamets, Detmer, Owosekun, and Reno) might show up there with more to do. Plus, I’m relieved they didn’t decide to bring Gray Tal back for that hug-fest scene, because Gray never worked as a character. All in all, I’d give this one nine stars out of ten, and I’d rank it among the show’s best.

The big reveal has been a matter of speculation for quite some time so it was more of an, “Ah, OK” moment than a “Holy moly! Never saw that coming!” moment. For those entirely unfamiliar with the history behind that revelation, it won’t carry much weight.

As for the epilogue, it was an unnecessary choice, much like another, unrelated major franchise. That final scene would have been far more effective had it taken place within a year of the resolution of this seasons’ storyline, the other elements could have been left open to explore in the future.

I have never seen even a single person guess Kovich was Daniels.

My first thought was, GOOD ONE! “I never thought of that”.

It made the most sense, really.

Actually I saw a review of the finale on YouTube and they showed a post from Reddit that guessed Kovich was probably Daniels from 3 years ago. So someone certainly guessed right lol.

But yeah I’m guessing the overwhelming majority never thought he would be Daniels, certainly not me. I never thought he would be a legacy character at all, just someone part of a bigger organization Section 31 which many theorized. So it was a great reveal IMO.

I wonder if Discovery had continued we’d have seen a more extended Daniels reveal that brought in elements of the Temporal Cold War. It might seem less impactful simply because they ended up cutting straight to the reveal.

Give us a Daniels/Temporal War streaming movie! 😊

Not around here, no. Elsewhere, yes. We’re going back to season 3 on that one.

Also, they stupidly stated that Tilly was “the longest serving instructor in Academy history,” meaning they can’t place the character in jeopardy in ACADEMY.

And seriously, in 1000 years of history, no one has ever installed a mentorship program at Starfleet Academy? Even informally?

right – not great to write themselves into a box there. But – writing and plot has never really been the strength of this show

I don’t think putting canonical plot armor on the lead character of your new scifi show is as big a choice as you think. First, time travel/alternate futures, but also, I have never once assumed that Burnham or Sisko or Janeway were not going to make it to the final episodes of their series, yet every time they were put in jeopardy along the way I didn’t scoff at the implausibility. I went along and suspended my disbelief, because that’s what you do when you watch any TV.

That’s true of half the SNW characters and yet I don’t think dramatic tension is reduced.

Have watched it yet (spoilers don’t brother me), but if they tied it back to Calypso doesn’t that indicate the Federation goes to shit again? Wasn’t craft fight against the Fed?

And oddly… the vidraysh name apparently will come back into use.. so basically.. the universe is going to crap again, and Roddenberry’s optimistic future will not persevere…. again.

Yep. Federation will be at war.

Exactly my question. I supposed there are ways to square that particular circle (maybe Craft was in stasis and didn’t realize Covid^H^H^H The Burn was over), but the question is: why? What’s the point?

I’m fairly confident that in reality Calypso was based on an early draft of the ideas for the season 3 jump and that Craft was in fact a version of what became Book. But still, it was nice to find a way to acknowledge and incorporate that story, even with the possible holes.

I loved this episode. The final moments really threw me off though. Why was the ship reverted to its 23rd century appearance? Why was it abandoned? Why are they waiting for Craft, who merely shows up and leaves in 1,000 years? For me, the episode was perfect until the very end, and that ending so far is extremely distracting to me. I feel like I had to have missed something.

You didn’t miss anything. All of your questions are left to the imagination…or maybe to future Trek writers…

Clear writing and logical plot threads have never been a strength of Discovery. In this case it seems like they were doing their best to resolve a gaping plot hole that was created with the Short Trek about future Discovery abandoned in a nebula or whatever it was.

All of this is sadly very true. ;)

Yeah all of it is just a huge big question mark. Funny it was meant to tie in to Calypso to give us some answers but instead it just gave us even more questions lol.

But it is what it is I guess.

I got up early to view it. For what was supposed to be a season finale, and they morphed it into a series finale? It’s as close to a miracle as DSC will get. My nitpick issues with DSC won’t go away, so I won’t go into them here. I want to offer a few thoughts on S5. Firstly, I think DSC’s cancellation was planned at the end of season 4. I guess Par+ only agreed to make S5 with a lot of budget cuts. Look at Detmer and Owoshekun disappearing halfway through the season. They also needed to set up SFA. I hope I’m wrong, but if Tilly is a lead character in this show, it will struggle to succeed. Getting Holly Hunter was brilliant casting. I WILL watch SFA faithfully when it airs. The AR wall saved DSCs behind. Look at Federation HQ. It’s a plain white room. Very little was spent on new sets. I consider Michelle Paradise, the showrunner, the equivalent of Fred Freiberger, who produced season 3 of TOS. She got the job because she’s been described as a “details producer.” They hired her to get these eps in the can and within budgets. IMO, she’s just not that imaginative, and this is evident in some of her story choices. Maal and Laak were totally unnecessary this season as the bad guys. They were used as a lazy story idea to compete with the DSC crew for the coveted tech. The Breen were cool, and all that, but a competition with a Breen Fleet would have moved the plot along. Look at the ending- nothing happened with their characters. For all the DSC haters out there? This show wasn’t meant to cater to TOS or TNG fans. Once I accepted that, I could somewhat enjoy DSC and follow along. My issues were with (some) the writing and acting. DSC succeeded with inclusivity. My gay sibling and I cried together when we saw Culber reconcile with Stamets, and he went to the future with him. The non-binary and trans characters were a welcome addition. It’s a shame they didn’t do much with them, storywise. The lack of strong male characters from s3 onwards (until Rayner) hurt DSC’s storytelling. (Here come all the “butthurt” comments…) DSC brought new fans into the franchise. For a lot of them, DSC is THEIR Star Trek. They will measure past and future shows against that yardstick for comparison. I feel bad for those fans. Finally, a Trek series that marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community could relate to. It was no different for us “nerdy kids” in the ’70s. We read sci-fi books, built models, and played Star Trek in the backyard. I had TWO friends growing up who liked Trek. We were the outcasts. It wasn’t until Star Wars that nerd culture started to take hold. I will rewatch DSC front to back to reevaluate my opinions on it. I AM grateful for DSC. It got Star Trek back on its best home, television. We have SNW, LDS and Prodigy. (with SFA and S31 to come.) Since 2017, we’ve had new Trek episodes to watch weekly. Just like TOS in 1969, DSC now belongs to the fans. I hope they rewatch it and share it with the people they love. If DSC fans nurture their show like we TOS fans have? There are always possibilities…

I consider Michelle Paradise, the showrunner, the equivalent of Fred Freiberger

That’s such a mean, mean thing to say, and wildly unfair. Paradise is an excellent writer who was given a very complex (perhaps convoluted) task when she took up the reins on Disco, and she did a fantastic job elevating it above a mere technical exercise.

