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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Review — “Face the Strange”

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Or, they try to. And okay, it turns out the gratuitous beaming was for good reason, story-wise, because in the instant that the pair attempt to beam back to the bridge, Discovery plunges through time, and only their mid-transport timing protects them from the ship’s time-hopping. Everyone else aboard Discovery is experiencing “regular” time travel, as it were, unaware of their movement and remaining “of the time” they jump to.

Everyone, that is, except for Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), who thanks to his tardigrade DNA infusion all the way back in Season 1, the scientist is bouncing through time like the rest of the crew — but he’s mentally aware of the jumping remains “himself” like Burnham and Rayner.

Like “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” this is another episode about time shenanigans centering on Stamets and Burnham (and now also Rayner), but it doesn’t feel like a repeat of the same story so much as a deliberate permutation on a theme. Discovery , the show, is revisiting its past just the same way Burnham revisits her past self here; in both cases, the future versions have grown and changed in ways their past selves could never have imagined.

Who could have guessed, watching the series’ seventh episode, that original showrunner and creator Bryan Fuller would leave after just one season and a majority of the show would end up taking place in 32nd century? Not me, that’s for sure.

(As a side note, I was hoping one of the pasts they visited would be the “Magic” situation, just because come on, who doesn’t want to see what a time loop within a time loop looks like?)

It takes them all a few time jumps to figure out what’s going on, and a few more after that for all three of them to rendezvous. The second jump takes them back to Discovery mid-construction, sitting in dry dock at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, the Golden Gate Bridge framed nicely in a missing bulkhead section. (Both Star Trek and The Room have one rule: If you’re in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge must be visible at all times!)

Next jump is to the Season 2-ending battle with Control, and finally with three jumps there’s enough of a pattern visible for Rayner to identify what’s going on and what, exactly, is causing it. First, each time they jump Burnham and Rayner always return to the ready room – the place where they beamed themselves out of time — and second, that little mechanical spider that’s been crawling around the ship since it first detached itself from Adira’s uniform is a Krenim chronophage (yes, those Krenim ) left over from more lawless times  when paralyzing a ship by having it randomly cycle through time was a thing that apparently people did.

After a few more jumps, including one where a past version of Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) happens to save Rayner’s hide, he and Burnham land on an empty, dusty Discovery , abandoned by everyone except the one person who can’t leave: Zora (Annabelle Wallace). Listening to “Que Sera, Sera” and convinced that she’s dreaming, Zora explains that in this future, Discovery remained stuck in its time paralysis long enough for the Breen to get their hands on the Progenitor’s technology.

It’s a bleak future to visit, but it’s also very fortuitous that they did, because Zora is able to quickly do the math necessary for Stamets — who they finally meet up with in the next time jump –to figure out how to get them out of this. Just build a chroniton stabilizer and squish the bug with it, easy peasy!

And all Burnham has to do is get a component for it from her quarters without being seen. Not so easy as it turns out, as she runs into Book (David Ajala) who is very much in love with Burnham during this time period — and keen to show it. And she, as we all probably suspected, is still very much in love with him and gives herself a brief moment to indulge in that fact.

In their final final jump — this time to early in Lorca’s captaincy — Burnham runs into her much angrier and more jaded younger self; a Michael Burnham who is so barely out of prison that she still doesn’t even have a combadge and who flat-out does not believe this woman in a strange red uniform who claims to be her. Why? Because there’s no way anyone would ever make Michael Burnham a captain .

After a fight in a thankfully empty corridor, our Burnham ends up victorious and heads to the bridge… where she needs to convince everyone that they should listen to her and do something you never really want to do with a warp engine going at maximum speed: intentionally break the warp bubble and slam yourself back into the effects of general relativity.

Flashbacks are a tried and true way for shows to bring back departed characters, so the choice to include Airiam (Hanna Spear) on the bridge makes sense and is nice for audience members who miss her. What doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me is how her presence is used (which is a bit of an unfortunate parallel to her death for me – or at least the impact it was supposed to have).

Burnham knows she needs to convince the crew that she really is herself and that she really is from the future, but instead of, I don’t know, showing them her combadge which is full of 32nd century bells and whistles and exotic alloys that haven’t been invented yet she… convinces Airiam that they know each other because Burnham knows Airiam would sacrifice her life to save the ship? Then someone blurts out a “No she wouldn’t!” like that’s not the first thing any appropriately heroic Starfleet officer would do?

This scene is the one fumble in an otherwise great episode. Two minutes after this weird “I know you and here’s a generic hypothetical that applies to most people in Starfleet to prove it,” Airiam sees Burnham’s fancy holographic combadge and openly gawks at it. See, easily convinced! That would have worked and it wouldn’t have required the show to reexamine the hollowness of Airiam’s death without correcting its mistake.

The fact that Burnham doesn’t have anything better or more personal to say to or about Airiam except “You died, sorry that happened,” underscores just how undeveloped she was as a character. Why bring that up again? But hey, Burnham’s tactic works, and I suppose that’s what really matters here.

Meanwhile, past-Burnham and her era’s Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon) show up in engineering, phasers drawn, to try and stop Stamets and this weird guy they’ve never seen before from doing whatever it is that they’re trying to do to the ship. Rayner, solidifying himself as a solid gold example of a favorite character trope of mine — Grumpy Guy who’s a Secret Softie — defuses the situation by being brave as hell (he walks right into Burnham’s drawn phaser) but also emotionally astute.

He doesn’t just tell Burnham personal facts he couldn’t have known if he were really a stranger, he tells her with conviction that she really does deserve to be here on Discovery…  something that sinks to the core of who she is and what she’s battling in this moment in time.

The plan succeeds: the time bug is proverbially squished, and Discovery and her crew are all right back where they belong, minus the six hours they lost during all the jumping. Unfortunately, those six hours were long enough for Moll and L’ak to catch up with them and leave again. Did they find anything, or did they get sick of looking at seemingly empty space and leave? We don’t know yet, so tune in next week.

Which brings us to the beginning of “Face the Strange” — see, I can jump through time too! — when we see Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) acquiring the bug in the first place. While the Progenitors’ technology is enormous in its power and implications and Moll and L’ak are willing to do just about anything to find it, their motivations seem strictly personal.

Sure, if the way Moll takes revenge on the guy who sells her the chronophage is any indication, they’ll get some personal satisfaction out of seeing the Federation burn, but more than anything they’re in it for their freedom. Freedom from someone or something, certainly – though who or what we still don’t know – but, given the themes in “Face the Strange”, I’d guess freedom from their pasts might be the real goal.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• “Face the Strange” is a reference to the David Bowie classic “Changes.”
• This episode is a spiritual sequel to Star Trek: Voyager’s “Shattered,” a similar final-season tale which saw Chakotay bouncing through different eras of Voyager adventures.
• Discovery’s time jumps include visits to the ship’s transit through the Red Angel wormhole (leading to the ship’s crash-landing in “Far From Home” ), a time when the starship was under construction in the San Francisco Fleet Yards, the battle with Control ( “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” ), Stardate 865422.4 (during Osyyra’s takover in “There Is A Tide…” ), an unknown date nearly 30 years into the future, a period in early Season 2 (shortly after Jett Reno’s rescue in “Brother” ), a point ahead of the Season 4 premiere after Burnham was promoted to captai), and the encounter with past-Burnham which takes place just ahead of “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry” (denoted by the reference to a still-alive Ellen Landry ).

• Retrofit into corridor after Season 2’s set updates, the passage to the left-rear of Discovery’s command chair returns to its Season 1 “blue blinkies” configuration.
• Captain Pike’s broken wood-and-glass conference table returns to the ready room set during the first time jump, a good touch from the set decoration department.
• We’ve seen the San Francisco bay many times in Star Trek history… so just where in the heck was Discovery’s dry dock located?
• A Krenim chronophage — or “time bug” — snared Discovery in a time bubble, from the species behind Star Trek: Voyager’s “Year of Hell.”
• Season 3-era Reno’s drink of choice is a Vesper martini, served ice cold — and she tells Rayner that he can buy her a drink “at Red’s,” the onboard bar and lounge set added to Discovery during its 32nd century upgrades (though not introduced until Season 4).
• While the ready room set was not built for Discovery until Season 2, the second time jump confirms the room existed as part of the ship’s original construction… but in a continuity goof, the 32nd century version of the Starfleet emblem remains on the Discovery ready room floor in each different time period, instead of the old version seen in Seasons 1 and 2.

• Burnham gives a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nostalgic smile when Stamets hands her a 23rd century Starfleet communicator, retired after the crew upgraded to 32nd tricombadges in Season 3’s “Scavengers.”
• Saurian officer Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) appears in the Season 1 time period, indicating he boarded Discovery long before his first actual appearance in Season 2’s “Brothers.”
• Former Discovery cast members Hannah Cheesman and Ronnie Rowe, Jr. return as Airiam and Bryce, Julianne Grossman returns as the original voice of Discovery’s computer. (While Cheesman portrayed Airiam in Season 2, the role was actually portrayed by Sara Mitich in Discovery’s first season.)
• I forgot just how much Airiam moves like C-3PO. Might have toned down that arm placement there in that wide shot if it were me, yikes.
• Discovery’s viewscreen may be an open window to space, but it features blast doors which can be closed as necessary.
• The future time period Burnham and Rayner visit is reminiscent of the alternate future setting in “Calypso,” where Zora and Discovery sat abandoned for nearly 1000 years. Zora even believes she’s having “another dream” when the officers arrive, perhaps hinting that the events of “Calypso” may have been one of Zora’s dreams — as the “Zora-point-of-view” shots mirror moments from that  Short Trek  tale.

