star trek uniforms

Starfleet uniform

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Starfleet uniforms in 2371, showing two separate styles in use at once

A provisional officer's uniform alongside a standard duty uniform

Starfleet uniforms were uniforms worn by individuals serving in the Federation Starfleet , originally a United Earth organization. These uniforms facilitated the wearers' needs as both scientists and researchers , as well as Starfleet's military role. The uniform and combadge used by Starfleet personnel may vary by the ship or facility they were assigned to, or the officer's rank or department. These were often retained even when visiting other Federation locations. ( TNG : " The Child "; DS9 : " Homefront ", " Tears of the Prophets "; LD : " We'll Always Have Tom Paris ", " Kayshon, His Eyes Open "; DIS : " Saints of Imperfection ")

Casual duty attire also allowed for considerable variation of uniform aboard a Starfleet vessel, though it was ultimately up to the captain's discretion. Wearers were expected to abide by the Starfleet dress code , though special exceptions were sometimes made for certain aspects of an individual's cultural heritage, such as Worf 's Klingon baldric , Nog 's Ferengi headdress , and the earrings of Ro Laren , Kira Nerys , and Shaxs . ( VOY : " Learning Curve ", et al.) According to Elim Garak , " I think Starfleet should allow their officers more latitude in accessorizing their uniforms. You'd be surprised what a nice scarf can do. " ( DS9 : " Broken Link ")

On two occasions, the term " Federation uniform " was used to describe Starfleet uniforms.

In 2369 , the Bajoran civilian Mullibok , who was being evicted from his home , asked Commander Benjamin Sisko how many Federation uniforms he planned on sending down to have him removed. ( DS9 : " Progress ")

In 2372 , Chakotay referred to his as a Federation uniform as he explained to Kar how it was like the Jal name that the Kazon earned. Chakotay told him that his uniform was earned through " years of study ", and " learning about science and ships and navigation , " adding too, that he was further taught to be "[..] prepared us to defend ourselves in battle. They prepared us very well. And we had to pass many difficult tests before we were given the right to wear the uniform. " ( VOY : " Initiations ")

• 1.1 Command
• 1.2 Operations
• 1.3 Sciences
• 2.1.1 Type #1
• 2.1.2 Type #2
• 2.1.3 Type #3
• 2.1.4 Type #4
• 3 Uniform variations
• 4 Dress uniforms
• 5.1.1 Design
• 5.2 Ambiguous uniform
• 5.3 External links

Divisions [ ]

Starfleet uniforms were classified by color among the command, sciences, and operations divisions. Occasionally, the uniforms were also broken down by department, while displaying rank insignia conspicuously. The color scheme had varied over time throughout Starfleet history, but the uniforms were designed for comfort even in the most extreme environments. ( DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ", " Let He Who Is Without Sin... ")

Command [ ]

The command division was the head of Starfleet, with most of the ranking officers in Starfleet Command wearing these colors. Generally, this division was responsible for the administration of starships , starbases , and space stations .

Operations [ ]

The operations division was the backbone of Starfleet, encompassing the engineering , security , and support departments. This division was responsible for technological innovation and for maintaining and defending the Federation.

Sciences [ ]

The sciences division was the heart of Starfleet, composed of the exploratory , medical , and mental health departments.

Uniform styles [ ]

Unknown eras [ ].

These Starfleet uniforms were introduced between the 24th and 31st centuries .

Type #1 [ ]

A female officer in an unknown uniform

This uniform was worn by an operations division officer , as seen in a photo within the Transporter Facility maintained by Chief Petty Officer Carlton Dennis . ( LD : " Grounded ")

Type #2 [ ]

A female junior officer in a uniform from an unknown era

This uniform was worn by one of Tal 's hosts . ( DIS : " Forget Me Not ")

Type #3 [ ]

A holographic representation of a female lieutenant

This uniform was worn by officers in an unknown era. ( DIS : " Su'Kal ")

Type #4 [ ]

Holographic representations of officers in uniforms from an unknown era

This uniform was worn by the delegation welcoming the Kelpien and Ba'ul Alliance into the Federation. ( DIS : " Su'Kal ")

In the 23rd century , similar uniforms had been in use as cadet outfits. ( DIS : " Through the Valley of Shadows ")

Uniform variations [ ]

Troi in her casual attire

Some officers wore alternate uniforms. Deanna Troi often wore casual clothing while on duty, and T'Pol retained her original Vulcan uniform with a few concessions to her Starfleet rank and ship assignment. Other officers, such as Worf, Montgomery Scott , and Ro Laren, were allowed to wear accessories relating to their culture with their uniforms, but this was at the discretion of the captain. Uniforms were also altered to accommodate non-humanoid officers, such as the three-armed, three-legged uniform of the Edosian Arex , and the uniforms for beluga whales Kimolu and Matt . ( ENT : " Borderland "; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ; TNG : " Ensign Ro "; TAS : " Mudd's Passion "; LD : " First First Contact ")

Uniforms were also adapted to environmental or atmospheric conditions. When exploring the planet Tyree , Benjamin Sisko and colleagues wore long, flowing gown uniforms to deal with the sand . They featured a colored stripe to represent departments. ( DS9 : " Shadows and Symbols ")

Dress uniforms [ ]

Worf wearing his dress uniform with a Klingon ceremonial sash

Dress uniforms were a variant of the standard Starfleet uniforms worn for special occasions, such as weddings , courts martial , funerals , and the greeting of ambassadorial delegations and heads of state. ( TOS : " Court Martial ", " Journey to Babel "; TNG : " Lonely Among Us ", " Manhunt ", " Data's Day "; DS9 : " Move Along Home ", " Rules of Engagement "; VOY : " Course: Oblivion ", " One Small Step ", " Ashes to Ashes "; Star Trek: Insurrection )

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

Patrick Stewart 's character of Jean-Luc Picard has appeared in more styles of Starfleet uniform than any other character on screen without story contrivances (like time travel , holodecks , or alternate timelines ) being involved.

For most of Star Trek 's history, Starfleet uniforms have had at least three division colors. Some characters have worn different division colors in different episodes. Leslie , Jae , Tom Paris , Harry Kim , and Sylvia Tilly have each been shown wearing three colors at different points (including, for Paris and Kim, alternate timelines and holodeck scenarios); however, the first character to wear all three division colors in one episode was Ensign Sam Rutherford , who wore operations gold, command red, and medical blue in LD : " Envoys ".

The Starfleet uniforms worn during Star Trek: The Original Series were designed by William Ware Theiss , who returned to design the Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms (which were further adapted into future versions on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Star Trek: Voyager , and the TNG -era films by Robert Blackman ). Robert Fletcher designed the uniforms seen throughout the original series movies, with later new designs provided by Nilo Rodis .

Robert Blackman also designed uniforms worn on Star Trek: Enterprise , a design representing a precursor to those seen in TOS . The uniforms seen in Star Trek: Discovery were designed by Gersha Phillips . The uniforms in Star Trek: Picard were designed by Christine Clark .

Michael Kaplan designed the uniforms seen in Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , and Sanja Hays designed the uniforms for Star Trek Beyond .

As shown in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction , a number of Starfleet uniforms have had padding to increase muscular appearance. Such cases include two costumes for Tom Paris , one racquetball costume for Julian Bashir , and a Deep Space Nine costume for Worf, to create a more Klingon appearance. According to Wil Wheaton , all the main cast members wore muscle padding during the first two seasons of The Next Generation , mainly because of the tight-fitting nature of the spandex uniforms used in these two seasons. [2]

Several prototype uniform undershirts to those seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [3]

Ambiguous uniform [ ]

Female on the Elysian Council

A Human female seen as a member of the Elysian Council in " The Time Trap " wore a uniform of ambiguous origin. It was described in the Star Trek Concordance as "a white suit with blue collar and an insignia on the left breast," and was suggested to "possibly [be] an early Star Fleet [sic] uniform". While it is known that the Bonaventure , and possibly other Earth/Federation ships, were lost in the years prior to 2269, it is unclear if this is indeed a Starfleet uniform, and, if so, from which era it originated.

External links [ ]

• Starfleet uniform at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 22nd & 23rd century Starfleet uniforms  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 24th century Starfleet uniforms  at Ex Astris Scientia
• Starfleet uniforms  at Spike's Star Trek Page
• Interview with William Ware Theiss at Phaser Resource (X)
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Star Trek Uniforms Fully Explained

Since its premiere more than 50 years ago, Star Trek has been at the center of a growing web of culture, television, film, and fandom. With nine television series and 13 films, with undoubtedly more to come, there is a wealth of material to analyze and enjoy. Today, an enthusiastic fan can take just a single aspect of the Star Trek universe and dive into it for weeks.

Take uniforms. A seemingly simple concept, right? Star Trek generally focuses on the experiences of people serving in Starfleet, essentially a futuristic version of the Navy in space. So, Starfleet uniforms should be fairly consistent, even boring. Everyone's supposed to look like a cohesive group, so there should be little variation.

However, the uniforms of Star Trek are so varied and connected to the intricate fictional world of the franchise that it's pretty fascinating. Someone appearing on Star Trek: The Next Generation and then showing up again in a film like Star Trek: First Contact will probably have to fit themselves into two very distinct outfits. With more than five decades of stuff to go through, says CNET , there's a dizzying variety of looks for what's supposed to be a pretty staid quasi-military organization.

Practically everything about the history of Star Trek uniforms is linked to behind-the-scenes stories, real-world creativity, in-universe drama, and even a touch of fashion history here and there. From color, to cut, to material, there's a lot to learn.

Color is key to Star Trek uniforms

In Star Trek: The Original Series , which ran from 1966 to 1969, you can't miss the brightly hued uniform shirts sported by the crew of the starship Enterprise . Captain James T. Kirk and other members of the command staff sport golden yellow tops, says Mental Floss . Blue is reserved for the science department and medical personnel, so you'll see it on Mr. Spock, the second-in-command, and the ship's physician, Doctor McCoy.

And what of the folk in red uniforms? According to Star Trek lore, these poor "redshirts" are little more than cannon fodder, though, officially, red is for communications, admin, and security. If you're watching an episode where a random, red-clad crewmember is asked to beam down to the planet with the main cast, don't get too attached. They're probably going to get zapped, eaten, or otherwise annihilated to further the episode's plot.

Of course, there are some exceptions. Statistically speaking, says Nerdist , redshirts are not that bad off. Consider also that red shirts adorn major characters like Scotty, the ship's chief engineer, who made it through the entire series.

Now that you've got that settled, remember that it's only good for one series. In later Star Trek shows, red and gold switched places. Captains like The Next Generation 's Jean-Luc Picard wore a dark red, while his security chief, Worf, wore gold.

Starfleet rank is shown by pips and stripes

Like so many real-world military organizations, Starfleet hinges on rank. Crewmembers are expected to follow orders, but on starships that can carry thousands of people, who are they supposed to take seriously? That's where the rickrack comes in.

In Star Trek: The Original Series , rank was denoted by stripes of gold ribbon on someone's sleeves. The more stripes, the higher the rank. Generally speaking, says Atlas Obscura , two or three stripes means a captain. Commissioned officers are a safe bet for one stripe. Non-commissioned people get either a bit of braid or nothing at all. The stripes were brought back for the reboot films beginning in 2009.

The follow up series, Star Trek: The Next Generation   went for something different during its 1987 – 1994 run. The colors became a more muted, and the old rank stripes, which, frankly, looked like something you might have picked up from your local craft store, were retired. In their place, officers wore "pips," subtle little pins, on their collars. The higher someone's rank, the more pips they sported.

Other films played around a bit with the rank symbols, like the different colors and badges shown in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . Still, they weren't too off the original mark. Generally speaking, the more junk on someone's uniform, the more likely it is that you'll have to follow their orders.

The original series went for velour

Futurama 's Zapp Brannigan character, a send-up of Captain Kirk, is all about his velour uniform. The first Star Trek series really was into luxurious velour, too, but the fabric proved challenging to maintain. It's not as if the 1960s were known for comfortable natural materials, after all.

According to Esquire , the fabric initially used in Star Trek: The Original Series was a little flashy. Costume designers used a stretch cotton velour for the tops, with a black synthetic Dacron infused with sparkles for the pants. Both materials were meant to subtly glitter under studio lights, lending the uniforms a shimmery, 23rd-century, spacefaring feel. 

Unfortunately, the velour was a flop. Many called it "that rotten velour," noting that the fabric tended to shrink in the wash and could tear easily. In the third and final season, designers substituted it for a double-knit nylon, says CNET , which proved to be a much hardier fabric, especially when it got thrown into the washing machine.

Captain Kirk's special green shirt was a little embarrassing

Originally, reports Atlas Obscura , the command staff of Star Trek: The Original Series was supposed to be sporting a muted green. Under the studio lights, though, the cameras read the green velour as a golden yellow. The production team simply went with it for the rest of the series.

Careful observers of the 1960s run will note that Captain Kirk is sometimes seen in a very green tunic-style shirt. According to an interview with series costume designer Bill Theiss , that's because it was made out of a different material. That particular shirt looked genuinely green. This is also why some of the colors in the original series seem to change, said Theiss. Even the miniature of the Enterprise could appear ever so slightly green under the right conditions.

William Shatner, the Canadian actor who played Kirk, wasn't necessarily fond of the tightly wrapped look, says Cinemablend . "It was a little embarrassing after lunch to have that tight green thing on you," he said.

Star Trek's women went from pants to miniskirts

The first pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , " The Cage " is an odd duck. Though it was shot in 1964, it didn't make it to screens in its complete form until a Betamax release in 1989. Bits of the story were included in the season one two-parter "The Menagerie," but it contained only the briefest glimpses of what might have been.

These included things like a smiling Spock, different uniforms, and a woman in command wearing pants . Star Trek: The Original Series is notorious for its gendered uniforms. The men wore pants and long-sleeved shirts. Female crewmembers were confined to miniskirts so short that Lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer, always seemed on the verge of an embarrassing situation when she sat down.

That's partially why Number One, the second-in-command in "The Cage," stands out: She's wearing pants. Number One, played by Majel Barrett, is also a daring commander. But she wasn't considered right for the character. When Star Trek got its second pilot, none of the women were in command, and certainly none of them wore pants. Barrett returned, albeit as the emotional, mini-skirted Nurse Chapel.

Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, offers up a counterpoint. "I was wearing [miniskirts] on the street," she told the BBC . "What's wrong with wearing them on the air? [...] It was the era of the miniskirt. Everybody wore miniskirts."

The first Star Trek movie shook took uniforms in a weird direction

Star Trek: The Motion Picture looked like it was going to be a big deal. The 1979 film was the first time that fans would get to see their beloved crew on the big screen. Anticipation was high. Then, the movie debuted.

It landed with a dull thud. While die-hard fans still got enjoyment out of Star Trek 's film debut, most viewers couldn't get past the plodding story and dialogue-heavy scenes. It made just enough profit to justify a sequel, to be sure. SyFy contends that The Motion Picture did originate some interesting new trends for the franchise, like wearable communicators and redesigned Klingons . Still, few would point to this entry as their favorite Star Trek movie.

Some of the blame surely lies with the redesigned uniforms. Where The Original Series had colorful, if somewhat cartoonish togs for the crew, The Motion Picture made it look like everyone was going to the weirdest slumber party ever. According to Memory Alpha , the crew was now outfitted in two-piece tunics and one-piece jumpsuits in mind-numbing shades like pale blue and beige. At least the women on the crew were dressed in the same jumpsuits worn by the men. They might have looked oddly dull for space adventurers, but crewmembers like Lt. Uhura didn't look like they needed to worry about errant breezes. And, if nothing else, the space pajamas look pretty comfortable.

