Phasers Set To Stun: recapping Discovery: Life Itself

0:04 Space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows, both new and old, to engage in debate about all things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set Too Stunt. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stunt. In this ongoing series from a film by podcast, we explore every quadron of the expanding Star Trek universe by covering television, animation, toys, movies, directors, and more. Flooding the chorus as always, is your Core Trek crew. I'm Scott Hoffmann, I'm David Byrns, and I'm Wayne Whiten. And today we're wrapping up our coverage of Star Trek Discovery Season five, the final season, with episode ten. Life Itself, written by Kyle Jarrow and Michelle Parida, is directed by Olatundi Osuntami. I hope I said that right. Good.

1:11 Before we get too much further, Uh spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen this latest episode, Black Alert, please stop, go view them and come back to join us. So this is a big moment in modern Trek history, so let's get right into it. Dave, can you give us a recap of the latest episode. Yeah, as you said, the final episode is upon us to not only end the season, but brings the conclusion to Star Trek Discovery. Burnham and Mull find themselves trapped inside the Pregenitor's device, and they must work together to uncover the mystery they have been looking for while the same time find their way out. The Discovery indust group finds itself doing everything it can to find a way to get to the portal and fend off the breed, while Through does his best to convince further actions from Primark to Hall, who is on her way with her own army. It is a battle to the end to see who will control the greatest mystery of all time.

2:01 Without pausing on it too much. Initial thoughts, Dave, I'm very curious to hear. So there's some good things that happen in this. Obviously, the visual effects are fantastic. Again, direction I thought was fantastic in this. There's some editing in this that was like just blew my mind. There's some shots when they went from Mole and Burnham back to the fighting and then from the fighting back to them, which was edited incredibly well. Yeah, and the twist. In terms of the camera work, some of the stunts that were done on this were fantastic. Some of the things that we learned, you know about the portal and you know, those kind of things, the device and those kind of things were really neat. Being inside of that was really neat. I felt though the ending of this episode was way too long. It felt like it dragged and dragged and dragged. I'm like, would you just end this episode now? I was very upset by that.

3:02 It felt like I had three or four different endings and I'm just like yeah, and I'm like, okay, enough is enough. You know, we don't need all of this. We don't And that in itself, I was very disappointed and it let me down the episode overall. I knew they were gonna build this up to such a degree that you weren't going to be able to, you know, be that high expectation that everybody had. I still felt they did a good job, Don't get me wrong. Some of the things that we learned about the device, you know, it's you know, the predators didn't it wasn't theirs. It was there, right, they found it. So I thought that was kind of neat and then I'm not gonna say I'll let Wayne do it in the you know, some of the thought the who we find out who Covich is? Yeah, you know, I think that is fantastic. So we'll get into all that. But that's my thoughts anyway, David, you brought up really good point, and I think it's pretty much. I feel the same way because I mean that is really the the elephant in the room is the you know, the ending of the show, the ending of the series. You know, was this episode a good ending for the series? You know, that's that's the big question.

4:16 You know, As a season finale, I thought it was fantastic. I thought I thought it was a really good way of ending the story of this season. It had everything that we were expecting in a season finale, you know, the big epic ending, huge battles, you know, spectacular visual effects, surprising story twists, all that stuff. But as a series finale, not so much. You know, it's and you can't fault them because you know, they didn't know. You know, it's a pity that they didn't know that that the fifth season would be the last, because then they could have they could have approached this final episode with with that knowledge and crafted it to better fit as a series finale rather than just a season you know, instead we get this was a fifteen to twenty minute tacked on scene at the end that really seems out of place and kind of awkward, but you know, for what they could do, it's a damn good effort.

5:12 I mean, you know, you know, it's I understand their reasonings. I liked the final scene. I thought it was it was interesting. It gave both Burnham and the USS Discovery a nice closure, but it just it felt exactly what it was, a scene filmed later, tacked on a coda, and unfortunately, you know, that's the best we could get because they didn't know. But if they had gone straight to that, it would have been a better ending in my opinion, instead of giving us so much more between that right before that, you know, Oh you mean like I didn't ask you Yeah, yeah, I mean they could. They could have gone from the wedding to that. In my opinion, you know, instead of giving us all of that filler there, we did not need any of that.

