Sunday brings us the penultimate episode of Star Trek: Discovery Season 1, but before the show wraps up for the year there’s still another week of news to cover!
Several of the Discovery cast made appearances on video this week as we approach the end of the season, starting with Anthony Rapp who appeared on CBS’s The Talk today to talk about his role on the show.
Here’s a preview of that interview released by CBS today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkvYonmsR6c
Sonequa Martin-Green also stopped by local Los Angeles news station KTLA to talk about the series, and the recent adventures in the Mirror Universe.
SPOILER ALERT! This interview with Martin-Green includes a look ahead to this Sunday’s “The War Without, The War Within,” so if you’re trying to avoid any previews of this next episode, keep on reading down this article!
Shazad Latif (Tyler/Voq) spent time with The Hollywood Reporter, discussing his challenges with Klingon makeup and learning how to speak the language of the warrior race.
This interview was filmed before the reveal of Lorca’s true nature — that he’s from the Mirror Universe — so watch for Latif to deftly sidestep the “theory” when brought up by the reporter.
An officer of two ships called Shenzhou, actor Sam Vartholomeos (Danby Connor) released this behind-the-scenes clip of fight rehearsal from “The Wolf Inside,” as he and Martin-Green prepared to battle to the death in the ISS Shenzhou‘s turbolift.
It took a lot for this fight to look the way it did. This was one of the first run-throughs @SonequaMG and I did. Choreographed by the awesome Hubert Boorder, we still had some kinks to work out. Geoff Meech was an amazing stunt double. It was a pleasure to fight with all of you! pic.twitter.com/P0LJoVTSLI
The second Star Trek: Discovery prequel novel, “Drastic Measures,” arrives this coming Tuesday from longtime Trek author Dayton Ward.
Set ten years before the Battle of the Binary Stars, the tale finds then-Commander Georgiou and then-Lt. Commander Lorca working to battle the devastating work of Kodos the Executioner on Tarsus IV, a situation first described in the Original Series episode “The Conscience of the King.”
Filming on Season 1 of Discovery concluded back in October, but all the way back in January 2017, Toronto’s International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local #873 revealed this past year’s filming window, and once again, the IATSE site has a slot open for Discovery — aka “Green Harvest” — targeting a start in April 2018.
In addition, Canada-based WhatsFilming.ca, which tracks filming schedules for production in Vancouver and Toronto, has also noted the upcoming production with an April 16 kick-off in their tracker.
With producers hoping for an early 2019 launch of the second year of the show, an eight-month window from filming to debut would mirror Discovery Season 1 almost identically, which started filming January 2017 and debuted in September of last year.
TrekCore has not yet independently verified this information, but with the lengthy post-production timeline needed for Discovery episodes, and with Season 2 development in progress since mid-November — and the track record from IATSE’s site last year — it seems like a reasonable estimate.
We’ll continue to follow all looks ahead to Season 2 throughout the next few months.
* * *
Composer Jeff Russo’s “Season 1, Chapter 1” Discovery soundtrack, which debuted as a digital download back in December — check out our review if you missed it! — is now available as a physical release on CD from Lakeshore Records.
Once Discovery Season 1 has concluded, a second digital release will arrive featuring music from the second half of the season; a special vinyl release with selections from all of Discovery Season 1 will follow later in 2018.
The structure of this fourth issue of the I.D.I.C. storyline in Star Trek: Boldly Go #16 definitely differs from the others.
Inasmuch that Mike Johnson has done a fabulous job of reconciling the multiple incarnations of the crew of the USS Enterprise in as individually focused stories as he could in previous issues, this time, think of the proverbial camel’s back and one too many straws, and in the end, will we discover the ends for all the Captains Kirk in this story?
So many Kirks – so many problems.
For me, that isn’t a problem. Hell, with my last name, I’ve got no shortage of admiration for that most revered of my literary heroes. The more Kirks, the better, I say.
In this storyline we have a Floral-Kirk, female Kirk, Klingon Kirk, robot Kirk and then there’s good old-fashioned reliable and Chris Pine’s “normal” Kirk. We follow all three of these Kirks and their assorted crew from other dimensions as we move through the story on the path to discover exactly just what is going on. Where are all of these diverse Star Fleet officers and more importantly, why are they all here?
I imagine this has been a daunting story for Johnson; after all, not only is he balancing the story on several different subplots, but he also has to make sure that the characters are all recognizable enough in their other-dimensional incarnations for us to be comfortable and familiar with them, yet different enough in that they continue to be interesting.
The story so far: we have one group on Vulcan, led by Captain Jane T. Kirk, awaiting their dimension’s Nero to destroy the planet; the Tree-Kirk setting down roots — in a wholly literal sense — on Risa, and the Kirk we know from the Kelvin Timeline films attempting to escape from the Empress Khan.
Johnson separates the three adventures and tells the story from an interrupted “stop-gap” presentation. It’s a very chunky storytelling process but gives the reader a mini-cliffhanger effect as the plot develops. However, the three-part perspective allows for the demonstration of what fans like about Captain Kirk – any Kirk.
It’s no secret: I have always idolized Captain Kirk for a variety of character traits that I deem heroic: his boldness, his quick-thinking in tight situations but more importantly, the ability to extend trust and faith in his friends and to have that returned in kind. It’s this last quality that makes Kirk a good leader and inspires his crew. While there may be an infinite combination of diverse Kirks, at their core they are still one and the same.
