Discovery's Bold Trek to the Future

 

The third season of Star Trek Discovery wrapped up on January 7. And, much like the strong and largely unheralded second season, I thought it was great. The finale wrapped up storylines, created new ones and was an emotional tribute to human connection, something that we could all use during this season of COVID. It was also a beautiful tribute to the man that originally created Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry.

When CBS All Access launched, the first premier draw was an original, live action Star Trek series, Discovery. The journey from concept to screen was fraught, but the final product was good. It wasn't perhaps great, but it was a solid entry, and one that earned some buzz. But following that first season, the buzz subsided as we moved forward.

The second season featured Spock and, eventually, the Enterprise. It was also quite good and ended with the plot literally vaulting Discovery into the future. The long layoff combined with a strange COVID Fall led to the third season debuting to even less fanfare, while at the same time a whole new audience was being introduced to the show as season one finally aired on CBS on Thursday Nights.

And the early episodes, setting up a new world and characters required a bit of faith on the part of the audience. I've quite enjoyed the series run, so I was willing to give that faith. And I think it was rightly rewarded down the stretch as the show brought this season home.

That final stretch began with a fitting and at times emotional farewell for Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), who bowed out in the 10th episode of the season. That then spun to a final three episodes that were full of action and saw our hero, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) rise to the occasion, yet again, and achieve a position it feels like she's always been meant to achieve.

I quite enjoyed the finale, which I thought was emotional and satisfying. I like the way Discovery launched into the future, moving away from the constraint and tether of its original premise to be able to create its own stories. I like the cast, including the new additions, and I'm bullish on the future. 

CBS All Access has sunk a lot into the work of Star Trek, with Picard, a show following Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and the spin-off Enterprise still to come. But it started with Discovery, and while it doesn't get the hype it once did, I think that's still the anchor of this world and streaming platform. And it just keeps getting better.