Blu-ray Review: STAR TREK: DISCOVERY: SEASON FOUR

Home » Blu-ray Review: STAR TREK: DISCOVERY: SEASON FOUR

Dec 07, 2022 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

In the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, the crew had just jumped ahead 900 years into the future, where they learned that an event called the Burn had caused most of the galaxy’s dilithium to go inert. Without this element, warp speed travel was impossible for most starships, leaving the galaxy fragmented and disconnected. Many nations had left the United Federation of Planets, thanks to pressures from an evil syndicate known as the Emerald Chain. Due to their spore drive, Discovery was unaffected by the Burn, and was able to travel about the galaxy to investigate, find the source of the Burn event (a child named Su’Kal), and fix things. The crew also took out the head of Emerald Chain, Osyraa, restoring some peace in the galaxy. As the season came to a close, Saru had decided to stay on Kaminar to help Su’Kal get acclimated there, Burnham had been promoted to captain, planets were starting to re-join the Federation, and Discovery had a new mission, to distribute dilithium to those planets who had lost access due to the Burn.

The show’s fourth season picks up five months later. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is finally sitting in the captain’s chair of the Discovery, which has been busy making contact with many planets and cultures who had been isolated by the Burn, gifting much-needed dilithium, and offering their support with no strings attached—though some folks they cross paths with are still a bit wary and suspicious. Their goal is to share technology and knowledge with these other nations, and ultimately get them to rejoin the Federation. As the season opens, the crew of the Discovery is attending the reopening of Starfleet Academy for the first time since the Burn. However, the Discovery visit is interrupted by a distress call from a space station near Kwejian, Book’s (David Ajala) home planet. Despite Burnham’s objections, new Federation president Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) insists on tagging along as they respond, in order to observe Burnham at work. The situation turns out to be much more catastrophic and deadly than they imagined—there is some sort of space anomaly causing a wave of gravitational distortion that is spreading and causing mass destruction and casualties. The Discovery‘s primary focus is now to locate the source of this DMA (Dark Matter Anomaly) and find a way to stop it.

As the Discovery goes on this season-long story arc to find and stop the DMA, there are also some other missions-of-the-week and chances to explore the characters further. For Burnham, it’s proving that she deserves to be in the captain’s chair, making the tough decisions, and serving as the diplomat she needs to be—all while butting heads with president Rillak, who has a say in her future. Meanwhile, Booker is dealing with intense trauma and grief over the destruction caused by the DMA, and a mysterious man named Tarka (Shawn Doyle) may be instrumental in helping him get the revenge he seeks. However, Tarka’s past reveals some ulterior motives. Captain Tilly (Mary Wiseman) questions her purpose and goals in this new future they are in, and starts to challenge herself to get out of her comfort zone. Saru (Doug Jones) returns to Discovery to serve as Burnham’s first officer, where he reconnects with President T’Rina (Tara Rosling). Meanwhile, Stamets (Anthony Rapp) deals with the ship’s AI, Zora (Robinne Fanfair), who’s becoming increasingly sentient; Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) feels the weight of being the therapist for this entire displaced crew; and Adira (Blu del Barrio) and Gray Tal (Ian Alexander) explore their evolving relationship as Gray gets a synthetic body (ala Picard), allowing him to finally rejoin the living and be seen and interact with everyone else on the ship. (This storyline is a not-very-thinly-veiled allegory for the trans experience.)

Much like the previous season, the fourth season focuses on one major arc that ultimately gets resolved by the end, but at the same time, there is easily room to tell more stories in future seasons. While the DMA storyline feels a little too stretched out to run the entire 13 episodes, there is also a parallel political storyline concerning the Federation and the leaders of other planets who are hesitant to rejoin. There are also many entertaining missions-of-the-week, such as Burnham’s mother Gabrielle (Sonja Sohn) returning to help with a situation of a rogue nun of the Qowat Milat order, or Tilly and Adira running a Starfleet cadet team-building exercise that turns into a survival mission, a fun competition between Burnham and Book to obtain isolynium from the same black market dealer, and more.

While I enjoyed the season overall, I didn’t find it as strong as the previous season. It felt like something was missing. I’m not sure if that was due to the fact that they were filming during COVID. Many characters seemed to just show up for a block of episodes and then go away, sometimes for the rest of the season. One character that felt completely under-utilized after her bigger role in last season was Detmer (Emily Coutts), who was primarily relegated to the background this season. Also, I could have used a lot more Jett (Tig Notaro), who is easily my favorite character, and who always steals every scene she is in with her sarcastic, matter-of-fact humor. I also missed the gravitas and humor that Michelle Yeoh brought to the previous seasons.

CBS Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray release of this fourth season looks and sounds amazing. The video is presented with a pristine picture that looks quite clean and detailed throughout. This season the show deployed the Volume technology that is used by other shows such as The Mandalorian, which allows for more real-time backgrounds and effects rather than having them added in with green screen later on. I think this works quite well for this series as well. The sound is also excellent, making extensive use of the surround and stereo channels to provide a fully-immersive experience. The general ambiance of the ship really comes to life, and whenever there is gunfire or explosions, you feel right like you’re right in the middle of the action.