The Wrath of Khan redeemed Star Trek uniforms while cutting costs

Though Star Trek: The Motion Picture began the series tradition of changing Starfleet uniforms at every opportunity, rebooted uniforms didn't get very eye-catching until the second film. In Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, both the plotting and the uniforms got a much-needed upgrade.

To be fair, the striking red jackets of The Wrath of Khan wouldn't have existed as we know them if it weren't for the beige jumpsuits of The Motion Picture . As revealed by Empire , costume designer Robert Fletcher, burned somewhat by his experiences on the first film, decided to stay on in an attempt to redeem his craft. Fletcher still had to work within budget, says Forgotten Trek . Indeed, the budget was smaller, since the studio had been spooked somewhat by the lackluster performance of the first motion picture. As a result, Fletcher rather cleverly utilized the old movie uniforms. His team dyed the tunics red because that was the shade that took best to the fabric. 

Meanwhile, Fletcher added a few more militaristic details to the revamped uniforms, like boxy shoulders, stripes, and shiny rank insignia. Fletch referred to it as "Hornblower in outer space," referring to the popular Horatio Hornblower series, set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars. The maroon color proved so successful that it persisted far beyond the film and back onto television with the follow-up series, Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's uniform was all about spandex

While the uniforms debuted in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan were structured, boxy outfits inspired by military getups, the theme wasn't going to last, for William Ware Theiss, who designed the costumes for Star Trek: The Original Series , was ready to completely revamp even his own designs. Theiss was called upon to design the costumes for the first year of Star Trek: The Next Generation , the follow-up series that premiered in 1987. According to Forgotten Trek , Theiss wanted to pull back from the structured look of Wrath of Khan and return to a softer appearance.

That meant spandex. Specifically, Theiss employed a heavyweight material, of the type often used for swimsuits. He also changed the color scheme, making red the color for command staff, while gold was switched to engineering and security. Blue remained the key shade for medical and science personnel.

While designers might have liked the spandex, it got poor reviews from the actors. The form-fitting material was unforgiving of a heavy lunch or brief dalliance with a slice of cake. Robert Blackman, who replaced Theiss in later seasons, came to the rescue with a different cut and wool fabric. Unfortunately, only the male actors got the best changes, like two-piece uniforms. Female actors like Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Troi, were stuck in uncomfortable one-piece jumpsuits for a while longer.

Deanna Troi's exception confused Trek fans

In Star Trek: The Next Generation , ship's counselor Deanna Troi was actually a Starfleet officer, but you wouldn't know it from her clothes. While everyone else on staff was wearing the regulation Starfleet uniform, Troi was often stuck in revealing onesies that recalled the first film's unfortunate jumpsuits. 

It may have something to do with Troi's gender. As quoted at Forgotten Trek , Marina Sirtis, who played Troi, took a dim view of how the show treated female characters. "The women on this show are very non-threatening," she said. "You don't see women in power positions." Troi was meant to be a soft, caring therapist. Perhaps her clothing was meant to reflect that gentleness, but with an admittedly sexist twist that lowered her necklines and kept Sirtis trapped in revealing spandex for much longer than her coworkers. Too often, her clothes reflected stories where Troi was made to be helpless or even outright dull for the sake of the plot.

Counselor Troi finally got to wear the real uniform in "Chain of Command, Part 1," a season six two-parter. In it, Captain Jellico, an uptight fill-in for Captain Picard, curtly tells Troi to just wear the uniform already. While the impetus for the wardrobe change might have been embarrassing for her character, Sirtis was delighted. As she told the BBC , "I was thrilled when I got my regulation Starfleet uniform [...] I got all my brains back."

The "skant" tried to reach gender equality but fell flat

We should give Gene Roddenberry some credit. While he was often of his time for things like scantily clad secondary characters on Star Trek: The Original Series , he genuinely tried to push back against cultural assumptions. Sometimes, it worked and became practically legendary, as when he helped to create a diverse bridge crew on the first television series. Other times, he pushed for costume parity that simply didn't land.

Roddenberry was involved with the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation from its 1987 premiere until shortly before his death in 1991. He was part of almost everything in the series, including the costume design. As reported by Star Trek.com , Roddenberry directed designer William Ware Theiss to design what became known as the "skant."

This take on the minidress was made out of the same spandex as the other uniforms. It was also meant to be unisex. Crewmembers of any gender would be able to wear the thigh-baring skant. Yet, it was a hard sell. The skant was ever-so-briefly seen on a male crewmember here and there in the first season, says SyFy, but never after that. Female crew like Counselor Troi wore it a bit longer, but actors and viewers alike thought it just made her look like a space cheerleader. Though you can understand what Roddenberry and company were going for, the skant just couldn't stay. It faded into fan lore and obscurity soon after the first season.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine made the uniforms fit for actual work

Star Trek didn't stop with Star Trek: The Next Generation . The sequel series was followed up by a progression of films and further television series. These included Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , which premiered in 1993 and briefly ran concurrently with The Next Generation . Though both series are supposed to take place at roughly the same time, the uniforms seen on Deep Space Nine were a serious departure.

Costume designer Robert Blackman returned to the jumpsuit design but mercifully stayed clear of figure-hugging, back-breaking spandex, says Forgotten Trek . Instead, the looser jumpsuits were made out of wool. Blackman had, like earlier designers, discovered that wool took dye better than other fabrics and held up to repeated washings. 

The softer uniforms looked like they could exist in a real, workaday reality. Characters like Chief O'Brien can be seen in the bowels of Deep Space Nine, a scrappy space station inherited from its previous Cardassian occupants. His jumpsuit, based in part on a mechanic's outfit and NASA workaday gear, looks right at place in the more gritty, realistic world of Deep Space Nine .

Star Trek: Lower Decks brings back color and might explain a big mystery

Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated comedy series, the first ever to take a look at the ridiculous side of Star Trek . While it's very definitely a silly take on the franchise, the Lower Decks series actually holds a clue to the ever-changing and seemingly inconsistent uniforms across the series.

In part, the uniforms of Lower Decks are an homage to a never-used 1994 redesign. According to Trek Movie , creator Mike McMahan realized the discarded uniform design for the Star Trek: Generations movie was just right for his series. It calls back to The Next Generation just enough to make connections but remains distinct and colorful in its new two-dimensional context.

This latest series might also help explain the constantly shifting Starfleet uniforms. Careful viewers may have already noticed that different ship and station crews sport wildly different looks, even when they're supposed to be taking place at the same time. 

Inverse points out the apparent fact that Starfleet uniforms seem to correspond to very specific ships and jobs. Someone sent to a space station like Deep Space Nine would wear one uniform, while another crewmember on Picard's Enterprise would sport something noticeably different. An outside viewer could still see they were Starfleet personnel but might correctly guess they were stationed in different places. The looks on Lower Decks , which are their own unique creations, add more evidence to support this theory.

Screen Rant

Star trek’s starfleet uniform colors: what they mean & why they changed.

From the 22nd century, a gold Starfleet uniform meant command, until it switched from gold to red between Star Trek: TOS and TNG - why the change?

• Star Trek's uniform colors have changed over the years to reflect different meanings and visions of the franchise's costume designers.
• In the original series, blue represented medical and science divisions, gold denoted command positions, and red was worn by engineering, security, and communications divisions.
• The switch from red to gold uniforms in the 24th century was likely a decision made by Starfleet to move away from the negative association with red uniforms ("redshirt" deaths).

Star Trek 's iconic uniforms have through a variety of changes in color designation and design in the past 57 years for a variety of reasons. In Star Trek: The Original Series ' unaired pilot, there were only two colors - blue for the science and medical divisions and gold for everybody else. Due to the costs involved in mounting a second pilot for the network, the gold uniforms were retained for TOS ' successful pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". After that Star Trek embraced the gold, blue, and red uniforms that were an integral part of TOS ' iconic visual style between 1966 and 1969.

The meaning of gold, red and blue have changed over the years and so too has the way that those colors are displayed on the uniform. This is understandable for a franchise that has been running for 57 years. Each new costume designer will have their own vision for how they think Star Trek 's uniforms will look, and which characters would best suit which color. For example, Robert Blackman adapted original Starfleet uniform designer William Ware Theiss' Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms for the 90s Trek shows and subsequent movies. Although he redesigned the outfits, Blackman honored the new color meanings decided upon by Theiss.

What Star Trek’s Uniform Colors Mean

In the entire history of Star Trek , blue has always denoted that the officer wearing the uniform is attached to Starfleet's medical or scientific divisions. During the 23rd century, the gold uniform denoted command positions and were also worn by Star Trek 's ace helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) and navigator Lt. Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig). The red shirts were worn by the engineering, security and communications divisions. The red shirts also had an unfortunate association with the countless members of Starfleet away teams that were killed in the line of duty. Meanwhile, Kirk's green uniform was usually reserved for diplomatic functions.

By the 24th century there had been a switch around of Starfleet uniform colors and their relevant associations. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) wore a red uniform throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation , rather than a gold one, so too did his Number One, Commander William T Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Meanwhile, the gold uniforms were worn by everybody with an operational role from security down to engineering, with occasional Enterprise-D helmsmen wearing red uniforms, like Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) in TNG season 1.

Why Star Trek’s Uniform Colors Changed

There's never been an in-universe explanation for the red and gold switch between Star Trek 's 23rd and 24th centuries. It can easily be explained by an operational decision made by Starfleet's wardrobe department to break away from the problematic " redshirt " association. Similarly, the more sober gray uniforms in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms could have been designed to reflect the war footing that Starfleet had found itself on while in conflict with the Dominion.

The real-life explanation for why Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes weren't dressed in gold is more interesting, however. There are apocryphal stories that Stewart and Frakes didn't look as commanding in the gold uniforms designed by original Star Trek: TNG costume designer William Ware Theiss. It's certainly true that the dark red uniforms worn by Captain Picard and Commander Riker pop better on screen than the gold uniforms worn by the ops team. More interesting still, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) was supposed to be in science division blue, but it was a bad color for his pallid android skin tone.

Starfleet Uniform Variants In Star Trek

Interestingly, Scott Bakula's Star Trek: Enterprise went back to the color distinctions from Star Trek: The Original Series. Each of the blue flight suits had colored piping around the shoulders reflecting yellow for command and red for operations. The only notable difference was that Lt. Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) had the blue piping of the science division on her uniform to reflect her role as the Enterprise NX-01's linguist and translator. It's thanks to Hoshi's scientific research into alien languages that Lt Nyota Uhura (NIchelle Nichols) can maintain hailing frequencies in her operational position aboard the USS Enterprise.

Other notable uniform variants are the similarly blue uniforms from Star Trek: Discovery which had gold or silver cuffs and side panels for command and operations, respectively. The iconic crimson movie costumes had different colored turtleneck sweaters under the tunics, presumably to denote crew role. Prior to those iconic crimson outfits were the poorly received monochrome uniforms designed for Star Trek: The Motion Picture , which were sometimes referred to as space pajamas. The longer that the franchise continues into the future, the more likely it is that Starfleet uniforms will continue to adapt and change. However, Star Trek: Discovery 's far future uniforms prove that Star Trek 's command red is very much in style almost a millennium after it was first introduced.

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From TOS to Star Trek Beyond: The Evolution of Uniforms

From its humble – and somewhat precarious – beginnings in 1966, Star Trek’s place in science fiction has grown to epic proportions, unmatched by others in its genre (which, of course, is a bone of contention).

Arguments aside, there’s one constant element in Star Trek that we cannot do without: their wonderfully designed uniforms. I have to admit – there’s not much sexier than a person in uniform. Especially if they’re in Star Trek.

I’m not saying outlandish alien features and costumes don’t add to a story’s appeal, but Star Trek’s crew members – from TOS to Star Trek Beyond – hit the spot with their simple but “look at me” vibe.

So, how well do you know your Star Trek uniforms?

If your memory is a little hazy, let’s help you with that. Here is a Star Trek uniform guide which showcases the threads from The Original Series, The Motion Picture, The Next Generation, Generations, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and the most recent movies.

Perfect timing for Star Trek Beyond, don’t you think?

Which uniforms do you like best?

Related: Which Star Trek Villain Are You?

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Star Trek: UNIFORMS

Though we do have some costumes and uniforms in our gift shop at Federation Headquarters, we do not offer them online.  Why?  Well, because many costumes have sizing issues that result in returns.  Some manufacturers' sizes run small.  Others may run large or have a bad fit in one place or another.

But fear not!  Our partners at Hero Within offer the best in costumes and uniforms from 'Star Trek' and other fandom realms.  And if you order from them and mention The Federation, they make a donation to our organization.

• Entertainment

Zip me up, Scotty: 50 years of Star Trek uniforms

The colorful uniforms worn by the crew of the Starship Enterprise count as some of the most iconic looks ever. Here's how they've evolved over the past 50 years.

Star Trek uniforms

Ask any cosplayer : One of the most enduring aspects of Star Trek is the famous Starfleet uniform.

The instantly recognizables colors and iconic pointy badge have been adapted for new TV series', movies and games from The Original Series up to the latest Trek adventures Discovery , Picard ,  Lower Decks  and Strange New Worlds . Check out the many outfits worn by the crew of the Enterprise on their continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and boldly look cooler than anyone before.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Originally conceived by costume designer William Ware Theiss, the colorful pop art outfit debuted in 1966 in The Original Series.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

The multicolored uniforms looked great in the luminous cartoon world of The Animated Series.

Star Trek movies

In a series of Star Trek movies, the crew of the Enterprise adopted maroon tunics for the big screen.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The crew of The Next Generation  saw a new take on the multicolored Starfleet uniform.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Aboard Deep Space Nine , a darker version of the uniforms reflected the darker stories told in this series.

Star Trek: Voyager

Crew members on Star Trek: Voyager  also wore the darker uniform.

Star Trek: Enterprise

Prequel series Enterprise showed us an early Starfleet uniform.

Star Trek rebooted

Stepping outside of the established TV timeline, a new series of movies sleekly updated the iconic uniforms for a new generation of fans.

Star Trek: Discovery

Sonequa Martin-Green (centre) and Michelle Yeoh (right) lead the cast of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access and Netflix. (Disclosure: CBS is CNET's parent company.) 

Star Trek: Picard

Patrick Stewart returns for Star Trek: Picard on CBS All Access and Amazon Prime Video.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks will introduce to a side of Starfleet we don't normally see, with a new twist on the uniform.

Let's look at the development of Starfleet's uniform in chronological order. The earliest version appears in prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, featuring Captain Archer and his crew in flight suits with colored accents presaging The Original Series and shoulder panels like The Next Generation.

Prequel series Discovery is set shortly before The Original Series, and gives the zip-up jumpsuits of Enterprise a more sci-fi twist with metallic side panels and shoulders.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

By season two of Discovery, we see a nifty combination of various eras of the uniform, which will continue as we return to the starship Enterprise in new series Strange New Worlds.

In 1965, the first pilot episode for The Original Series starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike, wearing a prototype version of the uniform we know and love.

The pilot episode, The Cage, features colored tunics with ribbed collars.

The womens' tunics boast a stylish pointed collar, and were much less revealing than what would come later.

On away missions, the crew donned special jackets.

Spock and Captain Pike in their blue-grey planet-exploring garb.

For the second pilot the uniform went through some changes. In the episode entitled  Where No Man Has Gone Before , William Shatner and Sally Kellerman wear uniforms in the familiar colors but with a different collar.

