what happened to b 4 star trek

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B-4 was a prototype Soong-type android constructed by Doctor Noonien Soong on Omicron Theta during the 2330s . He was one of three failed prototypes , and the only one to survive a significant amount of time after his activation, before the construction of Lore was successful. ( TNG : " Inheritance ") Although B-4 was outwardly identical to both Data and Lore, the two final androids built, B-4 was not equipped with a positronic brain as sophisticated as those of his brothers. As a result, he had difficulty understanding simple concepts and processing information.

The existence of B-4 was not known to Starfleet until 2379 , when the disassembled pieces of the android were found by the crew of the USS Enterprise -E on Kolarus III , although he could not remember anything about his existence prior to Kolarus III or how he ended up there. The crew of the Enterprise subsequently reassembled him. Although he recognized B-4's limitations, Data wished to give his brother the opportunity to expand his capabilities, much in the same way that he himself had in years past. To that end, Data willingly copied all of his memories to B-4, hoping that the added experiences would help B-4 expand beyond his original programming. However, he was unable to immediately assimilate Data's memories and could not remember things Data could, such as the layout of the Enterprise , Dr. Soong, or Captain Jean-Luc Picard .

In actuality, B-4's pieces had been planted on Kolarus III by Shinzon as part of an elaborate scheme to lure Captain Picard near Romulan space in order to capture him. B-4 was also used as an unwitting spy; he was equipped with a second memory port that contained subversive programming that compelled him to download vital information about the positions of all Federation starships and their coded communications frequencies. However, Data and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge discovered B-4's unauthorized access and indefinitely deactivated him. Data posed as B-4 and provided Shinzon with inaccurate locations for all Starfleet vessels as well as assisting Captain Picard in escaping from Shinzon's ship, the Scimitar .

Data deactivates B-4

A short time later, Data perished while destroying the Scimitar , having voluntarily sacrificed himself to save Captain Picard. B-4 was reactivated so that Picard could tell him of his brother's death, but Picard sadly departed the meeting when his attempts to explain what Data meant to them only confused B-4. With his future uncertain, Picard had noted some of Data's downloaded memories beginning to surface as B-4 began to sing the song " Blue Skies ", which Data had performed at Will Riker and Deanna Troi 's wedding . ( Star Trek Nemesis )

B-4's disassembled parts

By the 2390s , B-4 had been disassembled, and was placed in storage at the Division of Advanced Synthetic Research at the Daystrom Institute . His components were visited in 2399 by Picard, after his retirement . According to Dr. Agnes Jurati , B-4 was " not much like Data at all, " and most of Data's positronic network was lost after the transfer. ( PIC : " Remembrance ") B-4's disembodied head was later moved to Daystrom Station . ( PIC : " The Bounty ")

Following the lifting of the ban on synthetics, Altan Soong began construction on a new golem that would serve as a 'totality', combining parts of B-4, Lore, Lal, and a large amount of Data into a singular being. He gave the new golem an older appearance, based on an aged Soong, hoping to reflect the wisdom of age. While Data's positronic network had previously been unrecoverable from B-4, the lifting of the ban allowed Soong to further his work into the effort and eventually extract Data from B-4's head. However, Soong died before he could complete this golem, and Starfleet seized his work, storing it at Daystrom Station . The integration appeared to have failed, and the four personalities were at odds with each other inside the golem. While interviewing the golem aboard the USS Titan , the voice and personality of B-4 briefly manifested right after Data and Lore's manifestations before then being cut off by Alton Soong's personality. ( PIC : " The Bounty ") Geordi La Forge discovered that B-4's personality profile was memory data only rather than a full personality, as Data and Lore were. ( PIC : " Dominion ") After taking full control of the android, Data told La Forge that he was Data, but also Lore, B-4, and everything else that Dr. Soong programmed into it. ( PIC : " Surrender ")

• 1.1 Appearances
• 1.2 Background information
• 1.3 Apocrypha
• 1.4 External link

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• Star Trek Nemesis
• " Remembrance " (disassembled body)
• " The Bounty " (disassembled head)

Background information [ ]

B-4 was played by actor Brent Spiner .

According to the original Star Trek Nemesis script , the android B-4 ("before") was named "B-9" ("benign"). After detecting the positronic signature from Kolarus III, La Forge asks Data how many androids Dr. Soong built with Data replying he was only aware of himself and Lore . Also according to the script, the android was taken from its homeworld by the Pakleds and traded to the Bolians . He ultimately encountered some Cardassians , who tossed him into a garbage chute and out into space , where he was found by Talosians . It was also revealed that Shinzon had learned of the prototype android through a Cardassian historian. Shinzon had planned to force B-4 into slave labor after carrying out his plans against Picard and the Federation. None of this, however, made it to the final version of the film. The novelization of Star Trek Nemesis names him as "Be-Fore." A deleted scene from the film shows Data trying to teach B-4 to eat with a spoon in the Enterprise crew lounge, but he cannot grasp the skill, much to Data's disappointment.

B-4, Dimitri Valtane , Lojur , the Borg Queen , Hayes and the Punk on Bus are the only characters to debut in a Star Trek film before appearing in a Star Trek television series.

Apocrypha [ ]

B-4 is deactivated and sent off to the Daystrom Institute for Analysis in the novel Resistance , Picard and La Forge having come to accept that the moments where B-4 acts like Data are merely random sparks rather than any sign that B-4 has significantly progressed as a sentient being.

In the novel Cold Equations : The Persistence of Memory , Doctor Bruce Maddox is contemplating deleting Data's memory engrams from B-4, who is kept in storage along with the remains of Soong's other prototype, Lore , and Lal , Data's daughter, when they are stolen by the Breen . Doctor Soong – who survived his death by transferring his mind into an android body far more Human in appearance than Data's – manages to recover his "children", and transfers Data's memories from B-4 into his own body, unable to complete the new body he had been attempting to construct for his "son". The new being is known as 'Data Soong', and retains the memories of Soong alongside Data. He chooses not to rejoin Starfleet, instead forging a new path, buoyed by Soong's substantial wealth. Subseuqently, in Cold Equations : The Body Electric , Data Soong restores Lal to life.

Captain Data - Data's neural nets in the body of B-4

The comic book series Star Trek: Countdown (a tie-in to the 2009 Star Trek film) and the timeline established for the Star Trek Online game depict Data as being alive in 2387 . Sometime prior, Geordi La Forge installed Data's emotion chip into B-4's neural net. This caused the uploads to B-4 by Data to fully activate, allowing Data's full memory and personality to assert itself, essentially resurrecting him. Starfleet decided to reinstate the android to service and, by the time of Countdown, Data had become captain of the USS Enterprise -E . The reactivated Data and Spock later converse on their respective "resurrections."

The "Guardians" story in Strange New Worlds VII dealt with the Horta culture being transplanted to the planet where the Guardian of Forever resided. The Crystalline Entity visited the world almost a thousand years after the events of Nemesis and described an encounter where it was forced to destroy B-4.

External link [ ]

• B-4 at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

How is Data in 'Star Trek: Picard' if he died in 'Star Trek: Nemesis?'

In Picard season 3 episode 6, "The Bounty," Riker, Worf and Raffi Musiker's away mission reunites them with an old friend, but how?

• How Data died in Star Trek: Nemesis
• Data lived on in B-4
• Another Data head?
• Why is Data old now?

What can Data do now?

Warning: Spoilers ahead if you haven't watched "Star Trek: Picard" episode 6, The Bounty .  

Even though Spock died saving the Enterprise in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," Star Trek used the restorative powers of the Genesis planet to bring him back. So when Data made a noble sacrifice of his own in "Star Trek: Nemesis," it wasn't really a surprise when the door was left open – albeit slightly – for the android's future return.

"Star Trek: Picard" season one on Paramount Plus focused heavily on Data's legacy, introducing a family of synthetic offspring and revealing that his consciousness had been preserved in a virtual simulation. Jean-Luc Picard subsequently watched his friend die for a second time, but the show’s third season has just dropped the bombshell that – in true "Jurassic Park" style – something has survived.

In Picard season 3 episode 6 , "The Bounty," Riker, Worf and Raffi Musiker's away mission to the top-secret Daystrom Station reunites them with an old friend, an android with a familiar face who's been given responsibility for the facility's security. But how did Data (still portrayed by actor Brent Spiner) survive certain death in "Star Trek: Nemesis?" Why does he look so much older now? And is he still the same android we knew on the Enterprise-D? These questions and more are answered below.  If you're behind, you can catch up on Star Trek: Picard Season 3" with our Star Trek streaming guide .

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Didn't Data die in Star Trek: Nemesis?

Yes. "Star Trek: Nemesis" is the 10th film in the Star Trek movie franchise and the last to feature the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It features a clone of Jean-Luc Picard called Shinzon who's out to get Picard (and the Federation), with Data discovering an earlier prototype of himself called B-4 along the way.

