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“star trek: volume one: godshock” review by positivelytrek.com.

Positivelytrek.com has added a new review for Collin Kelly ‘s “Star Trek: Volume One: Godshock” :

In this episode of the Positively Trek Book Club, hosts Dan and Brandi take a look at the first collection of stories in the series: Star Trek: Volume One: Godshock. Written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, the stories take Sisko and the crew of the USS Theseus on a mission from the Prophets. The threat: someone is killing all of the “gods” of the Star Trek universe!

Author: Adam Selvidge

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Look Inside

Star Trek, Vol. 1: Godshock

By collin kelly and jackson lanzing illustrated by ramon rosanas , oleg chudakov and joe eisma, category: comics | science fiction.

Sep 10, 2024 | ISBN 9798887242859 | 6-5/8 x 10-3/16 --> | ISBN 9798887242859 -->

Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9781684059904 | 6-5/8 x 10-3/16 --> | ISBN 9781684059904 --> Buy

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Sep 10, 2024 | ISBN 9798887242859

Jul 18, 2023 | ISBN 9781684059904

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About Star Trek, Vol. 1: Godshock

Deep Space Nine captain Benjamin Sisko returns in a new ongoing series featuring fan-favorite characters from across the Star Trek universe. Now avaliable in gorgeous softcover format with new cover! Stardate 2378: A bold new era of Star Trek begins! Three years ago, Benjamin Sisko made a courageous sacrifice that left him trapped in the dimension of the mysterious Prophets; now he’s returned to his home universe—with powerful, godlike abilities. But his omnipotence is failing when he needs it most. Someone is killing the gods, and Sisko and the motley crew of the U.S.S. Theseus will have to travel to the deepest parts of space to stop them. Star Trek: Year Five lead writers Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly (Batman Beyond, Captain America) and artists Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo present a new ship, a new mission, and a lot of old friends! Sisko is joined by Commanders Data and Worf, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, of Star Trek: The Next Generation; Lt. Tom Paris, of Star Trek: Voyager; Captain Montgomery Scott, of Star Trek; and Ben’s son, Jake. But there are new faces as well, to surprise established fans while showing new readers the ropes. Collects the prequel short story “A Perfect System” from Star Trek #400 and issues #1–6 of the ongoing series.

Deep Space Nine captain Benjamin Sisko returns in a new ongoing series featuring fan-favorite characters from across the Star Trek universe, sure to thrill new readers and longtime Trekkies alike! Stardate 2378: A bold new era of Star Trek begins! Three years ago, Benjamin Sisko made a courageous sacrifice that left him trapped in the dimension of the mysterious Prophets; now he’s returned to his home universe—with powerful, godlike abilities. But his omnipotence is failing when he needs it most. Someone is killing the gods, and Sisko and the motley crew of the U.S.S. Theseus will have to travel to the deepest parts of space to stop them. Star Trek: Year Five lead writers Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly (Batman Beyond, Captain America) and artists Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo present a new ship, a new mission, and a lot of old friends! Sisko is joined by Commanders Data and Worf, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, of Star Trek: The Next Generation; Lt. Tom Paris, of Star Trek: Voyager; Captain Montgomery Scott, of Star Trek; and Ben’s son, Jake. But there are new faces as well, to surprise established fans while showing new readers the ropes. Collects the prequel short story “A Perfect System” from Star Trek #400 and issues #1–6 of the ongoing series.

Also by Collin Kelly , Jackson Lanzing

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Star Trek, Volume 1: Godshock

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Synopsis [ ]

• " Star Trek, Issue 400 "
• " Star Trek, Issue 1 "
• " Star Trek, Issue 2
• " Star Trek, Issue 3 "
• " Star Trek, Issue 4 "
• " Star Trek, Issue 5 "
• " Star Trek, Issue 6 "

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• Volume 1: Godshock at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
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Star Trek, Vol. 1: Godshock

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Deep Space Nine captain Benjamin Sisko returns in a new ongoing series featuring fan-favorite characters from across the Star Trek universe, sure to thrill new readers and longtime Trekkies alike!

Stardate 2378: A bold new era of Star Trek begins! Three years ago, Benjamin Sisko made a courageous sacrifice that left him trapped in the dimension of the mysterious Prophets; now he's returned to his home universe—with powerful, godlike abilities. But his omnipotence is failing when he needs it most. Someone is killing the gods, and Sisko and the motley crew of the U.S.S. Theseus will have to travel to the deepest parts of space to stop them.

Star Trek: Year Five lead writers Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly (Batman Beyond, Captain America) and artists Ramon Rosanas, Oleg Chudakov, Joe Eisma, and Erik Tamayo present a new ship, a new mission, and a lot of old friends! Sisko is joined by Commanders Data and Worf, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, of Star Trek: The Next Generation; Lt. Tom Paris, of Star Trek: Voyager; Ensign Lilly Sato, of Star Trek: Enterprise; Captain Montgomery Scott, of Star Trek: The Original Series, and Ben's son, Jake. But there are new faces as well, to surprise established fans while showing new readers the ropes.

Collects the prequel short story "A Perfect System" from Star Trek #400 and issues #1–6 of the ongoing series.

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best

This season has a brisk pace and the sense of fun that in the past has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes..

Star Trek: Discovery occupies an interesting place in the celebrated franchise. It was the first Trek series of the streaming era, the first to debut behind a paywall, the first produced after J.J. Abrams’ big screen reboot, and the first to put a woman of color in the captain’s chair. Discovery redefined the look and feel of the franchise on television, bringing Trek into the modern world of feature-level photography, effects, and pace of story. It blazed a trail for a new generation of Trek media, like direct spin-off Strange New Worlds and the upcoming Section 31 TV movie. It is also not terribly popular amidst the old guard of Trekkies, nor is it a mainstream hit or a critical darling. Discovery has struggled to find its footing from the very beginning and is still uneven after years of retooling. I do not consider its cancellation after five seasons to be a tragic loss for television. However, Discovery may still have one “first” left to achieve: It may be the first Star Trek series whose final season is its best. 

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(A quick personal note to the handful of Trekkies who just clutched their pearls: Season 4 of Enterprise is not better than Season 3, it merely has more familiar stuff for fans to point at with childlike glee. And you’ve likely already read my thoughts on Picard ’s final season .)

Even as a critic of the show, I have to acknowledge that every season of Discovery has started with a bang. It’s the nature of a serialized, season-long story arc to kick off with something resembling the first act of a feature film, and Season 5 is no different. The opening chapter, “Red Directive,” is a fast-paced space adventure packed with flashy action set pieces. The illustrious Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her crew are on the trail of Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), a spacefaring Bonnie and Clyde who have stumbled across a secret with enormous implications for the future of the galaxy. Just like the previous three seasons, this sets Team Disco off on another cosmic scavenger hunt, jumping to a new world each week to find the next clue to the season’s grander mystery. 

Historically, this is where Discovery has run into trouble. While each chapter tends to have its own contained adventure plot or even a classic Trek “message of the week,” they’re rarely that memorable and they advance the season’s overarching storyline without adding much depth. This season, though, has a brisk pace and a sense of fun that, previously, has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes. Paramount has promoted this season as having an Indiana Jones energy to it , and that’s a fair comparison. The characters are enjoying themselves more, and for the first time since Season 2, the story isn’t built around some unfathomable tragedy. T o my best recollection, none of the episodes provided in advance to critics feature any crying. That’s four consecutive episodes, possibly a new track record.

This is not the only way in which Discovery ’s new season throttles back on the show’s occasionally cloying sentimentality. The season premiere introduces a new character, Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ), a gruff pragmatist who serves as a contrast to Burnham’s soft-spoken, personable, firmly feminine command style. At first, Rayner appears to be a straw man representing aggro, entitled white male authority, a trope Discovery goes to often. As the season progresses, Rayner acquires some depth and even some likability. It’s fun to watch this grumpy old guy interact with a cast full of characters who are totally in touch with their feelings. Most importantly, Rayner provides something that the series has needed ever since Burnham took command of Discovery: a professional peer with whom to disagree and occasionally compromise. It’s an essential role that her first officer, Saru ( Doug Jones ), has become too adoring and loyal to play. Burnham has earned the devotion of her crew, but watching her gracefully manage dissent only enhances her aura of strength and leadership.

Even though production was wrapped before Discovery was canceled (with additional shooting after that announcement to tie up loose ends), Season Five feels like a finale from the very beginning. A few characters are moving on with their lives, pursuing new interests and relationships. There are more fun, non-intrusive callbacks to Treks past than in the last two seasons, which makes it feel a bit like a victory lap for the streaming era’s flagship show. Above all, there is a sense of ease, as if the cast and crew have finally got their engine running smoothly and can cruise to the finish line. It’s the energy a series possesses at its peak, a point to which fans will often look back and say “They probably should have stopped there.” Barring a significant misstep in its final six episodes, Star Trek: Discovery will never be past its prime, and that’s a distinction its creators can wear with pride. 

• SEE ALSO : Hank Azaria On What It Takes to Change

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Star Trek: Discovery is cracking open a box Next Gen closed on purpose

The USS Discovery is on a mad chase across the galaxy for one of Star Trek’s biggest secrets

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Calling back to a single 30-year-old episode of television is a time-honored Star Trek tradition , one that’s led the franchise to some of its most fascinating detours. And in its two-episode season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery seems to be kicking off an entire season calling back to one particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

And not just any episode! The 1993 installment of Next Gen in question delivered a revelation so seemingly earth-shaking that it should have rewritten galactic politics on a massive scale. But then, as was the way in the 1990s era of episodic TV, nobody ever mentioned it again.

At least until now.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.]

Writer Michelle Paradise and director Olatunde Osunsanmi lay out the connection at the end of the first of two episodes released this week, “Red Directive.” Discovery’s mission is to follow a series of ancient clues leading to a cache of ancient technology, and to get there before a couple of professional thieves, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), do.

The technology, as Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) explains, belongs to the so-called Progenitors, a barely understood ancient spacefaring species that “created life as we know it […] every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Presumably such tech holds the key to understanding how the Progenitors did that, and how that power could be used again.

The Progenitors are from the Star Trek episode “The Chase”

Kovich also calls up a helpful video presentation of the moment the Progenitors were discovered by an assembled group of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian captains, including Jean-Luc Picard. But you don’t have to be a Star Trek lore nerd to know you’re actually just looking at clips from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Specifically, from the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets. Questions abound: What does the program do? And what kind of entity could have been so ancient and powerful that it had determined the genetic legacy of most of the known galaxy before sentient life had even evolved here — and then left no trace of its existence except the genetic codes themselves?

In a nutshell, the mysterious death of Captain Picard’s old archeology professor (did you know that if he hadn’t gone into Starfleet, Jean-Luc was studying to be a space archeologist? Well, now you do) sets the captain and the Enterprise on a search for the missing DNA fragments necessary to complete his unfinished work.

The action of the episode becomes a grand chase, as Klingon and Cardassian captains come to believe the program must be a great weapon or dangerous secret. Eventually Picard and his rivals all discover the lonely planet with the final DNA strain — and when they get there, some Romulans who’ve been secretly following all of them show up, too, just to make things even more tense.

In the end, the program isn’t a weapon or a secret, but a message from an ancient race of humanoids that apparently created sentient life in our galaxy as we know it.

Actor Salome Jens appears as a Progenitor hologram, and delivers a speech that’s stirring by any standard of Star Trek monologues, telling the story of a race of sentients that took to the stars and found them empty. They had evolved too early to meet other forms of sentient life, and knew that their time was too limited to ever expect to.

“We knew that one day we would be gone; that nothing of us would survive, so we left you,” Jens’ Progenitor explains. The Progenitors seeded humanoid life across the galaxy in their own image; life that tended to evolve into bipedal, tailless, largely hairless creatures with two eyes and two arms and five fingers on each hand. And they left clues in the genetic signature of their work, broken up among the stars.