5:57 I mean, I understand what they were trying to do, don't get me wrong, but man, I just it was just too much because I think the final shot was supposed to be with them on the bead, you know or whatever that was. I was supposed to be the final shot at season and that would have been a great ending for the episode. Correct, it continued on. Yeah, so you would have cut without the future jump right, without the time jump to I would have correct. I would have gone to her the doors opening of her going onto the bridge too for Discovery going off on its own. Oh so you would have cut the stuff on the planets, Yes, with book booker and Okay, I would have kind of I understand that. I know they were trying to set up. This was something that they had planned for for season six. M you know that they they wanted to do. They techt this was their intention for how they're going to end the series in the first place. But yeah, I understand what you're saying, And yeah, I agree that was rather long. I think they didn't They didn't need twenty minutes. They couldn't. No, So, Scott, what about you? What did you? What are your faults?

6:56 Well? I can see what you're saying. I mean, you know, if I hadn't heard any of that, I would basically just say it wasn't quite what I expected, because I think there was some more that we were kind of thinking about. I was overall satisfied with it. The points in particular that I'm thinking of are that we almost got a Cisco ending, not just spoiling the thing for DS nine. People haven't seen DS nine, but it always kind of bothered me a little bit how DS nine ended, that it didn't seem like certain characters were able to kind of go off into the sunset. I was glad that we didn't have overly dramatic character deaths just because the series is ending, so let's go ahead and kill some of the main characters off right, which seems to be kind of a troupe. And that's one of the things that I liked about the time jump, that we got to see Burnham and Book in the future with their son, and we got to see the Federation I'm assuming is you know, at this point rejuvenated exactly exactly. So it was it was good to see that it got back to where it needed to be. It felt like it was a little mysterious as to where they were going, Like my first instinct was to say, it sounds like they're going to Geordie's shipyard to retire Discovery. But then again,

8:31 it's a different kind of ship right with Zorah and the you know Ai and and what that would be. So you had to do it that way though, and I'll explain later that there was the series had to end very specific, they'd already set the course of the series out it would end. They had to do that. They had there there was reasons which and I'm glad that you brought that up because that adds a little bit of mystery and intrigue. It helps to I think, open the door for more stories to be told for Discovery in whatever fashion they want to do. They could go into novelization, comics, whatever. They won't kind of tell other stories about that. But yeah, it'd be fascinating to see where they went. I did kind of seem it did kind of seem like it was long before the Saru wedding, but I think it was a necessary element. That's kind of a way for them to all kind of get together, hug and say goodbye without long drawn out speeches. I don't know if there's anything that I would necessarily trim. But then Dave, when you brought up your suggestions, I think they seem like good ideas. I don't know, given that it's the ending of the series, it's going to like, well, just let it be what it was. Yeah, I agree, you know, I agree with David that it was a little long. But I also want to state that I'm glad they put that there because you know, we don't have I wouldn't want the series to just end on the note of you know, like I said, they originally planned the last scene to be on the beach.

10:03 There's I'm glad that they at least put some closure to the series rather than just just you know, it's ended and there's no true you know, you know, I don't know, you know what I mean, it's it's I'm glad they put it there. Yeah, there was one scene in particular that probably would have cut I I don't know if you'll agree, but the fight sequence between Burnham and mall so she has Burnham gets whisked away to the world of wind whatever that was, Hurricane Winds or whatever, Yeah, exactly, and the fight there seemed good for this setting. It did seem a little strange to use you know, the Whirlwinds power to you know, whisker up the side of a mountain to jump back through the portal hole, which was cool. But I just I don't know something about the fight between Burnham and Mall after they had kind of reconciled a little bit, but then tensions kind of escalated it and then it just kind of seems like, well, then let's just punch each other. Like, I don't know, it felt like it was a lot necessary. No, I do kind of agree with that.

11:09 I mean, I think the fighting was awesome. It was twisting and turning and fan it was choreographed extremely well I'm filmed well, But no, I'm with you on that. It felt awkward, especially since Burnham got her to calm down. You know, let's let's figure this out. Let's work together. And then Burnham is the one that attacks. You know, she's the one that swept swept the leg and you know, they basically took her out and you know, and it started the fight. So you're right, I found that kind of awkward. And then after all this long fight they go through it again. But I was like, okay, let's stop, you know, let's let's work this out together, you know, and then of course Moles like, well, you know, I you know, I don't trust the Federation. I don't trust where they're going to do. And then but and then Burnham was like, well trust me, And I'm like, well, you just are the one that started fight a little but go why would I trust you? I quote you to it. It felt like the writers were saying, oh, it's getting a little slow here, let's put another fight scene. And it wasn't really needed. I didn't think the construction of the Progenitor Portal warehouse was very interesting m h. Both that it went, you know, apparently to Infinity, and it had a bunch of different you know, gravity was all over the place, different kind of disorienting angles that they went through. Does it seem like that is a gateway to any world that the Progenitors would have touched or do you think it was just kind of random planets to tell what? I do think it's gateways. And and with the the idea that now that we know that the Progenitors didn't build that, they found it, it makes me wondering who who did build that?

