About a month and a half ago Paramount+ released the last episode of Discovery, “Life, Itself.”
I guess I didn’t offer thoughts sooner because I needed to process it a little. But I can say now, it’s one of the best final episodes of a Star Trek show ever.
Probably feeling motivated to say so because one of the blogs I follow thought otherwise. Codswallop.
First the Progenitors arc had to conclude. This was probably the best season arc of the series, better than the Klingon/Mirror Universe arc of the first (I’m still disappointed the series disposed of Lorca so easily), the Red Angel arc of the second, the Burn arc of the third, and an improvement over the Species 10-C of the fourth. But they all had solid moments at the very least. The series on the whole presented a considerable tapestry of high drama balanced with human (and/or alien) moments and characters who came and went, some of which we saw again elsewhere (Strange New Worlds), some to have dropped off seemingly permanently (Tyler, so important in those first two seasons).
But “Life, Itself” is a lot like “What You Leave Behind,” the finale of Deep Space Nine, which is the one I’ve seen most, other than “These Are the Voyages…” from Enterprise (I’m its one fan, and a highly enthusiastic one, at that). Like “Leave Behind,” there’s a huge chunk just finishing out an arc (the Dominion War), and then an extended sequence just letting the audience, and the characters, say goodbye.
Discovery was always pretty sentimental. Of course it actually shows a series of hugs, even with characters otherwise absent from the season. But then it leaps into the future. We get to see Burnham’s happy later life, with Book, with their son Leto.
No Star Trek series, not even Picard, followed a single character as passionately as Discovery did Michael Burnham. For the entirety of the series we watched her sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of the mission. We saw her relationships with Tyler and Book grow seemingly insurmountably complicated. One of them couldn’t be salvaged. The other? Thank goodness.
Better yet, we finally circle around to the Short Trek “Calypso.” The fandom tends to take later material for granted. It seems more motivated to advocate for a Picard follow-up with all the younger characters. But for me, “Calypso” was always special, the first time we really see something from Star Trek take a look at the bigger picture, well beyond Starfleet, even though it revolves around an old Starfleet ship. More than Prodigy, more than Voyager, this is what it’s like to stumble on the legacy. And it takes on a life of its own.
Oh, and that Kovich reveal. It’s the first real acknowledgement that Enterprise really does matter.
Discovery deepened Star Trek lore in ways no one expected or any other Star Trek has so far dared. And it stayed that way right to the end. I loved how the Breen were used. I loved how Culber ended up a more interesting character than Stamets. I loved how “Face the Strange” one-upped “Shattered” (Voyager), but was bold enough to focus mostly on characters from the present season rather than leaning heavily into callbacks. I loved that Discovery once again looked like it was going to blow all the way up, but allowed a perfectly human conclusion to happen anyway.
It would be foolish to believe this kind of era is going to happen again, with so many different series launched simultaneously, regardless of how long any of them lasted or the number of episodes. This was a direct result of the need for streaming content, making a statement while the getting was good. It led to a new Star Trek show that’s been doing exactly what fans two decades ago claimed was irrelevant (Strange New Worlds), and as a result being the most popular of them.
I think Saru is one of the great characters. I think Burnham is. I think Admiral Vance sing-handedly redeemed a whole rank in the lore.
I will long treasure Discovery.
