When Star Trek: Discovery returns for season 5, it has to fix the one glaring flaw from the season 4 finale. The USS Discovery boldly went where no one has gone before at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 when Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) led her starship through the Galactic Barrier into another galaxy. Burnham and representatives from the United Federation of Planets made First Contact with Species 10-C, the creators of the Dark Matter Anomaly that threatened Earth and the Alpha Quadrant.
Captain Burnham and the Discovery's First Contact with the massive and thoroughly alien Species 10-C was an awe-inspiring moment except for one big problem: No one from the Federation's diplomatic team remembered to ask Species 10-C what their race calls themselves. The Federation gave the extra-galactic aliens the (rather uninspired) designation Species 10-C during their investigation into the origins of the DMA. After Discovery entered the neighboring galaxy, the starship's brightest minds applied themselves to learn Species 10-C's emotion-based language. But once they were able to communicate, Discovery's brain trust dropped the ball by failing to ask one of the most basic questions: what is the aliens' own name for themselves? But there is an easy way to correct this error and Star Trek: Discovery season 5 can simply reveal that the question was eventually asked in subsequent communications, and they now know Species 10-C's actual name.
Discovery's Species 10-C Plot Hole Marred Season 4's Epic Finale
Bungling the logical move of finding out what Species 10-C calls themselves was a blight on an otherwise mind-blowing conclusion to Star Trek: Discovery season 4. The DMA was an unstoppable threat beyond what the USS Discovery-A faced before, and the stakes were even higher after the Anomaly blew up Cleveland Booker's (David Ajala) home planet of Kwejian. Grief sent Book spiraling into a need for revenge against the DMA and its creators. Book went rogue on Michael Burnham, his girlfriend, and the Federation. He teamed up with the Multiverse's mad scientist Dr. Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle), who wanted not just to destroy the DMA but Species 10-C themselves.
Meanwhile, the USS Discovery-A's journey through the Galactic Barrier was a thrilling and groundbreaking moment. Captain James T. Kirk's (William Shatner) Starship Enterprise breached the Galactic Barrier before in Star Trek: The Original Series, but Captain Burnham's crew not only got to explore a bit of the next galaxy, but they were also the first to meet the aliens that live there. Thanks to Burnham and the Discovery, not only did they save their galaxy, but the Federation has now found a new and incredibly powerful ally who lives beyond the Galactic Barrier.
Discovery Season 5 Teases A Welcome Change In Tone
It's unknown whether Species 10-C will appear in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, but the trailer for the upcoming season teases a welcome change in tone for the series. All four prior seasons of Discovery have centered on dire galactic threats to the Federation for Captain Burnham and her crew to defeat. This has left little time to actually explore the 32nd-century galaxy that Burnham and Discovery's crew now permanently reside in.
Encouragingly, Star Trek: Discovery season 5 appears to center on a hint for the "greatest treasure in the galaxy." Whatever this prize is, it's something the major galactic powers, including the Federation, want, and it's also sought after by the unsavory denizens of the galaxy's seedy underbelly. Finding this treasure will not only require the USS Discovery to jump to strange new worlds, but Captain Burnham will also have to revisit her previous life as a courier with Book. Hopefully, in the midst of the chase for the galaxy's greatest treasure, Star Trek: Discovery season 5 will take a moment to reveal that the Federation found out what Species 10-C's actual name is.
Star Trek: Discovery season 5 is expected to premiere in 2023 on Paramount+.