Coming off the announcement that season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery arrives on April 4, we have some more comments from series star Sonequa Martin-Green about the final season, the extra epilogue added to wrap up the series, and what could be next.
A “monumental” season and a “culminating” series finale
There is more from last week’s SCAD TV Fest in Atlanta. where we previously reported Martin-Green talked about a “big thing” coming in season 5. Speaking to Vicky Ro of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the actress echoed her previous comments about the season’s stakes by offering “monumental” as the one word she would use to describe season 5.
The cast learned the series was coming to an end after they finished shooting the season. Martin-Green talked to EW about what it felt like getting the news:
“It was a kaleidoscope of emotions. There was definitely the bittersweetness, but then there was this really powerful sense of peace as well because of what we did, what we created, and what we were all able to be a part of. So, yeah, bitter and sweet, but peaceful at the same time.”
The Discovery team was given the chance to shoot additional footage to turn the season finale into a series finale, and Martin-Green says the result is “something quite culminating.” Speaking to CinemaBlend. the actress offered praise to the writers for putting this epilogue together so fast:
“I gotta big up the writers for what they created. Because they had a very limited amount of pages and a very limited amount of time to create the scripts for this addendum shoot. They needed to wrap up everything like that [snaps fingers]. But I think that they knocked it out of the park. I really do. And so now it does feel like a series finale because we had that experience.”
She talked to Vicky Ro about what it was like for the cast shooting the epilogue:
“Everything is different. You walk onto this set knowing that it’s going to be one of your last times on the set. And suddenly everything is so charged and electric and alive. We were all in the present moment. There were so many times where we stopped to note, that’s the last time we’ll ever do that. This is the last time we’re ever going to do this. That’s the last time, that’s the last time. We kept having those moments.”
New season 5 poster
Ready for crossovers
Her previous comments to TV Line implied a familiar face would appear in season 5. Martin-Green confirmed to EW this would not be the return of Georgia politician Stacey Abrams as the President of Earth, who had a surprising cameo in the season 4 finale. But when asked if season 5 had any big tricks like that, the actress only said, “I guess that’s up to perception.”
Even with the series ending, Martin-Green still sees the possibility that she and other members of the cast could return in other Star Trek shows. The actress told EW:
“We get the question about crossover opportunities all the time. I can speak for all of us, I think, when I say that we would all do it. It would be so much fun. It would be a great thing if we could cross over in whatever way. I don’t think anyone would say no.”
In 2023 the “Those Old Scientists” season 2 episode of Strange New Worlds featured a crossover with Lower Decks, so there certainly is recent precedent. A logical place for Discovery crossovers would be the upcoming Starfleet Academy series. Last week Doug Jones (Saru) talked to TrekMovie about the possibility, noting “I hear it’s in our same timeline. So that’s the one show that I could cross over. I guess any of us could.”
Season 5 cast photo (Paramount+)
Disco is back on April 4
Season 5 of Discovery will arrive on Thursday, April 4 with a two-episode debut. New episodes of the 10-episode season will follow each Thursday on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria. Discovery will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada.
Here is the official synopsis:
The fifth and final season will find Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well…dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.
And here’s the trailer released at NYCC 2022:
Discovery seasons one through four are currently streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons two and three also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In Canada, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel. STAR TREK: DISCOVERY is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com
As to crossovers, all I would ask is that they keep the crew of DSC off of SNW. I think that would likely be a jump-the-shark moment on SNW for me. Keep them in the 32nd century, please. The timeline is already so polluted it barely matters anymore.
Crossovers have been a part of Trek since “Encounter at Farpoint”. I think it’s a little dramatic to say that to do it now would be jumping the shark when none of the other numerous instances have been considered so.
The TNG crew ran into TOS cast members four times. Yeah, I think we’re a little past worrying about jumping the shark on that matter. It’s all in good fun.