Wait, was this really all about lampshading the limits of Star Trek’s alien design?

Kinda, yes! The writers of “The Chase,” Ron Moore and Joe Menosky, were inspired by elements of Carl Sagan’s Contact , but also by Menosky’s pet fascination creating an in-universe explanation for why all the common alien species in Star Trek are basically shaped like humans (albeit with latex on their faces).

In other hands, it would be hokey and trite, but even under heavy makeup, Jens sells the hell out of her single scene on voice and stance alone — it’s no wonder she was asked back to the Trek fold to play a major antagonist role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

“It was our hope that you would have to come together in fellowship and companionship to hear this message, and if you can see and hear me, our hope has been fulfilled,” the Progenitor hologram concludes, with gentle compassion. “You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence. That was our wish: That you, too, would know life. [...] There is something of us in each of you, and so something of you in each other.”

But though “The Chase” carried a sweeping revelation, nothing ever really panned out from it. You’d think that a message of togetherness that fundamentally rewrote the origin of life in the universe would have to have tweaked Star Trek’s galactic politics a bit, right? Seems like this would give the Star Trek setting a radically different understanding of the origins of life than we have in the real world — this is literally intelligent design! At the very least there’d be some other characters talking about how humans and Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans and Ferengi and Cardassians and Trill and Bajorans, all share the same genetic ancestor.

But nope: The Pandora’s box of Progenitor lore remained closed. Gene Roddenberry’s successor and Trek producer Rick Berman seems to have been disenchanted with the episode’s reveal — and you can’t really blame him for not wanting to rock the whole cosmology of Star Trek in an episode that’s mostly about explaining how if you turn the DNA snippets like this they make a cool spiral. Now look at this computer screen with the spiral :

Except now, Star Trek: Discovery is opening the box and rocking the boat. This new mad, puzzle-box chase around the galaxy promises to expand on the Progenitors, an idea so big that not even The Next Generation was willing to touch it. It’s a tall order, but Discovery has never been more free to shake up Star Trek continuity than it is right now — we’ll have to wait for more episodes of the show’s final season to find out how free it intends to be.

Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

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Star Trek: Discovery's Alex Kurtzman & Michelle Paradise Talk Final Season

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery finds the USS Discovery continuing to rebuild the United Federation of Planets in the 32nd century. But the crew are tasked with a secret mission that could shake the galaxy to its core. And as Discovery embarks on its final voyage, it brings the characters and series full circle. The season is filled with plenty of action and emotional moments for new viewers and longtime fans alike.

In an interview with CBR before the April 5, 2024 season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery showrunner/executive producer Michelle Paradise and co-creator/executive producer Alex Kurtzman talk about the evolution of the series. They also reflect on shifting to make Season 5 close out the show and explain the creative joys of moving to the 32nd century.

CBR: Star Trek: Discovery started as a war drama and became a series focused on rediscovering hope. How has it been charting the show's evolution?

10 best star trek spinoffs, ranked.

Alex Kurtzman: It's been a wonderful experience! It's funny that you characterize it starting out as a war show. It's true that we started out in the middle of the Klingon War, but that was never really the intention of the show long-term. Really, the purpose was for Burnham to start out as a mutineer and come full circle as who she is at the end of Season 1 -- facing her demons and coming out the other side of it.

What it did was it also set a compass for us in terms of exploration, in the kind of show we wanted to make. We always knew we wanted to get Burnham into the captain's chair . That's what was always so exciting – how do you get from mutineer to captain? We knew that it was going to take multiple seasons to get there. The more the characters have grown and our relationships with the actors have grown, the two become very symbiotic.

You'll see that the last season of Discovery comes back to a fundamental question of Discovery , which is "Where did we come from?" It feels like a very fitting way to go.

How was it pivoting during production on Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 -- going from finishing the story in Season 5 to telling a coda for Discovery as a whole?

Every finale in the star trek franchise, ranked according to imdb.

Michelle Paradise: We found out after we finished shooting the entirety of the season that this would be our final season. We are so appreciative to CBS and Paramount+ for giving us the opportunity to go back and shoot some more material... It will feel like we planned it all out this way because it's thematically so resonant.

Like Alex said, it comes back around, in many ways, to the basis of Discovery , which is about ourselves. Getting some additional material to wrap it up in a way that feels satisfying to the series, feels satisfying in [and] of itself.

You've reimagined classic Star Trek elements 900 years into the future, and that's something that's right there in the Discovery Season 5 premiere.

Review: discovery's final season is a bittersweet star trek symphony.

Kurtzman: It's really fun! We knew that, by jumping to the 32nd century, we were able to remix Star Trek in a way. All the enemies would be allies, all the allies would be enemies, everything would be upside-down. Ultimately, I think the thing we never wanted to betray was the core of Star Trek and the core of who those characters and species were. It was fun to play with it because it was suddenly fresh snow. You're not necessarily married to one way of doing things because a show that's already come 100 years ahead tells you that this is what happened to the Romulans, so you can't necessarily deviate. Now, we're in a new era.

Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 premieres April 4, 2024 on Paramount+, with new episodes released Thursdays.

Star Trek: Discovery

The fifth and final season will find Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. 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.

Release Date September 24, 2017

Cast Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Rating TV-14

Star Trek Resurgence Review

To boldly go where telltale has gone before..

Star Trek and a Telltale-style adventure game seems like a match made in heaven. The two just fit; Star Trek’s best and most beloved stories are about dialogue. Not just two characters talking to each other, but about how people relate to one another and the world around them. It’s about the choices we make when faced with tough decisions, what we could be if we learned from our past mistakes, and the strength gained by uniting diverse peoples and cultures. All of that can be hard to do in a video game, which are typically too busy firing phasers and torpedoes to get more than a few words in edgewise. Star Trek: Resurgence’s conversation-heavy approach doesn’t always work, but it never loses sight of what makes Star Trek, well… Star Trek . And when the developers at Dramatic Labs lock onto that signal, it nails the series’ appeal while providing an engaging story full of memorable characters.

Resurgence follows the crew of the USS Resolute, picking up a few years after the end of Star Trek: Nemesis (the final Next Generation films). The story puts you in control of two instantly likable characters: Jara Rydeck, a humble yet accomplished Academy graduate who has been brought in to be the ship’s new first officer; and Carter Diaz, a charming and funny, adventure-hungry engineer who used his great talent to skip the Academy and enlists to get and out see the galaxy.

Dramatic Labs establishes several conflicts immediately. The crew views Jara as an outsider who walked into a job she hasn’t earned. The Resolute’s commanding officer, Captain Solano, is desperate to salvage what’s left of his legacy after an accident and expects Jara to help him do it, even if it means breaking a few rules here and there. Carter, on the other hand, is part of an overworked, understaffed engineering team that’s responsible for getting the Resolute up and running while managing a Vulcan boss who seems impossible to please, his friendships with other members of the crew, and his own personal ambitions.

Then there’s the ship itself. The Resolute is a science vessel, and its first mission back is a doozy: negotiating a settlement between the Alydians and the Hotari, two alien races feuding over who owns valuable dilithium mines. It might sound like a lot right off the bat, but the decision to frontload so much of the plot pays off. I was immediately invested in both Jara and Carter’s lives and the pressures they were under to balance so many things while staying true to the mission. It also sets up some great moments later on in the story, where several of these issues rear their heads at the same time, but it only works because Dramatic Labs has spent so much time establishing who our characters are, what they want, and the problems – both personal and professional – they’re facing.

What's the best Star Trek series?

And that's just the opening hour – things get much, much more complicated over the next 11 or so. Dramatic Labs is spinning a lot of plates here, but it manages to keep almost all of them from falling over and shattering. You won’t need to know much about Star Trek to follow along, though you’ll obviously appreciate certain things and characters more if you know the difference between, for example, Centaur and Miranda class starships.

The perspective effectively bounces between Jara and Carter depending on the situation. Sometimes, that means giving orders from the bridge or leading an away team. Other times it means rerouting power to a critical system or taking a spacewalk to repair the Resolute. It gives you a better idea of the stakes for everyone aboard – problems apply to more than the folks on the bridge, who knew! – and makes scenarios more exciting. Jara and Carter rarely directly interact with one another but both of them play important roles in the story, and Dramatic Labs does a good job showing how the decisions made by one of them can impact the other. In one early scene, Carter is out on the ship’s hull repairing a critical system, while Jara is on the bridge. How well you do as Carter affects what happens to the ship, but the decisions you make as Jara affect Carter if something goes wrong.

You’ll have to make these choices quickly, too, because you’re on a timer. Sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it’s slow, but you have to respond – or not, but choosing not to decide is a choice in and of itself.I never felt rushed during big moments, but I knew I had to be decisive – and so did the characters I was controlling. The timer was fast enough to make me think on my feet but not so overwhelming that I felt paralyzed by indecision. Better still, I felt I understood Jara and Carter more because I had just as much time to work through the issues as they did.

Star Trek: Resurgence - Meet the Crew

And the decisions you make don’t just affect the ship or the safety of the other characters – they change how they see your characters, too. If Jara chooses to defy Solano’s orders, that has repercussions in their relationship later, and will change how he approaches her. If you alienate a member of the bridge crew by being snappy or repeatedly ignoring their suggestions, you probably won’t be able to ask them for help later in critical moments. Carter’s interpersonal relationships aren’t as politically fraught as Jara’s, but the way he treats his friends – and superior officers – and how he reacts under pressure can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. These interactions matter, and while very few of them are things so relationship-defining that you can’t fix them later, they can play a big role at later moments in the story.

Much of the team at Dramatic Labs used to work at Telltale, and that shows in the quality of the writing. All of Resurgence’s characters feel like real people. Each has hopes, dreams, trauma, and pain, and what they do is defined by what they believe, what’s happened to them, and the choices you make. All of that comes across, whether you’re watching Carter joke with his best friend, palling around with the Hotari ambassador as Jara, or just chatting with Ambassador Spock.

Speaking of whom, Piotr Michael takes over the role from the late Leonard Nimoy, and he absolutely nails every facet of Nimoy’s famously distinct voice and intonation. There are a couple of other characters I don’t want to spoil, but the entire cast is fantastic – though Josh Keaton (Carter) and Krizia Bajos (Jara) are standouts.

Resurgence looks good, too. It’s not God of War or anything, but character models – especially their faces – are beautifully animated and full of personality, and many of the late-game environments are stunning. There’s a little jank here in things like the walk animations, but I was often so stunned by how well the characters emoted that I almost forgot about it. And no matter who it was, I enjoyed spending time with these characters and watching them grow as people.

One of the great strengths of Resurgence is that it does a great job of making its scenarios feel like there’s no right answer, or that you’re sometimes stuck with the best of bad options. You can see how your decisions change your relationships in the pause menu, but there’s no morality meter or “Good job, you made the right choice here!” signposting to suggest a correct course of action. Other characters will tell you what they think, but that’s all.

And these decisions can get complicated – quickly. When the ship is in danger and the bridge crew offer two options, who do you side with? The senior officer with more experience or the junior officer who sounds like her idea might just be crazy enough to work? If crew members need rescuing but doing so might endanger the ship, do you risk everything for them or let them go it alone? Do you set your phaser to stun or to kill? Who do you trust?

Star Trek: Resurgence - Touring Your Ship

Watching these decisions play out can be both thrilling and devastating, and my calls often didn’t play out how I thought they would. There were several times where I was certain I was making a bad move or taking too big a risk, only to realize everything would go my way. And there were others when the choices I thought were solid blew up spectacularly in my face – but looking back on them, almost everything feels earned. The things that happened during my playthrough feel like they happened because I made choices, not because the plot demanded it or because the invisible hand of the writers guided me there.

