Warning: This Article Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 8 - "Labyrinths"

Summary

• Captain Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery faces a mind-bending test similar to Captain Picard's in "The Inner Light."
• Discovery Season 5, Episode 8 explores Burnham's inner journey to complete the Progenitors' treasure map.
• Comparison between Burnham and Picard's experiences shows a clever callback in Star Trek: Discovery.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 sent Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) into her own mindscape, and it's a direct callback to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Inner Light." In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 8, "Labyrinths", written by Lauren Wilkinson & Eric J. Robbins, and directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Burnham retrieves the final clue to complete the map to the Progenitors' treasure. Michael's inner journey is a test to assess her worthiness by 24th-century Betazoid scientist Dr. Marina Derex.

On X, Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49), who was a renowned researcher for Star Trek: Picard season 3, shared how Captain Burnham was hit with a nucleonic beam in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 8, "Labyrinths" - the same way Captain Picard's mind was sent to the long-dead planet Kataan and lived the life of Kamin, one of the people of that lost civilization, in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 25, "The Inner Light". Check out Hillebrand's side-by-side comparison of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: The Next Generation below:

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Has Lots Of TNG Callbacks

Discovery goes deep into Star Trek's TNG era

The nucleonic beam that struck Captain Burnham is just one of many callbacks to Star Trek: The Next Generation in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. The entire fifth and final season of Discovery is a sequel to the TNG episode, "The Chase," which established that a race of ancient humanoids (called "the Progenitors" in Discovery) created humanoid life in the galaxy. Star Trek: Discovery retconned one of the Romulans in TNG as Doctor Vellek (Michael Copeman), a member of a group of TNG-era scientists who found the Progenitors' life-creating technology and hid it, leaving behind a series of clues.

One of the scientists, Dr. Marina Derex, is an empathic 24th-century Betazoid like Star Trek: The Next Generation's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis).

Among the clues in Star Trek: Discovery is Dr. Vellek's, and Captain Burnham and Captain Saru's (Doug Jones) mission to find it on Lyrek was a callback to Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes like "The Arsenal of Freedom." Discovery also introduced an android named Fred (J. Adam Brown), who resembles TNG's Data (Brent Spiner). Star Trek: Discovery season 5 also wove in callbacks to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: The Original Series, as well as a nod to Star Trek: Lower Decks' Hysperians.

Source: X

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+