Stark Trek: Discovery premiered seven years ago, ushering Star Trek into the streaming era. It’s been a terrific addition to the Star Trek canon, bringing new ideas and aliens — and even a new era — to the franchise while expanding on Star Trek‘s core tenant of diversity and inclusion. Unfortuantely, all things must come to a close, and Star Trek: Discovery released its finale earlier this year after a five-season, sixty-five-episode wonderful run.
With both the fifth season and the complete series releasing physically later this month, AIPT had the chance to speak with Ambassador Saru actor and star of Star Trek: Discovery Doug Jones about the final season, Saru’s journey, and just how much the cast matters to each other.
AIPT: With this being Star Trek: Discovery’s final season, can you take us through what those final days of shooting were like?
Doug Jones: We didn’t know season five was going to be the end until after we had shot all of principal photography. We had finished up the last episode, gone home from Toronto, where we were filming, and a couple months later we got a Zoom call – “Everybody hop on a Zoom call, we have an announcement!” – and that was when they told us this would be our final season.
With that Zoom call came the good news that CBS Studios and Paramount+ had given us the opportunity and the budget to go back to Toronto, open the studio up again, and film an epilogue that we could tack on to the last episode. It would give us some serious closure.
That’s a luxury most series don’t get, so we were very thankful for that. Being a part of that storyline – and it was mostly about [Captain Michael] Burnham, what became of her and her journey – and getting to have a little flashback that takes us to the bridge of the ship where she can hug on all of the crew members that she’s worked with over the years.
Ah! [Gestures an embrace.] That was a gut-wrenching, tear-jerking last day on the set for me, personally, and for a lot of us. I was the first one to greet [Burnham actor] Sonequa Martin-Green in that flashback, and hugging on her take after take after take from different angles…we started that hug whispering to each other, “I love you,” and I reply “I love you.” And then I would start the next one, “I love you.” [Laughs.]
As this went on for a while, she said, “I could do this all day. I love you.” And I said, “Me too. I love you.” We’re fighting back tears the entire time. What a great way to end the series…It’s like we created a family and we love each other and we will always be that family from this point forward. We were part of a really good thing.
Photo: Michael Gibson/Paramount+.
AIPT: What is your favorite takeaway from working on season five, or the show as a whole?
DJ: Saru’s personal journey through his fear into confidence and courage was a big thing for me personally that I took away a lot from. I [learned] a way to get around my own fears and anxieties in life, and watching Saru – his threat ganglia fell out, he went through vahar’ai; now instead of being a fear-based species, he now has confidence and courage – the world around him didn’t change, but his reaction to it did. I learned a lot from that, with my own imposter syndrome, and anxiety and fear of the unknown. Instead of being, “Oh no, here it comes!” I can be more, “We can get through this, because we can get through things when we’re working together.”
Saru had a lot of speeches, encouraging speeches with his crew over the years and those speeches always included the word “together.” We said the world so many times, “We’re facing this together; if we band together, we’ll get through it together.” Teamwork, you know, makes the dreamwork. Saru’s living proof of that, and I took a lot away from that, personally.
Photo: Michael Gibson/Paramount+.
AIPT: Nowadays, especially with franchise work, actors and characters are liable to return at any time. If the opportunity were to arise, would you be interested in returning as Saru and how would you see his journey continuing?
DJ: At the end of season five, at the end of Star Trek: Discovery, we leave him in a very “happily ever after” kind of place. He’s risen professionally to an ambassador, all the way through the ranks of Starfleet, and now he’s also romantically satisfied in a diplomatically, poised, and dignified relationship with [Ni’Var] President T’Rina. Them going through a lovely courtship in front of all the fans – they got married in the end and kissed for the first time on film, and that’s very happily ever after as well.
Where does he go from there? I don’t know, but I think Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is the one show in the same timeline that he could guest star, and it would make sense now that he is working with the Federation as an ambassador to smaller planets. He’s good at bringing in different cultures, different worlds into a collaborative, peaceful, “Let’s get along together” kind of world.
He speaks 94 languages, and that helps him in his quest as well, so he could take that knowledge into Starfleet Academy and do a little workshop or lecture series and then deal with one cadet at a time on how to find peaceful solutions when they have conflict between cultures and species. He is very adept at that. That would be a good place for him.
AIPT: I hope to see you as a part of Starfleet again! In a couple years, I’ll be looking for your guest spot on Starfleet Academy.
DJ: Your lips to god’s ears.
DVD and blu-ray collections of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season and for the complete series release August 27. You can stream the entire series on Paramount+.
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