The lack of strong male characters from s3 onwards

Dadmiral Vance, Cleveland Booker, and Agent Kovich would like a word. Plus, Culber’s role was really beefed up in seasons 3-5. Even Reese stepped up and became more than a background character in later seasons. Not to mention Saru being the ship’s captain in season 3. In season 4 you have the Tarka/Book plot, which I would describe as extremely male, and even the scientist Hirai played a major role in that season.

I know you anticipated this critique, but there really were lots of strong male characters in later seasons of Disco, they were coming out of its ears there were so many… it’s just that the main cast just wasn’t made up of a supermajority of traditional male archetypes like on previous Trek shows, so it feels like “less” somehow.

People praise Voyager and DS9 for their depictions of woman characters, but both those shows still had like an 80% male cast. DS9 had only 2 women as regulars, and Voyager had only 3.

Disco might seem very female-oriented, but trust me, it really only seems that way. I know that feels like I’m attacking your perception or accusing you of something, but I notice it, too, and have to remind myself sometimes that it’s my beloved older Trek shows that were wildly unbalanced, not Disco, and Disco wasn’t some corrective in the opposite direction, it’s just… actually balanced.

Re Paradise: Mean? Maybe so. Harsh? Yes. She has a (IMHO) dry, sterile form of storytelling. There was no actual coherent flow to this season. They took ideas from the writers’ room and plugged them in to tick a box. She was given the job of cleanup showrunner or backup QB. Her good organizational qualities hurt the passion of the show. A lot of the episode plot points felt contrived. When we compare how heroic Burnham, Georgiou, etc., were and are throughout the series? For myself, there were no male characters I either identified with or was rooting for until Rayner. I was looking for male characters that reminded me of Kirk, Pike, Scotty and the other male costars on TNG, DS9 and the others. For the record, I’m a fan of DSC. I was out there defending it and singing its praises. In S2, we got some of the best Star Trek, period. I stand by my opinion of Paradise as a showrunner, as mean as you think it is.

Wow you are so on the nose with Paradise. I still think she is an awful show runner but this season at least didn’t feel completely tedious with a lot of melodramatic schlock as the last two. But no I won’t miss her either.

She was absolutely the wrong person to leading the writers room, so your criticism is fair. They need sci-fi writers, and too few, if any, on staff. That’s the root of the problem.

For myself, there were no male characters I either identified with or was rooting for until Rayner. 

This post-2015-or-so idea that characters are legitimate only if a viewer can “identify” with them is bizarre.

If I can’t relate to a character, and the story is crap, then why should I watch?

To broaden your horizons. IDIC, and all that.

Yet I watched faithfully—each week. I applauded the strong female characters and DSC’s inclusivity. I didn’t dismiss DSC as crap or not “true” Trek.

I’m not sure I can speak to how being a “details producer” does or doesn’t help the show, but I think at this point it’s safe to say Paradise doesn’t have a ton of range. Problems are continually solved with variations on, “Trust ME! Feelings! It was CONNECTION all along!” She doesn’t have much of a defining stamp beyond that, and didn’t demonstrate a desire or ability to do any episodes that broke outside of a defined box. She peaked with her first season 3 episode IMO.

A “details producer” is usually very organized. Once a script is locked down, the showrunner is responsible for finishing the episodes on time and within the episode budget(s). Being organized is a good thing. As I mentioned, she took a checklist storywise and clicked the boxes. It didn’t matter that the plot points were out of order, didn’t make sense, or pay off at the end of the season. She got the episodes “in the can” on time and within the budget. Moll and Laak made ZERO sense to the plot besides someone to compete with to get the tech. At best, it’s the same retreading of ideas.

I know what a producer and a showrunner does. :) I just meant calling someone a “details producer” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not more than their organizational prowess. It can mean they are good at intricate long term plotting for instance. JMS while running Babylon 5 could be called one, for instance.

From what we’ve seen of her work, I think your assessment is fair, especially as we know she was sweating the detail of “Calypso” for years. She has a vision and overarching direction for the show, but Paradise comes across as a workmanlike producer and writer who has a lane and a certain box of tricks she prefers and sticks to. She brought calm and order to a show previously defined by BTS chaos (and during the pandemic, no less) and no doubt Kurtzman appreciated not having to put out fires while dealing with the headache that was Picard. There’s not much flair to anything but it was competently made and the cast and crew were happy.

I actually really enjoyed this and would have found it a fitting finale even without the additional twenty minute epilogue. Although it was beautiful to see, and, man, Admiral Burnham aged a lot more flatteringly than Admiral Janeway.

I would have preferred Kovich had remained his own character. Some mysteries don’t need explanation.

nice tie in to Calypso though. I need to rewatch that again now.

I’ll miss the show. Despite the vitriol it’s received from so many, I’ve always had a soft spot for it and have enjoyed every season to greater or lesser degrees.

Well Janeway had 25th century aging tech vs Burnham’s 33rd century aging tech. ;D

And I really want to say something about black rarely crack but I guess it’s not appropriate here lol.

I thought we were going to cut away just as he was telling her.

well, that was a waste of everyone time

Not in the least.

I thought it was an absolute mess.

It wasn’t a waste of my time.