12:39 And I've heard this mentioned a couple of times from other people, and I actually agree with this. You remember the Iconians, the whole thing whole things just just screamed them. So maybe they're the ones they originally build. Yeah, you know that'd be interesting, that would And I want to bring up something too, because I actually thought this was kind of funny. You know, we were really lousy on our predictions for this episode. We were you know, I am glad to you know. We thought uh Lack would be resurrected. We thought he was gonna be resurrected. He didn't. We thought Sorrow or someone else would be killed. They weren't. So I said the Discovery was going to be destroyed. And of course I don't know why I didn't think of this. It couldn't be. It has to has to survive for a that was I completely forgot about that. And then we thought uh Book would use the tech to revive his home planet. That didn't happen, you know, But but but I did predict that Covid was a time traveler. You did. You never knew who it was. I never expected that. I never expected kep that time travel Yeah, when that happened, I was like, oh, kind of right on this one. He just didn't predict who it is. But no, I never would have guessed that in a million years now, and I'll be interested to hear about that, just because I personally have no contest for that whatsoever. Like he meant, I didn't see apparently that slice of it. No, I didn't watch it reliably, Like I saw a lot about what was it when soon came out that was that last year. Yeah, by that time, it was getting

14:11 close to that. Part of the storyline was getting close. Yeah, so that didn't necessarily make any sense to me. I'm sure it will when we start covering the Enterprise, but yeah, I was, honestly, I'm sorry, David Krenenberg. I'm very sorry, but I was just glad to see the last of COVID because I was just gonna, like, you just buged me so much, go away. Yeah. I want to also mention too, I I really loved Jeff Russo's music for this episode too. It was good. I think this was, you know, for a change, they allowed it to come out of the background and really shine. You know, some of it, especially the scenes that were on the Progenitor's world or whatever that was. The portal, was really reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek motion.

14:54 Sure, you know, he had touches the blaster beams really low inst tones. I thought that now, I mean as soon as I heard that, I thought I'd give think of Fija and it fit for that scene. It was just incredible. The whole score was a It's funny that you mentioned that because there are a few points in this episode of like, whoa, the music really coming out here, Like they have they held it back, you know, through a lot of the episodes, but this time they didn't. And you're right, it's very noticeable. Yeah, especially considering how many kind of dramatic twists and turns it takes. Right, we go from like very heavy action to contemplative, metaphysical kind of world to a wedding to finale. So yeah, yeah, and also talking about that final scene, I want to put one last little comment here. That uniform that Burnham wears, that's that was ugly. I mean, I just I hated a uniform.

15:46 I'm sorry, Starflee really needs to get better outfit. But come on, you have all this technology and you're coming up with that kind of uniform? What are you doing? They gotta go to ds nines? Taylor, Yeah, in some form or another. What are our thoughts on action Seru and Commander Non Well. I love the scenes with them together, and Saru really came out there of basically having his poker face going on. You know, he was like he told it as it was and wasn't going to take no as an answer, no matter what. And man, I love that scene. You know, I'm glad my prediction was wrong that anything was gonna happen to him. But yeah, that scene was like, whoa through, Well done, buddy, Yes it was. It was yeah, well and very different character than the person that we met in season one. Yeah right, so I'm glad that they carried that through. Yeah it was. That was very well done. I wasn't convinced it was gonna work, honest, but so then kind of a connected I guess storyline to that is book and flying the shuttle to try to catch the portal. This is another one where you know, Culbert's journey has gone toward it more of a h philosophical or like a spiritual journey. I thought it was interesting to be able to give him