Although it's tough to see in the series itself, in the pilot you can see the famous "gold" uniforms were actually lime green. They only appeared gold under studio lighting.

When the series proper began in 1966, the familiar black neckline appeared.

The different colors represent the job each crew member does: Blue is worn by science and medical officers, gold by command officers, and red by security and engineering officers.

The colored shirts are paired with black boots and naval-influenced trousers.

Lieutenant Uhura and Nurse Chapel model the rather more daring version of the uniform worn by women crewmembers.

Other lower-ranked crew members wore color-coded jumpsuits.

Yeoman Janice Rand shows off a Starfleet regulation hairdo.

The Enterprise's lethally high turnover of red-garbed security officers gave rise to the expression "red shirt," meaning a minor character who's pretty much doomed.

Series creator Gene Roddenberry believed clothes would have no visible fastening in the future, so the zips are concealed in the shoulder. Initially, the uniforms were made of velour. 

For the third series, the costumes were made of nylon fabric similar to baseball uniforms -- because the previous velour versions shrank.

The Animated Series made the gold color official.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The 1979 film  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  did away with the bold colors of the series, adopting new tunics in shades of grey, beige and white.

The new uniforms didn't prove as popular as the iconic shirts from the series, lasting just one film.

The new uniforms were rather snug.

From 1982's Star Trek: Wrath of Khan onward, designer Robert Fletcher put the original crew in tunics that evoked Starfleet's naval tradition, including bell-bottom trousers. 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The differing colors for different departments returned on the wrist and shoulder straps, and an undershirt.

The film also saw some warm jackets for away missions.

In 1987 The Next Generation began with the crew in form-fitting spandex jumpsuits. The colors return, but this time it's command wearing red, engineering and security in mustard, and science and medicine once again in blue. 

Unfortunately the futuristic-looking outfits gave some cast members backache, so the spandex only lasted two seasons.

For the third series, Mister Worf and his crew mates donned more relaxed wool gabardine tunics, designed by Robert Blackman.

After the switch to the new uniforms in The Next Generation, lesser crewmembers were sometimes glimpsed in the older outfits. Their poor backs.

In 1993 Captain Sisko and the crew of Deep Space Nine adopted a black uniform with colored shoulders, previously seen in The Next Generation as the uniform of Starfleet Academy.

From 1995, Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager wore the black uniforms.

Lost in the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager crew didn't keep up with the latest fashion and so didn't make the switch to the grey-shouldered uniform.

When The Next Generation  crew made the leap to the big screen, they donned a new uniform with grey shoulders. The department colors are seen on the undershirt and the rank stripes on the wrist.

Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the escapades of junior officers Starfleet officers aboard the USS Cerritos, wearing a new take on the Next Generation uniform.

Lower Decks is set in 2380, a year after the Next Generation crew's final mission, Star Trek: Nemesis. It seems Starfleet has ditched the black and grey for a return to bright colors, perfect for the palette of a cartoon.

The Lower Decks uniform includes a simplified badge, a line of silver piping and a point at the bottom. The folding front harks back to the movie tunic. 

In Deep Space Nine's fifth season, the DS9 crew switched to the uniform worn by the Enterprise crew in the movies.

Star Trek: Picard sees a return for the beloved Next Generation captain. He's long left Starfleet behind so he isn't wearing a uniform, although those shoulders look pretty familiar. Picard streams on CBS All Access in the US and Amazon Prime Video elsewhere. 

The show features flashbacks to Picard's final days in Starfleet, when TNG-style coloured shoulders were given a striking striped flourish.

In Picard's present day, the more streamlined shoulders have returned, but with a new collar.

This is the admiral's version of the 32nd century uniform.

As Discovery continued, the ship jumps forward to the future where Starfleet's uniforms are grey with subtle colored accents and an oval badge. 

In season 4 of Discovery, the 32nd century uniforms invert their colors for a black stripe on familiar blue, gold and red tunics.

Sometimes our heroes are seen in alternative uniforms.

Captain Kirk occasionally wears a green tunic.

Captain Picard got his own version of the Captain's uniform with this blue tunic and red jacket.

Throughout the movies, the captains wear different variations on the captain's vest.

Doctor McCoy gets in on the action with his medical smock.

Captain Kirk gives a martial arts lesson, complete with Starfleet-issue uniform.

Mister Spock models a spacesuit.

The Discovery crew in a modern take on the spacesuit.

For special occasions, the crew don Starfleet dress uniforms.

A fancy Captain Kirk meets the villainous Khan while wearing his dress uniform.

The dress uniform appeared in different forms throughout The Next Generation. Here's the version worn by the crew for a wedding in the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis .

Counsellor Troi got to wear her own clothes throughout The Next Generation. Troi eventually started wearing the official uniform in later seasons, but she wasn't the only character to appear in their own gear.

Child prodigy Wesley Crusher wasn't officially a Starfleet officer, so he wore an outfit that hinted at the uniform style.

Another youngster in the series, Deep Space Nine's Jake Sisko, got to show off much jazzier duds.

When Voyager rescued Seven of Nine from the Borg collective, she expressed her new freedom with some very tight outfits.

Vulcan officer T'Pol also got to wear her own (very tight) outfits. Most illogical.

The crew of the Enterprise have encountered many other uniforms during their voyages, like these Klingon outfits in The Original Series.

Star Trek the movies

The Klingons underwent a serious makeover for the movies and The Next Generation.

Klingons get a modern makeover in Star Trek: Discovery, influenced by their brief appearance in Star Trek Into Darkness.

The Romulans appeared in uniform in The Original Series.

By the time The Next Generation aired, they too had a striking new look.

Eagle-eyed fans will notice that the uniforms aren't always spot-on, like when Uhura was seen in a command uniform in the episode The Corbomite Maneuver.

Occasionally, the crew have to slip out of uniform, like when a time-travelling Kirk and co had to blend in with 1930s America in The City on the Edge of Forever .

Yes, well, anything to blend in, right?

Some of the best alternative uniforms are seen in a parallel universe in the episode Mirror, Mirror.

The mirror universe is home to a fascist version of Starfleet, complete with evil versions of our heroes -- and their uniforms.

Discovery updated the Terran Empire's uniforms in the mirror universe with striking armor.

In 2009, big screen  Star Trek  reboot reinvented the look of the classic series.

In the films Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness , gold is once again the color of command, with metallic insignia on the chest and sleeves. The V-neck shirts are worn over black undershirts.

The film's prologue showed us this glimpse of an earlier uniform, styled somewhere between the blue-ish flightsuit of Enterprise and the colored shirts of The Original Series.

The new films also feature planetside uniforms that nod to the lines and colors of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

In the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond , the uniforms are subtly altered, with more built-up shoulders and slightly darker panels down the sides.

The neckline nods to the rounded collar of later Next Generation uniforms.

The new films continue the tradition of skin-tight outfits with this diving uniform worn by Lieutenant Uhura.

Star Trek Beyond also sees the crew don blue and yellow jackets when escaping the ship.

The new films recognise that the original Starfleet uniform is one of the most iconic movie or TV costumes ever.

With more Trek on the way, here's to another 50 years of cool uniforms!

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What Do the Different Uniform Colors Mean on ‘Star Trek’?

By jason serafino | mar 30, 2023, 3:23 pm edt.

Gene Roddenberry may have dreamed of a perfect future when he created Star Trek , but parts of his vision were firmly rooted in the real world, specifically in the physical makeup of the crew of the Enterprise itself.

Roddenberry, along with the show’s producers, decided to take numerous cues from the United States Navy when creating the official ranks on the show, including a captain overseeing a crew made up of a commander, a handful of lieutenant commanders, lieutenants, and several subordinate roles. But it’s the different colors of the Starfleet uniforms that really tell the story of how the Enterprise operates.

Fans know the basics: an array of blue, red, and gold shirts line the bridge of the ship every episode. Those colors weren’t just randomly picked for the sake of diversity, though. They actually correspond to the ship’s various service roles . The gold shirts are worn by the command division, which includes Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Sulu, and Pavel Chekov. Red uniforms belong to the engineering/communications division, including chief engineer Scotty and communications officer Uhura. The blue shirts are worn by the science/medical staff, including McCoy and Spock .

As with everything in Star Trek , though, it’s a lot more complicated than all of that. In addition to the red shirts belonging to engineers and communications personnel, they are also assigned to the security division. What’s the purpose of the security division on the Enterprise ? Well, they’re usually the supporting characters who are immediately killed whenever the crew is confronted by a new enemy. This is something of a running gag for fans of the franchise, as whenever one of the “Red Shirts” is seen on screen, you know they’re not long for this world .

Also, those gold shirts worn by Kirk and crew might not have been so gold after all. According to an interview with Star Trek ’s costume designer, William Theiss, the idea was for the show’s uniforms to be red, blue, and green. In fact, on the set, Kirk’s outfit certainly looked to be an avocado (or lime) green, but the end result was a little different when the studio lights finally hit the uniform.

“It was one of those film stock things,” Theiss said, “it photographed one way—burnt orange or a gold. But in reality was another; the command shirts were definitely green.”

This might come as a surprise to Trek fans until you remember that Kirk actually did wear green on a few occasions, including the times he was in formal dress and his seldom-seen alternate green get-up, seen in the clip below.

These alternate uniforms were all the exact shade of green Theiss describes, but they were made from a different material than the standard Enterprise shirts and apparently had no issue retaining their natural color scheme when lit on set. The gold shade may have been a production mishap, but the color has since entered the Trek canon as the official hue of Kirk and his command staff. So, in the Star Trek universe, Kirk wears gold; in the real world, though, the bridge of the Enterprise was designed with a completely different color palette in mind.

It gets more confusing when you look at the later Trek series, like The Next Generation , which had the command staff in red and operations in yellow—basically the reverse of the original series. Then, of course, the movies switched costumes and colors with nearly every entry, including the powder blue monstrosities worn in Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

Roddenberry’s eye for detail was unique for sci-fi TV at the time, and everything on the Enterprise had a specific purpose. Despite some production fumbles, ill-fated redesigns, and inconsistencies later on, the colors that make up Starfleet’s uniforms tell a story that many viewers probably never even noticed.

A version of this story originally ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2023.

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'Star Trek: Discovery' season 5 episode 4 uses time travel to remember the past 5 seasons

It's pretty obvious watching this episode that the cast and crew, at the very least, strongly suspected that this was going to be the last season of "Discovery" when it was written.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 4

With the news that "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is ending after its current season, that really only leaves "Strange New Worlds" as the last remaining Nu-Trek series currently airing on television. 

And, a word to the wise: If you're a die-hard fan of " Discovery ," make sure you have your own physical media, 'cause no one likes being at the mercy of whatever an overpaid television executive thinks. You're welcome. Moreover, after this final season of "Discovery," we're going to have until wait until next year for the next season of " Strange New Worlds ." It's all starting to feel a bit like "Game of Thrones" all over again.

Episode four, entitled "Face the Strange," is without a doubt the best entry so far in the fifth season, and one can't help but wonder after watching exactly when the cast and production crew were first informed that this would be the last season, because it was definitely before this episode was actually written. The reason? It is, for all intents and purposes, a 60-minute, time-travel-powered, postscript-style reminiscence of all elements of all five seasons — or as much as you can cram into an hour — and what a rollercoaster ride it's been.

So when Alex Kurtzman or Michelle Paradise or whoever it is that actually has authority in the writer's room entered said room, put down their grande iced sugar-free vanilla half-double decaffeinated half-caff latte with soy milk and a twist of lemon in their Paramount-branded 40oz Stanley Clean Slate Quencher H2.0 Flowstate™ Tumbler and announced, "Wouldn't it be great to revisit chapters from seasons one, two, three and four?" no doubt everyone cheered. "And how will this be possible?" asked Kurtzman, to which an eager-beaver intern no doubt excitedly thrust their hand up into the air and exclaimed, "Why, time travel , of course!"

Related: ' Star Trek:' History & effect on space technology

Watch Star Trek on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial  

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"Quite right," replied Kurtzman (in our imaginations, at least), adding, "But it can be for one episode, so it has to be an isolated, self-contained form of time travel." Thus was conceived the "Time Bug," and with it came a ton of technobabble to precisely explain its parameters. Although quite why Zora didn't detect it was not addressed. Also, you know, transporters. 

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But this clever Time Bug, which can manipulate time in just about any way that's convenient for the writers to overcome any potential chronological complications — like life-changing paradoxes — came onboard the USS Discovery by way of that shifty Malinne "Moll" Ravel (Eve Harlow), who managed to infiltrate the Trill homeworld undetected, as we saw last week .

As a result, we get reminder glimpses of Michael Burnham's first coming aboard the USS Discovery way, way, way back in season one, complete with appropriate uniforms and everything. We get a fleeting reminder of the Red Angel and the battle with Control , naturally The Burn gets a mention, and there's even a not-very-subtle nod to the short-Trek " Calypso ." It's all a little bit like a Greatest Hits album that doesn't include any of the tracks that you actually liked, being played at 45 instead of 33. Remember vinyl?

Since it's now obvious that this season was written after the cancellation announcement had been made to the cast and crew, the single most important question is, Will the show benefit from that, or will it suffer? Are the remaining six episodes going to be a drawn-out epilogue, tied loosely together with a mostly lame plot? Or, will advance knowledge of the show's future actually serve the writers well, allowing them to produce something above and beyond the normal level of writing? 

There's even a very entertaining scene, in which 23rd-century Burnham must fight her 32nd-century self. Of course, the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator fitted to the space bug prevents any changes from affecting the timeline, so you know, phew . 

Most of the original Discovery bridge reappear, as close to how they looked seven years ago as possible, and even Lt. Cmdr. Airiam (played by Sara Mitich in the first season and Hannah Cheesman in the second) makes a cameo, so that's nice. Also, we can really see as Sonequa Martin-Green flips between her two Burnhams just how effective that dreadlock hair piece that she wears through this season actually is. Half the show's budget probably went to that. 

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

— Star Trek streaming guide: Where to watch the Star Trek movies and TV shows online

—  Star Trek's Seven of Nine returns in new novel 'Picard: Firewall' (exclusive)

It's a fun filler episode, and, even if it doesn't advance the plot an inch, it does allow character development to take place, particularly between Burnham and Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). Arguably the biggest surprise was that the writers were able to resist putting Captain Pike (Anson Mount) into this episode. 

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

Internationally, the shows are available on  Paramount Plus  in Australia, Latin America, the U.K. 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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• EFH Dreadlock hair piece? Really? Before you publish, please do your research. Those are not dreadlocs. She is wearing braids. Yikes and cringe. I'm embarrassed for you. Reply
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Fans on mission. To seek out autographs from Star Trek icon William Shatner

LAKE TWP. − For many, it was a final frontier.

To boldly go where they had never gone before — into the presence of Star Trek actor William Shatner .

Several hundred people flocked Saturday to Hartville MarketPlace & Flea Market to get autographs and pictures with the 93-year-old man known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960s television series Star Trek. Those 79 episodes spawned a decades-long influential cultural franchise and phenomenon.

The crowd loudly cheered when Shatner appeared at 10:50 a.m. in an area by the food court cordoned off for his appearance that was arranged by Prime Time Sports and Framing of Kent. Fans, several arriving in wheelchairs, brought Star Trek uniforms, promotional pictures from the TV series and Star Trek films, a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise and sketches to be marked with his coveted signature.