Agreed
The difference here is two fold IMO. 1) After the temporal cold wars, time travel is supposed to be 100% banned in the 32nd century. 2) having said #1, They are SOOO far in the future that it makes it problematic. Encounter at Farpoint and Unification were easy, McCoy and Spock just lived that long to see TNG. With Scotty they came up with the brilliant transporter trick but again that was moving forward in time with no time travel.
TNG/DS9/VOY crossovers were easy because they all took place in the same era.
The Lower Decks / SNW crossover was a stretch to be sure, but they somehow pulled it off. Maybe a Discovery / SNW crossover could too but I doubt it.
I guess define “crossover.” The characters could easily appear in a flashback to a couple of years ago and it would be a crossover without time-travel shenanigans. Or there could be a plot that cuts back and forth in time to show how events in SNW affect the future without anyone directly interacting.
But, yeah, as much as I loved “Those Old Scientists” (and “Trials and Tribble-ations” before it), I hope crossover via time travel doesn’t become a regular thing.
I’ll give a big general exception for the 60th anniversary, which isn’t far off. Go crazy, guys. Try to make up for basically missing the 50th.
Yes, how they acknowledged the 50th (they didn’t as far as I’m concerned) was an absolute disgrace. Doing anything at all to recognize the 60th would be nice.
Before we propose that, let’s just remember they tried that with the ENT finale and it didn’t go over so well.
Have a bunch of them appear on LDS as animated characters, and also have a Michael Burnham hologram replace the Captain Janeway hologram ships assistant on Prodigy. Then have Tilly replace Chakotay as the primary guest star to Janeway on Prodigy.
…and then I likely would stop watching Prodigy. But I agree they could go ahead and have them appear on LDS. Maybe they could do a riff on how Burnham cries all the time.
Yeah, Mariner could share with Michael all of her behavioral issues, then have the two of them cry together.
Yup. There it is.
SNW itself is a spinoff of Discovery, so I think it would be perfectly permissible. I’m not hankering to see it or anything, but painting that as a jump-the-shark moment is ridiculous.
Not only that, but two characters are step siblings. Burnham in a dream sequence wouldn’t come out of left field.
Agreed, that is plausible, but please – as far as I’m concerned, the less said about that particular ‘gem’ from the DSC writer’s room, the better.
Well if we consider that a crossover, I suppose you could say Unification III was a crossover with Discovery and TNG so I guess Burnham in the future could be teaching at the academy and show example of 1701 adventures. 3 way crossover.
Unless the crew of SNW makes the jump to the 32nd century it’s probably not going to happen.
I actually think that will be fun to see Pike and Spock in that time period. But I do agree the timeline has gotten super messy and probably confusing for any newbies lol. It’s a little difficult to keep track where everything is these days.
Totally agree. One thing that SNW did that was ok for me was to put Discovery behind the *blah* “classified” cloaking device of canon. Let’s not reopen it. There will be plenty of opportunities on Academy IMHO
Let’s see how many euphemisms you can whip out for keep the gay characters and black lady off your show. Bring up Burnham cries too much but it’s fine for Janeway yet?
You don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Danpaine has nothing against the actress and says he likes her in other projects (and literally said so on this very board), he just think Discovery sucks as a show. People like you make me sick, you try to paint someone as racist or homophobic when you clearly don’t know who they are or believe.
He doesn’t like the show and has spent years here detailing why he doesn’t like; race and sexuality has nothing to do with it. Stop trying to paint people with a nasty broad brush just because you disagree with them over it.
Thanks Tiger, appreciate that. I was going to respond to that one myself but just didn’t want the aggravation. People like that are clueless and exhausting. Cheers :)
It was much more unfair that Enterprise ended. Every time I rewatch the seasons that I didn’t appreciate at the time, I regret that abrupt ending, no less than at the end of its best season.
Did we watch the same show?