I can see this aspect of the character as the foundational basis for this issue, and I find it to be an enjoyable one as it reinforces one of the positive character traits that I like most in a Kirk’s character.
But it all has to come to a close at some point. I am eager to see how Johnson ties it all together. After all, each crew assortment is currently facing different challenges, but these are still minor in comparison to the overall question of how they all got there in the first place.
There has to be a hidden central figure that we haven’t seen yet who is telling the story and calling the shots, so to speak. I’m also still very curious to know the identity of this hidden narrator — I have my suspicions, but that’s something to look forward to.
Looking at the art, I am becoming a big fan of Angel Hernandez’s work. He has a complexity and sophistication in his renderings that leave the viewer with a sense of quality. It is good work and should be acknowledged.
Cover A is Hernandez’s – it is a wonderful portrayal of the Spock variants in this story. It inspires a curiosity about the characters and I would love to read a story about the Floral Spock by Mike Johnson. Are there Floral Vulcans? Good covers incite a reader to turn the page and read the book.
Cover B is a humorous one by Mike Martin, capitalizing on the pervasive popularity of the Funko POP! range of toys. Number 5 of 7 Funko covers covering IDW’s releases, this one sees a Funko Captain Kirk sitting quite comfortably in his command chair. It’s cute but lends nothing to the story within, of course.
The retailer-incentive A cover is a photo-cover of Chris Pine’s Kirk. While appropriate for the story focus, it’s a photo-cover and I have always stated that comic covers should be the realm of illustrators, not photographers.
The retailer-incentive B cover is Yoshi Yoshitani’s stylized depiction of an engaged Lieutenant Uhura poring over her console, while a concerned Kirk and a somewhat irritated Spock look on. I can’t say I liked this cover, given that Spock’s face seemed emotional and the entire scene seemed too generic and not relevant to the story.
The end of this issue is also a wonderful homage to the Kirk assurance of the non-existence of the “no-win scenario”, which is also a great lynch-pin for the story’s premise. After all, if you think about, the philosophy of I.D.I.C lends itself well to the Kirk sense of intrepid daring. Infinite diversity is just another way of describing the sense of there always being possibilities.
Kirk can always see his way out of a dangerous and seemingly hopeless situation, but I’m wondering how Mike Johnson is going to write all of the Kirks out of the unfortunate predicaments they find themselves in at the end of this story… with just two more chapters left before Star Trek: Boldly Go ends its run in March.
Star Trek fans are collectors. From the earliest days of Mego’s classic Trek figures in the 1970s to the monthly Official Starships Collection model releases from Eaglemoss, Trek toys that have been been bringing a little piece of the United Federation of Planets into our homes for over 40 years.
Toy collector, Star Trek fan, and entertainment producer Brian Volk-Weiss has spent the last five years developing and filming a new documentary series, The Toys That Made Us, which debuted its first four of eight planned episodes on Netflix in December.
If you haven’t yet had the chance to catch up on this whimsical and insightful look back at some of pop culture’s biggest toy hits, here’s the trailer for the first four episodes of the series covering Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man, and G.I. Joe.
This spring, the next four episodes of The Toys That Made Us continue the documentary series, with features centering on Transformers, Lego, Hello Kitty… and Star Trek.
We caught up with Volk-Weiss this month to talk about the genesis of his series, his roots as a toy collector, and what Trek fans can look forward to when The Toys That Made Us: Star Trek debuts in a few months.
* * *
TREKCORE: Could you tell us about your background, Brian, and how you became so interested in toy collecting?
BRIAN VOLK-WEISS: It’s hard to talk about toys without talking about my first time watching Star Wars. I saw Star Wars when I was a little kid, and thought it was like a documentary – my mom started to get worried about me when I told her that I was going to join the rebellion when I grew up!
She bought me a “making of Star Wars” kids book, where it showed that the giant X-Wing fighters were actually tiny models, that C-3PO was really an actor wearing a mask, that sort of thing – and from that moment, I knew I wanted to be in show business.
Largely because of that, I had a lot of toys as a kid. Not just Star Wars, but also G.J. Joe and Transformers; I just always loved toys and played with them all the time. Even though I eventually stopped playing with them so much as I got older, I never threw them away, but began collecting them.
I would start putting up the toys I had, and even ones I never played with, up on the shelf, and over time the collection grew and grew and grew, where now I have about 500 or 600 toys in my collection.
TREKCORE: So how did your love of toys eventually become this Netflix series?
VOLK-WEISS: I’m a huge history buff, and I’m an avid reader of history. One day it dawned on me that while there are probably thousands of books on the Civil War, or Vietnam, or World War II, you really have to dig and research for hours to find anything out about something like the origins of Transformers.
Like, everybody knows who Optimus Prime is, right? Everybody knows about Cobra Commander. These are huge parts of pop culture history, so why is it so hard to find out anything about how they came to be? That was really the eureka moment for me, when I decided that I wanted to do a show about the history of toys.
My company does a lot of production on stand-up comedy specials, and as you may know, Netflix produces a lot of stand-up comedy, so I know a lot of people over there. I tried to sell The Toys That Made Us there and at other places – I came close, once or twice, to getting the show sold elsewhere over five or six years of trying – and I just kept talking about it.
It kind of turned into a joke; my buddies at Netflix would be like, “Oh, is Brian talking about that toys thing again? We’re here to talk about a stand-up special, Brian, we’ll give you two minutes to talk about the toys.”
