Check Out First Images And Trailer From ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 4 Finale “Coming Home”

Season four of Star Trek: Discovery wraps up this week. We have details and new photos to get you started. [UPDATED: Trailer added]

Discovery season 4 finale

The season finale is called “Coming Home” and it debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 17, along with the third episode of Picard season two.

Synopsis:

In the season four finale, the DMA approaches Earth and Ni’Var. With evacuations underway, Burnham and the team aboard the U.S.S. Discovery must find a way to communicate and connect with a species far different from their own before time runs out.

Photos:

Chelah Horsdal as President Rillak and Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham

Chelah Horsdal as President Rillak, Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, Blu del Barrio as Adira and Anthony Rapp as Stamets

David Ajala as Book

Chelah Horsdal as President Rillak and Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham

Blu del Barrio as Adira, Wilson Cruz as Culber and Anthony Rapp as Stamets

Shawn Doyle as Tarka

David Ajala as Book and Tig Notaro as Reno

Trailer:

Paramount has released a trailer on startrek.com.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on CTV Sci-Fi Channel on Thursdays, and streams on Crave on Fridays. Discovery also streams on Pluto TV in select countries in Europe and is available as a digital download in additional international territories.

Photo by Marni Grossman/Paramount+ 


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I had a lot of optimism when the season started. The first few episodes were really solid, but the pace of the last few episodes, and some of the questionable plot devices (sorry, how does Ndoye, a representative from a non-Federation world have override control of the ship?) have left me frustrated. At this point, I’d be in favor of season five being the last, and the show going out with a bang, especially since there’s already so much new ST content that seems to run circles around DIS.

Same here, The Ndoye situation is an eye-roller moment. Also, after Picard Season 2 showed that they are able to produce an awesome modern Trek series, with all the consistency, that comes with Trek, I don’t see a need for Discovery to go further. I know it’s the poster boy show for inclusion,… I also, agree on the pacing, the last three episodes before the two-part finale could have been one single episode with the same pacing as in Picard, where things actually happen, and the story moves forward. I get it, Discovery became the show of exploring feelings not the final frontier, as long as I have a Picard level show I don’t mind even if Discovery goes on for a couple of more seasons.

Even if DSC has one more season or three – when it finally *naturally* comes to an end – people will still be like “haha it finally got canned!!!!” we told you so !!! Haha !

LOL. Exactly!

Yeah, but those so-called “fans” are actually not fans, just leaches who monetize negativity.

Ah yes, the “no true Scotsman”

Mostly agree with you both, but the last couple of episodes have been much more interesting as they get to the bottom of what’s happening, and the alien species is actually something different. So we’ll see where this goes, but it really does feel like Discovery has run it’s course.

Interesting that you’ve seen all the Picard Season 2 eps? You must be with Paramount then, right?

/s (-;

Do I send you my IMDb?

Dude, my point is that you are judging how great Picard s2 is based on two eps. I remember last year that many fans loved the early eps, then things started going downhill in terms of fan opinion. So your post I do not find very compelling for that reason.

Lost you at “poster boy show for inclusion” The Original Series wasn’t notable for it’s inclusivity? Star Trek has always been that poster boy. That’s the essence of the show. People of different cultures working together.

Book gave her the codes, but you could argue that he shouldn’t of had them in the first place, unless Tarka had hacked them

The plots are very basic. As in, they don’t try to do anything complicated because they don’t want to lose the viewers who can’t handle it. When they do try complicated plotlines, it’s narrated like the audience needs everything spelled out. There were some seriously thoughtful mindbenders in early Trek.

Ultimately, every challenge is “we need to keep the ship together for another 3 minutes or we’ll fail our mission and die. Our mission is making sure the galaxy isn’t destroyed.” It just seems basic to make the stakes so high and simple in every episode.

I like the series quite a bit but yeah, give me a Picard episode over a Discovery one any day of the week.

I will add that Lorca pausing to put eye drops in so that he could stare at he Klingon Sarcophagus ship’s explosive destruction was my favorite Trek moment ever though.

Every week these photos are just nothing. They’re basically just the actors standing around. I mean… why bother releasing anything? Give us something tantalizing!

Total Agreement here!

I’ve been saying this every week, yeah. I’ve worked in studio PR, and I can tell you that most studios would replace anyone who consistently put out boring images like these that are utterly useless at enticing viewers.

One photo has a fire, another an explosion, a third has something mysterious on the bridge, and a fourth has the Captain in stress with shit flying all over the bridge.

So I don’t see the issue???

