Star Trek: Discovery
The Season Finale we didn’t know we needed
There’s been a lot of chatter about the “disappointing” season 4 finale from the flagship of Paramount+ revival of the Star Trek Franchise. Many complaining that the finale lacked the suspense, drama, and action that a show like Star Trek has become known for in this era of high drama and high stakes.
But I’m here to tell you: it was precisely the finale we all needed.
Star Trek Discovery was set to premier its third season just a few weeks after the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 Global Pandemic. The entire world changed in just a matter of days as we faced the impending doom of a foe we didn’t know, a challenge we’d not faced before. Then came the isolation, fear, and emotional toll that accompanied this unknown, global crisis. The production was delayed nearly 6 months. The release date postponed and season 4 delayed as well.
But miraculously, we triumphed. Season 3 of Discovery released, eventually, to much applause and fanfare as we ventured into the 32nd century. Season 3 and season 4 took us on a journey paralleling our global struggle and the trials that we faced here on earth in the 21st century. That has always been the role of Star Trek. They have shown us a future paralleling our present and Star Trek has always demonstrated how humanity can be better, stronger, more compassionate, more united, more caring, more equitable. Star Trek has always been a revolution.
Star Trek the original series premiered the first interracial kiss on television, starred some of the first Asian, Black, and female leads in television history, and showed us a world where we could all live together in harmony.
As the Star Trek Universe expanded, we came to meet characters from across the spectrum of diversity. We saw that love is love, that caring for creatures large and small is worthy, that Black fathers have an incomparable capacity for love and compassion. We saw how different each of our families truly are, and yet, we’re all so similar. We saw the motherly guidance of a female captain, and the power of connection beyond species, time, and the bounds of our universe. Star Trek has always shown us how we, humans, could be better.
Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery took up that mantle and showed us all how we could unite to face an unknown challenge. We can disagree with compassion and find common purpose. We can recognize our unity in the face of our diversity. When Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) first spoke with Species 10-C she shared the mission of the Federation in the following words, “Each of us is an individual one, we are also one as a whole. Our appearances and experiences differ yet, we all seek happiness, freedom, security, equality. We want that for our children, just as you do for yours. There is so much that unites us.” This entreaty to our better nature is the culmination of the ethos of Star Trek.
The writers, actors, and the entire production team at Star Trek: Discovery showed us a future where we can speak openly and shamelessly about the struggles we’ve all faced over the last few years. Paired with the magic of 32nd century technology, the fantasy of intergalactic travel, and the action of modern science fiction, heart was the core of the season. The work of Doctor Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) as the ship’s doctor and counselor demonstrated the compassion that we can have for each other here and now in the 21st century. The unity of the Discovery cast playing characters from across the gender spectrum, across the racial spectrum, and beyond the understanding of our own species, together, showed us what is possible. We saw women lead with heart and determination. We saw science and curiosity and diplomacy take center stage. We saw what forgiveness looks like. We saw what progress can be made when we seek to truly listen and learn from one another, when we see beyond our assumptions and pain and put in the effort to seek balance and harmony.
Star Trek Discovery taught us all, regardless of our national origin, regardless of the language we speak, regardless of the way we view family, that together we can accomplish glorious and seemingly impossible things. We all feel pain and loss in the shadow of this global crisis, each in our way. Our individual worlds have been turned upside down. Everything we knew is different. But there is a way to journey forward, together, in unity. Star Trek, like it has always done, showed us a more noble path. Book’s (David Ayala) own journey from heartbreak, to anger, to vengeance, to peace was the character arc we all needed. The forgiveness and compassion that greeted him and Species 10-C is the model of diplomacy we all needed.
I’ve been a fan since I was a child. Like the season finale guest star, United Earth President, Stacey Abrams, Georgia gubernatorial candidate, “Star Trek has shaped my belief system.” I believe that we can come together. We can start anew. We can find peace in trying times. We can be a United Earth. We can celebrate our differences without fear or anger or hate. Star Trek: Discovery showed us what is possible. And that is the greatest gift of modern television, that is the mission of Star Trek; to go where no one has gone before, to journey to distant futures, to look up, to hope together.
