The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery arrives on home video this week in the USA. We take a detailed look at the Blu-ray set which includes over 2 hours of special features.
Star Trek: Discovery – Season 5
Season 3 redefined Discovery, as it started with a “great leap forward” (and a fairly successful soft reboot for the show), then season 4 gave us an intriguing mystery with extragalactic aliens; now in season 5 Discovery finally seemed comfortable connecting back to what came before, a major advantage of being so far in the future is that effectively all of Trek was open to the writers.
The earliest trailers for the final season hinted at a 24th-century Romulan scout ship being looted by our antagonists, L’ak and Moll, which started off a wave of fan theories. One of the strongest was that this may have something to do with the Progenitors as seen in TNG: “The Chase.” Sure enough, viewers were rewarded in the first episode with the confirmation that this season would continue the chase (pun intended) for the technology that created life as we know it in most of the galaxy. Thankfully, the rest of the season continued to buck the “mystery box” trend of trying to hold back everything until the last possible moment. Instead we got a very satisfying, more episodic scavenger hunt all over the galaxy, with homages to Indiana Jones and Bonnie & Clyde, among others.
Another boon for season 5 is that Discovery had 2 years of backstory in the 32nd century to draw upon, which helped to flesh out the world this season. Also, I didn’t think we’d ever see the Breen again, so it was an interesting choice to make them the villains of the season. The addition of Rayner, a Kellerun (a one-episode species from early DS9) was also welcome world-building. Callum Keith Rennie’s Burn-weary Rayner provided a much needed counterpoint to Burnham. While his gruff energy kept the Disco crew on its toes, Rayner, far from being one-note, was shown as being capable of growth and change.
The Blu-ray set
Discovery season 5 comes to home video titled “The Final Season.” The 10 episodes and special features are spread out across four Blu-ray discs. As we’ve come to expect for a Paramount/CBS home video release, each disc has the names of the episodes it contains printed on them, as well as a full listing for the set on the inside back of the case. There’s a special Steelbook edition of the Blu-ray set too. For those who want it, it’s also available on plain old DVD as well. For those who haven’t purchased the previous seasons, season 5 is also available as part of the new Complete Series boxed set (DVD or Blu-ray) release.
Video quality
Discovery season 5 follows the slick, modern style it initially helped to define for the CBS/Paramount+ Trek universe. Season 5 follows last couple of season’s trend of still dynamic but thankfully less nauseating camera moves. Having the higher bitrate available on disc means the image quality in the many darker and atmospheric scenes can be a bit better than streaming.
Audio quality
The episodes have losslessly compressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 channel soundtracks. Discovery sounds great and has consistently sounded cinematic since season 2; as noted in my other reviews, the producers and Emmy-nominated sound mixers are at the top of their game with these latest seasons.
Special features
All special features are found the fourth disc of the Blu-ray set.
Documentary features
Star Trek: Discovery – The Voyage Of Season 5 (39 mins) – As they’ve done with the past seasons, this feature documents the making of the season. Writers, producers, directors, and cast are interviewed about the making of the 10 episodes as well and the epilogue, once they found out the fifth season would be the last.
Being Michael Burnham (13 mins) – Another in the continued series of features season to season: In this final entry, Sonequa Martin-Green takes fans through her personal journey as Captain Michael Burnham. This entry is particularly bittersweet since season 5 was the last season, and includes reflection on her entire time on Discovery plus a visit behind the scenes of filming the epilogue, where Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala in old age makeup meet Sawandi Wilson, the actor who will be playing their adult son, for the first time in the makeup trailer.
Sawandi Wilson stops for a picture with his space parents in the makeup trailer.
A Team Effort (20 mins) – This feature focuses on the production departments that make Discovery come to life. Co-showrunner Michele Paradise talks about the pressure of making a high quality show and how it comes down to teamwork to pull off a show.
Character Development (23 mins) – The cast and showrunners discuss the characters’ growth over all 5 seasons.
Discovery’s Creative Force (10 mins) – A tribute to Olatunde Osunsanmi. Known to most as ‘Tunde, he’s been a driving force on set in Toronto as the on-site executive producer and in-house director for Discovery. He’s by all accounts a very nice guy, and he really took the role of being the “producer on the ground” for all 5 seasons with a lot of heart and dedication to the production.
Commentary: Episode 410 – “Life Itself” – Episode writer and co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and cast members Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala contribute to the single commentary on the set.
Deleted scene
Sadly, there’s only deleted scene this time, from the finale “Life Itself”:
- Saru and Nhan talk about wedding planning and the challenge of balancing duty with personal lives while prepping to leave on their mission to stop Primarch Tahal’s armada.
Gag reel (4 mins) – Found on the fourth disc. These “blooper reels” tend to be a nice look into the reality of making a TV show. Sonequa Martin-Green kicks off a fun montage of flubbing lines, Doug Jones flubs the word “nuptials” repeatedly, and director Jonathan Frakes takes responsibility for encouraging the flub from offscreen. We also get a few prop mishaps and other fun unplanned moments.
Final thoughts
For fans who weren’t sure what to make of Discovery, especially as it’s morphed itself each season, I think season 5 is worth another look. It’s Discovery at its most comfortable—both with the storytelling and the characters. As usual, we also recommend it for completists or anyone who wants an offline copy of the show; this includes those who cannot or do not want to stream the show and folks who have concerns about the fleeting rights to streaming media.
Discovery season 5 is the fourth recent Trek season produced in HDR and 4K (Strange New Worlds S1 and Discovery S4 were the first seasons produced using newer 4K+ resolution ARRI Alexa cameras) and it is available to stream in HDR and 4K on Paramount+, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that there’s no UHD Blu-ray release to let the detailed sets, costumes, and cinematography really shine. This is especially odd considering Paramount Home Entertainment has released both seasons of Strange New Worlds on UHD Blu-ray.
Available now in the USA
You can order Discovery Season 5 at Amazon on Blu-ray for $34.99 or DVD for $29.99. There is also a limited edition Steelbook Blu-ray, which can be can be ordered for $39.99.
Season 5 Steelbook Blu-ray
Also available now, is Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series box set which costs $59.95 on Blu-ray or $49.95 on DVD. The set features all 65 episodes and over 15 hours of special features including a bonus disc “that takes you on a never-before-seen journey through all five seasons with the cast and crew.”
The Complete Series Blu-ray edition
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Trailer & special features video clips
Availability in other countries
The home video release is also available now (or coming soon) in these countries:
- UK – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Italy – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Benelux – Final Season: 19 August 2024
- Denmark – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Finland – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Norway – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Sweden – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
- Spain – Final Season & Complete Series: 22 August 2024
- Germany – Final Season: 22 August 2024, Complete Series: 10 October 2024
- France – Final Season & Complete Series: 28 August 2024
- Australia – Final Season & Complete Series: 18 December 2024
Keep up with all the home video and streaming news, reviews, and analysis at TrekMovie.com.
I love it that modern Trek comes out on physical media, even though I wouldn’t pay a cent for a show as worthless as Discovery. SNW and Lower Decks on the other hand are worth every penny!
The desperation some fans have to attack something they don’t like will never not be tedious. Was there any reason to trash the show? None whatsoever. Stop trolling.
There is utility in expressing one’s dislike of a show. It’s not trolling or desperation at all.
I can never understand why people who dislike a TV show they feel compelled to keep posting comments and tell people that they dislike it. If you don’t like something then simply scroll past the articles talking about said shows. I don’t post in comment sections for shows that I don’t like as I would rather spend that time posting in comment sections for shows that I do like.
It’s a little childish to shoehorn in a negative opinion the way it’s done above though.
When appropriate. They bend over backwards and scream into everything including Wendy’s drive-thru menus about their hate of Disco. It’s absolutely trolling.
I love this show and as a life long Trekkie who grew up watching TNG this show will forever be special to me and has earned itself the position of being my 2nd favourite Trek show. (DS9 is and will always be my Number 1 favourite.)
Like a dumb dumb I always buy all of star trek canon on physical media. Like a sucker I bought Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series because it had a “bonus disc”, even though I had already bought Season 1-4 in Steelbook. Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series came with discs rattling around in the case, some disc were almost impossible to pull out with out breaking the discs, the printing on the discs did not change from the Steelbooks and did not match each other (looking at you season 4 with just basic text.)