So long DISCO! Wow what a ride it has been. THANK YOU to all that had a hand in it’s creation over the years. TREK has never looked better, or had loftier goals. Thanks for the inclusiveness…I will always ship CulMets! AND, root for Adira! :-) Now, time for a start to finish DISCO rewatch. Without DISCO there wouldn’t be a SNW or Lower Decks or all the TREK that WILL follow. If you are ready….LET’S FLY!

100% agree on all of it :)

So happy you enjoyed it! :)

Without DISCO there wouldn’t be a SNW or Lower Decks 

I’m not sure that’s quite the talking point you think it is.

Well, it was a little better than the TOS “finale” but wasn’t as satisfying as the TNG era finales.

Sorry, but the whole Progenitor reveal was a major letdown for me. A lot of stuff to look at, but nothing really happening. Also, the forced tie-in to Calypso at the end made no sense at all. Was it Kovich/Agent Daniels who told Michael about it off camera? Seemed unnecessary.

I’m happy others liked it, but I never connected with the 32nd century version of the show. I watched and I tried to connect with it. It just never happened.

Seasons 1 and 2 will always be my preferred version Discovery.

Hard disagree. Nothing could be as dissatisfying and Voyager’s disastrous finale. Or, shudder, Enterprise.

At least the Voyager and Enterprise finales had an actual story to follow with characters I cared about. I enjoyed them more than what Discovery delivered in its finale. But again, glad you enjoyed it. I didn’t.

I’ve always liked Endgame but could’ve been stronger for sure. I always felt what was missing from it was its own epilogue. Yeah no comment on TATV lol. But I think most people feel Demons/Terra Prime is really that show’s true finale since TATV was Riker literally just in a holodeck reminiscing.

Sorry, but the whole Progenitor reveal was a major letdown for me. A lot of stuff to look at, but nothing really happening.

Exactly. This is what happens when you let the special effects, including that virtual reality wall, supplant solid writing.

I never connected with the 32nd century version of the show.

Agreed; I would have been content had they wrapped Discovery after season 2.

A pretty cool episode right up until the great reveal (even then it could’ve done without several minutes of Burnham-Fu that went absolutely nowhere), but everything after was oh so formulaic and therefore rather disappointing. Okay, at least the notion of “we don’t really NEED that super-powerful technology” added a tiny bit to the old “too powerful for any faction to own”-trope and yet it was that stale trope that drove Michael’s final decision… yeah and the rest was mostly nice, but really just padding. The Kovich-reveal? – Yeah, good old Daniels, so what? – Didn’t really tie into ENT’s Temporal Cold War-arc. Saru finally getting married? – Cute, but it would’ve been a real bummer if he wasn’t. Michael and Book getting back together? – So very predictable. And the epilogue? – Boy did they go to lengths only so a single Short Treks episode would finally make more sense. But at least we got to see Owo, Detmer and Bryce one last time.

So another site is reporting Saru was also promoted to Admiral? Did anyone hear this?

Apparently Admiral Vance calls Saru Admiral at the wedding.

It’s not mentioned in dialogue, but Burnham and Book’s son’s name is Leto.

It is mentioned. When I heard it, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard correctly (really, “Leto?” like from Dune?), but I did hear it.

Leto was thr name of Book’s nephew that was killed in S4.

Leto was Book nephew, tht died in the desctruction of the planet.

One last time. The shows problems have remained problems even after their move to the future. Bad writing and poor characters. The final few seasons relied heavily on the audience caring about the characters. Since I never really cared about any of them that just opened the door to the terrible writing and plotting. This season was pretty predictable all the way. The only thing I really didn’t see coming was Moll just believing Burnham when she told her resurrection wasn’t possible. Although Moll was pretty gullible thinking it was. Obviously it wasn’t. When Burnham told her Moll had bought into the idea so hard that there was no way she should have bought it. She gave up way too easily.

That tagged on coda really didn’t work either. Everyone showed up like the end of Titanic. I’m thinking “did everyone die?” That felt weird. And I guess they wanted to make that Sort Trek relevant but I honestly didn’t see the need to slavishly adhere to it. Still makes no sense, however.

Anyway, it’s unfortunate the Academy show remains in that time frame. All these shows made by Secret Hideout have built in uphill battles but I saw no reason to create more speed bumps by remaining in the 32nd century. Well, it is what it is. That’s one way to satisfy the fans who like Star Trek Discovery. Leaves it open for every actor to show up. And we all know they will.

It didn’t sound like you liked the ending at all but I can’t disagree with some of your issues. I am actually surprised they didn’t resurrect Lak by the end. This is Star Trek, it’s literally a given lol but nice to subvert expectations once in awhile. But overall I did really enjoy it although I was very mixed on the season as a whole.

But I know your thoughts on all the modern shows and they are not very positive lol. But maybe the Academy show will surprise you and others. If not, you will always have ENT, TOS and DS9 to watch.

I have TOS, Enterprise and the feature films on disc. If DS9 ever gets remastered I’ll pick that up. Until then those are the episodes and films I check in on from time to time for my Trek fix.

I did like Prodigy’s first half, however. Hoping their 2nd season can get back to that level.

Well, that’s done, then.

I truly loved the finale overall. Yeah, there were certainly questionable and unnecessary things in it to say the least but overall it worked for me. I just loved how Trek-y it all felt. I loved how everything looked inside the portal and we met a progenitor (I was hoping among hope we met the original from TNG but yes I know the actress is now 90) to ultimately deciding it was just too powerful to use and so they got rid of it. Yeah I think most people thought they would either destroy it or put it somewhere that no one could access it but it was a very Trek conclusion.

And the visuals and FX were very impressive and beautiful throughout the episode. It felt like a movie and very cinematic. All the money was on the screen for sure.

The best moment for me was when Kovich revealed he was Agent Daniels. That literally got a huge GASP out of me lol. I was truly surprised but a very welcomed one. It was a great twist in so many ways, mostly because we always knew he was involved with the Temporal Wars. I literally went back and watched a ton of Daniels clips on Youtube lol. It really makes you look at Kovich time on the show very differently now.

I thought Saru and T’rina’s wedding was a nice way to end the episode which was obviously the true ending of the episode. We saw it all coming but it was still nicely done.

