User Reviews

Conclusion to what felt like a trilogy of stories about the origin of the burn and the conflict with the Emerald Chain.

I found this to be a fairly mediocre episode.

Firstly the positives are that it is quite entertaining and contains a number of decent character moments. The pace is strong and it manages three plot threads well. Characters like Burnham, Saru, Culiber, Adira, Tilly and even Owosekun get decent moments to shine. However, what was promised as a fairly interesting political conflict in the previous episodes degenerates into a pretty bland 'goody shoots baddy' showdown.

It is very focussed around Michael Burnham saving the day and that will annoy numerous trolls (which is a bonus), however she is the central character and her arc has always been leading to what happens. No huge complaints from me with how it unfolds in this episode, but some of the writing is ridiculous in depicting her with almost superhero like physical prowess, particularly during the rather silly turbolift scene. Also looking at her character development over the course of the show there is very little growth leading to her big moment. In fact everyone else seems to have developed around her so they can realise she was right for being a maverick all along.

Speaking of writing, this episode suffers from some of the classic, clunky, Discovery exposition dialogue that sucks the life out of a few scenes by having characters over-explain what's about to happen to the audience.

I struggled with aspects of the crew suffocation story. Not because it was badly done. On the contrary it was great to see Owosekun having something cool to do. However, threatening to kill a number of regular characters does not generate any real tension because we know what the outcome will be.

I think my favourite aspect, at this stage of the overall narrative, is the story involving the Kelpian. Although the cause of the Burn is a big letdown, the concept of this character existing inside a hollow world created by his parents is excellent. The contribution of Saru, Culiber, Adira and Gray is memorable.

Visually, it is hit and miss. Some of the action sequences were strong, but transitions using the camera rotations made me feel sick on a number of occasions.

All performances are solid with no real weak links. Doug Jones and Sonequa Martin-Green stand out for me.

Not sure why there is so much hate for this show ? It's no different from any of the previous Star Trek shows Discovery has it's main character it's likeable character and it's annoying character. The biggest plot hole if anyone wants a moaning session is that this Star Trek is supposed to be set before Captain Kirk & Co. so how come the ships look so much better ? Overall not the worst show in the World but it will not please all the Trekkies but I often wonder what would.

It was a great season finale - I just don't get the hatred here all over!

To all the whiners: Go and watch TOS until the very end and stop watching this show if you hate it so much!

I wasn't a fan of the first couple of seasons, which were all over the place and lacked focus. Good to see Discovery is finally finding some direction, liking the storyline so much better. It may not be the Trek I really want, but at least it has improved so much more this season

Most of the reviews missed the entire plot for this season, or entire series. While most series establishes a premise for the how a show will go in a few episodes, it took Discovery 3 seasons. It's a launch of new "discoveries." I admit, I was impatient. I was bothered by seeing this is very different than all the other Star Treks. But it wasn't. It took time, heck it took over 700 hundred years, to finally establish its intent to discover.

Following the seismic change the show made at the end of the second season, "Star Trek Discovery" leaps away from trying to interweave itself into existing lore and instead sets its own path for the future of the storyline.

Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) arrives 900 years in the future saving the universe from the danger of the artificial intelligence that threatened all organic life. Though Discovery was in hot pursuit through the wormhole, they are unfortunately nowhere to be seen. Isolated, but on a planet with a breathable atmosphere Michael meets Booker (David Ajala) an empath and smuggler, who introduces her to the future and in particular the shattered, disparate remains of the Federation.

I enjoyed this season of Discovery overall. If the second season was a little more focused on one story, that of the mysterious angel, the third season is a little more traditional in its one- or two-part stories serving the bigger narrative. There are plot through points, such as restoring the Federation to some semblance of its former glory, the battles with the Emerald Chain and investigating what caused 'the burn'. Despite the movement years into the future giving them access to newer sleeker technology, there are some nods to the wider universe still. There is acknowledgement of the Kelvin timeline, the guardian of tomorrow makes an appearance and a version of Voyager is one of the few remaining Federation ships.

One consequence of the slightly more traditional structure is that the finale feels a little underwhelming, the resolution of the "burn" storyline is disappointing and the very last moments don't particularly ring true (to say more would be spoilers, but it feels a little bit underearned, given what's happened previously, even a couple of episodes previously). We lose a few characters across the run, particularly hard to take is Michelle Yeoh (presumably) leaving permanently this time. Blu Del Barrio joins and is given a fair bit of storyline for their character Adira, the first Trill host in the series for a while. Oded Fehr is welcome as Admiral Vance and most randomly David Cronenberg joins as Federation investigator Kovich.

The finale is poor, no arguments here, but the season as a whole wasn't as bad, in my eyes, as some the reviews here would have it. I would like a bit more science, in my science fiction going forward, but regardless I'll be back for season four.

We're literally living in a new era and this is the new Star Trek and I'm loving it!

The representation of the future and the characters are amazing and colorful. Even though some of them didn't get the screen time they deserved, you can fit their personality to the story very well. 2020 was a really bad year, it is not the worst, we're still suffering through it's impact but friendship & teamwork is what we need and we 'dream'.

Season 3 of Star Trek Discovery is by far the best Star Trek season I've ever watched. There are some other critics complaining about over using CGI and sorts but, have you ever thought that they are all closed up in an hangar, in the middle of somewhere, without any physical contact to their families during this pandemic?

