[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Star Trek: Discovery series finale “Life, Itself.”]
It was an emotional ending for Star Trek: Discovery, on and offscreen, for the cast.
The Paramount+ series ended after five seasons, and what this show got that very rarely happens is the chance to go back and film a coda. In it, years in the future after Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina’s (Tara Rosling) wedding, Admiral Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) takes Discovery on one last journey, and while doing so, she sees herself young again, back with her crew on the bridge.
Below, Jones talks about filming that coda and the beautiful wedding and shares what he thinks happened next for Saru in the time that was skipped.
Talk about finding out the show would be ending and then getting to go back to film that coda.
Doug Jones: It’s funny, every season that we’ve had on Star Trek: Discovery has come to a conclusion of its own that makes you think, is that the end of the series? I felt that many times. Are we coming back? So at the end of [Season] 5, it felt like, oh, and Saru’s storyline did come to a lovely closure with his love interest with T’Rina. He has this new position that’s very diplomatic, it’s very suited to him as he travels about the galaxy on behalf of smaller planets with the Federation. It’s just a great fit, and I think he’s got his happily ever after. So I felt pretty good at the end of Season 5 and [a sense of] I don’t know where we go from here.
And so when we heard that it was indeed canceled after [Season] 5, but we got to go back, that was a gift that the network gave us for sure, to open up the studio again, bring everybody back for a little epilogue. And I was very happy with that, too, to see my dear friend Sonequa Martin-Green have her Michael Burnham wrap-up that takes us into the future and shows us what became of her, and we can all feel very good about that. And I’ll tell you the final scene where she’s kind of gone back in time and is back on the bridge with her old crew, oh, what an emotional day that was. So that was a real gift and I was the first one to greet her when she came out of that stupor. And there was no dialogue—it was going to have music over it—so every time Sonequa stepped up to me face-to-face, she whispered, “I love you.” And I whispered back, “I love you,” and you’re not going to be aware of that, but take after take after take, we did not miss one take with that. And at one point she said, “I could do this all day.” And I said, “Me too, me too.” And by then we were getting [teary]. So it was a teary day for sure, but happy tears.
How was the season for you with Saru being away from Discovery for most of it?
I think, like I said, very fitting for Saru. He was a captain. He had captain status with Starfleet and was acting as a first officer in Season 4 after I had the captaincy in Season 3. So to come back, that was more of a favor to my dear sister-type character in Michael. Burnham and Saru had a very brother-sister relationship and with a very special task and mission in Season 4, he wanted to be there at her side for, wanted to offer up his services for that, and she was very comfortable, she was happy to have him. So at the end of that though, do you keep a captain as a first officer? How long will that last? So a move of some sort felt right, whether getting his own ship or this diplomatic [position] and because of his background coming from a small planet named Kaminar and having a real heart for societies finding their full potential, he really—I think this is great that he’s working on behalf of smaller planets and helping them find their future.
Marni Grossman / Paramount+
That’s a really good fit. So that requires being on the road and going to visit these planets. So it makes sense that he would be missing for a few episodes while he’s doing that. And he comes back with a whole newfound wisdom, and he uses that to his advantage when facing off with our nemesis in a big face-off scene that he has where a little bit of action Saru comes back into play, but verbally and un-intimidatingly, he’s like, “Test me girl.” And it was really lovely to exercise that kind of strength for Saru.
Saru and T’Rina did get that beautiful wedding. Talk about filming it.
Wasn’t it gorgeous? Oh, what a perfect way to end the season because I think my last day to film the principal photography was that scene, and the costumes, oh my gosh. When both Tara Rosling, who plays T’Rina—by the way, one of the most brilliant actresses I have ever worked with, we call her Judi Dench as a joke because she’s that good. So Tara and I both on our visits to the costume department to see the drawings of what our next costume would be for the wedding, we both were pulling out our phones going, click, click, oh my gosh, that’s going to be gorgeous. And then of course it translated into fabric just in a beautiful, perfect way. That’s the most extravagant thing I’ve ever worn in my life. And she, with her folds of beautiful fabric and the headpiece… And we got to wear them in a very appropriate setting. The wedding reception scene was just lavish. And every character that we’ve ever had on the show came out to celebrate with us. Oh, it felt like a real party.
