Nine months after its 13-episode run concluded, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 arrives on Blu-ray with a collection of new behind-the-scenes special features, illustrating the difficult task of bringing the show back into production during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Available now on DVD, on Blu-ray, and in special Blu-ray Steelbook packaging — as with the previous three years — Season 4 is a four-disc collection which includes 105 minutes of supplemental features spread across four documentaries, a gag reel, and a collection of deleted scenes, and an audio commentary track on “Coming Home,” the season finale.
Season 4 follows Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery crew — including first officer Saru (Doug Jones), Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), newly-promoted Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), and Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) — as they race to stop a dangerous anomaly which destroyed the homeworld of Cleveland “Book” Booker (David Ajala) and threatens the entire galaxy.
The season also includes recurring characters like Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal), Fleet Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr), Grey Tal (Ian Alexander), renegade scientist Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle), the still-mysterious Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg), United Earth’s General Ndoye (Phumzile Sitole), and Ni’Var leader President T’Rina (Tara Rosling).
Our edition of choice is of course the lovely Steelbook edition, which features striking art of Captain Burnham on the glossy exterior, and a moment from Saru’s return to Starfleet duty on the interior. The standard Blu-ray edition contains the same discs of course, but for our tastes the four years of Steelbooks look much better on our shelf.
The standard Blu-ray edition this season does not include a slipcover on the US release, which we know is a disappointment to some Blu-ray collectors who value such things; we have confirmed the UK release includes a slipcover, however, so this seems to be a regional variation.
I am a person who loves extra features, and if streaming services had an add-on tier that included audio commentaries I would gladly pay a few extra bucks a month for it. So I’m pleased that Paramount continues to produce additional content for its physical media releases — and frankly, I’m please that Paramount is still releasing physical media at all!
The four Deleted Scenes (4:05) are interesting, but it’s also pretty apparent that their episodes wouldn’t (and don’t) suffer from their omission. A cut moment from “Choose to Live” does offer some interesting insight into how the actors ‘use’ the computer’s holo-interface while shooting a scene — they literally just poke and twist and swipe at empty air, which makes the final seamless effect all the more impressive.
There is also a nice, 90-second sequence from “Choose to Live” which would have been nice to include in the original episode — showing the full Trill zhian’tara ceremony — but it would have slowed down the pace of the adventurous story (and probably raised too many questions about how a hologram could perform a mental transference). It’s good to include here for completists, though.
Another short cut from “The Examples” features Stamets and Saru discussing the failed DMA-replication experiment, as the scientist apologies for not listening to Saru’s order to shut things down. Finally, a very quick insert shot of Detmer having her eye implant calibrated in sickbay — the loss of this scene isn’t materially significant, but given how little we know about or even acknowledge her cybernetics after four whole seasons, this cut moment from “Rosetta” would have been nice to keep just for that.
Doug Jones goofs off on the ‘Discovery’ set. (CBS Home Entertainment)The Season 4 Gag Reel (2:46) is surprisingly short, and is unfortunately also rather sterile. Gag reels are a fun chance to see the cast and crew goofing around, blowing a line, and keeping each other entertained between takes — and while this one is all that, it never really feels candid to me. People flub their lines, everyone smiles and laughs politely, and Doug Jones says things like “Good gosh.” It’s all very… restrained.
However, this restraint is almost certainly a result of the intensive COVID prevention protocols in place on set which are explored in detail in The Toll It Took (11:50). This feature, in which the cast and crew discuss the physical, mental, and emotional tolls of filming a show in the middle of a global pandemic is undoubtedly important, and a presentation that will likely become even more significant as time goes on.
It’s a great time capsule of a peculiar — but very significant — element of film and television production in the early 2020s. That said, the folks who are interviewed are so uniformly somber about the whole experience that by the end I found myself feeling bad about being a viewer of the final product of their efforts. It was almost as if the interviewees were saying, “Thank you for watching me sing and dance, and here are all the ways performing for your entertainment hurt me.” Yikes.
The Voyage of Season 4 (52:24), the longest of the features, is the exploration of Discovery’s latest season and what it all meant to the characters, producers, and performers — including “President of Earth” guest star Stacy Abrams. There are some interesting moments (Ian Alexander wears some incredible earrings) and the discussion of T’Rina and Saru’s budding courtship is nice.
Tara Rosling and Doug Jones are as pleased about their characters quietly and respectfully getting together as I am. Overall though, not much about this feature will come as a revelation to anyone who watched the season and witnessed the stories, themes, and character growth for themselves.
Being Michael Burnham: The Captain’s Log (14:21) is a contemplative look at the ways Sonequa Martin-Green’s personal and emotional journey to where she is today has mirrored Burnham’s journey to the captain’s chair, and is sprinkled throughout with candid recordings Martin-Green made during the season’s filming.
Seeing and understanding the actor’s experiences and perspectives on race, emotional vulnerability, motherhood and responsibility, and grief — including discussions around having a new baby just ahead of Season 4 production, and the loss of both her parents in 2020 — adds extra dimension to her already powerful performance as Burnham.
Creating Space (19:36) is a very thorough look at how the AR wall functions — a new addition to Discovery production for Season 4 — and how both its limitations and the opportunities it creates touch nearly all aspects of production. The production crew is rightfully proud of their big new toy, and it’s nice that they’ve been given the opportunity to show it off.
Beyond the logistical and technical discussions about how exactly the wrap-around projection and camera tracking system (which the crew appropriately calls ‘the holodeck’) is used, we learn about the impact that minimizing traditional green-screen VFX shots has on everything from the number of takes that are needed to film a single scene, to opening up the writing process to include more exotic location shots that can now be filmed much more affordably.
Finally, the “Coming Home” Audio Commentary is a lively discussion between executive producer/showrunner Michelle Paradise, executive producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and actors Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala. As I mentioned, I am an enjoyer of audio commentaries and have watched/listened to a lot of them, and I know that sometimes commentaries can be sparse in relevant detail — not so here, though!
All four of the participants seem thoroughly interested in being there, and there’s very little downtime in the discussion. While “Coming Home” isn’t going to earn a place in the Star Trek commentary hall of fame (nothing will top the infamously fun and funny Frakes/Sirtis Star Trek: Insurrection track), this one is engaging and certainly worth a listen.
With the still-challenging efforts to view Star Trek: Discovery in many regions since the show departed Netflix in late 2021, bringing home Season 4 on Blu-ray may be the easiest way to catch up on the show for those who can’t yet access Paramount+.
The discs are region-free and can be viewed on Blu-ray players around the world without issue, so if you’ve been missing out, any version of the retail release will work for you if imported to your country.
Even if you’re a loyal Paramount+ subscriber, the additional bonus content is enough of a reason to add Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 to your home collection, especially for the focus on COVID production and the detailed look into AR wall technology — and of course, in these tumultuous days of streaming uncertainty, knowing you permanently own the season is always nice, too.
Star Trek: Discovery — Season 4 (Blu-ray · Steelbook) is fourth in a wave of new Trek Blu-ray releases this fall, following the Original Series films remastered in 4K, and the 4K-remastered Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition which each arrived in September; Star Trek: Picard — Season 2 hit Blu-ray in October.
Next month the first ten episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy arrive on Blu-ray on January 3, followed by Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in May.
Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season will return sometime in 2023 on Paramount+ in the United States and several international territories, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada.