A new clip and new cast poster for the fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" was just released at the 2023 São Paulo Comic Con in Brazil.
Within the 60-second clip, we see "Star Trek" Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Book (David Ajala) battling with giant insects that can seemingly make themselves transparent. And while we have no idea where this clip sits in the season, there's no denying it has a somewhat familiar set-piece vibe to the one we saw in the Season 4 opening episode. There's even a little dialogue inspired by "Lethal Weapon 2," but then the writers on "Discovery" have liberally borrowed from other intellectual properties a number of times in the past.
The last time we saw the crew of the USS Discovery in action was March 17, 2022, which means it will be over two years by the time Season 5 rolls around. In March of this year, we reported that Paramount was going to wrap "Discovery" up at the end of this season and despite principal photography having finished, some additional shooting was still in progress.
Related: Star Trek streaming guide: Where to watch the Star Trek movies and TV shows online
Over the last seven and a half years, it's been a very mixed bag; there were inspired episodes, missed opportunities, truly bizarre stories, some blatant plagiarism and even a nod to Scooby-Doo. Despite some very good standalone episodes, the show has however, steadily declined in story writing quality from the outset.
That's not to say the performances have been bad at all; in fact, "Discovery" has some of the finest cast in "Star Trek." What has let them all down is the decisions made by the showrunner — or whoever it is that oversees the writing.
Will a strange anomaly threaten the entire galaxy? Will billions of lives be threatened? Will Starfleet and the crew of the USS Discovery have to unite and dig deep, facing their own mortality and risking their lives for the greater good . . . again? Because that old chestnut is wearing a bit thin now.
The official story summary for the fifth and final season is "Burnham and the crew of the Discovery uncover a mystery that sends 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."
Things have been shaken up over at Paramount recently. There was the unceremonious ditching of "Star Trek: Prodigy", and The Wrap now reports that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison and RedBird Capital's Gerry Cardinale are "kicking the tires" on acquiring the media conglomerate’s assets, via its parent company National Amusements' majority stake. Let's hope whoever owns the studio sees the wisdom of not wasting millions of dollars on more nostalgia-driven "Star Trek", and that "Legacy" is not given the go-ahead.
"Discovery" was the first of the new "Star Trek", and it paved the way for a renaissance in television science fiction. For that, we are thankful. But it's time for more original writing in this sci-fi franchise, along with the creation of completely new characters and new situations without riding on the coattails of what's come before. If that's possible.
From the looks of the new cast photograph, everyone has returned, even Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). And look at how Callum Keith Rennie and Book are staring at each other over the rest of the cast. That could either be the product of some hasty Photoshop work, or possibly a clue of what's to come.
"Star Trek: Discovery" and every episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the U.S. "Prodigy" has found a new home on Netflix, and that starts at the end of the month.
Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.
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