• This episode marks the first time we’ve seen Discovery’s original hull and nacelle configuration since its big 32nd century upgrade in “Scavengers.”
• Even living “outside of time,” it’s curious that Stamets can jump back to a time period before his tardigrade DNA injection occurred.
• Stamets’ tactics for clearing engineering get less and less sophisticated as the episode proceeds — going from making up specific problems with the spore drive containment field to just shouting “I’m grumpy!” It works.
• “Hey Paul, let’s show ‘em how a couple of old dogs still know the best tricks!” Whoever gave Rayner a used copy of a dictionary of idioms from 1962, I thank you for your service.
• Rayner’s hand gets the “Timescape” treatment, aging uncomfortably fast while he squashes the time bug — though thankfully avoiding those awful long fingernails.
• Rayner surmises that Burnham must be the first person in Starfleet to captain a ship she first boarded as a prisoner. He’s probably right, but if we allow for a few technicalities I’d put Seven of Nine in that rare club as well: she’s imprisoned very quickly after boarding Voyager , and while she doesn’t hold a Starfleet rank at the time, she does command that vessel for over a month during the events of “One”.

Even with all the time jumping and the temporal-relativity-heavy plot, “Face the Strange” is a straightforward hour of television that confidently knows exactly what it wants to do – both in terms of the story and the characters. There are almost no extraneous moments, but the episode doesn’t feel rushed or overly full. The pacing is great: quick enough that we get to jump through a lot of different time periods, but relaxed enough that there’s room for smaller moments of comedy and character work.

The pacing and placement of the more emotional moments is especially effective, with characters examining and confronting their past and present selves in a way that’s emotionally resonant but also truly moves the story forward both at the episode and season levels.

A frequent frustration I have with Discovery is that the emotional beats and plot beats feel like they’re competing with each other for the same space, but with “Face the Strange” it feels like the show has finally figured out a way to have them work together and compliment one another.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 returns with “Mirrors” on Thursday, April 25.

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• The Inventory

This Week's Star Trek: Discovery Is a Time-Hopping Marvel

In "face the strange," discovery returns to a trek trope it mastered in its first season to deliver a clever, thoughtful reflection on how far it's come..

Star Trek: Discovery is really good with time. We knew this almost immediately when one of its earliest episodes to really wow us was “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” a delightful time loop caper. We knew it again, when it flung caution to the wind and catapulted itself into a future no Star Trek show had visited yet at the climax of season two . And now, as it stares down its final end , Discovery once again turns to time—and twists it, to look back on its long, strange trip.

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“Face the Strange” is a deceptively simple episode on the surface, and a bold move for a show on its last lap: instead of accelerating the chase between Discovery and Moll and L’ak as they hunt for more clues to the Progenitor tech, it almost literally slams the brakes on everything to deliver a wonderful little character piece, not just for Michael Burnham, but to give time to explore Discovery ’s crew, and even its newcomer in Commander Rayner, who is still struggling to adapt to Discovery ’s more personable approach to hierarchy. After leaving Trill with Adira unknowingly tagged by Moll, the Discovery heads to coordinates where it expects to find the next piece of the puzzle, only to find... nothing. But what Adira was tagged with, it turns out, wasn’t a tracking device, but a “Time Bug,” a piece of Krenim technology held over from the Temporal Cold War (another great bit of using Discovery ’s handling of time, in this case the passage of it, for a fun Voyager / Enterprise nod!). The Time Bug infiltrates Discovery ’s systems, and locks them down—not by disabling the ship’s systems, but by trapping them in a spiraling series of time loops.

Burnham and Rayner—who were busy arguing in the ready room over Rayner’s abrasive mood—are partially unaffected by the bug’s looping, having attempted to beam back to the bridge at the precise moment it activated. While they’re caught in the same looping, being shunted backward and forward in Discovery ’s timeline, they remain aware between each loop that something is wrong—and that if they don’t put aside their differences and disable the bug, Discovery will be shut down while Moll and L’ak solve the clues to the Progenitor tech and doom the galaxy (to the Breen, of all people, we learn in one of the loops!).

This is already a really fun idea, because as we previously said— Discovery knows how to do a killer time loop story already, and has known how to do that for a very long time. But what crucially sets “Face the Strange” apart from “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” (god bless the show also toned down its love of long episode titles) is a context that the episode itself ultimately plays with: one of these episodes came just seven stories into the show’s existence. The other is the 59th , and in the time between them Discovery has done so much, changed so much, and developed in its own confidence, that it can use a similar structure and format like this again not to say “hey, look Star Trek fans, we can use the same tropes as the shows you loved,” but to instead say “hey, how do we use this trope to make a Discovery story?”

The answer is in both its characters—of course, particularly Michael—but also in the masterful way “Face the Strange” uses the concept of time looping to revisit a bunch of key moments from Discovery ’s metatextual past, giving Burnham, who went through it all, and Rayner, as the newcomer, (and eventually Stamets, who thanks to the spore drive tardigrade DNA, can’t be affected by time loops—a delightfully clever nod back to “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”!) a chance to see just how far this crew has come through and how much it’s changed them all along the way. Through Michael and Rayner’s eyes as they puzzle out the pattern of each loop, and what they need to do to stop the bug, we get to go through so much of Discovery ’s past—from it being built in drydock in San Francisco, to the moment it jumped to the 32nd century, to fighting off the Emerald Chain in season three, and, most crucially, climaxing back in the early days of season one when Michael was still just a downtrodden turncoat barely given a second chance by Starfleet after the start of the Federation-Klingon war. And with that perspective, and the carried awareness from loop to loop, both Michael and Rayner alike come to understand what Discovery has been through all the better.

It’s an episode that’s perfect for a final season—standalone enough that it is also simply just a great time loop scenario, but also vitally informed by Discovery ’s history over the last four seasons to deliver a really touching moment of acknowledgement for the series as it looks back on how far it’s come. It’s fun seeing the old blue metallic uniforms again, or seeing Stamets realizing that a) he’s a little worried he can quickly empty engineering of officers with a totally fake spore breach warning, or b) he used to be able to do that even quicker by being a massive asshole. It’s just as fun to see Rayner, who’s still resistant to connect to Discovery ’s crew, soften as he sees everything they went through to get to where they are now, and slowly but surely use the things he’s picked up about them to his advantage. It’s both extremely fun and extremely good that, in the last time loop set during Discovery season one, we not just get to see how cold and distant the bridge crew were back then, but that Discovery finally does justice to its former cyborg crewmate, Airiam (the returning Hannah Cheesman), making her belief in Michael key to saving the day—three seasons in the making, but a far more fitting farewell to the character after her clunkily unceremonious death in season two.

But above all, “Face the Strange” is Michael’s episode, and her journey is the one examined most of all. Because if you’re going to narratively go back in time to Discovery ’s first season, well, as much as she doesn’t want to, you’re going to have Present Michael face Past Michael. Sonequa Martin-Green plays the encounter to perfection: two determinedly stubborn women with things they still want to prove to both themselves and the world, pushed in each other’s faces. That it becomes a knock-down mirror match punch-up is deeply funny—fitting the aggression if Discovery ’s original wartime setting while also just making it the inevitable outcome of putting two unstoppable forces in each other’s way. But Martin-Green sells just how much of a difference there is between Michael’s past and her presence in these moments with incredible charm and subtlety. The show really hammers home that while there are still things about Michael that are still Michael, the young woman petrified that she had no place aboard a starship in season one and the undeniably heroic captain of season five represent a remarkable journey the character has been on.

Crucially, however, while Burnham vs Burnham ends with her current self Vulcan neck-pinching her past self, the actual moment the day is saved is done not by Michael, but Rayner, finally learning the keys to understanding what makes the Discovery crew tick. After Past-Michael wakes up and, being so eager to prove her worth, takes the Rayner and future-Stamets on at phaser-point in Engineering as they prepare to finally destroy the Time Bug, it’s Rayner who steps in to get her to back down, making a connection—by leaning on the things Michael had told him about herself in their argument at the start of the episode—and getting Michael to see that one day she’s going to prove herself on a long, painful, but rewarding path ahead of her... if only she stops being so stubborn for a damn second and let them save the future. Even if she doesn’t remember it, it’s the exact perfect advice season one Michael needs—advice she’ll learn the hard way through Lorca’s betrayal . And in having it passed onto her from Rayner, a man who Michael herself has begun to help grow and connect to others again after all his own frustrations and hurts, really hits home just how far she’s come.

“Face the Strange” is an episode Discovery could only pull off once, as its journey comes to an end—and it does so almost perfectly, an incredibly compelling use of a time-and-tested Trek format to examine the metatextual and textual journey it’s been on these last seven years. While there’s still more adventures to go on just yet—with the Time Bug stopped, the race between Discovery and Moll and L’ak is now tighter than ever—this was a great chance to take a moment and have its heroes and the show alike take stock of how much it’s grown: and how ready it is to bid farewell.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Sonequa Martin-Green on Showcasing Burnham’s Series-Long Journey

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for  Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 “Face the Strange.”]

The crew’s latest encounter with Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) sends two of its members on quite the timey wimey trip—including to Star Trek: Discovery ‘s past and (hopefully not) future.

Their foes planted a time bug on Adira’s ( Blu Del Barrio ) sleeve in the previous episode , and as a result, Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her Number One, Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ), go jumping through time. At one point, Burnham even encounters herself—the Season 1 version, fresh off being a mutineer and not trusted by any of the crew (including Airiam!).

Revisiting the past version of her character and fighting her as the present-day one “was one of my favorite moments,” Martin-Green raves to TV Insider. “We had such an amazing time shooting it, and I loved being able to see the contrast between who Burnham used to be and who she is now because I think it can be easy to forget how far she came over the course of the series, but you really see it right in front of your face. I love that they gave me that, and I love that they gave Burnham that as well, where her maturation was cemented because of that storyline, in my opinion.”

Figuring out which past events to revisit wasn’t too hard. “That was one of those that we really had to thread the needle on because we had the present-day story that was happening that they were exploring via these past incidents, and so it felt like we hit the things that we wanted to hit,” explains executive producer Michelle Paradise . “We thought it would be neat to see Airiam again.”

