I Wish Star Trek: Discovery Got To Do The Series Ending They Originally Wanted

I wish Star Trek: Discovery was able to have the ending executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise originally wanted. The first Star Trek on Paramount+ series, Star Trek: Discovery wrapped up in May 2024 after five seasons. Paramount+ announced Discovery would end with season 5 in March 2023, but the streamer authorized three additional days of filming in spring 2023 to add a climactic coda to what became Star Trek: Discovery's series finale, "Life Itself."

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 was an adventurous and propulsive intergalactic treasure hunt as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) raced the criminal couple Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) to find the ancient technology of the Progenitors. Discovery season 5 was effectively a sequel to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "The Chase," about how humanoid life was seeded in the galaxy. Discovery season 5 also culminated with the wedding of Ambassador Saru (Doug Jones) and Ni'Var President T'Rina (Tara Rosling).

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 was never originally intended to end the series, and planning for Star Trek: Discovery season 6 would have commenced had Paramount+ not decided to pull the plug. While executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise, as well as series lead Sonequa Martin-Green, have expressed their thanks to Paramount+ for allowing them to film Star Trek: Discovery's finale coda, they all hoped for a more ambitious way to close out Star Trek: Discovery, and it's a shame that it didn't happen.

Sonequa Martin-Green Reveals Producers' Hopes For How Star Trek: Discovery Could Have Ended

Star Trek: Discovery Had To Settle For Paramount+'s Offer

Trek Talks 4, the annual fundraiser for the Hollywood Food Coalition, assembled 11 members of Star Trek: Discovery's cast for a special reunion hosted by Syfy Sistas' Tamia Harper. During the panel, Sonequa Martin-Green, who was also a producer on Star Trek: Discovery, revealed details she had never publicly offered before of what went on behind the scenes regarding how Star Trek: Discovery's finale coda came to be. Sonequa said executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise originally asked Paramount+ for more than the 12 extra minutes Discovery got. Read her quote below:

I remember from the moment we found out the show was going to be ending, and we were in talks with Paramount+ about how we were gonna wrap the show up. And what [Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise] wanted [was] an additional episode to really be able to touch everyone’s stories, to really be able to close this thing out. We were not able to be afforded that. They said, ‘It’s not gonna be an additional episode, it’s not gonna be’ - I think what Alex and Michelle originally wanted was a full 2-hour movie finale kind of thing.

And it was like, ‘No, we’re not gonna be able to do that.’ ‘Okay, what about an extra episode?’ ‘No, we’re not gonna be able to do that. ‘Okay, what about an extra half of an episode, or something like that?’ What they ended up having was about 12 pages. Close it up in 12 pages… Then, all of a sudden, our options – I remember feeling really sad about that because suddenly, our options were very limited of what we were gonna be able to touch in that short period of time.

Sonequa Martin-Green also revealed her own "dreams and visions" about how Star Trek: Discovery could have ended, like, "How about all of us are in a white room, and we’re talking, and we’re in a dream space, and we reveal things that have never been revealed before?" Star Trek: Discovery's brain trust obviously had far more vaulting ambitions for how to give the show a fitting sendoff, but they were limited by Paramount+ downsizing their plans to the 12-minute coda that audiences saw.

It's disappointing that Star Trek: Discovery didn't end with a 2-hour movie, or even an extra episode, although Star Trek: Discovery's finale was still an extra-length conclusion with the addition of the coda. Star Trek: Discovery also didn't enjoy its final two episodes screened theatrically in IMAX theaters like Star Trek: Picard season 3's finale. However, fans in Los Angeles were treated to a special theatrical screening of Star Trek: Discovery's final episode in Beverly Hills with cast members and executive producer Michelle Paradise in attendance.

Why Paramount+ Ended Star Trek: Discovery With Season 5

Star Trek Was Being Downsized At The Streamer

Paramount+ ending Star Trek: Discovery with season 5 was a result of the streamer downsizing its Star Trek content. Thanks to Star Trek: Discovery's success, Paramount+ expanded to five Star Trek series, including Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds by 2022. However, the changing nature of the streaming business, and Paramount's pending sale to Skydance, have forced cost-cutting.

Today, only Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are in Paramount+'s lineup, with the rest of the Star Trek shows now over. Paramount+ launched Star Trek movies made for streaming in January 2025 with Star Trek: Section 31, but negative reception may have curtailed plans for more Star Trek streaming movies. Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds each have 2 new seasons on the way, so Paramount+ has new Star Trek content through 2026. What comes after isn't clear.

Star Trek: Discovery Still Got A Great Ending, Even If It Could Have Been More

Discovery's Coda Synched Up To One Of Its Biggest Mysteries

Star Trek: Discovery's ending was immensely satisfying, even if the show's masterminds hoped for much more than a 12-minute coda. "Life Itself" saw Captain Burnham meet one of the Progenitors and decide that its life-giving technology was too dangerous in a galaxy filled with enemies like the Breen. Discovery shockingly connected to Star Trek: Enterprise by revealing Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg) is really the time-traveling Agent Daniels from Enterprise. And Saru's wedding to T'Rina was a heartfelt moment, culminating in Burnham and Cleveland Booker's (David Ajala) romantic reunion.

What Star Trek: Discovery's coda achieved with its finale coda is even more remarkable. In just 12 minutes, Discovery flash-forwarded decades to find Admiral Michael Burnham and Book happily married. They even have a son, Captain Leto Burnham-Booker (Sawandi Wilson), who flew his mother back to the USS Discovery for its final mission. Discovery's coda honored its cast before shockingly synching up to the Star Trek: Short Treks episode, "Calypso," with Burnham sending the USS Discovery's sentient A.I., Zora (Annabelle Wallis), and her starship to its ultimate destiny centuries into the future.

Alex Kurtzman, Michelle Paradise, and Sonequa Martin-Green's gratitude to Paramount+ is apropos for allowing Star Trek: Discovery to bow out in such a fitting way. Without Discovery's coda, the alternative would have been a more abrupt, open-ending that doesn't deliver the kind of emotional closure to the breadth of Discovery that "Life Itself" achieved. Still, Star Trek: Discovery's ending could have been grander, and how the show might have concluded with a 2-hour movie or another episode instead of an extra 12 minutes is now an eternal "What If?"

Will Star Trek: Discovery Ever Return?

Never Say Never

For now, Star Trek: Discovery is over. There are no plans to reunite the crew of the USS Discovery, and the cast has moved onto other projects, occasionally seeing each other at various Star Trek conventions to meet fans and reminisce about the glory days of Disco. Star Trek: Discovery's 32nd century era continues in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, with Disco's Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr), and Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) featured in recurring roles. Discovery's other cast members also hope to be called to appear in Starfleet Academy.

The misfire of Star Trek: Section 31, another direct spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, leaves the future of Star Trek streaming movies in limbo. A future streaming movie reunion is, otherwise, a viable potential scenario to bring back Star Trek: Discovery for another galaxy-saving adventure. As time marches on, Star Trek: Discovery's legacy and importance to the franchise will be reassessed as new fans discover the show, and more Star Trek is built upon its foundation. Perhaps a Star Trek: Discovery reunion movie could one day serve as the substitute for the bigger conclusion Disco season 5 originally hoped for.