The fifth season of the Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Discovery” will mark the end of the show’s run.
Whilst “Lower Decks” and “Strange New Worlds” have drawn acclaim and “Picard” found its footing in its final season, “Discovery” will go out as one of the more oddly received of the “Star Trek” series.
The show has seen creative shifts of direction, most notably at the end of its second season, and has done well enough ratings-wise to score renewals. It turns out though this fifth season wasn’t originally set up as a farewell.
Actor/filmmaker Jonathan Frakes did an interview with Variety published a few weeks back, talking various elements of Trek following his most recent job directing the “Lower Decks”/”Strange New Worlds” crossover episode.
One of the quotes from that interview got lost in the shuffle but has re-emerged in the past day or so. According to Frakes, the fifth season was originally planned as a season finale which was then changed partway through filming into a series finale:
“I directed the first half of the finale of Season 5, which turned out to be the real finale. So that was a very emotional end as well. When we did it, we didn’t know it was the end. And then [‘Discovery’ executive producer and director] Olatunde Osunsanmi had to go back up and do two or three days of new stuff to actually make the finale the finale.”
Whilst the first and second seasons of ‘Discovery’ ended on a cliffhanger, both the third and fourth season ended in ways that felt like they could serve as finales. Thus the fifth likely would’ve wrapped up things neatly anyway, but as Frakes indicated they were able to get in additional filming to give the series a proper farewell.
The final season of “Star Trek: Discovery” is expected to premiere on the Paramount+ service in early 2024.
