With Such Sweet Sorrow, Star Trek Discovery has come to an end after 5 seasons. While the show certainly braved some Stormy Weather throughout its run. It’s undeniable that it breathed Life, Itself back into the franchise. Today, we’re looking at the Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Steelbook.
If Memory Serves, the show started back in 2017 with The Vulcan Hello. After a Battle at the Binary Stars we followed Michael Burnham’s (Sonequa Martin Green) journey through the ranks, centuries and even dimensions. While some may have described some of Discovery’s quirks, such as the spore drive, as Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. Others saw it as a Vaulting Ambition. With the show providing a Point of Light after the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, the People of Earth felt like they were Coming Home.
Now that Star Trek: Discovery has ended, a fan could be tempted to feel Far From Home. But it’s worth remembering that there is a Tide. With the Star Trek franchise, while it may feel like that tide is going out right now, Paramount still seems to be All In on a franchise that has always invited us to Face the Strange. I am holding up Mirrors to the best and worth of humanity. But this review isn’t about what is coming. It’s about what has been. After all, What’s Past is Prologue. So, without further delay, Into the Forest, I Go. Will You Take My Hand?
Artwork and Packaging
Like the show, Discovery’s physical releases have seemed to thrive on their visual inconsistency. It’s final season is no exception. Despite changing the logo in season 3, season 5 introduces a new variation. It lost its 3D aspects and became flat. The CBS logo on the spine has changed size (again). After the show had the Blu-ray and Paramount logos for three seasons, this became just the Blu-ray logo for the Season 4 release. Naturally, Season 5 has just the Paramount logo.
For the first time, the Star Trek text also moves above Discovery instead of alongside it. We also have ‘The Final Season’, instead of season 5. For the first time, we also don’t have the ‘J-Card’ printed on the card. Instead, it’s just on glossy paper. We almost had one consistent aspect! Even the disks, we started off with artwork on them. Then they were just left silver, then blue. Which they couldn’t resist tinkering with, the font for the disk number has changed. While it may be an error with my set, I do also find it funny that the 12 BBFC rating has two different colours on different disks.
Those gripes aside, the actual artwork chosen for the steelbook is fantastic. Lining the steelbooks up together, it’s a lovely representation of the series to have season 1 having Burnham seemingly looking through a Starfleet Delta keyhole, as if on the outside. Then the final season having her standing proudly in her captains uniform, with Discovery soaring by in the background. It’s also lovely to have a ‘classic’ cast shot as the interior artwork for the first time.
Technical Information
Unlike Strange New Worlds, Discovery has never had a 4K release. As a result, the blu-ray releases represent the best visual quality the show will be available in. The Final Season is presented here on the steel book in the standard 2:39:1 letterbox format.
Just like the Star Trek Picard Season 3 Blu-ray, this changes to full screen for the special feature interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
For audio, the US English default soundtrack is the only one mastered to the DTS-HD Master standard. The French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese tracks are standard Dolby Digital 5:1 surround sound mastered. As with other releases, accessibility is improved through the subtitle options. Discovery’s final season offers English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Special Features
Given how pivotal Discovery has been to the current era of Star Trek, it’s a shame that its final season doesn’t offer a more comprehensive offering of extras. The back of the box proudly proclaims that it offers nearly two hours of special features, Deleted Scenes, and Audio Commentary singular. These are all on the last disk. There are no special features on any other disks in the set.
Given this, the singular commentary and deleted scene are unsurprisingly for the finale. Life, Itself. The deleted scene features a charming, if brief, corridor conversation between Saru and Nhan. Given that it’s not plot crucial and doesn’t contain any significant reveals I won’t spoil it further.
Sonequa Martin-Green (Burnham), David Ajala (Book), Michelle Paradise (Executive Producer and co-writer), and Olatunde Osunsanmi (Director) provide the audio commentary for Life, Itself. It’s disappointing that it’s just an online video call recording featuring all the classic trademarks of video calls: varying microphone quality (David Ajala’s seems to be the worst), echo, audio levels all over the place, and so on. The commentary is relatively surface-level.
But we get some fun bits of information, such as that Olatunde Osunsanmi and Jonathan Frakes had an arm wrestle to decide who would get the first kiss between Saru and T’Rina in their episode! We also learn that, as many suspected, Wilson Cruz was edited into the finale sequence.
Special Features – Featurettes
The rest of the extras are featurettes, with titles that feel a little targeted at the common critiques aimed at Discovery from certain parts of the fandom. A Team Effort looks at how the cast and crew come together, telling the story of how an episode goes from page to screen to our homes.
Discovery’s Creative Force looks at Olatunde Osunsanmi’s contributions to Discovery, looking back at his directorial style and contributions since the first season. It features interviews with the cast and crew giving glowing testimonies about his creativity, with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. We also find out that he was the mind behind the introduction of programmable matter!
Being Michael Burnham, I think, is a title that speaks for itself. Sonequa Martin-Green reflects back on Burnham’s character journey since the first episode. But this is also a behind-the-scenes look at the pick-up scenes that turned Life Itself from a season to a series finale. It is an absolute must-watch for any Discovery fan, featuring a beautiful goodbye speech from Sonequa Martin-Green.
Special Features – Featurettes Continued
We then have Character Development, which looks at the wider growth of the Discovery cast. It features interviews with Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Wilson Cruz, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, and Michelle Paradise. This feature focuses on the development of Saru, Stamets, Culber, and Tilly, showing how they grew and changed throughout the series run.
The Voyage of Season 5 is a more typical affair, showing the behind-the-scenes of the season, how the villains were developed, how the creatures were designed and iterated on, and why the Progenitors were selected as the plot hook for the season. This also includes interviews with Rod Roddenberry, who is wearing a delightfully stylish Star Trek shirt.
Finally, we have the Gag Reel, which shows behind-the-scenes antics. It’s short and sweet.
Conclusion
I’ve always been a fan and strong defender of Star Trek: Discovery. But I think even the strongest of critics would have to concede that the show bowed out on a high. While I wish that this set had as much depth and behind-the-scenes insight as the Picard Season 3 set, I’m grateful for what has been included. It offers a delightful insight into the creativity and passion of the cast and crew. As well as how much they clearly all care for each other and enjoy working together.
Star Trek: Discovery On Amazon
Discovery may have ended now, but I’m looking forward to seeing further adventures in the 32nd Century in Star Trek: Academy! Hopefully, it’s coming soon.
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