The first few decades of the 21st century were a dark time for Star Trek. It was a stark departure for a franchise that had dominated the sci-fi box office and airwaves for the better part of twenty years. Starting with the Motion Picture era (TMP to Trekkies) and the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1980s, from 1982 to 2002 Star Trek created the future. It expanded from the chintzy shoestring budget series of the 1960s into one of the richest, most detailed universes in science fiction.
Trek got on top by creating a clear fictional framework in which writers could create, with much of the worldbuilding already done for them. It also worked by creating a tried-and-true formula for series and films, and making only minor deviations. But while it spawned countless imitators and spurred the ’90s sci-fi television boom, eventually Trek got tired. And the formula finally ran out of gas with the unceremonious cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. That year marked the first year in which no Star Trek series was on television since 1987.
The fact was, Trek had fallen behind the times. After the cancellation of Enterprise, a new wave of darker, grittier sci-fi series and films rewrote the book, hinging on interpersonal drama and leaning heavily on eye-popping CGI. For decades, Star Trek had been at the cutting edge of sci-fi innovation. They didn’t need to worry about keeping up; they were charting the course. But by the 2010s, it was clear that Trek needed a facelift. And that led to Star Trek: Discovery.
If there’s one thing any of my friends and family know about me, it’s that I love Star Trek (either that or my obsessions with college football and Major League Baseball). When Enterprise was cancelled, for me it felt like a dream had died. So when I first heard about Discovery, I was elated. I watched closely for years as the project weathered setbacks, as fans worried about the big creative swings they were taking. And in the end, I was very happy with what they came up with. Discovery, for me, felt like it was well worth the wait.
Now, Star Trek has been reborn. What The Next Generation did in the late ’80s, Discovery has done for the 21st century: rebuilt Star Trek into something relatable, something believable, and something that’s set the tone for subsequent series. But, with the runaway success of Star Trek‘s soft reboot Strange New Worlds, the powers that be at Paramount have decided that Discovery‘s job is done.
So this month on “Sci-Fi Reviewed”, let’s take a look at Star Trek: Discovery as it prepares for its final season: the good, the bad, and how Star Trek was reinvented for a modern audience.
The Premise
Star Trek: Discovery follows the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery, an experimental Starfleet ship equipped with a device that allows it to travel along the fungal roots (mycelia) of a unique fungal species, allowing it to travel across space much faster than Trek‘s quintessential warp drive. The story revolves around Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Greene. She is joined by some of the biggest names ever cast as major characters in a Trek series, including Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) as Cmdr. Saru and Anthony Rapp (Rent) as Lt. Paul Stamets.
From the beginning, Star Trek: Discovery‘s creators faced a tall task: create a series that both looked and felt like a modern sci-fi series, but still captured the essence of Star Trek. That last part means one thing: innovation. So, from the start, Discovery took some big swings in departing from prior series:
- It revolved around a minor officer on the ship, not the captain or senior staff.
- It followed a main character who was both African American and female.
- Said main character, Michael Burnham, was established as a previously-unmentioned foster-sister of the original series’ Spock.
With those major departures, it also took some of the more successful ideas from several of its predecessors. Following in the footsteps of Deep Space Nine (and keeping in line with contemporaries like The Expanse), it was much darker than most Trek series, looking at the seedier side of the seemingly pristine Federation, and exploring the depths some humans would go to in its defense. As with its direct predecessor Enterprise, it explored a period in the established Trek timeline that had been vaguely referenced in the past, but not actually depicted on-screen. And the story arc of its protagonist mirrored the redemption story of Tom Paris from Star Trek: Voyager: a disgraced Starfleet officer proving themselves, and ultimately becoming the best of the best.
From the very beginning, Star Trek has prided itself on representation, keeping to Gene Roddenberry’s original idea of depicting a future in which humans have put aside their differences. And Discovery has remained true to that. Joining Michael Burnham are Lt. Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber (Trek‘s first openly gay couple), Captain Phillipa Georgiou (Trek‘s first captain of Asian descent), Adira (Trek‘s first non-binary character), and Gray (Trek‘s first openly trans character).
