6 Ups & 3 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.10 — Life, Itself

Sadly, I'm not writing this article in any kind of liminal space-time as there is a lot to get through, not least, in this case, the appearance of a Progenitor. Reading between the lines, this was (the mind of) a real one too, not a projection — from a re-configured tricorder or otherwise.

The c/Chase is over, and Burnham has met the result — the end of a few weeks of a Red Directive is the culmination of decades of wanting for some viewers. What Star Trek: The Next Generation began, and gave up on unceremoniously, Star Trek: Discovery has concluded (and continued) with panache. Not only did we meet an actual Progenitor in the in-between flesh, we also found out that the trans-galactic life-seeding technology they were standing on was not built by the Progenitors in the first place. Q'what, now?!

As the Progenitor put it, "We theorised that whoever created this created us […] [in] a cycle of creators and creations countless times over. This place predates them all". That doesn't leave many options in canon. If the 'who' weren't the Q, then perhaps the Preservers? The Arretans?

Either way, Burnham was now the one in charge of it all. Whilst I and others at TrekCulture were definitely team scientific curiosity with Stamets, we can understand why anyone would not want to hold on to such vast power. Plus, as Burnham herself noted, there was no longer a need for the technology. The galaxy was already teeming with the diversity of life itself.