Finally, after over a year, one of the executives over there eventually realized what I was trying to do, and decided that there would be a way to do it for Netflix. He gave me very detailed notes about how it could be done, what Netflix would want, and then I went out and shot a five-minute sample tape showing my vision for the show and how I could meet their requirements – and they loved it.
We developed an almost-30-page treatment for the show – that’s the longest treatment I’ve ever written in my career – and based on that, they green-lit the show for an eight-episode run.
TREKCORE: Your first episodes all focus on properties that were mostly managed by one company throughout each product line’s run, like Star Wars and Kenner, or Barbie and Mattel.
Star Trek is much different, as there have been so many different companies licensed to produce toys for the franchise over the last five decades. Where do you even being to start with such a wide range of subjects?
VOLK-WEISS: I found it fascinating – and you’re absolutely right – that Star Trek toys are really the opposite of all the other toy lines we cover. But more than that, I looked at them as the opposite of Star Wars toys.
In the Star Trek episode, we really compare and contrast the stories of those two toy lines – Star Wars for decades was literally owned by one person, George Lucas, who controlled the property [until the Disney acquisition in 2012]. Star Trek, on the other hand, was owned by Paramount – and now is split between both CBS and Paramount, which has been a bit of a licensing mess as recently as the J.J. Abrams films.
While Lucas didn’t have much of a problem with 20th Century Fox [who produced the films], Star Trek has two companies at odds over the property – plus, Star Trek was never the monster hit that Star Wars was. So even if Lucas didn’t have the contractual control over licensing that he did, Star Wars still the biggest movie of all time, you know?
Star Trek was always just barely getting through, with only a few exceptions. Even The Wrath of Khan, considered to be the best of the films, only did something like an $88 Million return on an $11 Million budget – a big hit, but not a $600 MILLION hit.
That’s something that really fascinated me, telling a story where streamlined control of the property really was not there, compared to the other toy lines our show covers, and we spent a staggering amount of time on it.
TREKCORE: Do you spent much time on the CBS-Paramount licensing divide, as you mentioned?
VOLK-WEISS: We touch on it a little bit, but here’s the thing – with our episodes we try to tell these stories with drama, but keep it interesting and make the drama fun, like in the He-Man episode.
TREKCORE: The whole segment with four guys all saying, “No, I created He-Man!”
VOLK-WEISS: Yeah. And the issue with licensing and the new films is so filled with minutiae and contracts and lawyers; it’s not a very exciting story. I mean, we don’t shy away from things, as we showed in the first four episodes, but this just isn’t that interesting of a story to tell.
TREKCORE: Well, then, let’s talk about the history fans can look forward to seeing in the Trek episode. Besides Playmates, what are the other Trek toy licensees you focus on? I assume Mego from the ‘70s, Galoob from the ‘80s?
VOLK-WEISS: We really cover it all, from Mego to McFarlane. We interviewed Marty Abrams at Mego three separate times; we met with all the Art Asylum and Diamond Select guys, which are kind of the same team now.
And yes, we definitely talked to Galoob, oh my God. Those guys are the funniest people in the world. Star Trek was a huge disaster for them!
TREKCORE: Oh, for sure! Our team talked to Jim Fong and Bob DiGiacomo from the Galoob team a few years back for a Star Trek: The Next Generation toys retrospective and they had some of the most interesting stuff to share.
VOLK-WEISS: I read that series! And you know, from the standpoint of talking about it 20-plus years later, I really love what the Galoob team made. Just a few months ago, I got one of their unreleased Wesley Crusher prototypes – and it’s on a Jean-Luc Picard backing card!
That’s how much I love the Galoob toys, because those are the ones I played with as a kid. I was born in 1976, so the first Enterprise I had was their die-cast Enterprise-D.
Aside from all older groups, we also went out to Arizona and met with Todd McFarlane and the McFarlane Toys team, who has the new license for Star Trek: Discovery along with all the other shows. They’re doing those new Kirk and Picard special figures this year.
Plus, we went back to the beginning, really, and interviewed Bjo and John Trimble too, and Rod Roddenberry as well.
VOLK-WEISS: Oh yeah, we absolutely do. That helmet with the flashing red alarm and everything, yeah, we get into that a lot. We interviewed Doug Drexler, and he’s so funny about those things.
We definitely get into the weird stuff, that I never owned growing up – but now I have a pretty nice collection, like the weird Enterprise where the saucer is a fan and it’s on that strange pedestal. I got one of those.
VOLK-WEISS: Please send me those photos! [Laughs] You know, if you’ve seen the first four episodes, we use a lot of humor and comedy in the storytelling. It’s not just some dry history lesson – and thanks to those weird products, there’s a lot of comedy in the Star Trek episode.
TREKCORE: We’ve touched on the less-successful Trek product lines, but as far as Star Trek toys go, Playmates is king; they basically ruled the 1990s. Why do you think they were so successful compared to the other licensees?
VOLK-WEISS: Well – and this was my opinion even before we began to make the show – it was clear that the people making the toys at Playmates really loved Star Trek. The love they put into their figures, and accessories, really showed and you just had to have those toys.
They made over 400 different Star Trek releases, by the way. Even Star Wars, the original Kenner line, didn’t break 100 releases! And even with that many releases, I thought I’d seem them all, or at least heard about them, but then I heard about this limited run of special Picard figures from “Tapestry,” where he’s wearing the movie uniform.