In the film's climax, the Picard clone Shinzon had rigged his Romulan/Reman (don't ask) warbird, the Scimitar, to unleash its lethal thalaron radiation weapon on a severely damaged USS Enterprise-E. With Picard on board the enemy vessel, transporters inoperative, and the crew trapped in the quintessential no-win scenario, Data came up with his own solution to the Kobayashi Maru test. 

Effectively blowing himself out of an airlock, Data leapt across the void of space to the Scimitar and placed an emergency transport beacon on Picard, who was instantly beamed back to the Enterprise. With the weapon nearly charged, Data fired his phaser at the thalaron generator, destroying himself and the ship in the process. He had sacrificed himself to save his captain and the crew, a fact Picard subsequently struggled to live with. RIP, Data. 

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Data lived on in B-4, or DID he?

Data wasn't the only android built by his creator: genius cyberneticist Dr. Noonian Soong (also portrayed by Brent Spiner). 

"Evil twin" Lore (Brent Spiner again) tormented the Enterprise crew on several occasions throughout "The Next Generation," and "Nemesis" introduced the earlier prototype model called B-4 (say the name out loud). Before his death, Data used B-4 as a kind of hard drive to back up his memories and personality, but – aside from sharing Data's ability to recite Irving Berlin standards – B-4's neural pathways lacked the sophistication to replicate his late brother.

But this is where it gets complicated ... The first season of "Picard" revealed that Data's consciousness had survived after all. Along with Soong's human son, Altan (also Brent Spiner), cyberneticist Bruce Maddox – who'd previously tried to prove Data was Starfleet property in classic "TNG" episode "The Measure of a Man" – used a process called "fractal neuronic cloning" to replicate a virtual Data from one of B-4's neurons. This version of the android lived in a "massively complex quantum simulation" until Picard agreed to his old friend's request to help him die for a second time.

There's another Data head in Star Trek: Picard, but whose is it?

Data, Lore and B-4 were all crafted in Noonian Soong's image, so it's almost impossible to tell them apart. It seems most likely, though, that the disembodied head we see in the top secret Daystrom research facility belongs to B-4. 

First, we know from Picard's meetings with Dr. Agnes Jurati in season one that B-4 is in Starfleet’s possession. Second, when Will Riker reminds us that "Data copied everything he was onto B-4," the camera very deliberately cuts to the android head.

There's still a chance, however, that this is a misdirection, and that the head belongs to Lore. We have no idea what happened to Soong's more problematic son after his Borg misadventures in "TNG" two-parter "Descent" – we know he was dismantled but everything beyond that is a mystery. So while it's conceivable Starfleet have brought Lore back somehow, the show would have to fill in some gaps in the canon to explain his presence here.

The head probably isn’t Data's. The explosion at the end of Nemesis was pretty cataclysmic, and besides, if part of Data had survived, surely Maddox, Soong and Starfleet wouldn’t have resorted to using neurons from the inferior B-4 to bring him back.

Why is Data "old" now?

Picard season one used some clever digital tricks to de-age actor Brent Spiner to look like he did in "The Next Generation" era, but the Data we see in "The Bounty" looks much older. His complexion is also much more human.

While the change undoubtedly saved some money on the show’s VFX budget, there's also an in-universe explanation. This is an entirely different type of synthetic body to Data's, much more similar to the "golem" the late Altan Soong gifted to Picard, allowing to survive his incurable irumodic syndrome. 

Soong Jr. had originally planned to transfer his own consciousness into the golem before he died, but ended up going down a very different route. He instead decided to combine the consciousnesses of Lore, B-4, Data and Lal (the "daughter" Data built in "TNG" episode "The Offspring") in one body, aka Daystrom Android M-5-10. Soong built this older-looking version "with the wisdom and true human aesthetic of age. With the hope that in totality, something, someone will rise to be the best of us."

 That's the million-dollar question, though it's clear there's much more to this new-look Data than simply managing the security systems at Daystrom Station. It’s also clear this isn't quite the Data we knew and loved. 

Altan Soong never got the chance to finish the project before he died, leaving the various personalities vying for supremacy within the vessel. Data still recognizes Geordi La Forge, Picard and the rest of the crew, but with Lore also lurking in that shared mind, this resurrected body could be a danger to everyone.

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Richard's love affair with outer space started when he saw the original "Star Wars" on TV aged four, and he spent much of the ’90s watching "Star Trek”, "Babylon 5” and “The X-Files" with his mum. After studying physics at university, he became a journalist, swapped science fact for science fiction, and hit the jackpot when he joined the team at SFX, the UK's biggest sci-fi and fantasy magazine. He liked it so much he stayed there for 12 years, four of them as editor. 

He's since gone freelance and passes his time writing about "Star Wars", "Star Trek" and superheroes for the likes of SFX, Total Film, TechRadar and GamesRadar+. He has met five Doctors, two Starfleet captains and one Luke Skywalker, and once sat in the cockpit of "Red Dwarf"'s Starbug.  

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Admin said: How is Data in 'Star Trek: Picard' if he died in 'Star Trek: Nemesis?' : Read more

• OneOfTwelve Data already had a built-in aging program according to the TNG episode with his "mother" Juliana. Reply
• Newhouse75 That head is in Mark Twains time. Don't forget. The one in the future was used to restore Data in The future. Reply
• Backcountry164 It's called plot armor. Tripping over yourself making excuses for lazy writers seems pointless... Reply
• View All 4 Comments

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Is Giving Us The Ultimate Brent Spiner Performance

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard."

Throughout his seemingly unending tenure on "Star Trek," actor Brent Spiner has played the android Data, his own twin brother Lore, an android prototype named B-4, and the creator of all three, the elderly Dr. Noonien Soong. Additionally, since "Star Trek" takes place over such a broad timeline, Spiner also played the son of Noonien Dr. Altan Soong, as well as two of the character's ancestors, Dr. Arik Soong, and Dr. Adam Soong, the latter of whom lived in Los Angeles in 2024. That's six different characters. 

At the end of Start Baird's 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis," Data sacrificed his own life to blow up an enemy ship and save the U.S.S. Enterprise from destruction. At that point in "Star Trek," Lore had been deactivated, and the last Dr. Song had died of old age. The only remaining Data-adjacent character was B-4. Perhaps not content with only one Spiner in their universe, in 2020, the writers of " Star Trek: Picard " invented a dubious way to resurrect Data for the show's first season. It seems that someone salvaged a single particle of Data's body out in space somehow, and was able to — heavy sigh — clone his entire android brain, somehow. Data's consciousness and personality were encoded in a computer database, but not shunted into an android body. When the consciousness of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was downloaded into the same computer database, he was able to speak to Data briefly. Data felt he had lived a good life, and that mortality was increasingly appealing. Picard deactivated Data, effectively killing the character a second time. 

And yet, for the third season of "Picard," Data has returned. The reasons how are a little complicated.

Every Brent Spiner All At Once

In the sixth episode of "Picard," called "The Bounty," Worf ( Michael Dorn ), Raffi (Michelle Hurd), and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) have broken into the Daystrom station to investigate a mysterious weapon theft. They find that the station is guarded by a complex A.I. program that temporarily stymies them with holograms of crows and of Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis). They eventually learn that the security system is tied into the android consciousness of ... well, it's not Data exactly. But it is Brent Spiner. 

A hologram of Altan Soong appears to explain that the aged android in front of them — Spiner is 74 — is a new android model that contains the complete experiences of Data, Lore, B-4, and even Data's short-lived android daughter Lal (Hallie Todd) from the "Next Generation" episode "The Offspring." When Worf and crew revive this new android, it begins to cycle through its personalities rapidly. It's Data for a few moments, but then becomes B-4, not recognizing anyone. Then Lore snarls at them. Spiner used to play various members of the same family, but it's rare that he is afforded the opportunity to play them all at once.

This new composite character — Datalore-4? — is of course a somewhat cheap opportunity for the writers if "Picard" to bring back a twice-dead character in as organic a fashion as they could muster (without time travel, at least). But it may have also been alluring to Spiner, as he wouldn't merely be reprising Data for the umpteenth time. Spiner has said in interviews that he is ambivalent about playing Data, and that he was finished with the character multiple times over. The composite android would, as audiences see, allow him to give a broader, more challenging performance.

Spiner understood the dangers of playing a well-recognized character on "Star Trek." Many cast members of the 1966 series, for instance, became typecast and struggled to find high-profile work after their tenure on the show. Spiner once said in a TV guide interview that he could win an Academy Award for playing a role wildly against his type and aggressively demanding of his talents, and Data would still be listed first in his obituary. The idea of merely playing Data again was likely uninteresting to the actor. 

The composite android is not Data. It's a new character, recently constructed. It's several characters at once. Data, as Trekkies are able to point out, was constantly striving to be more human, fascinated by our species and the strange social foibles we adhere to. He didn't have emotions, however, beyond slight rudimentary reactions to things. While the "Star Trek" writers took a great deal of delight in teaching Data objective lessons about humanity, Data was often seen, even after seven years, approaching humanity with a fresh face every day. Data was, to employ an acting term, always on the same note. 