“Good riddance” was my response when it ended. Moonvies did Trek fans a favor, as the franchise badly needed a break at that point in time — Berman and company were tired out, just going through motions to collect their paychecks, and that really bad version of Star Trek we got in Enterprise showed it.
Fool me once, twice, three times…shame on you. Fool me for a 4th crap season, shame on me!
You and me both lol.
I know it won’t happen but still pulling for a fifth season. I think it would be great if they could do an animated show to keep the budget down and don’t have to worry about aging issues but I know it’s a pipe dream.
An animated Romulan War series is indeed on top of my “never in million years” wishlist.
Yes that would be an amazing idea as well!
I’m open to anything to get the NX-01 crew back.
I also agree that would also be great. I really like to see Archer and the gang in the thick of it. It could be Star Trek’s own version of The Clone Wars. That could be amazing. 😎👍
A romulan wars version of the clone wars is my new go to wish! lol!
Exactly! It could be totally awesome! 🙂
Let’s do what Clone Wars did and intro a ton of new animated characters that can grow into new Trek generations later!
Seasons 3 and 4 are still some of the best Star Trek out there to this day. Just a lot of great stories. No comment on TATV though. 🙄
I know people are harsh on TATV (and rightly so) but I always say if it wasn’t the finale and just another quirky episode in the season I don’t think people would be that hard on it and actually enjoy it more. But my opinion only.
Also love seasons 3 and 4 but season 2 is pretty good as well IMO.
Absolutely. I remember how Jolene Blalok hated that ep and IIRC her main reason was something like, “the way we go out is to make a TNG ep?” Or something like that. And she was absolutely right. Had it just been a whatever ep in the season that was not the finale it would have been so much better.
Also, Bragga killing Trip because he felt like it? Ok, sounds like there were some issues there.
Definitely agree there. I really hate TATV with a passion but it would be a very different story if it wasn’t the finale. I love seeing Riker and Troi together in anything and would’ve been excited to see them here too if it wasn’t the last one.
Season 2 definitely has some quality episodes as well. The show feels so much stronger today especially when compared to the new stuff.
Agreed season 3 and 4 are amazing, would love some type of Ent continuation
Far from definitive, but between Doug Jones’ reply, Sonequa Martin-Green’s reply, and most importantly, Starfleet Academy’s shared era on the timeline, I am getting the distinct feeling that a couple of them are popping up even in the first season.
Not just Mary Wiseman, either. (Tilly’s absence from Starfleet Academy would genuinely surprise me at this point.)
I mean I don’t see what would stop them? And it just be a nice continuation of those characters.
I don’t love Discovery and it’s my least favorite show in the franchise but I don’t want the characters to just disappear and that’s obviously not how Star Trek works. I’m always happy to see other characters again, especially when we haven’t seen them for over 20 years like the TNG/DS9/VOY characters until the last few years.
Hell I’m still not counting out seeing Riker on Starfleet Academy lol. It’s Star Trek, there is no such things as crazy ideas.
I would actually like to see Kovich and Vance on the new show. They are both cool and would get me invested.
Oh and definitely Carl. The most awesome character on this show and we haven’t seen him since. 😥
The sad thing is that not only did they waste the idea of a crew in Pike’s time (which fortunately led to the appearance of SNW) but they also waste the idea (suggested in some pitch years ago) of a Federation in ruins trying to rebuild itself. The 32nd century universe is horribly boring with its season-by-season anomalies.
Upvoted.
As someone who likes the idea of the 32nd century I can’t disagree with your assessment either. It’s been such a big let down but I blame that on the show runner.
I’m hoping SFA will correct that.
I know I have said this before, but the burn just, well, burned me so much on the 32nd century. With all the FTL advancements we have seen from Slip Stream to Daniel’s in ENT, it will just never make sense or sit right with me.
The burn was also a simplistic cause for the collapse of the Federation. Real decay would have been much more interesting.
