Executive Producer Michelle Paradise reflects on season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery: "We learn from every single season"
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Michelle Paradise speaks onstage during Paramount+ Brings Star Trek: Discovery Cast and Producer to New York Comic Con for Exclusive Panel during Day 3 of New York Comic Con 2021 at Jacob Javits Center on October 09, 2021 in New York City. Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images/Paramount+©2021 Paramount+. All Rights Reserved.
MARCH 23, 2022 - Season four of Star Trek: Discovery has just finished, though, of course, we’re not going to say how, exactly. But if you don’t mind a few spoilery bits, Discovery’s co-executive producer Michelle Paradise reflected on the season and the series in an interview with TrekMovie.
One of Paradise’s points was about the ongoing learning process inherent in producing the show. She said, “…we learn from every single season, and not just from every season, we learn from episode to episode, both creatively and logistically working to be better and reaching to be better and reaching to be the best possible version of this show that we can be. And the best possible addition to the Star Trek universe.” She cited examples such as the logistics of shooting during COVID and the learning curve of the new AR wall, which replaces the green screen.
Communication with species 10-C, a critical component of the season-long story arc, also presented a creative learning opportunity. While Star Trek has its science consultants, such as Dr. Erin Macdonald and Dr. Mohamed Noor, Discovery’s creators also sought expertise from “biologists and chemists and linguists and [from] the organization METI. It actually took a few months for us to be able to figure out how to break just the communication piece of those last few episodes.”
METI International is an organization that researches and educates about Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. (Star Trek: Strange New World’s Captain Pike, Anson Mount, joined their Board of Directors in 2020.)
The conversation with Michelle Paradise about Star Trek: Discovery, including her take on the journeys of Captain Burnham and Lieutenant Tilly, continues at TrekMovie.
Production on season five of Discovery is set to begin this summer. In the meantime, you can catch up with the first four seasons, streaming now on Paramount+.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
