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The final season of Star Trek: Discovery appears to be going out on a MacGuffin Hunt. I think this is a good decision. Everyone loves a good MacGuffin chase.
TVTropes says: “MacGuffin” (a.k.a. McGuffin or maguffin) is a term for an object or element in a story that drives the plot, but serves no further purpose. It won’t pop up again later, it won’t explain the ending, and it won’t do anything except possibly distract you while you try to figure out its significance. It usually takes the form of a mysterious artifact, package, or weapon that everyone in the story is chasing, though in some cases it won’t even be shown.
I am going to call this, the misplaced season. Because the series ended for me last season with the reveal of the cosmic aliens and the reboot of the Federation. If I were to look at Discovery in ten years and want to watch it again, I would bet season five will feel as if it was season four. This trailer reveals an action-oriented plot, with new aliens, fast serial pacing and somehow is supposed to end with a story which wraps up the embedded story, ethos and emotional resonance Discovery created in its time as a godparent to Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Picard?
Yeah. They did that last season. This trailer reveals a season bounded by:
- A ticking clock.
- Dynamic action.
- Adventure.
- Love.
- Loss.
- Sacrifice.
- Transformation
Riding the ‘Adventure Pack Seven’ into history is not a bad way to end this Star Trek series.
What Came Before
After an abysmal first season, dealing with intrigue, skullduggery and barely comprehensible Klingons, Discovery has risen through the ranks producing a quality serial culminating in the reveal of an Ancient Galactic Race last season and the opportunity to restore the roots of the Federation thought forever lost.
Fleeing the menace of Control in the early days of the Federation, the crew found themselves torn from the past by circumstance, marooned in an unexpected future.
The fifth and final season will find Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy. Following mysterious runic symbols the crew enters a race to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. These new enemies knowing the nature of their prize are willing to do anything, to anyone, to gain access to it.
The crew look marvelous, their lighting, their special effects, the costumes, this looks like a brilliant swan song to what remains in my mind, a great modern interpretation of Gene Roddenberry’s Wagon Trail to the Stars.
Pressure Produced Diamonds
Discovery had a rough start but evolved nicely. Once they stopped making Michael Burnham have to earn her right to be Captain, things became smoother because we all knew she would be the Captain.
Discovery included. It’s greatest power was its ability to truly showcase a host of different ways of feeling, thinking, and being. From intelligent starships to Trill symbiotes, sexual variations from ace, nonbinary, queer, platonic, and even self-affirming alien courtship.
Discovery discovered. It broke ground. It dared. We meet the Guardian at the Edge of Forever and it calls itself Carl. We meet the empress of a mirror reality, the most feared being in that Universe, who betrays all that she was for the love of her foster daughter.
Discovery fought to revive a dream long dead, that we could all live together in peace. It appears that lesson is one we need now more than ever.
How can you say anything bad about a series which personified the Dream of the Great Bird of the Galaxy the way Discovery has?
Discovery is this generation’s hopes and dreams. Five seasons rather than seven? I think Discovery made people nervous, because it showed a host of people society wants to think the worst of, and Discovery made them real and beautifully Human.
Stream the final season of Star Trek: Discovery April 4, exclusively on Paramount+.
#TrailerPark #StarTrek Discovery #SDC #StarTrekParamount+
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Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