17:18 the ability to have exact what was it frequency for the tractor beam m But that was another one where it just it felt odd. It felt like you know, it's okay, let's take Culbert because he can use the force a little back on that, I see, I was expecting that. I was expecting him to, you know, just out of his head, you know, you know, some sort of like magical thing. But they pulled back. It's like they were thinking, oh, you know, writing this is Star Wars, and I thought, oh wait, wait, this is Star Trek. Right, Scott, I think, did you just cross the streams? I did? I don't know how I feel about this. Wait, you just crossed a third stream taking another Universes Schalidic. Yeah. I mean, I think they had a great rapport there. There was great dialogue in those scenes, and I'm glad that they gave Culbert a chance to step out into the action and to help with that aspect of it. I don't know, there's just something about it that felt a little bit strange. But when it happened, it felt like something was gonna happen to the character, you know what I mean, right, the reactions that we're getting from the you know, from the characters around them, it felt like they were going to take that to a degree that you know, he was going to get killed or anything like that. But then of course it never happened. It just felt like they were from danger. So thinking about another prediction that we made that Lucke would be brought back and would lead the Breen and it would be a glorious two day and unification of stuff, not even I really was spressed.

18:53 I was surprised, well, and it seemed like I was also surprised at Mal's acceptance of that. That seemed to go very quickly from like this is everything that I'm living for, Oh, we can't do it all right, never find Yeah, but you got to think that the situation she was in though, I mean, I think if everything was going on around her so quickly, and you know it was, it was tough for her to comprehend any of that. So I guess she had to come to terms, all right, And I made it as far as I can, and there's really nothing else I can do to this point, at least that's the way I saw them anyway. Well, and it'd be interesting to see where they would have gone with another season if and where Mal ends up, I guess being recruited by Kovich, Yeah, to just see where else they wanted to take that. I mean, I'd be okay with that, and I'd been okay with that because I love Mal's characters. Yeah, i'd love to see her another season, yep, for sure. Yeah, I'd be interested to see if the brain wouldn would continue as the as an adversary at least, if not the main you know, antagonist. But yeah, but where they sent them, didn't they say how far? How long did they say would take them to come back? Very long time? They sent them to the galactic barrier? Which edge of the universe or edge of the galaxy? So yeah, yeah, right, which of all the things to pull? Like, oh, that's kind of a right, that's kind of a diicy one to be, like, you know where the sidewalk ends. It's like it's the universe there isn't. Yeah, what are the thoughts on separating the saucer

20:26 and doing the I guess jump by proxy? Oh hell yeah, I love that. I thought it was incredible. Yeah, I didn't know it was possible. Oh yeah, I'll bring that up in a little bit here, of course you will. And I guess the other thing I wanted to bring up was just the the Cisco moment that Burnham has with the Progenitor. I thought it was an interesting twist to say, like, well, that actually wasn't well. I guess the portal warehouse that they're in is not their tech that it's borrowed from others. I think that'd be interesting to explore. But it didn't feel like it was tiptoeing right on the edge of saying, yes, you've achieved this higher level of being, so we're going to you know, take you know, another plane of existence or something like that. I don't know. I personally was glad that they didn't go there. Yeah, but I was still satisfied with the meeting with the progenitor and that whole encounter.

21:25 It seems fitting. It did, And I liked Burnham's answer to that. You know, she was gonna be the one that takes the place, but then she decides to know that nobody should have, not one person should have, you know, that kind of power in what they she does with it. She's the event horizon. I love that she's right. I mean, really, if you think of it in a star trek sense, that's the only decision she had that shouldn't make Oh yeah, yeah, all right, and let's say your quick break when we come back, we're going to talk about the characters that we think shan the most and who we'd want to be. Let's get into some of our usual segments. We'll start off with talking about which character we think shine the most. Dave, Let's start with you. So mine's kind of a wrap up of the whole season of a character who I thought shined the most. And I'm going with Rayner. In what little screen time he had in this episode. You know, he comes full circle and becomes a true leader on Discovery. You know, we have seen his growth and to me, he has had the best character arc of the entire season. And here we see him comfortable and willing to not only trust his instincts, but those on the bridge around him too. That growth right there, just in itself on that bridge in that moment, and everybody was trusting him and understood his instincts, and we're believing in his choices that he was making. They were looking to him as a leader now. And remember where he was at the beginning of the season. Nobody liked him, you know, and he didn't want to get to know anybody. So there

22:57 is no doubt I felt he shine the most in this episode and in the season in my opinion, Yeah, that's fair, and I'd like to see more stories continuing with him if we have, you know, extended universe things with Discovery, that'd be good to see. Yep, Wayne, what about you, Well, I've got to say Burnham, of course, you know this, this is this is the final episode of the series. They had to give it to Michael Burnham's the Spotlight, and boy, I have to hand it to Snekua Martin Green pulling it off, not just not just forgiving us an outstanding performance in this episode, for truly being the shining star and the driving force behind Star Trek Discovery. For it's nearly eight year, five years, five season run, she's been a real joy to watch every episode.