I will admit that I am one of those people who doesn’t want or need to be given much info about the next ep. For example, I really wish they would stop talking about Season 3 of Picard. YMMV

It’s like Khan from TWOK is doing the picture-taking, everything is nearly always shot at eye-level, very flat-thinking. Why not change the perspective, get up on a ladder and shoot down at the actors, or lay down on the floor? One of the best early promos for TOS was looking down at Kirk and he has the phaser aimed way up towards the camera. May have used a wide angle lens, too, I don’t have it handy to check, but it was a striking image, unlike this too-common stuff.

I haven’t watched any of s3 or s4, but are the directors also shooting stuff this tepid way? I remember they were doing lots of gimmicky stuff in the first two seasons, but it wasn’t particularly well motivated, plus (more importantly), nothing made me care.

“I haven’t watched any of s3 or s4”

I never would have guessed that. :-)

Well if you have, can you bother to answer the question?

Sure. Since I disagree with the premise of your question that the first two seasons had those issues, my answer to your question would be: N/A

Are you always this helpful?

Yes, I wish the photos were moving pictures instead of static images. (-:

The show’s production quality has sunk so much over the 4-seasons, it’s lost quite a bit of the cinematic scale and excitement of the earlier seasons, and now they are just standing around talking in-front of the virtual set. The show feels so confined with a few VFX inserts here and there. The pacing is more like traditional Star Trek, but all you have to do is look at Picard S2 for how you can do better while still feeling exactly like Star Trek. The show feels glacial because it really feels like they can’t afford to write bigger to fill up these episodes and build out this world. The entire premise of the show moving to the distant future has been utterly wasted in every possible way. I can’t believe how inconsequential these 13-hours have been. I really would like this series to wrap up so they can try again with a stronger ensemble they don’t have to recast every season. I can’t imagine how bottled up Season 5 is going to be at this rate.

And the fact they used the exact same premise and visuals as “Arrival” for their big mystery is just too egregious to take seriously, I don’t care what this finale has to tell me at this point.

Who have they recast???

I think it’s pretty obvious Michael is referring to the frequent cast changes. He’s not saying anyone was actually recast. Come on, man.

Lorna Dune, why do you constantly come off so rude to people?? Every time you respond to anyone here, you always sound so irritated or even offended although 90% of the time no one is even responding to you. Just relax.

And PMW was genuinely confused over the statement. Not a big deal but I understand why they might be confused over it due to how it was worded.

I’ve noticed the same behavior out of Lorna, and have been the unfortunate recipient of her asinine, close-to-personal-attack remarks as well. One would hope that the mods are starting to notice?

Not trying to get on their case, but really need to take down a few notches. I just don’t understand why someone is so confrontational over pretty innocuous posts most of the time.

Fair enough, Tiger. I respect you and will take it down a few notches. Notice that my response to you is not confrontational. :)

OK great! I don’t think you’re trying to be confrontational on purpose but it does read that way. And I’m not trying to censor you of course, we all just post here. It’s just a small community, that’s all. But you’re right, you’ve always been cool with me, even when we disagree, you never been harsh even when we do!

Exactly!

I have no idea who you are, One Lion, so I’ll have to take your word for it. If you say we’ve interacted, I’ll believe you… though I’ve never seen your screen-name before. In any case, I guarantee you I’ve not made any personal attacks on you. That is not my style.

As for the mods, if they have a problem with me, I am confident they will let me know. If that happens, I will respect whatever they ask of me because that’s how I roll. I am not breaking any rules, though, so I’d be surprised if they did. I am engaging in discussion and that has always been what I do here. You are free not to read my posts. Clearly, since I don’t know who you are, I have not been reading yours.

By the way, why are you assuming I’m a “her,” One Lion? I’m named after a popular cookie brand, so it can’t be my screen-name.

Fair enough, although Lorna “Dune” is a relatively well-known female musician/band leader and Lorna “Doone” is a cookie brand. Hence your misspelling of your intended screen-handle easily leads one to a feminine assumption, but no worries, I won’t make that assumption again…my bad.

It’s not a misspelling. I’m a Dune fan.

Also, I’ve never heard of the musician in question.

Good to have something in common then. Me too.

I haven’t heard of the musician either, but I gotta ask about Dune: are you a Timatee or a Kyle? (or a Herbert?) Not going to knock your choices, just always wondering, because I’ve managed to enjoy DUNE immensely in nearly all its incarnations except for the miniseries. I’ve only seen the new one twice, but I think I’ll need a bigger TV to truly evaluate it properly. And have you read the Lampoon version, DOON?
Best wishes,
The Kumquat Hagen-Dasz

The “I never heard of you” debate tactic you just used there pretty much points out the jerkweed type of responses that Tiger2 was pointing out.

How about just relaxing a tad and being a bit more civil?