That said, I do wish the consequences of certain choices had more effect on the story. Sometimes, you’ll make what feels like an important decision only to realize later that it didn’t matter much. That’s inevitable in a game like Resurgence – the story has to continue no matter what you do – but it never feels good when it happens. In one extreme example I was sent to rescue a group of people by beaming them away from impending disaster. Ultimately, I had to choose between gravely injuring one of my crew members and potentially sacrificing that group. I chose to save the group. The decision felt awful (in a good way) – there was no good choice – but I did what I thought was right and what the character I was playing would do. Later on, the group’s leader thanked me for my choice – and then didn’t really appear again, even when it would have made sense for them to do so. This happened more than once. I don’t regret the choices I made; they were set up extremely well and emotionally effective when I made them. But the lack of meaningful consequences made them feel like filler in hindsight.

Of course, all of those dialogue options and moral dilemmas are broken up by Resurgence’s moment-to-moment action, which is respectable. There’s a lot of variety here: you’ll fly shuttles, fire phasers, command the Resolute from the bridge, solve engineering puzzles, scan things with your tricorder, and sneak around hostile environments, and nearly all of it is engaging and feels like what we should be doing in a Star Trek game. I particularly enjoyed the flying and shooting segments because they required me to make quick decisions. Best of all, these segments are never one-offs, so you’re building skills that can be used in more difficult, stressful scenarios later on.

Star Trek Resurgence Official Screenshots

The only annoyance among them is the tricorder segments, which ask you to scan objects to solve puzzles. What you need to scan isn’t always obvious, and there were times I spent a few minutes wandering around the same room looking for the last piece of information I needed. Resurgence tries to help you out by having the tricorder beep when you’re near something that can be scanned, but it doesn’t distinguish between something that can be scanned and something you already have scanned. In a small environment with a lot of scannable objects this can mean the tricorder is constantly beeping, which isn’t really helpful. Most times, the tricorder segments work well enough, but when you get stuck it can become frustrating.

The PC version also has some technical issues. There are no graphics settings aside from resolution, and it runs locked at 30 frames per second (though it dipped significantly below that when a lot was happening on screen), but Resurgence looks good enough that I doubt many people will notice. My biggest issue lies with the subtitles, which often disappear entirely or don’t match the spoken dialogue in ways that either reveal information that changed my moral calculus or were just jarring. There’s a difference between telling me a lot of people are in danger and the decision I am about to make will impact the lives of more than 100 people. And there’s a tonal distinction in saying “give ‘em hell!” instead of something a little more milquetoast.

I also found myself wishing for a chapter-select option once I finished everything so I could easily go back and try out different choices at specific instances. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exist in Resurgence, but it does track your choices via a website (which wasn’t available pre-release).

Resurgence does an admirable job of capturing the spirit of Star Trek. This is a series that fundamentally believes in doing the right thing and treating others with compassion, and that’s reflected by the many well-written decisions you’re presented with here. The choices are almost never easy, but the lack of a morality system or any indication of what you’re “supposed” to do creates a sense of freedom to act how you imagine these characters would. I wish certain storylines had more closure, and I would love some version of a chapter select, but by the time the credits rolled I was satisfied with the choices I’d made and entertained by the wide variety of Trek-flavored minigames, and already thinking about what I’d do differently next time. And that’s what Star Trek is really about: choice. The choice to be better today than we were yesterday, to accept one another, to try and do the right thing. Resurgence gets that. As Jara Rydeck remarks, “As we take our next steps into the unknown, the greatest insights that lie ahead are what we learn about each other.”

More Reviews by Will Borger

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 1 “Red Directive” Review

Believe it or not, two years have passed since Captain Burnham and the Discovery crew thwarted the galactic threat posed by the DMA. Despite the abundance of Star Trek content since March 2022, we’ve sorely missed Discovery . Season four delivered an enthralling mystery, unique visual storytelling, a compelling guest star, and rich character development for our friends in the 31st century. Now, season five promises another captivating season-long mystery, and “Red Directive” kicks off this journey with stunning visuals and a surprising link to a classic Star Trek episode.

Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) is having quite the ride when the episode begins, as she is pursuing on foo t a ship traveling through warp. Well, walking on the hull of the ship, anyway, as some thieves seem to have stolen a valuable artifact – although that’s all the information we get before director Olatunde Osunsanmi and writer Michelle Paradise pull the ole’ flashback on us to help inform some context for the explosive opening.

It’s been a few months since the end of season four, and members of Discovery ’s crew are celebrating the legacy of the Federation, which is now getting its wheels spinning again after the destructive events of the Burn. It’s the 1000 th anniversary of the organization’s founding, and it’s a mostly joyous occasion save for Paul Stamets ( Anthony Rapp ) being upset about Starfleet shuttering the spore drive program – indeed, his legacy – as the new Pathway Drive (introduced in season four) has replaced the ancient transportation method.

This is not the last time legacy plays a role in shaping this episode’s story, but more on that to come. Soon enough, Captain Burnham is given important new orders – retrieve the precious cargo of a recently discovered 800-year-old Romulan ship. It’s a mission of utmost importance – a “Red Directive” mission, as Doctor Kovich ( David Cronenberg ) explains.

“What’s on board?” “Something vital to the security of the Federation.” “That doesn’t answer my question.” “I’m aware.” – Burnham and Kovich as Burnham is briefed about the Romulan vessel.

Discovery isn’t the only one heading to the Romulan ship, as two characters of unknown affiliation, Moll ( Eve Harlow ) and L’ak ( Elias Toufexis ) arrive at the ship first and grab the cargo before Burnham, Gen Rhys ( Patrick Kwok-Choon ) and Joann Owosekun ( Oyin Oladejo ) arrive. After finding a long-dead Romulan body near the puzzle box, Burnham pursues the escaping thieves by landing on the hull of their ship just before it jumps to warp.

Thus continues just one of this episode’s striking visual set pieces. Seeing Burnham cling to the hull of a ship at warp is not something we’ve seen in live-action Star Trek , and the sense of speed and intensity is at the forefront of this sequence thanks to Osunsanmi’s signature dexterous camera work. Complicating Burnham’s retrieval of the artifact is the arrival of Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ) on the U.S.S. Antares , the other Federation ship assigned to this mission. Rayner is immediately at odds with Burnham on how to capture the fleeing ship. Rayner asserts he has run into Moll and L’ak before and knows they can’t get away, lest the pair escape their pursuers for good. Burnham’s approach is different, in that she thinks the stress of the Antares ’ tractor beam on Moll and L’ak’s ship is too much for her ride to handle – and she’s the one on the hull, after all.

Ultimately, Rayner concedes to Burnham’s plan to let Moll and L’ak get away for now, which means the pair have a chance to pop off some warp-enabled decoys, complicating any future pursuit. Luckily, Burnham knows someone who can help track them: Cleveland Booker ( David Ajala ), apparently the one person in the galaxy who is skilled enough to track the thieves. The man without a homeworld has been doing community service in the wake of his crimes in season four, and he and Burnham, his former lover haven’t talked to each other in the intervening months. Bringing Book into the picture does help Burnham and Rayner track Moll and L’ak to the desert planet Q’mau, where the thieves have decided to sell the Romulan puzzle box.

In a neat twist, the buyer for this artifact turns out to be a synth of the Soong variety. Fred ( J. Adam Brown ), a dealer who “loves the old stuff,” according to Book, shares a similar appearance to our good friend Data, complete with yellow eyes, pale skin, sharply styled hair, and, interestingly, some capacity for emotions. He makes a memorable impression with his verbose vocabulary and analytical skills before Moll and L’ak eliminate him and his cronies for threatening to take the Romulan artifact away.

Burnham and Book find Fred’s body soon after, and sending the synth up to Discovery confirms our assumption: Fred is an android created by someone heavily influenced by Altan Soong, the Soong family member seen in Star Trek: Picard . Stamets, who has legacies on his mind following the spore drive being decommissioned, can’t help but marvel at the legacy the Soong family has passed along all these centuries.

With Moll and L’ak on the run from Burnham, Book, and Rayner again, it’s time for this episode’s longest, visually intense set piece: A desert chase that witnesses Burnham and Rayner’s further disagreement on how to proceed with the mission. There isn’t much time to discuss the matter, though, as Moll and L’ak are about to get away, so Rayner orders his ship to fire on the thieves’ escape route even though it risks causing an avalanche that would endanger thousands of people. While Rayner’s call pays off and an avalanche is avoided, Moll and L’ak cause one anyway, so the crews of the Federation ships must get creative if they want to save an entire settlement.

To stop the impending wave of destructive rock, sand, and debris, we get another awesome sight: Discovery and Antares heading down to the planet and shoving their saucers into the avalanche’s path. The two ships’ shield coverage is enough to stop the destruction; the whole sequence is a sight to behold. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next couple of episodes takes it easy on the action set pieces, as “Red Directive” looks like quite an expensive production.

“Did he just take off again?” “Yeah, kind of reminds me of someone. Trying to put my finger on who.” “I’m holding a phaser, you know that, right?” – Burnham and Book about Rayner.

With the inhabitants of Q’mau saved, Book and Burnham have a hot second to address the awkwardness that has developed between them in between seasons four and five. The pair agree, dishearteningly, that they no longer know how to be around each other, a somber admission for the former lovers. This emotional moment doesn’t hang around too long, though, as Burnham receives word that her crew has determined what was in the Romulan puzzle box, information which is soon confirmed by the ever-mysterious Kovich.

Here’s a great twist for long-time Star Trek fans: The puzzle box’s contents link back to the classic The Next Generation episode “The Chase.” This is the one that saw Captain Picard chase Romulans, Klingons, and Cardassians to the creators of all life in the galaxy, a mysterious humanoid race that is soon termed the Progenitors. Within the puzzle box from the ancient Romulan ship are notes about the Progenitors life-creating methods, written by one of the Romulans who were there at that encounter in “The Chase,” Dr. Vellek ( Michael Copeman ).

The doctor apparently found the Progenitors’ technology – what they used to design life itself. Vellek was marveled at what such a discovery meant, and what the cost was if it fell into the wrong hands. If you had a background character from The Next Generation launching a season-long mystery in 2024 on your bingo card, go play some dom-jot.

So, Burnham is left with a dilemma: Moll and L’ak are after the Progenitors tech, and they have a headstart on Discovery and Antares. The major lingering question we have from this episode is what are Moll and L’ak’s motivations? Who are they working for, and what could be done with the Progenitors’ technology if it falls into the wrong hands? We also wonder if Moll and L’ak’s previous encounters with Rayner will be expanded on in this season, or if that’ll be saved for tie-in media.

There are a couple of other aspects to this episode worth noting. First, Saru (Doug Jones) is dealing with matters of the heart, an unusual situation for the Kelpien. It’s also an unusual situation for his love interest, T’Rina (Tara Rosling), whom he started a romance with last season. Some serious feelings have developed between the pair, as Saru is weighing an offer to become a Federation ambassador against staying in Starfleet and on Discovery .

Thanks to the life-threatening events on Q’mau, Saru’s perspective on romance shifts enough for him to take the Federation gig, since it means he can stay in a relationship with T’Rina. To solidify the arrangement, the Ni’Var ambassador asks Saru to marry her. It’s a big deal, for sure, and a development we didn’t expect after the merely flirtatious romance the two aliens started in season four.

Finally, Tilly is training a group of cadets at Starfleet Command, which makes sense considering her leaving Discovery last season to instruct at Starfleet Academy. However, major awkwardness ensues when it’s hinted Tilly has a bit of a crush on one of her fellow instructors. This particular story thread is just starting to get explored in “Red Directive,” and we are curious where it leads – although we do think it’s the least interesting part of an otherwise gripping episode.