TREKCORE: Ah, yes – the “1701 Collection” limited editions.
VOLK-WEISS: Yes, right! And “Tapestry” is one of my favorite episodes, so once I heard about that figure, I spent months obsessing about it until I was finally able to get one. And that’s what made Playmates so successful – you know, like, how many of those figures were you going to sell? 5,000 at the most?
But that’s what they did. There was just so much love; even a character you might not have been a big fan of could have a figure that would catch your interest. And they had a lot of humor in their toys, too, you know, especially with the accessories. They clearly loved their products.
TREKCORE: You mention that “1701 Collection,” which were three figures that had very limited runs. Do you spend much time on rarities or prototypes, that kind of thing?
VOLK-WEISS: Well, as a rule in our series, we don’t really get into that. The first cut of the Star Wars episode, for example, was almost two-and-a-half hours long.
Have you heard of Vlix, which is the most hard to get, most valued production figure in all of Star Wars?It’s based on a character from the failed cartoon series, and was never sold in the US. It was produced and sold in Brazil for like three months, and that was it – and now those figures are worth $20,000 to $40,000 each.
In the first cut of Star Wars, we had a seven-minute sequence just about Vlix. Our executive at Netflix as like, “Well, it’s your show… but if you have any hope of making any more of these, you should probably cut the seven minutes of Vlix and try to keep these shows under an hour.”
To you and me, you know, we care about those rarities, but honestly, most people don’t – and the whole goal of the show is that someone like us could watch an episode and love it, but someone like my wife, who doesn’t care at all about Star Trek, would enjoy it just as much. So in order to do that successfully, we don’t spend time on the rarities.
TREKCORE: That’s fair – you can’t focus just on the die-hards when you’re making the show.
VOLK-WEISS: But like I said, we do cover SO much in the time we spend on each toy line. My favorite feedback is when I hear something like, “I didn’t plan to watch the Barbie episode, but people told me too and I ended up loving it,” or “I’ve been a Star Wars fan for 35 years and you had stuff in that episode I didn’t know about.”
TREKCORE: Do you plan to release any of those cut sequences, like the seven minutes of Vlix, through separate means outside of the Netflix release?
VOLK-WEISS: Well, we have been putting out some of the cut scenes on our social media feeds, so that’s something to watch – but there’s not a plan right now for any DVD release or anything like that.
TREKCORE: But in terms of rare content, though, I assume you’re including the period Star Trek toy commercials from Mego and Playmates and the like, like you did with the classic Barbie and G.I. Joe ads?
VOLK-WEISS: Oh my God, yes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuchomL1UYk
TREKCORE: What about some of the other well-known Trek collectibles, like the annual Hallmark ornaments – do you touch on them at all?
VOLK-WEISS: No; we had some thoughts on those but they didn’t make it to the final cut – but I probably have like 90% of those ornaments in my collection!
I even have, from when the old Galileo shuttle came out, one of the sales displays they used to have in stores. It’s this big plastic moon, with a shuttle coming out of it, and when you press a button Leonard Nimoy talks. It’s gut-wrenching not to include that stuff, but we only have so much time.
I’m surprised you haven’t asked about Eaglemoss!
TREKCORE: Well, honestly, Eaglemoss’ starship models don’t really get thought of as toys – they’re more like display pieces, really, and I wasn’t sure they’d be on your radar for the documentary.
VOLK-WEISS: Well, you’re right – but we definitely have it as part of the show! We don’t get into it that deeply, but I literally have a list of Eaglemoss ships I need to get for my collection taped here on the wall next to me.
I just crossed out the Springfield-class and the USS Phoenix, but I need to get the Challenger-class, the Freedom-class, the USS Bozeman, the Enterprise-C Probert concept, the Phase II Enterprise, the XCV-330 [ringship]… I spend a fortune on these things!
From my list, you can probably tell I only by the Federation ships, mostly, but honestly – some of these show, I cannot believe they’re even being made.
TREKCORE: Yeah, we’ve talked with Ben Robinson, who runs that series, a few times, and they certainly keep coming up with ship designs nobody ever would have expected to be brought to market.
VOLK-WEISS: That prototype version of the USS Voyager is coming out this year, too, right? They have made models of stuff I literally cannot believe. Like the Bozeman — “Cause and Effect” is like my third-favorite Trek episode ever. Like, how many Bozemans are they going to sell? Or all the ships from Wolf 359 that appeared half-on-screen for two seconds.
I’m not sure how they are making money, but they must be because I’ve bought every single one of them and they keep expanding how many ships they’re going to do. It’s just fantastic. I actually have one of the original, screen-used worker bee studio models from Star Trek: The Motion Picture – and now I have the Eaglemoss version, too.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8IJRwh2Iu/
TREKCORE: Finally, Brian — the four episodes that debuted in December – Star Wars, Barbie, G.I. Joe, and He-Man – are some of the most iconic and widely-known toy properties over the last several decades.
With other mega-hits like Lego, Transformers, and Hello Kitty coming in your 2018 episodes, how did a comparatively-small toy property like Star Trek find a place in your series?
VOLK-WEISS: One of the things that has made Netflix amazing to work with on this project is that they really trusted me, as a toy lover, to manage the project how I wanted. Seven of the eight episode topics really were obvious choices, true – nobody could argue with including Transformers or He-Man, you know?
While some people have asked why we didn’t do Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or My Little Pony – and if I get the chance to do more episodes, I’m sure we will – there were definitely questions about why we did an episode on Star Trek, because Trek toys never really worked, and they certainly weren’t really played with like Star Wars or G.I. Joe.