Related: 'Star Trek' legend William Shatner to appear at Hartville MarketPlace

The cost of each autograph or picture with him was $149. If you wanted both, the cost was $275. For him to write three words or less with the autograph cost $79 more. Several also paid $100 for a VIP pass to skip the line.

Shatner could be seen for the next 74 minutes signing autographs, smiling and engaging in light banter with fans. After everyone who had paid for an autograph had been served, he got onto a scooter with balloons tied to it and going nowhere close to as fast as warp speed went to All Star Sports Gallery.

Someone wearing an elaborate costume as Bumblebee the Transformer led the procession. Then, Shatner switched from the scooter to sitting on a stool to take pictures with people, with the line of those waiting for pictures stretching back to the food court area.

Dave Bell, 74, of Lake Township, who watches the classic Star Trek episodes every night, said he wasn't willing to pay $149 for an autograph. But he came to Hartville Marketplace to get a glimpse and picture of Shatner.

"I'm a Trekkie. But this is ridiculous," Bell said about the crowd. "I'm not surprised. He's a very popular guy."

Jann Henthorn drove an hour from Orrville to see the man who played the beloved Star Trek captain.

"Is William Shatner here?" she said as she tried to spot him through the autograph seekers blocking her view. "I see him! ... All of us baby boomers are all excited!"

Henthorn recalled watching Star Trek when it first aired in the 1960s long before it achieved massive cult status in syndication.

"He looks good," she said about Shatner.

Cassedy Brennan, 28, of Wadsworth stood by one of the barricades snapping pictures of Shatner. Her father, a big Star Trek fan, was in line waiting for an autograph on a poster.

"He is like a kid in a candy store today. He is so excited. It's like Star Wars, Star Trek paraphernalia in the basement. ... Unopen toys. This is his jam," she said. "I think it's cool. Not exactly my thing. But here to support my dad. It's cool to see, too."

Brennan was one of the few people in their 20s in the crowd.

"I probably wouldn't know William Shatner out of context if it weren't for my dad," she said, adding that she saw classic Star Trek episodes with her father. "There's probably some millennials that are fans. But I'm not a sci-fi kind of girl."

Michael Rothman, 38, of Lake Township said Shatner autographed his set of Star Trek DVDs.

He said the actor said to him, "'Thank you very much.' That's all he said."

His wife Shandi Rothman clarified that, "He (also) said, 'Pleasure to see you.'"

Stacy Klotz of Massillon got Shatner to autograph her Captain James T. Kirk poster. She considered the $149 cost a "once in a lifetime type of thing." A sci-fi fan, she first started seeing Star Trek in syndication in the late 1970s.

Matt Merew, 56, of Zanesville got Shatner to sign his model of the Enterprise and his picture depicting the scene where Captain Kirk fights an alien captain known as a Gorn. The picture already had the autograph of the actor who played the Gorn that Merew got at a past Star Trek convention.

Cameron Blakey, 46, of Mogadore, who watched Star Trek in the 1980s with his uncle and mother, got Shatner to autograph his sketch of Captain Kirk that Blakey drew.

"He asked me how I was. And he asked me if I drew this. I told him I did. And I told him that we basically thank you for everything and he made my day," he said. "He made my life. Awesome, awesome experience!"

Karen Isaiah of Mogadore said she watched the original Star Trek in 1967.

"I'm ecstatic. I didn't want to miss him for anything," she said. "I met (singer) Johnny Mathis. I talked to William Shatner. My life is complete."

Reach Robert at [email protected]. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.

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Or, they try to. And okay, it turns out the gratuitous beaming was for good reason, story-wise, because in the instant that the pair attempt to beam back to the bridge, Discovery plunges through time, and only their mid-transport timing protects them from the ship’s time-hopping. Everyone else aboard Discovery is experiencing “regular” time travel, as it were, unaware of their movement and remaining “of the time” they jump to.

Everyone, that is, except for Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), who thanks to his tardigrade DNA infusion all the way back in Season 1, the scientist is bouncing through time like the rest of the crew — but he’s mentally aware of the jumping remains “himself” like Burnham and Rayner.

Like “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” this is another episode about time shenanigans centering on Stamets and Burnham (and now also Rayner), but it doesn’t feel like a repeat of the same story so much as a deliberate permutation on a theme. Discovery , the show, is revisiting its past just the same way Burnham revisits her past self here; in both cases, the future versions have grown and changed in ways their past selves could never have imagined.

Who could have guessed, watching the series’ seventh episode, that original showrunner and creator Bryan Fuller would leave after just one season and a majority of the show would end up taking place in 32nd century? Not me, that’s for sure.

(As a side note, I was hoping one of the pasts they visited would be the “Magic” situation, just because come on, who doesn’t want to see what a time loop within a time loop looks like?)

It takes them all a few time jumps to figure out what’s going on, and a few more after that for all three of them to rendezvous. The second jump takes them back to Discovery mid-construction, sitting in dry dock at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, the Golden Gate Bridge framed nicely in a missing bulkhead section. (Both Star Trek and The Room have one rule: If you’re in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge must be visible at all times!)

Next jump is to the Season 2-ending battle with Control, and finally with three jumps there’s enough of a pattern visible for Rayner to identify what’s going on and what, exactly, is causing it. First, each time they jump Burnham and Rayner always return to the ready room – the place where they beamed themselves out of time — and second, that little mechanical spider that’s been crawling around the ship since it first detached itself from Adira’s uniform is a Krenim chronophage (yes, those Krenim ) left over from more lawless times  when paralyzing a ship by having it randomly cycle through time was a thing that apparently people did.

After a few more jumps, including one where a past version of Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) happens to save Rayner’s hide, he and Burnham land on an empty, dusty Discovery , abandoned by everyone except the one person who can’t leave: Zora (Annabelle Wallace). Listening to “Que Sera, Sera” and convinced that she’s dreaming, Zora explains that in this future, Discovery remained stuck in its time paralysis long enough for the Breen to get their hands on the Progenitor’s technology.

It’s a bleak future to visit, but it’s also very fortuitous that they did, because Zora is able to quickly do the math necessary for Stamets — who they finally meet up with in the next time jump –to figure out how to get them out of this. Just build a chroniton stabilizer and squish the bug with it, easy peasy!

And all Burnham has to do is get a component for it from her quarters without being seen. Not so easy as it turns out, as she runs into Book (David Ajala) who is very much in love with Burnham during this time period — and keen to show it. And she, as we all probably suspected, is still very much in love with him and gives herself a brief moment to indulge in that fact.

In their final final jump — this time to early in Lorca’s captaincy — Burnham runs into her much angrier and more jaded younger self; a Michael Burnham who is so barely out of prison that she still doesn’t even have a combadge and who flat-out does not believe this woman in a strange red uniform who claims to be her. Why? Because there’s no way anyone would ever make Michael Burnham a captain .

After a fight in a thankfully empty corridor, our Burnham ends up victorious and heads to the bridge… where she needs to convince everyone that they should listen to her and do something you never really want to do with a warp engine going at maximum speed: intentionally break the warp bubble and slam yourself back into the effects of general relativity.

Flashbacks are a tried and true way for shows to bring back departed characters, so the choice to include Airiam (Hanna Spear) on the bridge makes sense and is nice for audience members who miss her. What doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me is how her presence is used (which is a bit of an unfortunate parallel to her death for me – or at least the impact it was supposed to have).

Burnham knows she needs to convince the crew that she really is herself and that she really is from the future, but instead of, I don’t know, showing them her combadge which is full of 32nd century bells and whistles and exotic alloys that haven’t been invented yet she… convinces Airiam that they know each other because Burnham knows Airiam would sacrifice her life to save the ship? Then someone blurts out a “No she wouldn’t!” like that’s not the first thing any appropriately heroic Starfleet officer would do?

This scene is the one fumble in an otherwise great episode. Two minutes after this weird “I know you and here’s a generic hypothetical that applies to most people in Starfleet to prove it,” Airiam sees Burnham’s fancy holographic combadge and openly gawks at it. See, easily convinced! That would have worked and it wouldn’t have required the show to reexamine the hollowness of Airiam’s death without correcting its mistake.

The fact that Burnham doesn’t have anything better or more personal to say to or about Airiam except “You died, sorry that happened,” underscores just how undeveloped she was as a character. Why bring that up again? But hey, Burnham’s tactic works, and I suppose that’s what really matters here.

Meanwhile, past-Burnham and her era’s Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon) show up in engineering, phasers drawn, to try and stop Stamets and this weird guy they’ve never seen before from doing whatever it is that they’re trying to do to the ship. Rayner, solidifying himself as a solid gold example of a favorite character trope of mine — Grumpy Guy who’s a Secret Softie — defuses the situation by being brave as hell (he walks right into Burnham’s drawn phaser) but also emotionally astute.

He doesn’t just tell Burnham personal facts he couldn’t have known if he were really a stranger, he tells her with conviction that she really does deserve to be here on Discovery…  something that sinks to the core of who she is and what she’s battling in this moment in time.

The plan succeeds: the time bug is proverbially squished, and Discovery and her crew are all right back where they belong, minus the six hours they lost during all the jumping. Unfortunately, those six hours were long enough for Moll and L’ak to catch up with them and leave again. Did they find anything, or did they get sick of looking at seemingly empty space and leave? We don’t know yet, so tune in next week.

Which brings us to the beginning of “Face the Strange” — see, I can jump through time too! — when we see Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) acquiring the bug in the first place. While the Progenitors’ technology is enormous in its power and implications and Moll and L’ak are willing to do just about anything to find it, their motivations seem strictly personal.

Sure, if the way Moll takes revenge on the guy who sells her the chronophage is any indication, they’ll get some personal satisfaction out of seeing the Federation burn, but more than anything they’re in it for their freedom. Freedom from someone or something, certainly – though who or what we still don’t know – but, given the themes in “Face the Strange”, I’d guess freedom from their pasts might be the real goal.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• “Face the Strange” is a reference to the David Bowie classic “Changes.”
• This episode is a spiritual sequel to Star Trek: Voyager’s “Shattered,” a similar final-season tale which saw Chakotay bouncing through different eras of Voyager adventures.
• Discovery’s time jumps include visits to the ship’s transit through the Red Angel wormhole (leading to the ship’s crash-landing in “Far From Home” ), a time when the starship was under construction in the San Francisco Fleet Yards, the battle with Control ( “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” ), Stardate 865422.4 (during Osyyra’s takover in “There Is A Tide…” ), an unknown date nearly 30 years into the future, a period in early Season 2 (shortly after Jett Reno’s rescue in “Brother” ), a point ahead of the Season 4 premiere after Burnham was promoted to captai), and the encounter with past-Burnham which takes place just ahead of “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry” (denoted by the reference to a still-alive Ellen Landry ).

• Retrofit into corridor after Season 2’s set updates, the passage to the left-rear of Discovery’s command chair returns to its Season 1 “blue blinkies” configuration.
• Captain Pike’s broken wood-and-glass conference table returns to the ready room set during the first time jump, a good touch from the set decoration department.
• We’ve seen the San Francisco bay many times in Star Trek history… so just where in the heck was Discovery’s dry dock located?
• A Krenim chronophage — or “time bug” — snared Discovery in a time bubble, from the species behind Star Trek: Voyager’s “Year of Hell.”
• Season 3-era Reno’s drink of choice is a Vesper martini, served ice cold — and she tells Rayner that he can buy her a drink “at Red’s,” the onboard bar and lounge set added to Discovery during its 32nd century upgrades (though not introduced until Season 4).
• While the ready room set was not built for Discovery until Season 2, the second time jump confirms the room existed as part of the ship’s original construction… but in a continuity goof, the 32nd century version of the Starfleet emblem remains on the Discovery ready room floor in each different time period, instead of the old version seen in Seasons 1 and 2.

• Burnham gives a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nostalgic smile when Stamets hands her a 23rd century Starfleet communicator, retired after the crew upgraded to 32nd tricombadges in Season 3’s “Scavengers.”
• Saurian officer Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) appears in the Season 1 time period, indicating he boarded Discovery long before his first actual appearance in Season 2’s “Brothers.”
• Former Discovery cast members Hannah Cheesman and Ronnie Rowe, Jr. return as Airiam and Bryce, Julianne Grossman returns as the original voice of Discovery’s computer. (While Cheesman portrayed Airiam in Season 2, the role was actually portrayed by Sara Mitich in Discovery’s first season.)
• I forgot just how much Airiam moves like C-3PO. Might have toned down that arm placement there in that wide shot if it were me, yikes.
• Discovery’s viewscreen may be an open window to space, but it features blast doors which can be closed as necessary.
• The future time period Burnham and Rayner visit is reminiscent of the alternate future setting in “Calypso,” where Zora and Discovery sat abandoned for nearly 1000 years. Zora even believes she’s having “another dream” when the officers arrive, perhaps hinting that the events of “Calypso” may have been one of Zora’s dreams — as the “Zora-point-of-view” shots mirror moments from that  Short Trek  tale.

• This episode marks the first time we’ve seen Discovery’s original hull and nacelle configuration since its big 32nd century upgrade in “Scavengers.”
• Even living “outside of time,” it’s curious that Stamets can jump back to a time period before his tardigrade DNA injection occurred.
• Stamets’ tactics for clearing engineering get less and less sophisticated as the episode proceeds — going from making up specific problems with the spore drive containment field to just shouting “I’m grumpy!” It works.
• “Hey Paul, let’s show ‘em how a couple of old dogs still know the best tricks!” Whoever gave Rayner a used copy of a dictionary of idioms from 1962, I thank you for your service.
• Rayner’s hand gets the “Timescape” treatment, aging uncomfortably fast while he squashes the time bug — though thankfully avoiding those awful long fingernails.
• Rayner surmises that Burnham must be the first person in Starfleet to captain a ship she first boarded as a prisoner. He’s probably right, but if we allow for a few technicalities I’d put Seven of Nine in that rare club as well: she’s imprisoned very quickly after boarding Voyager , and while she doesn’t hold a Starfleet rank at the time, she does command that vessel for over a month during the events of “One”.

Even with all the time jumping and the temporal-relativity-heavy plot, “Face the Strange” is a straightforward hour of television that confidently knows exactly what it wants to do – both in terms of the story and the characters. There are almost no extraneous moments, but the episode doesn’t feel rushed or overly full. The pacing is great: quick enough that we get to jump through a lot of different time periods, but relaxed enough that there’s room for smaller moments of comedy and character work.

The pacing and placement of the more emotional moments is especially effective, with characters examining and confronting their past and present selves in a way that’s emotionally resonant but also truly moves the story forward both at the episode and season levels.

A frequent frustration I have with Discovery is that the emotional beats and plot beats feel like they’re competing with each other for the same space, but with “Face the Strange” it feels like the show has finally figured out a way to have them work together and compliment one another.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 returns with “Mirrors” on Thursday, April 25.

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Paramount Plus renews Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but cancels Lower Decks, the best of today's shows

Paramount Plus has some good news and some bad news for Star Trek fans...

Star Trek: Lower Decks – arguably the best Star Trek series, if its flawless ratings from critics are anything to go by – will make its final voyage later this year. The show will come to a close after its next season, its fifth, which is expected to air later in 2024. 

But there's some solace for Star Trek fans, as Stark Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fourth season. If a fifth season is the streaming equivalent of the red uniform that indicates one of the teleported team isn't coming back, that means Star Trek: Strange New Worlds should still be around for at least one more season after that.

The news of Star Trek: Lower Decks' cancellation comes via show creator Mike McMahan and co-producer Alex Kurtzman. In a message shared with the Star Trek website, they wrote: "We wanted to let you know that this fall will be the fifth and final season of  Star Trek: Lower Decks . While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it’s no exaggeration to say that every second we've spent making this show has been a dream come true."