We are quite encouraged about Discovery ’s final season thanks to “Red Directive.” The episode is an action-packed romp that sets up the season to explore how legacies endure, a suitable theme for the final season of the Kurtzman era’s first Star Trek show. Moreover, having the Discovery crew pursue the origin of life itself is as fitting a story for this series – which is named after seeking knowledge – as can be. We’re excited to see where it leads.

Stray Thoughts:

• The opening shot of Moll and L’ak’s ship traveling through warp against the vastness of space. Burnham almost crashing into Discovery before being beamed aboard and immediately taking the captain’s chair. Quite the badass moment for her!The view from the cargo bay as Discovery acrobatically jumps to pick up Book.The tracking shot where Rayner, Book, and Burnham narrowly avoid weapon fire from Moll and L’ak’s ship in the desert. Discovery and Antares crashing into the planet to stop the avalanche.
• The dust floats free of Discovery as the ship arrives at Starfleet Command.
• T’Rina’s dialogue with Saru indicates the Breen and Tholians are still notable threats in the 31 st -century Milky Way.
• The Romulan vessel in this episode appears to be a Romulan scout ship , like the kind seen in The Next Generation.
• Does the already-miraculous instant-transporter technology used in the 31 st century also arrest momentum? Burnham was traveling quickly before being beamed onto the bridge, yet she’s able to go from essentially high-speed falling to walking barely without trouble.
• Discovery appears to have at least one tribble roaming its corridors. Hopefully, it is neutered.
• Fred only having a first name matches the naming style we’ve seen from other androids, like Data and Lore.
• Romulan puzzle boxes, called tan zhekran , were seen before in Star Trek: Picard ’s “ The Impossible Box .”
• This episode, the first of the last season, shares a similar locale – a desert planet – as the first-ever episode of Discovery.
• We have to wonder what was in the puzzle box Fred encountered 622.7 years ago.
• Why did Moll and L’ak wait so long to warp away from the planet after starting the avalanche?
• Elias Toufexis, who plays L’ak, is no stranger to the Star Trek universe, as he voiced Galvan and Hadri in the video game Star Trek: Resurgence (which, by the way, is coming to Steam soon).

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+ , this season stars Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland “Book” Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Callum Keith Rennie (Rayner). Season five also features recurring guest stars Elias Toufexis (L’ak) and Eve Harlow (Moll).

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Prodigy , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , Star Trek: Lower Decks, and more.

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

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The urgent mission, the briefing for which takes place in the “infinity room” — aka “that white void from in The Matrix ” — is to recover an item from an 800-year-old Romulan science vessel that was found at the edge of the Beta Quadrant, and to do it fast . The mission has Red Directive priority, which you can tell just from the sound of it is serious business, and Kovich (David Cronenberg) is coming along to supervise.

Unfortunately, Discovery is scooped by two scavengers — the human Mol  (Eve Harlow) and her mystery-alien counterpart L’ak (Elias Toufexis). Side note, if L’ak’s voice sounds familiar it’s because you’ve played a videogame before — almost any videogame, with Toufexis’ long resume!

Thinking the ship might already have been stripped, L’ak suggests the pair cut their losses and go find somewhere to make themselves comfortable together for the night, but Mol wants to stay the course and L’ak agrees without hesitation. This is the only glimpse we get into the nature of their partnership; before and after, they’re two people in lock-step and on a mission, and even here when they do disagree, it’s quickly resolved. If there is a romantic relationship between these two, it is not a priority.

Discovery soon arrives and sends a small boarding party of its own over to the Romulan vessel. Burnham, Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon), and Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) poke around a bit, at first finding nothing but an open vault and the desiccated corpse of a Romulan wearing a noticeable Next Gen -era uniform. Not too long after, they also find Mol and L’ak, who trap Rhys and Owosekun in forcefield bubbles, removing them from the action before they even get a chance to really be a part of it.

Burnham catches up with Mol and L’ak and tries to talk them into handing over the artifact, but unsurprisingly this doesn’t work — it also contradicts the “shoot to kill” order Kovich gave the away team, though it’s to be expected that Burnham wouldn’t rush to use violence. The two thieves get away to their ship, Burnham gets blown into space, and the episode catches up to where it started: with Burnham surfing a ship through a warp slipstream while Discovery trails close behind.

Then, suddenly, a third ship arrives! The USS Antares , a sleek, four-nacelled beauty that gives echoes of a 32nd-century Stargazer , swoops in between Discovery and Burnham, tractoring the fleeing mystery ship. Her captain, Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), refuses to let go, even when it’s clear that the Antares is doing more harm than good with its tractor beam.

This sequence is visually gorgeous — the wide shots of all three ships stacked in a close line with the swirls and eddies of the warp stream flowing around them are beautiful — but the action itself is otherwise static and goes on a little too long. The back-and-forth between the two captains serves to establish Rayner’s character as someone who is stubborn, gruff, and has a different command style than Burnham, but for quite a while nothing’s actually happening.

When Rayner finally does back off the mystery ship escapes, as he said it would, but not before it sends out 20 decoy warp signatures. Thankfully, Book (David Ajala) is able to arrive pretty much immediately — the galaxy remains a very small place on Discovery — and using his years of experience as a courier, pinpoint which of the warp signatures is likely to be the correct one. How does he know? Because there’s a dealer on this particular world, Q’Mau, known to specialize in old things.

Turns out the dealer, Fred (J. Adam Brown), specializes in old things because he himself is an old thing… a Soong-type android in the — well, not the flesh, but the bioplast.

I have to say, Fred threw me for a loop! This is not the first time we’ve seen a Soong-type android in the last few years, after the events of Star Trek: Picard , but it’s the first time in recent memory that I can recall seeing one thoroughly Data-like. Fred has different emotional expressivity than Data, and doesn’t have all the same physical mannerisms, but he doesn’t use contractions — and visually he looks more like Data than any of the other androids from Coppelius.

Long story short, I forgot all about the Romulan lockbox for a hot minute because I was sure that this near-Data was the real mystery. I was wrong, of course, as he is quickly killed by Mol and L’ak, but not before he easily opens the puzzle box and speed-reads through the handwritten notebook found inside.

Burnham, Book, and Rayner find Fred’s body and have it beamed aboard Discovery for analysis and then rush to find Mol and L’ak as they make their escape. This leads to an anti-grav sand runner chase through the desert as our three heroes try to catch up with Mol and L’ak’s ship, which is heading for the nearby mountains instead of back into orbit.

As with the earlier ship surfing scene, the action feels like it should be more exciting than it actually is. Part of this is because it’s a long sequence without a lot that breaks it up visually. But it’s also that there’s simply a lot of dialog, both between Discovery and the landing team and between the members of the landing team themselves as they shout at each other over the noise of their dirt bikes.

There’s an argument between Burnham and Rayner about whether to risk a sand avalanche by firing on the mountain to prevent the ship’s escape, which the Antares eventually does without incident. Then there’s the continuation of a conversation between Burnham and Book that started the moment he beamed aboard, one about who froze out whom and the nature of their relationship — and there’s another argument after the fleeing ship deliberately triggers the avalanche that the Antares avoided. Can Discovery stop the avalanche before it wipes out a city of thousands? Only with help from the Antares which Rayner is reluctant to give.

The move they pull to stop the avalanche — both starships slamming saucer-first into the desert and creating a joint shield bubble — which is exciting, unlike the sand chase that preceded it, is so “Uh, can they actually do that??” but also such a spectacle that you have to just sit back and say “Well, I guess in the 32nd century they can” and leave it at that.

Meanwhile, while all this has been going on, Burnham had put Tilly (Mary Wiseman) on the case to hack into Kovich’s files to find out more about the Romulan ship and its long-dead occupant. The cut back to Tilly is, to put it mildly, abrupt. She’s in a set that’s never been seen — generically Federation, but otherwise totally absent of any context clues — and I spent most of this scene simply trying to figure out where the heck she was:

There’s a guy with Tilly and she’s acting nervous and the cutesy music is obnoxiously childlike for a scene between two grown adults who maybe are flirting with each other. Is this where they work? Is it Starfleet Academy? Maybe it’s a classroom. Oh he’s leaving, okay. Maybe this is Tilly’s office. Oh there’s a bed, in the middle of this huge, bright, round room. Are these her quarters? She’s laying on the bed, I guess these are her quarters. Her very sterile, incredibly impersonal quarters half a quadrant away from the immediately previous scene. Got it. Okay what are we doing here again? We’re hacking something. Can we get Tilly a dimmer switch and some decorations and maybe a window while we wait?

Tilly gets caught, but Vance intercedes because he’s tired of being kept in the dark on this mission too, and the two of them look on as the personal log of our dead Romulan, one Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman) begins to play. It’s too degraded to make out much, but the phrase “…in the shadow of the twin moons…” is clearly audible. Combining this information with the visual record of the notebook as contained in Fred’s positronic brain, Burnham identifies a location – the V’Leen System. But she still doesn’t know what it is Kovich has them chasing, or why.

Finally, realizing Burnham has the final piece of the puzzle, Kovich relents and lets her – and us – in on the secret, and ho boy what a secret it turns out to be!

Dr. Vellek was a member of the Romulan delegation in TNG ’s “The Chase,” the episode that explains why virtually all the aliens in Star Trek look like humans with forehead appliances — a progenitor race seeded the galaxy with genetic material that connects all humanoid life. The new piece for Discovery is that after the events of “The Chase”, Vellek found the location of the progenitors’ technology, which he recorded only in his notebook.

With the star system Burnham identified, Starfleet knows the location too — and now the chase is really on.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• Season 5’s opening credits have some new imagery, including moons in orbit of a planet, a rotating gear, the “infinity room” access device, Mol and L’ak’s ship, and a field of rotating geometric shapes.
• While a new classification of Starfleet mission, the term “Red Directive” is similar to the Omega Directive, overriding normal protocols and taking top priority over all other objectives.
• The drinks served at Starfleet Headquarters, called “Tonic 2161,” feature floating stars which taste like Bajoran jumja sticks.
• Stamets reports that Starfleet’s attempts to replicate the Spore Drive have come to a close as focus shifts to the new Pathway Drive system. This means Discovery will remain the only starship with the special propulsion system.

• Speaking of the Spore Drive, this episode gives us a unique view of a jump, looking out the open cargo bay door while the ship transitions locations. (Close that freaking door, already!)
• Shoutout to the Tholian Republic and Breen Imperium for continuing to be a thorn in the Federation’s side even after all these centuries. That’s some impressive staying power.
• The Romulan science vessel is designed after the original studio model seen in Next Gen’s “The Next Phase.”
• The interior of the Romulan ship is a redress of the  Discovery mess hall set.
• L’ak’s face has an interesting shimmering or morphing effect for a few seconds when he first removes his helmet aboard the Romulan ship, almost like it’s changing shape or smoothing itself out. I wonder what that’s all about?
• Thanks to programmable matter, a standard issue Starfleet phaser can extend into a heavy-duty phaser rifle with a twist of the wrist. Cool!

• Vellek wears a passable recreation of the  Next Gen- era Romulan military uniform, but where are those crazy shoulder pads?
• Burnham is taking saxophone lessons… every captain should have a hobby!
• Fred’s serial number is AS-0572Y, with “AS” seeming to refer to Altan Soong.
• Like Data in “The Royale,” Fred reads the Romulan book at a lighting-fast pace.
• The puzzle box is identified as a tan zhekran , a type of Romulan object introduced in Star Trek: Picard’s “The Impossible Box.”
• Along with the box, Mol and L’ak also bring Fred a set of  Picard -era isolinear coprocessors, P icard -era Romulan communicator — and most valuable of all, a self-sealing stembolt.
• Other props seen in Fred’s lair include and early-season Discovery  hand phaser, a  Zhat Vash phaser rifle, a Season 1 era Klingon bat’leth,  and a Klingon cloaking device like the one from the HMS Bounty.
• Kovich notes that the Progenitors designed “life itself,” which not-coincidentally is the title of  Discovery’s Season 5 finale.

