Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is an American science fiction television series created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman for the streaming service CBS All Access (later rebranded as Paramount+). It is the seventh Star Trek series and was released from 2017 to 2024. The series follows the crew of the starship Discovery beginning a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series in the 23rd century. At the end of the second season, they travel to the 32nd century, which is the setting for subsequent seasons.

Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, a science specialist on Discovery who eventually becomes captain. Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Jason Isaacs, Wilson Cruz, Anson Mount, David Ajala, Rachael Ancheril, Blu del Barrio, Tig Notaro, and Callum Keith Rennie also have starring roles across the five seasons.

The series was announced in November 2015 as the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise concluded in 2005. It was produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. Fuller was initially set as showrunner but left due to creative differences with CBS. He was replaced by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, with producing support from Akiva Goldsman for the first season. Berg and Harberts were fired by CBS during production on the second season. Kurtzman took over as showrunner and was joined by Michelle Paradise starting with the third season. Discovery features more serialized storytelling than previous Star Trek series but became more episodic in later seasons. Filming took place at Pinewood Toronto Studios in Toronto, Canada, and existing franchise designs were reinvented with modern techniques and visual effects.

Star Trek: Discovery premiered on September 24, 2017, on CBS and CBS All Access. The rest of the 15-episode first season was released weekly on All Access until February 2018. The 14-episode second season was released on All Access from January to April 2019, and the 13-episode third season ran from October 2020 to January 2021. The 13-episode fourth season was released on Paramount+ from November 2021 to March 2022, and the 10-episode fifth and final season was released from April to May 2024.

The series' release led to record subscriptions for CBS All Access and it became the most viewed original series on both All Access and Paramount+. It has received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Martin-Green's performance and the time-jump to the 32nd century, as well as numerous accolades including two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for its prosthetic makeup and visual effects. The series began an expansion of the Star Trek franchise, including the companion shorts series Star Trek: Short Treks, spin-off series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and spin-off film Star Trek: Section 31. Various tie-in media and two official aftershows have also been produced based on the series.

Premise

The series begins around ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, when Commander Michael Burnham's actions start a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. She is court-martialed, stripped of rank, and reassigned to the USS Discovery, which has a unique means of propulsion called the "spore drive". After an adventure in the Mirror Universe, Discovery helps end the Klingon war. In the second season they investigate seven mysterious signals and a strange figure known as the "Red Angel", and fight off a rogue artificial intelligence. This conflict ends with the Discovery traveling to the 32nd century, more than 900 years into their future.

The USS Discovery finds the Federation fragmented in the future, and investigates the cause of a cataclysmic event known as the "Burn" in the third season. Burnham is promoted to captain of Discovery at the end of the season, and in the fourth season the crew helps rebuild the Federation while facing a space anomaly created by unknown aliens that causes destruction across the galaxy. In the fifth season, the Discovery goes on a galactic adventure to find a mysterious ancient power that other dangerous groups are also searching for.