Just take a step back and "feel". Try to turn off your brain for a while. This is not a documentary or a fact show, it is a Science Fiction. Enjoy it. Give the credit to the actors and all of the people taking part in the show.

We do not need negativity. We had enough of it in 2020.

Be Safe & Stay Healthy.

I liked this season, except Burnham cried way too much. Now that she's Captain, I hope she doesn't get so emotional. I haven't watched season four yet, I hope Saru comes back, he's my favorite character.

I'm not sure what went wrong with this show, but everything is just so heavy and emotional. There's no humor, there's no science, or wide-eyed optimism about the future. It's all just overly dramatic monologues and endless emotional scenes. It's like every episode now is, "a very special episode." It all just starts to feel like a bad soap opera. When every scene is a emotional scene they begin to fall flat.

The "action" in this episode was so contrived and predicable. It feels like it was written by 10-year-olds. And the way everything has to be so emotional makes the show embarrassing to watch.

Seasons 1 and 2 of "Star Trek:Burnham" were bad but season 3 elevates this show to being pure garbage.

In large part, the entirety of Star Trek: Discovery has been received negatively. I can't argue with such logic. What I can say, however, is that Discovery isn't a bad show simply by definition. It tries to live up to its Trek legacy, but just continually falls short. The biggest reason for this? After three seasons, Discovery still has no idea of the type of show it wants to be.

The first season of Discovery (my favorite by a wide margin thus far) tries to be an edgy drama, blending Kurtzman-style Trek with a hard edge ("Star Trek with swears and violent content") while showing it has a solid grasp on franchise history.

The second season dials down the shock-and-awe factor and tries to tell one coherent narrative, while also making the momentous decision to include a hardcore canon character in Young Spock.

This third season, the show pivots again, flinging Discovery far into the future and opening up endless possibilities of storytelling. Instead of really exploring them, however, it changes into a feel-good, almost family show that one might find generically running on a network for a few seasons.

I would argue that any one of those approaches (gritty, canon-centric, feel-good) could work for modern-day Trek, and sometimes do in this series. But overall, the problem is that the entire bedrock seems to change with each fresh slate of episodes, so the show can never settle into any kind of groove.

For example: this third season, the focus on social issues and feel-good premises is such a 180-shift from what, say, the first season was. To be honest, it sometimes felt like I was watching a completely different show. The major failing is that such a tone severely undercuts what could have been some very interesting story avenues (re-connecting with Starfleet, Michael's questioning of that institution, The Burn, and just the future of the Trek universe in general). All those morsels are introduced, but ultimately left to die on the vine as the show concocts scene after scene of saccharine (sometimes ridiculously so) "emotional" moments that are not earned whatsoever.

The two things Discovery still has going for it:

1. By skill or luck, it has assembled an interesting ensemble cast. It only barely utilizes them correctly, but their stories are juuuuuust compelling enough to elicit emotion. 2. As previously mentioned, the show-runners really know how to emotionally manipulate the audience in certain aspects. They fully realize that Star Trek is about ideals, at its core, and do just enough to keep that through-line. It certainly doesn't hurt that they can bust out Trek musical themes at will.

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that barring some miraculous turnaround, Discovery peaked for me in Season One. If this were quite literally any other series, I'd ditch it and probably never look back. Confoundedly, though, I'm a Trekkie at heart and am continuously pulled back in simply to "see what might be next". But at this point, my long Trek history is the only thing keeping me engaged.

Ive been a treky fan all my life and ive much enjoyed ,discovery the original star trek music at end of episide brought tears to my eyes : long may this series continue

Simple. It isn't one star. So please don't be stupid. It is by no way ten. So stop being equally as stupid. Compared to the final two seasons finales, this was no way close.

It's still a great show but it failed to deliver what it had done previously.

Maybe concentrate on the stories rather than keeping the PC brigade happy.

I miss STNG and STV where it was science, exploration, and 26 episodes per season. The good ole days. And really the burns cause is....what is this Charmed??? Just awful!

This episode concludes season 3 which has had two plot lines: the burn and the emerald chain. Both plots struggle on their own in the vastness of this unexplored and untethered future. So it's little wonder that when these two plots conclude in the same episode the result is somewhat unsatisfying.

The Burn conclusion feels like a skip me episode from TNG's past. While the Emerald Chain finale is more like something from TNG movie - and not a good one.

Once again the focus is on Michael Burnham to save the day and no matter what she does (disobey orders, betray people, lie, kill, steal) she is in the 'right".

This season has been the poorest of the 3 so far. It has felt very lost in the vastness of an unknown future and with too much changed from what we know of the 23rd / 24th century its difficult to get into or even care.

...the Gamma Quadrant hasn't received the data stream yet. Their review is pending

Tilly with that hairdo looks more and more like John Travolta as a Psychlo in the Battlefield Earth movie (2000) ...Coincidence?!

Every episode increased the tilted head whispering, crying, and gender issues, instead of good Star Trek stories.

It seems that the future Federation is so impotent that the weapons from the whole fleet can't destroy the antique ship Discovery

An extremely interesting mystery of "The Burn" progressed so slowly into a galactic anticlimactic "The Bore"

A fortune was spent on sfx and cgi, but STD has no soul or genuine sci fi content We are watching *soap fantasy*. Bad acting, bad writers, bad directors.

Judging by the laughable elevator ridiculousness this ep, Discovery must be tens of kilometers/miles across!

Season 4 scripts have been clearly revealed this ep, and unbelievably, next year looks to be worse than this season!

STD experiment = epic fail