So what’s in store for this, Discovery ’s final season? Are Mol and L’ak still looking for a buyer, or did they just want Fred for his excellent puzzle-solving skills? The latter, I think. Will Book and Burnham reconcile? Probably! Will Discovery and her allies succeed in saving all life in the galaxy? Surely yes, unless the producers have some very dark plans for the series finale.

It looks like we’re in for a fun ride to find out how it all comes together. “The Chase” provides some huge storytelling opportunities, but as an all-time episode of Star Trek also some pretty big shoes to fill…. but I think Discovery can do it.

(Also, Saru and T’Rina are getting married: cue the heart emojis!)

Our review of the second episode of  Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, “Under the Twin Moons,” can be found here — but please keep the discussion below limited to “Red Directive” only!

• DSC Season 5
• Red Directive
• Star Trek: Discovery

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Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery season 5, episode 1 ending & tng treasure explained.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere dropped a bombshell that ties all the way back to Star Trek: The Next Generation. We break it down.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 - "Red Directive"

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 reveals a bombshell treasure hunt that ties back to Star Trek: TNG "The Chase."
• Mysterious villains Moll and L'ak create chaos, leaving behind a trail of destruction on Kumal.
• Captain Saru to become a Federation Ambassador, leading to the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding in Star Trek history.

The ending of Star Trek: Discovery 's exhilarating season 5 premiere dropped a jaw-dropping bombshell that the treasure Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is hunting for comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase." Written by Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, Discovery 's season 5 premiere, "Red Directive," introduces three new major characters, the villains Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), and Starfleet Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), and sets up Discovery season 5 as a sequel to the classic TNG episode about who created humanoid life in the galaxy - and how .

Moll and L'ak escaped the clutches of Captain Burnham, Captain Rayner, and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) on the desert world of Q'Mau. After a synthetic merchant named Fred (J. Adam Brown) opened a Romulan puzzle box Moll and L'ak stole from an 800-year-old Romulan starship , Fred double-crossed Moll and L'ak and was killed by the renegade lovers. L'ak and Moll then detonated an explosive in the mountains, creating an avalanche. The combined shields of the USS Discovery and the USS Antares protected the people of Kumal, but Moll and L'ak escaped with the Romulans' journal. However, Captain Burnham knows more than the rogues do about the treasure thanks to Discovery's crew. And, as Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) said, the answers are wild.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 - Everything We Know

Star trek: discovery season 5's treasure & progenitors explained, who were the progenitors in star trek: tng's "the chase".

"The greatest treasure in the known galaxy" in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is the technology Ancient Humanoids used to create sentient humanoid life. A hologram of an Ancient Humanoid (Salome Jens) was encountered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), members of the USS Enterprise-D crew, as well as a group of Romulans, Klingons, and Cardassians in Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "The Chase". The Ancient Humanoid revealed that her long-dead race seeded the galaxy billions of years ago to create humanoid life forms in their image, and that the humanoid species in Star Trek 's galaxy share a common ancestry.

"The Chase" was Star Trek: The Next Generation 's attempt to explain why so many aliens in Star Trek are essentially humans with bumpy foreheads and physical variations.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere reveals that the United Federation of Planets and Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) dubbed the Ancient Humanoids "The Progenitors". 800 years ago, a Romulan scientist named Dr. Vellek (Michael Copeman) found and hid the Progenitors' technology, which can literally create life and would be catastrophic if it fell into the wrong hands . However, Moll and L'ak (and, logically, whoever hired them) learned about the Progenitors' technology. The ability to create, and possibly destroy, humanoid species is an existential threat to the galaxy, which is why the Federation needs Captain Burnham to find it first.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, President T'Rina (Tara Rosling) said the Tholian Republic and the Breen Imperium are rising, and they could be looking for the Progenitors' technology.

Moll & L'ak Keep Escaping, But Who Are They?

Star trek: discovery's new villains are a mystery..

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's version of Bonnie and Clyde, the villainous Moll and L'ak are mysterious former couriers who have had several past encounters with Captain Rayner of the USS Antares. Moll is human but L'ak is an unknown species with no known information in the Federation database. They are also hired guns, so they must have an employer yet to be revealed.

While little is revealed about Moll and L'ak, what is clear is they are lovers with deep affection for each other. Cleveland Booker doesn't know Moll and L'ak from his years as a courier, but he could tell by the way they escaped from the USS Discovery and USS Antares that L'ak and Moll are in love and are having fun together. In a way, Moll and L'ak are an echo of what Book and Michael Burnham were like when they were couriers traveling the galaxy together in the year before the USS Discovery arrived in the 32nd century.

Saru Will Become A Federation Ambassador & Marry T'Rina

Wedding bells are coming to star trek: discovery..

Captain Saru accepts Federation President Laira Rillak's (Chelah Horsdal) offer to become a Federation Ambassador. Saru has been serving as First Officer of the USS Discovery despite his higher rank since Star Trek: Discovery season 4, but being Captain Burnham's Number One is not really a role that utilizes the Kelpien's skills and potential. Saru also chose to leave Discovery and become an Ambassador to be closer to his love, President T'Rina.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will soon have the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding and the first wedding between 2 major Star Trek characters in 22 years.

Originally, T'Rina told Saru not to factor her into his decision to take the Ambassador position, but she actually wanted Saru to leave Discovery, which would allow them to spend more time together. And T'rina went a step further and proposed to Saru in a very Vulcan-like fashion, suggesting they "codify our mutual agreement in a more official capacity". Saru seemed to say yes, which means Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will soon have the first Kelpien-Vulcan wedding and the first wedding between 2 major Star Trek characters in 22 years since Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) married Deanna Tro i (Marina Sirtis) in Star Trek: Nemesis.

Burnham & Book Are Still Broken Up

They should have called each other..

Star Trek: Discovery 's top love story, Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker , didn't quite heat up in season 5's premiere. Burnham and Book have been separated (but with no hard feelings) ever since Book commenced his penance for the Federation after breaking multiple laws to destroy the Dark Matter Anomaly in Star Trek: Discovery season 4. Burnham turned to Book for his courier expertise to help her catch Moll and L'ak , and if she's honest, because she wanted to see Book again.

Michael and Book agreed not to restart their relationship.

Book remains penitent and is committed to righting his wrongs with the Federation and with Michael, but there is now an understandable awkwardness between them. Book has a role to play on the USS Discovery as long as Moll and L'ak are at large , but on Kumal, Michael and Book agreed not to restart their relationship. However, this isn't the end of Burnham and Booker's love story, and it's hard to imagine they won't get back together at some point in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Captain Rayner Is No Fan Of Burnham

What is rayner's problem.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 introduced Callum Keith Rennie's Captain Rayner of the USS Antares as a new series regular character, and he brings a new dynamic to the show. Gruff, impatient, and no-nonsense, Rayner evokes previous hardliner Star Trek Captains like Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Rayner is also resentful of Captain Burnham for some reason , and he finds humor in mocking Michael, asserting his command authority, and countermanding her orders.

Rayner seems jealous of the USS Discovery's spore drive, and he mentions his displeasure that he doesn't have a Pathway Drive on the USS Antares.

Although it wasn't mentioned or factored into Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, Captain Rayner is a Kellerun , a species first introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2's "Armageddon Game". Rayner's interest in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is fulfilling his Red Directive mission objective, which is retrieving the treasure, as well as capturing Moll and L'ak, whom he has tangled with before. There is plenty more to learn about Captain Rayner in Star Trek: Discovery season 5.

Star Trek: Discovery Now Has Their Own Data

Fred could be good for commander paul stamets..

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere introduced Fred, a Soong-type synthetic who is a merchant and fence on the planet Q'Mau. Fred obviously evokes the most famous Soong android, Data (Brent Spiner), which is another link between Star Trek: Discovery season 5 and Star Trek: The Next Generation , L'ak and Moll killed Fred after he double-crossed them, but after Fred's body was beamed onto the USS Discovery's medical bay, Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) determined from his serial number, AS-7502Y, that Fred was built from the design of Dr. Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: Picard .

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere, Stamets lamented the Federation's scuttling the spore drive program in favor of the Pathway Drive . Although Fred was "killed", it's possible Stamets and his husband, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), can reactivate Fred. The 600-plus-year-old android may contain other secrets and answer many questions about events between Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery 's era. There are intriguing possibilities for Fred in Star Trek: Discovery season 5 , and it would be odd if Fred really is dead after his lone appearance.

The USS Discovery is now "one of a kind" since it has the only working spore drive in existence.

The Next Clue In Discovery's Treasure Hunt

Discovery is going to a planet with twin moons..

The USS Discovery's next stop on the treasure hunt in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, "Under the Twin Moons," is Lyrek, a planet in the Vileen system, on the outer sector of the Beta Quadrant, that has 3 moons, 2 of which move in perfect sync. Captain Burnham figured this out after seeing images of Dr. Vellek's Romulan diary pages retrieved from Fred's database. One of the pages had a circular image which could be a literal treasure map, and the clues point to the Vileen system and the planet with twin moons . What Burnham will find on Lyrek remains to be seen in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2, but the chase is on to answer one of the biggest questions left behind by Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is streaming on Paramount+

'Star Trek: Discovery' opens its 5th and final season in unremarkable fashion (Red Directive recap)

Hello smartmatter, my old friend, I've come to watch you once again. Because no item is impossible, it makes the story unbelievable... ♬

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 1

Well, here we are. Again. It's the fifth and final time around for "Star Trek: Discovery" and the single biggest question every sci-fan will be asking themselves is, will this season actually be any good. The tragic thing is, no one can really remember what happened in season 4 and that speaks directly to the fact that "Discovery" is not exactly a high-scoring show when it comes to rewatchability.

It's been two years and two weeks, give or take a day, since we last saw the crew of the USS Discovery risk everything to save all life in the universe, again. During that time, we've seen a lot of sci-fi, both awesome and awful, including two seasons of " Picard " and " Strange New Worlds ," the third and final season of " The Orville ," season 1 of " Andor ," "The Book of Boba Fett," "Ahsoka" and the less said about "Obi-Wan Kenobi," the better. If you're wondering where to see all that Trek, check out our Star Trek streaming guide for Paramount Plus and more.

Not to mention, the vastly underrated second season of "Invasion" and "Halo" seasons 1 and 2, plus, the first mind-blowing season of "Silo" the second and sadly last season of " Avenue 5 " and two seasons of " For All Mankind ." The point is that the standard has, for the most part, been refreshingly high. And frankly before we even get into season 5 of "Discovery," it's worth remembering that what executive producers and showrunners Alex Kurtzman  and Michelle Paradise have given us up until now, has not exactly been a consistently high quality of sci-fi writing. In fact, it's been rather disappointing.

Related: 5 things Star Trek: Discovery season 5 needs to fix

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Are we in-store for another cookie-cutter season of what's-in-the-box plot threads that deliver misdirected build ups with unsatisfying pay offs...you know like we have for the past two seasons plus all three seasons of "Picard"..? Even "Andor," despite its peak and trough-style of repetitive set-piece storytelling, was impressive and that was down to how well those set pieces had been fleshed out along with well written character development and dialogue. Less can very easily be so much more. 

Moreover, now we're in the 32nd century and we've seen that transporter technology can be used to replace stairs and even change outfits, so to be perfectly honest, there really isn't a single story idea that cannot be solved by a simple combination of transporter and replicator technology. Not to mention smartmatter. Ah, hello smartmatter, my old friend. Because this is what happens when you throw three seasons of a "Star Trek" series 1,164 years into the future.