23:45 Her character has grown so much over the five years. Her performance in the code of this episode I thought was beautifully done. For me. It was a very satisfying end to her character and for the series. For me, it took me on a little bit to get over the Walking Dead with her after but once I got, once I got her used to her in this role, she became incredible. I mean she's incredible even while get in everything. But you're right, by the end of this you know, you can really tell how much she has fallen into this character and just her style of performance has just been phenomenal throughout this series, and she really pulled through in this episode too. So good good choice, Wing, Yeah, well side Wing. I think for me, my my pick is a little bit more one dimensional, just because I envied what action Tharu was able to do in that scene with playing the bluff. I mean, there's you know, there's two people on that shuttle that are trying to stop a breen fleet coming in with just dialogue and nerves of steel right to be able to play that bluff. I also thought it was clever the insight that he went back to in terms of the predator prey relationship and being able to uh basically call her a coward. Yeah, like wow, and knowing that you know this was

25:19 that there was kind of a tell that to hall Hood had left out there. I think it was a great ending of the arc, and I was really glad to see that kind of that kind of energy from Saru and that kind of situation that it wasn't you know, with a phaser, It wasn't jumping around, it wasn't a stunt work. It was just getting through that situation. Su will make a damn good diplomat and a really great force for the for the Federation. Yeah, without question. Yeah, Yeah, that's a that's a big power couple, Su and Trina. So I'm glad they continue to go on. Absolutely good choice. Well, Wayne, if you could have been any character in this episode, who would it have been?

26:06 Again, I'm going to choose Burnham because she not only found the technoledge, but she was actually able to meet one of the progenitors and learn their secrets. And and while we really have no idea what happened or what become to most of the characters that after this story, you know, from Burnham, we got to see her happily ever after ements you know, she became an admiral. Then she got called back to Judy for the most important missions, you know, to to discovery of one last final mission. Say goodbye. I'd want to be her, I want to live happily. It's fair, Dave, what about you? My answer is the same, It's it's Burnham with without question, just just the fact that she got to explore, you know, that place that no one has gotten to see. What two people, three people have gotten to see and explore that are not presentaitors, just that and alone. I would have loved to be able to do. But I would have stayed there a lot longer. I mean, I know she couldn't because of the situation, but you know, just the fact that the things that you could explore, the things that you could get to see, would just be phenomenal to me. But yeah, you get to see her get that happy ending that she has deserved because she has come such a long way over the series. It was it was really nice to see. So yeah, absolutely, yeah, you feel like I would have liked to have seen like a you know, a map to the mall in that Jena warehouse.

27:34 I could right, maybe maybe visit the planet with a lot of jet packs first, so I could be all right, now I can get it out whatever it was. I don't want to touch the wrong thing exactly, but it would be interesting to explore that and you know, see how it connects so many different worlds and explore what else is out there and where else we could kind of go to. But the character that I picked isn't really in much of the episode at all. It's Burnham's son Leto No, so exploring a little bit more of what Starfleet becomes in the future, whereas Burnham is taking Discovery and Zora out to their final destination and wrapping all that up.

28:19 But you know, new federation, new relationships, new technologies, new ships. It'd be it would be fascinating to see where that goes. So doesn't mean that character is gonna be with get to see Tilly work with Tilly at the academy, I'm assuming likely. Yeah, is interesting, Yeah, it would good catch. I found myself a bit surprised at the as they were taking the A off of Discovery's hall. I didn't think they would go there. I could have sworn that it would be you know, no bloody A, B C. D. You know, but I'm kind of surprised they went there. But they had to. They had to. So explained that a little bit. All right, you have to go down to my Easter eggs thing because the end of this episode actually connects to something that we've seen before. Okay, here we go. Yeah, the final reference, it was mentioned that Admiral Burnham was being sent on another Red directive to take Discovery in his final mission because and they mentioned on there that they were she was taken Discovery and Zorra to meet to wait for someone named Craft. Now that's a direct reference to a Star Trek Short Treks episode that was done between season one and two called Calypso it was one of those that I mean, I missed it too. A lot of people didn't actually see this because it was only up for a short time on Paramount Plus. But in that episode a thousand years in the future, we see the abandoned Discovery and we see