Even Playmates, which like we discussed, had the most successful Star Trek line there ever ways, had more collectors buying their toys than younger kids. Like, there weren’t that many six-year-olds playing in their parent’s den, having Salamander Tom Paris fight Romulan Tasha Yar, right?
We’ve been getting criticism for doing a Star Trek episode, but I’m a Star Trek fan, and I had Star Trek toys, and I was lucky enough to sell this show to Netflix and don’t know if I’ll ever get to do any more — so I said, “You know what? Screw it – we’re doing a Star Trek episode.”
I’ve got eight shots, and I’m using one for Star Trek!
Check out this gallery of Trek toys that collector and fan Professor Wesley G. Willison shared with Brian and the Toys That Made Us team — and shared with TrekCore as a companion to this interview — which will serve as photographic interludes during the Trek episode, from the earliest Star Trek: The Motion Picture toys through the Playmates heydey and beyond!
'The Toys That Made Us' photos -- Courtesy of Professor Wesley G. Willison
1 of 17
Mego's "The Motion Picture" bridge crew and playset
Mego's Lt. Ilia doll
Dinky's Klingon Cruiser and USS Enterprise
Estes USS Enterprise Rocket
Galoob "Star Trek V" McCoy
Galoob Type I Phaser
Galoob TNG figures and shuttlecraft
Setting up a shoot for the Galoob TNG figures
The Playmates '1701 Collection: Tasha Yar from "Yesterday's Enterprise," Picard from "Tapestry," Barclay from "Projections."
A set of Playmates Kirk figures
Three Playmates Borg drones
Playmates 'Talkback' TOS communicator
Playmates' "Threshold" Tom Paris
Playmates' Enterprise-D bridge playset
Playmates "Generations" engineering playset
Art Asylum's "Regent Worf" figure
The second half of The Toys That Made Us, including the upcoming Star Trek feature, is due from Netflix in Spring 2018 — and as soon as the streaming service has announced the official release date, we’ll bring you all the details here.
In the meantime, you can also follow The Toys That Made Us on their Twitter or Facebook feeds for behind-the-scenes insights, deleted scenes from the first episodes, and more.
We’ve got just two episodes left until Star Trek: Discovery warps off our screens until 2019, and ahead of this Sunday’s “The War Without, the War Within,” we’ve got a new set of photos to pique your interest until the weekend.
With the Discovery back home — only nine months late, in time to see the devestated Federation facing Klingon invasion — Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brook) returns to the ship after last been seen in “Into the Forest I Go.”
'The War Without, The War Within'
1 of 8
Admiral Cornwell (Jayne Brooks) leads a conference as Sarek (James Frain) looks on. (CBS)
The USS Discovery senior staff listen to Sarek's concerns. (CBS)
Saru (Doug Jones) relinquishes command to Cornwell. (CBS)
The USS Discovery crew at their stations. (CBS)
Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) confronts Sarek as Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cornwell look on. (CBS)
Emperor Georgiou of the Terran Empire. (CBS)
Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan. (CBS)
Saru in command. (CBS)
“The War Without, the War Within” airs on Sunday on CBS All Access and Space, and debuts globally on Netflix this Monday.
After last week’s “Vaulting Ambition,” which felt like three interwoven one-act plays, this week’s “What’s Past is Prologue” is a fast-paced, single-story episode that gets right to the heart of Star Trek: Discovery’s Mirror Universe arc. Why is Discovery in the Mirror Universe, and how is it going to get back home?
“What’s Past is Prologue” opens with Lorca rescuing his compatriots from agony booths and continuing his march toward the emperor’s throne. Throughout the episode, the soundtrack to Lorca’s coup is his own voice. Star Trek has never shied away from making political statements, and Discovery’s most overt (so far) come in the form of Lorca’s ship-wide monologues.
Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) tries to contact Discovery. (CBS)
Included are allusions to a few US presidential campaign slogans, as well as more generic but no less identifiable remarks proclaiming the supposedly objective superiority of one group over all others.
The source of Lorca’s “Make the Empire glorious again” is obvious; his overture to Burnham that she “help [him] bring peace to this world, through strength” is perhaps less so. For those who may be too young to remember, Reagan campaigned for the presidency in 1980 with the slogan “Peace through Strength.”
Jason Isaacs, whose acting has become especially impressive over the last few episodes, is clearly enjoying himself playing Lorca as the somewhat unhinged monster that’s apparently always been lurking under the surface. Isaacs doesn’t get hammy or chew scenery, but there’s a new and unnerving sparkle in his eyes when he looks at Burnham.
Lorca doesn’t present himself as a moustache-twirling villain, but as a charismatic leader. To a certain extent it’s understandable why people would want to follow him – both in the Mirror Universe and the Prime – and this makes his rhetoric even more dangerous.
Ellen Landry (Rekha Sharma), a follower of Lorca in both universes. (CBS)
In “What’s Past is Prologue,” we meet the Mirror version of Ellen Landry, Lorca’s former security chief aboard Discovery who was killed by “Ripper” the tardigrade back in “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry.” That Mirror Landry seems essentially identical to her Prime counterpart is a good indicator of just how easy it is to be swept up by Lorca’s magnetism.