Stay tuned for the "hilarious" fifth and final season

According to the duo: "We’re excited for the world to see our hilarious fifth season which we're working on right now, and the good news is that all previous episodes will remain on Paramount+ so there is still so much to look forward to as we celebrate the  Cerritos  crew with a big send-off... We remain hopeful that even beyond season five, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and the whole  Cerritos  crew will live on with new adventures."

Fans of the show will be disappointed. It's been consistently great, with season four currently sitting at an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes – that's higher than even the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which has 99%. As Rolling Stone put it: " Next Generation and Deep Space Nine took a while to find themselves, and so did Lower Decks " – the fourth season has "become a highlight of this current phase of TV Trek".

Hopefully it's some consolation that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for another season. It's currently sitting with a 98% rating based on 99% for season one and 97% for season two. CBR says "it's shows like Strange New Worlds that confirm there is plenty of life in the venerable science fiction franchise, giving fans plenty to look forward to every Thursday for the exciting adventures of Captain Pike and his Enterprise", while The Mary Sue says that " Strange New Worlds shows that there’s still plenty of life left in the classic Star Trek format."

All the seasons so far of Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are streaming on Paramount Plus.

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This Week’s Star Trek: Discovery Is a Time-Hopping Marvel

“Face the Strange” is a deceptively simple episode on the surface, and a bold move for a show on its last lap: instead of accelerating the chase between Discovery and Moll and L’ak as they hunt for more clues to the Progenitor tech, it almost literally slams the brakes on everything to deliver a wonderful little character piece, not just for Michael Burnham, but to give time to explore Discovery’s crew, and even its newcomer in Commander Rayner, who is still struggling to adapt to Discovery’s more personable approach to hierarchy. After leaving Trill with Adira unknowingly tagged by Moll, the Discovery heads to coordinates where it expects to find the next piece of the puzzle, only to find… nothing. But what Adira was tagged with, it turns out, wasn’t a tracking device, but a “Time Bug,” a piece of Krenim technology held over from the Temporal Cold War (another great bit of using Discovery’s handling of time, in this case the passage of it, for a fun Voyager/Enterprise nod!). The Time Bug infiltrates Discovery’s systems, and locks them down—not by disabling the ship’s systems, but by trapping them in a spiraling series of time loops.

Burnham and Rayner—who were busy arguing in the ready room over Rayner’s abrasive mood—are partially unaffected by the bug’s looping, having attempted to beam back to the bridge at the precise moment it activated. While they’re caught in the same looping, being shunted backward and forward in Discovery’s timeline, they remain aware between each loop that something is wrong—and that if they don’t put aside their differences and disable the bug, Discovery will be shut down while Moll and L’ak solve the clues to the Progenitor tech and doom the galaxy (to the Breen, of all people, we learn in one of the loops!).

This is already a really fun idea, because as we previously said—Discovery knows how to do a killer time loop story already, and has known how to do that for a very long time. But what crucially sets “Face the Strange” apart from “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” (god bless the show also toned down its love of long episode titles) is a context that the episode itself ultimately plays with: one of these episodes came just seven stories into the show’s existence. The other is the 59th, and in the time between them Discovery has done so much, changed so much, and developed in its own confidence, that it can use a similar structure and format like this again not to say “hey, look Star Trek fans, we can use the same tropes as the shows you loved,” but to instead say “hey, how do we use this trope to make a Discovery story?”

The answer is in both its characters—of course, particularly Michael—but also in the masterful way “Face the Strange” uses the concept of time looping to revisit a bunch of key moments from Discovery’s metatextual past, giving Burnham, who went through it all, and Rayner, as the newcomer, (and eventually Stamets, who thanks to the spore drive tardigrade DNA, can’t be affected by time loops—a delightfully clever nod back to “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”!) a chance to see just how far this crew has come through and how much it’s changed them all along the way. Through Michael and Rayner’s eyes as they puzzle out the pattern of each loop, and what they need to do to stop the bug, we get to go through so much of Discovery’s past—from it being built in drydock in San Francisco, to the moment it jumped to the 32nd century, to fighting off the Emerald Chain in season three, and, most crucially, climaxing back in the early days of season one when Michael was still just a downtrodden turncoat barely given a second chance by Starfleet after the start of the Federation-Klingon war. And with that perspective, and the carried awareness from loop to loop, both Michael and Rayner alike come to understand what Discovery has been through all the better.

It’s an episode that’s perfect for a final season—standalone enough that it is also simply just a great time loop scenario, but also vitally informed by Discovery’s history over the last four seasons to deliver a really touching moment of acknowledgement for the series as it looks back on how far it’s come. It’s fun seeing the old blue metallic uniforms again, or seeing Stamets realizing that a) he’s a little worried he can quickly empty engineering of officers with a totally fake spore breach warning, or b) he used to be able to do that even quicker by being a massive asshole. It’s just as fun to see Rayner, who’s still resistant to connect to Discovery’s crew, soften as he sees everything they went through to get to where they are now, and slowly but surely use the things he’s picked up about them to his advantage. It’s both extremely fun and extremely good that, in the last time loop set during Discovery season one, we not just get to see how cold and distant the bridge crew were back then, but that Discovery finally does justice to its former cyborg crewmate, Airiam (the returning Hannah Cheesman), making her belief in Michael key to saving the day—three seasons in the making, but a far more fitting farewell to the character after her clunkily unceremonious death in season two.

But above all, “Face the Strange” is Michael’s episode, and her journey is the one examined most of all. Because if you’re going to narratively go back in time to Discovery’s first season, well, as much as she doesn’t want to, you’re going to have Present Michael face Past Michael. Sonequa Martin-Green plays the encounter to perfection: two determinedly stubborn women with things they still want to prove to both themselves and the world, pushed in each other’s faces. That it becomes a knock-down mirror match punch-up is deeply funny—fitting the aggression if Discovery’s original wartime setting while also just making it the inevitable outcome of putting two unstoppable forces in each other’s way. But Martin-Green sells just how much of a difference there is between Michael’s past and her presence in these moments with incredible charm and subtlety. The show really hammers home that while there are still things about Michael that are still Michael, the young woman petrified that she had no place aboard a starship in season one and the undeniably heroic captain of season five represent a remarkable journey the character has been on.

Crucially, however, while Burnham vs Burnham ends with her current self Vulcan neck-pinching her past self, the actual moment the day is saved is done not by Michael, but Rayner, finally learning the keys to understanding what makes the Discovery crew tick. After Past-Michael wakes up and, being so eager to prove her worth, takes the Rayner and future-Stamets on at phaser-point in Engineering as they prepare to finally destroy the Time Bug, it’s Rayner who steps in to get her to back down, making a connection—by leaning on the things Michael had told him about herself in their argument at the start of the episode—and getting Michael to see that one day she’s going to prove herself on a long, painful, but rewarding path ahead of her… if only she stops being so stubborn for a damn second and let them save the future. Even if she doesn’t remember it, it’s the exact perfect advice season one Michael needs—advice she’ll learn the hard way through Lorca’s betrayal. And in having it passed onto her from Rayner, a man who Michael herself has begun to help grow and connect to others again after all his own frustrations and hurts, really hits home just how far she’s come.

“Face the Strange” is an episode Discovery could only pull off once, as its journey comes to an end—and it does so almost perfectly, an incredibly compelling use of a time-and-tested Trek format to examine the metatextual and textual journey it’s been on these last seven years. While there’s still more adventures to go on just yet—with the Time Bug stopped, the race between Discovery and Moll and L’ak is now tighter than ever—this was a great chance to take a moment and have its heroes and the show alike take stock of how much it’s grown: and how ready it is to bid farewell.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 Recap and Ending Explained

Quick links, what happened in star trek: discovery episode 4, how does star trek: discovery episode 4 end.

Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery aired on Paramount Plus this week,as it approaches the halfway mark in the fifth and final season. The sci-fi spin-off series consists of ten episodes, with one airing each week until the finale on May 30. The show began in 2017, and Season 5 has been praised for its serialized storytelling and exciting visual effects. Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Callum Keith Rennie, Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp.

The fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery 's final season sees Burnham and Rayner put their differences aside when they realize they are in a wormhole and have traveled back in time. They must fight to save the Discovery and the crew on board, by facing off with bounty hunters, Moll and Lák.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 3 Recap

Star Trek: Discovery Episode 4 sees Moll and L’ak meeting with a dodgy dealer. They hand him a bag of the latinum and the dealer tries to raise the price of it, and it turns out Moll has poisoned the latinum, and takes the item from the dying dealer. L’ak is uncertain. But Moll assures him they’ll get ahead of the USS Discovery . She continues that once they have the Progenitor’s tech, they’ll be free. She tells him they have to hurry to catch Discovery on Trill. It is revealed that the device obtained from the dealer is the same one planted on Adira Tal in the final moments of the previous episode.

Elsewhere, the device activates in Adira’s quarters on the Discovery, and the device hops off the uniform and runs across the room and disappears into a girder.

In his lab, Stamets spots the bug and watches as it disappears into the wall. Captain Michael Burnham gets a report from Owo, revealing that she’s picking up some odd readings, and something has broadcast a signal from the ship. Burnham and Captain Rayner try to beam to the bridge, but they go nowhere.

The ship is moving but the lights flicker and a klaxon sounds. Rayner asks if they are under attack, as Burnham tries to contact the bridge but nothing seems to be working. Burnham and Rayner head to the bridge on foot and find the rest of the crew unconscious and wearing 23rd-century Starfleet uniforms. Rayner and Burnham realize they’re in a wormhole and have traveled back in time. Discovery follows Burnham as she goes through the wormhole into the future. Turns out, they haven’t just traveled back in time, but they’re actually jumping through time.

Burnham arrives in the future and explains the situation, and that she's undertaking an important mission for the future Discovery . Burnham demonstrates her personal knowledge of several crew members to prove her story , as Airiam, Tilly and the rest of the crew are confused at her appearance.

They remain skeptical of Burnham’s claims, but she says she will convince Airiam, and everyone will trust her judgment in the end. Burnham reveals she saw Airiam die, and she recounts the climax of “Project Daedalus.” Airiam convinces the rest of the crew of Burnham's legitimacy, and asks what help Burnham needs from them. Elsewhere, in the lab, Rayner and Stamets prepare to tackle the temporal shield, but a phaser wielding TB and Rhys interrupt their plans.

YB orders Stamets to shut down the warp core, but Rayner suggests Burnham come down, but there’s no time for that, and she urges Rayner to handle the situation. Rayner convinces Rhys they’re from the future with the knowledge he learned during interviews, but YB is still not convinced.

Rayner tells the story about Burnham arriving at the bridge and not feeling like she belongs. He tells YB she deserves to be there, and pleads with her to trust her instincts, which he knows are currently telling her to stand down, with YB seemingly convinced. Discovery ’s warp bubble is broken, and Rayner puts the device on the chronophage. Another time jump occurs, and they arrive back to the present day, which is fully intact.

Burnham orders Rayner to go to see Culber to tend to his hand injury, while Rayner states that it isn’t lost on him that what made them successful was their closeness with the crew. He admits he can be stubborn like Burnham used to be, but Burnham concludes they make a good team.

Star Trek: Discovery episode 4's ending sees the rest of the crew caught up on the chronophage. In the six hours since the time jumps began, the DOTs have found a warp signature that matches M’ak’s ship. Rayner compliments Rhys on his theory, which proved to be accurate. However, M’ak’s trail disappears, as Burnham orders the bridge crew to get to work on solving the mystery.

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Published Apr 19, 2024

RECAP | Star Trek: Discovery 504 - 'Face the Strange'

Don't bury your mind in the abstract for too long, you'll turn into a Rothko painting.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Discovery.

StarTrek.com

Previously, in " Red Directive ," Captain Burnham admits to Book she doesn't know how to be around him anymore, while the ex-courier wonders if some things are hard to move past, for both of them. While on an away mission in " Jinaal ," Burnham tasks with new first officer Rayner to familiarize himself with the crew with one-on-ones as connection is a choice; not a skill.

Meanwhile, while on Trill, after meeting with Jinaal Bix, inhabiting Dr. Culber's body, offers the captain the next clue to locating the Progenitors' tech. Unfortunately, any gains they achieved is sabotaged as Moll manages to slip a piece of tech onto Adira's uniform without their knowledge.

In Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery , " Face the Strange ," on the way to the next clue, the U.S.S. Discovery is sabotaged by a mysterious weapon, leaving Captain Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets as the only crew members who can possibly save the ship in time.

• Moll (Malinne)
• Michael Burnham
• Keyla Detmer
• Joann Owosekun
• William Christopher
• Sylvia Tilly
• Paul Stamets
• Dr. Hugh Culber
• Cleveland "Book" Booker

• Salata Major Beach
• U.S.S. Discovery

Fifteen hours earlier, Moll and L'ak are seen rendezvousing with a broker on a moonlit shore. They hand him a bag of latinum as payment for an item, but he insists that the price has gone up. The weapons dealer begins to cough and experience psychedelic effects, and Moll divulges that she had anticipated his betrayal and soaked the latinum in Fop'yano poison — the same toxin that the broker had sold to the Emerald Chain to use on people like her. As his mouth foams and he collapses, Moll retrieves an item from his pocket. While her spirits are buoyed by the prospect of having an edge over the U.S.S. Discovery -A's pursuit of the Progenitors' tech, L'ak second guesses their situation — he feels as if the walls are closing in. Moll reassures him that their success will mean no more bounties on their heads, looking over their shoulders, or running. They kiss, Moll extending her hand to reveal that the item is…

…the spider-like device which Moll placed on Ensign Adira Tal's sleeve. Back in the present, the mechanical menace scurries through Adira's quarters as they make plans to meet with Gray when he graduates to the next level of training in a few months. Adira hears its metallic steps, but Commander Paul Stamets' request for assistance draws them away, and the creature melts into the bulkhead.

"Face the Strange"

Discovery arrives at the coordinates supplied to them by Jinaal Bix, but scans do not detect anything of note. On the Bridge, Captain Michael Burnham refuses to give up, tasking Lieutenant Linus with sending DOT-23s to conduct a more in-depth scan of the area. Lieutenant Christopher reports that Trill has found no sign of Moll and L'ak, a fact which irritates Commander Rayner. The first officer insists the thieves should have been there hours ago when the captain was on the planet. Unbeknownst to the crew, Moll's device emerges from a nearby wall. Lieutenant Commander Gen Rhys advises that the couriers are likely to wait for Discovery to lead them to the next clue. The arachnid-like spy blends back into the bulkhead as Rayner dismisses Rhys' observation as a guess. Angered by the interaction, Burnham turns to the commander and asks him to join her in the Ready Room.

The two senior officers beam to the privacy of the conference area, and Burnham bluntly pronounces Rayner's behavior to be unacceptable — that’s not how they do things on Discovery . The captain values having the crew engaged, involved, and encouraged to speak freely, prompting Rayner to 'freely' express his opinion that such a policy is a mistake. Red Directives require decisiveness and discipline — not collaboration. Burnham takes offense to the idea that her crew lacks discipline, but Rayner believes that the ship's personnel are too comfortable with one another. Burnham counters that their familiarity saved the Federation, the galaxy, and Rayner himself.

Rayner's argument intensifies into an outburst, but the commander takes a moment to pace and reevaluate his position. Rayner acknowledges that his criticism was over the line and apologizes. Burnham presses on, matter-of-factly stating that the Burn is over and Rayner is on her ship — she expects him to do things her way. Rayner lifts his chin, challenging the captain with the query, "And if my way is better?"