Throughout "Picard," however, Spiner has had a chance to do a lot more. His two Soong characters are dramatically different. Altan was timid and peaceful, Adam was aggressive and villainous. Now, with his new character, Spiner is allowed to be all his old characters at once, as well as something completely new. It's the ultimate Spiner "Star Trek" performance, a handy package for the actor to deliver everything at the same time. What audiences have seen so far has been nothing short of astonishing.

The secret behind B-4’s parts on Star Trek: Picard

By rachel carrington | nov 5, 2022.

The first season of Star Trek: Picard brought back B-4, but it took a lot of work to make the viewing realistic. 

The android, B-4, who was played by Brent Spiner on Star Trek: The Next Generation, hadn’t been seen since Star Trek: Nemesis. That was until it made an appearance in the first episode of the first season of Star Trek: Picard, at least partially anyway. When Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) went to the Daystrom Institute to find out more about Dahj, Dr. Agnes Jurati opened a drawer to reveal B-4’s dismembered body, all of which looked like they’d been through the ringer. And there’s a good reason for that.

Picard’s prop master, Jeff Lombardi, wanted to lend a little authenticity to the viewing so he decided not to recreate the android’s body. He wanted to use as many of Data’s “old parts” as possible. The problem with this decision, according to Whatculture , was that a lot of the old Star Trek props weren’t within easy reach. In fact, some weren’t even in the United States any more.

Star Trek: Picard had a dedicated prop master in Jeff Lombardi.

Many of Data’s parts had been auctioned off, and some were sent halfway around the world which meant Lombardi and a CBS archivist had to go to work. They contacted the people who’d purchased these parts so they could be used in the brief scene.

They discovered that Data’s head was in a crate in Calgary, and his torso was in a crate in Hong Kong. Once Lombardi received permission to use the parts, they were brought back to the set and used with little to no alterations or touch-ups, which means this episode showcased over twenty-five years of history in one shot. Kudos to the prop master for doing such a thorough job. It might be the last time we’ll ever see all of those dismembered Data parts in the same place!

Is Star Trek: Picard going to resurrect Data?. dark. Next

Star Trek: Picard Showrunner Terry Matalas Confirms B-4 Less 'Functional' than Data

Are you curious about the differences between B-4 and Data?

Star Trek: Picard season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas confirmed that B-4 (Brent Spiner), one of the android predecessors to Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s Data (Spiner), was less “fully functional” than his brother on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D in response to a fan comment on Twitter.

The exchange about B-4's functionality occurred underneath an original post that showed B-4 on the set of Picard 's third season’s sixth episode, “The Bounty.”

Data was confirmed to be fully functional in the classic TNG season 1’s “The Naked Now.” This classic episode depicts the consequences of an encounter with an “infection” that causes the crew to act in accordance with their most debauched instincts. This leads to a sexual encounter between Data the android and Enterprise-D Security Chief Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). Their tryst is preceded by dialogue confirming Data’s functionality and the fact that he is “programmed in multiple techniques.”

The D wasn’t the first Starfleet vessel to survive this type of incident. An incredibly similar event occurs aboard the Enterprise in the Star Trek: The Original Series season 1 episode “The Naked Time.” However, the cure developed in that episode by Doctor McCoy (DeForest Kelley) regrettably was ineffective during the infection aboard the D .

Related: Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner Discusses Satisfying Storyline for the Series Finale

An Angel Called B-4

In the first season of Picard , it was confirmed that a disassembled B-4 had been located in the Daystrom Institute laboratory of Doctor Agnes Jurati (Allison Pill). The day after the above exchange, another Trek fan asked Matalas “when and why” B-4 had been transferred to Daystrom Station from Daystrom Institute, and the Starfleet’s secret organization Section 31 elected to relocate the android after several decades. Matalas was quick with a reply, revealing: “There was an incident.”

B-4 was one of three Soong-type androids created by Doctor Noonian Soong before Data’s brother, Lore. While these three androids were first mentioned in the TNG season 7 episode “Inheritance,” B-4 first appeared onscreen in the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis .

During the climax of Nemesis , Data transfers his programming into B-4. This allows for the preservation of said programming, as seen in Picard ’s third season. However, before being reactivated, Data’s consciousness is one of four transferred into a distinct “techno-golem” designed and created by Doctor Altan Inigo Soong (Spiner). Although its functionality has yet to be confirmed, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) confirms this is Data’s most human incarnation yet in the final scenes of “The Bounty.”

Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999

‘Star Trek’ and the Problem With B-4 and After 2379

This article begins with a basic observation about the Star Trek timeline: that it ends.

Let me clarify. When Star Trek : The Original Series (hereafter TOS) aired in 1966, it was set in the year 2266, exactly 300 years into Earth’s future. From there, the timeline jumped forward, with 1987’s Star Trek: The Next Generation set in 2364, nearly a century after TOS. The franchise then continued at a steady pace through both Deep Space Nine and Voyager . Between the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Voyager finalé, 14 years passed in the lives of Trek ’s characters and actors alike.

Then something funny happened. When Star Trek: Enterprise debuted in 2001, it looked back to Star Trek ’s past for its inspiration. The upcoming Star Trek: Discovery will likewise explore the Federation’s origins, leaving Star Trek ’s future to play out only in our imaginations.

The franchise’s filmic output tells a similar story. From 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture to 2002’s Nemesis , each of Star Trek ’s initial ten films moved the Trek timeline forward, despite First Contact ’s foray to the 21st century. After Nemesis , however, the films also abandoned the Federation’s future, opting instead for the high-octane, high-budget TOS reboots. Despite the fact that the Star Trek franchise continues to produce new content, the Star Trek timeline appears to have been closed.

My question, then, is simply: “Why?” What is it about this moment in time that renders the Star Trek franchise incapable, unwilling, or merely uninterested in envisioning its own future?

Regarding Enterprise , longtime Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman once explained: “to go forward didn’t really offer us very much. To go forward meant spaceships that were a little sleeker and ships that were a little shinier, but there wasn’t that much to invent that we hadn’t invented already.” Indeed, TOS and Star Trek: The Next Generation both granted viewers exclusive access to seemingly “final” frontiers that Deep Space Nine and Voyager significantly expanded, and so maybe the promise of yet another new frontier just felt stale and unfruitful. Still, Enterprise ’s commercial and critical failure might have prompted the franchise to return to its original vision in the wake of its abortive retrofuturist experiment, except, for some reason, it didn’t.

Did Star Trek ’s final frontier close because the Federation had nowhere left to go? I think there’s more to it than that. I instead suggest that the timeline ended because the values that underpin Star Trek ’s utopian urges bumped up against their own inherent contradictions. In other words, Star Trek ’s final frontier was neither spatial nor temporal, but rather conceptual.

On the appeal of Star Trek , creator Gene Roddenberry said: “It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow; it’s not all going to be over with a big flash and a bomb; that the human race is improving; that we have things to be proud of as humans.” Indeed, it is this humanist spirit that is in great part responsible for the Star Trek franchise’s enduring popularity. If we let ourselves become swept up in its vision, we must simultaneously give ourselves over to a fundamental optimism not only that humanity will survive, but also that humanity deserves to survive.

Of course, Star Trek ’s many non-human characters remind us that, in the Trek universe, what is human is not necessarily biologically determined; rather, the desire to be human is what ultimately decides a character’s eligibility for membership into that privileged group — a process emphasized by the fact that the dramatic arcs surrounding the major non-human characters involve their journeys toward becoming human.

For example, Voyager ’s holographic Doctor, like Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s android Data, is constantly required to assert his humanity in order to acquire basic rights aboard the ship, including the rights to move freely, to not be forcibly deactivated, to pursue his own personal interests, etc. To argue for these rights, the Doctor’s refrain throughout the series is: “I have exceeded my programming!” He repeats this desperate claim in part because it taps into the Federation’s most deeply held belief: that the term “human” is synonymous with “progress”, more specifically, with the type of progress toward uniqueness and individuality that underlies certain strains of humanism.

Assimilation underway in “First Contact” Star Trek: The Next Generation

It makes sense, then, that the Borg is the one species with which Roddenberry-brand humanism cannot contend. “We are Borg”, they repeatedly insist. “Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.” The Borg script, familiar to all Trekkies, illustrates exactly what is so dangerous about the Borg project. They are Star Trek ’s zombies: slow moving, unfeeling drones that seek only to devour and assimilate. The Borg program envisions a universe of absolute uniformity and in this way is incompatible with Federation’s valorization of individuality and free will — ideals never truly threatened by the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Dominion, Xindi, or any other alien enemy dealing solely in territorial or ethnically-motivated hostility.

We may therefore find it fitting that the final five minutes of the Star Trek televisual timeline feature Captain Kathryn Janeway’s marooned starship hurtling through the Borg’s transwarp hub — a structure comprising the symbolic and actual center of Borg operations — destroying Borg infrastructure and killing innumerable drones in the process ( Star Trek: Voyager : “Endgame”). This spectacle introduces several problems for the timeline. First, once the Federation defeats its ideological other, continued external conflicts will resemble little more than an extended denouement. Second, it exposes the barbarity concealed by the Federation’s purportedly peaceful imperial project. Even if the Federation refrains from imposing its ideology onto the new civilizations it seeks out, opting instead for diplomacy, its robust military and its very endurance through time bespeak its violent capacities.