I know what you mean. Even in our times, if we lost the ability to go from continent to continent, our economy would take a big hit, but our technological know how wouldn’t magically disappear and we have so much surplus (in the US at least) that we throw out the excess. They turned Star Trek into the Kevin Costner movie The Postman except with an even more ridiculous premise.
Nothing makes sense about the Burn. It’s like a fifth grader came up with that idea and made it as both simplistic and goofy as possible..
And then they just ignored all the other ways ships have been getting around as you said and from centuries ago.
Yep and even if they had come up with a good explanation I never liked the idea anyways. After all those centuries of fighting from Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, etc… what was it all for? So one day a baby could cry and screw it all up?
Star Trek 6: There is a Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked and we have to find a way around it.
Discovery: Baby wants it’s mommy so it go boom boom… and so does everything else.
Oh yeah the Burn explanation is one of dumbest ideas around and singlehandedly destroyed the season for me. All the build up for that????
Another reason why I won’t miss Michelle Paradise when she’s finally gone.
Seconded to the extreme. Hey remember the idiocy of Spock’s Brain? Let’s see how we can top it! Hold my beer.
I wonder if Commander Peria will appear in Starfleet Academy.
SMG somehow comes across as both a robot and a hippy at the same time.
And/or an actor who’s signed a lot of NDAs and really has nothing substantial to say.
Or have her play an anonymous poster on a Star Trek fan website who really has nothing substantial to say
Honestly, I think folks read too much into her brief non committal red carpet interview from a few days ago.
There’s only so much she can say.
She never says anything. Just airy fairy robotic hippie nonsense. It’s the same vibe as the show, the whole crew telling everyone how much they love each other etc.
Maybe because she’s not allowed to say much of anything.
Yeah, when asked about familiar faces showing up she said “oh, that’s a nice question. I hope those chances are good”
She’s just nodding along with the interviewer! She didn’t confirm or deny anything about guest stars. She’s not allowed to say anything.
I think we’re all kind of used to this by now, especially when it comes to Star Trek. They have to do their best not to spoil anything and keep it tight lipped. Not everyone can be Johnathan Frakes lol.
LOL this is nothing new with any movie or TV star. I remember when Tom Holland got in trouble for giving away too many MCU secrets and he barely said anything,
I don’t know what this means.
She’s very nice and seems to really enjoy meeting fans at cons. I’d rather be stuck in an elevator with her than half the folks who post here who haven’t had a moment of joy in a decade.
No offense, but you seem to be “that dude” who gets so easily offended all the time — where is the joy in that for you?
You seem very eager to have someone to feud with. I’m not really interested. I don’t think anybody else is either. Sometimes you’re alright, sometimes you seem overly obsessed with me.
Yes, I do call out some trash talk now and then. People who talk it should be able to take it. Even your screenname is an attempt at trolling. You know what you’re doing, so don’t play stupid. You get bored and you troll sometimes. It is what it is.
“People are too easily offended” is the mantra of folks whose children have stopped visiting.
Nah, I just agreed with another of your posts here — in fact, I agree with probably 75% of the posts you make I would say.
It was your comment here that I was responding to that I think obviously was intended for a few of us (Emily, me, some others) that we have no joy given we are negative on a lot of stuff. If I was wrong in assuming that you think that included me, I apologize.
Peace!
PS: Actually, I have my daughter and her husband living with us, supporting another son in college, and have another son who serves on a nuclear submarine.
Cool story. Bye!
But you forget to claim that myself and others here are not supporting our parents and they are now homeless?
What a hypocrite for you to call me a troll.
Do us a both a favor please and stop responding to my comments.
Mods, please feel free to close this thread down…harassment and personal attacks that are getting uncomfortable.
I would add that you are so quick to come up with these sweeping generalized insults at people you disagree with — I would say that my little trolling web name here that you mentioned is nicer than these trolling personal attacks that accuse some of us here as being joyless and ridiculing us with insults such as our children must never visit us.
