It appears that a new photo, surreptitiously taken on the Star Trek: Discovery set has given us our first look at a cadre of aliens in costume for the new series – now in production in Toronto.

This photo, posted early on Saturday (and quickly removed by the originator), rapidly made the rounds over social media this weekend and sparked a flurry of discussion around the look of the aliens.

The photographer stated that while he labeled the aliens as a “Klingon crew”, he actually “just thought they kinda looked like” the warrior race when questioned about it – so don’t lean too hard on the original statement, which appears to be just speculation.

Setting aside whatever species these humanoids may be for a moment, we can at least clearly see that the costumes featured in this image, align with the design featured in last week’s Discovery in-production trailer, which put the barbed armor front-and center – and both ‘dark’ and ‘light’ colored versions of the costumes appear in the set photo.

Much of fandom has been in uproar over the suggestion that these creatures are some variety of Klingon; we’d agree that if these are new Klingon designs for Discovery, they would certainly represent a big departure from the previously-established design of the warrior race – aside from perhaps the ones seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Some fans have gravitated to a theory involving possible “ancient” Klingons – perhaps progenitors to the Klingons we’ve come to know in Trek to date – based on leaked concept art of a “Klingon sarcophagus ship” which hit the web last June. This art also shows some similarity to the sets under construction in last week’s video; again, however, this is only speculation at this point. 

Last year, Bryan Fuller told press that the new series would feature a bit of ‘reimagining’ of the familiar Star Trek races, so should these aliens turn out to be Klingons after all, this may be the first updated look Discovery is bringing to the old Alpha Quadrant favorites.

One of the very cool things that we get to do on this show is – we get to re-imagine all of the alien species that we’ve seen before in the series, and do something a little unique with that.

So for all of us who have fetishized the look of all of the various species over the years of watching ‘Star Trek,’ it’s fun for us to put a new spin on old favorites.

While as of yet there is no official comment from CBS or the Discovery production regarding the leaked photograph, the semi-official writer’s room Twitter account certainly had something to say on the matter, implying the photographer’s swift exit from production. 

One less extra. Sorry! https://t.co/6Bq4ayogZl

— Stella Star Trek Dog (@StarTrekDog) February 11, 2017

No matter what species this alien race ends up being, it’s certainly sure that this photo will give fans a lot to talk about – though we recommend a bit of restraint until this alien design can be put into proper context.

So sound off in our comments below, and let us know your thoughts!