The third problem for the Star Trek timeline only becomes clear retrospectively. If Janeway’s spectacle resembles another moment in 2001, in which ideologues use aircraft to destroy the symbolic and tactical center of their enemy’s operations, the similarities are both coincidental and illuminating: Voyager ’s finalé aired on 23 May 2001. We don’t have to read this episode as prophetic in order to appreciate the resonances, but following 9/11 we can’t help but retrofit our reading of the Borg defeat to remind ourselves that those very qualities that differentiate us from our enemies are also what throw us into relief with one another. As 20th century American theologian Reinhold Neibuhr once explained, “the evils against which we contend are frequently the fruits of illusions which are similar to our own.” It’s no secret that Roddenberry intended Star Trek to depict the best of American democracy in the process of becoming utopic. Putting this in context of Voyager ’s “Endgame”, the similarities between the Federation’s and Bin Laden’s endgames speak to the contradictions inherent within Star Trek ’s liberal democratic ideological project, and thus of Roddenberry’s idealized version of the American project.

The televisual timeline now terminated, Star Trek warped forward to its temporal endgame just once more, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation film Star Trek: Nemesis . The relatively anticlimactic film adds little to Federation’s list of accomplishments, but helpfully provides further elucidation about the boundaries of the Roddenberry ethos.

Written during the final season of Voyager , but not filmed until November, 2001, the film begins in the year 2379, one year after Janeway destroys the Borg transwarp hub. The titular nemesis is a genetic clone of Picard named Shinzon (Tom Hardy), raised by the bat-like, vampiric Remans in the hostile mines of the Romulan empire, who has developed a radioactive WMD capable of obliterating all organic life on Earth. While Shinzon has inherited Picard’s arrogance, intelligence, and affinity for hot tea, the brutal conditions of his life have rendered him anguished and desperate to destroy both Picard and the ideology he represents.

At one point, Picard stands presidentially in the center of the tomb-like Romulan senate room and explains to Shinzon: “If there is one ideal that the Federation holds most dear it is that all men—all races—can be united.” It’s difficult not to be moved by the sincerity and nobility of Picard’s rhetoric of unity. His mild self-correction reminds us of the Federation’s historical trajectory, traceable through the United States constitution to John Locke; whereas once “all men” included only landed white men, it came later to include all human races and, with the advent of interstellar space travel, all alien races.

What Picard’s repetition of the Federation mantra fails to account for is the type of hybrid identity embodied by his nemesis, whose genetic equivalency to the most celebrated starship captain in the quadrant still cannot compensate for the accident of his “birth” into such an inhospitable world.

To this conundrum, of course, Star Trek gives us Lieutenant Commander Data, whose emerging “humanity” is a central concern of the show from Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s inception, and whose death during the climax of Nemesis feels so hasty and unearned that we can almost forget it even happened.

The final scene of Star Trek: Nemesis begins with a close-up of Picard’s face: “I don’t know if all this has made any sense”, he says, “but I wanted you to know what kind of man he was. In his quest to be more like us, he helped us to see what it means to be human.” He is speaking of course of Data, but to whom he speaks we do not yet know.

As the camera pans towards toward Picard’s interlocutor, we see a recently discovered childlike prototype of Data, ridiculously named B-4, bobbling unresponsively in yellow civilian get-up. Despite the fact that we know B-4 has been implanted with Data’s memories, and despite the fact that he is played by the same beloved actor, Brent Spiner, the interview is disappointing, as it is meant to be.

As Picard rises to resume his captaincy duties, however, B-4 suddenly begins singing Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”: a song Data sings during the opening scene of the film. “Never saw the sun”, B-4 mumbles, “never saw the sun, never saw the sun.” The words remind us of the conditions suffered by the Remans in the cold, moonlit mines, but Picard, suddenly vaulted back into his position as the light-bringing humanist subject, is there to help B-4 along. He prompts the android, saying: “shining so bright”–the next line of the song. With the captain’s help, B-4 is able to finish the musical phrase and Picard walks away smiling. The music swells into the familiar Star Trek: The Next Generation theme song, and we are meant to feel good.

Still, viewers remember that not only is B-4 a far less sophisticated technology, but he also lacks the singular microchip that helped Data experience human emotion. If Data is as critic Diana Relke argues: “ Star Trek ’s only consistently dependable repository of humanist values”, then we have just witnessed the loss of this repository and are witnessing the doomed project of recreating it.

We have also witnessed the enmity between the Romulans and the Remans, and the generations of hatred that have arisen from it, and we may find the Federation’s upcoming negotiations with the Romulan Empire less inclusive than their rhetoric would have us believe. We can see in exactly what manner the Federation will soon become complicit in the subjection of an entire population. These uncomfortable truths also echo the growing complications of the United States involvement in the Middle East in the wake of 9/11.

So, if, at the end of Nemesis , Picard’s smile fails to comfort us, it is perhaps because we have more difficulty situating ourselves comfortably within a narrative of progress that would require us to believe in the utopian future toward which he so stubbornly works.

What we’re seeing here is the Star Trek ethos, as envisioned by Gene Roddenberry, colliding with the borders of its ethical frontier. It identified what “human” qualities make humanity worth saving, and, in killing Data, has destroyed them. Then again, the very forgettability of Data’s death demonstrates the continued viability of at least elements of Roddenberry’s project. It is here that B-4’s name is useful and prescient. Where we may not realistically look to B-4 to carry humanity’s “humanity” into the future, we can look before those events that have led the Federation to its conceptual and ethical endgame to see what we can salvage.

The enduring vitality of the Star Trek fan base across its five decades of existence speaks to the enduring appeal of its vision of a universe in which those people with whom we entrust our political and moral well-being are trained in the ethics and practices of Star Trek ’s humanism, however malleable or internally contradictory that ethos may be. The immensely popular reboots suggest that the franchise itself is dipping into Federation history to see how we can rethink, refigure, and reimagine the origins of Federation ethics in such a way that they can more perfectly contribute to universal liberation.

Whether or not the new films will accomplish this task, I am not to say, but the enthusiasm of Star Trek fans new and old for the feasibility of a Federation future guides my proposal: that we keep our affectionate gaze fixed upon the Star Trek timelines in all of their iterations and tap into the deeply held optimism that persists against the darkly complicated historical and fictional landscapes against which the narratives take form. While it is important to identify and disown the elements of the Roddenberry ethos that lead our heroes toward the limits of their ethical frontiers, we need not close ourselves off to the promises and possibilities in which Star Trek asks us to believe. With or without the Federation’s future, we may ourselves boldly embark on our own speculative frontiers, and in this way Star Trek itself can exceed its programming.

Nicole Berland is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studies post-45 multi-ethnic American literature and culture with corollary interests in speculative fiction, comics, and television.

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta articles sourced from websites
• Memory Beta articles sourced from video games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from games
• 2330s births
• View history
• 1.1.1 First Splinter timeline
• 1.1.2 Captain Data
• 1.1.3 Temporal anomaly crisis
• 2.1 Connections
• 2.2.1 Appearances
• 2.2.2 References
• 2.3 External links

History [ ]

As a prototype unit, B-4's positronic brain was considerably less advanced than his younger brothers Lore and Data . This meant that B-4 would often ask simple questions and call out the names of people and objects that he recognized. ( TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis ; TNG novel : Resistance )

Sometime prior to 2379 , Shinzon discovered B-4 and decided that he could use the android as part of an elaborate scheme to draw Captain Jean-Luc Picard near to Romulus so that he could capture him. Shinzon had B-4 equipped with a second memory port which had subversive programming installed into it; with which compelled B-4 to access Starfleet computer systems and download vital data in ship movements and their coded communications frequencies. Following the installation of these additions, Shinzon had B-4 disassembled and scattered across the surface of Kolarus III , so that he could draw Picard in.

Shinzon's plan paid off as the USS Enterprise -E was drawn to Kolarus III after detecting a positronic signature on the planet 's surface. The dissembodied android was then returned to Enterprise and reassembled. Data soon became aware of B-4's limitations, but decided to copy all of his memories to him, in the hopes that Data's added experience would help B-4 expand beyond his programming. Unfortunately, B-4 had to be deactivated soon afterward when his part in Shinzon's plot was revealed. ( TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis )

Following Data's death, B-4's matrix failed to restore Data's memories. By 2399, had been disassembled and was stored at the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa. ( PIC episode : " Remembrance ")

B-4 was reactivated again later. Sometime around 5307 , the Crystalline Entity once allied with Lore had reassembled itself. The entity sought Lore out but only found B-4. B-4 disapproved of the Crystalline Entity's form of sustenance - eating sapient lifeforms. The entity destroyed B-4 and reminisced about the encounter when it reached the Rock of Ages . ( ST - Strange New Worlds VII short story : " Guardians ")

Alternate realities [ ]

First splinter timeline [ ].