And I loved the epilogue so much. It was sweet and very endearing. It was nice to see Michael and Book decades into the future happy with a family. And while the tie in to Calypso felt a bit clunky (and raises SO many questions lol) I still liked it as the final scene. It is a little sad Zora is basically out there just waiting for Craft until the 43rd century but I liked the existential feel to it.

While the season has been VERY mixed for me to say the least I thought it ended well enough and sadly the first finale I can truly say I loved on this show lol. I didn’t hate season’s four finale but I was so checked out on the show by then I just didn’t care by then. It’s certainly not All Good Things level but I will say it is better than Endgame and certainly better than TATV lol. But I give the finale an 8/10.

There are certainly things I didn’t like and had issues with which I will certainly talk about but I wanted to leave my overall thoughts on a more positive note. I have given Discovery a very hard time over the last five seasons, most of it well deserved in my book lol. But I have ALWAYS rooted for the show every season and maybe in time my feelings will change on a lot of it. It’s just a very hard show for me to love for sooooo many reasons and still remains my least favorite show in the franchise. But I can also say this was the best season for me by far and I hope everyone who has loved it from the beginning loved it just as much in the end.

Well now that it’s over with, it’s time to leave the 32nd century (for a little while at least ;)) and travel back to the 24th century. The only question is will it be LDS, PRO or Section 31 next? Whatever comes next, I’m excited for it!

Ok now that was awesome. It definitely was a fitting series finale, even if it wasn’t supposed to be originally! I also loved the epilogue, I almost cried as I knew this was the end for these characters. Let’s just hope Starfleet Academy lasts long enough for some of them to return.

Have to admit that while I found plenty to gripe about with regard to the resolution and outcome of the story, the journey and tone of the entire season (and especially the finale) felt pitch perfect Star Trek. Creative and contemplative with excellent character building through sharp writing. This season, more than any other Discovery season, has felt the most embedded in the franchise, I really felt at home and I loved spending every minute with this show. The tedium of recent seasons was gone and enjoyed every moment with this crew and setting. The real standout this season has been Michael Burnham, and that really is the true achievement of the season, she became a confident leader that I believed in and respected for the first time. This really is SMJ grand finale which is the perfect way to end the show.

I will admit to being a little confused by the Daniels revelation, mostly because Kovich didn’t resemble the Daniels I think of at all. I know it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, but the Calypso finale was such a beautiful way to end the story of Discovery. Not only does it give us some finality to the ship, but it also gives a chance to see the ship restored to bookend the show. It’s still insane that Starfleet would abandon its only Spore Drive ship, especially since it’s impossible to classify this thing at this point so people are going to be looking for it. But the Red Directive gives us plenty of head canon to work with to cover those gaps, I suppose.

Either way, I’m extremely happy with the finale and thankful for a season I truly enjoyed…for once! Bravo and farewell! Thanks for giving this TNG+ fan an unexpected gift!

I really enjoyed the finale and this was certainly Discovery’s strongest season since season 2. Loved how it tied into Calypso and the Kovich/Daniels reveal was great.

I would agree as well. This is certainly the strongest season since season 2 and it’s probably a tie for me between them.

I got emotional. I will be watching that again. They did a good job.

So did I man…so did I.

Usually when I’m crying after watching an episode of Discovery it’s for an entirely different reason lol.

LOL True. But this season I was not crying and yelling at the same time!

One of the poorest final episodes I have ever seen.

I have wanted each and every episode to be better, I have tried to justify to others to keep trying to watch this show.

There are great sci-fi stories and adventures but on the whole something keeps missing the spot.

This is the first final I have ever wanted to end and spent time watching the clock.

I felt no emotion to the characters, even though I wanted too and I really wanted a great last episode.

The show ended consistently with how it always was throughout the five seasons: Heavy on loooong, manufactured emotional beats; light on particular details of the plot actually making any sense whatsoever. Heavy on characters wrestling with emotional quandaries the audience has moved well past already; light on organic character development that feels earned. Random thoughts immediately after watching: This episode had about five endings. Quite over-written. I love how we’ve been primed all season for SaT’rinaru’s wedding… and then Burnham and Booker ditch the reception because more space adventures! That’s just cold. Kovich is revealed as “Agent Daniels”… my mouth drops open for 10 seconds… and all I can think to say is… “Who?” Because I haven’t watched most of Enterprise, and what I have seen of that series I’ve forgotten. (Ironically, I did just start watching from the beginning along with the Greatest Generation podcast so I suppose there’s a chance I might finally see the whole show with Archer and co.) I know the writers were going for a deep cut and I suppose this technically qualifies. I’m guessing many Disco watchers had the exact same reaction as me: nonplussed. How does it make sense for there to be TNG and DS9 memorabilia on Kovich’s wall, if he’s a character from Enterprise? For a moment I was thinking they were going to make him out to be Luther Sloane (Section 31, DS9) and as dumb as that would have been, at least I would have known that character. Oh, sure, they tossed in a cryptic line about “other places” so you can head-canon Daniels into the other shows, if you care to try. But sorry, that’s not how nostalgia and callbacks work at all. It was completely shoehorned fake canon stuffed into a deep cut reference. That really clanged. Speaking of shoehorned—I had thought the writers had given up on resolving the Calypso conundrum. Turns out, they should have left it alone. Completely whiffed on tying things up in a way that made sense. Stripping “A” off the paint job and flying it to the middle of nowhere secretly because something something Red Directive? That’s not an explanation. That’s the writers throwing their hands in the air and going, “I got nothin’.” I did speculate this is exactly how it would play out, though. So, no surprise here. What really matters is, Burnham was teary-eyed for a good, long while, feeling her feelings! They sure used the heck out of every square inch of the AR wall. I didn’t believe any of those locations were actual, real, physical places. But that’s become the norm in modern TV. The contemporary equivalent of TOS-style purple skies and painted cardboard rocks on every planet. Not the worst sin, just not nearly as effective as the VFX-obsessed producers probably believe it is. (See most of Andor for an example of how to make sci-fi locations look dense, interesting, and realistic.) Kinda bold move not to bring L’ak back in the episode, I suppose. I expected they would go for the easy, happy ending. They did leave the door open for Moll to find some miracle way to return him in the future, of course. Sadly, I just feel nothing for either of those characters. I’m already forgetting about them. Tilly’s going to be in the Academy show. We get it. We get it. (sigh) I couldn’t help myself, I had to laugh out loud at the nonstop camera shakes and spinning. It’s always been too much. But they cranked it to eleven for the finale. Really felt like a parody, but it was done in earnest. I got dizzy and disoriented, and not in a way that enhanced my enjoyment of the show. I literally said out loud, “stop moving the camera for no good reason!” Lock it down and let these people act, for crying out loud. Speaking of crying, the final final final end scene had me going, “yeah, I don’t really feel anything when it comes to saying goodbye to at least half of these characters, because we don’t know them.” Sad that in five seasons the writers couldn’t give any meaningful characterization to most of the bridge crew. I hope the actors get good residual paychecks or something, because they will get zero career benefits from appearing as a glorified background actor. A few of those people weren’t even in this season, right? But they show up at the end to hug and cry and say goodbye. I do remember there was a scene where that Saurian sneezed a lot of snot on Burnham one time. I think that’s about it, though. Farewell, Disco. You went out the same way you came in. Trying way too hard, yet not hard enough, completely unaware of how awkward you really …  Read more »