Meanwhile, in Engineering, Stamets spots Moll's device bustling across the wall, following it until it melts into a panel. Burnham and Rayner continue their face-off in the Ready Room, when the lights suddenly flicker and Lieutenant Commander Joann Owosekun transmits an update from the Bridge — odd energy fluctuations have been detected and an unauthorized signal was just broadcast from the ship. Burnham and Rayner attempt to beam to Discovery ’s command center, but their personal transporters convulse.

The Ready Room is suddenly transformed, now awash in sparks and debris with stars speeding past the rear viewport. Transporters and comms appear to be inoperative, so Burnham and Rayner rush to the turbolift. As the doors open, they confront an unsettling sight on the Bridge — Saru and the command crew are unconscious on the floor, and all wear mid-23rd Century Starfleet uniforms. The viewscreen displays a voyage through a wormhole, and Discovery rides in the wake of what Rayner refers to as a "red thing." Shock covers the captain's expression. The question isn’t where they are, but when . Nodding to the figure in the distance, Burnham states, "That’s the Red Angel. That was me."

Captain Burnham processes the stunning scene, registering that this is the day they traveled to the 32nd Century. Rayner notes the absurdity of going back in time to the moment Discovery went into the future. The crew begins to stir, and Burnham hurries Rayner out of the room; the time travelers aren’t supposed to be there, so they must avoid being seen. They regroup in the Ready Room, and the captain theorizes that Jinaal's coordinates weren’t as empty as they had thought. Commander Saru's voice can be heard ordering everyone to brace for impact. Aware of how history transpires, Burnham is certain they will survive the crash landing, but Rayner is not particularly enthused by the prospect.

The lights flash again. Burnham and Rayner remain in the Ready Room, but their surroundings have changed once more. The room is open to the atmosphere, its incomplete rear bulkhead now displaying a lovely view of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on Earth. The captain nervously gestures to the commander, who turns to find a construction worker wearing a hardhat and enjoying some music. Confused by the unexpected visit, the man assumes this is a surprise inspection. Burnham and Rayner immediately adapt to the situation. And, as the worker walks off to inform his foreman; the commander offers him advice — fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Once the man departs, Rayner sheepishly confesses that he hates that saying.

Captain Burnham exhales, proclaiming that they are in drydock when Discovery was first being built. They haven’t just traveled back in time, they are jumping through it. While the people they come across on their journey still live in the moment, Burnham and Rayner's awareness are not being affected by the shifts. The 32nd Century officers trace their steps, remembering that the ordeal began when energy fluctuations prompted them to try beaming to the Bridge. Whatever is influencing the ship must have hit it at the exact moment they were beaming!

The lights shudder and the environment morphs, the completed starship is now taking weapons fire in the midst of a massive space battle. Although the year oscillates, Burnham and Rayner are returned to their original positions in the Ready Room every time. Explosions rock Discovery , and the chronometer reads Stardate 1051.8 — the Battle with Control. They deduce that this can’t be a time eddy or a neural attack, and the truth suddenly dawns on Rayner — it’s a "time bug," a Krenim chronophage left over from the Temporal War.* They are designed to paralyze an enemy vessel by randomly cycling through time, lasting weeks or months until the "little suckers" run out of juice. Curious as to how Moll and L'ak got the device aboard Discovery , they assume the unauthorized broadcast was a notification beacon intended to alert the couriers to their position.

Captain Burnham resolves to prohibit Moll and L'ak from obtaining the Progenitors' tech, and she activates her tricom badge in order to calculate a pattern to the time cycle intervals. She proposes they find Stamets, as the scientist lives outside of time because of his tardigrade DNA. Rayner's face conveys befuddlement, but the captain thinks that — while Stamets will be trapped within the time bug's trap like everyone else — he will be as aware of the situation as she and Rayner.

Chaos reigns in Sickbay, with those wounded during the fight against Control filling the biobeds. Dr. Hugh Culber treats Stamets for a shrapnel wound to his chest. The astromycologist tries to warn his partner about a "scary bug," but Culber attributes the calls for a "Zora" to delirium and induces a coma. Space warps around them, and the moment snaps back to the Ready Room, where Burnham and Rayner see that Discovery is now under a Cloak Alert. Burnham's badge shows that the last cycle sustained itself for twice as long as the one prior to it. She checks the stardate and predicts Stamets will be in Engineering. They take a turbolift — Burnham programs a direct route to storage on Deck 13 via service shaft epsilon so as to uphold the Temporal Prime Directive** — and the captain inputs an override code to mask their biometric readings.

The ship goes to Black Alert, and a bleak revelation occurs to Burnham — this is the day Osyraa attacks Discovery . The turbolift doors slide open, and they are greeted by one of the Emerald Chain's heavily armed regulators. Burnham and Rayner spring into action, ducking weapons fire and dispatching the helmeted guard. Osyraa's reinforcements storm the corridor, but the duo fend them off in ferocious hand-to-hand combat. A regulator nearly gets the drop on Rayner, but Commander Jett Reno delivers a blast to the foe's head and remarks, "Get a better helmet." Reno doesn’t recognize Rayner, and the time traveler poses as an officer named Commander Lock who is on temporary assignment. He's grateful for the save, and Reno says he can repay her with a drink at Red’s. The engineer advises him to steer clear of the "bucketheads," and the time shift crescendos once again.

Back in the Ready Room, Burnham and Rayner perceive several differences — accumulated debris clouds the viewport, the power systems blink unsteadily, and it seems as if no one has been there for years. Musical tones lure them to the Bridge, and they enter to the sounds of "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)." The viewscreen doors are sealed, and Zora welcomes them by asking if they are real or if this is another dream. Discovery 's A.I. relays that Captain Burnham and the crew died decades ago, and it is now 3218 — almost 30 years in the future. Zora's memory is unreliable, but she explains that the Progenitors' technology fell into the wrong hands. Burnham orders her to open the viewscreen doors, an act which unveils a horrific scene. Federation Headquarters has been torn apart, its interior superstructure exposed to space.

Zora provides further details — by the time Starfleet found Discovery and deactivated the Krenim chronophage, Moll and L'ak were too far ahead to catch. Burnham spots a Breen ship among the starbase's debris, and Zora confirms that the Breen somehow acquired the Progenitors' secrets and launched a devastating attack. The captain slowly advances toward her captain's chair, wiping dust from its surface and reminiscing about needing all of her strength to prevent herself from running away the first time she walked onto this Bridge. She respected Starfleet too much to believe she deserved to be there after mutinying on the U.S.S. Shenzhou , yet Rayner points out that she must be the first person in Starfleet history to captain a ship that they originally boarded as a prisoner.

Grinning, Burnham admits that she never gave up and refocuses her efforts on solving the current crisis. Tracking the time cycles isn't enough, so Zora recommends other variables — the ship's location, distance, and speed. The captain latches onto the final factor, determining that their speed is a vital part of the equation. When Zora maps the intervals to a spacetime diagram and expands them to higher dimensions, the resulting pattern is a conical wave that tells them how long they'll have between time jumps. The holographic illustration accurately predicts the next shift, and Zora pleads for them to set things right.

On this occasion, Stamets materializes from the time jump and finds himself in Engineering with Reno. She tells "Doctor Truffles" that she is waiting for the reference calculations for the injector coil, and Stamets feigns recognition until he reasons she requires the information for the O.B.D. diagnostic. The scientist asks his colleague about a "theoretical predicament," wondering if — hypothetically — calibrating a chroniton stabilizer to partition world lines per Scaravelli's Constant would nullify any temporal unpleasantness that might hit the ship. Reno concurs, so long as he factors dimensional variations, and elicits an awkward denial when she asks if Stamets is stuck in a time loop. She playfully jabs his shoulder, cautioning that burying his mind in the abstract for too long will turn him into a Rothko painting.

As Reno departs, Captain Burnham pokes her head up from a maintenance shaft and softly whispers for Stamets' attention. The astromycologist moves quickly, commanding the rest of his staff to evacuate due to a spore breach or risk having mushrooms grow on their lungs. Burnham and Rayner crawl from their hiding place and fill Stamets in on everything they've learned to this point. Repeating events has stressed the scientist, though he took solace in reliving the time Lieutenant Linus got stuck in the replicator. Stamets escorts them to the panel where the "time bug" embedded itself in the power distribution subsystem, but improperly removing it might cause incalculable timelines to converge and repeatedly rip every molecule into infinite directions for eternity. "Sounds bad," according to Rayner.

In order to disconnect the time bug from Discovery 's inner workings, they must nullify its effects with near-perfect precision based on the shifting intervals. Fortunately for Stamets, the captain can supply him with that intel. The scientist transfers the data to his PADD, sharing that he’ll need help gathering parts to build a chroniton stabilizer. As their current cycle winds down, the three officers agree to meet on Deck 13 after each reset. The jump occurs and they make their scheduled rendezvous, but the only place to find the field disruptor fluid Stamets requests is in the holodeck that — at this time — has just been installed in the captain's quarters, which is bio-metrically secured.

Burnham volunteers for the assignment and discreetly steps foot in her room, finding Grudge relaxing on the bed. The captain opens a panel and removes vials of the liquid, but Cleveland "Book" Booker returns from the gym before she can exit. The Kwejian throws Burnham further off balance when he removes his shirt, and he draws her close to underscore his confidence in her "new" captaincy. He implores her to trust her instincts and says she is made for this. Book agrees that change can be hard, but that's the only way anything meaningful can happen. He steps forward for a passionate kiss, and they exchange "I love yous" on Burnham’s way out the door.

Burnham reunites with Rayner and Stamets in Engineering, where the astromycologist is disturbed that his subordinates don't realize that a "spore breach" isn’t a real thing. He adds the field disruptor fluid to his freshly constructed chroniton stabilizer, but the "time bug" has a defense mechanism — a purple-hued temporal shield that disintegrates a spanner in mere seconds. Another reset occurs, and they gather on Deck 13. Stamets explains that time within the shield is moving at an ultra-accelerated rate, so anything — including humanoids — will age to dust before it reaches the bug itself. However, they can mitigate the effects by taking the ship to maximum warp and breaking the warp bubble, which is what protects the vessel from the effects of relativity. Dropping out of warp at that speed will impede the time inside the shield from being able to keep up.

Rayner voices the prospect of deadly whiplash or breaking the Discovery into a million pieces, but Stamets replies that the inertial dampeners should prevent that — hopefully . He also details that their actions won't affect the future, as changes to the period they're in don't become permanent until after the bug resets. Breaking the bubble and deactivating the time bug within the same cycle will cause everything to revert to the way it was before. They have 14 minutes to pull off the risky endeavor, but — at the current time — Captain Gabriel Lorca still commands Discovery . Luckily, the Mirror Universe menace is on an away mission with Saru and Ellen Landry, but a somberness settles in when Stamets and Burnham find out that their friend, the late Lieutenant Commander Airiam, is on duty on the Bridge.

The three officers set their strategy — Burnham will need to convince the crew, who still believe she's a mutineer, to follow her instructions; Stamets will modulate the inertial dampeners; and Rayner will be the one to stick his hand in the "spider’s nest." They split up, but the captain's turbolift ride is interrupted by a stop to pick up Lieutenant Linus, who seems perplexed by Burnham's 32nd Century Command uniform. The Saurian hesitates to comment, eventually composing himself enough to tell her that red is definitely her color. Burnham's smile of relief is fleeting, because — once Linus leaves — the current timeline's Michael Burnham shows up at the door.

The captain pulls her past self into the turbolift, intent on outlining how she is from the future and has found herself stuck cycling through time. Past Burnham perceives the explanation as a ruse, uncertain as to whether Captain Burnham is a shapeshifter. Referring to the captain's rank and uniform, her younger self can't imagine how she could possibly wind up receiving captain's pips after having been convicted of mutiny. Past Burnham squares off with the captain, and the two Michaels prove themselves to be relatively evenly matched at fisticuffs, at least until the captain incapacitates her counterpart with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Out of breath, Captain Burnham comforts the unconscious woman, as — while it's hard to see a path to the captaincy from where she is — she can overcome the long road by not giving up.

Stamets glides into Engineering, barking that he is "very grumpy" as a way to clear the room. Rayner climbs in through a shaft, noting that this worked better than the scientist's spore drive excuse. Acknowledging he was a tad more surly "pre-tardigrade DNA," Stamets wrestles with mixing up the 23rd Century inertial dampener procedure with the modern 32nd Century systems that also occupy his mind. Rayner's declaration that Stamets must "unmuddy" those thoughts irritates the astromycologist, and he critiques the commander's "gruff candor" routine. Stamets feels the weight of the moment, but his diatribe makes it clear that he is also bearing the intense pressure of dealing with the Progenitors' unprecedented technology. Rayner reflects, assuring him that he's not in this alone, and impresses Stamets by helping him prepare for their gambit at another console. The first officer uncharacteristically refers to him by his first name, inspiring Paul to laugh with his declaration, "Let’s show’em how a couple of old dogs still know the best tricks."

Captain Burnham arrives on the Bridge with her hands raised in a peaceful gesture, and — seated in the captain's chair — the mechanically-augmented Airiam states that she is not authorized to be here. Lieutenant Bryce and Cadet Tilly question the style of Burnham's uniform and hair, but Airiam calls for security once the captain starts to clarify her predicament. Burnham simplifies her story to guard her crew from too many details, though her intimate knowledge about Lieutenant Joann Owosekun's right cross and the sensors’ report that two Michaels exist on the ship aid her cause.

The captain resumes displaying her familiarity with the crew — Lieutenant Keyla Detmer sits at a window on Deck 6 when she's having a bad day; Owosekun joined Starfleet because she wasn't able to save her friend when she was 15; Bryce loves Comms because he used to listen to old radio emissions in space with his grandmother; and Tilly is frightened her mutinous roommate will knife her in her sleep because of her snoring. Burnham stuns the room when she proclaims that she's not just a future Starfleet captain, she's Discovery 's captain. Certain that this is all difficult to process, she asserts that Airiam will trust her account because — Burnham contains her sadness — she has seen how Airiam dies.

Tilly plugs her ears to dodge any additional temporal insights, while Bryce reacts by demanding Burnham be removed from the Bridge. The captain hurries to offer specifics as the comms officer draws his phaser. Airiam perishes 396 days from this moment when an A.I. program infects her augmentation, prompting her to sacrifice everything for Discovery . The crew denies Airiam would ever give up, but her own metallic voice declares that she would if it meant saving her friends. The tension is relieved and the officers stand down, allowing Airiam to ask what Burnham needs of them. Airiam's order for the ship to prepare for maximum warp rings out over the comm in Engineering, assuring Stamets and Rayner that Burnham had succeeded. All seems right with three minutes to go, but "past" Burnham startles them by storming in with Lieutenant Rhys and aiming a phaser at the two time travelers.

Discovery achieves maximum warp, giving Captain Burnham a moment to confide in Airiam on the Bridge. Airiam is astonishingly serene about her fate and adds that she won't retain her memories from this time cycle anyway. A status check on Engineering reveals Rayner and Stamets' captive quandary, but the captain encourages her first officer to handle the situation. Rayner speaks to Rhys, insisting that he knows him in a future time when he has been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. The tactical officer's incredulity endures until Rayner recounts Rhys' love for the curves of the 23rd Century Constitution -class. The lieutenant's grip on his weapon wavers.