'Star Trek: Discovery' Stars Tease How Series Ends for Their Characters

The focus, the EP continues, “is about Burnham recognizing how far she has come. She has started the series as a mutineer and became captain, and that is quite a trajectory. To give our Burnham the chance to see who she used to be and just how far she’s come was really the heart of that entire episode. And so we just wanted to make sure that any past time we visited was supporting that goal.”

Due to Stamets’ ( Anthony Rapp ) tardigrade DNA, he lives outside of time and therefore was aware of what was happening around him, thusly a vital source for Burnham and Rayner—and aware that he’d already lived events like the Season 2 finale and Season 1. “I had such a good time getting to kind of live in both worlds, also as an actor, as a person reflecting back on that experience, which was from the first season,” Rapp shares. “It was a really special experience. It’s hard to separate in a way, Stamets’ experience from my own experience. There was very little difference between the two of us in a way because we were both revisiting something that was very impactful and having a lot of fun doing it.”

Rennie calls it “a bonding episode,” filled with  Star Trek and  Discovery history, for his and Martin-Green’s characters. He also enjoyed what we saw of Stamets and Rayner, who has been doing the bare minimum to get to know the crew but volunteers to help the former.

“We had a funny dynamic on set in person, and so then some of that plays into the work,” Rennie says. “You’re learning who’s going to go off on you and who’s not and how much. If you really want to get things done on this, you really have to learn how to communicate better. And with him is just one of those moments.”

But will Rayner take any of what he’s learned in this episode, especially the importance of getting to know his crew, going forward? “I think once you’ve gone through a considerable battle that seemed way out of control and you’ve fought a crisis, you’ve been in the trenches, there’s a respect built all around,” says Rennie.

What did you think of  Discovery ‘s trip through time? What was your favorite part to relive? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Star Trek: Discovery , Thursdays, Paramount+

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Anthony rapp, callum keith rennie, michelle paradise, sonequa martin-green.

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Interview: Wilson Cruz On How “Jinaal” Sets Up The Rest Of The Season For Culber On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

| April 12, 2024 | By: Laurie Ulster 19 comments so far

The fifth and final season of  Star Trek: Discovery premiered on Thursday, April 4. On April 3, there was a premiere event in New York, where the first two episodes were screened at a movie theater on the Upper West Side. TrekMovie interviewed Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber) on the black carpet to talk about his scene-stealing work in the most recent episode, “Jinaal,” the status of Culber’s relationship with Stamets, and his hopes for the upcoming Starfleet Academy  show.

“Jinaal was a mountain I had to climb.”

In episode 503, Dr. Culber lends his body to an ancient Trill symbiont so one of its former hosts, Jinaal, can take Michael and Book to one of the clues they need to find the Progenitors’ technology. Cruz changed both his physicality and his voice when he played Jinaal, making it completely believable that he’d become someone else. The actor told us how stressful it was when he first got word of what he’d be doing:

“I mean, when I tell you the anxiety involved in creating this character… Jinaal was a mountain I had to climb. And thank god, they sent it to me a little early, I had a couple of weeks to figure it out. And you know, what’s really great is they were like, ‘You could do whatever you want.’ Not great! Because as an actor, you need some boundaries, you need some parameters to work with, and they were like, ‘We trust you.'”

This wasn’t what he wanted to hear, though, as he said his next thought was “Don’t do that” (with a laugh).

“So then I kept coming up with ideas, because you know, my imagination goes wild, I’m going to try to all these millions of things and not be able to settle on anything. But thank god that I got to do that episode with Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala, who—you know, I love all of our actors. But  to have them to bounce ideas off of—David even lent let me his acting coach to prepare some stuff, just to figure it all out.”

Book (David Ajala), Culber/Jinaal (Wilson Cruz), and Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green)

Playing Jinaal “set up the rest of the season”

At the end of the episode, we see Culber contemplating the experience he’s been through with Michael at the ship’s bar. Cruz told us this experience will have resonance throughout the season, which is why it mattered so much to him.

“It was really important for me to get it right, because it really set up the rest of the of the season for me. And I really wanted Jinaal to stay with Culber throughout the season, and you’ll see why towards the end. But you know that that in some way, he affected him even after it was all over.”

Despite the pressure, he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“But it was so much fun. I cannot begin to tell you, to be that person who had been locked up, right, outside of the physical world for 400 years—I think it was that they said, I can’t remember now completely, I think maybe more like 800—I can’t remember, don’t quote me on that, mija! But when he’s allowed to be in the physical world again, that there was such awe and reverence and play in him, right? Like, yes, he had a mission, but also like, oh my god, I’m in a body, I can feel myself, I can jump on things, I can enjoy the physical world again. And there’s a bit of childlike energy in that that I played with, and he’s a little bit of a menace too, which I enjoyed. It was so much fun. I can’t begin to tell you how much.”

Jinaal wakes up in Culber’s body

We asked if his experience as a temporary Trill host was going to affect his relationship with husband Paul Stamets.

“I think these two people have been through so much that I don’t think anything at this point shakes them. I mean, I came back from the dead! Anything after that is like, ‘Oh, so you were someone else? Okay, cool.’ I think they’ve been through a lot. I think they are solid. And I think we see that Stamets is going through his own challenge right now, of his own legacy and what it means for him, right? And above and beyond everything, we’re concerned about our charge. We’re concerned about Adira this whole season, because they grow into themselves in a major way as well, and they take on a new responsibility. And we get to embrace that new challenge for them. And, and you know how parents are, they’re like, ‘Oh, I want to protect you. But I also want to let you grow.'”

Adira (Blu del Barrio) on Trill, before breaking up with Gray (Photo Credit: John Medland /Paramount+)

About that  joke…

We couldn’t resist asking about Jinaal’s line “This guy really works out” once he’s in Culber’s body and asked if the line was improvised by him or came from the writers after being inspired by his Instagram feed .

“I would never write that!” he told us, laughing.”But I know what you’re talking about, because someone else mentioned it to me in an interview today. And I was like, ‘What joke?’ and I was like, ‘Oh, apparently that one landed?’ I mean, yes. He works out.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73)

Would he like to show up on  Star Trek: Starfleet Academy ?

Sonequa-Martin Green , Doug Jones , Blu del Barrio , and Mary Wiseman have all answered questions about their possible involvement in the upcoming  Star Trek: Starfleet Academy show. We had a fun exchange with Cruz about extending Culber’s stay in the Trek franchise after Discovery ‘s season finale.

TrekMovie: “The Starfleet Academy show.” Wilson Cruz: “Yeah, I’ve heard of it!” TrekMovie: “Do you see a role for yourself in it? Would you love to come back?” Wilson Cruz: “Listen, I’ll say this once and I’ll say it again: My phone number is exactly the same. I have the same email. Alex [Kurtzman] and I are close. I am at his beck and call. I would love to revisit Culber and if that opportunity arose, we will make that happen.”

Wilson Cruz as Culber, contemplating his experience as Jinaal. (Photo Credit: Marni Grossman /Paramount+)

Hear audio clips on  All Access Star Trek

You can hear some of these audio clips on the latest All Access Star Trek podcast .

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery also premiered on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season is available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuted on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Note: The interview has  been edited for brevity and clarity.  

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Podcast: All Access Goes To Trill With ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ For “Jinaal”

Cruz nailed it as Jinnal. He became a totally different character, down to mannerisms. He gave me Lee Van Cleef vibes, which is saying a lot.

He was really great.

Mr. Cruz knocked it out of the park with Jinaal; he was just excellent. I know that actors spend their lives pretending to be various people, but to watch him walk differently, talk in a different register, hold his body differently … I’ve seen actors who can’t do what Mr. Cruz did there, so major kudos!

Agreed, wholeheartedly.

Cruz is an excellent actor. This, however, is not an excellent episode, unfortunately.

While I thought the episode itself sucked, I really did like Cruz acting in this. He was a lot of fun to watch.

I thought the same. Boring, predictable episode (who DIDN’T see coming that the journey through the quarry was a test?), but Cruz did an outstanding job in his portrayal. Culber IS Cruz, Jinaal was NOT!

That was exactly the problem. Every single moment of this episode was 100 percent predictable. This was Discovery at its worst.

Hopefully their attention to Adira is more sustained and meaningful than Stamets’ off-handed “Oh, give him my love” remark this week, meant for Gray. I know Stamets is supposed to be obsessed about his legacy now, but the writers and actors made such a deal about Gray being this family’s other adopted child and this is the extent of the meaningful development that idea has ever been afforded.

Cruz did a very good job inhabiting a new, playful, and lively character. And I saw him once randomly in Provincetown – can confirm: he works out.

Gray has never had any respect from the writers. I’m OK with that, though, since the actor sucks.

He was the best part of the episode. Loved his performance.

Wasn’t he killed in season one?

Wasn’t Spock killed in The Wrath of Khan?

Your point?

Yes. Memory Alpha has an up to date summary of his character arc.

Star Trek, lately, has little room for one-episode guest stars. However, Jinnal was a compelling way for us to see Wilson Cruz. I really enjoyed the performance and this episode.

Cruz was amazing as Jinaal. Stunning. Brilliant.

Oh, boy. After two stellar episodes, this was one of the worst in the show’s history. If this is setting the tone for the rest of the season, I’m frankly worried.

I completely tune out when Trek goes to Trill or it is a trill episode in general. Always strongly disliked their culture. Needless to say the episode was a dud for me. Cruz was amazing, I’ll give them that. Good for him, always liked him.

He was superb in this episode

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Star Trek: Discovery

Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. Ten years before Kirk, Spock, and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien.

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• Goofs With Michael being the adoptive sister of Spock, the series has many flashbacks to their childhood and upbringing on Vulcan. Spock's Vulcan half-brother, Sybok, does not appear nor is mention during these scenes. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) , Spock says that he and Sybok grew up together. However, since it's never stated when Sybok joined Sarek's home - only that he did so following his mother's death - or when he was exiled from the family, it's not impossible Sybok moved in after Burnham, and left before she graduated (the two extremes of the flashbacks). Also, since Sybok was never mentioned before Star Trek V, it seems reasonable the family never spoke of him again after his estrangement.
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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 Recap

Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery sees Burnham and Rayner team up to save the Discovery and its crew from a time travel wormhole.