Shortly after Data's death aboard the Reman warbird Scimitar , B-4 was reactivated, and while some of Data's memories began to surface, his programming failed to expand as he was still reduced to asking simple questions and parroting the words of those around him. A few months later , he was relocated to the Daystrom Institute , where scientists planned to disassemble him in an attempt to replicate a Soong -type android. This was opposed by Captain Bruce Maddox , who made a legal petition to the Federation Judiciary Committee , the highest court in the Federation . After testimony from the Doctor , he was declared a sentient being and therefore could not be disassembled. ( TNG novel : Resistance ; ST novel : Articles of the Federation )

In 2384 , during a raid on the Daystrom Annex of Galor IV , B-4 and a handful of other androids were stolen from the lab. After the incident, the USS Enterprise -E was sent to investigate, locking down the planet in the process. Unfortunately for the Federation, the raiding team had already left with the stolen androids. Unbeknownst to the Enterprise at the time, Noonien Soong had been on the planet and was subsequently picked up on facial recognition sensors in the city nearest the Daystrom Annex. Upon learning of this fact, several away teams from the Enterprise were mobilized to intercept the "Soong-type android", but he managed to evade all of them. Upon reaching his ship in orbit, Soong led the Enterprise to an abandoned factory full of inactive androids, one which was being reactivated by the Breen in an attempt to manufacture their own Soong-type androids. B-4 had been captured for this select purpose, the Breen wanted to study B-4 in an attempt to copy this into the androids made at the factory. After a short fight, an away team from the Enterprise managed to recapture B-4 and the remaining androids, before being beamed back to the ship. This however, was after Noonien Soong managed to fix B-4's degrading mind and "resurrect" Data. This was achieved by removing the memories from B-4 and transferring them into a new android body, specifically the one Soong had made for himself. Thus, Data's memories were removed from B-4, allowing his mind to stabilize and having received an upgrade to his firmware at the same time. After the incident, B-4 requested to be taken back to the Galor IV Annex to assist Captain Bruce Maddox in his continued research of Soong-type androids. ( TNG - Cold Equations novel : The Persistence of Memory )

Captain Data [ ]

The Soong Foundation 's science team and Geordi La Forge worked to subvert his personality in favor of the " Data " personality. In 2385 , the group managed to unravel the Data matrix , allowing for all of Data's memories, personality and experiences to override B4's. When Data first returned to consciousness, he refused to allow himself to exist at the expense of his brother's life. He therefore created a program in his mind to destroy his own consciousness before it destroyed B-4's. However, B-4 commandeered the program and, having heard that Data was crucial to the war with the Undine , deleted himself before Data could stop him. Data therefore survived in B-4's body.

Through this, Data was able to help the Soong Foundation in upgrading positronic brains and help in the recreation of the emotion chip originally developed by Doctor Soong. Ambassador Spock likened it to his resurrection a hundred and two years previously, though Data likened it more to a return. Meanwhile, a backup copy of B-4 was saved, and thus the science team hoped to create a " B-4 matrix ", and possibly eventually bring Data's brother back to life in a new body. ( ST comic : " Countdown, Number Two "; ST website  : The Path to 2409 ; STO novel : The Needs of the Many )

In 2409 , Data entered a highly secure room where he activated a positronic circuit on an identical android he called "brother". ( STO short story : " Unexpected Honor ")

Temporal anomaly crisis [ ]

In an alternate timeline beset by the Q Continuum 's temporal anomaly crisis , B-4 was pulled into the year 2380 . B-4 joined Starfleet to assist Q in resolving the crisis. At one point, it appeared that Lore might have manipulated B-4 into letting the Borg infiltrate Starfleet. ( ST video game : Timelines January 2019 event: "A New Lease")

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], appearances and references [ ], appearances [ ].

• Star Trek Nemesis ( 2002 )
• " The Very Model " ( short story , Strange New Worlds 10 , 2007 )
• Resistance (2007)
• The Persistence of Memory ( TNG miniseries, Cold Equations , 2012 )

References [ ]

• Articles of the Federation ( 2005 )
• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 TNG movie : Star Trek Nemesis .
• ↑ ST - Strange New Worlds VII short story : " Guardians ".
• ↑ TNG episode : " Inheritance ".
• ↑ TNG episode : " Datalore ".
• ↑ TNG novel : Immortal Coil .

External links [ ]

• B-4 article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• B-4 article at the Star Trek Timelines wiki .
• 1 The Chase
• 2 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 3 Preserver (race)

‘Star Trek’ Origin Story Movie Set From ‘Andor’ Director, ‘Star Trek 4’ Still in the Works as ‘Final Chapter’ of Main Series

By Michaela Zee

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A new “ Star Trek ” film is in the works at Paramount with “Andor’s” Toby Haynes on board to direct and Seth Grahame-Smith penning the script, Variety has confirmed.

While plot details are being kept under wraps, the upcoming feature will be an origin story that is set decades before 2009’s “Star Trek,” as well as an expansion of the “Star Trek” universe. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is producing.

Popular on Variety

During a Paramount Global investors day presentation in February of 2022, Abrams announced that a new “Star Trek” movie would begin shooting by the end of that year with the Pine-led crew. Pine and his co-stars reportedly had no idea Paramount was moving forward with another “Star Trek” film, which was eventually removed from the studio’s film slate in September of that year.

Haynes recently directed six episodes of the “Star Wars” series “Andor,” starring Diego Luna as the titular role. He also helmed the “Star Trek”-inspired episode of “Black Mirror,” titled “USS Callister.” Haynes is repped by WME and attorney Peter Nelson.

Grahame-Smith is best known as the author of the best-selling novels “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” He also wrote and produced 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie.” Grahame-Smith is repped by WME and attorneys PJ Shapiro and Wendy Kirk.

Deadline was first to report the “Star Trek” news.

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Den of Geek

Why Star Trek 4 Still Hasn’t Happened

It’s been six years since the last Star Trek movie. Why hasn’t it gotten out of space dock yet?

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Paramount Pictures has officially pulled Star Trek 4 (working title) from its release schedule, to the shock of probably not a single person in Hollywood or Trek fandom.

No official reason has been given for the film’s removal from its December 22, 2023 berth ( per The Hollywood Reporter ), but the writing was almost certainly on the wall when director Matt Shakman – who joined the project in July 2021 – departed last month to take the reins of Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated Fantastic Four reboot.

The news leaves the fate of the big screen version of Trek , along with its cast, in limbo – not surprising, considering that the current theatrical cast didn’t even seem to know as late as this past summer that the movie was moving forward. Chris Pine was promoting his upcoming movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 when Deadline asked him what was happening with a fourth Star Trek movie starring him as Captain Kirk.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I haven’t heard anything about it other than the news.” Pressed about whether he’d even be interested in a fourth voyage aboard the Enterprise , Pine added, “Yeah, of course, I am. If it happens, I think all of us would come back.”

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The “news” that Pine was referring to, of course, was the surprise announcement by Paramount back in February 2022 that Star Trek 4 , set in the Kelvin timeline with that cast, was indeed on the launchpad for a December 2023 liftoff.

The revelation was a surprise especially to the cast of the previous three films, including Pine, Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), and John Cho (Sulu), who apparently had not been informed of this development nor made offers to appear at the time. All that is moot now, at least for the immediate future.

Fortunately, there is perhaps more Star Trek available now for fans than at any time previously in the franchise’s 56-year history. There are no less than five TV series currently streaming via Paramount+, with more potentially in development. Not all have met with the same degree of acclaim or success, but no one can argue that the Trek universe isn’t thriving on whatever smaller screen you watch it on.

However, another bite of the theatrical apple – the first since 2016’s largely misconceived, mismarketed (but not that bad) Star Trek Beyond pretty much flopped at the box office – remains elusive for the property and the parent studio. It’s not like they haven’t tried, though: a fourth picture starring the Kelvin cast was literally announced at the press junket for Beyond . But now that Star Trek 4 doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, here’s a, pardon the expression, timeline of the movie’s long, frustrating, and now unresolved journey.

The Return of Chris Hemsworth

This writer was at the press junket for Star Trek Beyond in 2016 when publicists for Paramount literally handed out a press release stating that a fourth film, featuring the return of Chris Hemsworth as Captain Kirk’s father (who, played by a then-unknown Hemsworth, died in the prologue of 2009’s Star Trek ), was already in development with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay penning the script.

Producer J.J. Abrams said at the time that all of the original cast would return with the tragic exception of Anton Yelchin (Chekov), who had passed away earlier that year. No director was announced and it wasn’t clear if Star Trek Beyond helmer Justin Lin would be offered the chair.

Little more was heard about this initial iteration of the project, until a report akin to the detonation of the Genesis device arrived in late 2017.

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The Quentin Tarantino Factor

It was in December 2017 that the news broke about Quentin Tarantino pitching his own idea for a Star Trek film to the bigwigs at Paramount – an association that, of course, proved impossible for the studio heads to resist, especially with Tarantino hinting that he would direct it.

