The Star Trek: Discovery Season Four Mid-Season Primer

We’re a little under a week away from the midseason premiere of Star Trek: Discovery season four, and the excitement is reaching new heights. To celebrate, we’ve created a quick recap of the first seven action-packed episodes to help you get ready for the rest of season four. For a full rundown of all the twists, turns, and surprises, we highly recommend reading the full recaps of this season that we have on site, starting with “Kobayashi Maru.”

As the Discovery adjusts to life in the 32nd century and Burnham steps up as captain, their world is rocked by something called a Dark Matter Anomaly (or DMA for short). The DMA destroyed Book’s homeworld of Kwejian, killing his brother and nephew. As they race to save other Federation worlds from the same fate, the crew also searches for answers about the creators of the DMA, a mysterious race of aliens that Starfleet names Species 10-C.

Saru returns to the Federation after his sabbatical on Kaminar, and serves as Burnham’s advisor. Dr. Culber is still urging the crew to care for themselves in his role as ship’s counselor, and was able to give Gray a physical form to reunite with Adira. Stamets is hard at work trying to figure out what the DMA is and how to stop it, but that hasn’t stopped him and Culber from being both relationship goals and Space Dads.

In episode four, “All Is Possible,” Tilly — who has been struggling with finding her purpose — sets off on a mission with Adira and other ensigns. After the mission goes awry and Tilly leads the group to safety, she realizes that she has found her path. She departs the Discovery to teach at Starfleet Academy. We’re still emotional about her farewell to the crew.

Ni’Var, the Vulcan-Romulan homeworld first discussed in season three’s “Unification III” has officially rejoined the Federation, which is led by Cardassian-Bajoran President Rillak. Burnham’s abilities as a leader helped secure Ni’Var’s return, and Saru became closer with the Vulcan leader President T’Rina.

Zora, the sentient computer inside Discovery, is also hailed as a new species after lengthy debates about her existence and whether or not she poses a threat. Over the seven-episode first half of the season, Zora has grown her own personality, chosen her own name, and acts out of a desire to protect the crew, who she views as family. Only time will tell what the future holds for her, though we did get a peek at it in the Short Treks episode “Calypso.”

In the midseason finale, Dr. Ruon Tarka revealed that he had a weapon capable of destroying the DMA, but Burnham urged a diplomatic approach to deal with Species 10-C, as the weapon could be seen as an act of war. Determined to save other planets from his home’s fate, Book and Tarka head out with the intent to stop the anomaly, leaving Queen Grudge safely behind on the Discovery. Tarka also reveals to Book that he plans to use the DMA creators’ power source to travel to an alternate universe — one in which the Burn never occurred.

Of course, this leaves us with a lot of mysteries still left to solve. Who created the DMA? Where are they from, and what is their goal? Will Book return to the Discovery? All these questions and more have kept fans guessing and we cannot wait to see what this next half of the season gives us.

Share your theories and excitement with us on social media @StarTrek, and get ready to fly again with Burnham and the crew next week!

Star Trek: Discovery currently streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. Internationally, the series is available on Paramount+ in Australia, Latin America and the Nordics, and on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Discovery is distributed by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group.