Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Discovery season 4 finale.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 director Olatunde Osunsanmi explains the USS Discovery's first contact with the unknown species 10-C. First airing in 2017, Discovery was the first new Star Trek show since Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled over a decade prior. Clearly inspired by the J.J. Abrams 2009 reboot film, producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller have aimed to rebrand the multi-generational franchise for a new audience. Star Trek: Discovery follows Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the titular ship as they go on adventures across space and time.

Season 4 of the popular sci-fi show finds Burnham and her crew on a mission to stop an unknown Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA) as it tears through the galaxy, destroying the planet Kwejian, the homeworld of the captain's love interest Cleveland Booker (David Ajala). The United Federation of Planets, along with a fiercely determined scientist named Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle), has tracked the origins of the DMA to a location outside of the known galaxy, sent by an undiscovered advanced species temporarily named the 10-C. With Earth and the Vulcan planet Ni'Var in the DMA's path, Captain Burnham and Discovery must make a peaceful first contact before Tarka and Booker destroy the 10-C and doom billions of people.

Related: Discovery's 10-C First Contact Struggles With New & Classic Star Trek

Speaking to TVLine, Star Trek: Discovery director-producer Olatunde Osunsanmi explains the tense first contact and subsequent negotiations between the USS Discovery crew and the 10-C in the season 4 finale. The director discusses the real-life parallels between the 10-C and large corporations' impact on the environment. Read what Osunsanmi had to say below:

"Sometimes those corporations do understand the impact they’re having on society and they don’t care, and that’s what was interesting about the Ten-C. What side do they fit on? And if they’re this advanced, how could they not know? It’s comforting to think that not everything is evil. Sometimes there just needs to be diplomacy, and people need to make connection and come to an understanding to stop horrible things from happening."

David Ajala as Booker and Sonequa Martin Green as Burnham in Star Trek Discovery

The director also spoke about those harrowing few minutes when it seemed like Book was dead before the 10-C revealed they had interrupted but preserved his transporter signal. The Star Trek franchise is at its best when the crew of a Federation starship, whether it be EnterpriseVoyager, or Discovery, is faced with a moral dilemma. Michael Burnham has saved her crew plenty of times, putting herself at risk to save those she deeply cares for. The captain has previously expressed that she is willing to sacrifice Booker, the man she loves to save all the lives on Earth and Ni'Var. Going through with it, however, is a different matter entirely. And even though Burnham was ultimately willing to make that sacrifice, Osunsanmi says there was never a question about whether or not Booker would survive. "It was always in the plan to not kill him, to believe he’s dead and then actually have him survive at the end," he said.

Star Trek: Discovery season 4 built up to a thrilling climax. Captain Burnham's devastation when she believed Booker had died, and her quick realization that she didn't have time to grieve because she still needed to convince the 10-C to move the DMA, was a perfect moment of consistent characterization. Even when she believed the love of her life had died, she still upheld her brother Spock's mantra, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Ultimately, her belief in diplomacy worked, and the 10-C agreed to permanently shut down the DMA. After the emotional rollercoaster of action and drama that the finale delivered, Star Trek: Discovery season 4 ended on a hopeful note.

Next: Discovery's 10-C Could Be Star Trek's Next Borg (If Done Right)

Source: TVLine