Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes

With 27 reviews aggregated from critics, Star Trek: Discovery Season Three is officially “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. The third season of the CBS All Access series achieved a 93% fresh rating, which is more than enough to qualify for the Certified Fresh seal from the website. The season’s critical consensus reads, “With less canonical baggage and a welcome dose of character development, Discovery continues to forge its own path and is narratively all the better for it.” This score is the highest rating yet for a season of Discovery and its third Certified Fresh seal. The first season of the show scored an 82% fresh rating. Its second earned an 81% score. ComicBook.com‘s review of the new season noted a return to the space-as-frontier theme of Star Trek: The Original Series:

“The Star Trek universe of the 32nd century feels dangerous like it hasn’t before. The Discovery crew made a sacrifice and woke up 930 years later to find the galaxy is not what they’d hoped it’d be. The institution they put their faith in failed, and no one was there to pick up the pieces. It’s an emotionally fraught space to navigate as they navigate physical space searching for the Federation and a greater purpose and connection to the galaxy they find themselves in now. Based on these first few episodes, it looks to be a satisfying and resonant journey for anyone choosing to embark on it with them.”

Star Trek: Discovery began airing its third season in October following a delay in post-production due to the coronavirus pandemic. CBS All Access already renewed the show for a fourth season, which begins production in November.

“Oh my goodness! I am so excited to be back on set,” series star Sonequa Martin-Green said in a video announcing the return to production. “It’s going to be great to see everybody, and I think we’re going to really love on each other. I’m so excited to be giving you a season 4 – and watch season 3! That’s what I would say. That’s what I’m really excited about.”

Discovery still has years to go, according to recent comments from co-creator and co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman. “I’m going to say, in all honesty, there are years and years left on Discovery,” he said during a recent podcast interview. “I think that because Star Trek, in general, has had a long history of going something like seven seasons minimum, and we just jumped into the future… it’s not that it’s a brand new show, but it’s a whole new set of variables with a whole new set of ideas and stories, and I don’t think we limit ourselves to thinking, ‘Oh, we’re capped at this place.’ I’ll tell you when the show starts to feel stale to us, we will be rallying to stop it — but for now, it doesn’t feel like we are running into a shortage of stories.”

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on CBS All Access.