STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Season Four
Anomaly-19
RELEASED OUT NOW! 2021-2022 | 12 | Blu-ray/dvd
Showrunners Alex Kurtzman, Michelle
Paradise
Cast Sonequa Martin-green, Anthony Rapp, Doug Jones, Blu del Barrio
There are few things we can actually thank the pandemic for, but the fact that it gave Discovery’s writers extra time to polish the show’s fourth season is one of them. The show’s first three years were a bumpy mess of brilliant butting up against truly awful, whereas what we have here is at least consistently watchable.
With Disco now under the leadership of Captain Burnham, the crew spend this season chasing a mysterious “anomaly” that’s snuffing out planets (essentially an interstellar pandemic). With the future Federation in full swing, the crew long established and the effects, as always, gorgeous, this season is arguably the most solid of them all. Extra kudos goes to David Ajala as Booker, who gets a tasty character arc to devour.
Extras An extensive season overview (52 minutes) sees the cast and showrunner Michelle Paradise discussing every episode in order. Techheads should enjoy “Creating Space”, an in-depth look at the production’s new AR Wall virtual set; people who glaze over reading user manuals will be none the wiser after 20 minutes. Featurettes on Covid precautions have dated like milk, but the one here (12 minutes) is fairly interesting, with Wilson Cruz confessing to an anxiety attack and Doug Jones noting that being buried under prosthetics meant he was used to a degree of isolation.
The latest “Being Michael Burnham” featurette (14 minutes) sees Sonequa Martin-green being so open about her issues that British viewers may feel faintly uncomfortable; expect words like “actualisation” and iphone footage of sobbing. Plus: commentary on the finale; four minutes of deleted scenes; a gag reel.
All the signage for the AR Wall virtual set inside Discovery’s Toronto studio refers to it as “The Holodeck”.