The season’s thirteen episodes are spread across 4 discs, which are placed on trays in a multi-disc HD keepcase. Our review copy did not include a slipcover, so I’m not sure if this season offers one or not. The release is loaded with bonus material, including over 90 minutes of interesting behind-the-scenes featurettes with the cast and crew, plus deleted scenes for three episodes, an audio commentary on the season finale, and a fun gag reel. I especially enjoyed the extensive look into how they used the new AR wall technology. While there’s a lot of great bonus material, there is also a lot more that is available on the Paramount+ YouTube channel that didn’t make it onto the discs.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (11:05:55)

All 13 episodes of the fourth season:
Disc 1: “Kobayashi Maru”, “Anomaly”, “Choose to Live”
Disc 2: “All Is Possible”, The Examples”, “Stormy Weather”, “…But to Connect”
Disc 3: “All In”, “Rubicon”, “The Galactic Barrier”, “Rosetta”
Disc 4: “Species Ten-C”, “Coming Home”
1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Japanese

Extras:

The Toll It Took (11:51)
The cast and crew talk about returning to film the new season during the pandemic and the new challenges and procedures this brought. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Alex Kurtzman, producer Ted Miller, executive producer Olatunde Osunsamni, executive producer Michelle Paradise, lighting designer Franco Tata, 2nd assistant director Kevin Hourigan, 1st assistant director Felix Gray, and stars Sonequa Martin-Green (“Michael Burnham”), Anthony Rapp (“Paul Stamets”), Blu del Barrio (“Adira”), Doug Jones (“Saru”), Wilson Cruz (“Dr Hugh Culber”), Mary Wiseman (“Sylvia Tilly”) & Ian Alexander (“Gray Tal”).
Deleted Scenes (4:07)
Four short deleted scenes from 3 episodes. Scenes can be found on each disc under the Episode Selection menu. Select from:
- 403 – “Choose To Live” (2:16) 2 scenes
- 405 – “The Examples” (1:25) 1 scene
- 411 – “Rosetta” (:26) 1 scene
Audio Commentary (1:00:22)
A fun and informative commentary on the season finale, “Coming Home”, with executive producer Michelle Paradise, executive producer/director Olatunde Osunsamni, and stars Sonequa Martin-Green (“Michael Burnham”) & David Ajala (“Cleveland Booker”). The participants share some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the production as they discuss how the scenes were shot, the actors, and more. Subtitles provided in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian & Japanese.
Being Michael Burnham: The Captain’s Log (14:22)
Star Sonequa Martin-Green talks about Burnham taking the captain’s chair, and how things changed both personally and professionally for her this season. Includes behind-the-scenes footage of Sonequa Martin-Green on set, and interviews with executive producer Michelle Paradise.
Creating Space (19:37)
The cast and crew talk about integrating a new AR wall (which they lovingly call “The Holodeck”) to create new locations and planets, replacing much of the typical expensive green screen shots. They explain how the technology works (it’s very similar to The Volume that The Mandalorian uses) and the benefits and challenges this new LED technology brought to the show. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with supervising art director Matt Middleton, 1st assistant director Felix Gray, VFX supervisor Alex Wood, executive producer Michelle Paradise, executive producer Olatunde Osunsamni, head of grip department Robert Daprato, lighting designer Franco Tata, director of photography Philip Lanyon, visual FX producer Matt Pellar, visual production supervisor Owen Deveney, virtual production supervisor Christopher Chinea, production designer Doug McCullough, CG supervisors Winrik Haentjens & Tamir Diab, matte painter Mujia Liao, lighting director for Pixomondo Zachary Dembinski, virtual production art director Asad Manzoor, VFX supervisor Nathaniel Larouche, and stars Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones & Mary Wiseman.
Star Trek: Discovery: The Voyage of Season 4 (52:25)
The cast and crew provide an extensive discussion of the season. Topics include the season’s opening scene, the relationship between Book and Burnham, the connection between Saru and Tilly, Dr. Culver taking on the mental health of the crew, the family of Adira, Gray, Stamets & Culver, Gray’s transition and its larger significance, pairing Tilly with Adira, the ship becoming sentient, Tarka’s driving force and backstory, Captain Ndoye’s deal with Booker, brining back T’Rina and her connection with Saru, bringing in more diversity with President Rillak, working with Stacey Abrams, and where we are at the end of the season. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producers Michelle Paradise & Olatunde Osunsamni, and stars Doug Jones, David Adjala (“Cleveland Booker”), Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz (“Hugh Culber”), Anthony Rapp, Ian Alexander, Blu del Barrio, Robine Fanfair (“The Onset Voice of Zora”), Phumzile Sitole (“Diatta Ndoye”), Tara Rosling (“President T’Rina”), Chelah Horsdal (“Federation President Laira Rillak”) & Stacey Abrams (“President of United Earth”).
Gag Reel (2:47)
The cast flub lines, deal with misbehaving props, crack themselves up, and just have fun on set.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Recommended

Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery is another satisfying 13-episode adventure that not only provides a self-contained season-long arc without leaving viewers on a cliffhanger, but also further explores the main characters and allows them to grow. While I didn’t find the fourth season’s overarching storyline quite as strong as the one in season 3, this season was still quite entertaining overall, especially some of the missions-of-the-week. CBS’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds excellent, and includes hours of bonus material that is sure to please longtime fans of the series. This is an easy recommendation.