Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Michelle Paradise, paramount, Sonequa Martin-Green, star trek, star trek: discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks

Star Trek: Discovery Showrunner, Star on Finale, S06 Plans; New Images

Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise and star Sonequa Martin-Green reflect on the finale, Season 6 plans, and more.

It's a wrap on the first Star Trek series in the Paramount+ era with Discovery, with the finale "Life, Itself" premiering on May 30th. What wasn't originally intended to end the series, additional footage was shot to tie as many loose ends to more of a feature length of 85 minutes. Executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise and star Sonequa Martin-Green spoke to Variety about the objectives of season five and its legacy within the series and narrative, and what could have been had season six become a reality. The following contains major spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery: Making Sense of the Finale and Beyond

When it came to Paradise's intentions with season five, "It was really a season about meaning and purpose, and those are very, very big ideas, and now, of course, in hindsight, it feels like those are series-ending sort of themes. There was no thought in my head, or in any of our heads that it might be the last season as we were writing." "I think there's more to it than just, 'Oh, it was a coinkydink!'" Martin-Green said with a laugh before explaining that she's thinking more about subtext than direct intent. "I've gotta give Michelle her flowers. She has always asked the deeper questions of this story and these characters. Those questions of meaning and purpose led to questions of origin and legacy, and, yes, that is quite culminating."

The finale saw Captain Michael Burnham (Martin-Green) figure out the final puzzle of the Progenitors after assigning the triangles in the proper order, telling the one she meets that she'll come back with an answer about how to handle the responsibility with their technology. As the series jumps to the future in the final 16 minutes, the admiral we find started a family with Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) and raising a son Leto (Swandi Wilson), who becomes a Starfleet captain. Reunited with Discovery solo, Burnham shares a conversation with Zora, the ship's AI, on another red directive, presumably to revisit the portal and the Progenitor technology.

One mystery that was revealed was the identity of Dr. Kovich, played by David Cronenberg, when Burnham confronted him. He fesses to be Agent Daniels, a character originally played by the younger Matt Winston on Enterprise, a time traveler federation operative in the temporal cold war on the UPN series. "I love the way he plays Kovich," Paradise said, revealing subtle hints throughout season five. "There's just this air of mystery about him. We've always wanted to know more." In Kovich's office, there were relics like the bottle of Chateau Picard, Benjamin Sisko's (Avery Brooks) baseball from Deep Space Nine, and Geordi La Forge's (LeVar Burton) visor from The Next Generation. "I didn't know that that was going be there," Martin-Green said. "My whole childhood came back to me."

When it came to what would have been season six, it goes back to the Short Trek episode "Calypso," written by Michael Chabon, that found Craft (Aldis Hodge), who is rescued by the U.S.S. Discovery after being vacant for 1,000 years and its AI, Zora (Annabelle Wallis), alone. "We always knew that we wanted to somehow tie that back up," Paradise said. "We never wanted 'Calypso' to be the dangling Chad. The story, nascent as it was, was eventually going to be tying that thread up and connecting 'Discovery' back with 'Calypso,'" so she devised a way for future Burnham to have Discovery restored to its 23rd-century state and a Starfleet Red Directive with a date with destiny to end the series since they could dedicate another season to this journey.

For more on the worlds the Progenitors set up for Burnham, her and Moll's (Eve Harlow) final fight, filming the final bridge scene with the cast, and more, you can check out the interview here.

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