“Jerkweed”

See, I’m not the one making personal attacks. I can respect Tiger. But you? You’re a hypocrite. Also, I hadn’t heard of you until you decided to start being obnoxious in this thread. That’s not a debate tactic. It’s a fact.

LOL, whatever. Others reading this thread can judge for themselves. Have a good night!

Yes we can! I’m with Lorna!

By the way, this isn’t remotely true: “90% of the time no one is even responding to you.

People respond to me all the time. Right now, for example. :)

No, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m talking about when people are responding to someone else on the thread and you come off harsh to them when they are just talking to another poster. But I don’t want to drag this out or act like I’m trying to police this board or you. I just notice it, that’s all. Glad you understand!

You should have read that with sarcasm, Lorna. Come on!

Well, since “Who have they recast???” is not an example of sarcasm, I’m not sure why I would have. But OK.

Actually, it is.

OK, kid. Whatever you say.

Kid? LMAO. If you only knew. LOL

This series has gone through a ton of characters, they even eliminated two bridge officers this season (Tilly and Bryce), while adding more temporary characters. Not to mention the fact they have backgrounded much of their remaining cast in favor of the newer additions. It’s really just a revolving door, the ensemble has barely any roll in it, especially in the finale. Remember when Season 2 was the Pike and Spock show?

Some of the issues, like them just standing in the set, may be due to filming during COVID. I believe Picard started much later than Discovery did and Canada is also stricter with protocols

I was thinking the same thing. Probably limiting those shots significantly due to COVID.

To each his own, but I think the series has improved in each successive season. And the VFX team won a freaking Emmy as part of Season 3, but not in the earlier seasons, which completely contradicts your point that, “the show’s production quality has sunk so much over the 4-seasons.”

It seems really unlikely for a sf series to start getting production-level Emmy Awards in later seasons of a series where the earlier seasons were vastly superior — that strains credulity and common sense.

Based on a few clips from the show on youtube, I don’t see the vfx as looking any better than the mostly crappy stuff in s1 & 2 and Picard. In terms of winning awards, that part is largely irrelevant with respect to quality. Only the very worst Bond songs win Oscars, and APOLLO 13 loses the VFX Oscar to BABE. SILENT RUNNING isn’t even considered for an FX award. B5’s VFX were innovative, but not as good as DS9 or later TNG that it won against. The year OLIVER! won best picture, 2001 wasn’t even nominated. KRAMER VS KRAMER beat APOCALYPSE NOW and ALL THAT JAZZ (mic drop)

You are entitled to your opinion, but you said in an earlier post that you haven’t watched any eps the last two seasons, so I don’t personally consider your opinion to be well-informed; nor do I find your strawman point about best picture Oscars to be all that compelling given that movie politics plays a much larger role in that particular award. And Adelle won a Bond Oscar for a song that I love, and a lot of people share that opinion. Bassey and McCartney were deserving though and Sam Smith’s song was overrated — I will give you that. Carly Simon…probably. Also, Sheena Easton’s and Nancy Sinatra’s entries are underrated in my opinion. But all of that is sort of apples to oranges given we would have to look each of those years to see what their competition was.

And in answer to your obtuse remark about me two weeks ago where you said something about me to another poster like, “he must be one of those fans who thinks Roger Moore is the best James Bond,” well that is flat out wrong — Sean Connery was the best Bond ever, and it’s not even close. ;-)

As best I recollect, water is wet and space is black … well, space is black except in the current Trek incarnation, where is seems to be murky most of the time, and turning the ships blue in a way that evokes painful memories of seaQuest DSV. Can’t put the blame on the vendors, because they’ve done excellent work for other shows (I write about cinematography and VFX, and have covered nearly all of the vendors multiple times), but that doesn’t excuse the quality and really points up how the creatives up top of the food chain at TREK have really corrupt aesthetics (though all you’d really need to see to know that is the turbo-lift.)

Can I just say I think that this meh blue is actually the influence of CBS itself? That everything has to look like a cop car? Like their shows are for old people? That blue is the color that refuses to offend? I mean, I totally get what you are saying Kmart. Do you think it came from the top down?

I contended when they rebooted Star Trek, their aim was to make NCIS in space. And that kind of show is baby boring blue.

Not having watched anything on CBS this century outside of some seasons of THE BIG BANG THEORY, I honestly can’t venture an informed opinion. But reading your post was enough to make stop and wonder! Maybe if trek had been revived on ABC during the 70s, space would have been orange, just like Suzanne Somers’ tan (and everybody else’s for that matter. Dif is that I kinda liked that orange, though the color has been … co-opted and corrupted in recent years by a certain personage.)

