CBS today released another behind-the-scenes Star Trek: Discovery production video, taking viewers on a tour of the high-tech USS Discovery bridge set.
Welcome aboard the bridge of the U.S.S. Discovery. Stream the #StarTrekDiscovery world premiere Sept 24: https://t.co/acwPpBk46H pic.twitter.com/8s39fPa88M
— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) September 15, 2017
This marvel of a set is full of practical see-through displays, live digital screens, and Starfleet technology everywhere. Here are some stills of the sets:
* * *
Official site StarTrek.com has been conducting interviews with the cast and creators of Star Trek: Discovery the last several days, and we’ve poured through them to pick out some of the new bits of commentary on the upcoming series from showrunner Aaron Harberts, and series stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Mitchell, and Mary Chieffo.
Aaron Harberts: The Impact of ‘Enterprise’
“‘Enterprise’ has been so tough because they tried to rack on several things and sometimes it will be like, “Oh, if ‘Enterprise’ had just left that alone we wouldn’t be like painted into that corner,” but they did and that’s fine. We just find a way.
What I hope happens is, after this first season, second season, we’ll start creating our own slice of it so that we’re adding to canon in our way, and those questions come up less and less. It’s been very important, and look, you can’t be perfect all the time… Some things just slip through the crack.
Maybe an actor just says the wrong line and you miss it and suddenly you’re on a mix stage and you’re like, “Oh my God, oh God. Did they just use that phrase?” We’ll try to fix it, but nothing’s perfect. There will be tiny little mistakes, but I’ll tell you something, our intentions are nothing but good.
We are going to be doing a few things that shake hands with [the Original Series] in a way that I think are going to be so fun. I think people will be pretty excited about what’s coming down the pike. ” – StarTrek.com
Jason Isaacs: Wearing Starfleet’s Uniforms
“[Wearing the Starfleet uniform means] enormous pain and no lunch. (laughter). It was like putting on an external gastric bypass. I felt like trying to get into it was like someone making my body into a balloon animal.
[They’re] very, very thin. I don’t know if anyone goes skiing, or does sports things, you know that wicking material. But, an advancement of those things. You really feel very vulnerable and very naked. You don’t feel like you’re ready to fight. And there’s no pockets and no props to play with.
We work out with them. We do sports and we have a gym there and have a table tennis table. So, you can move in them, but you can move mostly because they’re like body paint, they’re so tight. ‘There were many discussions about making sure they weren’t so tight and so revealing that it became a very different show altogether” – StarTrek.com
Michelle Yeoh: Captain Georgiou, War Veteran
“I know that [Georgiou] is a war veteran. She has seen the horrors of war because it comes out in the dialogue as well. But she is a very compassionate person. As I look into her, she, by heart, is an explorer. She loved the universe. She loved the ability and the possibility of seeing new stars, new novae being born. She’s always awed by that.
That’s what I love about this character. She’s not cynical. She’s not jaded by all the things. She believes — and she firmly believes — in the hope and the goodness of humanity. It’s very pure to play a character like that, to bring her to the fore, but she’s also very smart. Otherwise, she would’ve been dead a long time ago.
[She] really, truly believes in cooperation, like the first thing that should come out is a gesture of friendship. Not anything else. Because shoot first and ask questions later just simply means, “Let’s fight. Let’s fight.” That’s not Captain Georgiou. That’s why Sarek brought Michael Burnham to her, so that she could help to instill these qualities in Michael Burnham, because Michael Burnham would be very cold and logical.” – StarTrek.com
Aaron Harberts: Making a TOS Prequel in 2017
“That’s something that’s always going to be an issue. It’s impossible to get around it. I think when we all started talking about it, we just didn’t think that it would be the best way to go, to just use toggles and just technology…
It’s funny now how iPads have caught up with ‘Next Gen.’ All of that technology has now come to pass in a lot of ways. There is a certain analog quality. There’s a certain analog quality to some of the ship’s helm controls and things. It just feels tactile, but then there’s also tons of monitors and graphics that they wouldn’t have had in TOS.
We had to strike a balance between not changing things that we thought were super-important, like the communicators and tricorder and phaser, but in terms of how graphics are done or how… We lean on holograms a lot, actually, instead of just going to the viewscreen. Just slightly different ways of making it feel a little more contemporary.
But I don’t think it’s so in your face that you’re going to say, “Wait, hold on a second.” It was our plan to just sort of have a seamless integration. Some of those key props, we, Bryan… nobody wanted to really change those.” – StarTrek.com
Michelle Yeoh: Georgiou and Michael Burnham
“She’s obviously the one who’s been teaching [Burnham], trying to guide her on the right path. But (Burnham’s) background makes it so interesting because she’s the only human. She forgot she was human because she was growing up in the Vulcan world.
She was becoming more Vulcan than Vulcan itself. She beat herself up to even more than that. And, it’s brutal. I don’t know how anybody can survive, unless you are a Vulcan, the kind of training you have to get through so that you are so in control and everything becomes about logic and clear cut and things like that.
Sarek, Spock’s dad, is a dear friend of Captain Georgiou and he truly believed that Captain Georgiou would be able to instill the good human qualities back into her, because fundamentally she’s a human being, right? You cannot deny yourself what you are.
Michael Burnham looked at Captain Georgiou first with disdain. But she begins to respect this woman. She understood and began to understand where she came from, what she was trying to teach her, and then that bond was solidified. So much so, it was like a proud parent saying, ‘You know, I think you’re ready to have your own wings. To fly your own ship.’ And that’s a big deal.” – StarTrek.com
Aaron Harberts: The Freedom of Streaming TV
“It’s super-compelling to use violence, language, nudity beyond what you can do (on traditional television), but I wouldn’t say it works that great on ‘Star Trek.’