Past Burnham intercedes — even if Rayner is from the future, it's too dangerous — and wields her phaser in Stamets' direction. Harkening back to a memory that Captain Burnham had shared earlier, Rayner confronts her younger counterpart with the fact that — on her first day on Discovery — she didn't feel she deserved to be there. Rayner steps forward until her phaser rests on his chest, pronouncing that past Burnham does deserve to be here. She’s doing a "damned good job" in all the shit she’s going through, and it's going to make her one hell of a captain. Rayner also lost his family in his youth, and he learned that the only thing left you can trust is the voice in your head. He implores her to trust her instincts, watching as past Burnham lowers her phaser.

Stamets hails Captain Burnham, who orders Detmer to exit the warp bubble, an act that sends blue static crackling across the viewscreen. Rayner simultaneously engulfs the time bug in the chroniton stabilizer, straining as his hand fends off the time differential. The illumination in Engineering flickers rapidly, the fluctuation accelerating until Burnham and Rayner suddenly land back in the Ready Room once more. The computer confirms they're back in the present, having only lost six hours to the disturbance. The past hasn't been altered in any way, though the commander is nursing his injured hand.

Rayner contemplates their trial, crediting Burnham's success to her relationship with her crew. He accepts that he can be stubborn, a trait he also saw in "past" Burnham. The captain muses that the experience reminded her of life's constant changes, a lesson which helps her understand how arduous it is for Rayner to adjust to his new role. The duo see eye-to-eye on another truth — they made a good team. The commander wonders how they'll explain this to the crew, but Burnham jokes that they'll get it as soon as they say "time bug."

Stamets stares into the panel which said time bug inhabited, pulling out its charred remains and wishing he had been able to squish it. Adira notices the mechanical arachnid and wonders if it had anything to do with six hours passing in the blink of an eye. The Bridge crew embrace the information in a similar fashion, and Gen Rhys is particularly happy that he didn't shoot the captain during the standoff.

Commander Rayner, his hand now healed, enters in time to hear Captain Burnham impart her own appreciation for the way everyone came together. She requests an update from the DOTs who have been scanning nearby space, and Linus communicates that a warp signature matching Moll and L'ak's ship was detected. Rayner praises Rhys for his earlier assertion, earning a nod from the tactical officer. Moll and L'ak's trail vanishes, but the captain is confident that her crew can solve the mystery of the next clue's location. As the officers set to work, Captain Burnham settles into the captain's chair, the joy palpable on her face.

* " Year of Hell " — Introduced in this Star Trek: Voygar two-parter, the U.S.S. Voyager encountered the technologically-advanced Krenim, which once dominated the Zahl territory with their deadly temporal weapons.

** " Relativity " — Lt. Duncane reminds Captain Janeway about the Temporal Prime Directive, a fundamental Starfleet principle, to not discuss her experiences with time travel with anyone as to not disrupt the timeline, alter history, or create paradoxes.

• Written by Sean Cochran
• Directed by Lee Rose

• "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" — Doris Day

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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• April 21, 2024 | Interview: Sonequa Martin-Green On Facing Her Past On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ And Her Hopes For The Future
• April 19, 2024 | Exclusive First Look At Artwork From ‘Star Trek: Celebrations’ – IDW’s One Shot Comic For Pride Month
• April 19, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Faces The Strange On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• April 18, 2024 | Lost Original USS Enterprise Model From ‘Star Trek’ Returned To Gene Roddenberry’s Son
• April 18, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets The Timing Right In “Face The Strange”

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets The Timing Right In “Face The Strange”

| April 18, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 52 comments so far

“Face the Strange”

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 4 – Debuted Thursday, April 18, 2024 Written by Sean Cochran Directed by Lee Rose

A classic Trek setup provides a fun canvas for Discovery to explore the big changes behind the characters and foreshadow changes yet to come.

There is nothing suspicious about the way I am holding this bag.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Change is hard”

After a quick flashback to a double-cross with a shady arms dealer showing how Moll and L’ak acquired the thingie she planted on Adira last episode, we catch up with the ensign in their quarters chatting with (now ex-bf) Gray. A mechanical spider jumps off their uniform and blends into the bulkhead just as the Disco arrives at the coordinates provided by Jinaal only to find a whole lot of nothing. The bridge crew starts brainstorming ideas, but newly minted XO Rayner wants to “stick to the facts” and brusquely shuts down speculation from Rhys. The captain takes Rayner to her ready room to remind him how they do things on Discovery—has he not binged the previous seasons? The hardened vet of The Burn years knows he crossed the line with “Spare me the ‘I get you bulls—t’” as Burnham makes it clear it’s her way or the spaceway. But before they can hug it out, evil spidey sinks into a bulkhead in engineering and things start going all flashy wonky… and boom: The ship is suddenly at warp and red alert. With transporter badges inoperative, Burnham and Rayner have to actually walk to the bridge. What’s next, stone knives and bearskins?

Michael susses they have traveled back in time to when the Discovery jumped forward to the 32 nd century when she finds the crew passed out in their old uniforms, following the red angel suit (with her inside it) through a wormhole. Before they experience the fun of a crash landing, lights flash again and the pair is returned to the ready room, sans a bulkhead. After admiring the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from even further in the past, Rayner dispatches a flustered construction worker building the Disco. Another flash jump takes them forward to the battle with Control and Rayner figures it out: The ship has been infected with a Krenim “time bug” weapon, likely from their pals Moll and L’ak. The attempt to transport just as the weirdness started explains why they are the only ones who are aware, with the exception of Stamets because he lives outside of time due to a tardigrade DNA injection… long story. Another time jump finds them back in the 32 nd century, but before they can find Stamets, they end up in a corridor gunfight with Emerald Chain regulators and get a surprisingly helpful assist from Reno. One more jump puts them back in the ready room but things are quiet… too quiet. The computer is non-responsive, the ship is abandoned… and what’s that sound? Is that Doris Day? Oh boy .

Does this thing get Paramount+?

“Please set things right, captain.”

The pair of involuntary time travelers is greeted by Zora on the bridge, who isn’t quite sure she isn’t dreaming, since Burnham and the crew all died decades ago after failing the Progenitor mission. It’s 3218 and outside the window, they can see Federation HQ smashed by the Breen, Moll and L’ak’s highest bidders for the god-level tech. This horrible end to their story has Michael thinking back to her first time walking onto that bridge with big-time imposter syndrome, and Rayner offers a surprisingly empathetic pep talk. Buoyed and motivated to stop this future from happening, they make a plan to break the Krenim Chronophage cycle, and Zora and Burnham technobabble a map of the time bug’s pattern to help track and stop it. They say adieu to the lonely AI and the next jump finds Stamets in his old uniform, bluffing his way through a years-old conversation with Reno. He uses the opportunity to get her thoughts on the best way to “theoretically” tech their way out of this temporal nightmare. “Are you stuck in a time loop?” she asks… but the acerbic engineer is just messing with him. Cynicism for the win!

Michael and Rayner arrive and they all put their pieces together into a plan to squash that time bug with a “chronotron stabilizer,” but Paul is going to need some stuff from around the ship. They work out a plan to meet up after jumps on the oddly empty Deck 13. During a jump back to the 32 nd century (around the time Burnham took command), she has to get some fluid from the holodeck in her quarters, which is where  Book shows up, straight from the gym! To him, she is still his gf, so off comes the shirt and on comes the irresistible carnal charm… humana humana . “It’s hard being a new captain.” You can say that again. She bluffs her way through with talk of being needed on the bridge but not before Book can give her a nice little pick-me-up chat and a big ‘ol “I love you” kiss. She accepts it—and it doesn’t really look like she’s bluffing. Back in the lab, Stamets’ time bug killer is built, but when they try it out, it bounces right off. Of course, the Krenim device has temporal shields and anything that gets too close super-ages into dust. Well, kiss my Annorax .

Would it have killed you to do some dusting, Zora?

“Don’t’ give up.”

The team reconvenes after another jump with a new crazy plan. To get around the temporal shield they have to use Stamets’ ChronoBugSmasher TM just as the ship breaks out of a warp bubble and hope the relativistic forces don’t kill them all first. But as a bonus, if they do it right, they won’t have to worry about that Temporal Prime Directive as there is a handy reset button. Stamets needs to be in engineering backed up by Rayner, so Michael has to do the warp bubble thing from the bridge… but now they’re back in time to when she was a mistrusted mutineer. Lorca and Saru are away, leaving Airiam ( sniff ) in command. After a fun fashion appreciation moment with Linus in the turbolift, Michael comes face to face with… herself. You knew this was coming! Younger, angrier Burnham is not listening to this obvious imposter’s attempt to de-escalate things, so it’s fight club time. As you’d expect, the pair is fairly evenly matched, but Captain Mike has learned some new moves and puts down her younger self, telling sleepy Michael things will get better. Stamets and Rayner are also at odds, but the XO shows some empathy for all the pressure Paul is under to take on the mystery of Progenitor tech, so the gruff first officer buries the hatchet with a formerly gruff scientist with, “Hey, Paul, let’s show ‘em how a couple of old dogs still know the best tricks.” Aw, he made a new gruff friend.

On the bridge, Airiam is wondering what Specialist Burnham is doing out of uniform and Tilly is wondering what she did with her hair… never change, Sylvia. Michael goes with full honesty: time bug, warp bubble, etc. It’s a tough crowd, but she uses an understanding of their personal stories to connect with them, convincing Airiam when she recounts her heroism and sacrifice, then Burnham gets to work showing off her impressive 32 nd -century tech, which probably could have saved her some “I’m really from the future” convincing time. The bridge crew is ready to do the warp bubble thing, but the action in engineering has gone sideways: Young Burnham has arrived with Rhys and a couple of phasers, convinced this is all some shapeshifter trick. Now it’s Rayner’s turn to show he has been listening, proving to both he knows them from the future. It works, they execute the plan, and blammo, back to the future! It’s only been six hours in the time bug loop so now they have plenty of time to get Marty’s mom to the dance , sorry… to get to the Progenitor tech first. On the bridge, it’s time for some warm moments with the crew as Michael tells the tale of the warp bubble escape. Moll and L’ak’s warp trail has been found, proving Rhys’ theory and earning the young officer an attaboy from Rayner, showing he has learned the lesson of the episode. That trail appears to lead nowhere. At least it’s a clue… but that’s for another time. See what I did there?

At this point, Rayner is second-guessing not taking retirement.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Now more confident in its own identity in its fifth season, Discovery feels free to inject a bit more classic Star Trek into the show, which allows them to explore how much the show—and more importantly, the characters—have changed over the years. They may not have known this was going to be their last season, but this episode sure felt like they were reflecting on the show’s evolution, indulging in visits to some key moments, not unlike the Voyager’s final season episode “Shattered.” Like the excellent season 4 Lower Decks episode “Caves,” this bottle show had a bit of a clip show style, but each visit helped give more meaning to the characters’ stories. The “Face the Strange” title was the first clue; it’s a line from the classic David Bowie song “ Changes ,” which was all about how he had reinvented himself throughout his career. Of course, being Discovery , the episode made sure you got this by mentioning variations of “change” multiple times. Disco is going to Disco, but “Face the Change” feels a bit like the show is wearing its heart on its sleeve, leaning into how Michael Burnham’s (and the show’s) emphasis on exploring characters (and their feelings) is a source of strength, with the outsider Rayner offering an opposing view for her to argue with and prove the point.

Sonequa Martin-Green and Callum Keith Rennie had to carry the episode, the series star doing a bit of double duty having to play her younger self. The actress, along with excellent stunt choreography, really drove home the episode theme. This episode finally gave Anthony Rapp something to do, as it also explored how much Paul Stamets has evolved through the series, getting him to bring back some of his old gruff self to clear out his lab. An arc regarding his grappling with the morality of the Progenitor tech is starting to take shape. Rapp’s scene with Tig Notaro was a lot of fun, as was Reno’s interaction with Rayner. Both scenes gave the engineer some more layers, although it still remains unclear who is in charge as the show continues to have no interest in differentiating science and engineering onboard Disco. Martin-Green and Rapp, along with assists from Notaro and David Benjamin Tomlinson (Linus), showed good comic timing as the episode indulged in some of the fun that can be had with time travel, evoking the first season time loop episode “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.” While there are some similarities, “Face the Strange” had a distinct premise and theme that didn’t make it feel like a repeat of that excellent season 1 episode.

It’s not fair I am the only one to have to wear the old uniform.

It’s about time

Pulling together a time-jumping plot like this is complicated, but “Face the Strange” did it (mostly) seamlessly, jumping straight into the events of several episodes without breaking time or canon. Longtime fans get rewarded by recognizing some of the stops, such as the battle with Control and follow-up jump to the future , and Osyraa taking over the ship . We also got to see the Discovery under construction. San Francisco Shipyard has usually been depicted in Earth orbit, but perhaps the prototype nature of the ship explains why it was built in the actual San Francisco. They did have some fun with Burnham and Rayner navigating the past ship in their bold red uniforms, with Linus hanging a lantern on that in a fun way, but it didn’t really make sense that the 23 rd -century shipyard worker took them to be Starfleet brass. And Stamets also jumping but not keeping his 32nd-century uniform made sense, as established by the aforementioned “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” based on his tardigrade DNA. The visit to the possible dark future was also a nice nod to the Short Treks episode “ Calypso ” to show that when left alone, Zora will turn to old musicals for comfort. Once the pattern started, fans are likely to anticipate who else may pop up, so it was smart to explain the lack of Lorca right away upon arrival in early season 1, a key time period to nail the episode theme. The return of Airiam was suitably emotional, with Hannah Cheesman putting in a strong performance; however, Michael using the dead officer’s sacrifice as a way to convince everyone she traveled from the future didn’t really land, as any good Starfleet officer would do the same, given the stakes. But all in all, fans of time travel should enjoy this episode, which holds up to the difficult standards of temporal scrutiny.

Being waylaid through time did put the main quest plot on hold for the most part, but the episode did still squeeze in some character development for Moll and L’ak in the brief flashback at the top. The season adversaries continue to add a few layers and we can even start to see nuances in each of their motivations, with L’ak showing hints he may want to get off the ride before the walls close in on them. There was also a key bit of worldbuilding and potential foreshadowing, specifically for the Breen; we even got a look at a Breen ship. After the DS9 species got name-dropped in the previous 3 episodes, they are now emerging as the big threat to the Federation and competing bidders for the Progenitor tech. Speaking of tech, there was a delightful amount of technobabble, from mentions of polarons and chronitons to the plan hinging on breaking a warp bubble. Things got nice and nerdy. Added to how the time-mastering Krenim and Temporal Cold War tied in, “Face the Strange” continues the trend of how season 5 is doing a much better job of weaving elements of Trek lore into the events of each episode.

For the last time, I was not in Ahsoka !

Final thoughts

“Face the Strange” may be the best episode of the season so far. A very Star Trek premise was just the starting point for a very Discovery story about the characters. It demonstrates that in its final season, Discovery has learned how to carry the serialized story on through stand-alone episodes. Season 5 continues to deliver on its promises of a positive pivot into adventure without losing the heart of the series.

Time looping? Me?

