Posted in: Paramount+, TV | Tagged: Sonequa Martin-Green, star trek: discovery

Star Trek: Discovery: Martin-Green on P+ Shutting Down OG Finale Plans

Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green on showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise's original plans for a two-hour finale.

When Star Trek: Discovery wrapped its journey after five seasons in May 2024, a chapter was closed on the franchise's first streaming series on Paramount+ that saw Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) save the galaxy one final time in the 32nd century before they're able to wrap up the story definitively with an epilogue that was cobbled together as it wasn't the original planned ending. Once season five was announced as the last, Martin and co-star David Ajala were not only able to say goodbye to the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery, but we traveled further into their future and their son, who's now becoming a captain, himself in the finale "Life, Itself."

Appearing in Trek Talks 4, a telethon to benefit the Hollywood Food Coalition, the two were joined by Doug Jones (Suru), Wilson Cruz (Culber), Jayne Brook (Cornwell), Mary Chieffo (L'Rell), Blu del Barrio (Adira), Ian Alexander (Gray), Emily Coutts (Detmer), Ronnie Rowe (Bryce), and Sara Mitich (Airiam/Nilsson) to talk about a much more ambitious finale from Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise that would have brought the finale to two hours instead of one that clocked in at just under an hour and a half.

Star Trek: Discovery Star Sonequa Martin-Green on Plans for the Original Finale

When it came to the original plan, the Star Trek: Discovery finale was set to tie up all loose ends. "I remember from the moment we found out that the show was going to be ending, and we were in talks with Paramount Plus about how we were going to wrap the show up. What they wanted was an additional episode to really be able to touch everyone's stories, to really be able to close this thing out," Martin-Green said (via TrekMovie.com). "We were not able to be afforded that. So they said, it's not going to be an additional episode. It's not going to be, I think what Alex and Michelle, originally, wanted was a full two-hour movie finale kind of thing, right? And it was like, no, we're not going to be able to do that. And it's like, okay, well then what about an extra episode? No, we're not going to be able to do that. Okay, what about like an extra half of an episode or something like that?"

Martin-Green revealed what ended up happening, "What they ended up having was about 12 pages.. closed it up in 12 pages, right? I feel like that's how long the coda was. It couldn't have been any longer than that, right, David? I feel like it was really short. … I remember being really sad when I found out about that because suddenly our options were very limited in what we were going to be able to touch in that short period of time." The actress had ideas about ideas to stretch the budget that would include everyone. "I had all these dreams and visions and ideas about how all of us are in a white room? And we're talking. We're in a dream space. And it's all of us. And we have this amazing conversation in like all this stuff. We reveal things that have never been revealed before…"

The actress remained humble on Kurtzman and Paradise's resourcefulness, "Alex and Michelle have said this, we'll keep saying this, that we're grateful that they gave us this because they did not have to. And this is not always the case with shows. So we did get to close up and I am so grateful for that." The final season would see a few swaps of bridge crew as filming commitments elsewhere limited Oyin Oladejo (Owosekun) and Coutts' involvement, appearing in fewer episodes, but they return for the final bridge reunion scene.

For more, you can check out the entire segment in the video, which includes more thoughts from Ajala and Martin-Green on the finale. All five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery are available on Paramount+.

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