By With the odd exception, the rule of thumb with many “Star Trek” series is that they usually don’t find their footing until their third season.
Though there’s the occasional exceptional episode like “The Measure of a Man,” “Conspiracy” or “Q Who,” it wasn’t until the third season that “Star Trek: The Next Generation” found its rhythm.
Same goes for “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise” which finally clicked after galvanising around a larger galactic threat and shake-up of their storytelling structure. “Voyager” and “Picard” similarly didn’t hit their best work until their third year.
It could also apply to “Star Trek: Discovery” which famously had a very difficult first season before seeing a distinct improvement in its second.
However it was until the third season, when the show leaped forward nine centuries, that it became the ‘Discovery’ it is today. Speaking with SFX Magazine recently, series lead Sonequa Martin-Green freely admits the show had some growing pains:
“To be honest with you, no, we did not have it from the start. We had a troubled start. From what I understand, every iteration has a challenge before them at the beginning. I do believe that we were kind of on wobbly legs.
We were walking with purpose and intention and passion, and trying to walk with excellence as much as we possibly could, but we were still wobbling. We really were.
I feel personally that we found our distinct identity in season 3 when we separated from the timeline, when we jumped ahead past where any ‘Trek’ had ever gone.
We were able to establish ourselves in a new way at that point. I really appreciate where we were placed. I appreciate all those connected tissues, but I also appreciate that we were able to build anew, because I believe every ‘Trek’ has a responsibility to do that.
If you want to hold true to the essence of ‘Trek’ itself then you have to keep pressing forward. You have to keep encouraging people to look forward, look forward, look forward.
So I feel that we really sunk into who we were supposed to be by season 3. We built off seasons 1 and 2. I even love how we stay connected, even through seasons 3, 4 and 5 — we never lost it. We never lost where we came from. But we also found so many new things. We found new life.”
Not all Trek shows take as long to find themselves, though, with both “Strange New Worlds” and “Lower Decks” seemingly launching to great responses from the start. “Star Trek: Discovery” is currently in the midst of its fifth and final season which will run through the end of next month.
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