Maybe it is because I’m colorblind, but I have a tendency to see most overly-blue stuff as seeming like the James Cameron blue-fetish blue (which I disliked even in his great early movies which are all over 30 years old), even if it is actually tinged with some other color.

My color fetish is for true colors or failing that, vivid versions of true colors. (That’s probably because I shot miles of Kodachrome, which always looked a little better than life to me.) So I absolutely crave blue skies and white clouds, which seem to have largely vanished from 21st century visual entertainment, in favor of these shows that look like they were shot through dirty windshields or Polarized sunglasses.

I thought things were getting bad in the 90s, when so many shows were being finished on tape instead of film and then not stored properly so they degraded into non-viewability. Some of them were unwatchable right out of the gate (there was a John Laroquette series that looked like VHS, it was godawful.) But I didn’t expect movies to go to Hell so fast, but as soon as evdrybody started doing digital intermediates instead of traditional film finishes, the imagery started getting tweaked and tweaked and tweaked.

I could go on for paragraphs more, but I gotta go back to work. Writing about a new series that visually looks pretty darn good for a change, the Paramount+ show THE OFFER, which has got amazingly deft, smart writing and nuanced performances that take my breath away, work that this current TREK bunch couldn’t aspire to even if they had a real Q snapping his fingers in their writers room. And the VFX are so good that even though the 10 hr series has 800 effects shots in it, I haven’t noticed any of them in the first three eps they sent as screeners. Me, picky vfx guy!

“Skyfall” by Adele and “Writing’s on the Wall” by Sam Smith have won Academy Awards, and I don’t think either would qualify as “only the very worst Bond songs.” Not when the soundtracks of “Die Another Day,” “Never Say Never Again,” “Octopussy,” “Moonraker,” and “Tomorrow Never Dies” exist. Your mileage may vary, of course.

The last three pictures are the only Bond soundtracks I’ve never even bothered to acquire (in fact, I’ve never even bought them on homevid), so mileage most def does vary. How any song like SKYFALL — that falls back on a trite recitation of numbers in its lyrics, the must feeble and bubblegummiest of pop crap — could ever win anything boggles my mind. The only good — for me, anyway, generated out of disgust — that came out of SKYFALL was me doing a parody of the lyrics called SKYMALL and the same for the Smith called THE WRITINGS ON MY BALLS.

I will admit that the LICENCE TO KILL song is pretty horrible, but at least parts of it remind me of GOLDFINGER. And as best as Crowe’s TND is, there’s still the kd lang song, which I still think of as THE theme to the movie (I always skip the opening titles on the few occasions I watch that movie, which is really barely half a movie, as the last half seems to play like a series of endlessly boring machinegun battles, almost like COMMANDO but without the amusingly OTT self-mockery.)

As bad as the NSNA title song (and whole score) is, it is still hard for me to see it as a legit Bond movie, given the tone is so far off throughout and that the Bond ‘tude doesn’t come through in the editing … even Connery’s performance is way off (saying a lot coming from me, as I am a huge Connery devotee, having imprinted on him at age 4 when I was taken to see GOLDFINGER, then rediscovering him over a decade later while being blown away by THE WIND AND THE LION and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING), like he is emulating Roger Moore’s Bond’sGayUncle performance at times with how mild he plays things.

You forgot the biggest awards debacle: The year Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. That was the instance that made be realize most of these awards shows are pure BS. So yeah, we really shouldn’t judge quality by the awards they win.

I still say LA CONFIDENTIAL losing out to TheCameronThing is even more of a crime, by far. And ROCKY beating out NETWORK is imbecilic (or it beating ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, or TAXI DRIVER.) I don’t even know what won the year CHILDREN OF MEN came out, but can’t imagine it was anything comparable, quality-wise.

Wasn’t it Crash winning that year or was that a couple of years later? And yeah, Crash is another notable example of awards bumbling.

The VFX in Babe are amazing!

Ap 13 was like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS … even the VFX people voting for the noms didn’t recognize a lot of the shots as even BEING effects shots, the work was so good it fooled the pros (on CE3K, Trumbull used to recall the time he got corralled by another pro who asked him where Spielberg went to shoot such great time-lapse clouds, when they were all done in a cloud tank with poster paint.)

That’s not to say there aren’t bad shots in AP 13 (some of the post-liftoff shots look flat and the moon doesn’t always convince), but the vast majority practically define photo-realism. BABE is a very good film that has its own stylized aesthetic, one that remains internally self-consistent, but to compare it with the 13 work is like running MAROONED next to 2001 and trying to say both films equally deserved their VFX Oscars … the work is magnitudes less challenging and impressive.