29:55 Zora meeting a man named Craft. So this they're they're connecting it to this. It had to end, and because it was made between season one and two, Discovery looked like it did when the series first ended. Included such as the cells were connected and the A wasn't on there. Wow, So they had to kind of go back and have and put that in there so that it interesting some retcon scramble there exactly I think what that was. And then there we had already talked a little bit about the the Covich character and the connection the Enterprise, anything else we need to say there. Well, there's a lot, I mean, this whole episode had a lot of a lot of Eastern some great stuff. But you know, Covich reveals that he's actually Agent Mules, So you know, so who is Daniels? He was a temporal agent from the thirty first century who had traveled back in time to the twenty second century and he helped Captain Archer and the crew of the Enterprise the NXO one stop time incursions resulting from the Temple Cold War. You know, he first appeared in Star Trek Enterprise the episode called Cold Front, which was during its first season, and then reappeared again the next year, season two, in the two parter Shockwave. He appeared in eight episodes throughout that series four year run, all all four years of the show. But you know, my question is is this the actual same character or is this just

31:26 a code name that's used by different agents, because you know, it's really by the same different actors. So I wonder interesting any other Easter eggs that we missed? Oh yeah, I liked this episode had a very unique title sequence, one that only this episode had featured bits from each of the five seasons title sequences. The Klingon Weapon, the Communicator from season one, we saw the Red Angel, the Enterprise Captain's chair from season two, Bookship from season three, and Zora's voice modulation in from season four, and then of course the stuff from season I liked that they did that. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah. And then I also mentioned that they sent the brain to the Galactic Barrier. You know, that's the barrier, the rent of the galaxy. We've seen this a few times, first in the original series episode where No Man Is Going Before and by any other name, and then we saw it last season in Discovery in the episode the Galactic Barrier. But now, remember this isn't the same as the Great Barrier that we saw in Star Trek five. That's the energy bearer from the center of the galaxy.

32:31 This is the one of the the galaxy. Okay, all right then yeah, yeah, well a lot of people do, and I didn't originally to it. They're they're they're two complete different things. And then we also mentioned about the the Discovery separating you know, you know, well, you know, of course that isn't the first time we've seen a starship separate. The Enterprise d did four times in Star Trek the Next Generations. But the Discovery, the fact that Discovery can do it really begs the question, you know, could is this something that it could always do or was this something that was done to it when it was upgraded for the thirty second century. It is possible that it was designed to do that originally, because while we never got to see it, the original Enterprise kirkships could separate. It was mentioned in the episode The Apple Kirk orders Scotty to separate the ship and take the saucer to separate to safety, and also designer Andy Probert has said that the Enterprise refit that he did for Star Trek. The motion picture also had this feature. There are on the bottom of the saucer section. There's four squares that would slide open the panels and reveal the landing gears that would come down.

33:42 That's actually seen on the model in the movies. Interesting, and then we've got, oh, yeah, this was a nice one. I had fun picking this out. Speaking of Kovich, his office is littered with items from Star Trek's pass all over. What I saw in a quick glance, I saw the tearan Impire dagger from the first season to Discovery. There was the next generation Type one phaser, the Dustbuster. There was a bottle of Chateau Picard. Of course, Jordy Leaforge's advisor. We saw Captain Janeway's microscope that she always kept in her ready room. We saw Captain Cisco's baseball he kept in his office on New Space. Yep. Then we've got uh, let's see that the planet at the end, the planet that Burnham and Book retired to and make their home, is called Sanctuary four. That was last seen on the third second or the third season's opener that hope is you part one? That's so that's something that that's not a new plane we saw that be from and I think that's it all right. Definitely some good ones on this one, that's for sure. There was oh yeah, yeah, Well it's got to be kind of a treasure trail of things when we're when we're wrapping up. Yep. Absolutely so, now that we're here at the end, I know that we've been. There have been a few ups and downs in the season. Mm hmm. There have been a few ups and downs in the series, Dave, What are your thoughts on both overall? I mean, I thought this season wrapped it up pretty good. I think this season was a fun ride. It started off a little rough, as we mentioned in you know, our first podcast about season five. But I think

