Watching: Star Trek: Discovery S5

2024, download

OMG Kent, remember when you said, "I freaking love Star Trek Discovery. Unabashedly."

What 100. Season 5, the final season of Discovery. Book (David Ajala, Jupiter Ascending) and Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green. The Walking Dead) are still butthurt over Book's betrayal in season four. But they have to work together because a pair of couriers, which Book used to be, stole something that David Cronenburg wants. Turns out its something that leads to the Progenitor's technology, those godlike aliens from ST:tNG who created all humanoid life in the universe. The Discovery is sent on a multi-part McGuffin hunt to get the tech before the Breen do. The Breen are the ultra-scary, mysterious Bad Guys of the 32nd century's Star Trek. I was very bored.

1 - Great. This one is tough. I cannot answer "nothing" so I will have to say I loved Rayner (Calum Keith Rennie, Longmire) -- a cantankerous, crabby but dedicated Number One to Captain Burnham. He is assigned this duty cuz he's an arrogant fuckup in the first episode, and because Saru (Doug Jones, The Strain) is now a fulltime ambassador. This is punishment to Rayner, which it most definitely is, so he has to learn from Burnham and crew, how to be a good team player.

2 - Good. That the show is ending? Its about time. I am not sure how or why, but it seemed to run out of emotional energy somewhere around the end of season three leading into four. I had hoped the retrofit of the Roddenberry plotline used for Andromeda would inspire a whole new world of story telling, but ... yawn. I did thoroughly enjoy the playful nature of Mol (Eve Harlow, The Night Agent) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis, The Expanse), the couriers they are chasing all over the place but the season barely kept my attention.

3 - Bad.  This totally checked out season confirmed my opinions of previous seasons. It just felt entirely disinterested in the show. It could have gone out with a huge bang, toss caution to the warp stream but it played safe & boring & distracted. I mean, a major plotline was Saru planning his nuptials. I mean, two of my favourite characters, Detmer (Emily Coutts, Crimson Peak) and Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo, Endlings) were absent most of the season. Tilly (Mary Wiseman, Longmire) was still around but I found her much diminished from who I enjoyed so much in the earlier seasons. It was supposed to be a love note to all these characters we came to enjoy, but it all felt like a grand disservice to everyone involved. And reading/watching any of the promotional material around the season just makes me furious.

Yeah ! YEAH ! Its like they did even watch the show!

I almost included the retcon of "Calypso", which was tagged onto the end of the final episode, in the Good but then I realized they literally just tweaked a few things but didn't explain a fucking thing, gave no reason but for time-fuckery. Sure, pandering nods are fun but...

Anywayz, up next will be whatever bastardization they do with Star Trek: Section 31 which is already switched from a series to a TV movie.