I have purchased each season individually, and continued that trend for the final season. However, I did get the complete series set just for the extra disc. And yes, I would say to anyone else who orders it … Open it immediately and make sure all your discs are in place. Any that are loose (rattling around), check them for scratches.
I watch Paramount + on AppleTV and while all of new live action Trek has HDR, only SNW Seasons 1+2 streamed in 4K. Discovery seasons 4 and 5 were HD HDR only. The first 4 episodes only of Discovery season 4 were erroneously listed as 4K and then I believe that was fixed on the app so only SNW has been produced in 4K to date.
Hmm, you’re right. They’re no longer listed with a 4K badge when I look at P+ on my Apple TV 4k. What’s odd is, they filmed Season 4 with primarily 4K capable ARRI Alexa cameras, and the one camera that was a little under 4k will internally upscale to 4k (source). Season 5 was definitely filmed in 4k, they used a Sony Venice 6K camera system (source). Heck I just found this article that shows even season 3 filmed with 4k capable cameras (ARRI Alexa SXT) (source).
I can’t find the article, but I seem to recall an article talking about how when SNW S1 was being prepped, DSC S4 also got the benefit of new cameras, which implied both would be finished at 4k, seemingly only SNW was.
Thanks for the additional information! It’s always seemed strange that all of the live action series, which they spend so much money on and are often referred to as cinematic, didn’t upgrade to 4K years ago. Especially since they all have HDR and Paramount + has had 4K for a few years. I had false hope with Discovery season 4, until after a few episodes it became clear they were mislabeled as 4K on AppleTV +.and the rest of the season was listed as HD. Thanks again.
The VFX were likely not rendered in 4k as this is time consuming and expensive right now.
So for this reason the live action footage would most likely have been downscaled for the finished product so they match.
If you notice, SNW has far less VFX than Discovery.
This makes it feasible to deliver the show in 4k as the bulk of material is actors in front of a camera without too much going on in the way of VFX.
I am pretty sure that they could do upscale into 4K and HDR+ for the first 2 seasons, and master (they probably have 4K masters) for the later part of the show. So my money is that we will get a 4K/HDR+ set sometimes in the future, like in 2025 or 2026.
It’s a shame they have stopped putting slip covers on their releases :(
The non-Steelbook Blu-rays have slipcovers.
I’ve heard conflicting reports about the complete series set’s “bonus disc.” Does it have extras that aren’t available on the individual releases, and if so, how many/how long?
I loved this show. First season was a bit rough but I far prefer it to SNW. Sad to see it gone
Ive always had Mixed feelings about the show, but it was constantly improving and my favourite was probably Season 4. I had some Mixed feelings about Season 5, particularly all the mushy stuff between people always seemed a bit overdone in this show. And I was ready to Kind of dimiss it ultimately… but then came hat ending which just got me. The library Episode was fantastic, the Breen Ships really cool in a 80s way and the surreal stuff at the end (minus the forced fistfight) was also cool. And then came hat Epilogue where Michael had her happily ever After and maybe Im just a Sucker for that Kind of stuff, but I really liked it and ultimately Feel despite all its issues (in my eyes) the Journey was Worth taking and I am looking forward to re-experience it one day. Live Long and proper… and Connect xD
Discovery was easily the best Trek show since DS9, better than TNG in my humble opinion (with the exception of episodes/PIC S3 where Picard or his son unwittingly end up working for the Borg).
LOVED the Michael Burnham arc.
A little sad with the implementation on the future though, they never really stuck the landing in both the Klingon War (the ships were horrid for example until the 1701 and D7 that showed up in S2) and having a 23rd century starship rekindle the spirit of exploration with the V’deration totally fallen apart due to stagnation (mirroring the Renaissance). CGI.
Was close though… and salvageable with Academy.
Oh and the future starships look like bad / 1980s Also wish they got away from the people talking in front of doors in oversized rooms especially given computers are so easy to buy now.
But again love the Michael Burnham arc, Katrina Cornwell saving the Enterprise, Captain Pike, Number One – lots of good.
The most satisfying thing about that pretentious garbage was that it concluded.