Another day, another Star Trek: Discovery preview video! In addition to the week-long rollout of character spots, CBS also debuted a new minute-long commercial for the upcoming series on their social media channels today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX6c18VApe7/
Embedded above is a region-locked Twitter video, only one of two CBS official release points for today’s promo – as the network relies on international distribution partners (Bell Media, Netflix, etc.) to promote the upcoming series in their regions specifically.
UPDATE: The above Instagram embed should be region free.
While today’s trailer contains mostly already-seen footage from previous Discovery previews, there are some notable additions.
First is much better look at the likely accidental, surprise collision of Starfleet vessel USS Europa with a cloaked (Klingon?) vessel, glimpsed only briefly in the Comic-Con trailer:
In addition, this sequence between Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs) clearly shows that Burnham has been reassigned to a silver Sciences division aboard the USS Discovery — but does not appear to have been awarded any rank due to her lack of Starfleet insignia.
Lorca: “You know what we need to do?”
Burnham: “We need to win.”
Lorca: “That’s the spirit!”
…and just where are these two headed, down this secretive, darkened corridor?
Finally, the new preview also gives us a set of new dialogue bits from both Burnham and Lorca.
Burnham (voice-over):
We strive toward this dream of peace, where all species can share common ground… yet no dream will protect us from you.
Lorca (dialogue):
The work we do is hard, and it’s not with out sacrifice. We are a long way from home, but I know that is a sacrifice worth making.
Also of note is the TV-MA rating which tags the opening shot of the video; for those outside the United States, this rating is designed to signify that the program in question is “specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.”
We already knew that Discovery was going to be a more hard-edged series than previous Trek television adventures, and producer Aaron Harberts addressed this in a July interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Every writer’s impulse when you get to work on the streaming shows with no parameters is to go crazy. But then you look at things like: How does nudity play on Trek? Eh, it feels weird. How does a lot of [profanity] on Trek? Not so great.
[…]
What’s important to the creative team is the legacy of the show — which is passed down from mother to daughter, from father to son, from brother to brother.
We want to make sure we’re not creating a show that fans can’t share with their families. You have to honor what the franchise is. I would say we’re not going much beyond hard PG-13.
So while all television programming is required to carry a guideline rating in the United States, it sounds like TV-MA is set to allow Discovery the creative freedom to explore more adult themes, but the production team isn’t turning the series into a free-for-all of swearing and skin.
* * *
Lastly, we also have CBS’ newest character spotlights, including Lt. Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) and Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX3PV9vAk9Z/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX6CLfQAJxM/
Keep checking back here at TrekCore for more Discovery news as it beams down!