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What happened in star trek: discovery episode 4, how does star trek: discovery episode 4 end.

Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery aired on Paramount Plus this week,as it approaches the halfway mark in the fifth and final season. The sci-fi spin-off series consists of ten episodes, with one airing each week until the finale on May 30. The show began in 2017, and Season 5 has been praised for its serialized storytelling and exciting visual effects. Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Callum Keith Rennie, Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp.

The fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery 's final season sees Burnham and Rayner put their differences aside when they realize they are in a wormhole and have traveled back in time. They must fight to save the Discovery and the crew on board, by facing off with bounty hunters, Moll and Lák.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 3 Recap

Star Trek: Discovery Episode 4 sees Moll and L’ak meeting with a dodgy dealer. They hand him a bag of the latinum and the dealer tries to raise the price of it, and it turns out Moll has poisoned the latinum, and takes the item from the dying dealer. L’ak is uncertain. But Moll assures him they’ll get ahead of the USS Discovery . She continues that once they have the Progenitor’s tech, they’ll be free. She tells him they have to hurry to catch Discovery on Trill. It is revealed that the device obtained from the dealer is the same one planted on Adira Tal in the final moments of the previous episode.

Elsewhere, the device activates in Adira’s quarters on the Discovery, and the device hops off the uniform and runs across the room and disappears into a girder.

In his lab, Stamets spots the bug and watches as it disappears into the wall. Captain Michael Burnham gets a report from Owo, revealing that she’s picking up some odd readings, and something has broadcast a signal from the ship. Burnham and Captain Rayner try to beam to the bridge, but they go nowhere.

The ship is moving but the lights flicker and a klaxon sounds. Rayner asks if they are under attack, as Burnham tries to contact the bridge but nothing seems to be working. Burnham and Rayner head to the bridge on foot and find the rest of the crew unconscious and wearing 23rd-century Starfleet uniforms. Rayner and Burnham realize they’re in a wormhole and have traveled back in time. Discovery follows Burnham as she goes through the wormhole into the future. Turns out, they haven’t just traveled back in time, but they’re actually jumping through time.

Burnham arrives in the future and explains the situation, and that she's undertaking an important mission for the future Discovery . Burnham demonstrates her personal knowledge of several crew members to prove her story , as Airiam, Tilly and the rest of the crew are confused at her appearance.

They remain skeptical of Burnham’s claims, but she says she will convince Airiam, and everyone will trust her judgment in the end. Burnham reveals she saw Airiam die, and she recounts the climax of “Project Daedalus.” Airiam convinces the rest of the crew of Burnham's legitimacy, and asks what help Burnham needs from them. Elsewhere, in the lab, Rayner and Stamets prepare to tackle the temporal shield, but a phaser wielding TB and Rhys interrupt their plans.

YB orders Stamets to shut down the warp core, but Rayner suggests Burnham come down, but there’s no time for that, and she urges Rayner to handle the situation. Rayner convinces Rhys they’re from the future with the knowledge he learned during interviews, but YB is still not convinced.

Rayner tells the story about Burnham arriving at the bridge and not feeling like she belongs. He tells YB she deserves to be there, and pleads with her to trust her instincts, which he knows are currently telling her to stand down, with YB seemingly convinced. Discovery ’s warp bubble is broken, and Rayner puts the device on the chronophage. Another time jump occurs, and they arrive back to the present day, which is fully intact.

Burnham orders Rayner to go to see Culber to tend to his hand injury, while Rayner states that it isn’t lost on him that what made them successful was their closeness with the crew. He admits he can be stubborn like Burnham used to be, but Burnham concludes they make a good team.

Star Trek: Discovery episode 4's ending sees the rest of the crew caught up on the chronophage. In the six hours since the time jumps began, the DOTs have found a warp signature that matches M’ak’s ship. Rayner compliments Rhys on his theory, which proved to be accurate. However, M’ak’s trail disappears, as Burnham orders the bridge crew to get to work on solving the mystery.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star trek 4: paramount needs to let this sequel die.

Star Trek Just Doubled Down on Its Wildest Body-Switching Concept

Welcome back to Trill.

Body switching is a classic sci-fi trope. From Freaky Friday to Farscape , and of course, most of Quantum Leap, the idea of the consciousness from one person inhabiting the body of a different person will never stop being the fuel for speculative stories that are both hilarious and profound. But, when Star Trek invented the “joined” species of the Trill in 1991, it took the body-switching/body-surfing trope to a new level. While a specific Trill symbiont might live for several hundreds of years, this slug-like creature generally inhabited a humanoid host. This “joining” often created a new hybrid personality each time, sort of like Time Lord regeneration from Doctor Who mashed up with internal alien parasites from Alien; a chest-burster that never burst, but just stayed in you forever.

And if all of that wasn’t wild enough, on June 12, in the episode “Facets,” 1995, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine added a new wrinkle to Trill canon. Not only were the memories of all the previous hosts alive and well in the current symbiont, but, through a process called “zhian’tara,” a specific host’s personality could leave the symbiont and enter into the body of... anyone! Basically, this was Trill joining via spacey magic, and now, 29 years after “Facets,” Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down (tripling down?) on this very specific form of consciousness transfer in the Season 5 episode “Jinaal.” Spoilers ahead.

The Trill host trick

Dax and Odo discuss sharing memories in “Facets.”

Although the Trill were established in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” the vast majority of Trill canon comes from Deep Space Nine , thanks to the presence of Jadzia Dax, who later, in Season 7, switched hosts and became Ezri Dax. But, in the memorable Season 3 episode “Facets,” Jadzia’s previous host, Curzon, left her body through the zhian’tara process and settled in the body of the station’s resident shapeshifter, Odo. From that point, Odo’s entire personality was merged with Curzon’s, which put everyone on the station in a deeply uncomfortable position.

As a stand-alone episode of DS9 , “Facets” remains a fantastic story about memory, regret, and what one generation owes the next. But, the legacy of “Facets” is easily the concept of zhian’tara, which was used to save Gray Tal’s consciousness in Discovery Season 4, and now, in Season 5, is being employed again to unravel an 800-year-old mystery.

Discovery’s return to Trill

Cubler (Wilson Cruz) takes on an ancient Trill tradition in Discovery Season 5.

The planet Trill was first seen in DS9 in the episode “Equilibrium,” but Discovery has actually visited the planet more times, starting in the Season 3 episode “Forget Me Not,” and now again, in “Jinaal.” This time the need to transfer the memories of one previous Trill host into someone else is all connected to the secrets Jinaal Bix has about researcher of the Progenitors in the 24th century.

After transferring Jinaal’s consciousness into Culber, the entire personality of our stalwart Starfleet doctor changes, and, just like “Facets,” he suddenly becomes cockier, and more evasive. If you watch “Facets” right after watching “Jinaal,” the parallels are clear. While Curzon’s secret was connected to something personal, Jinaal’s secret has broader implications. Turns out, Federation scientists were working on cracking the Progenitor tech during the era of the Dominion War, and so they decided to bury any knowledge of the technology to prevent any planet or government from weaponizing their research.

Interestingly, this detail dovetails with Picard Season 3 a bit, in which we learned that Section 31 was pushing different Federation scientists to weaponize the organic nature of Changelings. Basically, the Dominion War created a lot of corrupt scientific research within the Federation, making the top-secret Daystrom labs that Riker, Raffi, and Worf raided perhaps just a small sample of the horrible top-secret weapons the Federation has developed.

What Discovery does is make it clear that Jinaal did the right thing at the time by hiding the research — even if that doesn’t help our heroes at the moment.

A classic Original Series nod

Sargon enters Kirk’s body in “Return to Tomorrow.”

Of course, within the canon of Trek, the Trill weren’t the first time the franchise explored the concept of sharing consciousness. Spock transferred his katra to Bones in The Wrath of Khan , and Kirk switched bodies with Janice Lester in the controversial final TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder.”

But, one wonderful 1968 episode from TOS Season 2 — “Return to Tomorrow” — featured ancient beings borrowing the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Ann Mulhall in order to build more permanent, android bodies. When the ancient being of Sargon enters Kirk’s body, one of the first things he says is: “Your captain has an excellent body.”

Now, 56 years later, when Jinaal finds himself in Culber’s body, he says something similar: “Wow, this guy really works out!”

Across decades of internal canon, Star Trek can make the same body-switching joke, and make it work, in any century.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 drops new episodes on Fridays on Paramount+.

• Science Fiction

‘Star Trek: Discovery’s Connection to ‘The Next Generation’ Explained

...And it involves a new crew.

The Big Picture

• The USS Discovery embarks on a red directive mission with ties to Star Trek lore, focusing on the Progenitors' technology.
• New faces join the crew on a mission to uncover an artifact related to the Progenitors in the Next Generation era.
• The technology to create life poses a powerful threat if misused, as Moll and L'ak aim to sell the artifact to the highest bidder.

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 are finally available on Paramount+, putting Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery back on the boldly going business. This time, they're not going another 800 years into the future, but instead, their mission has a connection to another time: the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. Back then, Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) once led the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on a mission that uncovered the secrets of life itself as we know it . It may have been a one-episode story, but it's now getting the proper arc it deserves; the time has finally come to learn the secrets of the Progenitors.

Star Trek: Discovery

Taking place almost a decade before Captain Kirk's Enterprise, the USS Discovery charts a course to uncover new worlds and life forms.

The Discovery Is Given a Red Directive Mission by Dr. Kovich

The final season of Discovery starts off with its foot on the door, with ties to past Star Trek lore and the return of Dr. Kovich ( David Cronenberg ), which always means business for the Discovery crew. This time, his mission is so important that it interrupts a Starfleet event, but can't be disclosed because it's a red directive (a mission of a highly classified and dangerous nature that takes precedence over all other tasks) . Captain Burnham doesn't like the idea of keeping secrets from her crew, but since the Discovery is the only ship that can take this mission thanks to its spore drive, she accepts it.

