Star Trek: Discovery is back at San Diego Comic Con in a big way this week, returning to the massive event once again to showcase some of the series’ props and costumes, and our friend Doyle Zhang from the Star Trek China fan group beamed over to check it out as it opened to the public.
Like 2017’s SDCC experience, the crew from CBS has set up shop at the Michael J. Wolf Fine Art gallery in San Diego, only this year they’ve brought with them wares from the Terran Empire, which featured so heavily in the second half of Discovery Season 1.
Starting off the Mirror Universe display is a set of concept art features that highlight the creative design behind Discovery’s take on the Terran Empire, including technical information on the mirror Shenzou, the mirror Discovery, and the Emperor’s flagship, the ISS Charon — which supposedly was designed to carry 200,000 troops in a ship measuring a whopping 450 decks high.
Moving to the Terran crew costumes, the gallery features a great number of Gersha Phillips’ Mirror Universe designs for the alternate take on Starfleet, including the flashy gold bodices worn by Michael Burnham and Cadet “Captain Killy” Tilly.
Also featured were Gabriel Lorca’s “captured fugitive” outfit, the black-and-metallic uniforms worn Ash Tyler, as well as the evil alternates of Paul Stamets and Keyla Detmer, the leather costumes donned by Mirror Sarek and Shukar of the aligned resistance — and of course, the golden robes of Emperor Georgiou herself.
As for the featured props, the main attraction of course was the set of weapons used by Emperor Georgiou, including her dagger, custom-built sword, the flashy bracelet worn around her wrist, as well as a truncheon club weapon used by her guards. (Of course, those same guards were later executed by the “fidget spinner of death,” a throwing disc weapon from her throne, also on display at the gallery).
The modified phaser and phaser rifle props were included, featuring the heatsink-like attachments which differentiated them from the prime-universe design, as well as both a standard Terran dagger (with mirrored-Earth logo) and an updated belt-worn agonizer.
A number of Terran officer badges were also displayed in their own glass case, including both the alternate departmental insignias and the honorific medals seen on each officer’s chestplate.
Finally, the Discovery Mirror Universe gallery also features Emperor Georgiou’s massive throne, this year’s traveling free photo-op set which will also follow this exhibit to the Las Vegas Star Trek convention in a few weeks.
The throne includes both internal lighting and fully-lit digital display panels — however the graphics themselves seem to be basic alterations of the Discovery captain’s chair prop, as the buttons reference both “Spore Drive” and “Black Alert” activation.
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Along with a gift shop with a number of Star Trek: Discovery products, visitors to the exhibit also got a chance to gain some insight from Lorca’s family fortune cookies:
Wisdom from The #Lorca Cookie @startrekcbs @jasonsfolly #CaptainLorca #startrekdiscovery #sdcc2018 pic.twitter.com/pDna5Kzj4L
— Stephen Sandoval (@ArtOfSSandoval) July 19, 2018
The Star Trek: Discovery exhibit runs through Sunday afternoon at the Michael J. Wolf Fine Arts Gallery (363 Fifth Ave, San Diego) and is free to explore, even if you don’t have a pass to Comic Con.
If you can’t make it to San Diego but are headed to the STLV convention on August 1, you’ll have your own chance to check out the Mirror Universe display at the Rio Hotel.
Keep coming back to TrekCore for all the Star Trek news from Comic Con!