Star Trek: Discovery ushered in a new era of Star Trek, and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise are proud of the show’s myriad accomplishments. Star Trek: Discovery season 5 premieres Thursday, April 4, on Paramount+. Although not originally planned as the final season, Star Trek: Discovery season 5 concludes the voyages of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery, with a special coda filmed to wrap up the saga in a satisfying way.

Prior to the world premiere of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 at SXSW, executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise spoke to Screen Rant and looked back with pride on everything Discovery achieved. Paradise highlighted Discovery‘s diversity and meaningful impact, while Kurtzman looks back with pride that a new era of Star Trek TV series happened because of Discovery. Read their quotes below:

Michelle Paradise: I’m proud of a lot of things. We made a movie every week. That’s unbelievable. I’m really proud of the diversity on camera [and] behind the scenes, I’m proud of the emotional storylines we’ve told. I’m proud of the impact. And I feel honored to have been part of that on the audience, going to different events and hearing people talk about how they relate to a particular character, and what they have gone through, and that [Trek] has given them the ability to do something in their own lives that they didn’t think that they would be able to do. Just knowing that, through this show, we’ve been able to make a difference. A meaningful difference, even in one person’s life is just incredible. And something that we’ve been aware of, it’s also an incredible responsibility in terms of visibility and knowing that this is the kind of impact that shows can have.

Alex Kurtzman: I’m all of that. And I’m proud that Discovery ushered in a new era of Star Trek. You know, it really did. All these other shows that exist in the world [and] that are upcoming would never have existed without Discovery. And so Discovery… we went from 12 years of just like dry bone desert in the world of Star Trek TV to having a lot of it now, and that’s all because of Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Will End The Series

The stories of Discovery’s characters will be resolved in a satisfying way

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 was produced before the cast and crew learned it would be the final season, but Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise both reflected that Discovery season 5 was the right season to go out on becausethe story is, in a sense, about endings. Paramount+ allowed for additional filming to create an epilogue to resolve the characters’ storylines. As a result, Kurtzman says “nothing is left hanging” in Star Trek: Discovery‘s ending.

With an intergalactic treasure hunt as the core of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, Captain Burnham and her crew will also encounter new characters Moll (Eve Harlow), L’ak (Elias Toufexis), and Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). Burnham’s pursuit of “the greatest treasure in the known galaxy” also reunites her with her love interest, Cleveland Booker (David Ajala), while Discovery’s other crew relationships find new directions. Star Trek: Discovery season 5 looks to be a fitting capstone to what is arguably the most groundbreaking and important new Star Trek series of the modern era.