Discovery to end with Season 5

Would have been funny if they revealed in the last episode that instead of reenacting the Alamo the 2 lads were actually going to the holodeck to batter the arsses off each other.

It was just a stupid ending because fans were screaming for it to tie in with Short Trek Calypso.

Far too often the show was written with the reactions of fans online.

SNW would be better if it wasn't a sequel. Most of the plots would work just as well in a post Voyager show. Spock is the only character that isn't a new personality so the rest of the crew just need to be renamed.

Ah Airiam…you know what, I think you've hit upon the thematic root of what was wrong with Discovery in the hutshell of a single episode.

Upon deciding to kill off Airiam, the writers had chosen to give the mysterious cyborg bridge-officer a back story. Actual character development and in doing so they told a pretty good story of someone who got so badly injured that they needed to replace a lot of their body with technology. But I sense they only did this because they knew she would be gone soon.

Up until this episode, we saw Airiam on the bridge…but that was about it…we didn't know what she was, we didn't know if she was an early attempt at a Soogn android or something like that. She was simply there as set dressing for the bridge…much like everyone else there.

The focus was always on Soniqua Martin-Green's character. This was the character who got all signifigant plot points and lines, this was the character who would be the cause-of and solution-to all of life's problems. Airiam's job, much like everyone else on the bridge, was to look at Burnham while she functioned as the central axis for the plot. I'm wondering if we'll ever find out why Discovery was written this way. My theory always was that Martin-Green had some kind of contract-arrangement that ensured the central role of Burnham in all scripts, but over time I'm starting to wonder if this had more to do with the production itself falling into a series of bad habits when it came to writing for the show.

Regardless of the why, the result was evident as soon as Airiam was gone. Following soon after was the Memorial Service. The subtile and well handled character beats of Airiam's story are washed away by the over wrath and saccurine wailings of characters who barely knew her. A series of speeches that were drenched in sadness, but felt as shallow as a paddling pool. This was not Kirk's heartfelt goodbye to Spock in Star Trek II, this wasn't even the cheesy holodeck send-off for Yar on TNG. It was a signal that side characters like Airiam would be expended in service of trying to elevate Martin-Green's character to emotional hights that the actress simply could not handle or deliver on.

That is the frustrating legacy of Discovery. The components of a potentially excellent Trek show, beaten to a pulp in the service of promoting one hopelessly unlikeble character. If only they hadn't done that…