Star Trek: Discovery Can Never Tell Its Best Story Now That The Show Is Over

Star Trek: Discovery Won’t Reveal The Untold Story Of Burnham & Book’s Lost Year

Michael & Booker Grew Closer Traveling The Galaxy Together

Now that Star Trek: Discovery is over, the story of what happened in Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker's 'lost year' together won't be dramatized on-screen. Michael and Book fell in love during their year traveling the galaxy together as couriers, and there have been hints about their adventures throughout Star Trek: Discovery seasons 3 to 5. But audiences won't be able to see the details of Burnham and Book's voyages with Cleveland's cat and queen, Grudge.

Speaking to ScreenRant about Star Trek: Discovery season 5, David Ajala expressed interest in portraying Michael and Book's lost year. Check out what Ajala said below:

I think that'd be an amazing story. Because that year, I call it "the adventures of Burnham and Book featuring Grudge the Queen", like that specific period of time, I think there was so much growth for Michael Burnham, so much growth for Cleveland Booker. I think that journey inside of that year has allowed them to be the individuals that they've become, that we then meet in the rest of Season Three.

 

Una McCormack's 2021 novel Star Trek: Discovery: Wonderlands delved into what happened to Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker in the year before the USS Discovery arrived in the 32nd century, although Star Trek novels typically aren't considered official canon unless directly referenced on-screen in a Star Trek movie or TV series. Regardless, Wonderlands can be considered Burnham and Book's story during the lost year, unless a future incarnation of Star Trek: Discovery as a TV show or movie overrides Wonderlands with its own canon.

Star Trek: Discovery Gave Burnham & Book A Perfect Ending

Michael Got An Ending Unlike Any Other Star Trek Captain

Even if Star Trek: Discovery returns, going backwards to tell the lost year story of Michael Burnham and Cleveland Booker in 3188 wouldn't be in the cards. Star Trek: Discovery season 5's ending reunited Book and Burnham as a couple before launching them on a new adventure. Star Trek: Discovery's emotional epilogue then showed that, decades later, Admiral Michael Burnham and Book were happily married, and their son, Leto (Sawandi Wilson), was now a Starfleet Captain. Burnham then launched the USS Discovery on its final mission and destiny, as seen in Star Trek: Short Treks' "Calypso."

Whether Star Trek: Discovery ever returns, Michael Burnham received a happy ending unlike any other Star Trek Captain. Burnham's self-doubt, struggles, and ascension as a galaxy-saving hero were rewarded with a home and family that eluded Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), and Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). In a way, Star Trek: Discovery's ending closed the book (no pun intended) on Michael Burnham, although she and the USS Discovery still have many adventures that remain unseen.

The 32nd century galaxy with a broken United Federation of Planets before Commander Burnham and the USS Discovery solved the mystery of The Burn is still a fascinating era that Star Trek: Discovery could have explored further, which is what makes the story of Michael and Book's lost year together so compelling. The growth and contentment Michael Burnham gained at the end of Star Trek: Discovery would have greater context if audiences eventually saw how she started over in the 32nd century during her lost year with Book.