I can only hope the finale can salvage this story. Most of this season has consisted of filler, dragging scenes of people just standing around, and plots not advancing. There’s clearly a great story that could be told with the DMA premise, but they’ve not been telling it. I love Discovery and have since the beginning, but this season is largely a disappointment for me. Seasons one and two were awesome, as were parts of season three. But they’ve lost the ball. Hopefully, they can retrieve it in the finale and start scoring some goals again next season.

This season’s story could have been told in 3 episodes.

I’m hoping during the final battle they stop and whisper their feelings to each other….again.

And more therapy… because every episode someone needs hand holding. Oh how I miss the days of starships full or professionals.

As I have recently said, with echo fx added please, Star Trek – SPAACE FEEELINGS!!!!!

Picard looks more futuristic than Discovery. I really like Season 2 Costume Designers, they will definitely get selected for some awards, specially for the Confederation Uniforms.

Hope Gersha is designing new uniforms for season 5.

Think s5 will be the last to make way for SNW to be the premier Trek show

Not sure. It is in everybody’s mind the failure of canceling Enterprise by Season 4. However, if Season 5 is the last one as you suggest, I think Tilly’s Academy will be the continuation to Discovery.

Picard Season 2 is exceeding my expectations, so far I like it very much.

And SNW, can’t wait!

Yeah if season 5 is the last (and fine if it is) I still want another show in this era. Many are thinking it could be the Academy show and will be all for that. But I wouldn’t mind something more direct like a ship based show again. Someone before mentioned a spin off idea with a Captain Saru aboard the Voyager J or something. Unlikely to happen but would love that.

I would like to watch Captain Saru. It is one of my favorite characters from Discovery!

Really, really would like them to find the right balance, improve the writing, the pacing, and personally, the Starfleet Uniforms. :D My real wish is to see Discovery going to another level on Season 5, like all previous (Berman era) shows. Want them to stay for 7 seasons. But Kurtzman currently developing the academy show now means Tilly will be back with her own show by 2023 or 2024.

Well it’s not a guarantee Tilly will have her own show, at least not yet. And I still don’t get even if she is getting one, why would they have to take her off this show now? If an Academy show happens,, it’s literally years away from now just looking at the schedule of the current shows. It won’t arrive until 2024 the earliest. What exactly does she have to prepare for right now lol. But we’ll see but I think it’s more to it than that. They didn’t rush to take Michelle Yeoh off of Discovery when it was announced (back in freaking 2018) she was getting her own show and kept her there as long as they could until they thought the Section 31 show would start filming.

I agree with you about Discovery. You can’t deny how hard they have tried to improved this show and it HAS improved, but I still don’t feel anywhere as close to all the other shows that made it to fourth season. I just don’t know but for me, this show still feels ‘off’. It’s definitely a lot of the writing, but as you said it’s just not finding the right balance still. I am a fan of the show, I been one since the second season (meaning when I was watching the show for the show and not simply because it had ‘Star Trek’ in the title). The funny thing is I felt second season, it was coming into its own. I even said at the time it was coming into its own faster than all the previous shows. But now we’re in fourth season and I feel the complete opposite.

It’s just weird. It could just be my own personal hangup with it, but reading these boards as much as I do including this thread alone, clearly you and I are not alone on that and we consider ourselves fans of the show.

I suspect Michelle Yeoh’s busy schedule is more what dictated her leaving than anything else. I always thought they were lucky to have her for as long as they did, which makes the way they actually used her all the more frustrating.

Totally. Michelle is always busy and her calendar is always full working in different productions in different parts of the world. We have been so fortunate to have her in Discovery.

She is very wise. Hope watching the most recent success of Picard, Prodigy, and Lower Decks, will help Section 31 to move forward.

I love this woman. Not only with what she has done recently, but with everything she has done in her entire career. Movies in Asia. Independent films. Marvel. Blockbuster movies. Independent films.

She had a great start in Discovery. The middle was rough, it was a major mistake to kill Prime Georgiou. But glad about the execution of her farewell, the (second) Mirror Universe and Guardian of Forever story was very good. The execution of the story/character was appropriate.

I got a lot more pumped for the Academy show when it looks like that might be a Tilly show. If we get more David Cronenberg, Mary Wiseman, and if we can throw in Tig, I’ll be plenty happy with an Academy show in that period.

I’m totally fine with an Academy show too. Originally I wasn’t hot on the idea but having it in this period would make it a lot more interesting IMO. And they could do whatever they want with it here too. And yes, it could bring in Kovich, Vance, Tig, etc. I would love for Vance to have a role in it, even just as recurring like he does now.