The secretive mission introduces some new faces to Discovery , including couriers, Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L'ak ( Elias Toufexis ), as well as U.S.S. Antares Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ). The mission was to retrieve an artifact from a Romulan science ship that had been adrift for 800 years, but Moll and L'ak beat them to it, then take the artifact to the planet, Q'mau, where the synthetic antique dealer, Fred ( J. Adam Brown ), opens it up and reveals a diary written by the Romulan scientist, Vellek ( Michael Copeman ). Even though Moll and L'ak have escaped Starfleet in Q'mau, Admiral Charles Vance ( Oded Fehr ) helps officer Sylvia Tilly ( Mary Wiseman ) obtain information on Vellek.

As it turns out, Vellek was once part of a group that—under the leadership of Captain Jean-Luc Picard —attempted to solve the mystery of the planet Vilmor II. There, they found out about a race of humanoid aliens known only as the Progenitors , who have created life in its humanoid form and are the common link between all present humanoid species in the galaxy. The Discovery's mission, however, isn't about the Progenitors themselves, but rather about the technology they used to do what they did.

The Progenitors’ Story Comes From a Single Episode in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’

Season 6, Episode 20 of The Next Generation , "The Chase," is one of the wildest in the entire series. For the first time ever, a Star Trek episode shows Humans, Klingons, Romulans, and more together in the same scene. That's all thanks to one of the most interesting plots in the franchise, which sees these races coming together to discover the secret of their common origin. Unfortunately, The Next Generation didn't carry on with this plotline, but Discovery is finally giving it the sequence it deserves.

"The Chase" starts off with Captain Picard meeting his old mentor, Professor Galen ( Norman Lloyd ), aboard the Enterprise-D. The scholar is there to recruit Picard for a long-term mission that will result in the most important scientific discovery of their time, but Picard can't give up his post on Starfleet. Picard decides to take the Enterprise-D and finish what Galen started. He begins by analyzing the data his mentor had gathered (large blocks of numbers laid out in a sort of sequence). Following this trail, he eventually discovers that the numbers are actually a DNA sequence. On the planet, Loren III, Picard intervenes and mediates their conflict upon learning that both of them are there for the same reason the Enterpreise-D is, calling for them to analyze the combined DNA strands they have. They learn that those are all part of a puzzle, with each sequence complementing one another, but that there are still missing pieces.

The Enterprise-D follows the Cardassians to Vilmor II with the Klingon emissary on board, and they find out the planet has lichen growing on the dried-up ocean floor. Discreetly, Dr. Beverly Crusher ( Gates McFadden ) inserts all the DNA samples they now have onto her tricorder, which then projects the recording of a humanoid woman ( Salome Jens ). Thankfully, everyone stops arguing to listen to the projection, as the woman explains that she belonged to a race of ancient aliens from 4.5 billion years earlier. Her species eventually came to terms with their extinction, but they sowed pieces of their own DNA on many planets where life could grow across the galaxy as a way of ensuring a lasting legacy . Their intention was for all those future species to come together upon discovering their shared ancestry . Cardassians and Klingons immediately resume their bickering, unable to accept that they have anything in common. Later, Picard ponders with the Romulans that one day, in the future, perhaps all species will learn to coexist for the sake of their shared ancestry.

Where Does This Leave Captain Burnham and the Discovery Crew?

The race of ancient humanoids is never named onscreen, but they are referred to as the Progenitors from then on. With Discovery finally finishing this loose thread in Star Trek lore, it's important to ponder that the Progenitors must have used powerful tech to sow their DNA across the galaxy, which is what the overall plot of the season is going to be. The technology to create life is powerful by definition , and can be used for terrible things if it falls in the wrong hands. Right now, Moll and L'ak have the diary, but they're unwilling to cooperate with the Federation after a failed negotiation attempt by Cleveland "Book" Booker ( David Ajala ). However, they're looking to sell the diary to the highest bidder.

After the events of the first part of the season premiere , "Red Directive," Captain Rayner has been discharged from his command of the U.S.S. Antares. As sad as it is to see an officer of 30-plus years being discharged, it's also very serendipitous, as Captain Burnham is in need of a new number one for the Discovery as Saru ( Doug Jones ) is about to take a new diplomatic post for the Federation. During their chase on Q'mau, Rayner mentions that he has history chasing Moll and L'ak, which will surely come in handy . Also, Book finds out he has a past connection to Moll that makes them all but family, which is another potential lead to finding her.

Star Trek: Discovery is available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Watch on Paramount+

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 4 uses time travel to remember the past 5 seasons

It's pretty obvious watching this episode that the cast and crew, at the very least, strongly suspected that this was going to be the last season of "Discovery" when it was written.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 4

With the news that "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is ending after its current season, that really only leaves "Strange New Worlds" as the last remaining Nu-Trek series currently airing on television. 

And, a word to the wise: If you're a die-hard fan of " Discovery ," make sure you have your own physical media, 'cause no one likes being at the mercy of whatever an overpaid television executive thinks. You're welcome. Moreover, after this final season of "Discovery," we're going to have until wait until next year for the next season of " Strange New Worlds ." It's all starting to feel a bit like "Game of Thrones" all over again.

Episode four, entitled "Face the Strange," is without a doubt the best entry so far in the fifth season, and one can't help but wonder after watching exactly when the cast and production crew were first informed that this would be the last season, because it was definitely before this episode was actually written. The reason? It is, for all intents and purposes, a 60-minute, time-travel-powered, postscript-style reminiscence of all elements of all five seasons — or as much as you can cram into an hour — and what a rollercoaster ride it's been.

So when Alex Kurtzman or Michelle Paradise or whoever it is that actually has authority in the writer's room entered said room, put down their grande iced sugar-free vanilla half-double decaffeinated half-caff latte with soy milk and a twist of lemon in their Paramount-branded 40oz Stanley Clean Slate Quencher H2.0 Flowstate™ Tumbler and announced, "Wouldn't it be great to revisit chapters from seasons one, two, three and four?" no doubt everyone cheered. "And how will this be possible?" asked Kurtzman, to which an eager-beaver intern no doubt excitedly thrust their hand up into the air and exclaimed, "Why, time travel , of course!"

Related: ' Star Trek:' History & effect on space technology

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"Quite right," replied Kurtzman (in our imaginations, at least), adding, "But it can be for one episode, so it has to be an isolated, self-contained form of time travel." Thus was conceived the "Time Bug," and with it came a ton of technobabble to precisely explain its parameters. Although quite why Zora didn't detect it was not addressed. Also, you know, transporters. 

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But this clever Time Bug, which can manipulate time in just about any way that's convenient for the writers to overcome any potential chronological complications — like life-changing paradoxes — came onboard the USS Discovery by way of that shifty Malinne "Moll" Ravel (Eve Harlow), who managed to infiltrate the Trill homeworld undetected, as we saw last week .

As a result, we get reminder glimpses of Michael Burnham's first coming aboard the USS Discovery way, way, way back in season one, complete with appropriate uniforms and everything. We get a fleeting reminder of the Red Angel and the battle with Control , naturally The Burn gets a mention, and there's even a not-very-subtle nod to the short-Trek " Calypso ." It's all a little bit like a Greatest Hits album that doesn't include any of the tracks that you actually liked, being played at 45 instead of 33. Remember vinyl?

Since it's now obvious that this season was written after the cancellation announcement had been made to the cast and crew, the single most important question is, Will the show benefit from that, or will it suffer? Are the remaining six episodes going to be a drawn-out epilogue, tied loosely together with a mostly lame plot? Or, will advance knowledge of the show's future actually serve the writers well, allowing them to produce something above and beyond the normal level of writing? 

There's even a very entertaining scene, in which 23rd-century Burnham must fight her 32nd-century self. Of course, the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator fitted to the space bug prevents any changes from affecting the timeline, so you know, phew . 

Most of the original Discovery bridge reappear, as close to how they looked seven years ago as possible, and even Lt. Cmdr. Airiam (played by Sara Mitich in the first season and Hannah Cheesman in the second) makes a cameo, so that's nice. Also, we can really see as Sonequa Martin-Green flips between her two Burnhams just how effective that dreadlock hair piece that she wears through this season actually is. Half the show's budget probably went to that. 

 —   Watch the bittersweet trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery's final season (video)

— Star Trek streaming guide: Where to watch the Star Trek movies and TV shows online

—  Star Trek's Seven of Nine returns in new novel 'Picard: Firewall' (exclusive)

It's a fun filler episode, and, even if it doesn't advance the plot an inch, it does allow character development to take place, particularly between Burnham and Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). Arguably the biggest surprise was that the writers were able to resist putting Captain Pike (Anson Mount) into this episode. 

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery," and every other episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the U.S., while "Prodigy" has found a new home on Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on  Paramount Plus  in Australia, Latin America, the U.K. 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.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 3 'Jinaal' is a slow but steady affair

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Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery stars eve harlow & elias toufexis break down their villainous romance.

Screen Rant interviews Elias Toufexis and Eve Harlow about joining Star Trek: Discovery and playing season 5's villainous lovers, Moll and L'ak.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

• Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis play renegade lovers Moll and L'ak, who are hunting for ancient technology, in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.
• Moll and L'ak race against USS Discovery to find powerful Progenitor technology with the power to create life itself in season 5.
• Harlow and Toufexis discuss Moll and L'ak's love story, challenges with prosthetics, and the dynamic with Commander Rayner in Discovery.

Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis are renegade lovers Moll and L'ak on the hunt for Star Trek: Discover y season 5's ancient and powerful treasure. Harlow is new to Star Trek while Toufexis guest starred in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, but, together, Moll and L'ak are the main antagonists of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Moll, a human, and L'ak, a mysterious alien, are a couple in a race with the USS Discovery to find the technology of the Progenitors , which has the power to create life, itself. Moll and L'ak are also being pursued by Commander Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ), the new First Officer of the USS Discovery, who is driven by his animosity towards the former couriers-turned-treasure hunters.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Screen Rant spoke to Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis about Moll and L'ak's Star Trek: Discovery love story, the challenges of L'ak's prosthetics, and how Moll and L'ak really feel about their pursuer, Commander Rayner.

Eve Harlow & Elias Toufexis Compare Their Romance To Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's Other Couples

Screen Rant: I'm loving this season of Discovery and the feedback I've gotten across the board is that this is the best season. Have you guys felt the love and the warm reception for season 5?

Eve Harlow: I stay off the internet because the internet scares me. (laughs) So it's kind of like, 'Okay, you can hear nice things. Yes, tell me nice things.' But the bad stuff I'm like, 'Lalala!' But yeah, that's great to hear. Elias Toufexis: Yeah, [I feel the love.], especially meeting people like you and the fans online. You're always gonna have detractors. it's always gonna happen, but if you can somehow not let them get to you and take in the love... The love is there this season. Everyone's really enjoying it, and I knew they would. I knew when we were shooting this, I'm like, 'This is too much fun. This is too cool.' There's so much cool stuff, so much fun stuff, there's no way people are gonna watch this and dislike it. And I was right. It's too much fun. The first episodes are fantastic all the way through, and then the other half of the season gets even crazier. I'm really happy with the reception.

Moll and L'ak are a love story. Discovery has a lot of couples . There are a lot of love stories going on. Would you say Moll and L'ak are the best couple in Discovery , and what makes them the best?

Elias Toufexis: I’d say they’re the best couple in Star Trek history. Eve Harlow: Obviously, we’re the best because it’s us! Elias Toufexis: I mean, look, they’re the coolest. They’re the coolest couple in Star Trek history, that's for sure. They're smart. They're in love. They're passionate. They know what they want. They do what they need to do to get it. And they don't care who's standing in their way. But they're not inherently evil. They're not inherently villains, really. Yeah, they're the antagonists of the show. But they're doing what they're doing for a reason. And those reasons are explained. And that's one of my favorite things about this season, that they're explained. The reasons are shown why we're doing what we're doing.

Bonnie and Clyde have been referenced a lot for Moll and L'ak, but they might be more like Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers or Pumpkin and Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction . Did you guys pull inspiration from any of these famous movie criminal couples?

Eve Harlow: 100% But I think that we see these like kinds of characters throughout different kinds of mediums. It was really funny because right before I did this show, there was another show that I did [The Night Agent], and it also had a dynamic of Bonnie and Clyde. I was like, 'I'm going from doing a Bonnie and Clyde on a political thriller to doing Bonnie and Clyde in space. F--- yeah!' So I think you can't help but draw inspiration. 'Oh, yeah, I see this, and I see how this is reflected in what I have'. But then you take it as some amalgamation of everything that you've consumed before, and you make it your own. Elias Toufexis: I'm inclined to toss out Mickey and Mallory. For me, that never played because they're such psychos in that film. Moll and L'ak are not psychos. They're passionate and they're in love. I mean, you could take the coolness of Mickey and Mallory, and you could throw that in there. But in terms of their reasoning for doing what they're doing.... Even Bonnie and Clyde is a little too much. [Moll and L'ak] are justified in what they're doing. I don't know that murdering anybody is ever justified, but their reason for being there is love and freedom. And that's hard to dispute.

Moll's Wig Was Eve's Idea & L'ak's Prosthetics Were A Challenge For Elias

Eve, you just mentioned you were on Netflix's The Night Agent as Ellen, an assassin in love. You wore a lot of wigs on The Night Agent. How does how does Moll's wig compare?

Eve Harlow: Okay, so fun fact: The wigs... That was my idea. Because for The Night Agent, when I got the script, Ellen was obviously an assassin who has different clothing and stuff. And because I wear wigs in my real life, I was like, 'Wait, this totally makes sense for Ellen to have wigs because when someone asks for a description of a person, its height, hair color, right?' It's the easiest thing to change. And so I was like, 'F--- it. I'm gonna pitch it to the producers, see if they're into it.' They were into it. That worked. And when I auditioned for Star Trek, I wore a wig for my audition. It just made sense. It felt sci-fi, it felt edgy, it felt like all of the things that I felt when I read the sides and the character description.

Elias, you and I talked a little bit about the makeup process for L'ak, wearing the head, and the makeup, and everything. How do you feel now that you've seen it on screen and seen how it plays? It looks awesome.

Elias Toufexis: You want to know the truth? This is how messed up being an actor is, like the body dysmorphia of an actor. I'll look at it and be like, 'Oh, it looks so cool.' And then, 'Nope, I look fat in that scene.' Even under the makeup. It makes no sense. It's completely ridiculous because the makeup is the makeup. But you're looking at it like, 'I don't like that shot, I like this shot.' I would only tell that to you, John. But having said that yeah, the process was tough. When it was over, when when the season was done, and I was done, I remember going, 'I don't know that I would do this again because it is very difficult.' I didn't realize how difficult it would be. I remember that first day of sitting there for five and a half hours, and then seeing [me as L'ak], and I'm like, 'This is the coolest thing ever! This is no problem.' And four or five days in, I'm like, 'This is exhausting.' And you don't realize that. You're putting it on for five hours, then you're wearing it for like 12 hours, and then you're trying to get it off. There was a week when we were shooting where I was more L'ak than I was Elias. I would take it off ,go home, sleep five hours, come back, and put it back on. There were times where I'm like, 'Can I just leave it on?' 'No, you can't.' So it was tough. But being removed from it now for over a year, you look at it, and you go, 'Okay, it was worth it because it's so cool.' And the makeup is what I was concerned about. I think I talked to you about this a little bit. What I was concerned about was [my performance] getting through the makeup. That his love for Moll [came through.] That was my big thing. Will you be able to see that he loves Moll through these contacts and the makeup? Yes, you can, and I'm very happy with that. That was my big concern and the fact that you could see the emotion... Because it was tough to get through. I had to be bigger than I normally am on-screen. I'm normally a very quiet, subtle actor. That's how I like to be, and I had pushed through the makeup to get it across. I was worried about being melodramatic, and it worked out. The director, Olatunde [Osunsanmi] was talking to me about it a lot. And he was right. And I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Why Commander Rayner Has A Grudge Against Moll and L'ak

L'ak has his own ship. He's one of the few Star Trek characters who actually owns his own starship. I want to get really nerdy about the ship. What are the cool things it can do? Does it have a name, model, registry number, all that nerdy Star Trek minutia?

Elias Toufexis: I want to give it a name, Eve. We should give it a name. I think he'd call it The Moll. I think he would do something like that. He would call it The Moll or the Malinne or something like that. I mean, again, as a big Star Trek fan, my own ship? Like, come on, it's the coolest thing ever. I love the detachment cells, and then it could spin and the nacelles spin around it, and then giving off the different warp trails and stuff, That kind of stuff is top of the line cool, man. I love that stuff, and I hope there's a million toys and ships and models. I'll buy 'em all.

Callum Keith Rennie's Commander Rayner is another awesome addition to season 5. Rayner really has a bug up his ass - a time bug, as it turns out - about Moll and L'alk. Can you talk a little bit about what his problem is with you? Because it's only been hinted at.

Eve Harlow: Oh, I don't remember what is revealed in what episode. What's a spoiler and what isn't? Because it's all fused together. Elias Toufexis: Callum is great. I've known Callum for years. He's a very famous Canadian actor. Eve Harlow: And I worked with him like over 10 years ago on this TV show he was on. And he remembered, and I hadn't. I was like, 'Oh dang. Hey again, years down the line.' Elias Toufexis: He's a great actor and I love Rayner. What's great about Rayner, for me, is it could be a very one-dimensional character. It could easily even be played one-dimensionally. And Callum is such a wonderful actor that you see layers getting broken down episode by episode. That's what's great about him in terms of his relationship with Moll and L'ak. I don't want to get into too much. I don't know what I'm gonna spoil,. But he definitely does have, as you say, a time bug up his ass. But they don't care about him. I'll tell you that much. They don't.

Elias, you're on the Star Trek convention circuit. We've hung out in Vegas. Eve, are you looking forward to doing Star Trek cons? You're part of Star Trek now. It's going to be part of you forever. There's gonna be Moll and L'ak cosplay.

Eve Harlow: Honestly, I'm excited to see that! That would be fun. When I first got on set, being welcomed on set, it was like, 'Welcome to the family.' So I'm just like, I'm excited to be here!

About Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send 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.

Check out our other Star Trek: Discovery season 5 interviews here:

• Sonequa Martin-Green
• David Ajala and Doug Jones
• Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman & Blu del Barrio
• Alex Kurtzman & Michelle Paradise
• Callum Keith Rennie

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery's Season 5 Reveal Is the Craziest Twist the Franchise Has Ever Attempted

Star Trek: Discovery's final season is picking up from a franchise-changing, long-ignored plot point introduced in the franchise over 30 years ago.

• Season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery picks up on a long-forgotten storyline from The Next Generation involving a common genetic origin for various species.
• The crew of the Discovery is on a mission to uncover ancient technology left behind by the Progenitors, creators of life in the universe.
• This final season aims to explore themes of creation and purpose, tying up loose ends while reflecting on a united future for various species in the Star Trek universe.

