MARCH 16, 2023 – Star Trek: Discovery, the fifth frontier will be its final one. We’ve all heard the news that the upcoming 5th season of STD will be its last.  There are many fan reactions to this. Some are sad that it is leaving airwaves, while others wonder how it lasted this long!

Many fans of the franchise left after season one and never looked back, we saw these weird aliens with four nostrils, light to dark grey and brown skin, no hair, with spinal columns not just on their backs, but on their necks, collar bones, feet, etc. and we were told “These are Klingons!” We all scratched our heads and said…um…no!

Then we had a second season that introduced us to Captain Pike, Mr. Spock, Michael Burnam’s brother. And Number One.

And when THAT didn’t work, we found a timey-whimey reason to find Michael’s long-dead mother who travels through time and tells her that the universe will die if they don’t go to the future.  So, we reboot the third season to the 32nd century.

Where it got even more confusing, and all the charms of Starfleet disappeared.  We found out that the Federation no longer exists, except that it does, over there, in the corner. They played “Pimp ym Ship” by detaching the warp engines because the 32nd century is cool! The comm badge is now a communicator, tricorder, and portable field analysis device.

So, what started as a prequel series became a sequel series and the producers seemed to be more concerned that they hit all the social-diversity-identifiers, that they forgot to write a story. They had 13 to 15-episode seasons that built a massive “universe is going to be destroyed” theme, that was wrapped up in the last 10 minutes of the final episode because Berman had a nice chat with the bad aliens – every single season.

Many of my friends never watched past season one, and while it has its fanbase, it never won over the hearts of hard-core science fiction and Trek fans, mostly because, despite all the shifting, it never found its rhythm.   It never hit the mark as Paramount hoped, which is why it’s getting canceled after a fifth and final season.

Good or bad, STD did bring Trek back to television, and that cannot ever be argued.

One of the show’s most famous directors, Jonathan Frakes was asked if the franchise would ever again return to the 32nd century. His answer was quite blunt: “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

Simply put, the series costs too much to continue making while viewership keeps diminishing. There is fan support for the series, just not enough to continue making it. The poor showing probably spooked ViacomCBS and Paramount from exploring more stories outside of the legacy characters and stories.

If it had been as successful as Paramount had hoped it would be, there would be more seasons and possibly spin-off series, but instead, they are cutting their losses and sticking a mek’leth in it and letting it bleed out.  We wouldn’t be surprised if we see new series slowing down for a bit as they let the newer shows find and keep their footing. If you would like another point of view on the final season of STD, head over to RedShirtsAlwaysDie

Journalists note:  The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of DSTN, its staff, or its editor.