At Home with Tech

“Discovery” had only fifteen minutes to wrap it all up after five seasons. That’s certainly a Kobayashi Maru test. This life-long Trekkie shares his experience watching this no-win scenario play out at the end of the final episode.

Being a “Star Trek” fan isn’t what it used to be. Not that being a Trekkie with a phaser was ever especially cool… like sporting a “Star Wars” light saber. I’ve been a Trekkie-nerd all my life, and though there’s admittedly a resurgence of Trek via the several new series on Paramount Plus, “Star Trek: Discovery” has hardly been dominating water cooler chats. (Do those even happen anymore?)

Except for the newest series, “Strange New Worlds,” which somehow captured the magic of the original series, Star Trek hasn’t been ‘must-see TV’ for a long while.

Science fiction fans I talk with admit to having missed entire Star Trek series from decades past and are only now starting to check them out. That says a lot about the cultural state of Star Trek.

Still, I love my Star Trek.

No, I haven’t exactly loved, “Star Trek: Discovery,” but I’ve stuck with it since 2017, through its course corrections and time traveling to reset itself.

Time to Say Goodbye
I reflected last week about how most of the past Star Trek series have had trouble giving us a satisfying final episode.

Now, “Star Trek: Discovery” has streamed its own finale. As part of this extended episode, there’s a closing fifteen-minute epilogue. This sequence was shot two months after season five wrapped filming. And the production on these extra three days of shoots were the only time that the cast and crew knew the series was ending.

So no, there was no gradual way across this final season to wrap up loose ends.

The writers’ mission: Finish “Star Trek: Discovery” in fifteen minutes.

And how exactly did they decide to do that? (Spoilers ahead.)

Answer a Thousand-Year-Old Question
Inexplicably, the writers focused their critical coda on filling a plot hole left behind during the 2018 “Star Trek: Short Treks” episode “Calypso,” which takes place a thousand years in the future.

“Short Treks”? Who remembers any of those?!

Okay, I did find it confusing when I originally watched this mini episode. Zora, our favorite AI voice since Majel Barrett rescues a soldier adrift in an escape pod. The crew apparently abandoned Zora and the Discovery to float into the far future, and no further clues are provided.

It’s a plot gap I never really thought about again, and clearly not one the writers were eager to return to after all these years. I don’t feel there was a huge need to devote any of the last precious minutes of “Discovery” to explain it.

Discovery’s Final Mission
But that’s what happens. The final scene in the series is between Burnham and Zora and explains how the Discovery and Zora get sent on their final lonely mission to wait around in deep space for a millennium. The rest is conveniently shrouded in ‘Red Directive’ secrecy. (So, more questions than answers.)

This same scene is simultaneously tasked with handling the crew goodbyes in a swift pseudo-flashback sequence.

And that’s the series’ conclusion. The whole thing runs about six minutes.

And what about the first nine minutes?

Meet Michael Burnham’s Family
The epilogue begins with ‘Admiral’ Burnham and Book happily living their lives together decades in the future.

It’s well-crafted and takes its time. But this sequence plays like a beginning more than an ending. It could be the intro to a whole new series- “Star Trek: Burnham” (like “Star Trek: Picard”).

But there just isn’t time to introduce us to this new family… not at the expense of everything else.

What about our Discovery family? These are the characters we really want to say goodbye to.

But we don’t get the chance. Not really.

What Happens to the Rest of the Crew?
So, the writers devote the epilogue to explain how the Discovery gets sent to the distant future (not why), and they start with this lengthy love letter to the future Burnham family.

These plot choices rob the Discovery’s crew, who we’re supposed to know and love across these five seasons of getting their satisfying set of goodbyes. Sure, there’s some hugging, but it’s rushed, and the imagined-flashback plot device is a cheat.

To be fair, maybe that’s really all the production had time for with only three extra days of shooting given to them.

And so, the writers chose the Burnham family over the Discovery family.

Angry Trekkie
But I’ve got to tell you, this all feels so unnecessary.

It’s not 1969. Star Trek is not some experimental ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’ anymore.

This established franchise that’s endured for more than a half century deserves better than three days to wrap it up on whatever sets are left standing and then get out of Dodge.

Look, I know that “Star Trek: Discovery” was uneven. And I’ve complained my fair share. I’m not surprised it was time to move on. But this is about ‘how’ they did it.

In the articles I’ve read, the Star Trek PR machine says that everyone involved with the series was ‘satisfied’ with this tacked-on standalone ending sequence.

But I know that’s just spin.

Management
Should I, as a Trekkie, be happy that ‘management’ (to reference a healthier sci-fi series) was magnanimous enough to grant this cancelled series an ending?

Sure. But come on. I think we can do better than this.

Management didn’t have to create an impossible Kobayashi Maru test for the writers.

Fifteen minutes just isn’t enough time for a proper ending.

That’s All Folks
So, they effectively gave it all to our captain and star of the series. And Sonequa Martin-Green indeed did a really nice job with it.

I then watched the U.S.S. Discovery get banished (again) into the future to close a forgotten past plot hole and perhaps satisfy some future, unstated plot requirement. And that was it. Roll credits.

I shrugged.

“Discovery” now joins a long list of Trek series’ endings that underdeliver.

Except for “The Next Generation” and “Picard,” all the rest left me wanting more.

Goodbye “Star Trek: Discovery.” Even though I gave you a hard time across your journey. I was glad to know you. And I haven’t forgotten that you brought Star Trek back to TV.

Live long and prosper… in streaming reruns.