That would be so freaking awesome if they had Michael Burnham do a crossover as an animated character on LDS, and have her save the day and have her expose the nepotism issues and Mariner’s behavioral issues on the show in a very humorous way where the show is making fun of itself
I don’t know why that seems so awful in your head and I don’t think I want to know. I like both Discovery and Lower Decks so that would be fine by me. At any rate…. McMahan has said he doesn’t want to do too much time travel on LD. I can imagine he doesn’t want to fall into the trap of making the LD characters the Mr Peabody and Sherman of Star Trek.
It is with great irony out of all the modern shows LDS is the only one that hasn’t done any time travel.
I thought they were going to do some crazy stuff with it to parody just how crazy everyone else has done it lol.
I suspect we will get a time travel episode next season though. I love time travel stories and it would be fun to see the Cerritos in the 23rd century or do a past Earth episode. Always love those and they could have a lot of fun seeing them in the present day.
Time Travel comedy has been done pretty heavily. The writers probably think it would look tired fall flat in a world that’s already seen Hot Tub Time Machine and Bill and Ted.
You could be right although technically they have done a time travel story via the holodeck in Crisis Point 2 and I just loved how fun that was.
That’s why I think this show is so brilliant, they still found a way to make fun of it without actually doing it lol.
BTW I’m hoping we get Crisis Point 3 next year to complete the trilogy lol.
Bro LOVE the Crisis Point series!!! 😂
Not a huge fan of Burnham but SMG has always been a class act and comes off very sweet and friendly. I will be interested to see what she does next.
Same, and I like SMG’s work on The Walking Dead quite a bit. I just couldn’t stand the Burnham character.
I wish I had seen her on the Walking Dead but TBH I am so not a Walking Dead fan!
I actually didn’t start watching it until it’s sixth season although that was a long time ago now. But like you I really wasn’t interested in it for a long time. That’s usually not my cup of Earl grey but just stated watching one day. And like Star Trek those shows are still going now lol.
And I really liked her on the show. I originally thought she left it because she got the role in Star Trek but it was actually the opposite.
Yeah TBH given the real world we live in, I don’t need apocalypse stories. I’m already living one. Can we go back to the 90’s when things had hope? And I don’t just mean Trek.
I tend to agree. I was a huge fan of TWD for the first 9 seasons, but then let it go when major characters exited. There are still spinoffs on, but like you I haven’t really had an urge to watch any more apocalyptic shows – our reality is currently grim enough.
Yeah, it’s really sad
I keep looking at those ring of symbols and keep trying to find out what they mystery is… And I came up with.. The Ancients from StarGate LOL
The long delay in getting this season out the door has led to promotion fatigue… there are only so many times I can read that little blurb or watch the “first look” and “exclusive clip.” Two years of mind-numbing repetition has pretty much sapped any joyful anticipation I had. I’m sure I’ll get more excited once it actually drops, but for now I’m done with the coy hints and hearing how “monumental” and “satisfying” this “culminating” season will be.
There really wasn’t much mentioned on this S5 through all of 2023 other than the additional filming to close the series out… I think you are imagining that.
I’m not saying there’s been a lot… To the contrary, there’s been so little that nearly every story on season 5 has relied on the same brief blurb and one or both of the same two clips. The long delay between seasons has exacerbated the pain. Another clip or two, maybe some additional plot teases… almost anything would help!
I’m rather surprised how little promotion there has been. As you say, there’s the first look and exclusive clip and that’s it. We have a very short, very vague synopsis for the season and another small blip about the season premiere. We have barely heard from any of the stars or the makers of the show (unless I’ve missed it).
This seems to be quite different from the run up to Picard season 3 where especially Terry Matalas seemed to be talking about the show everywhere and all the time (social media and basically any website that would listen). Back then some fans even started to complain that Matalas and co were too active and giving away too much.
This time it’s almost complete radio silence. Maybe they will ramp it up as we get closer to the release.