• The episode began with a warning for flashing images.
• Doug Jones is not credited in this episode. The shot of an unconscious Saru is likely from previously unseen footage shot for the episode “ Far From Home .” The audio for the “This is commander Saru, all decks prepare for impact” announcement was taken from that episode.
• The weapons dealer was Annari , previously only seen in the Delta Quadrant on Voyager .
• In addition to Hannah Cheesman, the episode also featured the return of Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Bryce .
• In the dark future, Zora was listening to the Doris Day song “ Que Sera, Sera .”
• Reno warns Stamets that if he buries his mind in the abstract he could turn into a Rothko painting, referring 20th century abstract artist Mark Rothko .
• Stamets mentions calibrating his chronotron stabilizer to “Scaravelli’s Constant,” which is possibly a reference to Vanda Scaravelli , a pioneer in introducing the practice of yoga to the West.
• Rayner proved he knew Rhys by talking about his admiration of Constitution class ships, which he learned during his 20-word crew briefings in the previous episode.
• Reno and Rayner share a love for Vesper Martinis , a cocktail invented for James Bond.

That’s Reno, Jett Reno.

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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Great episode i really enjoyed watching it and it had a lot of good character moments.

I loved the references to the Krenim and the temporal wars and I’m not surprised they invented a weapon like the time bug which can seriously mess up a Star-ship that way.

I enjoyed seeing the old uniforms again as i missed them.

Overall it was again a great episode it is one of my favorites of Discovery and one of the best episodes in Modern Trek. Looking forward to the next episode.

Other than Year of Hell, this feels like another episode of Voyager too, one in which Janeway and Chakotay jump through different time periods. Which one was that?

Exactly right

Yeah. I hadn’t finished reading the article when I made that post. It does cite that episode.

Ah, Shattered.

“still squeeze in some character development for Moll and L’ak”

Huh? Moll and L’ak have had no character development at all. They’ve continued Star Trek’s villain problem, as evident in previous Discovery seasons, as well as in all three seasons of Picard. That said, this was better than I’d expected, and really wasn’t the Groundhog’s Day ripoffI it looked like in the preview. Connecting this episode to the Krenim and the Temporal Wars was a very cool idea, as it went far toward making something ridiculous like a time bug more plausible.

While SMG’s acting really hasn’t improved much–she’s still just as needlessly whispery as she’s always been–seeing season-one Burnham again was surprisingly fun! I agree with your criticisms of the plot holes, though. The Airiam and Linus scenes, while nostalgic in the first and humorous in the second, didn’t make any logical sense.

All in all, this season has been very, very good, despite the lackluster villains. I’ve often been critical of Discovery for its lack of logic, excessive whispering, and near-complete lack of characterization for anyone not named Michael or Saru. And I’ve really not enjoyed the past two seasons because the 32nd century is weirdly uninteresting. This season is fun, though. I hope they can stick the landing, as we’re nearly at the half-point already, and not much has happened.

Unlike Season 3’s poor development of Osyraa as a villain, I think what’s happening with Moll and L’ak is intentional. We know Moll has a familial connection to Book’s namesake. We also know she’s incredibly driven, while it seems L’ak would be content to find a quiet corner of the galaxy to settle down. My guess is we will get an “All About Moll and L’ak” episode in a couple weeks. I like how they’re handing their character development so far.

poor Zora! I really hope she doesn’t end up alone.

We already know she ends up alone.

Unless the events of Calypso were one of the ‘dreams’ Zora references. Some sites are suggesting Calypso was a dream after this episode.

Doesn’t the episode imply that successfully stopping Moll and L’ak will prevent them all from dying and leaving her alone? That was how I read it.

The Rothko line was priceless…

I usually hate on Discovery but that was a fun episode. Of course, I LOLed when Michael paused her time sensitive mission to have a “I love you” moment with Book, and another one when she’s gently stroking umm, herself in the hallway. But other than Discovery being Discovery in stupid ways like that, I enjoyed the episode. Plus, Stamets finally got some screen time.

Yeah, Stamets has been sorely underutilized ever since season two. I don’t know why–he’s one of the few great characters this show has, yet they rarely use him.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really love Anthony Rapp’s acting on camera. He’s a bit mannered and never feels quite natural, whereas on stage he’s so clearly at home and is a joy to watch. So Stamets isn’t always my thing, even though I like how he’s part of a healthy couple and I do enjoy a tetchy engineer-type in Trek. But I think he was well-used this time out!

This is one of the rare times in the past 7 years when the episode itself lived up to the pre-episode hype. Enjoyed it.

At least DSC is respecting its OWN canon. My nitpicky issues regarding writing, etc, remain. That said, I enjoyed the ep. The fight choreography was great. Finally, Burnham kicks some butt! The moment near the end of the episode, when Burnham and Raynham start to “get each other,” is a nice touch. I’d like to see that relationship continue to develop. (I thought the 20-word thing was silly) A great surprise to see Airiam. I didn’t see that one coming. Well, six eps more to go. I hope they can maintain the momentum.

I really enjoyed this episode. Much better than the first three by quite some way IMO. I’m also enjoying the Burnham Rayner partnership. Hope the series maintains this energy and fun for the rest of the season.

Not a Discovery fan but absolutely loved this, they kicked it out the park.

So happy to hear you say that Keith!

I’m glad you liked it but it didn’t work for me. All of the time travel was too similar and didn’t really feel like time travel. Yes they referenced a lot of things, but especially there they dropped the ball for me. They had so many opportunities to actually cut in scenes from said episodes, but they were just talking about them in stead of showing it. So many opportunities for cameos, but they waited till the 3/4 mark to finally give us Ariam and Bryce, in quite a weird scene by the way. It was a 7/10 for me.

Best thing of the episode for me was Rayner’s arc progressing. He’s really good and yes, he’s giving off Shaw vibes. By the way: did his ears grow since the last episode?

I thought his ears looked sharper.

Yeah, I thought in a few shots they stuck out way more than before. Glad it wasn’t just me.

Solid. Definitely reminiscent of a bunch of Voyager time travel shenanigans, but when it comes to high concept sci-fi, that’s borrowing from some of the best.

Good use of humor, Stamets, and Rayner’s character progression didn’t feel too cloying. Burnham wasting precious time giving her unconscious self a pep talk was a bit much.

Best episode in a very long time, serving as a good refresher on the journey this crew/ship has been on.

A good episode, but I think there was just a little bit too much technobabble. Also, when Rhys and young Burnham had phasers on Stamets near the end, why couldn’t the bridge crew have just beamed them away?

I wondered why Ariam didn’t just order them to stand down. She was in command.

Excellent point! Dramatic license, I guess…

Honestly I think this is my favorite one of the season so far. I’m always a sucker for time travel stories and always like weird trippy Star Trek. This one was fun and yes clearly took it’s cues from Voyager’s Shattered; which I think is a still better episode than this one overall but this was a very close second. And way better than the last episode which I didn’t like at all.

It’s also funny in the latest Kurtzman article discussing how much the old shows did a lot of filler episodes and/or bottle shows and this one did clearly both. But as said it’s fine when it’s GOOD. I did like seeing how much Burnham has developed and how far she’s come in this time. I still think being a Captain from a mutineer is ridiculous but whatever it’s Star Trek don’t overthink it.

And also Burnham now joins the other famous Star Trek trope of Captains interacting with some other version of themselves through time travel (usually) or cloning or something.

She now joins the club with Kirk, Picard, Janeway and Pike. :)

There were certainly problems with it and the technobabble made little sense to me but minor issues. I’ll probably have to watch it again to spot any big red flags.

Overall Discovery this season has been really fun and a treat to watch IMO. Not amazing but solid (outside episode 3 for me).. But I have been down this transwarp corridor several times already, so hoping it can sustain it.

Despite Season 5 being quite good, it looks like many, at least on this board, have checked out.

If the total number of posts is an indicator, it may be an issue of “too little, too late”. I understand why many may not be watching the final season of Discovery (even I forgot the new episode was out yesterday) – but I hope not, because IMHO last night was a perfect example of a good Star Trek episode.

Someone mentioned this before with the opening episode review thread as well and yeah the posts are WAY down.

And it’s not just here either. Other places like Trekcre, Reddit etc are also a lot smaller now.

It is a shame but I think it proves a lot of people have basically lost interest in the show overall. And it probably doesn’t help being off the air for basically two years either.

But you can’t spin it. A year ago this time Picard season 3 was getting literally hundreds of posts every episode. There was huge interest in it for obvious reasons. Certainly not the case with this show now even with the positive fanfare so far.

Yep that was me!

And I thought maybe it was just a weird fluke or something and the next few episodes the discussions would become higher again. Nope they only become worse and over other discussion boards in general.

What does it say when an article about finding a lost model of the original Enterprise from 40 years ago literally has twice the posts of a brand new Trek episode…one that most fans seem to love including myself? Trekcor has only a dozen posts discussing it right now and it’s been out two days.

I think what DeanH said is on the money, just too little too late and probably not a surprise why it got cancelled. They saw the writing on the wall and that fans were losing a lot of interest in the show.

That episode felt more “Star Trek” than any of the whole series so far.

I know what you mean Steve. The episode also served to remined me why I enjoyed 23rd C Discovery way more than post-jump, especially Season 2. I was all up for the trip to the far future and I thought that S3 started well but unfortunately for me at least, it fell apart and like may, I got burned by the burn so to speak.

I have to admit, this was the first time that Discovery felt like an actual episode of Star Trek! And I have watched every episode on release (for my sins). Crazy!

The episode was actually pretty good and felt like a classic bottle episode, that focused on character growth, exactly what Kurtzman was speaking against with his so-called “filler”.

I tell you what, Rayner has been a breath of fresh air. It gives the overly lovey-dovey crew a kick in the aft deck. The trio of Burnham, Raynor and Stamets worked really well in this episode.

It’s a big shame Discovery didn’t go forward into the 32nd century from the get-go. Imagine after the two part pilot they got thrust into the future? This time frame is perfect as gives the writers the freedom to create their own, new canon, without contradicting that of the 23rd century. Both narratively and visually.

If season 5 continues like this episode, we might get a decent send off to Discovery. Though might be a shame that as the show is ending, it is finally finding its feet (like TNG S3 or ENT S4 etc).

Missed a chance for a Lorca cameo!! How would Burnham have reacted to him knowing his shady truth?

I too have to admit, this was a good one and as many others have said, it “felt” like a Star Trek episode.

No use recapping the story which I thought was quite good. I really liked that they focused on three characters (Burnham, Rayner and Stamets) and did not go off track trying to include everyone else. I also liked the return of Stamets being his old cynical and direct self, yelling at people, recognizing the urgency of the situation and not having time to worry about their feelings. Him yelling at the crewmember to “GET OUT” was great!

Of course, Discovery has to always get sidetracked with some form of romantic interlude – this time it was Booker and Burnham, even though time was of the essence, she had to forget about what they were doing and pause for two minutes to steal a kiss. (eyeroll) Fortunately, that was a minor part of the episode and did not last long and things got back on track. Btw, as characters, I hope those two do end up together (I’m not heartless).

So far, S5 has been quite good. Hey writers room – see you can actually write good episodic-like stories without having to stray from the season long story arc. Let’s hope they can keep it up. Oh btw, up here north of the border, CTV Sci-Fi channel ran the Voyager two part Year from Hell last night. Nice tie in to the Krenim story.

Does anyone know why the episode is not available in Germany yet? The first three eps were available right when they were supposed to but still no sign of ep 4…

Some of you bitch about SMG’s acting as one note, but I have to say, she was pretty great on this episode. Maybe the contrast of old her vs younger her made it more obvious but I thought she did an exceptional job this episode.

She’s been good since the first episode. I haven’t always liked the way Burnham was written, but I’ve rarely had a problem with the way Martin-Green played her. I hope the end of this season won’t be the last we see of her in the role.

This is a great episode for the final season because it really does remind you how much has happened and how far the crew has evolved. I immediately wanted to re-watch the entire series.

It kind of gave me that feeling too, which is saying something because I didn’t like the first three seasons much at all. It’s true, though; and I hope whenever I get around to that rewatch, I find out I was wrong all along. I’d love that!

This episode felt like a lot of fun. I really love time loop episodes. And this was a cool new take on them. For a bottle show I was thoroughly entertained. Burnham and Rayner, Stamets and Reno, Burnham and Airiam… there were some great pairings in this episode.

I really enjoyed this filler episode. I think it felt a lot like a Voyager inspired episode and it even mentions the Krenim.

I also liked seeing the contrast of past and present versions of Burnham, but was she really that aggressive in the beginning? I’ll have to go back and watch the first season again, but she seemed more like the mirror universe version of her past self.

Oh, and the technobabble was so wonderfully Star Trek. I’m glad they weren’t afraid to include some. I love seeing the characters use their expertise in and mastery of their fictional technologies to solve problems. I’m watching a show about the future where such amazing technology exists after all. I like when they explain how it is all supposed to work.

I hope the rest of the season is this good.

An excellent episode, I thought. The way they handled the Krenim Easter egg was perfect. Strong character dynamics, too.

Did the colors look weird to anyone else? I can’t put my finger on it, but it seemed like something weird was going on with Paramount+ when I watched.

Worst episode of the season so far The bridge crew are lifeless characters with zero personality and any storyline which involves them suffers heavily! Also thought Michael was back to her annoying best whispering every line. even Rayner couldn’t save this one.

I would agree that a distinguishing feature of Discovery in comparison to other iterations of ST is that the bridge crew are almost invisible and that ~4.5 seasons in, we know almost nothing about them. I don’t know why the writers have taken this route but for me personally, it’s had the effect of making it difficult for me to really bond with this ship and crew. I felt I had more connection with the bridge crew of the Titan and that was after only 3-4 episodes!

Well they actually made it worse in seasons 3 and 4 when they tried to give them more dialogue, because it was clumsy things like, “I used to kite surf!” “Thanks for letting me lead this important away mission entirely offscreen while we follow your storyline instead,” “I am upset and being unprofessional in a crisis because I couldn’t save my friend years ago!” or “I love you all!” And then the show would condescendingly have characters tell us how great Detmer or Bryce are. It’s lazy and clunky, and worse than when it was just more of a deliberate creative choice to emphasize them in seasons 1-2. But this halting approach is not great. Give them meaningful snippets of development and personality and it will make them endearing and feel real. But if they are just here to look worried, laugh/clap, spout technobabble, and be propped up by the main characters, it’s just not my thing.

Shortened seasons leave little room for character development. With 26 episodes per season sometimes the character story was the A story and the B story was something like a comet or an asteroid, as a backdrop. But you could generate character development from the A-story, apart from the what are the odds coincidences of meeting rikers father or Worfs brother leading some refugees. Take Li Nalas for example. You could learn about Kira from how she viewed him, reacted to him, talked. Lots of Dialogue. DSC Season 3 was about the burn, no personal experiences of the crew would fit that, then the dark matter anomaly, also nothing people could maybe share an experience (but it could have been worked in, from somebody remembering some dark matter survey or something), season 4 now theyre on the hunt for some technology from a throwaway stand alone TNG episode, and well none of the crew had a long dialogue scene talking about some excavations or something they might have taken part in. TLDR not just shortened seasons but missed opportunities by writers as well.

Anybody else didnt feel anything when starfleet headquarters was shown destroyed?

Has anyone posted a proper look at the Breen ship from the alt future? It just looked like a jumble of debris. Discovery has never been very good about delivering the ship p*rn. I needed a lovely cutaway after Burnham asked about the ship!

Does anybody know of anyone that posts lists of episodes to prepare for the latest episodes? Like a pre-game episode checklist to better understand all of the references and Easter eggs? I really like to catch everything when I watch a new episode, but it’s hard when they reference so much stuff across the franchise history, some of which I haven’t seen in decades. I often just read the reviews on here and figure out what I need to watch, but that means I read all the spoilers with it. It would be cool if there was something that just told me what to watch beforehand. Anybody aware of something like this, and if not, would anybody want to do it?