Star Trek Discovery may have gone far, far beyond any other point in the franchise’s timeline after its third season leap to the 32nd Century – but its final season is still finding time to address one of the biggest, oldest mysteries in the Star Trek universe.
Having being given a Red Directive (essentially, a Starfleet mission that must succeed at any cost) during the Discovery season 5 premiere, Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) discovers that she’s on the hunt for technology belonging to a group known as the Progenitors.
You may not recognize the name, but Star Trek fans of a certain vintage will certainly know of the ancient, life-creating beings: they form the basis of the 1993 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘The Chase’, which sees Patrick Stewart’s Picard uncover perhaps the great mystery left in the universe: where do we come from?
As it turns out, all sentient life was formed thanks to the one race (now known as the Progenitors) – who had hoped to fill the galaxy with all manner of beings in part due to their desire to leave a lasting legacy.
Audiences in the early ‘90s must have had their minds blown but, frustratingly, it was never brought up again – until now.
"The Chase was such an incredible episode. It raises these huge ideas, huge thematic explorations. Who are we? Where did we come from? And then the episode ends and Picard goes on and there's just this huge thing that they've discovered, and we just found ourselves wondering, 'Well, what happened after that? What did the message mean? And what was it all about? And then what did Picard do?' And you just don't let that go," Paradise explained.
The showrunner continued, "And so we found ourselves wondering about what might have happened after, and that really became the catalyst for the journey this season. We know in The Chase that these beings seeded life as we know it. And so we take that and we ask the question, 'Well, how did they do that?'
"They must have had a technology and this technology is out there. And it seemed kind of fun to explore, where would that be and what if it's still out there somewhere? And ultimately, that's what our heroes and the bad guys are now in a race to find. And it's just a really cool thing."