I loved some things about this episode and hated others, which is how  Discovery  usually stacks up for me. :-) Exploring the galaxy with Starfleet never gets old, and the Starfleet mandate to not only explore but also to help allied planets in trouble, to protect everyone the Prime Directive allows, and to just generally make the galaxy a better place never gets old for me.

I do wish that we hadn’t had a REALLY extensive fistfight between Burnham and Moll during the middle of the episode, though. We’re trying to bring a person back to life, to keep the Breen from destroying everything, and to discover how life was created, and it all comes down to a FISTFIGHT? Seriously? I know Kirk had to have a fistfight in nearly every episode because NBC demanded “action,” but  Discovery  is on a streaming service … is a fistfight really still necessary? I mean, the backgrounds during the fight were gorgeous, but that just made the whole idea of a fistfight seem even more incongruous to me.

I hate, hate hate Olatunde Osunsanmi’s direction. EVERY time he directs an episode, his direction calls attention to itself, as if the director can’t resist saying, “Look at me; look at meeeee!” The constant camera spinning feels weird and juvenile to me; the direction is supposed to SUPPORT the story, not get in the way of it.

While I agreed with Burnham’s decision to let the Progenitors’ tech fall into the black hole, I thought that spending 30 seconds on that decision vs. twenty minutes on Admiral Burnham and her son and the setup to  Calypso  was a rather imbalanced placement of priorities. I would have liked to have seen Burnham talk aloud about the GOOD that Progenitors’ tech might have enabled her to do and to balance that against the possible negative consequences, whereas she only talked about building an army.

Good bye,  Discovery!  Thank you for bringing us  Strange New Worlds  and  Lower Decks  and  Prodigy .

“I hate, hate hate Olatunde Osunsanmi’s direction. EVERY time he directs an episode, his direction calls attention to itself … the direction is supposed to SUPPORT the story, not get in the way of it.”

I’m not a fan of his directing either. His signature move gets used far too much.

Plus, even from the start it was obvious that the Maguffin would either be fake or destroyed. No way can that sort of power be lying around for just anyone to grab. Even for the awful writing crews at Secret Hideout.

By and large a great episode.. the ending was great.. EXCEPT the contrived ending that made no sense from an in-show perspective. Having them redo the ship back to her original look and parking her in a nebula is a great idea for fans who just MUST have a connection to “Calypso”, but in-universe, from the characters perspective, the best they could do to make it make sense is ‘a red directive’. It literally makes no sense that this ship gets parked in a nebula after being remade to look like she originally did, and not at the fleet museum, if you’re looking at it from in-universe, in-show, at that moment perspective and NOT from a fan who is hung up on the show connecting to a 15-minute short from six years ago. And it took me right out of the moment.

It would have made far more sense to have her restored to her original configuration for the Fleet Museum and putting her there in the series finale so that fans that simply MUST have that connection to “Calypso” can use their imagination to say that some time after the show the ship must get stolen, pulled out of mothballs, or whatever.

Oh, and what a crappy thing to do to Zora, to deliberately leave her aboard an abandoned ship for a thousand years by herself. I guess there are no AI rights in the 32nd century.

I’m going to try to rewatch.. but I go back to.. what is the why? There was a mention of Craft.. but the only thing I could figure was to go back to season 2 when Discovery protected itself.. so they couldn’t destroy it.. had to abandon it.. so it was there to protect the sphere data?.. maybe?

What’s more secure – the Fleet Museum, or some random place in a nebula by itself where nobody’s watching it and anyone could stumble upon it? Okay granted, the ‘red directive’ mentioning Craft indicates someone – Kovich/Daniels – knows it won’t be for a thousand years… and now Kovich/Daniels has taken on the role of a god who can control history and the fates of people and or worlds and or civilizations with his omniscience. A bit much.

My headcanon retcon: Discovery is also going back in time to 2258 and hiding, not just in a nebula, but in time… That’s why it’s disguised into its older form.

Okay – I’ll confess – I teared up a bit when the camera panned over some of that Trek memorabilia in Kovaks office

For all my railin against this episode.. that was cool. Not emotional for me, because this show has lost me to the point that not even those artifacts are enough to get me emotional.

I understand – I’m older than Kovak so anything that creatively integrates TOS and TNG hits me – lol

I thought it was weird he would have them. And Burnham wouldn’t have known what any of them were anyway.

That’s ok.. it was really just for us. I would’ve liked to have seen a bigger array of stuff.. Enterprise, TOS.. I just recall seeing TNG and DS9 stuff.

Oh, what an adventure. My thanks to the cast and crew of Star Trek: Discovery for a five-season voyage.

At the end of the day I’m glad Picard and Discovery had a beginning, middle, and end. Despite the fact sine may not consider it perfect, Star Trek, canon. I’m glad it was able to wrap up.