In fact, Prime Landry was the first Discovery character who had me wondering if the Mirror Universe had somehow infiltrated the Prime. Watching Prime Landry coldly advocate for the torture of “Ripper” back in Episode 103, it’s not hard wonder if all Ellen Landrys — in all universes — are such sadists. Or perhaps Lorca is charismatic enough as a leader to make a Starfleet officer indistinguishable from her Mirror self. And isn’t this the more frightening proposition?
“What’s Past is Prologue” is, first and foremost, an episode about leadership. Lorca leads from a place of fear, and the speeches he makes while overthrowing Georgiou underline the Terran Empire’s totalitarian worldview. In Saru we find a leader who acknowledges his fear and steps beyond it to do what’s right.
Saru (Doug Jones) takes command in Discovery’s “maiden voyage.” (CBS)
Saru’s transformation from lieutenant to captain has been slow and steady, as befits a Starfleet officer who doesn’t have the luxury of killing his way to the captain’s chair, but ultimately so much more satisfying to witness than Lorca’s coup. It’s especially poignant that, given his relationship with fear, Saru finds a calm, confident command presence in what is likely the most terrifying place he’s ever been.
Even with all the speechifying, “What’s Past is Prologue” is an action-heavy episode, and thanks to beautiful lighting and direction and excellent choreography, that action never feels repetitive. The corridor phaser fight feels tactical in a way that many older Star Trek phaser battles simply don’t.
I will say though, I wish the sound effects had been toned down a bit. All those phasers powering up and down made for a lot of sound effects in a short period of time, to the point that it bordered on parody and took me out of the moment.
The glowing mycelial reactor core at the heart of the ISS Charon. (CBS)
Meanwhile aboard Discovery, Lt. Stamets and Cadet Tilly come up with a plan to destroy ISS Charon’s energy source and ride the shockwave back to the Prime Universe. The glowing sphere I thought was a singularity is actually a mycelial reactor, and its continued operation will kill the entire mycelial network, and soon.
Put simply, I’m torn about this plot point. On one hand it will give us the single best ship shot of the entire season as Discovery swoops in on the Charon and destroys the mycelial reactor, but on the other it ascribes properties to the mycelial network that seem to come out of left field and that verge on the spiritual/magical.
According to Stamets, the death of the mycelial network will result in the death of “all life in all universes” but he gives no explanation as to how or why. Perhaps this was just a throwaway line meant to instill dramatic urgency, but left unexplained it opens up a pretty big can of metaphysical worms.
Paul Stamets (Antony Rapp) heads face-first into the mycelial network. (CBS)
Back on the Charon, Burnham and Georgiou team up to spoil Lorca’s plans. Burnham brings Georgiou to Lorca and concedes to his demand that Burnham stay with him in the Mirror Universe, but on one condition: Discovery and her crew must be spared. Lorca agrees and sets himself up for what is, frankly, a pretty obvious double-cross.
Discovery fires on the Charon while Burnham and Georgiou fight Lorca and his lackeys. The battle is not only excellently choreographed and performed, but also a nice mirror to the battle aboard the Klingon sarcophagus ship in “Battle at the Binary Stars.” Yet again, Georgiou and Burnham find themselves fighting a fanatic, but this time both women make it out alive after vanquishing their foe.
After my lukewarm reaction to all the twists and turns this season, it was refreshing to see Georgiou and Burnham come up with a plan that hinged on mutual trust and actually have that trust be rewarded. Burnham didn’t lie to Georgiou about her plan to confront Lorca in the throne room, and Georgiou didn’t backstab Burnham.
Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) goes down fighting — or so she expects. (CBS)
The dramatic payoff was in watching two characters with a very complicated relationship finally understand and appreciate one another. Throwing in another confrontation between the two would only have muddied that.
Georgiou kills Lorca and intends to give her own life defending Burnham, but in the final seconds prior to being beamed off the Charon, Burnham grabs Georgiou, realizing she can’t be responsible for Georgiou’s death yet again. Materializing aboard Discovery, Georgiou is surprised and, if not furious, deeply concerned. Mirror Georgiou, the ruthless former leader of the Terran Empire, is about to take a trip to the Prime Universe and there’s nothing she can do about it.
Discovery destroys Charon’s reactor and begins her ride on the mycelial shockwave, but Stamets struggles to navigate the network. Eventually he gets the ship back home, but unfortunately he overshoots the temporal component of his coordinates by nine months. Attempting to contact Starfleet, Discovery makes a chilling realization: the Klingon-Federation war has ended, and the Klingons have won.
Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) becomes one with the spores. (CBS)
It looks like next week’s episode, “The War Without, The War Within,” will explain what’s been going on in the Prime Universe over the last nine months.
Did the Mirror Discovery have anything to do with the Federation’s defeat? Is Prime Lorca dead? And what’s Mirror Georgiou going to do with herself in a universe full of human idealists?
Star Trek: Discovery returns next Sunday for its penultimate episode of the season.
The opening credits sequence to Star Trek: Discovery stand alone from the five live-action series which preceded series, filled with stylistically-animated graphics of many iconic technologies and other bits of Trek imagery throughout its 90-second running time.
Today, in a special behind-the-scenes interview with the creative team behind the sequence, Art of the Title revealed many new details about the creation of the Discovery credits and what inspiration came from shows past.
Creative agency Prologuedesigned the Discovery credits, lead by creative directors Ana Criado (designer) and Kyle Cooper (producer) — while Cooper was a longtime fan of the franchise, Criado was a relative newcomer to the world of Star Trek.
