Warning: MAJOR SPOILER for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

Summary

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is the final season, with an epic intergalactic treasure hunt story leading to a proper ending.
• The season includes tie-ins to Star Trek: The Next Generation, exploring unanswered questions from the past.
• The focus on character relationships sets the show apart, with reshoots adding a cherry on top for a fitting series finale.

Star Trek: Discovery executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise are sending the USS Discovery on its last ride. The final season of Star Trek: Discovery has premiered on Paramount+, marking the beginning of the end of the first Star Trek streaming show.

Kurtzman and Paradise didn't know season 5 would be the final season of Star Trek: Discovery during production. After Paramount+ canceled the show, the streamer granted Kurtzman and Paradise 3 additional days of filming in spring 2023 to create a coda that would properly end Star Trek: Discovery. Fortunately, Discovery season 5's intergalactic treasure hunt story naturally lends itself to endings.

Screen Rant spoke to Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise prior to Star Trek: Discovery's season 5's world premiere at SXSW about that tie-in to Star Trek: The Next Generation, balancing big ideas with emotional character stories, and what Star Trek: Discovery's legacy is.

Alex Kurtzman & Michelle Paradise Tie Star Trek: Discovery Back To "The Chase"

Screen Rant: Alex and Michelle, thank you so much for talking to me. Thank you for Discovery. Alex, thank you for Star Trek.

Alex Kurtzman: Well, I wish I could say it was mine, but it ain't. (laughs)

Let's talk about Discovery season 5. Epic treasure hunt. But it also ties back to the 24th century. Can you talk a little bit about that? And the decision-making process, and how cool that was?

Michelle Paradise: Sure, yeah, it's really cool to get to go back there. I assume that this will come out after the premiere so we're not spoiling anything. But yeah, [Star Trek: The Next Generation's] "The Chase" has been an episode that had stuck with a lot of us because of the thematics of that episode. And the ideas that it explores. And for me, anyway, it left me with so many questions.

When we were thinking about an epic adventure for this season, that was, of course, the thing that came to mind. And using this season to kind of go back there and say, 'Well, what if? What happened after that?' became a really great jumping-off point.

As a quick detour, Alex, can I ask about how Section 31 and Starfleet Academy are coming along?

Alex Kurtzman: They're coming along great. We're in the middle of shooting Section 31. And we're about halfway through the writers' room on Starfleet Academy. And we start shooting at the end of the summer.

Star Trek: Section 31 wrapped filming in late March after this interview was conducted.

Star Trek: Discovery Will Have A "Beautiful Conclusion"

Discovery is such a cosmic show. Big ideas, big concepts, big problems. But when I think about the show, I think about relationships. Burnham and Book. Saru and T'Rina. Moll and L'ak. Tell me about balancing Star Trek with these big ideas and all of these love stories going on in the ship?

Michelle Paradise: Well, I'm glad to hear that because we start every season with the characters. You know, we're always going to have the big ideas, the big themes, but it always comes down to the characters and their relationships, and how are they growing individually? How are they growing in their relationships? How are they growing as a family unit, as a team? That's always at the heart of everything we do.

And using that as the starting place, that's where we can get into the bigger thematic ideas, the big bad guys of the season, whatever that may be. But it really is the characters we know that we latch on to and that we know our audience latches on to. And so, that's always where we start.

There were reshoots to create an epilogue for the season 5 finale. Can you talk a little bit about that, like the challenge of creating a capstone for the whole series?

Alex Kurtzman: What was so interesting was that this season had really kind of come to a beautiful conclusion. And Michelle and I looked at each other when we knew that it was going to be the last season and went, 'Wow, I don't know that we could have necessarily planned it better for a final season. Now, what we really need to do is just put the cherry on top of the cake. And we were able to do three days that were very targeted and surgical. It wasn't actually reshoots, it was sort of an additional [filming]. And we were really grateful to be able to do that because it felt like it allowed us to take a natural ending, and give it a series ending on top of it.

What would you say the legacy of Star Trek Discovery is?

Alex Kurtzman: I think modern Star Trek. And without Discovery, there would be no modern Star Trek. It opened the door for every show that came after. It opened the door for Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, Starfleet Academy, Section 31, and everything that's going to come after that. So I think it really kicked the door down for a new era.

About Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the USS Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well … dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.

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

• Sonequa Martin-Green
• David Ajala and Doug Jones
• Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman & Blu del Barrio

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres April 4 on Paramount+

Source: Screen Rant Plus