This article contains MAJOR Spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 kicked off in a big way. After a two-year hiatus after Season 4 concluded in 2022, Star Trek: Discover y is finally back on Paramount+ for its final season. The series debuted back in 2017 as the flagship series for the streaming network, then known as CBS All Access. Star Trek: Discovery originally was a prequel series to Star Trek: The Original Series set in the year 2256, but the Season 2 finale saw the crew of the USS Discovery jump forward in time to the year 3188, the furthest point in the Star Trek timeline on screen and has explored a new era for the franchise.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 debuted on Apr. 4, 2024, with a two-part episode. The premiere date was timed one day before First Contact Day , an informal but fan celebration of the Star Trek franchise, which in the universe of the series marks the day that humans make first contact with an alien species, the Vulcans. While the premiere date being close to First Contact Day was a nice way to celebrate, the final moments show that the date might have been a deliberate choice as it ties in with Star Trek: Discovery 's shocking twist as the first episode of the season "The Red Directive" ends with the revelation that is following up a storyline from The Next Generation that no other entry in the franchise has.

What Was the Twist in Star Trek: Discovery?

Star trek: discovery.

Read Our Season 5 Review

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1, "The Red Directive," featured Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of Discovery being tasked with securing an unknown artifact that is important to the Federation. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that the secret treasure they have been chasing this whole time is, in fact, the diary of a Romulan scientist named Vellek. Vellek is retconned to be a background character from the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase" and reveals that the major plot of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 will be about following up on that storyline.

Burnham learns about The Progenitors, a previously unnamed race from The Next Generation episode "The Chase," and discovers that they were the creators of sentient life in the universe and an explanation for why the various aliens in the Star Trek franchise all have humanoid features. This sets up the storyline for Season 5, as the crew is now tasked with locating the Progenitors' ancient technology, which could be the key to creating life.

This sets up the final season. Unlike previous seasons with a season-long mystery, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 has revealed the major revelation up front to set up an adventure described as an "Indiana Jones season" by star Sonequa Martin-Green . Just like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan picks up from a storyline in the original television series, Star Trek: Discovery 's new storyline was set up years ago in a separate Star Trek series from over three decades ago.

The Chase and How It Changed Star Trek

As mentioned before, the seeds for the final storyline in Star Trek: Discovery were planted all the way back in 1993. In Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase," the 20th episode of Season 6, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the Enterprise discover an ancient puzzle that is compatible with DNA strands that have been recovered from different worlds all over the galaxy. They, along with the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians, all get on the same page and realize that an embedded genetic pattern is constant throughout many different species.

Later in the episode, the various cultures come across a hologram from one of the ancient aliens who reveals that when their species first explored the galaxy, there was no humanoid life in the universe, so they spread their DNA around, making various species as a way to continue on their legacy. Aside from the revelation that multiple species in Star Trek , like humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Romulans, Kelpien, Orion, and Cardassians, are all descended from the same source, the episode ending hints at an optimistic future for these species. The Progenitors revealed they left clues of their existence so that when the various species they created took to the stars, they would find out the truth together and realize their shared common origin.

Star Trek: Discovery Stars and EPs on Why There Would Be No Modern Era of Trek Without Discovery

This provides an in-universe explanation of why so many aliens in the Star Trek franchise are humanoid beings, covering up the fact that the original series had a very small budget and had to work with human actors in alien costumes instead of elaborate costumes with otherworldly designs. It also was a major revelation for the franchise, confirming an intelligent creator behind life in the universe and falling into the ancient alien's theory. Despite this major revelation, Star Trek has largely ignored it. This is a major revelation that the franchise has not touched in over 30 years, but Star Trek: Discovery looks to be building on it in a major way and might be the perfect show to pick up this thread.

Why Bring It Up Now in Star Trek: Discovery

Despite the significant universe ramifications from "The Chase," no entry in the franchise has picked up on it further. Star Trek: Discovery seems almost perfectly made to pick up this plot more than any past Star Trek programs . Seasons 3 through 5 have been about the recreation of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. The Progentator's dream was that the various species they created would someday unite, which is the goal of the Federation. Yet, in the 31st century, it is clear that the idea of unity between planets is further than it was in The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Disocvery 's third and fourth seasons served as a reflection of the real world as the franchise has in the past. Much like how Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was an allegory for the end of the Cold War, Star Trek: Discovery used the time jump and fractured Federation to comment on the growing trend in isolation and nationalism that has been sweeping the globe in the past 10 years. The world seems further away from the united utopia that Star Trek showed audiences in the 1960s.

Now, for the series' fifth and final season, the Discovery crew is tasked with facing down the ultimate question: Where do we come from? Now that they know their creators, what comes next? In the 24th century, the information was not enough to unite the world, but maybe in the 31st century, the knowledge of a common shared history will unite various species to make for an even stronger Starfleet than ever before.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 looks to be wanting to try and redo Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . That film was intended to be the final Star Trek adventure for the crew of the Starship Enterprise by having the crew confront the concept of God. Yet, that film was a box office and critical disaster, which resulted in one final attempt to give the original crew a more fitting farewell.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 now finds the crew of Discovery on a mission to find the keys to life's existence and what their purpose is, which will tie into the various characters finding out what their own purpose in life is in their final adventure together. Hopefully, this Star Trek entry which tackles the themes of creation fairs better than the previous one. Star Trek: Discovery is streaming now on Paramount+. Check out our interview with Star Trek: Discovery stars Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman, and Blu del Barrio below.

‘It’s A Different Energy’: Star Trek: Discovery’s Callum Keith Rennie Compares Working On The Paramount+ Show To Battlestar Galactica, And I See Where He’s Coming From

The actor's made another big splash in the sci-fi genre.

Star Trek: Discovery ’s final season is finally underway on the 2024 TV schedule , and there’s a newcomer who’d come aboard the main cast for this last hurrah. Callum Keith Rennie is starring as Rayner, a Kellerun Starfleet officer who thrived during wartime, but is having trouble adjusting to peace. Of course, Battlestar Galactica fans know Rennie well from having played Leoben, the #2 model Cylon, so with another major sci-fi credit on his resume, I was curious to learn how his experiences on the two shows compared to one another when I spoke to him for CinemaBlend. He described Discovery as having a “different energy” from Battlestar , and I see where he’s coming from.

Ahead of the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5’s third episode, titled “Jinaal,” to Paramount+ subscribers , I had the pleasure of chatting with Callum Keith Rennie about his experience in this massive corner of the sci-fi genre. The actor clarified what he meant by “different energy,” as well as shared what was similar about these professional experiences for him, with these words:

Battlestar was such a long [time ago]… I mean, to me it feels like such a long time ago. There’s a difference because it’s a different energy. Battlestar had a real earthy feel… there I am, playing a Cylon, but it felt earthy, the dialogue had an earthiness to it. But again, another space show with a wonderful group of people that you really care about everybody, everybody cared about each other. So that was interesting because Discovery had that, Battlestar had that, where everybody’s on everybody’s team and trying to build them up, and everybody does their best. It was very nice.

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While Battlestar Galactica certainly had its fair share of fantastical elements, Callum Keith Rennie’s use of the term “earthy” is pretty apt. The show may have followed the remnants of humanity trying to follow a new home on Earth as the Cylons hunted them down across the galaxy, but revival of the same-named 1978 series was definitely more grounded compared to a lot of other sci-fi projects. This included through the dialogue, and I can understand why Rennie brought that up, because with Star Trek, there’s a lot more technobabble thrown in.

That aside, Rennie also noticed that camaraderie between the starring characters as a big similarity between Star Trek: Discovery and Battlestar Galactica . The circumstances and challenges these respective crews have to face out in space are quite different, but in the midst of that, they’re all there to support one another through these difficult times. As far as Discovery goes, here’s hoping that Rayner gets on board with that particular program soon now that he’s Michael Burnham’s first officer. Things run a lot differently there compared to when he was captaining the Antares , and as seen in “Jinaal,” Rayner’s going to have to adjust the way he interacts with those he commands in order to be an effective leader on this title ship.

There are now seven episodes left to go until Star Trek: Discovery is over, so keep visiting CinemaBlend for more coverage on this series and the upcoming Star Trek TV shows . Unfortunately, if you’re looking to revisit Callum Keith Rennie’s time as Leoben in Battlestar Galactica , that show currently isn’t streaming anywhere, so you’ll either need to purchase your own physical or digital copy of it.

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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Long-lost first model of the USS Enterprise from 'Star Trek' boldly goes home after twisting voyage

DALLAS — The first model of the USS Enterprise — used in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series — has boldly gone back home, returning to creator Gene Roddenberry’s son decades after it went missing.

The model’s disappearance sometime in the 1970s had become the subject of lore, so it caused a stir when it popped up on eBay last fall. The sellers quickly took it down, and then contacted Dallas-based Heritage Auctions to authenticate it. Last weekend, the auction house facilitated the model’s return.

Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, said he’s thrilled to have the model that had graced the desk of his father, who died in 1991 at age 70.

“This is not going home to adorn my shelves,” Roddenberry said. “This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere.”

Heritage’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said the auction house was contacted by people who said they’d discovered it a storage unit, and when it was brought into their Beverly Hills office, he and a colleague “instantly knew that it was the real thing.”

They reached out to Roddenberry, who said he appreciates that everyone involved agreed returning the model was the right thing to do. He wouldn’t go into details on the agreement reached but said “I felt it important to reward that and show appreciation for that.”

Maddalena said the model vanished in the 1970s after Gene Roddenberry loaned it to makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979.

“No one knew what happened to it,” Rod Roddenberry said.

The 3-foot (0.91-meter) model of the USS Enterprise was used in the show’s original pilot episode as well as the opening credits of the resulting TV series, and was the prototype for the 11-foot (3-meter) version featured in the series’ episodes. The larger model is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

The original “Star Trek” television series, which aired in the late 1960s, kicked off an ever-expanding multiverse of cultural phenomena, with TV and movie spinoffs and conventions where a fanbase of zealous and devoted Trekkies can’t get enough of memorabilia.

This USS Enterprise model would easily sell for more than $1 million at auction, but really “it’s priceless,” Maddalena said.

“It could sell for any amount and I wouldn’t be surprised because of what it is,” he said. “It is truly a cultural icon.”

Roddenberry, who was just a young boy when the model went missing, said he has spotty memories of it, “almost a deja vu.” He said it wasn’t something he’d thought much about until people began contacting him after it appeared on eBay.

