Spoilers Why I think Discovery is ending after season 4

[Search4]

The title is self explanatory. A few thoughts

. No announcement of Season 5
. Burnham has completed her journey from officer to convict to redeemed officer to Captain. No further place to go.
. They started and ended the Klingon war
. They introduced Pike and the SNW spin-off is a go
. She reconciled with Spock
. She defeated Control and went to the “future” to ensure that. 23rd century story ended
. She figured out and cleared the cause of the Burn
. She found a source of Dilithium for the whole galaxy enabling the Federation to reform/grow
. They are building a fleet of spore drive ships now so their tech will not be unique
. They moved Tillly off from First Officer to the Academy perhaps for a spin-off
. Saru is now an independent player and can get a show of his own
. Vulcan / Nivar has rejoined and she’s on the “committee”
. The anomaly needs to be defeated but why would Discovery be specially good at that other than the spore drive? Although I bet Book dies trying or something.

So I think there’s no reason that the show is needed or unique. And I am enjoying it.

Perhaps we could see:
. An Academy show
. A Saru show to continue the timeframe
. A “West Wing” show with the fed President/ Michael as her agent

 

[fireproof78]

All fair but I don't think it is canceled.

 

[Paul755]

the only way I could see them ending Discovery after S4 is if SMG is ready to move on.

Anyone know how many years she was contracted for?

 

[Roald]

I for one hope not, even though the absence of an announcement for season 5 is worrying……….! Of all Nu-Treks, DSC is still my favorite..!

 

[ELCHawk]

I hope not. I have always loved the show, but really have loved it since it went into the future. They truly are in a new frontier. I would assume SMG is signed for a 6 or 7 year contract. But with a certain person leaving the crew, that has me worried a bit.

 

[Quinton]

The lack of renewal announcement and Tilly's ties to Starfleet Academy are the two reasons I can see it happening. Personally, I'm hoping they're just letting most of the cast take a break, and the fifth season will film later than usual or something.

 

[eschaton]

As I just said in the general thread, I do wonder about the mention of the Voyager-J in the first episode. Seems like a Chekhov's Gun.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

If Discovery was ending this Season, the series would still be airing on Netflix. Paramount/viacom/cbs wouldn't have forked out money to pay out the contract with Netflix if they intended on cancelling the show. The whole reason the deal fell apart was because Netflix wanted another multi-season contract, which obviously didn't jive with the plans for Paramount +. There is also the recent interview with Bob Bakish the head of viacom, indicating that he was pretty pleased with the amount of new subscriptions Discovery brought with it in november.

My guess is the delay on announcing season 5 has something to do with the end of the netflix deal.

 

[Char Kais]

Fare more telling than anything else is that there is no information of Star Trek Discovery season 5 on production tracking sites. See my post in "General Disco Chat Thread". https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/general-disco-chat-thread.294889/page-255#post-13977737

With Picard season two and three and Strange New Worlds season one already filmed and SNW season 2 starting to film in a month and a half, there will be 40 episodes of PIC and SNW before a new season of Discovery.

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

As I just said in the general thread, I do wonder about the mention of the Voyager-J in the first episode. Seems like a Chekhov's Gun.

You could absolutely be right, but ‪‪I don’t think that it comes anywhere close to a Chekhov’s Gun situation. The Voyager-J was mentioned once in the first episode of the season, but it isn’t a physical element “onstage,” much less an ever present one. At this point in the season, it doesn’t even come into play in the story being told.

‪‪Again, you could be right, ‪they could be setting up something with the Voyager-J, but if so, it doesn’t feel telegraphed to me, and I don’t think it seems like an inevitability at this point.

If Discovery was ending this Season, the series would still be airing on Netflix. Paramount/viacom/cbs wouldn't have forked out money to pay out the contract with Netflix if they intended on cancelling the show. The whole reason the deal fell apart was because Netflix wanted another multi-season contract, which obviously didn't jive with the plans for Paramount +. There is also the recent interview with Bob Bakish the head of viacom, indicating that he was pretty pleased with the amount of new subscriptions Discovery brought with it in november.

It’s also been consistently in the top three global iTunes charts with the new season, behind the first two spots, which are alternating between Yellowstone and Succession. Discovery is objectively performing well for them.

With Picard season two and three and Strange New Worlds season one already filmed and SNW season 2 starting to film in a month and a half, there will be 40 episodes of PIC and SNW before a new season of Discovery.

Picard season 2’s original shooting plan had it ending much sooner, but multiple COVID delays had it wrapped at the end of August, with season 3 not beginning filming until early September. It hasn’t completed shooting.

 

[Lord Garth]

Perhaps we could see:
. An Academy show
. A Saru show to continue the timeframe
. A “West Wing” show with the fed President/ Michael as her agent

With the fourth season, it looks like DSC is turning into the type of show where it could incorporate all of this underneath the Discovery umbrella.

With SNW coming out, they'll want to make the two shows as different as possible and not just in storytelling structure, but also in the set-up. Discovery is new regularly docked at Starfleet Command, from where it can jump anywhere. That makes Starfleet Command the Base of Operations, not Discovery. Which means you can see Tilly at the Academy, Saru doing his thing, Burnham pulling double-duty as a Captain and working for Rillak. They're already doing it, so they can keep doing it.