It’s really interesting. There’s something about it. We can show a bat’leth going through somebody. We could show a mek’leth slicing someone’s throat maybe a little bit more than we could on network TV, and that’s cool. We don’t tend to use a ton of language. When we do, it’s got to be for a real reason.
We aren’t really doing a ton of nudity. It just doesn’t quite feel right and, I don’t know… I think if you’re a fan of the show, you understand what I’m saying. It’s just not quite right.
I think what makes us a streaming show is getting to tell stories about characters that you wouldn’t necessarily get to see on network television. Getting to do some internal, emotional, darker, people confronting maybe darker sides of themselves or more complicated sides of themselves that you wouldn’t necessarily get to do, or if you did it on network, you’d have to tie it up with a bow in one episode.
We definitely have a range [in episode length]. It really is more about how the episodes play. It really is about the rhythm of the story. Some will be high, high 40s, some into the 50s, and then some might be a little bit shorter than that. There’s a nice, wide range, but it’s got to be the story that dictates.” – StarTrek.com
Sonequa Martin-Green: Burnham’s Vulcan Mindset
“The idea of how Vulcan I am versus how human I am is one facet we’re exploring. Because there is this dichotomy of Vulcan indoctrination versus human emotion and human DNA, versus Starfleet ideology. And so, it’s really about all of these things, all of these tenets of my being, and how they are relating to each other, and how they’re opposing each other, right?
So, I was born into a human family, and a human life, and then was sort of forced into Vulcan culture. So, there’s the acculturation that has happened, and there was certainly the assimilation that I fought to achieve. And then you have Starfleet. And so almost, I feel as if Starfleet has provided a bridge for me between my humanity and my Vulcan upbringing.
So, it’s interesting because it’s not the same journey as Spock. He, in his DNA, is Vulcan and human. But for me, it’s really about someone who attempted to become someone they were not born to be. Under tremendous pressure. Against insurmountable odds. (She’s) someone who’s succeeded in that to a point, and possibly to a fault.
So, there’s certainly that inner conflict, and a lot of the inner conflict has to do with that, because obviously there’s an identity crisis there, that, “Who am I? Who do I want to be? Who am I becoming, based on these decisions I’m making? Is it Vulcan logic, or is it human emotion that caused me to make that decision?'” – StarTrek.com
Ken Mitchell: Kol’s Path to Power
“[Kol] is the leader. You first meet him in holograph form, and he’s kind of an alpha Klingon amongst the house leaders, amongst the 24 house leaders. He has these disagreements and conflicts with T’Kuvma and his house, and it kind of launches that relationship throughout the rest of the season.
Kol is on a bit of a path to power, and he also wants to protect his people, not only amongst the Klingon houses, but also amongst the Federation. I just really kind of clinged on to that – no pun intended.
The costume is heavy and it’s hot and the prosthetics are heavy and hot, but I’ve always been an actor that works from the inside out and the outside in. These costumes and prosthetics, when you put them on, they’re like layers of your character, and the more you put on the more you start feeling like your character.
Then you add in the language, this very visceral and guttural language, and it just lends itself so much to my character, being a kind of aggressive Klingon. I find the language itself is a little bit aggressive and I’ve found when I am speaking it, I kind of start moving my body a bit and using my arms and moving my neck a bit. All these layers added on to helping me create my character.” – StarTrek.com
Mary Chieffo: Why She Loves DS9’s Grilka
“Grilka [from “The House of Quark”] is definitely at the top [of my favorite Klingons], first of all, because she’s full Klingon. I love K’Ehleyr and I love B’Elanna, but they’re both half-Klingon. B’Elanna, like we see with anyone who’s half and half, is they have that internal struggle.
I love watching that, but certainly for me, since L’Rell is full Klingon, seeing Grilka, I love her story of eventually becoming the leader of her own house. Klingons are so patriarchal, so that was a great way to explore that story, in both episodes that she’s in. Her relationship with Quark was so fun and wonderful, and she just owned herself in this great way.
There’s something about that I’ve tried to transfer to L’Rell, and it’s that her strength and power don’t negate her sensuality. Grilka is the one that really always comes to mind.” – StarTrek.com
[td_smart_list_end]
* * *
Series co-producer Ted Sullivan continues to share behind-the-scenes Discovery set photos on social media.
https://twitter.com/karterhol/status/908722098373148672
https://twitter.com/karterhol/status/908830046378328064
Finally, it’s now been widely reported that reviews of Star Trek: Discovery are embargoed until 9:30 PM on Sunday, September 24, in alignment with the end of Episode 1’s airing on CBS television.
There are press and critic screenings on Tuesday, September 19 in both Hollywood and New York, but don’t expect to see any official write-ups on the episodes themselves until next Sunday. Some have assumed this decision by CBS is meant to hide possible negative reviews until showtime, but with the recent rise of leaked screener releases of big-budget shows like “Game of Thrones” — and the extreme secrecy under which CBS has been protecting Star Trek: Discovery since its 2015 announcement — this move may be surprising, but it’s not entirely unexpected.
Discovery tie-in novelist David Mack shared his own thoughts on the review embargo on Twitter last night, countering some press reports that the move signaled doom for the upcoming show, stating that the CBS team made the decision to protect spoilers as long as possible.
Click through to see the rest of Mack’s thoughts on the matter.
We’re still working on what our on-site spoiler policy will be for the Discovery airings – since the US will still get episodes about twelve hours ahead of the international community, we want our friends watching on Netflix or Space to know what TrekCore articles are safe to read, and which aren’t – and we’ll let you know before the first CBS airing next weekend.
Watch for our own review of the series’ two-hour premiere here on the 24th.