Tarantino and Abrams assembled a writers’ room and recruited various scribes to pitch ways to flesh out Tarantino’s concept – which, as it later turned out, sounded like a loose remake of the original series episode “A Piece of the Action,” in which the crew of the Enterprise encounters a civilization based on the Chicago crime mobs of the 1920s.

Mark L. Smith was chosen to write the script, but confusion about the project reigned from the start. Would it be R-rated, like all of Tarantino’s films? Would it feature the Kelvin cast or a whole new slate of actors?  To make things even more chaotic, a different Star Trek film – this one more a direct sequel to Beyond – was also still in the works (more on that in a minute).

In the end, all the excitement about one of the most iconic modern directors in the world getting behind the camera for Star Trek eventually dribbled away, with Tarantino stating in late 2019 ( via Deadline ) that he was “steering away” from the project. Meanwhile…

S.J. Clarkson Makes Trek History for a Minute

While the Tarantino Star Trek was still in development, Paramount was indeed apparently moving forward with a different Trek film that would be a more direct follow-up to Star Trek Beyond , with the screenwriters announced back in 2016 – Payne and McKay – still in the mix.

Most exciting, however, was the news in April 2018 that the studio had chosen S.J. Clarkson to helm the feature, making her the first woman to direct a Star Trek theatrical film. Clarkson’s resume mostly included high-profile TV shows like Jessica Jones , The Defenders , Dexter , and Orange Is the New Black . The story was still supposedly centered around a time travel scenario in which James Kirk meets his dad face to face, and there were rumors of other script ideas being floated as well.

All this activity came crashing to a halt in August of that year, when it was revealed that the Chrises Pine and Hemsworth were both dropping out of the film over salary disputes. Paramount allegedly asked them to take a pay cut due to the underperformance of Star Trek Beyond . Pine wasn’t having it, while Thor reportedly just laughed, picked up Stormbreaker, and Bifrosted his way out of the negotiations.

Thus the idea of a Trek movie directed by a woman still remains just an idea, as the project more or less collapsed after that and Clarkson quietly departed. Reports in January 2019 even indicated that Trek as a theatrical entity may have been shelved permanently.

Enter and Exit Noah Hawley

Things stayed quiet on the Star Trek theatrical front for most of 2019, until it was revealed that November that Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley had been tapped by Paramount to write and direct a new Trek feature.

Although it was initially reported that Hawley’s take would retain the Kelvin cast (though not the Kirk-meets-dad time travel premise), the showrunner, director, and novelist later suggested that his pitch might take the franchise in a new direction with an entirely new set of characters .

While that idea may have raised red flags among diehard fans, Hawley did seem to indicate that he wanted to turn away from the heavily action-oriented tone of the three Kelvin cast films and get back to some core Trek principles.

“It’s a story about exploration. It’s a story about creative problem solving,” Hawley said in an interview with The Observer . “[The Chris Pine movies are] much more action movies and what I wanted to get back to was this idea of humanity justifying its existence in the universe by showing its best qualities.”

By the time Hawley had made these comments, however – in September 2020 – his Trek had already been put on hold , reportedly because new Paramount Pictures chief Emma Watts had just started in the job and wanted to personally reassess all the studio’s projects. The other alleged reason, however, was that Hawley’s story dealt with a virus that wipes out half the population of the universe, something that the studio felt COVID-freaked audiences would not want to be subjected to.

Matt Shakman Brings New Vision to Star Trek

While a couple of other random Trek ideas floated to the top of the news cycle – including pitches for new films from The Wrath of Khan producer Robert Sallin , Khan director Nicholas Meyer , and Star Trek: Discovery writer Kalinda Vasquez – the next big phase of Star Trek 4 ’s torturous development process was launched in July 2021, as Deadline broke the news that Matt Shakman, fresh off the success of Marvel’s WandaVision series, was the new director.

A fresh script by Lindsey Beer (the upcoming Pet Sematary prequel) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet ( Captain Marvel ) was also commissioned, making it the first Trek film to at least be written by women, if not directed as envisioned just a few years earlier.

A June 2023 release date was set, although that was moved to December of that year, while it remained unclear at the time whether Pine, Quinto, and the rest of the Kelvin cast was going to come back. In November 2021, a new set of screenwriters came aboard , with Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires handling a rewrite of the Beer/Robertson-Dworet screenplay.

That was where things stood until Paramount’s announcement last February, with the studio’s current regime apparently willing to open up its checkbook and meet not just Pine’s price but that of the rest of the cast as well (Quinto, Urban, Cho, and especially Saldana – with two other franchises on her resume, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar – are all much bigger stars now).

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Will Star Trek 4 ever become a reality? It seems less and less likely every day. But if it does eventually happen, we would like to see it move away from the revenge-driven, action-oriented stories of the previous three movies, and get back to the ideas, philosophies, and wonder of “boldly going where no one has gone before” that has inexplicably eluded this franchise for years.

Chris Pine said it best in a recent interview with Deadline , when he suggested that Star Trek should stop trying to reach for global domination and Marvel-like box office and focus on what makes the franchise work and made it an enduring part of pop culture.

“I’ve always thought that Star Trek should operate in the zone that is smaller,” he explained. “You know, it’s not a Marvel appeal. It’s like, let’s make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek . Let’s make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great. But make it for a price and make it, so that if it makes a half-billion dollars, that’s really good.”

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

‘Star Trek’: Long-Lost Original USS Enterprise Model Finally Makes the Voyage Home

The model was used for the pilot and credits of the original 'Star Trek' series.

The Big Picture

• The original USS Enterprise model has been found in a storage locker after going missing for decades.
• The model was used for the original unaired pilot and opening credits of Star Trek: The Original Series .
• Rod Roddenberry plans to restore and display the iconic starship model in a museum for public viewing.

The original model of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series has been located, after spending several decades missing — not in some distant region of space, but in a storage locker. The model has been returned to Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry , the son of original Trek creator Gene Roddenberry . ABC News reports that the three-foot-long model was given to Gene Roddenberry after the original Trek series ended in 1969, and graced his desk for several years before he loaned it to the makers of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The model disappeared shortly afterward and remained missing until it turned up on eBay last year. It had been discovered in a storage locker by parties unknown, who contacted action site Heritage Auctions. Although the model would fetch an enormous price at auction as a one-of-a-kind pop-cultural artifact, an arrangement was made between the finders and Roddenberry, whose father died at 70 in 1991.

The model in question was the first finished model of the iconic starship; it was used for the series' original unaired pilot episode, "The Cage," which was later incorporated into a two-part episode , "The Menagerie," before it was released in full in the 1980s. It was also used for the shots of the Enterprise seen in the show's opening credits. A larger model was later created for the rest of the series; that model is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum . Roddenberry intends for the original model to find a permanent home, as well:

"This is not going home to adorn my shelves. 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."

What Is the USS Enterprise?

The flagship of the United Federation of Planets' Starfleet, the USS Enterprise is a Constitution-class starship from the 23rd century. It was originally captained by Robert April, who appeared on Star Trek: The Animated Series before appearing in live-action for the first time in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . April later passed on command to Christopher Pike , whose adventures are currently being chronicled in the prequel series Strange New Worlds . After Pike was promoted to fleet command, James Kirk was given command of the ship, taking it on a five-year mission that kicked off one of science fiction's most enduring franchises.

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , then-Admiral Kirk stole the Enterprise to journey to the unstable Genesis Planet and reunite his friend Spock's mind with his body; during that adventure, Kirk had the ship self-destruct to prevent it from being seized by the Klingons. It was later replaced by a near-identical ship, the Enterprise-A ; many subsequent Federation ships have borne the name, up to the rechristened Enterprise-J in the series finale of Star Trek: Picard .

The son of Roddenberry and actor Majel Barrett , Rod Roddenberry is the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. He currently executive produces the latest generation of Star Trek series, including Discovery , Strange New Worlds , Picard , Lower Decks , and Prodigy .

The original model of the Enterprise is now back in the Roddenberry family. Viewers can see it in action in Star Trek: The Original Series , which can be streamed on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Original Series

In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

Watch on Paramount+

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

The first model of the USS Enterprise is displayed at Heritage Auctions in Los Angeles, April 13, 2024. The model — used in the original “Star Trek” television series — has been returned to Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, the son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, decades after it went missing in the 1970s. (Josh David Jordan/Heritage Auctions via AP)

Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, left, and Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, the son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, shake hands over the recently recovered first model of the USS Enterprise at the Heritage Auctions in Los Angeles, April 13, 2024. The model — used in the original “Star Trek” television series — has been returned to Eugene, decades after it went missing in the 1970s. (Josh David Jordan/Heritage Auctions via AP)

Joe Maddalena, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, left, and Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, the son of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry, view the recently recovered first model of the USS Enterprise at Heritage Auctions in Los Angeles, April 13, 2024. The model — used in the original “Star Trek” television series — has been returned to Eugene, decades after it went missing in the 1970s. (Josh David Jordan/Heritage Auctions via AP)

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DALLAS (AP) — 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.”