“I don’t think I really, fully comprehended at first that this was the first Enterprise ever created,” he said.

He said he has no idea if there was something nefarious behind the disappearance all those decades ago or if it was just mistakenly lost, but it would be interesting to find out more about what happened.

“This piece is incredibly important and it has its own story and this would be a great piece of the story,” Roddenberry said.

Thankfully, he said, the discovery has cleared up one rumor: That it was destroyed because as a young boy, he’d thrown it into a pool.

“Finally I’m vindicated after all these years,” he said with a laugh.

Emmys: Supporting Actor (Drama) — Will Multiple Actors From ‘The Crown’ and ‘The Morning Show’ Dominate the Field?

Variety  Awards Circuit  section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars,  Emmys , Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by  Variety  senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:

OSCARS  |  EMMYS  |  GRAMMYS  |  TONYS

2024 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Commentary (Updated: April 18, 2024) : The last two years have seen the supporting drama actor category at the Emmys dominated by just a few series. With eight nominees each year, only two or three shows have been represented, showing a limited range of viewing by the Television Academy’s members. Despite the expansive array of drama available, “The Crown” and “The Morning Show” are poised to dominate this category this year, potentially fielding multiple nominees each.

Currently, each show are taking up three slots. “The Crown” could land Jonathan Pryce (snubbed for last season), Khalid Abdalla and Salim Daw, who have been the highlights and talking points of the final season.

“Morning Show” has previous Emmy winner Billy Crudup, possible double Emmy nominee Jon Hamm (who also has “Fargo” in limited) and previous nominee Mark Duplass.

This raises the question: Is there room for actors from less represented series to break through?

Among those who might stand out are Nathan Lane from “The Gilded Age” and Benny Safdie from “The Curse.” Both actors have delivered noteworthy performances that distinguish them as top contenders to represent their respective shows. Additionally, actors like Jack Lowden of “Slow Horses,” Ke Huy Quan of “Loki,” and Benedict Wong from “3 Body Problem” also present strong cases. Each comes from a series that, while currently among the top eight contenders, offers an opportunity to disruput the usual suspects dominating the field.

Whether this year will see a shift towards a more inclusive array of nominees, and recognize more shows, remains an open and intriguing question.

Read:  Variety’s  Awards Circuit for the latest Primetime Emmy predictions in the major categories.

And the Predicted Nominees Are

Next in Line

Also in Contention

Eligible performances (supporting drama actor).

**The list below is not complete and have been confirmed as officially submitted. All information is subject to change. Grouped by network that airs each series.

• Noah Galvin — “ The Good Doctor ” (ABC)
• Will Yun Lee — “ The Good Doctor ” (ABC)
• Chuku Modu — “ The Good Doctor ” (ABC)
• Richard Schiff — “ The Good Doctor ” (ABC)
• Zackary Momoh — “Parish” (AMC)
• Skeet Ulrich — “Parish” (AMC)
• Bradley Whitford — “Parish” (AMC)
• Terry O’Quinn — “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” (AMC)
• Jonathan Banks — “Constellation” (Apple TV+)
• James D’Arcy — “Constellation” (Apple TV+)
• Lee Pace — “Foundation” (Apple TV+)
• Joel Kinnaman — “For All Mankind” (Apple TV+)
• Billy Crudup — “The Morning Show” (Apple TV+)
• Mark Duplass — “The Morning Show” (Apple TV+)
• Jon Hamm — “The Morning Show” (Apple TV+)
• Claes Bang — “The New Look” (Apple TV+)
• John Malkovich — “The New Look” (Apple TV+)
• Anders Holm — “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (Apple TV+)
• Wyatt Russell — “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (Apple TV+)
• Ren Watabe — “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (Apple TV+)
• Common — “Silo” (Apple TV+)
• David Oyelowo — “Silo” (Apple TV+)
• Tim Robbins — “Silo” (Apple TV+)
• Christopher Chung — “ Slow Horses ” (Apple TV+)
• Jack Lowden — “ Slow Horses ” (Apple TV+)
• James Cromwell — “Sugar” (Apple TV+)
• Wendell Pierce — “Elsbeth” (CBS)
• Hayden Christiansen — “Ahsoka” (Disney+)
• David Tennant — “Ahsoka” (Disney+)
• Ke Huy Quan — “Loki” (Disney+)
• Owen Wilson — “Loki” (Disney+)
• Vondie Curtis-Hall — “Justified: City Primeval” (FX)
• Boyd Holbrook — “Justified: City Primeval” (FX)
• Eric McCormack — “The Other Black Girl” (Hulu)
• Michael Cerveris — “The Gilded Age” (Max)
• Nathan Lane — “The Gilded Age” (Max)
• Ken Watanabe — “Tokyo Vice” (Max)
• Adrien Brody — “Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” (Max)
• Jason Clarke — “Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” (Max)
• Solomon Hughes — “Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” (Max)
• DeVaughn Nixon — “Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” (Max)
• Jason Segel — “Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” (Max)
• Mark-Paul Gosselaar — “Found” (NBC)
• Jovan Adepo — “3 Body Problem” (Netflix)
• Liam Cunningham — “3 Body Problem” (Netflix)
• Alex Sharp — “3 Body Problem” (Netflix)
• Benedict Wong — “3 Body Problem” (Netflix)
• Daniel Dae Kim — “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Netflix)
• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee — “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Netflix)
• Ken Leung — “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (Netflix)
• Khalid Abdalla — “ The Crown ” (Netflix)
• Salim Daw — “ The Crown ” (Netflix)
• Jonathan Pryce — “ The Crown ” (Netflix)
• Jacob Romero Gibson — “One Piece” (Netflix)
• Mackenyu — “One Piece” (Netflix)
• Taz Skylar — “One Piece” (Netflix)
• Ralph Brown — “Sexy Beast” (Paramount+)
• Morgan Freeman — “Special Ops: Lioness” (Paramount+)
• Wilson Cruz — “Star Trek: Discovery” (Paramount+)
• Aaron Moten — “Fallout” (Prime Video)
• Will Patton — “Outer Range” (Prime Video)
• Michael Kelly — “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” (Prime Video)
• Wendell Pierce — “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” (Prime Video)
• Corbin Bernsen — “The Curse” (Showtime)
• Benny Safdie — “The Curse” (Showtime)
• Richard Rankin — “Outlander” (Starz)
• Devon Sawa — “ Chucky ” (Syfy)

More Information (Supporting Drama Actor)

2023 category winner : Matthew Macfadyen as Tom — “Succession” (HBO) — Season 4

2024 Emmy Awards Calendar and Timeline (all dates are subject to change)

• Eligibility period: June 1, 2023 – May 31, 2024
• Feb. 29: Submissions open
• May 9: Deadline for programs that identify as Primetime programming to upload all entry materials.
• June 13: Nominations-round voting begins
• June 24: Nominations-round voting ends at 10:00 p.m. PT
• June 28 – July 8: Voting for peer group-specific top ten rounds panels (if applicable)
• July 17: Primetime Emmy nominations are announced.
• July 24: Deadline for errors and omissions to the nominations.
• August 5: Find-round videos available for viewing.
• August 15: Final-round voting begins.
• August 26: Final-round voting ends at 10:00 p.m. PST.
• Sept. 7-8: Creative Arts Emmy Awards and Governors Gala
• Sunday, Sept. 15: 76th Primetime Emmy Awards to air on ABC.

Emmy Awards Predictions

Other awards predictions, about the primetime emmy awards.

The Primetime Emmy Awards, commonly known as the Emmys, are awarded by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Established in 1949, these celebrate outstanding achievements in American primetime television. The Emmys are categorized into three divisions: the Primetime Emmy Awards for performance and production excellence, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards recognizing achievements in artistry and craftsmanship, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards, which honor significant engineering and technological advancements. The eligibility period typically extends from June 1 to May 31 each year. The Television Academy, which hosts the Emmys, consists of over 20,000 members across 30 professional peer groups, including performers, directors, producers, art directors, artisans and executives.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks' cancelation highlights the issue with animation

P aramount+ has gone on a cancelation spree, ending every show on its service save for one, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. That show, despite season three just beginning production has already been given a green light on season four, and rightfully so. This has made it the only show still standing on the service. Star Trek: Prodigy is off to Netflix with an unknown future, and every other show under the Paramount+ banner has been canceled.

The latest two victims of what appears to be a mismanagement of funds, as well as a lack of viewers are Discovery and Lower Decks. Discovery was canceled a few months ago, just ahead of its fifth and now final season, while Lower Decks got the axed earlier this week. After Discovery was canceled, the show was given a chance to bring its cast and crew back for a minor filming session to put a proper conclusion on the series.

With the sets and such already built, it wasn't hard, they just had to get in and film before the studio had the sets taken down. It was probably quick, clean, and easy to do. Lower Decks will not be afforded that same finale, however.

Unlike Discovery, Lower Decks is an animated show and that means that putting together, even a final 30 seconds that can properly close out the series would cost far more than just filming a live-action conclusion like Discovery.

You're talking about getting writers on board to write a new scene, renting or leasing a recording space, and flying in the talent to record new dialogue, all while spending a lot of money to animate the new scenes. New scenes will have to be rushed as opposed to the other illustrations already made for the now-final season.

It just takes too much work to get the new scenes recorded, edited, illustrated, and put together than it would for a group of people to use already created sets and props one final time. This is the issue with animation. It takes longer to create and while it can give you more bombastic action scenes at a fraction of the cost, you're also looking at more per scene than your standard live-action show. So a scene with two people walking and talking could cost twice or three times the amount of any other type of shot like that in live-action.

The good news for fans, however, is that usually Lower Decks is written and filmed in a way where the end of the season leaves no standing, unresolved issues, just in case they were canceled. The only time that did happen, where there was a to be continued, was when they had an assurance they were coming back for another season.

So you'll likely get a satisfying finale regardless.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Star Trek: Lower Decks' cancelation highlights the issue with animation .

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