I get why a lot of people think that. Yet I was disappointed in the SNW teaser trailer. I was expecting a bit more and found it somewhat underwhelming.

Liked the teaser/trailer, but true, we all want MORE. They have been very secretive and there is a lot of expectation about the show. They are waiting a few more weeks, for us to enjoy Picard, before a new trailer.

Yep!

You don’t think that Picard is the premier Trek show? Did you notice how Discovery was shoved out the airlock of the Ready Room as soon as Picard started? Not so much as the clip from the next weeks show – nothing! They could either do two Ready Rooms a week, or double it up.

I hope that they fix this by the time SNW rolls around in May – because Picard s2 will deserve full coverage as it closes (as Discovery S4 does) – and SNW needs to get full coverage as it starts.

Picard was not my favorite captain before, but I really love the show. I like Discovery very much too. But in my mind the shows in my preference is 1) Picard 2) Lower Decks 3) Discovery 4) Prodigy.
And I fully expect that SNW will be in the #1 or #2 position come the first week of May

I am excited… for this season to be over.

No, it’s nowhere NEAR as bad as season 2.
No, it’s more intelligent than season 3 (which gives S4 a HUGE boost in my opinion).

It was just needlessly drawn out with a bunch of episodes that didn’t need to be. Needless to say, as much as I crap on S4 among other online communities, I’m happy that this season actually FEELS like proper Star Trek and did so on its own, without very much in the way of relying on fan service to get there.

Picard 2, on the other hand, is relying heavily on fan service to win back fans from the abysmal season 1 (me, included) and I am VERY happy with what I’m seeing. That, too, feels like the Trek movie we were promised S1 would feel like (but didn’t).

With SNW coming in May…

Again, as much as I crapped on it, S4 had the potential and hopefully can stick the landing. I really like this plot, though there are some characters who simply ruin it for me (Tarka for one). 2022 is going to be one heck of a year in Trek if done right and so far… it is…

I thought season two was extraordinary, thanks to Spock, Pike and Number One. Your mileage may vary, though.

Ah yes, the memberberries

Agreed with pretty much everything you said!

In many ways, this is probably the best story line Discovery has had. Certainly the most ‘Trek-y’, but man it really squandered the story by just feeling so tedious and thin. This story line should’ve been six episodes tops. It’s probably the second worse season for me after season one (still my worst season in all of Star Trek) but maybe the finale can salvage it. And it can’t be worse than a crying child.

You’ve nailed it, yes. Good concept for a story, but way too drawn out, to the point of tedium. This season could have been great.

First half of season four started a bit shaky but got really strong!

Second half has been a mostly tedious and frustrating show to watch. The last episode was really good but it’s just not enough. Just too many ultra thin plot lines and very ludicrous story turns, especially with Tarka and Book. As others said, I’m just waiting for the season to end basically.

The middle has been very slow, 5-6 episodes, outrageously slow. I also made the mistake to watch the show very early on Thursday morning. I want to be awake, but after 30 min, zzzz, I begin to close my eyes. I snooze and wake up to laugh at myself, thinking about the “hugs” and the “whispers.” Now I am enjoying the show way better at a decent time at night. LOL :D

That happened to me the episode before when I watched it at the evening.
The latest episode however was the best of this snooze-fest-season and the only one, where I wasn’t occupied with my smartphone or doing homework while watching the episode with one eye.

Maybe that season would work if it could be watched in a row.
But having to wait one week for the next episode just when the story moves on for 5 minutes at the end AND having a mid-season break totally kills the momentum.

Yes! Absolutely, wished they drop the whole season all at once, like in some Amazon Prime and Netflix productions. I enjoyed Lost in Space very much because of this, being able to watch a whole season all at once.

This is my dilemma. I always say to myself, I will wait 2 months to begin watching the new season, but end up paying Paramount+ on Day 1. :D Can’t wait to begin watching new Star Trek related content. Even for a new Short Trek. Paramount knows this very well. :D

LOL that’s pretty funny. I haven’t gotten to the sleep phase yet on this season, but if there was a show that I could fall asleep to right now….

It’s just too damn slow. The last time I felt a season was slow was the first season of Enterprise. That now feels like a season of ’24’ compared to this.

I give them a break for the first three-four seasons. I guess too many people complained about the extremely fast episodes, missing key details to understand the narration. I remember Kurtzman defending the show saying something like Discovery is “the bullet” show and Picard the total opposite. He mentioned this after the first 2-3 episodes of Picard I believe. Those episodes also were slow.

With Discovery, I am not sure why they go from one extreme to the other. Lower Decks, Prodigy, have nailed it right from the start. And Picard, the last two episodes are just perfect.

