Star Trek: Discovery Had Much Bigger Finale Plans (But Paramount Said No)

Star Trek: Discovery fans were deprived of the opportunity to see the finale turned into a full-length movie. The show was the first original Star Trek series to debut on CBS All Access, the original name of the now Paramount+ streaming platform. Star Trek: Discovery helped pave the way for Picard, Strange New Worlds, and a host of other Star Trek content now found on Paramount+. But when Star Trek: Discovery wrapped production on Season 5 in 2022, Paramount+ made the surprising decision to cancel it. Discovery was allowed to return for a 16-minute epilogue to wrap things up properly, but one of the show’s stars reveals they had even longer plans that were ultimately denied.

The cast of Star Trek: Discovery got back together at Trek Talks 4 (via TrekMovie.com). On hand were Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham), David Ajala (Book), Doug Jones(Saru), Wilson Cruz (Culber), Jayne Brook (Cornwell), Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Blu del Barrio (Adira), Ian Alexander (Gray), Emily Coutts (Detmer), Ronnie Rowe (Bryce), and Sara Mitich (Airiam/Nilsson). When the topic of Star Trek: Discovery‘s finale came up, Martin-Green, a producer starting on Season 4, elaborated on the behind-the-scenes politicking that went into creating the finale.

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“I remember from the moment we found out that the show was going to be ending, and we were we were in talks with Paramount+ about how we were going to wrap the show up,” Martin-Green said. “What they 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. So they said, it’s not going to be an additional episode. It’s not going to be, I think what Alex and Michelle originally wanted was a full two-hour movie finale kind of thing, right? And it was like, no, we’re not going to be able to do that. And it’s like, okay, well then what about an extra episode? No, we’re not going to be able to do that. Okay, what about like an extra like half of an episode or something like that?

What they ended up having was about 12 pages… closed it up in 12 pages, right? I feel like that’s how long the coda was. It couldn’t have been any longer than that, right, David? I feel like it was really short. … I remember being really sad when I found out about that because suddenly our options were very limited of what we were going to be able to touch in that short period of time.”

Martin-Green went on to say that she tried to come up with options that wouldn’t cost a lot of money, like having everyone together in a white room or a dream space. Unfortunately, the Discovery crew had to make the best out of the resources they were given.

“Alex and Michelle have said this, we’ll keep saying this, that we’re grateful that they gave us this because they did not have to,” she said. “And this is not always the case with shows. So we did get to close up and I am so grateful for that.”

She wound up being pleased with how the finale turned out, and it seems that it turned into a joyous occasion for friends to get back together one final time to say goodbye to these characters they brought to life over several years.

“This flashback with everyone, I remember that really touched me,” she said. “That really hit me in my gut and hit me in my heart when it was like, okay, we have this. We have this moment… And even the way we were able to bring Wilson in, it was so important and so big on so many levels… And in that, you know, three days that we started, I don’t know how we got anything done because it was just, it was just a bunch of, we were just like, it was just crying and delirium, and tears and laughter and delirium and tears. The whole three days, because we almost shot straight through three days. We shot so long, you know, to close everything out. But yeah,  it was really big.”

Have you had the chance to check out the finale of Star Trek: Discovery? If so, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!