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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →“Face the Strange” is the fourth episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth and final season, episode 504. It uses a sabotage-driven time loop to send the crew back through the series’ own history, and critics who reviewed it in April 2024 read that structure as a deliberate way of looking at how the show has changed. James Whitbrook’s Gizmodo review, published April 18, 2024, makes that case most directly.
Spoiler warning: this article covers the episode’s premise, the loop’s stages, and the characters the loop puts under pressure.
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What happens in the episode
The episode opens with Discovery travelling toward the next clue in the mystery of the Progenitors’ technology. Moll has planted a device on Adira’s uniform. It sabotages the ship and traps the crew in a succession of time periods. StarTrek.com’s preview, published April 17, 2024, describes the threat as a mysterious weapon that disables Discovery and leaves Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets as the crew members able to save the ship.
The official recap by Jay Stobie, published on StarTrek.com on April 19, 2024, lays out the cycles in more detail. The loop returns the crew to moments such as:
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- the ship’s journey to the 32nd century
- its conflict with the Emerald Chain
- the early days of its first season
The stakes are concrete. The loop threatens to lock in a disastrous future tied to the Progenitors’ technology, so the crew must stop the device before that future takes hold.
Why the time loop is the point
Whitbrook’s central argument is that the episode uses a familiar Star Trek time-loop framework to reflect on Discovery’s own evolution. The repeated jumps do more than create suspense. They let the crew revisit formative events from earlier seasons, so the show’s past plays out again in front of the viewer. That is why the episode works as commentary on the series as well as a plot. This is the review’s reading of the episode, not a statement from the production.
Burnham: past and present side by side
Because Burnham stays aware across the cycles, she is able to see her earlier self in the same scenes. Whitbrook argues that the contrast between past and present Burnham makes her development visible in a way a linear story could not.
Sonequa Martin-Green, speaking in an official StarTrek.com interview by Christine Dinh published April 25, 2024, frames the episode the same way: as a return to pivotal moments from the first four seasons and to Burnham’s literal encounter with her earlier self. She reflects on Burnham’s first days aboard the ship:
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“The first time I walked onto this bridge, it took every ounce of strength I had not to turn around and run right back off. I respected Starfleet too much to believe I deserved to be here after what I had done.”
Rayner and the crew he leads
Rayner, the new first officer, is the other character the loop tests. According to Whitbrook, he starts out uncomfortable with Discovery’s collaborative and personal crew culture. Over the course of the cycles, he learns to understand the people he is leading alongside, and the episode makes that change visible.
Stamets is also central to the effort. The preview names him as one of the three crew members who can save the ship, and he is important to the attempt to understand and stop the device.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Callbacks to Star Trek history
Whitbrook connects the episode’s time-loop premise to the franchise’s past. He points to a callback to Discovery’s first-season time-loop episode, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” along with the show’s use of temporal technology and references to other eras of Star Trek. These are the review’s observations, not official production statements.
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If you want to compare this episode with other Star Trek time loops, the most useful questions are:
- Purpose: Is the loop used to build suspense, to explore a character, or to comment on the series itself?
- Character: Whose development does the loop reveal?
- History: Does the episode draw on earlier episodes and franchise eras, and how?
On those measures, Whitbrook’s view is that “Face the Strange” uses the loop to examine the show’s own history rather than simply to create a puzzle.
The critical verdict
Whitbrook’s conclusion is that the episode is “an episode Discovery could only pull off once, as its journey comes to an end,” and that it does so “almost perfectly.” He calls it “an incredibly compelling use of a time-and-tested Trek format to examine the metatextual and textual journey it’s been on these last seven years.”
Where to watch
StarTrek.com lists streaming services and territories for the series, but that listing does not establish that season five or this episode is currently offered in every territory it names. Check your local streaming catalog for current availability before watching.
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