The Story So Far
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Anyone who thought Trek couldn’t get any darker than Deep Space Nine or the third season of Enterprise was in for a rude awakening when Discovery premiered, with the two-parter “The Vulcan Hello” and “The Battle of the Binary Stars”. The first two episodes see Michael, first officer of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, lead an unsuccessful mutiny against her captain (Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh). After the Federation suffers a disastrous defeat against the Klingons that claims the life of Georgiou, Michael is court-martialed, and sentenced to life in prison.
After that jarring premiere, it’s hard to believe things can get darker. But Disco, born of the Expanse era, doesn’t pull any punches.
Michael eventually gets a second chance aboard the eponymous U.S.S. Discovery: an experimental ship Starfleet hopes will give them the edge they need to defeat the Klingons. The first season is as grim as Trek gets: a gritty war story with jarring twists. Michael finds herself serving under the tyrannical Captain Lorca (played masterfully by Jason Isaacs). As the Klingons massacre Federation colonies and crush Starfleet, Lorca’s clear signs of mental instability and obsessive behavior are repeatedly overlooked by desperate leaders hoping to preserve the Federation. The crew is always on edge: senior officers like Stamets buckle as Lorca demands results, often taking their frustrations out on junior officers (like the ever-nervous Sylvia Tilly, who becomes Michael’s only friend). The first season comes to a harrowing conclusion, with Lorca revealed to be an impostor from an alternate universe. Michael completes her redemption by refusing to carry out a genocidal attack on the Klingon home world, holding fast to the Federation’s principles.
Starting in season two, things begin to get brighter. Season two begins with the introduction of the original series’ U.S.S. Enterprise, captained at this point by Christopher Pike. Pike, played by Anson Mount, steals the show, finally giving Trek fans the captain they always want: a bold, somewhat cocky adventurer, and a paragon of morality. Unlike Lorca, Pike leads confidently but genially, deferring to his crew and helping them feel valued. Along with Pike, the season also introduces other members of the Enterprise crew, notably Pike’s first officer (known as she was in Trek‘s original pilot simply as “Number One”, played by Rebecca Romjin) and Michael’s foster brother Spock (played by Ethan Peck). Season two is notable in the series in that the rest of Discovery‘s crew finally take on personalities of their own. No longer living in fear under Lorca, they express themselves, and viewers get to know them. Season two ended with perhaps the most shocking twist in Trek history, as Discovery and her crew (save Pike, who returns to the Enterprise) are thrown almost a thousand years into the future.
Seasons three and four are where Disco truly struck out on its own. By throwing the series further into the future than any Trek series had ever ventured, they were able to erase the board and start over. The series since then has followed the crew of Discovery, under Burnham (now the captain), as they help to rebuild the Federation after a terrible disaster a century earlier. It’s been a hell of a ride, and with the final season approaching, Discovery still has one big adventure ahead of her.
The Response So Far
Discovery has been roundly praised by critics. While the response to seasons one and two was generally favorable, the critical receptions has improved with season three and four. Much of that praise has been attributed to the decision to throw the ship and crew into the far future, freeing writers from slavishly adhering to established Trek canon. The departure, and subsequent explosion of character development, led some critics to hail the season three premiere “That Hope is You, Pt. 1” as a “second pilot”.
Since season one, Sonequa Martin-Greene has been lauded for her charismatic portrayal of Michael Burnham, displaying strength, intelligence, and compassion befitting the greatest Star Trek captains. Among other things, former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar listed Discovery as one of his six best “morale-boosting TV dramas for people of color” for featuring people of color as role models. Discovery has been repeatedly singled-out for being one of the best shows on television in terms of representation, hiring many women and people of color not only as actors but in production roles.
To date, Star Trek: Discovery has been nominated for 87 awards and won 21 of them. By comparison, Star Trek: The Next Generation received the same number of nominations over the course of seven seasons (Discovery has only had four), most of which took place in an era where it was the only notable science fiction series on television. And while TNG won 33 awards to Disco‘s 21 (so far), Discovery managed those wins while running against Disney’s The Mandalorian and Amazon’s juggernaut The Expanse. Martin-Green alone has won two Saturn Awards for Best Actress in a Science Fiction or Fantasy Television Series.
The fan reaction, on the other hand, has been more mixed, as is unfortunately the case for many modern installments of long-running sci-fi franchises. And as with the others, the criticisms have largely been directed at the show’s necessary departure from prior installments. Social conservatives in particular have frequently criticized the show’s focus on representation, accusing Disco‘s writers of pandering to “woke” culture.