AP AUDIO: Long-lost first model of the USS Enterprise from ‘Star Trek’ boldly goes home after twisting voyage.

AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on the return of the original model of the USS Enterprise from the TV show “Star Trek.”

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.

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Renewed for Season 4; ‘Lower Decks' to Conclude With Season 5 (EXCLUSIVE)

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," currently in production on its third season, has been renewed by Paramount+ for Season 4. Meanwhile, "Star Trek: Lower Decks," the first animated "Star Trek" comedy, will conclude its run on the streamer with its fifth season, which will debut in the fall.

"Strange New Worlds" - set in the years when Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) commanded the USS Enterprise, and featuring younger versions of several legacy characters, including Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Kirk (Paul Wesley) - has been a fan favorite since it premiered on Paramount+ in 2022. Season 2 of the series, which included a musical episode and a crossover episode with "Lower Decks," made Nielsen's chart of the 10 most-watched streaming original series over multiple weeks.

"On behalf of the cast and crew of ‘Strange New Worlds,' we are thrilled and grateful to continue our voyages together," said executive producers and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers and executive producer Alex Kurtzman in a statement. "We can't wait for you to join us and the crew of the Enterprise on another season of exploration and adventure." Season 3 of "Strange New Worlds" will premiere in 2025.

"Lower Decks" charted brand new territory for "Star Trek" when it debuted in 2020, as both an animated comedy and a series that focused on the junior officers of the USS Cerritos: Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). Set in the years following the feature film "Star Trek: Nemesis," the series has included voice cameos from many beloved "Star Trek" alumni, like George Takei, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, John de Lancie, Will Wheaton, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor and Robert Duncan McNeill.

Given its premise, concluding "Lower Decks" make sense considering the main four characters all received promotions in Season 4. But in a message to fans, Kurtzman and executive producer and showrunner Mike McMahon left the turbolift doors open for continuing the characters' stories following their time at the bottom of the Starfleet pecking order. 

"We remain hopeful that even beyond Season 5, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and the whole Cerritos crew will live on with new adventures," they said. "While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it's no exaggeration to say that every second we've spent making this show has been a dream come true."

The "Star Trek" TV universe, overseen by Kurtzman through his Secret Hideout production company and produced by CBS Studios, has enjoyed a robust expansion since "Star Trek: Discovery" first premiered in 2017. Along with "Strange New Worlds," the made-for-television movie "Star Trek: Section 31" recently concluded production with star Michelle Yeoh, and the new series "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" will begin shooting later this year.

"It has been incredibly rewarding to continue to build the Star Trek universe, and we're so grateful to Secret Hideout and our immensely talented casts and producers," said Jeff Grossman, executive vice president of Programming at Paramount+. "‘Strange New Worlds' has found the perfect blend of action, adventure and humor. Similarly, ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks' has brought the laughs with an ample amount of heart to the franchise across its four seasons. We can't wait for audiences to see what is in store for the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in this final season."

"‘Lower Decks' and ‘Strange New Worlds' are integral to the ‘Star Trek' franchise, expanding the boundaries of the universe and exploring new and exciting worlds," said CBS Studios president David Stapf. "We are extraordinarily proud of both series as they honor the legacy of what Gene Roddenberry created almost 60 years ago. We are so grateful to work with Secret Hideout, Alex Kurtzman, Mike McMahan, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers and the cast, crews and artists who craft these important and entertaining stories for fans around the world."

More from Variety

• Why 'Star Trek: Discovery' Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series
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Bill Maher Uncovers The Truth Behind William Shatner’s Most Famous ‘Star Trek’ Kiss

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When you have William Shatner , aka Captain James T. Kirk, on your show, you get to ask the Star Trek questions you’ve always wanted answered.

That’s what Bill Maher managed to do on Friday’s Real Time , as he probed one of pop culture’s most interesting moments — the interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lt. Uhura.

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Maher also marveled how far Shatner fell from grace after the first run of Star Trek was canceled after three seasons. Shatner talked about watching the actual moon landing from a pasture while in his truck, his base of operations after a divorce and a lull in work.

How did you fall so fast? Maher asked. “With great precision,” Shatner joked, adding that it was just “circumstances of life.”

Of course, those days are gone for Shatner. He is the subject of the new documentary,  You Can Call Me Bill, and the artist behind the upcoming digital album, So Fragile, So Blue, which he recorded live with the National Symphony Orchestra.

He’s also planning a trip to Antarctica, another of his efforts to explore and spotlight his efforts in climate change.

Of the latter, “There’s no way out except through technology,” Shatner said. “There’s a wave coming.” It’s one reason he may consider once again going into space, he said, as a way to “promulgate the idea that there’s so much going on by science and scientists to correct global warming.” He added, “There’s an element of hope I will cling to.”

Maher wrapped up the segment with a mention of Shatner’s age (93) and compliments on how well he looks.

“I don’t mind when you say my age,” Shatner said. “But when they clap…”

After Shatner, Maher had a panel discussion with Piers Morgan ,  New York Post  columnist and host of the YouTube channel’s P iers Morgan Uncensored , and  Gillian Tett , provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and columnist at the  Financial Times .

They also talked about a protest in Dearborn Michigan that featured chants of “Death to America.” Maher pushed back on those at the protest who said, “The entire system has to go.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Maher countered. “I like our system. I’ve always liked America and thought death to it was bad.”

In Maher’s “New Rules” editorial, he pointed out the falsehoods about Canada and some progressive European countries where the idyllic myth doesn’t jibe with reality, resulting in what Maher termed “zombie lies.”

Maher pointed out several ways that these countries are faring worse in housing, health care, and on immigration issues

“I need to cite you as a cautionary tale: yes, you can move too far left, and you push others to the extreme right,” he said. “Calling something racist doesn’t solve the problem,” Maher said. That opens the door to someone conservative who will act, and “Who I promise, you’re not going to like.”

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 Review: Rayner & Burnham Faced the Strange

By using a Time Bug, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 4 revisited the series' greatest hits, and deepened its heroes' characters and journeys.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery, Season 5, Episode 4, "Face the Strange," now streaming on Paramount+ .

In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Captain Michael Burnham and her crew are in a race against a pair of space-pirates for the future of the Federation. Yet, with only five clues to find before getting to the finish line, there were bound to be some detours. "Face the Strange" is one such side-mission, but it's also a brilliant way to look back at the series' larger journey from being the new kid on the franchise's block to becoming a classic Star Trek series .

Producers said that Season 5 wasn't supposed to end the series, yet this episode is a perfect addition for its final mission. By using time travel as a framing device, the episode looked back at the journey the crew, and especially Burnham, embarked on ever since the show launched in 2017. This was exactly the kind of nostalgic and emotional trip down memory lane that one would expect a character-driven series like Star Trek: Discovery to do in its swan song.

Of course, time travel shenanigans are a classic Star Trek motif, and Star Trek: Discovery already had its share of such adventures. That said, what made this particular time-traveling escapade special was that it allowed for the return of a long-lost character, and it gave Commander Rayner a chance to further define and refine his character while also affirming his place on the Discovery's crew . While his connection to the crew is still a bit tertiary, this episode really showed that Burnham and Rayner made a fantastic and complementary duo.

Face the Strange Revisited Star Trek: Discovery's Greatest Hits

Captain michael burnham and commander rayner relived some of the show's best moments, star trek: discovery ending is a blessing in disguise.

At the end of "Jinaal (Season 5, Episode 3)," Moll slipped into the Trill symbiont caves and planted a strange device on Ensign Adira Tal's sleeve. When "Face the Strange" opened while affirming that the recently broken-up Gray Tal and Adira will remain friends, the spider-like device (later referred to as the Time Bug) crawled from their sleeve and onto the ship.

Meanwhile, Rayner's harsh style of command rubbed Burnham the wrong way. She asks him to join her in the ready room for a slight dressing down, which inadvertently proves to be the crew's saving grace. When the Time Bug does its dirty work, the captain and first officer use their personal transporters, which prevents them from becoming unstuck in time like the rest of the ship and crew. This allowed them to find a way to free the Discovery from its time-displaced prison, and to reflect on their lives.

There is a brief jaunt to the future, Burnham and Rayner learn that their crew died and that the Federation was decimated after a Breen attack. This was also the third mention of the Breen this season, and one of their heaviest bits of foreshadowing yet. Interestingly, this grim sequence evoked the Star Trek: Short Treks episode "Calypso (Season 1, Episode 2)," which featured a marooned soldier many, many tears in the future encountering an abandoned USS Discovery occupied only by Zora.

The two Starfleet officers then appear on the ship during its journey through the wormhole at the end of Season 2. Next, they were thrown back to the battle against Control, the evil artificial intelligence that wanted to merge with the "Sphere Data" that became Zora. They also traveled to the distant past before the Discovery was even launched. However, their most important trip to the past took place just a few weeks after Burnham joined the ship. The best thing about this sequence was that it allowed Airiam, the human-turned-cyborg who died in Season 2, to return for a brief few scenes. That said, this sequence was all about Burnham and her personal journey.

