HipsterZOMBIEJoint TV Review: Star Trek Discovery Season 4

Before Star Trek Discovery came along, the Trek franchise was at a weird impasse. The last trek show on television was Enterprise and JJ Abrams’ Kelvin-verse alternate timeline reboot of Trek had worn out its welcome with fans with Star Trek Beyond which failed to make an impact at the box office. Then came Discovery which in a weird sort of way is a reboot/continuation of the original timeline introducing fresh new characters, aliens, and more.

The Trek franchise felt fresh and new again. For 3 great seasons Discovery wowed and surprised fans. Then came season 4. This is the season to forget.

Not sure if the writing room started to change or if the showrunners all of a sudden wanted to get political and virtue signal for a small fraction of the fanbase. Either way whenever you inject real life scenarios or social issues into fantasy shows, if it’s not done in a creative way it feels forced and worse yet it feels cheap.

The original Star Trek knew this and that writing room knew how to bring social issues to the forefront through inventive storytelling. Discovery failed at this and failed hard. When you devote whole episodes to certain characters who aren’t essential to the overall plot, it feels like a weird detour that brings everything to a screeching stop.

Not to mention I feel like the writing room really wanted to subvert expectations by having the main antagonist this season not be a destroyer of worlds but rather just some dopey race who don’t know their own strength. It all just fell apart as the season went on until it finally delivered a sleep inducing finale that did not make me want to see anymore of this ship, crew, or their adventures.

I love the core cast, but this season was just such a chore to get through. When I’m thinking about doing laundry and when I should go water my plants more than being invested in a show like this, that’s a problem.

Do yourself a favor and warp speed as fast as you can away from this season.