Star Trek: Discovery’s 5th season trailer jumps the shark with warp surfing

Star Trek: Discovery may have finally jumped the shark with its warp-surfing scene.

Star Trek: Discovery has been a very maligned show and would be considered the worst of the new franchises had it not been for Picard being absolute garbage in the eyes of many. But whatever goodwill Discovery earned in season three is gone by season five.

While some fans will have no issue with the newest trailer, it’s important to note that sometimes a good idea can often kill a series. It’s called “Jumping the Shark”, and it calls back to a time on Happy Days when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skies. Granted, the series was still at an all-time high when it happened, but many mark it as the beginning of the end. The term is misused with its origin, but the meaning behind it remains the same.

It’s a point when there was no turning back for a show that was about to decline and sputter to its end. Every show has that point. For the Andy Griffith show, it was when Don Knotts left the show, Battlestar Galactica has had a few but many point to the Five Cylons being revealed, Dexter could be argued the season finale of six was when it lost its luster, the musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy, anything with the Simpsons after season 10, and so many other examples.

For Star Trek fans, Discovery jumped the shark with season five, when Michael Burnham surfed on the hull of her ship at warp speed.

Michael Burnham surfing on the Discovery is the moment the show jumped the shark.

Star Trek: Discovery encompassed everything that was wrong with Nu Trek. It was dark, bleak, it carried on a long and borrowing plot threat, it changed established canon to make the show seem more genre-defining and it stayed away from traditional Trek tropes that fueled the franchise for decades.

The worst sin it may have committed, however, was letting Michael Burnham surf the hull of a ship while it’s going warp.

I don’t care if it’s possible or not, warp as a theory is rather complicated and nearly impossible to achieve. We’re making up science at this point, I know that. The problem is, however, is this Leia surviving in space and using The Force to Marry Poppins her way back to a ship. Floating to a door that is connected to a room that is exposed to space. There’d literally be no way to save her by opening a door.

This feels like the exact same situation. Going outside of the ship while it’s at warp seems largely impossible in the world of Star Trek, yet here we are. Even if it makes sense in the context of the show, this is the moment the show lost all hope. It’s ridiculous to even dream up a concept like this. It reeks of desperation. Instead of stopping the ship to conduct repairs, or whatever the reason would be, the answer is to go to the hull while the ship is at warp, or even worse yet, start on the hull and then go warp.

It made sense for Fozie to jump the shark in that episode of Happy Days, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t end up ruining the franchise for seasons to come.