Star Trek: Discovery Showrunner Reveals Why the Final Season Is a Sequel to a Surprising Next Generation Episode

Star Trek: Discovery returned last week with its two-episode Season 5 premiere on Paramount+, and though there were hints at a connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation ahead of the premiere, many fans were surprised by references to the TNG Season 6 episode "The Chase." Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's plot is a sequel to that Next Generation episode as Captain Michael Burnham and the USS Discovery crew race to acquire the technology of the so-called Progenitors, the ancient aliens whose DNA seeded all humanoid life in the galaxy. ComicBook.com spoke with Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise – who also wrote the Season 5 premiere episode, "Red Directive" – about how "The Chase" entered into the Star Trek: Discovery conversation.

"Someone brought it up in the room," Paradise says. "It was an episode that had kind of stuck with me just because it explores such big ideas and then at the end, they just kind of, they move on and I had so many questions at the end of that episode and of course, in the episode, they're not named Progenitors, we named them that and we were actually wondering back in season four, if they should be part of that season. and then as the story continued in season four with the 10-C, it just became too much to include them. But the idea of the progenitors and what that meant and the kinds of questions that we were all asking sort of stuck with us. And so when we came into Season 5, knowing that we wanted kind of an action-adventure season, we returned to that idea of how life was seeded in the galaxy and what that might have been like and who did it and how and all of that and it then became the core of our adventure."

Star Trek: Discovery will end with its fifth season, which Paradise and the rest of the show's cast and crew did not learn until after they'd completed production. Despite that, Paradise believes they'd have stuck to following up on "The Chase" even if they had known Discovery's fifth season would be its last.

"You know, we've actually had that conversation that, of all the seasons, this one does feel like the most fitting," Paradise says. "I think we would have, even in retrospect, there's nothing we've talked about that we would have done differently if we had known that it was the last season. And certainly, in terms of the questions it raises, the journeys that our heroes are on in terms of searching for meaning and finding out more about themselves and growth, all of that naturally comes up when you're talking about life itself if you will. I think we probably would have gone that same direction."

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 on Paramount+

According to Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's official synopsis, the season "finds Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well… dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it."

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's cast includes Sonequa Martin-Green (Captain Michael Burnham), Doug Jones (Saru), Anthony Rapp (Paul Stamets), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), Wilson Cruz (Dr. Hugh Culber), David Ajala (Cleveland "Book" Booker), Blu del Barrio (Adira) and Callum Keith Rennie (Rayner). Star Trek: Discovery Season 5's recurring guest stars include Elias Toufexis (L'ak) and Eve Harlow (Moll).

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 debut weekly on Thursdays on Paramount+.