Criado was familiar with Star Trek but had never seen an episode in its entirety. The Discovery main titles were her first real opportunity to explore the final frontier in a more meaningful way. “Ever since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated by the aesthetics of Star Trek, specifically that of the technology they use in the show,” said Criado.
“When we got this project, I finally had the chance to look closely and investigate the way that all of this tech had been designed on The Original Series and beyond.”
Prologue co-founder and Creative Director Kyle Cooper… grew up watching The Original Series and later Star Trek: The Next Generation. “Both of them impacted me in different ways, but especially the former,” said Cooper. “I always loved that right off the bat, with The Original Series, you got that mission statement: ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before…’
You didn’t have to worry about continuity or missing episodes. Any new viewer could turn on any episode of Star Trek and immediately have all of the themes established for them during that one simple sequence.”
Designer and historian Kurt Mattila also contributed to the look of the sequence:
[Matilla] joined the team as a consultant of sorts, becoming Prologue’s resident Trek guru for the project. Part of his job was to ensure that Discovery’s opening title sequence adhered to the established universe, characters, and canon as much as possible. “My role was basically ‘How do we take this great idea and make it relevant to Star Trek?’ said Mattila. “It was like Sarek, I was like the ambassador to this portion of things.”
[He] also felt a huge burden — both as a designer and a fan — but, after the initial shock wore off, he began to view the project as an opportunity to check something off of his bucket list. “When I got back up off the floor and sat back into my chair it was kind of like ‘Uh… What?!” said Mattila with a laugh.
“In the world of science fiction, doing the opening crawl to Star Wars or a Star Trek title sequence — if you can hit one of those two or be a part of the team that does one of those, that’s pretty good!”
The Discovery producers and writers all had a part in the discussions behind the sequence, wanting to make it stand apart from past Trek shows; an early design concept involved heavy use of transporter effects, though it didn’t make it out of the pattern buffer, so to speak.
While the show’s staff were initially uncertain about the direction Discovery’s opening should take, according to Criado that first meeting established the parameters for what they didn’t want the sequence to be. “They wanted it to look kind of vintage and distinct from previous title sequences,” she said.
Mattila recalled the specific mandate set forth by the showrunners: “We don’t want where we were, we want to go past it… Boldly go where no Star Trek has gone before!”
Both Criado and Mattila characterize those early discussions with the producers as a very collaborative process that laid the groundwork for what the title sequence would become, but despite a few promising starts during this phase more work was needed to hammer out the final concept. “We all — including series co-creator Alex Kurtzman — had ideas and they were grounded in Star Trek,” Mattila said.
“We had this whole piece that was like an ode to beaming. You would have all these beautiful moments and characters that kind of get beamed to one side of the lens to the next and that kind of becomes the bed for the sequence.”
“The phrase that came out that we all latched on to is that this is the second renaissance of man,” Mattila said. And with that idea in mind the concept for the title sequence began to take shape. “Our concept was to show how the starship Discovery and its crew came to be a part of this new adventure,” said Criado.
“To do so, we decided to take things back to the drawing board, literally.”
The team focused on the technological development of the Trek universe, leaning towards a theme of ‘blueprints and devices’ to chronicle the evolution of Trek tech, from sketch to science.
“It was as if the graphics themselves tipped their hat to the show’s history and the ephemeral process that went into the design and creation of all of the equipment blueprints and devices over the years,” said Cooper of Criado’s approach to Discovery, noting that her early concept boards presented the material in a completely unorthodox manner.
Criado’s blueprint concept allowed the team to work through the idea of the “second renaissance” in a very direct way. Through this concept the main titles could metaphorically hit on every major scientific breakthrough and exploratory milestone that had happened in Trek canon up until the beginning of the show, and at the same time transfigure the tenets central to Kirk’s famous mission statement into something the viewer could actually see.
“We recognized that this was a very strong concept straight away, and poured all of our efforts and resources into realizing it,” said Criado. From there designing the sequence became a process of posing questions and figuring out what the answer might look like. “How does a bidimensional sketch transform into a complicated starship? What were the original designs for a phaser, a communicator, etc.?”
Criado’s unfamiliarity with Trek‘s nitty-gritty details made for some interesting design choices that sparked inspiration in the team, and gave the sequence some of the more unique elements, such as the field of dilithium crystals from where the Discovery emerges.
“In the opening bit where the blueprints of the ship come on and you see all these crystals go by, those are dilithium crystals — that’s the stuff that powers the warp drive,” explains Mattila. “Ana didn’t know that those crystals go in the ship, but she made this beautiful field of crystals and we were all like ‘That’s awesome!’”
It was here that Criado’s unfamiliarity with Trek collided head on with Mattila’s depth of knowledge on the subject. “I felt myself turning into a nerd, but then it was like ‘It’s a metaphor, just go with it!’” he said. “That’s what I’ve learned from Kyle over the years: the best thing you can do as a creative director or an art director is not stand in way of something that’s naturally evolving.”
The team also addressed why there’s no classic Star Trek opening monologue, as the series centers around Michael Burnham (not a captain) and had a somewhat sinister commander in the center chair: Gabriel Lorca, not of the Trek universe.
“This is actually not about a captain,” said Mattila, noting that the main character of every previous Trek series had either been a starship or space station captain. “From moment one we’re entering this universe from a new perspective, you’re following the path of Michael Burnham, who’s a first officer.”
