WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery‘s series finale, “Life, Itself”
Recent developments in the wider franchise have led fans to state that five seasons of Star Trek are the new seven, but Star Trek: Discovery‘s finale disproves this notion. The Star Trek: Discovery finale, and its epilogue, brought the adventures of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) to an end, but this wasn’t the original plan. Discovery season 6 was in the planning stages before Paramount made the decision to cancel the show. That decision resulted in “Life, Itself”, written by Kyle Jarrow and Michelle Paradise, serving as the series finale, with new scenes added to end Discovery‘s story.
It was recently announced that Star Trek: Lower Decks would face the same fate as Star Trek: Discovery, with the upcoming fifth season confirmed to be its last. Whether Lower Decks will go for a similar approach to Discovery‘s ending and epilogue remains to be seen. In the 1990s, Star Trek shows ran for seven seasons, so the comparison has been made that “five seasons are the new seven” in the new streaming landscape. However, that’s not true, as the decisions made about both Discovery and Lower Decks endings bear no similarity to how shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation ended in the 1990s.
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Why 5 Seasons Is Not The New 7 When It Comes To Star Trek Shows
The Berman-era Star Trek shows canceled themselves.
The popularity of the shows in the Star Trek: The Next Generation era meant that they had the freedom to cancel themselves. So, rather than have an ending forced upon them, the writers of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager were able to bring the story to an end on their own terms. It was slightly different for TNG as it ended so that Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D crew could lead the next phase of Star Trek movies. Regardless, Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga were still able to write a proper ending for TNG as a TV show.
The only exception to this rule in the Rick Berman era is Star Trek: Enterprise, which was canceled at the end of season 4. Rather than give Enterprise a proper send-off, the finale was written as an ending for the entire Berman era, with Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) observing the last adventure for the Enterprise NX-01. Riker hoped that this would help him make the decision he had to make in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, episode 12, “The Pegasus”.
Enterprise‘s controversial finale undermined the cast, which felt like an insult given the show’s cancelation. 20 years after “These Are The Voyages…” aired, and like Enterprise with “The Pegasus”, the Star Trek: Discovery finale sets up the Short Treks episode “Calypso”. By jumping ahead in time to explain an old episode of Star Trek that everyone had already forgotten about, Star Trek: Discovery‘s finale feels a lot like the end of Enterprise. Like Enterprise, Discovery has been canceled, it hasn’t turned down a future season, proving that five seasons are not the new seven in modern Star Trek.
How Star Trek: Discovery’s Finale Differs From Other Star Trek Shows
Even compared to the modern Star Trek shows, the ending of Star Trek: Discovery is quite different. For example, Star Trek: Picard was only ever commissioned for three seasons, and had a vague thematic arc between seasons 1 and 3. The story of Admiral Picard’s later years was all about reconciling his past mistakes and preparing him for fatherhood. Star Trek: Discovery has always had season-long arcs, but lacks an overarching series arc much like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Which is why Saru’s wedding in Discovery could have served as a neat finale, not unlike TNG‘s final poker game.
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Leaving the end of Star Trek: Discovery more open-ended, with Burnham and Book beaming off on a Red Directive mission, could have set up future revivals. Both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager‘s ending lacked finality, allowing shows like Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Prodigy to revisit the characters. By jumping ahead to the far future and abandoning the USS Discovery, there’s a finality to the Discovery finale that could make it hard to lend dramatic stakes to any comebacks in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy or a Discovery reunion movie.
What Does Discovery’s Finale Mean For Lower Decks’ Ending?
As the promotional artwork for Star Trek: Lower Decks has been riffing on Star Trek movie posters since season 1, it’s clear that they, like Star Trek: Discovery, were aiming for at least six seasons. Sadly, that’s not going to be the case, and Lower Decks season 5 will be its last. It remains to be seen how Lower Decks will approach the end of the show when the final season starts airing in the Fall. It’s possible that Mike McMahan may opt to do a sentimental epilogue like Discovery, or may even just stick with the planned end of season 5, teasing future off-screen adventures for the crew of the USS Cerritos.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is a love-letter to the TNG era, so it feels likely that showrunner Mike McMahan will write an ending that feels of a piece with “All Good Things…”. There’s currently a campaign to Save Lower Decks, so it would make good sense to keep things open-ended, especially if Netflix is in the market for another Star Trek animated series. Whatever happens, the fates of both Lower Decks and Star Trek: Discovery prove that the television landscape is more competitive than in the 1990s, meaning that while five seasons may not be the new seven in factual terms, it’s still an impressive milestone.
All episodes of Star Trek: Discovery are streaming now on Paramount+.
Star Trek: Discovery
Where to Watch*Availability in US
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.
- Cast
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Sonequa Martin-Green
, Doug Jones
, Anthony Rapp
, Wilson Cruz
, Mary Wiseman
, Blu del Barrio
, Callum Keith Rennie
, Eve Harlow
, Oded Fehr - Release Date
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September 24, 2017
- Seasons
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5
- Writers
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Alex Kurtzman
- Where To Watch
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Paramount+
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Where to Watch*Availability in US
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
“Star Trek: Lower Decks” focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the USS Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi must keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The ship’s bridge crew includes Captain Carol Freeman, Commander Jack Ransom, Lieutenant Shaxs and Doctor T’Ana. This is the second animated spin-off in the franchise after 1973-74’s “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” but has a decidedly more adult tone and humor.
- Cast
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Tawny Newsome
, Jack Quaid
, dawnn lewis
, Noel Wells
, Eugene Cordero
, Gabrielle Ruiz
, Fred Tatasciore
, Jerry O’Connell - Release Date
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August 6, 2020
- Seasons
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5
- Writers
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Mike McMahan
- Where To Watch
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Paramount+
