Star Trek: Discovery had their first convention day since last October’s New York Comic Con event at WonderCon Anaheim today, where a host of the series’ creative minds came to reflect back on Season 1, look ahead to Season 2, and share some secrets fans have been wondering about for months.

Moderated by series actress Mary Chieffo, the panel of production and art contributors was made up of executive producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, prop master Mario Moreira, costume designer Gersha Phillips, makeup artists Glenn Hetrick and James MacKinnon, production designer Tamara Deverell, composer Jeff Russo, and visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman.

The opening half of the panel was a look back at Discovery‘s first season, from props to sets to costumes. Hetrick recounted his excitement at learning he’d have the opportunity to work on the series, calling it an “out of body experience,” but relishing the chance to contribute to the Star Trek franchise.

Moriera spoke about his favorite prop from last season, the redesigned Klingon bat’leth, and humorously referenced the skills of outside vendors who helped provide some of the more intricate and high-level props like Georgiou’s sword, saying that it’s “easier” to get top work when artists are told it would be for Star Trek.

Production designer Tamara Deverell talks about the “sad day” the Discovery art department when the Ship of the Dead — aka the Sarcophagus Ship — was torn down after filming was done on the set. Many elements from that set later ended up as parts of other sets’ decor, such as the base camp of the Mirror Universe rebels on Harlak or in the season finale on Qo’noS.

Composer Jeff Russo, who we last spoke to in December, told the audience that he eventually stopped reading scripts ahead of filming so he could be surprised when he received the final cuts of the episodes for scoring. “It made me feel what [the characters] were going to feel,” he said. On a lighter note, Russo also mentioned that he has a Spock doll on his piano, joking that he speaks to it — “Is that weird?”

Looking ahead to Season 2, the producers reiterate that Discovery is set in the Prime Star Trek timeline — as opposed to the Kelvin Timeline of the recent films — and even though “[Our] technology is different [and] our ship runs differently,” said Harberts, “Season 2 is really exciting for us because we’ll get to show how Discovery really fits” in the Prime universe.

Even Starfleet uniforms, which were dramatically redesigned for Discovery by Gersha Phillips, may become more familiar as next year progresses. “We ended the season with the Enterprise,” Harberts teased, “and we know what [that ship’s] uniforms looked like… I’ll leave it at that.”

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Finally, as a surprise, showrunner Aaron Harberts revealed a “secret scene” cut from “Will You Take My Hand?”, featuring a sequence with Michelle Yeoh’s Mirror Georgiou, back in the the Orion brothel in a bar on Qo’noS, which she now appears to run.

For USA viewers:

For Canadian viewers:

For European viewers:

A man who appears to be a Trill (played by actor Alan Van Sprang) approaches the former Emperor, but she calls him out on not seeming like a typical Trill. The man hits a button, and his Trill spots disappear, revealing he’s human after all. Georgiou tells him that she “thought [the Federation and I] had an agreement.”

He tells her that it’s still a dangerous universe, despite the Klingon-Federation cease fire struck during the season finale, and that while he wants “galactic peace… that doesn’t come without vigilance, or a moral cost.”

“You don’t sound like Starfleet,” Georgiou tells him, and he confirms that he’s not part of that organization. “We’re far more resourceful… and we know how to keep a secret,” he says. “We believe you would be a valuable asset to us.”

The man (called “Leland” in CBS press notations) pulls out a small box, leaving it on a table for Georgiou to open, and he closes with an ominous message: “Welcome to Section 31.”

Sprang appeared at the WonderCon panel, and described the difficulty of keeping the secret since he filmed the scene last fall, and seemed to confirm he’d be appearing in Discovery when it returns for Season 2: “If you ask me anything, I’ll just nod,” he said, “I can’t say anything.”

Speaking of those Black badges, QMx’s replica, which we saw up-close-and-personal at ToyFair last month, finally have a product listing page at QMx’s site. While the Black badge, along with the Starfleet Cadet badge, is not yet available for purchase, their pricing has been confirmed at $14.95 each.

Keep coming back to TrekCore for all the latest Star Trek: Discovery news as it breaks!