When Tilly was talking about other things she could do, I think that was meta for Discovery saying there are other things it could do as well. The series is broadening its horizons and we're in the middle of watching it happen.

 

[fireproof78]

My guess is the delay on announcing season 5 has something to do with the end of the netflix deal.

As well as what they want to focus on right now for PR.

 

[FederationHistorian]

The title is self explanatory. A few thoughts

. No announcement of Season 5

Season 5 wouldn’t air until 2023 at the earliest anyways.

. Burnham has completed her journey from officer to convict to redeemed officer to Captain. No further place to go.

Burnham could become a Commodore or Admiral or even the Federation President. She could also leave Starfleet and the Federation altogether and seek a new line of work. She could also have a fall from grace. She could also become a mom. There are many different ways to continue her story.

. They started and ended the Klingon war

And it could always be revisited in the 32nd century. Either as a new conflict, or reflected on as a historical event.

. They introduced Pike and the SNW spin-off is a go

SNW is for the fans. And the producers originally wanted a focus on the 23rd century. A win-win for all.

. She reconciled with Spock

And is clearly closer to him than Sarek, Amanda Grayson, and Sybok.

. She defeated Control and went to the “future” to ensure that. 23rd century story ended

. She figured out and cleared the cause of the Burn

. She found a source of Dilithium for the whole galaxy enabling the Federation to reform/grow

Its been established that Michael Burnham is amazing

. They are building a fleet of spore drive ships now so their tech will not be unique

So what? I don’t think any ship have ever been unique in the series. The NX-01 was the first deep space explore, the Defiant was permitted to use a cloak by the Romulans, and Voyager briefly had he slipstream drive. But these ships are the exception to the rule.

. They moved Tillly off from First Officer to the Academy perhaps for a spin-off

. Saru is now an independent player and can get a show of his own

Spinoffs are possible. No one really knows though.

Vulcan / Nivar has rejoined and she’s on the “committee”

Just a new role for Burnham. And a reason for her to no longer be captain and move her off the ship.

So I think there’s no reason that the show is needed or unique.

The “Calpyso” thread still needs to be tied up. They could also visit the 32nd mirror universe. And they haven’t jumped to the Kelvin timeline yet either despite it being brought up and being where Spock ended up…

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

Yeah, they're going to make Burnham the president before it's over.

 

[Fateor]

The “Calpyso” thread still needs to be tied up. They could also visit the 32nd mirror universe. And they haven’t jumped to the Kelvin timeline yet either despite it being brought up and being where Spock ended up…

I am pretty sure Calpyso has been retconned out with the exit of the Director who was planning that storyline in Season 2.

 

[Lord Garth]

Yeah, they're going to make Burnham the president before it's over.

Damn. I can't think of a fate worse than becoming a scumbag politician.

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

Re: Calypso’s place in the timeline relative to now, and whether or not it’s been abandoned/ignored/retconned, from an interview with Michelle Paradise at Inverse while they were filming the first part of Season 4, back last January when Season 3 had just finished airing.

Calypso has now become part of our canon, and it takes place far beyond our time now even, in Season Three. And yeah, eventually we’ll have to find our way there. So that short, in the grand scheme of things, fits together as a piece. In certainly in Season Three, we were beginning that process with Zora — who isn’t quite the Zora we saw in Calypso — but we were getting that process started a little bit of her sparking to life in episode Four, and then coming in and having a bit more of a presence in Twelve and Thirteen. So, we’re starting our way there.

Around the same time Alex Kurtzman and series director Olatunde Osunsanmi were interviewed for the Blerd Gurl Podcast where Kurtzman spoke about connecting the show to Calypso as well.

We definitely knew that we wanted to connect Calypso to Discovery. And, obviously, we did because we did it in Calypso. Calypso ends with a big open mystery, which is: how did how did this voice end up on the ship and why is the ship empty? So we have a lot to answer there. We love connecting Discovery to the trek to the Short Treks.

Given that since the start of the new season, with the Sphere Data/Discovery Computer calling itself Zora, they’ve further connected themselves to Calypso, ‪‪I don’t think there’s any indication it’s been retconned.

And as to the discrepency between the pre upgrade look of the Discovery in Calypso and its current status, currently my best guess/explanation is it reverted back, at least in appearance, by utilizing programmable matter.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I’m pretty sure they’d announce that DSC is in it’s final season so they could make a big deal about the series finale. There’s no reason to hush it up.

 

[XCV330]

This season started airing a bit later than last season. It might be the last one, hard to say, yet, but if we haven't haven't heard anything about a renewal by January I would start to suspect something, again just judging from previous release schedules. Only Paramount knows if this season is going over like a lead balloon.

 

[Awesome Possum]

The writers have mentioned in tweets about getting back to work a few months ago, it seems like they're planning out a fifth season and writing it even if it hasn't been announced yet. I highly doubt it's ending anytime soon.