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Regardless, it would seem that within the story, between four and six months have passed since the events of last season , where you may remember, the United Federation of Planets was desperately trying to save all life as we know from being accidentally exterminated by species 10-C, all while Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) was still hell bent on using the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator to destroy the dark matter anomaly. Book (David Ajala) gets killed when his ship explodes then bought back to life before he faces repercussions for siding with Tarka. General Ndoye (Phumzile Sitole) seems to get away scot-free despite sabotaging the Discovery's warp drive and everyone lives happily ever after. 

 —   Watch the bittersweet trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery's final season (video)

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Coming in at nearly 60 minutes long, the premiere episode is titled "Red Directive" and drops at the same time as the second episode, entitled "Under The Twin Moons." Michelle Paradise wrote the former, which could explain why it's so dull, and Olatunde Osunsanmi directed. The latter was written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski, so fingers the second installment might be a bit better. Aarniokoski directed the season 3 premiere episode of "Picard" and while the rest of that was a disappointing, drawn out, nostalgia-fueled, 10-episode long epilogue to another series that ended three decades ago, the premiere installment was actually okay. 

The gang seems mostly all here, including Lt. Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Adira (Blu del Barrio) and there are some characters who don't seem to have made it back, some of whom will be very much missed, like Grudge, while others won't be. No sign of Zora yet either. It's also entirely likely that the amazing talents of Callum Keith Rennie, who plays a Starfleet Captain named Rayner, will be spectacularly underused, much like Todd Stashwick was in season 3 of "Picard."

Credit to the production team though, as they're are really making the most of their Volume-esque video wall soundstage. There are a couple of interesting choices in terms of editing, much like there were in the second season premiere where Alex Kurtzman showed us what he'd learned in the Vince Gilligan School of Cinematography. It's doubtful we'll ever see them again, just like we didn't before. 

To conclude then, the opening episode of the final season "Star Trek: Discovery" is a far, far cry from strong openings that this show has demonstrated it's capable of in the past. And that's a sentence we've had to write far too many times. The TNG throwback right at the end is...well, disappointing, mostly because of the extent that nostalgic fan service has been dialed up since the first episode of Nu-Trek aired in September 2017. However, it could still provide an interesting story thread — we will just have to wait and see.

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" and every episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US while "Prodigy" has found a new home o n Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Embraces Second Chances In “Under The Twin Moons”

| April 4, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 71 comments so far

“Under the Twin Moons”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 2 – Debuted Thursday, April 4, 2024 Written by Alan McElroy Directed by Doug Aarniokoski

The new season continues strong with more action and a focus on characters and Trek themes.

Meet the captains.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Power of creation, here we come”

Captain Burnham has a moment to consider philosophical questions about the meaning of life as Discovery gets all that sand from Q’Mau removed. The profound stakes of her mission to find the Progenitors’ power have her pondering if she will find new purpose. Her mood could also be due to this being Saru’s last day as first officer. Before they can head off to find the next clue, Michael is summoned to a heated tribunal for Captain Rayner, called to the space carpet for his reckless actions in episode 1. Michael doesn’t want to be a squealer but when pressed, admits she disagreed with Rayner and told him so. His Burn-era cowboy ways aren’t cutting it with Admiral Vance and President Rillak, and once he accuses them of sitting on their “asses” ignoring threats, the Kellerun’s future in Starfleet is not looking good. After Vance checks in with Michael to make sure Book isn’t a distraction, she makes sure her ex (and Grudge) are settling in, keeping it friendly and profesh. He is to work with Hugh and Paul to sort out clues left behind by Dr. Vellek. She also gives him (and Grudge) a cute holo-mouse toy, so they’re going to be fine.

Arriving at Lyrek, Adira and Tilly (on loan from SFA as a “science specialist”) brief Burnham and Saru on how the shadow of twin moons points to an old Promellian necropolis, but an energy field means they will have to hoof (literally for Saru… ha!… sorry) from the beam-in spot. In tactical gear, Michael and Saru take a beat to acknowledge their “last dance” and appreciate the serene beauty of this garden spot before heading to the biggest pyramid. The pair takes this time to joke about Reno giving the Kelpien the nickname “Action Saru” and reminisce about how far they have come together. The former USS Shenzhou shipmates are way past their early sibling rivalry, now seeing the best in each other in this sweet moment that feels like a goodbye. Saru offers advice on his replacement as first officer, suggesting she find someone who stands their ground, not unlike Book… but not actually Book. The stakes rise when they spot a very old skeleton, but it still leaves time for Saru to drop a “grave disappointment” dad joke. A spike in the EM field has Tilly concerned, Michael assures there is nothing to worry about… oh, except the killer drones that just emerged from a giant collapsed four-eyed alien statue head. Run!

Action Saru… complete with Kung-fu Quills!

“We are running out of body parts here ”

On the Disco, Adira and Tilly struggle over how to help the landing party, now hiding under a giant stone foot as the drones fire on them, and then blow up on suicide runs (only to be replaced by more drones). As the flustered nerds run through a series of unworkable options, Rayner holograms himself into the situation—because he’s been secretly watching from HQ, but that’s totally not creepy—and starts guiding them towards a solution that factors in how the ancient Promellians would power an automated security system. The solve is to overload a phaser inside the giant statue head, the source of the drones, which sort of seems obvious, but still, teamwork! Michael wants to take the tough job of target distraction since Saru is about to get hitched, but he reminds her he is stronger and faster and T’Rina would expect him to do his duty. So off he goes like a Kelpien Steve Austin , dodging fire (actually getting hit once) and dispatching drones with his quills. Action Saru, indeed! Michael drops the phaser bomb, buying them time—by now it’s clear why Dr. Vellek chose this ancient graveyard to hide a clue. Sneaky Romulan.

While everyone else is dealing with the danger forest, Book and Culber are building a profile of this season’s adversaries. Moll and L’ak are dangerous but not inherently violent. Moll is human, but L’ak is a mystery. Book sees they are in love, and their actions in episode 1 show him they are “thrillseekers” having a bit of fun as “Sui” couriers who take the most dangerous jobs. This gives him the idea to reach out directly via “dark coms,” using cringy courier slang. They take the bait and have a not-so-friendly chat via hologram. The former couriers have figured out what’s at the end of Vellek’s rainbow, so his diary is no longer for sale. Book tries to scare them with the Starfleet boogeyman, but the cocky duo relishes the challenge. They question if he is a real courier but seem impressed when he reveals his identity as Cleveland Booker before they hang up the (untraceable) call. Yet Book spotted something—and after de-aging Moll’s image (thanks, Zora) he realizes he knows her. Real name Malinne, she is the daughter of Cleveland Booker IV, his mentor and namesake. He never actually met her, but figures she is “the closest thing to family” he has. Wow.

How is it I am answering to all these primitives from 900 years ago?

“You held my hand and I was not afraid.”

Back on the forest planet, Michael and Saru are under a ticking clock before the drones power up again as they arrive at where the clues pointed with no ancient power source to be found. Curiously, the stone pillar they do find has fresh phaser scorching… There must have been more clues but Moll and L’ak beat them to it! Thankfully SaruSuperVision TM  detects iridescent traces of writing in the form of a Romulan “revlav” poem. Michael deploys her old xenoanthropology powers to determine there are only four verses on the pillar, so where is the fifth? It must be hidden because Romulans are sneaky. They find the final verse under the pillar, which Moll and L’ak don’t have. She also finds a hidden object. Score! They beam out at literally the last second (naturally) before the EM defense field restarts. In the science lab, it turns out the thingie they found matches a mysterious symbol from the diary Stamets has been struggling with. Thanks to Zora creating a nice little stand, it’s now clear they have the first of five pieces of a map that will lead them to the Progenitors. And the poem tells them where piece number 2 is. “A world like no other where two souls entwine, joined as one.” Adira nails it: “We’re going to Trill.” Oh and Moll and L’ak only have the first four verses, which point to the wrong planet: Betazed, where hopefully the locals will passive-aggressively mock them telepathically.

Michael visits Saru as he packs up his very moist quarters. They reminsce again, recalling how in this very room she helped him through Vahar’ai . He offers her more parting advice to “trust the journey.” It’s one of those “it’s been an honor” kind of conversations and you can be forgiven for getting choked up, especially as Saru honors his friend, his family, with a Kelpien forehead embrace. Michael checks in with Vance who gives her the thumbs up on the day’s mission. As for Rayner, he has been asked to retire. She defends his actions and has the twinkle of an idea. Burnham finds the grumpy now former captain staring longingly at her ship. “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” he notes, which could be said about him. He is not willing to back down from his principles even if they did get him drummed out, but he regrets not anticipating what Moll and L’ak did on Q’Mau, putting all those people at risk. He seems lost, so Burnham offers him a lifeline… as her new XO. She’s impressed with how he helped out on the Lyrek mission even when no one asked him to. And he deserves a second chance like the one she got from Saru. He won’t be her “yes man,” and she’s counting on that. Zip up, it’s time for this mopey Kellerun to get back to work. Cue the music and fade to black.

Is that smell the swamp kelp?

Goodbye and hello

The second episode of this new season comes in just as strong as the first. With the premiere doing the heavy lifting of setting up the new tone, stakes, and plot arc for the season, episode 2 had more time to explore the characters and their arcs. A strong theme of second chances was woven into these character stories told mostly in pairs, with Michael and Saru getting top billing. Doug Jones was a standout on his last day on the job (thankfully not falling into the “ retirony ” trope) as he and Sonequa Martin-Green took a stroll (almost literally) through a memory lane of their series-long arc from rivals to family. Action Saru was a lot of fun and it was nice to see Discovery remember some of his cool Kelpien abilities. For the most part, the pacing kept things flowing between the character beats, although the show still has a thing for literally stopping the action for feelings sidebars. This can easily be forgiven as the production itself was gorgeous, with the second visit to a unique alien location. This season may have a new Indiana Jones tone and style, but this episode reminds us of the core Trek themes with messages like: “I think the world is bigger than our corner in it.”

Episode 2 also showed us what to expect from the new quest-focused season, laying out a map and clues that can form a nice structure that allow for standalone adventures which still fit into the big picture of the search for Progenitor gold. And even with that mystery thankfully revealed in episode 1, this episode presented us with some nice new ones like L’ak’s background and Book’s connection to Moll. This episode had more time to give almost everyone something to do and also clued us into their season arcs, although Stamets still gets the short end. Some of these characters are a bit lost, especially Book and Rayner, but we also see hints of how they will be found. Episode 2 was particularly good in defining Rayner, including his history with Vance, his drive and helpfulness on the mission, and the vulnerability under his gruff exterior. Callum Keith Rennie continues to impress as this great addition to the series. And it might be just a canon nod, but sharing the Grankite Order of Tactics honor with James T. Kirk is a hint at what they are going for with echoes of that legendary captain finding himself out of touch in post-Praxis 23rd century . No one can replace Saru (and he isn’t really leaving, just moving to Starfleet HQ), but the prospect of Rayner as Disco’s first officer opens up a whole new world of fun possibilities.

So do you get dizzy when the saucer spins around?

The visit to the planet and fighting off those drones certainly brought “ The Arsenal of Freedom ” vibes, but the ancient graveyard was actually another deep cut to the Promellans from “ Booby Trap .” These types of things along with using bits of Romulan lore from Picard , like secret doors, shows how Discovery is fully embracing canon without indulging in nostalgia porn. Episode 2 also had more 32 nd- century worldbuilding tidbits, including talk of Breen infighting and Orions (presumably Emerald Chain) regrouping. Hopefully these nods, along with some from episode 1, are part of a longer game of fleshing out this century and building upon the big season arc. Moll and L’ak now know what they are looking for and it’s likely they can start a bidding war with the various factions. That said, the show still ignores offering details on things that seem important, like what exactly is a Red Directive… and how has Rayner already done seven of them? And of course, keeping track of what programmable matter (which is essentially magic at this point) can and can’t do will only drive you crazy. But these are just nitpicks and in no way distracting from the overall enjoyment of the season so far.