My Take
Star Trek is, without a doubt, my favorite part of science fiction. Since its inception, it’s strived to portray a hopeful future: one where, as Gene Roddenberry himself put it, humanity has “grown up”. To the critics who’ve repeatedly asked “when did Star Trek get woke”, I have this simple response:
If you’re asking that question, you haven’t been paying attention.
The creation of Trek‘s characters has never been an accident: Roddenberry himself wanted to show that his future was one without countries, or borders, or racial or gender inequality. His original series included a command crew that was shocking to viewers in the 1960s. A Japanese helmsman, mere decades after the Second World War. A Russian tactical officer, at the height of the Cold War. An African American woman, giving orders to white men while racial tension gripped the United States. And while I’m sure many decrying “Woke Trek” fondly remember images of Captain Kirk bedding alien women and getting into fistfights with Klingons, they intentionally ignore those moments Roddenberry himself considered central to the series. Kirk’s speech in A Taste of Armageddon, for instance, quoted in recent years by Danielle Poole in For All Mankind:
We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes. Knowing that we won’t kill today.
It’s not like Star Trek got any less “woke” after that, either. The original series was cancelled amid southern backlash after Kirk and Uhura shared television’s first interracial kiss. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured a chief engineer who was not only African American but blind. Its run included the Enterprise crew visiting a planet dominated by women, as well as stories that dealt with the horrors of apartheid, personhood and slavery, religious tolerance, and the ethics of suicide. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured Trek‘s first African American captain, as well as television’s first same-sex kiss. Voyager featured Trek‘s first female captain, with a Native American first officer. Enterprise included an episode that dealt with the AIDS epidemic.
So no, its focus on representation isn’t what made Discovery stand out. It’s everything else. Star Trek: Discovery was, from start to finish, the one thing I really needed to be: totally different from anything else. As TNG did before it, it rewrote the book on Star Trek. The critically-acclaimed series Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds followed its new approach: Picard embracing Disco‘s darkness and troubling moral questions, SNW utilizing the familial relationship with its crew for character development.
Amid its resounding success, there are many reasons for Discovery‘s early cancellation. The facile explanation is a common one right now: the constricting market for streaming. With services upping their prices and tightening their belts, many have become hesitant to greenlight or renew a series. Unfortunately, that leads to the deeper explanation: Strange New Worlds. While Disco was a complete departure for Trek, SNW managed to fold its model into the classic Trek formula: a ship of bold explorers, led by an unflappable captain, exploring new places. For better or for worse, Disco set up its spin-off for success, and unwittingly spawned its replacement. Paramount made the decision to cut Discovery at least partly because they already had a hit, big-budget Trek series. Disco, the show that gave new life to Star Trek, had become redundant.
However, this shocking turn at least gave Discovery the chance to do something no Trek series had done since The Next Generation: go out on top. The cancellation of Enterprise led to countless articles on where and how the show went wrong, but there won’t be any discussions like that about Discovery. And while it’s been rightly praised, perhaps Disco‘s greatest triumph lies in just how well it accomplished its primary mission: to reinvent Star Trek. Discovery‘s success paved the way for numerous additional Trek projects, current, completed, and planned. When Star Trek: Picard premiered in 2020, it marked the first time since 1999 that multiple Star Trek series were in active production. Picard was followed by the lighthearted animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks (October 2020), the children’s animate series Star Trek: Prodigy (2021), and finally Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2022. Prior to Picard‘s intended wrap-up in 2023, five Star Trek series were being actively produced. We have Discovery to thank for that.
In fact, Disco‘s impact has been so strong that it’s generated renewed interest in previous Star Trek series. In recent years, even Enterprise has been viewed in a more positive light. We have Discovery to thank for that, too.
Above all, Star Trek: Discovery is the series that remade Star Trek for a modern audience. From the show’s technology and special effects to its diversity and portrayal of humanity, it transformed the series back into what Gene Roddenberry had always intended: a brighter future we can all believe in. – MK
The first two episodes of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery premiere tonight on Paramount+. All four seasons are available to stream on the platform. Watch for next month’s “Sci-Fi Reviewed”, where I’ll be covering the Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem.
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