Captain Michael Burnham Confronted Her Past, Insecure Self in Face the Strange

It's been a long road for michael burnham, going from mutineer to captain, star trek: discovery's alex kurtzman & michelle paradise talk final season.

As Rayner and Commander Paul Stamets try to figure out how to stop the Time Bug, Burnham encountered her past self in a turbolift. Past Burnham immediately thinks her future self is a shapeshifter. Nitpicky fans might wonder why Future Burnham didn't just drop some knowledge only they would know. However, in a universe with wormholes, time travel and the USS Discovery's spore drive , the possibility of a shapeshifter using their telepathic abilities to copy the memories of whoever they impersonated wasn't a big stretch. This led to a fun sequence where Burnham fought her past self.

After incapacitating her past self with a Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Burnham gave voice to the subtext of this entire journey. Burnham reminded audiences just how desperate things were for her back then. She was Starfleet's first mutineer, and her actions led to the death of her mentor, Captain Philippa Georgiou. Even though the Klingon leader, T'Kuvma, was going to start a war with the Federation, Burnham also blamed herself for this close call. The most unbelievable thing for the understandably self-loathing Past Burnham to accept was a future in which she not only had rank again, but was trusted enough to be given a ship.

While this makes Burnham Star Trek 's most relatable captain among the franchise's imperfect fans, the character herself can't believe she could attain new heights after falling so far. Yet, in trying to stop Rayner and Stamets, Burnham again proved her worth . She's determined to do the right thing to protect her ship, her crew and Starfleet itself. This episode underscored that Burnham's unique skill isn't her intellect or fighting prowess, but her commitment to higher ideals even when she thinks she's failed them in unforgivable ways.

Commander Rayner Finally Connected with the Crew in Face the Strange

Commander rayner learned new things about himself by visiting the past, star trek: discovery actors doug jones & david ajala prepare for their last adventure.

While Burnham is and always was heroic, it's actually Rayner who saved the day and the rest of time in this episode. Hearkening back to his previous attempts to know the crew, Rayner was now able to prove to Past Lieutenant Commander Gen Rhys that they do know each other. Rayner may have only given Reese 20 words, but these were enough to discover Rhys's affection for Constitution class ships like the USS Enterprise . Still, Past Burnham was not convinced. It's only through Rayner sincerely connecting with her and his own understanding of what it's like to fall from grace that seals the deal.

He told Past Burnham something no one but she could know. Specifically, that when she first stepped on the bridge of the Discovery, she felt like she didn't belong. Yet, he reaffirms that she does belong not just on the vessel, but in command of it. Yes, she's made mistakes, huge ones when compared to those committed by previous Starfleet heroes and captains. However, her heart is always in the right place. In Season 1, Burnham seemed more Vulcan than human, but her emotions were still there. In fact, she cared so much that she told Captain Gabriel Lorca she didn't deserve to serve on a starship.

Another touching moment between crew members in "Face the Strange" came via Rayner's collaboration with Stamets . He was already depressed this season since the spore drive is, effectively, dead technology. Rayner also killed his science-buzz upon realizing the potential of the Progenitor's technology. Yet, when Stamets was worried about being able to save the ship, Rayner motivated him by saying "old dogs" like them still had life-saving tricks up their uniform sleeves. Despite his gruff demeanor, this episode showed why Rayner was such a successful long-serving leader in Starfleet -- especially in a post-Burn galaxy.

Moll & L’Ak’s Time Bug Is a Brutal Weapon Tied to Star Trek Mythology

The time bug was used for more than just nostalgic fanservice, star trek: discovery's sonequa martin-green embarks on one final voyage.

Star Trek is full of near-magical and nonsensical technology like the transporters themselves , but even by these loose standards, the Time Bug is a little confusing. If Burnham, Rayner and Stamets weren't immune from its effects thanks to the latter's "tardigrade DNA," it's unclear exactly what the device does. Somehow, the present-day USS Discovery is incapacitated while the ship jumps back and forth through time. No one on the vessel is aware of this, and the crew complement changes with the times.

When Burnham and company arrive back in the 22nd Century, it's unclear what happened to folks like Commander Jett Reno or Adira, who were always in the 32nd Century. Trying to figure out how the Time Bug works is really a waste of time, since it's nothing more than a fun sci-fi concept that was used to drive an episode. The show gets around this when Rayner says the Time Bug is technology leftover from the Temporal War first introduced back in Star Trek: Enterprise, and wrapped up for good in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' Khan episode .

In previous episodes, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 brought in connections to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase (Season 6, Episode 20)," and it also built on the Trill mythology established in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The Time Bug is yet another way the series used past Star Trek events to tell new, fresh stories instead of just dropping cute Easter Eggs. The bug was an illegal black-market weapon, but one that (despite its inconsistent details and lack of specifics) fit neatly into this six-decade-old universe.

While the crew lost six hours in their race against Moll and L'ak, they still came out ahead. They are now a more cohesive unit than ever before, meaning they will face whatever challenges come next as a tightly-knit crew. This was the way that any Star Trek crew should be.

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Discovery

• Time Bug allows for the series to revisit past moments and characters in its final season.
• The focus on Burnham's journey from mutineer to captain underscores her remarkable journey over five seasons.
• The episode reveals more aspects to Rayner's character making him more well-rounded.
• "Face the Strange" is a near-perfect blend of action, sci-fi problem-solving, and character moments.
• The ensemble takes a backseat because of the time-travel nature of the episode's plot.
• Moll and L'ak return for a scene but are still not as present as in each episode as perhaps they should be.
• Saru and T'Rina don't appear making last episode's story with them feel more like an aside.
• Other than Ariam, past characters like Ash Tyler, Nilsson, Captains Lorca or Pike don't appear feeling like a missed opportunity for a final season victory lap.

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery's last chance to bring back lorca may have just happened.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, sends Burnham back to the beginning, but Jason Isaacs' Captain Gabriel Lorca is conspicuous by his absence.

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange".

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 faces time travel challenges and missed opportunities for Captain Lorca's return.
• "Face the Strange" focuses on Burnham's growth, facing her past, over bringing back Discovery's best villain.
• For practical and plot reasons, Captain Lorca's return in the final season remains unlikely.

Star Trek: Discovery may have just had its last chance to bring back Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) before the series ends for good. In Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange", written by Sean Cochran and directed by Lee Rose , Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) are scattered through past, present, and future thanks to a Krenim time bug. The Krenim chronophage was planted on Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) by Moll (Eve Harlow) at the end of Discovery season 5, episode 3 , and traps the USS Discovery inside its own personal history.

Cycling through key moments from previous seasons of Star Trek: Discovery , "Face the Strange" provides Burnham a chance to reflect on how she's grown as a person. The climax of "Face the Strange" takes place during Burnham's earliest days aboard the USS Discovery , while she was still seen as an untrustworthy mutineer. This return to season 1 was an ideal opportunity to bring back Discovery 's best villain, Captain Lorca , but "Face the Strange" makes the decision to place the character on an away mission during the episode's climax.

Jason Isaacs’ 10 Best Acting Roles (Including Star Trek: Discovery’s Lorca)

Why didn't star trek: discovery's season 5 time travel bring back lorca.

There's presumably practical reasons for why Jason Isaacs doesn't appear as Captain Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange". Discovery season 5 started shooting in June 2022, and continued through to November that year . Jason Isaacs was in the UK filming the Cary Grant miniseries Archie in summer 2022, which is presumably why Lorca didn't appear in the scenes set during the Federation-Klingon War . However, it's more likely that Lorca was never considered as a potential antagonist for the climax of "Face the Strange", given the themes of the episode.

The younger mutineer version of Michael Burnham is a perfect antagonist for the climactic scenes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4 . By facing off against her angry, younger self who didn't believe she belonged in Starfleet, Burnham is literally exorcising the demons of her past. And then, in the final confrontation, Rayner's connection with the younger Burnham is what ultimately saves the day . It's therefore hard to see where Captain Lorca would fit into "Face the Strange", despite how thrilling it would be to see the character again.

Could Star Trek: Discovery's Final Season Still Bring Back Captain Lorca?

The next episode of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is entitled "Mirrors", which heavily implies a return to the Mirror Universe . At the end of "Face the Strange", Moll and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) have disappeared, leaving no trace. It seems likely, given the episode's title, that Star Trek 's criminal couple have fallen through some interdimensional fold or temporal anomaly. If Moll and L'ak have found themselves in the Mirror Universe, then it does create one last chance for Discovery 's best villain to return. However, it might not be that simple, and not just because Captain Lorca seemingly died in Discovery season 1.

Even if Lorca did somehow survive his fate after Star Trek: Discovery season 1, a return to the Mirror Universe in season 5 doesn't guarantee he'll still be alive. Star Trek 's Mirror Universe is a parallel reality, which means that a return trip would take Burnham and the crew to whatever remains of the Terran Empire in the 32nd century. Lorca would be long dead by then, no matter what creative way he found to evade his rather definitive looking death in Star Trek: Discovery season 1. It seems that one of modern Star Trek 's best villains won't be rising from the grave any time soon.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.