Vance is disappointed his FedNet updates are flooded with “Zaddy” comments.

Final thoughts

Season 2 is off to a great start with an episode that is debatably better than the first, especially if you love these characters. The show has successfully pivoted without losing what makes Discovery , Discovery . After getting two in one day, it’s hard to have to wait for more.

Okay, but I am not moving into Saru’s swamp.

• “Under the Twin Moons” was released simultaneously with the first episode of the season ( reviewed separately ).
• Captain Burnham’s personal log was Stardate 866274.3. The last confirmed Stardate was 865783.7 in episode 411 “Rosetta.”
• The mention of the sands from Q’Mau from episode 501 having “unknown radiative properties” feels like something that could pay off later.
• Programable matter bracelets can make multiple phasers, in case you lose one or in this case, use one as a bomb.
• The Starfleet Corps of Engineering got their first shoutout for the 32nd century.
• Jett Reno came up with the nickname “Action Saru,” inspired in part by how he dealt with Zareh when the Discovery first arrived in the 32nd century in “That Hope Is You, Part 2.”
• Book, Moll, and L’ak trade a lot of 32nd-century slang, including “kav’kar,” which sort of means BS.
• Moll says since Vellek was a Romulan, his diary is out of the Federation’s jurisdiction, but the Romulans reunified with Vulcan to form Ni’Var, who have joined the Federation so ipso facto, it is their jurisdiction.
• Vance’s ( previously unnamed ) daughter is named Charlie.
• Saru’s quarters are going to be left as is, a microcosm of his swampy home planet Kaminar .
• It’s unclear why, but do not touch Kelpien swamp kelp when it is in bloom.
• Among the items Saru packs is the Kelpien knife used to cut off his threat ganglia in “An Obol For Charon.”

I hope T’Rina likes things misty.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery  will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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Second episode was really good as well and i enjoyed the scenes with Burnham/Saru and Tilly/Adira they were sweet.

I love how the story so far is collecting pieces of a puzzle to find the Progenitor home world and their tech as i really enjoy puzzle stories.

I really like the characters of Moll/L’ak they are very interesting adversary especially Moll who book eventually realizes that she is the daughter of Cleveland Booker the 4th.

I really liked Raynar in this episode and it will be interesting to see him as Burnham’s first officer.

I have to admit I read these mainly for Anthony’s descriptions under the cut-scenes. I always get a chuckle. Thank you, Sir. 😊

The line about the primitives crossed my mind- like what Rayner might feel about having Burnham as a superior, or Tilly’s cadets think about her. I mean, yeah, technically they’re centuries older, but really…

I watched the prologue earlier this morning and after getting over the usual “no alpha hetero” males in command of Discovery, I thought the intro was very good. I also liked the crew hanging out together as friends. The only negative so far is the action scene with Burnham – IMHO something no captain of a Starship should be doing, but the producers or studio probably demanded some form of ridiculous and expensive action sequences. The opening 6 minutes also made me ponder that the spore drive would have been much more accepted if it had somehow been introduced along with other 32nd century tech like the detached warp nacelles and personal transporters. Even the social evolution taking IDIC to the next level, tries to envision what society might look like 1100 plus years from now. Of course, having more mixed race humans and aliens might be more realistic, but that is a whole other issue. At least we have Saru. So far I have seen a couple of spoiler free reviews and they are making me “cautiously” optimistic about S5. We shall see if that feeling is warranted two months from now. For now, I look forward to watching the first two episodes later this evening.

I don’t see the problem with Discovery not having a straight man in command… even though they have had three in previous seasons, if we include Saru.

Why would we not include Saru?

Because I think the OP was mostly talking about human men. And to be fair, we don’t know if Kelpeins have defined sexualities or whether they just go with the flow!

That is more than a fair comment, but viewer perceptions is what I am referring to. Doug Jones is an amazing actor and his portrayal of Saru is a credit to his acting ability – he comes across as truly alien and does so brilliantly. So yes, I perhaps should not have overlooked him. Btw for those who have not yet checked out this week’s Ready Room, you may want to do so. Doug Jones’ interview was great.

That said, by the end of E2 the addition of Raynor as the new Number One addresses what I was saying. Yes, I know he is also alien, but he does come across as someone who is more human. As someone else said earlier, he reminds many of 007! On top of that I really liked Booker’s line in response to Michael’s complaint’s about him – does he remind you of someone?

I am glad the politician didn’t get to fire Raynor (although he did lose his ship). Sniff sniff, it smells like a bureaucrat’s office in here haha.

Also, I did a major eyeroll in that opening scene of E1 with Burnham riding the hull of Lok and Moll’s ship. I was happy to see later in the episode it wasn’t exactly premeditated and her actions were somewhat justified and not the result of some really bad writing.

Nice to see the writers are actually addressing some of the complaints of the series. Cautiously optimistic and looking forward to next week!

Trek just isn’t Trek without a straight white man in charge. Gotcha.

Nope, Voyager and DS9 are great. Sorry if I offended anyone. I also liked seeing the Shenzhou, the Excelsior, and I hope we get to see the proposed Legacy Enterprise. I know what you are trying to say, but considering my world is full of multicultural and gender minorities including my family, you are jumping to the wrong conclusion.

And ‘all your best friends are…’. But, yeah, the rotating captains of Discovery have been a major weakness of the series. ‘Captains for a season’ until recently. Lorca was by far the best of them, though he could have been slightly less hard-edged, perhaps?

I feel sorry for you, that you have to ‘get over’ the “no alpha hetero” males. The life you must lead. Such struggle.

😭 No “alpha hetro males”. 😭

The spore drive continues to be a pet peeve (of many this show has). I find it stupendously unbelievable that no one followed up on the spore drive tech over the ensuing 900 years. Much less still using dilithium for warp drive. Speaking of tech, I still find just being in the 32nd century problematic because it’s just impossible to even guess what kind of tech would be like that far out. Just look at how far humanity advanced from 1120 to 2020. Now increase that rate. Yeah. Pretty mindboggling. Just the next 100 years is a tough guess.

It felt the technobabble was especially heavy in this episode, almost as if they needed the show to be a bit longer, so threw in an extra science problem followed by an immediate solution whenever they could!

It’s a science fiction show that uses advanced technologies to move the plot along. The characters were problem solving and it didn’t distract from the scene. It certainly wasn’t TNG level of technobabble.

Technobabble is a little awkward in Discovery sometimes. It was often a crutch in Berman era shows, but it came about as just a plausible-sounding way to quickly solve issues to move things along. Discovery simultaneously wants to use it for problem solving and to show the crew working together, but also feels it needs to honor the tradition of technobabble that really took hold with TNG. Because the action and pacing is more in line with the Kelvin films, at times it feels like padding I want to skip over. As when DS9 tamped down on it more and more by the end (to the point where it sticks out in stories like Tears of the Prophets which lean on it), it’s something of an incongruity.

At the same time, I don’t want to see things dumbed down to the same point as where Captain Kirk kicked a complicated engine component until it was fixed.

I thought this was the better of the two episodes, personally, and I’m looking forward to more with Rayner in the future.

Here too. Rayner is currently what is making the show watchable.

Saru is really gone 2 episodes in? Interesting choice

He’s not gone. He’s gone from the ship.

I have a feeling he’ll be back. He’s shown in the promo in scenes not yet seen.

ok – the use of the phrase “Doug Jones last day on set” in the story made it seem like he was actually wrapped

They didn’t say that. It was a plot point, Saru’s ‘last day on the ship’.

The 32nd century world building they’re doing might also set up some stuff for Star Trek: Academy. To some extend – at times – it feels they’re back-door piloting (for the lack of a better word) certain stuff, like the mention of the Breen and some of the the new sets built for season 5. It’s subtle, but I feel it’s there.

I agree but I am glad they are starting to embrace it. We haven’t had much exploration of planets or species since they jumped forward so I like that we are getting brief glimpses of these things.

The writers have also done a better job giving more characters the chance to contribute to a solution this season. It’s not always a huge scene but they are there and I like it. Stamets, may be a character that’s struggling, but I like the idea that he specializes in “ancient” tech. It works given the time period he is from and it gives him a much needed presence in the show.

Burnham and Saru did a great job in their scenes together. This show was a great wrap up for his role as her number one. Vance and Burnham’s mentorship is also moving along quite well. I like that he listens to her and yet guides her when she starts to go down the wrong path. Such as when he reminded her to answer a direct question posed by the Federation President. Burnham is still quite rebellious by nature so his guidance helps to reign her in and remind her of the obligations she has to the rule book. Even if she doesn’t always like it. Glad she is paying her own second chance forward by giving Rayner a second chance.

The revelation, that Book knew Moll, was an interesting addition to the show. This mission is definitely getting very personal for him.

Unfortunately the 32nd century setting really should have been jetisoned. My personal preference would have been post TUC. But any time from there to Picard’s time frame would have been better. Sadly that show, which I was not entirely against the concept of, is not starting out on good footing.

The problem with prequel timelines is that you either walk all over canon or are somewhat restricted by it if you want to bring in big changing events. I was all for the time jump and at the time was greatful that it wasn’t another pre Kirk timeline but they certainly didn’t make the most of it in seasons 3 and 4. Looking forward to watching Discovery season 5 this evening. I have a feeling this will be a good final season.

Agree with this 100%.

Was never into the idea of Discovery being a prequel so was super excited with the time jump.

Unfortunately it mostly felt squandered in the last two seasons. But this season is showing real promise and hopefully will make the 32nd century feel more lived in and interesting.

I am more hopeful about the future now (pun intended ;)).

That’s only a problem if your writers and producers aren’t any good.

I was totally fine with the setting the show was in, but it meant the writers had to have the skill to respect what came before. If that couldn’t be done (and this has been said ad nauseum over the years) then just reboot. It’s not a big deal. Since producers were NEVER going to admit they made a mistake having t hem jumping to the future was the only obvious out. But how far they went was just problematic. There is no way they are going to convince audiences that is 800 years after TNG. Better to have been 100-200 years. Still difficult but at least the future tech would seem a bit more reasonable. And they could have done the exact same stories with the exact same tech.

Anyway, I think the 32md century was a huge mistake and I think the one and only one reason they are setting the SFA show there is to keep Star Trek Discovery alive. If it goes on long enough I guarantee every Star Trek Discovery character will show up there at least once.

I’d argue the pre-pro time for planning a new series is a far better way to flesh out the 32nd century than the shorter time Disco had between seasons. Sure, we’re stuck with the aesthetic, magic tech, and post-Burn storyline, but if they are good writers they’ll find things to make this setting more enticing.

I agree with this and I speak as someone who also doesn’t love the 32nd century setting.

But that’s only because Discovery haven’t done enough with it but it can still be good. Hopefully SFA will just do a better job with it.

Like a lot of people I was really excited to see it go into the far future. I never really cared about the 23rd century and certainly never been excited about it being a prequel to TOS. It was pretty eye rolling to me that was the only time period we were following two straight times after getting it again for JJ verse. Most people were ready to go back to the 24th century (but Post Nemesis) or just a completely new time period. I know a lot of old TOS fans really cared about it but everyone else was ready to move on again including other TOS fans. Just keeping it in this one era really bored me frankly.

Today that’s finally changed once Picard came along but I still wanted a completely new era going forward. But unfortunately it was Discovery that frankly sucked in any time period. Hopefully the new show will make this a more exciting era because Star Trek needs to do new things and new ideas. It can’t just be fighting the Klingons or Borg all the time.