We see Michael as Admiral, we see Discovery, but we don’t see where Saru is in the glimpse of the future. So do you know what happened next for him in that time that we missed?
Oh, I think that he and T’Rina are truly living happily ever after, and I don’t think that either one of them would really retire from their posts and their positions. They both have such sense of duty and they understand each other’s sense of duty. And so we are there to support each other in that. So maybe we’re living, our permanent residence might be on her planet of Ni’Var maybe. And then with frequent visits to the Federation headquarters perhaps, or maybe we vacation on Kaminar here and there, where I come from, and I take her to farm some kelp with me on our days off.
What do you think the chances are that we see you as Saru again on another Star Trek series? Because I mean, this franchise keeps expanding and I feel like Saru could pop up anywhere.
This would be sheer conjecture and I have no idea. I have no idea. It seems like timeline-wise, the only thing that he could do is the upcoming Starfleet Academy show. Would there be a reason for him to visit the academy? I don’t know. That’s all up to the writers and a phone call coming or not.
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How has it been saying goodbye to Saru and the show?
Very sentimental. In fact, after we shot that coda my last day, taking Saru off of my face with the makeup artist, actually, they cleaned it up and I took it home with me. So I have my very last prosthetic piece that I ever wore on the show. I also have the very last brooch that I wore, my Kaminar High Council brooch. So I have some lovely keepsakes and someone had a camera going, and Whitney Houston was singing in the background, in the makeup trailer when this came off. And the song “I Will Always Love You” came up. So I’m holding Saru’s like floppy face on my arm, and I sang to him, and somebody recorded on a phone somewhere, and I might’ve teared up while I was singing that to Saru. I will always love him. And the thing about Star Trek in general, and the fans of Star Trek, they keep it alive. They keep this franchise alive. Everything that started 58 years ago is still alive and well because of the fans. So I think that Discovery will be a part of that. I do hope so, at least.
Yeah, because Discovery is what launched this new set of series.
Exactly right. So with this whole new wave of Trek, we were the first one out of the gates, and we’ll always have that to pat ourselves on the back about. And to have a successful spinoff, like Strange New Worlds from our show with Captain Pike [Anson Mount] being in our Season 2 and Spock [Ethan Peck] being in our Season 2, and then Rebecca Romijn as Number One, the three of them going off to another show made perfect sense because they were such a hit on our show.
Looking back on the series, what episodes or scenes stand out to you?
Oh gosh. The moment that stands out the most and will always stand out for me was back in Season 2 when Saru went through Vahar’ai, which is kind of like what we would equate with adolescence. He thought his life would end at Vahar’ai because that’s what he was taught by the evil Ba’ul on my planet that were our predator species. And they had us all duped into thinking that that was the end of our lives. And sure enough, that’s not, that was actually when the threat ganglia would come out whenever I was afraid, they actually fell out and were replaced with quills that made me a badass. And I didn’t see that coming. And so that was a life lesson for me with my own personal anxiety was, maybe I can let my anxiety fall out and replace it with a confidence and a courage that Saru has.
That was such a great episode.
Thank you.
I loved the Burnham-Saru dynamic, and to watch it go from Season 1 to what it became…
Yeah, we went from being—the brother-sister thing has always been there, kind of surrogate brother-sister. And we started with a little bit of competition with each other, little jealousies and frustrations with each other. And that evolved over the years into a trust and a love that is so deep. We have each other’s back and can trust each other so much.
What will you remember about Saru?
I think his intelligence and his heart. I love that he’s taken on a mentorship type vibe with all the crew. When he took over the ship and when he’s sat in the captain’s chair, it’s always been with a gentle touch on the crew. He leads with definite authority, but he also leads with a helping hand to help the other crew members. He wants to see everybody rise to the top at some point. That’s why his relationship with Tilly [Mary Wiseman] is so special to me, too, watching her come from a cadet to the rise that she’s made. She frustrated him with her goofy sense of humor, but he appreciated her and knew that she was probably the smartest person on the ship.
Star Trek: Discovery, Streaming Now, Paramount+
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