Discovery Season 5 Premiere Review: A Final Story Connecting To Another Star Trek Show

The show responsible for the current resurgence of the franchise, Star Trek: Discovery, is heading into its final season. Discovery is the Star Trek show that not only brought the franchise back but even took the story to the distant future, literally creating a future for more Star Trek stories in a new era. With 2 episodes released of season 5 so far, the new season kicks things off with a bang. But while it’s a show that looks ahead, it seems season 5 will connect back to another Star Trek show. Find out which one in my Discovery season 5 premiere review. 

Please note that the following Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premiere review will feature spoilers. 

A Strong Start To A Promising Season 

It’s always harder to tell the next chapter of a story that already had a happy ending, versus continuing a story that was left unresolved. Discovery season 5 had the daunting task of telling a new story after the resolution of season 4. On that front, the Discovery season 5 premiere is highly successful in getting audiences absolutely hooked and invested in this new story. 

When an ancient Romulan ship appears, it kickstarts a chain of events that leads our Discovery crew on a mission, but one unlike anything they’ve ever gone on before. The arrival of the ship, and its contents, is of high interest for multiple parties, including the Federation. Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) initiates a never before heard of Red Directive, which throws everyone into panic mode as they embark on this new mission. The mission: recover the contents of the Romulan ship. By any means necessary. 

The episode masterfully mixes high-energy action and thrills, but also deals with the emotional journeys of these characters, and where they are at this time in the story. While also laying the foundation for what’s to come. Multitasking for the win!

Discovery Season 5 Premiere Connects Back To A TNG Storyline

The main story of the new season of Discovery seems to be a direct sequel the an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6. In the Discovery premiere episodes, Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and our crew of Discovery have to track down the Romulan ship and get what’s inside. However, a set of couriers, criminals for hire, beat them to it. Burnham has to team up with a new Federation Captain, Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), to track the couriers down and retrieve what they stole. Something vital to the future of the Federation, via the Red Directive that we know nothing about. It’s clearly a new 32nd Century Starfleet protocol that the Discovery crew got training on, while we as the audience, are unaware of it. 

By the end, they discover the information is actually about a race of beings encountered in the season 6 episode of TNG, titled ‘The Chase’, known as the Progenitors. In the TNG episode, we learned that the Progenitors seeded various DNA throughout the galaxy, leading to the various races of lifeforms that exist in the Star Trek world. So basically, in Star Trek canon, the Progenitors were responsible for all of life in the known universe. All of it! 

Weirdly enough, shocking as this revelation was, there was no further return to this plot, or the Progenitors, or anything else about them in all of Star Trek. Not until the Discovery season 5 premiere, that is. It’s weird such a huge and shocking revelation was never explored in any other on-screen Trek iteration since that episode of The Next Generation. 

Literal Galaxy Ending Stakes in Discovery Season 5 Premiere Review

So by the end of the Discovery season 5 premiere episodes, we learn that this season will literally deal with stakes that could destroy the universe. But what I really loved about these episodes, is how wonderfully they employed awesomely massive large blockbuster-level sequences, like the action, ship chases, rescues, and all the high adrenaline set pieces. And how they also managed to include the quieter and more endearing character moments between everyone. 

Not to mention introduces us to an awesome new character, Captain Rayner, now Burnham’s new Number One of Discovery after Saru leaves Starfleet to become an Ambassador. The addition of Rayner to the crew is very exciting to me, seeing the professional chemistry that Burnham and him have. Not to mention how the Discovery crew is going to respond to a guy like Rayner; old school, flies by the seat of his pants, and apprehensive to change. It’s going to be a fun final season!

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premiere episodes are now streaming on Paramount+. 

What did you think of the new season of Discovery? Let me know in the comments below. And follow me on X (formerly Twitter) at @theshahshahid to talk about any Star Trek, any time!