For sire, but even though we seem to be aching for them to do something bolder and keep up this world-building in the 32nd century, it’s been frustrating to not really know anything about what has happened with the other races, including the Borg and the Klingons. We know the Breen are an Imperium now. Woo.

I thought these are two of the most satisfying, hopeful episodes of Discovery in terms of causal fan accessibility and potential rewatchability. This really feels like, “Start here!”

Saw them both with the audience organized by Paramount and NYC Away Team – fun despite complete downpours for the hours approaching the screening. Radiant SMG, Wilson Cruz and one of the season’s directors was there – so hopefully they got the idea that we liked this a whole lot.

In the season trailer it looks to me like they’re inside the sickbay from Pike’s Enterprise.

It is the snw enterprise sickbay set and a snw style constitution class is seen in the trailer inside a greenish colored nebula looks to have the registry number 1701 and the name enterprise on it and lots of hull damage to the saucer edge

Cool. I’m curious to see how it’ll work.

I imagine the episode will tie into Calypso and explain why to Zora it felt as if her crew had abandoned her for a thousand years. Maybe time moves differently in different parts of the nebula.

Could it be that they go back in time to the mirror universe 23rd century, but then have to go through an ion storm to do a shift or something and evacuate the ship, so they wind up back in ‘our’ 23rd century while leaving the ship someplace or somewhen to be CALYPSO’d later? Maybe they wind up in another quadrant so as to not be able to influence anything that happens as we know it in century 23 (not that that stopped TPTB from messing with all that already, given DSC s1/s2.)

I really hope this does not involve time travel. I’ve seen people bring up the Mirror Universe, but I totally missed any references to it in the trailer.

If both are involved, the only justification I see for it is to bring back Prime Universe Lorca.

OK, I don’t know what’s going on, but where the hell is The Ready Room? It seems to have disappeared from Amazon Prime (which is where I watch my Paramount+ subscription).

And I’m not just talking about no RR for the Disco fifth season season premiere and episode two… I mean that ALL of the Ready Room episodes from all of the other series and seasons have vanished from Amazon Prime.

Is it just me, or has anybody else also noticed this?

They moved it to startrek.com

You can always just find it on YouTube. That’s where I always watch it.

Better. But I think that can be chalked up to Rayner. Which means I can expect something awful to happen to him before the season runs out.

But… As I noticed in the first episode they are still clinging to that ridiculous habit of having conversations at the most inappropriate moments. I guess that’s their schtick so it’s not going to stop.

Debris hits Burnham while she floats in space. Burnham says a funny line….

Yeah…. Thats Star Trek Discovery. Bad Style over substance.

It is a shame, that a show that diverse is written as poorly, generic and infantile as a saturday morning Cartoon.

While I am not usually the person to defend Discovery, I would also like to point out ST TAS was a Saturday Morning Cartoon and these days is as much of canon and the back story of Trek as anything else.

Lol .. TAS at least hast twice the charm and lucien and a giant spock.

I don’t denie Discovery status as canon. I am just schocked how about its quality.

So much to unpack here!

First, loved the first 2 eps. I was totally wrong about what I thought was going to happen but that is nothing new lol. But the Chase has me very excited.

I’m wondering if there will be a vague reference to Spock mentioning the Preservers in TOS’ Paradise ep. I know it’s not canon that the Preservers are the same as the Progenitors (or even exist) but IMO it would be a cool call back.

A device that can create life sounds a lot like Genesis to me except maybe the Progenitors succeeded where Carol and David failed??

watched it first in german version, which is quite awful. rewatched it in the original – far better. the german voice of burnham in particular has an enervating quality that sometimes makes it hard to take the character seriously. quite different in the original. you should always watch it in the original;) rayner is great! great addition to the show.

Hört hört…

I’d say something about my opinion on the 2 episodes but Laurie and Anthony on the last podcast said that we shouldn’t say bad things about Discovery in the comments. Discovery is fragile and needs censorship to protect it. Our opinions are unwanted. Resistance is futile.

They didn’t say that. They were talking about people who just come to rag on the show but never even watches it. They have no problem with people who actually watches it but still think it’s bad.

I hope I’m allowed an opinion after watching the previous 4 seasons. In my view, the show ends with third season. Afterwards, everything just feeling off for me. The fourth whole season could had easily (with many minutes to spare) be contained in a 2-part episode, the story was stretched beyond belief. Same thing seems to be happening with season 5, they just got an arc from TNG and will make a season out of it. 0 (zero) skills on new story generation and new ideas. I’m not a fan of that type of storytelling. I might get to watch this last season, much later, when I’ll stop thinking about the series lost potential and got nothing better to do.

The stone tablet segment really had some fun classic treasure story elements. I liked the National Treasure invisible ink on the back of the Declaration clue reference with Saru reading the residual bacteria traces. And the Romulan poem reveal mimicking the Indiana Jones Raiders Staff of Ra head piece reference with key information broken up into two parts ie “and take back one kadam…” And the bad guys only have the first part…(“They’re digging in the wrong place!”)

I’m a bit surprised by the somewhat muted response to the first two episodes. Not in the enthusiasm for them but in the number of original posts and responses.

Same. Someone else brought it up in the other review thread. You would think after 2 years and the shows final season there would be a lot more interest.

First episode of Picard last season got over 600 posts a year ago. I get Discovery is not Picard but this is very low in general.

It will be interesting to see where it lands when the streaming numbers come in.

It would be nice to see them break into the top 10 like SNW and Picard, but I am not expecting that to happen. Hopefully they can surprise me.

Yeah, I for one actually forgot that the S5 premiere was this week. Sadly, that is a function of my less than enthusiasm for the show overall. That said, I, of course, did watch both episodes by Saturday morning and I was pleasantly surprised and cautiously optimistic for the final season and I am looking forward to next week. Hopefully they can keep up the momentum.

It might be indicative of why the show was cancelled after 5 seasons.

The lack of interest is telling to me. Beyond that, I thought about writing a long comment going through everything but …. I just feel like I would be repeating the same criticisms that I’ve had about the show for a LOOOOOONNNNNGG time. And if people like this, more power to them and I don’t want to step on their excitement for it.

I’ll just say this. I found these episodes incredibly generic. It throws in some references to Trek lore but if you were annoyed by the way Discovery handled its characters and told its story in the first four seasons, nothing has changed. The same character melodrama where everyone is related to somebody or has (inappropriate) personal things going on during a crisis of galactic importance.

I’m thinking the same. Two premiere episodes for a show that’s ending after this season and hardly anyone seems to care.

I’m thinking the viewings have dropped like a stone.

I did like the episodes more than you did but certainly see your point., especially all the melodrama stuff. Sigh

We’ll see if any of the ratings outlets have data on how well it has done. Until then, I don’t want to speculate negatively based on something so circumstantial when it could just be down to interest in TM’s comment section in particular.

Of course you’re right but I been theorizing Discovery has already been losing viewers since season 4. I don’t believe it was just cancelled because it was getting too expensive but that a lot of people were just dropping out as well.

Possible. But then why buy it back from Netflix internationally if it’s not doing well overseas at least? Doesn’t mean season 4 didn’t underperform and they got buyer’s remorse, but weren’t there a lot of markets that little stunt deprived of seeing the show for months because Paramount+’s international rollout was so slow?

They relaxed things a bit to just have some fun, which does a world of good – the dour tone of seasons 3-4 was hard to take.

The melodrama is still awkward. They rarely find a way to discuss character development that doesn’t feel shoehorned and staged. The setup for seeing Gray next week, for instance, and Burnham taking time out of a life or death situation to argue with Saru over whether he was the best person to distract the drones, when clearly he was. You could argue because Burnham clearly likes to do it all, that’s in character, but belaboring it by having her waste time with a clumsy argument isn’t my favorite way they could have gone about that.

Book conveniently knowing Moll I’m not holding out a ton of hope for, but they’ve at least explored his loneliness so there’s a foundation for something there.

The show finally seems to be embracing Star Trek’s legacy instead of attempting to reinterpret it. They figured it out too late.

Not too shabby. Saru and Michael quipping while under attack by a Promellian booby trap with Tilly, Adira and Rayner problem-solving was urgent and fun. Rayner’s inclusion is only a good thing. I am a sucker of a quest story arc, so keep the puzzle pieces coming.

Definitely still a little clunky with how character development is handled. Culber immediately tries to extract Book’s inner feelings, Tilly, Adira and Burnham announce their state of mind in a way that doesn’t quite feel natural. But Rayner’s last scene works nicely.

I hope that with five puzzle pieces, the next four episodes don’t all follow the same formula as the second. This one was pretty good, but let’s not do it every time.

I liked this episode much better than the first one! This one felt as if everything worked together, without having action set pieces shoehorned in just to up the “action” quotient.

A lot of times in the past, it has felt as if Discovery was having people talk about their feelings when they should have been focusing on the mission. I thought it was a brilliant idea in the current episode to have Burnham and Saru need to transport in a considerable distance from their goal, so there would be time for them to talk about their leave-taking without its feeling out of place. We’ve got a long, dull walk, so we might as well use the time to say how much we’ll miss each other. That really worked for me.

Loved Burnham and Saru touching their heads together during their good bye. How DO you show affection to someone who’s a foot and a half taller than you, without it seeming as if you’re a child to a parent?

• Where to watch in the US
• Where to watch in Canada
• Where to watch in New Zealand
• How to watch from anywhere
• How to watch with a VPN

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery free — Final season starts today

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The newest season of Star Trek: Discovery is officially underway. Season 5 marks the final season of the Star Trek spin-off, and it's shaping up to be an action-packed swang song. Whether you're looking to stream the new episodes or get caught up on the past four seasons, we've got everything you need to know about the show, including where to watch Star Trek: Discovery free via a TV channel abroad. 

Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017 and follows in the decades-long tradition of Star Trek stories. The series is set about five years before the original Star Trek, which chronicled Captain Kirk's five-year journey. In Star Trek: Discovery, the U.S.S. Discovery travels through space on a mission of exploration. Season 5 sees Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the U.S.S. Discovery crew on the hunt for an ancient power that others are also seeking.

The first two premiere episodes are currently streaming. Keep reading to learn how to watch the series no matter where you are in the world.

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Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in the US

New Season 5 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery land on Paramount+ on Thursdays. The premiere week includes two episodes, and then one new episode will drop weekly after that. Episodes should be available starting at about 3 a.m. ET. All four past seasons are available to stream through the service. Subscriptions start at $5.99 a month and come with a one-week free trial.

Paramount Plus' Essential tier is a steal at this price and only has limited ads. It features tons of on-demand content from Paramount, CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and MTV. And you get NFL and Champions League soccer live streaming. There's a 7-day free trial, then it's $6 a month or $60 a year. The only way to ditch the ads is by opting for the Showtime bundle.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in Canada

Paramount+ is also the home to Star Trek: Discovery in Canada. Plans start at CAD$6.99 and come with a one-week free trial. All episodes are available to stream here.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in New Zealand

Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream for free on TVNZ+ . You'll need to create a free account to start streaming. In addition to new season 5 episodes, Seasons 1-4 are also streaming on the site. New episodes are available on Thursdays.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery from anywhere

If you're not in New Zealand at the moment, you can access streams with a VPN (virtual private network). VPNs alter your electronic device's location so you can use websites that might not be available in certain regions. They're also solid ways to boost your online privacy. We recommend ExpressVPN , a user-friendly option with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Check out our ExpressVPN review for additional details and see below to learn how to use a VPN. 

With its consistent performance, reliable security, and expansive global streaming features, ExpressVPN is the best VPN out there, excelling in every spec and offering many advanced features that makes it exceptional. Better yet, you can save up to 49% and get an extra three months for free today.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch Star Trek: Discovery.
• Turn it on and set it to New Zealand.
• Go to TVNZ+ and create a log-in profile.
• Watch Star Trek: Discovery.

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

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