The final season was a lack luster excise of a Holy Grail quest. Agent Daniels reveal…I just didn’t care.

So basically, the whole season was reset to zero after chasing their tail. A lot like every Doctor Who story: everyone runs around concerned about universe ending consequences… and then nothing happens.

That’s not fair. Sometimes in Doctor Who the universe did actually end. Or at least part of it got wiped out.

Until it’s not. Gallifrey’s destroyed. Oh look it wasn’t after all! … etc.

I think the ending highlights that they had a great concept but watered it down concerning having a 23rd century starship crew end up in the future after something catastrophic had destroyed the Federation and having them having to completely rebuild it. You’d be back to starships being powerful capital ships in the middle of nowhere, no back up, the need to colonize and connect with alien races, threats being extremely dangerous, space the final frontier. The stakes would even be higher. In Balance of Terror the Captain had to make decisions on behalf of the Federation due to communication times, they could have had it where Michael was making decisions because she was all that was left of the Federation. Also a nice theme about the 23rd century frontier can-do boldly go spirit persevering, that today’s humanity still has a place in the 35th. You’d get to reboot Star Trek without having to reboot Star Trek! I think Discovery would have been much stronger had they gone all in vs. a watered down burn, the Federation isn’t destroyed or perverted, it’s just in hiding, the Burn is just a childs temper tantrum, etc. Ironically… I guess this means even this version of the Federation falls and only an old Discovery for some reason can save the day? What? Why? What happens? I actually want to watch that show, as long as they show and not just tell.

I think the ending highlights that they had a great concept but watered it down concerning having a 23rd century starship crew end up in the future after something catastrophic had destroyed the Federation (temporal war and all) and having them having to completely rebuild it. Outside that I think Discovery was a better show pre time jump. You’d be back to starships being powerful capital ships in the middle of nowhere, no back up, the need to colonize and connect with alien races, threats being extremely dangerous, space the final frontier. The stakes would even be higher. In Balance of Terror the Captain had to make decisions on behalf of the Federation due to communication times, they could have had it where Michael was making decisions because she was all that was left of the Federation. Also a nice theme about the 23rd century frontier can-do boldly go spirit persevering, that today’s humanity still has a place in the 35th. You’d get to reboot Star Trek without having to reboot Star Trek! I think Discovery would have been much stronger had they gone all in vs. a watered down burn, the Federation isn’t destroyed, it’s just in hiding, the Burn is just a tantrum, etc. There are still hundreds of Starships after all. Ironically… I guess this means even this version of the Federation falls and only an old Discovery for some reason can save the day? What? Why? What happens? I actually want to watch that show, as long as they show and not just tell.

It’s been a long road.

To me the final scene was a way to reintroduce the original discovery to the universe and delete the red directive on the time jump. Now they can say “oh look we found this long lost ship finally” Yeah it’s a stupid head canon but it could work.

I can’t stop thinking about Zora. Stuck out there, all on her own, for a thousand years.

Did Michael destroy/kill a Progenitor along with the tech?

Did this ending essentially rip off the ending of BSG?

The tech wasn’t destroyed, just moves inside the event horizon.

Thirty seconds of dialog by Kovich could have explained the Calypso situation. He could have said how remarkable Discovery was to history… and when it time jumped, a copy of the ship opened up a new alternate universe. One where they abandoned ship and history in that universe split. It would have tied his comments about the mirror and Kelvin universe he made earlier in the series to the Calypao short…. Plot hole solved … it also would have opened up future Trek storylines as Kovich leads research into this other universe…. Sigh ….

Umm who activated the spore drive at the end?

Burnham and a crew were aboard the Discovery as it departed. After travel to coordinates in deep space, Burnham and crew abandoned ship.

I thought the finale was very good, not great, but as others have said it felt very much like Star Trek. I am not sure what they ended up filming post production, but I assume it was much of the epilogue with Booker and Burnham and their son along with the final scene on board Discovery. Both scenes were filled with hope for the future (even if Zora has to wait for the 42nd century) and that is very Star Trek.

Regarding Agent Daniels, USS Enterprise – nice touch and connection with the much maligned Enterprise. Let’s hope we get to see what really happened to Archer and the rest of his crew sometime in the future (I choose to ignore that series finale as something that didn’t happen haha)

From a ranking standpoint, I would give this finale a solid 7.5 out of 10. Far better than the Enterprise and TOS finales which were simply terrible, but behind TNG and DS9. Maybe it slots in just behind Voyager’s Endgame.

As for legacy, yeah like many I hated the first half of S1 and the show did its best to slowly battle back from a terrible debut, with varying levels of success and failure. In retrospect I must admit Discovery did take some big chances, once again with varying levels of success and failure.

Ultimately, although alienating many legacy fans, Discovery was in many ways ground-breaking, in the last three seasons embracing IDIC more than any other series and targeting new demographics. The show did manage to attract an expanded audience as evidenced by the rather surprising ratings numbers – at least for S5. The show also helped spawn Short Treks, SNW, Picard, LDs and Prodigy and the upcoming S31 and SFA – and that is a worthy legacy by itself. Congrats to the cast and crew of Discovery.

Btw, even though it had just 5 seasons, the show did last 7 years (2018-2024). Let’s hope SNW will exceed that run. LLAP!

I will admit I found the “coda” a bit off-putting. All that to make Calypso canonical? But looking at it, I’m seeing more a bit of them using Calypso for the coda, not the other way around. But there was something else: The only people we really saw were Burnham and Book, and mentions of Tilly and Vance (still on duty? That’s a long time.) Everyone else was in Michael’s vision. Did they really have to do that? She said she had a crew, but there was no one else on the bridge. They had all the actors there- couldn’t the bridge doors have opened and they all would have come out, a little aged? (For that matter, why wouldn’t Book come along?) For all the criticisms that this was the Burnham show, that really sealed it.

Burnham’s Pointless Fisticuffs: Apparently, twenty minutes of gratuitous fighting is the best use of our protagonist’s time before she remembers that talking might be a more effective strategy.