Totally agreed. I thought I’d love the season when it started, but then several episodes of filler happened, during which not much happened and half the cast had nothing to do.

That’s the thing, I did really start to love this season and then it felt like it just hit a wall. The season has been slow from the beginning, but I thought it was just taking it’s time to build up to the mystery, so I was patient. Once we finally learned what it was though, like what was the DMA and who caused it, I thought the show was going to be on fire after that. Sadly it ended up the opposite.

That’s the problem, once we found out the mystery, we haven’t learned anything really new since then. There has been no other twists or bigger plot points outside of Tarka’s eye rolling quest to get to another universe. It’s just been one long boring (sorry) trek to try and resolve it since. Just endless episodes of waiting for something, anything, impactful to happen.

I wonder if all these hiccups are related to the Pandemic. They were the first to begin filming during the peak of this virus nightmare. So unfortunate.

As others said, I’m just waiting for the season to end basically.

Until last episode I was waiting for the season to start finally…

Season 4 of Disco suffers from the same problem as every season before it: they can’t stick the landing. From the cartoonish demise of Lorca and the aborted end to the Klingon War in season 1, to the sad manchild causing The Burn last year, the writers/producers of Discovery start off strong but then can’t seem to figure out the ending. The urgency of solving the mystery of the DMA that we began with has given way to a meandering jaunt to the finish line. It’s a shame, because I genuinely like most of Disco.

I would love to see the finale ahead of time as you have been able to. Sorry to hear that in your opinion it doesn’t stick the landing though.

Lol

You slingshot around the Sun, pick up enough speed – you’re in time warp. I like to time travel to watch all my TV ahead of schedule.

Sure, the finale will make up for all bad episodes leading up to it, mhm

Can’t wait for the finale. This season has been great from the start. Much more actual science fiction this year.

Yes! I agree.

Yes, I am very much looking forward to the finale as well. I have enjoyed this season which reminds me a great deal of some of the thought-provoking and philosophical ideas from the Original Series with Star Trek’s signature pseudo-science connected to and infused with real science and real math. I think Star Trek does best when it closely mirrors what is going on in our society while offering us hope for a better future. Discovery this season mirrored our societal trauma incredibly well.

Saru is not on the bridge. Chances are he stays behind with his Vulcan love interest. Either that, or she gets injured and they are in sickbay.

Or she dies and Saru breaks bad for the next season.

Man oh man the haters on this sight are just completely unreal to me. What an embarrassment to the great Trek community. Keep on what your doing Discovery, I dig it.

People expressing their displeasure aren’t “haters,” which is such a juvenile term. Not everyone likes what you like, and those who are disappointed with the season are just as valid in their opinions as you are. Don’t like it? Well, no one is forcing you to read the boards. The boards aren’t just for people who love everything. The whole point of discourse is to hear multiple opinions, and there is nothing embarrassing about a nuanced discussion with multiple viewpoints. It’s a shame you don’t realize that, especially since that is one of Star Trek’s core tenets.

LOL, ah, the irony! Thanks, I needed a good laugh tonight! (-:

You need to look up what “irony” means. It doesn’t apply here since nothing I wrote above describes my posting history. I have never, not even once, called someone a hater, since I’m not 12 years old. Nor have I ever complained about people posting their opinions. Nor have I ever had a problem with opposing viewpoints. Nor have I ever failed to understand that comment boards aren’t just for positive comments. And I defy you to prove otherwise, which you can’t.

Also, get a life, stalker. There’s something seriously disturbing about you following me around like this.

“Relax, Cupcake, it was a joke” :-)

Perhaps you can enjoy that laugh with your scotch and Barry White…

I will, thanks!

Not true to the core tenants you say? Just call me Garek I guess.

Agreed and well said. I have posted some of the same views myself only recently, but with less restraint and clarity. Some people just can’t understand the concept of opinions and just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you “hate” everything.

My point is that there are lots of people on this board/website who just do a complete autopsy of every episode and season. The actors. The FX. The nature of the serialized episodes. The voices. The character development. The production of the season. The nature of serialized vs stand alone episodes. The actors contracts. The writing. Meta commentary on how they think the writers are trying to change the feeling of the show and failing. The makeup. The adherence to or deviation from “canon”. The connections to past shows or lack of connections. Retreading old alien species or featuring new ones. Etc Etc. There is no way that ANY trek would stand up to this level of looking for faults and nitpicking if it was coming out now. Its not about criticism, I really do feel like some of this clearly falls into “hater” territory but If you don’t feel like that applies to you, don’t worry about my opinion.

