How ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Made a Lasting Legacy Despite Cancellation

Meredith JacobsSat, August 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM UTC

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Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. - Brendan Meadows / Paramount+

It took three seasons of fits and starts and learning experiences for Sonequa Martin-Green‘s Michael Burnham to become captain on the USS Discovery, and once she did, there was no looking back. “Let’s fly,” she said as she took the hot seat on the bridge.

It was an apt phrase for the show as well. Four previous Star Trek franchise series ran and even overlapped from 1987 to 2005; after that, it would be 12 years before Discovery took flight in 2017, continuing the kinds of voyages that Gene Roddenberry had outlined decades earlier.

“Star Trek‘s always been [about] diversity and universality and unity, so I truly believe it’s one of the main reasons it’s so important to so many people to this day,” Martin-Green said in 2017. “If you say you love the legacy of Star Trek but you don’t love that, then you’ve missed it.”

Discovery certainly continued that legacy. Burnham is the franchise’s first Black female captain. Anthony Rapp‘s Paul Stamets is the first openly gay character on a Trek series; other important Trek firsts were Stamets’ relationship with Wilson Cruz‘s Dr. Hugh Culber, as well as the show’s nonbinary (Blu del Barrio‘s Adira) and transgender (Ian Alexander‘s Gray) characters.

David Ajala as Book (Paramount+)

Aliens Abound

Per usual — and as fans have always loved — Discovery continued the adventures that found the ship exploring new worlds and alien races. Set 10 years before the Original Series, it establishes Burnham as half-Vulcan Mr. Spock’s foster sister, having been adopted by his parents when she was an orphan.

Discovery also reintroduced Science Officer Spock, Capt. Christopher Pike and Number One, played by Ethan Peck, Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn, respectively, joining the cast for Season 2. They became such fan favorites that it led to the creation of the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2022.

If not for Discovery, we wouldn’t be following their story, as well as those of other familiar Enterprise characters, including James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley as a younger version of William Shatner‘s character) in the years before he became a captain.

Blu del Barrio as Adira (Paramount+)

But Discovery doesn’t just tell the origin stories (including that of Captain Pike’s horrific fate); it also goes beyond them, with the crew heading 930 years into the future at the end of Season 2, to the year 3188, over a century later than what had been seen at the time, to save the universe from the evil AI Control.

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For Star Trek, it’s always about the journey, and Discovery centers on Burnham’s.

As executive producer Aaron Harberts explained, “We wanted someone at the center not yet fully formed, someone still discovering who she is and what she stands for as she fights the good fight.” But it was always leading to the captain’s chair, as it did by the end of Season 3.

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Still, Discovery never forgets where Burnham herself started, as a one-time jailed mutineer whom the crew took a long time to trust.

Anthony Rapp as Stamets (Paramount+)

In a full-circle moment, the final season (thanks to an encounter with a time bug) allowed Burnham to face her past self in one of Martin-Green’s favorite moments. “

I loved being able to see the contrast between who Burnham used to be and who she is now, because I think it can be easy to forget how far she came over the course of the series,” she explained. “Burnham’s maturation was cemented because of that storyline.”

It continued in the series finale, with Burnham making the call that the tech belonging to the Progenitors — the beings who created life — was too much for one person or culture to control. In the series’ final episode — with a coda filmed late to close out the story after the show was canceled — we see Burnham’s satisfying future.

Ian Alexander as Gray Til (Paramount+)

She’s now an admiral, and she and her partner Book (David Ajala) have a son, Leto, who is a Starfleet captain. And then, in a dreamlike sequence with her crew on the bridge, there’s one more chance to have everyone together one last time where they stood strong so many times.

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Appropriately enough, it all ends with one last “Let’s fly” from Burnham.

“Getting to see where Burnham and Book go and that they have a son, and that scene on the bridge, was just so beautiful,” recalled executive producer Michelle Paradise. “To see all of our heroes as they are now one more time and saying goodbye to the ship…it felt like it wrapped it up in a really lovely way.”

Of course, putting Discovery in the books simply meant it was taking its place in the universe of the franchise. Strange New Worlds grew out of it, and Picard then followed Patrick Stewart‘s now-admiral for three seasons. Then, Lower Decks took the franchise animated for five seasons, with Prodigy a favorite for younger fans, and Starfleet Academy centering on cadets.

If there’s one thing that Star Trek has taught us over the years, especially so with Discovery, it’s that the journey is never over. And facing challenges only means that a new one is about to begin.

TV Guide Magazine’s Star Trek: The Captains Special Issue is available for order online now at StarTrek.TVGM2026.com, and for purchase on newsstands nationwide.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”