Discovery Doubles Down On Being Itself In The Final Season, (And I’m Finally Okay With That) [SXSW 2024]

I’ve always connected to “Star Trek” as a workplace show first and foremost, a franchise about doing your job, and doing it expertly, in space. Give me the calm, measured bridge crew meetings of “The Next Generation,” with their incomprehensible technobabble and measured professionalism any day of the week. For me, it’s still weird to watch the crew of “Discovery” so actively talk about their feelings, to treat each other like best buds at a slumber party, and to regularly weep and offer shoulders to cry on. “Aren’t these people supposed to be work colleagues?” I’ll grumble to myself, knowing that Captain Picard would absolutely not tolerate the casual shenanigans of Captain Michael Burnham’s touchy-feely crew.

But I look at Burnham’s crew and I get it. They’re the most diverse “Trek” crew in history, and it’s not even close. All “Trek” has folded its progressive viewpoints into the fabric of its storytelling (and it’s been that way since 1966), but “Discovery” had the nerve to remove the obfuscation altogether. Non-white characters and gay characters and non-binary characters share the bridge together. It’s clear “Discovery” feels a responsibility to these characters and their identities, and by extension, the younger fans watching their first “Trek” show in the age of streaming. Let them share their feelings. Let them cry. Let them be buddies who are always there with a compliment in a moment of darkness.

The people for whom these portrayals are intended need that sense of connection, of these diverse people living in a future where they can be comfortable and happy with their identities, more than I need “Star Trek” that feels like the shows I grew up with.