Rayner and Nhan’s Non-Roles: Characters so crucial to the story that they could have been completely omitted without anyone noticing.

Culber’s Magical Connection: Culber’s metaphysical link to Jinaal conveniently giving him the knowledge of subspace frequencies. Because that’s how pseudoscience works, right?

Puzzle in Two Dimensions: Introducing the concept of extradimensional thinking only to present a mundane two-dimensional puzzle.

The Great Anti-Climax: Burnham’s profound encounter with ancient technology boils down to learning absolutely nothing new or exciting.

Unnecessary Epilogue: Adding a continuity fix for a short episode that no one really needed, because tying up loose ends from a Short Trek story is clearly a top priority in a series that utterly wrecked canon anyway.

Spore Drive Nonsense: The already ridiculous spore drive is taken to new heights with impossible feats of magic tech, defying all known laws of science and common sense.

Glad this series is over. Don’t know how anyone ever liked it, but if you did, sorry you’re losing a show you liked. But for me – don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Discovery!

I mostly agree with all points. Except that I think Rayner offer a lot to the season and that the climax was an anti-climax. Keeping the mystery was better drama, and better sci fi. It worked story-wise because Michael overcomes her God complex and makes a wise and reasoned choice that reflects the personal growth that she’s experienced in rumor with no evidence to support the rumor until this moment.

Star Trek finally realizes its potential in its finale. While remaining true to Discovery, the show finally feels like Star Trek. The writers managed to satisfy character arcs while subverting my expectations: Michael gets the opportunity to become a god, and refuses it, overcoming her messiah complex. Stamets doesn’t get his “legacy” but he learns to accept who he is and what he’s been a part of. The epilogue was mostly unnecessary. How fitting that the entire bridge crew would show up and have no dialogue and nothing to do.

And they didn’t even really show up! The actors did and the characters didn’t.

Den of Geek

Discovery Just Brought a Star Trek Enterprise Character to 32nd Century Canon

The Star Trek: Discovery finale reveals that the show has been a pseudo-continuation of the story of an infamous Enterprise character all along!

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers.

Since 2020, Star Trek: Discovery has harbored a strange sci-fi temporal anomaly. Starting with the episode “Die Trying,” in season 3, director David Cronenberg —the mastermind who gave us The Fly and more recently, Crimes of the Future —has appeared semi-regularly as a mysterious figure known only as “Dr. Kovich.” As Discovery’ s latter seasons have gone on, Kovich’s true purpose has become more clear, even if we don’t fully understand why he wears that all-black, somewhat contemporary-looking suit.

While it’s been tempting to say that David Cronenberg has just been playing David Cronenberg this entire time, the Discovery series finale actually fully answers the question of who Kovich really is and his larger role in Star Trek canon. In fact, Cronenberg’s strange character is revealed to be, perhaps, one of the most crucial people in the entire universe.

Kovich Is Actually Agent Daniels From Star Trek: Enterprise!

While Kovich has previously assisted the crew of Discovery with various pieces of information about the multiverse and time travel rules, his role in the recently concluded season 5 was significantly larger. Starting with “Red Directive”, he’s been calling the shots, sending Burnham and the crew on the treasure hunt across the universe to track down clues that lead to the elusive—and life-creating—technology of the ancient aliens known as the Progenitors. 

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Back in season 3, some fans theorized that Kovich was the leader of some future-tense version of Section 31 , which would have explained his interest in Georgiou. Before season 4’s introduction of Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal), there were even some who suggested he was the low-key President of the Federation. But, now, at the end of season 5, we know the truth: Kovich is actually a bit more important than any of those other guessed-at roles. He’s the guy who saved the entire timeline! 

As Burnham chats in Kovich’s office—which sports Geordi’s visor and Sisko’s baseball in places of honor—she playfully asks him to reveal his true name. Because Kovich has come to trust Burnham, he obliges, introducing himself as “Agent Daniels.” If you’re not a hardcore fan of the prequel series Enterprise , this probably meant nothing. But if you are, this was a fairly huge twist.

In the 2001 Enterprise episode “Cold Front,” Daniels (played then by Matt Winston) revealed to Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) that he was really a time-traveling agent from the 31st century, sent back to the 22nd century to prevent a ton of tampering with the timeline. Daniels then popped-up throughout all four seasons of Enterprise , and, in the events of “Storm Front Parts I and II,” Daniels aids the crew of the NX-01 in an alternate 1944, in which an alien species called the Na’kuhl have aided the Nazis with advanced technology. 

Although Archer isn’t thrilled with Daniels often popping in for some temporal shenanigans, in the end, it’s through Daniels’ help that the NX-01 Enterprise succeeds in restoring the timeline. That said, throughout the run of Enterprise , it seems like several tweaks to the timeline were happening, all along, because of the Temporal Cold War. And now, with the revelation that Kovich is Daniels, it seems possible we could all soon be looking at the Trek timeline in an entirely new light.

What Agent Daniel’s Return Could Mean for the Star Trek Timeline

Back in Discovery season 3, in the episode “Terra Firma Part 1,” Kovich broke new ground for the franchise by becoming the first person from the Prime Timeline to mention the existence of the Kelvin Timeline outright. In doing this, the modern TV shows more overtly acknowledged the permeance of a Star Trek multiverse over a single, linear timeline.

The revelation that Kovich is the same character who fought to preserve the 22nd Century in Enterprise could be even more useful for future timeline questions than it might seem at first. Yes, on the surface, this is a nice easter egg that neatly explains Kovich and his job in the 32nd century . But it also makes the entirety of Discovery a little more timey-wimey than ever before. At the end of Discovery season 2, the ship journeys to the future, to save the past, and all of creation from a rogue AI called Control. In season 3, Kovich was very interested in Georgiou’s connection to Control, which could indicate that, maybe, just maybe, Control wasn’t part of the “original” Prime Timeline.

In fact, since First Contact in 1996, it seems possible that the “original” Star Trek timeline has been modified, and tweaked by various temporal incursions, many, many times over. In Enterprise —the first province of Agent Daniels—Zefram Cochrane remembered the Borg, indicating that the “current” timeline is the one in which Picard and the crew helped restore the events of 2063. If Picard and the Enterprise-E crew weren’t part of a predestination paradox, and some version of First Contact occurred in another timeline without their intercession, then that means everything in Enterprise already exists in a separate timeline from all the canon that came before it.