35:16 they got back on track pretty quick, and the season turned out a whole lot better than I was expecting. And I'll be completely open and honest about that. I was not looking forward to this season at all because I'm not a fan of the last season, and I really didn't know where they were going to go with this. And but I'm glad to say that I was wrong, and I was glad to see what they gave us, you know, how they ended it. You know, I mentioned earlier what I thought of that, But overall, I really really enjoyed the season. I enjoyed the series too, you know. It was it's always nice to have Star Trek on television. You know, we've not really had it in a while in a TV series form, so it's kind of nice that, you know, they took a chance, and you know, they gave us a new Star Trek, they gave us new characters, they gave us, you know, a bunch of new things, new ships, everything. It was nice to have that again, you know, and enjoy that. So the people out there who are picking on Discovery, just stop, Oh, yes, this was this was It was nice to have Star Trek back in our lives, and I hope they give us more, you know, I really do.

36:22 I want to see more of what's going on, you know, with Tilly. I want to see what the academy is is in the future. I want to see those kind of things of what's going to happen, because that means we're going to see Saru again. You know, we're gonna see some of these crew members again. We may see Burnham again. Who knows, you know, the sky's the limit when it comes to this kind of stuff. But overall, I really enjoyed them. Yeah, I agree, Wayne, what about you? You know, Star Treks Discover. I've had a love hate relation for it to I mean, I love the first two seasons, especially that second season, and the third season when it started, I thought it was fantastic. Moving them to the thirty second century was a brilliant eyea, you know, getting to explore an area of Star Trek that we've never seen before. And I loved the third season until the very end.

37:07 I thought the ending of season three was one of the most underwhelming season finales I have seen in years, and it kind of soured me to the series for a while and left me uninterested in season four. When we decided we were going to watch season five and do this for these reviews, I went back. She realized that maybe I was a little bit too harsh. You know, it wasn't as bad, and I really enjoyed. I thought season five is fantastic. Like David said, it had a little rough in our beginning, but it picked up and it's been a wild ride. I'm glad they ended it, on my opinion, a high note, and I can't wait to see I'm glad that we've got you know, Starfleet Academy coming, because that means we will see more of the thirty second century, hopefully the characters that we see in here. And I'm glad. I'm thankful that Star Trek Discovery because you know, not only was it a great ride, but we got this is modern Star Trek. We've got modern Star Trek on TV. This gave us strange new worlds. You know, without Discovery, we would not have strange New worlds, we would not probably have Star Trek card And I'm thankful for this series. I'm glad it's here. Yeah, absolutely, Sam, I agree with you both. It's as much as their parts. Specifically of season three, where it felt like it was kind of dragging and it didn't necessarily satisfy. I remember when Discovery was first on, I was extraordinarily excited about it. I was telling everybody that I could to

38:38 catch it, not just because the Star Trek was back, but because they were breaking so much new ground and they were doing so many things to rejuvenate Star Trek. I think that the story writing has been consistently good, and I think eventually when we get around to doing starter Treusch for Discovery, we'll have a lot to say about, you know, how much this really advanced the universe, and you know, there there are things that we can skip, there are things that we can jump around to. But overall, I think that had an amazing job and I'm glad that it's here, and I'm glad we went through it. Yes, absolutely, it was a great ride. Guys, it was okay. Dave and Wayne, thank you as always for going through another great series with me. And when we come back in a few weeks, we're going to be talking about something completely different. We're not covering episodes. We're getting into a series. We're going to talk about another aspect. We're going to get into merchandising. So we'll be talking about our favorite track toys from the from the start to present day. What are those things that we would pull forward? And we're going to have a special guest to talk with U about it, right, Dave, that's right.

39:49 I'm looking forward to it. And our special guests has been with us before. Scott he is the store owner of House of Plastic and of course I'm talking about mister Jerome Cuncle. Yeah, you can't wait. As always, thanks to our listeners for joining us. Healing frequencies are always open for you to share your thoughts, comments and questions. You can email us at a film by Podcast at gmail dot com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and other media platforms. Let us know what you thought of the episode and you might get mentioned on an upcoming show. You can also find all the Phasers Set to s episodes online at a film by podcast dot com, and if you're looking for more exclusive content and swag, send some latinum r away through Patreon. See you next time for another episode of Phasers Set to Stunt