Yeah, but the point is fans love to analyze every little detail. That is basically what fandom is and those issues are what usually gets the discussion going. If everyone just generally said I love the show or I don’t like the show, we wouldn’t have any proper discussions now would we? We need to talk about the details so that we can analyze the shows and have some discussion going. Your opinion seems to be that we are over-analyzing everything but I disagree, I don’t think there is such a thing as over- analyzing. Any form of analyzing is good in my book. People make the biggest mistakes when they don’t analyze things. Remember the devil is in the details.

I like talking details and analyzing as well. It’s just a bummer to come here and read
Post after
Post after post about how this show I like in this universe I love just sucks sucks sucks. People say over and over that every aspect is unconvincing, incoherent and unmoving. It’s so tiring. I wish there was like 50 percent more
Joy that we get to see the 32nd century and new aliens a new type of captain with a different leadership style. Wayyyyyyyyy better visuals. Occasional Easter eggs to our fav series. A truly diverse cast. A spotlight on embracing emotion and bonding! Instead it’s just a player haters ball around here.

First, you said that it’s a bummer (bummer, really?) that people say that this show you love just sucks… Well deal with it! People are going to dislike some of the things you hold dear. What do you care? Your reasons for loving Discovery are as valid as other people’s reasons for disliking it. This is why discussing this is so interesting. It’s fascinating to hear why people hate what you love or love what you hate, don’t you think?

Also, you finished with “A spotlight on embracing emotion and bonding!”, well… that’s precisely the point. they’re doing way too much of it. The bridge is blowing up everywhere and they’re taking the time to talk about their feelings… Even the damn ship has feelings! And the bonding is so badly written in the show, it’s just fake and corny. Feelings and emotion are more profoundly felt without words sometimes, if the scene is well written.

But you don’t have to agree and if you like this show then good for you. Your opinion is as valid as any other, but people are still going to disagree.

Ok Ok whatever. Live Long and Prosper my friends.

For what it’s worth, I agree with all of your points here — 100%. And I believe that a “huge silent majority” of fans feel the same way. It not’s hard to notice that approx twenty of the same people constantly berate Discovery on this site — and some post on that many times per day when Discovery is the topic. And that’s fine, as this is an ongoing fan discussion.

But given some of their constant negative opinions, it hilariously hypocritical why some of those posters just apparently can’t handle YOU having your opinion that these posts depress and bother you — they are picking apart every piece of your legitimate opinion that you don’t like that incessant negativity.

I mean, come on, they go negative like there’s no tomorrow, but then when you challenge them, then that opinion is too negative for them and them to handle and they condescendingly tell you to just deal with it? LOL, that is so hypocritical!

Why are they so oversensitive to such an obvious criticism that a think a lot of fans would make on the “Trek fan malaise” engendered by the incessant negativity that we all see in many of their comments? If you think someone is a constant buzkill here and is kind of ruining the fun for many of us, well to me that is just as valid of an opinion to lay out as someone that says they don’t like the crying of Michael on Discovery.

Thumbs up to Discovery here as well!

Me too!

Discovery is totally incapable of getting a handle on itself. While I absolutely think season four has been the show’s best, it’s still a troubled series that can never quite figure out what kind of show it is. At this point, I’ve just accepted that Discovery will never quite achieve greatness. It struggles with just about everything. Then you look at Picard and Lower Decks and it’s just so easy.

I think if it became episodic like past Star Trek it would benefit the show. Even though I personally like it more than most people on here.

Agreed! The serial format is what is killing it IMO. At least something that doesn’t require just one arc all season would be a benefit.

In retrospect, S1 of Discovery is it’s best. S2, S3, S4 are all fundamentally the same… some nebulous threat that must be hunted down and remedied in the course of an entire season. S2 was somewhat more unique then 3 and 4. But 3 and 4 are practically the same. I am all for LGBTQ+ inclusion finally in ST. That part is awesome, and to have a woman of color as the Cap is awesome too. That said, the writing is just, well, bad. And as a former IRL naval officer, it’s very unrealistic that people stop the mission to sit around and talk about their feelings non-stop while ON DUTY. Should be like TNG where if you are having a mental health issue, go see Troi in her office. Also, the Captain can’t be the one to fix every problem. You have a crew, they need to shine more than the Captain, it’s just plain good teamwork and leadership. Surely one of the writers or crew has some military background! I want to give it one more season, come on DISCO! Do better!

Also, please send us more Jett Reno!

Oh joy.

What happened?

I loved the MB of the First 2 seasons.
PS too.

I have an idea about the final scene:
What if the events in Picard affect the timeline in Discovery too?
The Disco deals with the 10c, gets back to the galaxy, jumps back to earth and finds an alternate earth of the 32th century?
Maybe there is a reason for PIC and Disco overlapping for 3 episodes.