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On top of this, Enterprise season 3 Daniels (Kovich) told Archer that the war with the Xindi and Starfleet in the 22nd century existed only because of temporal incursions. This, too, suggests that Enterprise was creating a slightly divergent timeline all along, one a bit different from whatever existed in TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager, prior to First Contact .

In the 2023 Strange New Worlds season 2 episode, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” there was even more evidence that the Prime Timeline is in flux. Now, Khan no longer rises to power on Earth in the 1990s, but later, in the early 21st century , due to continuing temporal changes. Clearly, whatever happened with the Temporal Wars that we first glimpse in Enterprise is still sending ripples through the entire canon.

By explicitly connecting Kovich to Enterprise though, what Discovery has done is create a kind of comprehensive handwave courtesy of one of the franchise’s foremost time travelers. But whether you choose to believe Daniels reintroduction in the 32nd Century means a lot more temporal shifts have occurred than we know of, revealing Kovich’s true identity was always part of the season 5 plan, as showrunner Michelle Paradise tells Den of Geek .

“Very early on, we knew we were going to have to answer the backstory of this character and who he is and that it had to be worthy of the character himself and the way David plays him,” Paradise says. “A couple of our writers who are very familiar with Star Trek: Enterprise suggested Daniels and the minute they did, all of our heads exploded a little bit because it just felt like that makes sense. We knew, coming into this season, that we wanted to answer that in what, at the time, we thought was the season finale.”

Assuming the Star Trek franchise can coax back Cronenberg for recurring roles on other shows or movies, the universe now has a character who knows more about the various chronologies than anyone else (other than maybe Q) and who can pop in whenever time shenanigans are going on. The great thing that makes Kovich/Daniels unique to Q is that he’s not superpowered or all knowing. He’s simply a guy who’s been around a long time, and some of that longevity is because of time travel.

After all, Kovich is only human. Or, as he told Captain Archer all those years ago, “more or less.”

Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Den of Geek! He is also the author of three non-fiction books: the Star Trek pop history book PHASERS…

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Star trek: discovery finale’s saucer separation was an awesome tng tribute.

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Finale Ending & Shocking Epilogue Explained

Star trek: discovery’s david cronenberg & doctor kovich explained, star trek: discovery’s epilogue had 2 clever callbacks to the series premiere.

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 10, "Life, Itself"

• Star Trek: Discovery's finale pays tribute to TNG with an epic saucer separation.
• Discovery's saucer separation scene honors TNG while adding a unique Discovery twist with the spore drive.
• The USS Discovery survived its series without destruction, unlike the USS Enterprise-D.

Star Trek: Discovery 's series finale included a great tribute to Star Trek: The Next Generation with its saucer separation scene. The series wrapped up its run with an action-packed episode and flash-forward coda that wonderfully paid tribute to Discovery 's cast of characters . Before its heartfelt ending, however, Discovery resolved its season-long conflict with the Breen and the search for the Progenitor's technology by depicting one final fight between the USS Discovery and a Breen Dreadnaught.

During the fight, Discovery performed a saucer separation in order to facilitate the crew's coup de grâce against the Breen. Saucer separation was first introduced in Star Trek: TNG 's pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint," when the crew of the USS Enterprise-D used it in their fight against Q (John de Lancie). Since then, saucer separation has been used sparingly in Star Trek TV shows and movies , but Discovery 's use of it in the finale paid the perfect tribute to TNG first introducing the concept.

Star Trek: Discovery comes to an end with season 5's finale wrapping up the Progenitors treasure hunt and an epilogue concluding the entire series.

USS Discovery’s Saucer Separation Was An Awesome Star Trek: TNG Tribute

Discovery's season finale really did the saucer separation justice.

In a season full of references to TNG , Discovery 's saucer separation was a wonderful final tribute to the show. Discovery 's use of the maneuver mirrored TNG 's first use in terms of stakes and drama and even included a further TNG reference by having Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) be the one in charge during separation , something that echoed Commander William Riker's (Jonathan Frakes) involvement in TNG 's pilot. However, Discovery made saucer separation uniquely its own with its use of the spore drive. The maneuver in the finale was truly epic, much like the first on-screen instance of it in TNG .

Discovery 's saucer separation scene was both a more subtle and bigger tribute to TNG , bringing everything full circle.

Discovery season 5 has included many references to TNG throughout its 10-episode run. The entire premise of the show's final season was based on the episode "The Chase," re-introducing the Progenitors and expanding on their lore in a way that made both shows feel like they had a clear throughline . Additionally, the finale included some further TNG Easter eggs with Geordi La Forge's (LeVar Burton) VISOR and a bottle of Château Picard wine in Dr. Kovich's (David Cronenberg) office. Discovery 's saucer separation scene was both a more subtle and bigger tribute to TNG , bringing everything full circle.

Discovery’s Finale Proved Captain Burnham’s Ship Beat Picard’s TNG Enterprise

The uss discovery has an edge over the enterprise-d.

The finale also proved that Discovery beat the USS Enterprise-D in one particular area: it was never destroyed. Although it gained a place as one of the most iconic ships in the franchise, the Enterprise-D continued a Star Trek: The Original Series tradition of destruction when it was damaged beyond repair in Star Trek Generations . The Enterprise-D made some surprising returns , mainly in Star Trek: Picard season 3 for one final mission, but its crash in Generations cemented its mostly permanent decommission and the end of its service.

In contrast, and despite immense odds, the USS Discovery made it through five seasons without being permanently destroyed, and Star Trek: Discovery 's finale made it clear that the ship would never be truly decommissioned. Thanks to the existence of Zora (Annabelle Wallis) the ship could never be completely brought out of service, as this would be harmful to a sentient life form. Although Zora and Discovery may have to wait decades for the events of the Star Trek: Short Treks "Calypso" to take place, as long as Zora is alive, Discovery will continue to function .

All episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.