There was also the somewhat pressing issue that Discovery’s commander, Lorca (Jason Isaacs), was not exactly the selfless, by the book Starfleet captain viewers were accustomed to. “Reading the scripts you quickly realized ‘Wow. Well, we can’t really have the captain say any of this!’” he said. “The captain turns out to be kind of an asshole, so you don’t want him giving the mission statement. So what do you do?”
The focus eventually settled on inspiration from real world history, from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci to the artwork of Michelangelo, and that it’s about the journey of the Burnham character, who, like many of the conceptual images in the credits, is still developing.
The fix, according to Criado, was to turn their history of mankind’s fictional future into what amounted to a history lesson of sorts. “We wanted to illustrate the learning process of [Michael Burnham], and bring [the viewer] into this complicated world the same way… one piece at a time.”
That decision transformed Discovery’s main titles from a visually arresting historical compendium into a fascinating window into Burnham’s character — an ambitious young officer with more education than actual experience. “She doesn’t have a captain’s log but maybe she has a first officer’s log,” said Mattila. “[Burnham] is a great student of Starfleet history, so it would stand to reason that she would be gathering these blueprints and studying those….
“That’s the story of Michael’s career — at the start of the show she’s not done, she’s finding her way in Starfleet.”
You can read more about the intricacies of developing the Discovery main title sequence, from the requirements of fitting in a large number of contractually-required credits into the 90-second window to integrating composer Jeff Russo’s scored main theme music into the sequence at Art of the Title.
I’d been looking to purchase a new lamp for my Star Trek-themed office for some time, and it was nearly miraculous that I stumbled upon a product that was exactly what I needed, ThinkGeek’s Star Trek: The Next Generation “bridge set” lamp, complete with a tiny recreation of the Enterprise-D’s command center at its base – is this even real?
The lamp is shipped compactly in a box you can plan on keeping for future moves, but don’t be deceived upon opening – while the lamp initially looks smaller than what’s shown on the box and online, that’s only because it’s packed with the shade upside down!
The lamp is easily put together (once you’ve read the directions and realize the shade is upside down!) Measuring 18″ high and 8″ wide, this lamp fits easily nearly anywhere in the home. Just add a light bulb, find a spot on your table or desk, and you’re ready to pick up the latest Star Trek novel or get to work on revising your fan fiction!
But first, take a few moments to admire the detail of the TNG bridge, straight out of the Galaxy-class starship. The captain’s chair is flanked to the left by the chair of the First Officer, and the Counselor’s seat on its right. Conn and Ops sit at the front, and all have appropriate workstations where expected.
The five duty station consoles have the traditional LCARS system labeling in place to mimic the look of the original set, though the displays here aren’t the green-and-blue tones used during filming but rather features the purple-orange Voyager-era display color scheme.
There may be minimal discrepancies in the paint on this product, but there’s nothing too distracting except for a big product trademark stamped on the back of the lamp, which I didn’t notice right away. It would have been nice if this was placed on the underside of the lamp, as it’s pretty noticeable if you don’t have it up against the wall to hide the marking.
The lamp calls for a 40w or smaller type A bulb, and plugs into the wall via a 60inch cord (approximately) with a built-in switch (non-dimming), and while LEGO doesn’t make Star Trek figures, ThinkGeek specifically notes in their product description that mini figs will fit perfectly, so similar products from other companies are likely to as well!
Overall, I am thrilled with this lamp! It’s made a unique and wonderful addition to my personal Trek cave and provides the perfect amount of ambient light. Guests are delighted when they see the lamp, and so far everyone who has seen it in my home has asked me where I found it.
Tonight’s Star Trek: Discovery was another crazy episode with lots of drama and action in the Mirror Universe, and the producers of the series, along with actor Jason Isaacs (Lorca), hit the interview circuit to add some insight into the events of “What’s Past is Prologue.”
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE BELOW!
So after eleven episodes, Jason Isaac’s run on the show ends with a sword through the chest and a mycelial ball of energy to the face: but it wasn’t a surprise to the actor, as the plan for Lorca was always intended to conclude this year.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Isaacs said he was aware of the former Discovery captain’s origins when he was hired, and detailed what happened when he arrived on the Federation’s USS Buran:
“I knew [about Lorca’s story] before I took the job. It was pitched to me that he was from the Mirror world. I said, “What’s he doing here? How did he get here? What does he want? And how’s he going to go about achieving those things?” And at first they went, “We’re not really sure, it could be one of 20 different things.”
And I blinked slightly and I said, “I’m not sure I want to do the job if I don’t know exactly what he’s after, because then I won’t be able to act!” Then we had a bunch of discussions and came up with a plan which we pretty much stuck to all the way through.”
“I was very keen when I took the job on that we work out exactly what his plan was, how he was gonna get home, and what he wanted to do when he got there. And that wasn’t really clear when I first started talking to them. And I explained that I just couldn’t — I couldn’t do my job very well and I didn’t wanna play the part unless we would all figure those things out.
And they said absolutely, we agree to be a part of the discussion. So there were a number of times before we started shooting that we sat and said, well, it could be this, it could be that, it could be the other. But once we settled on what he was after, at least, that stayed the same.
And they changed… you know, stories were being written all the time, pages were being delivered on the day. But, no, it was always gonna end up with me, Michelle [Yeoh] and Sonequa [Martin-Green] in a room, knocking seven shades of s#!t out of each other.”
He also told EW about filming that epic fight scene from the last moments aboard the Charon:
“The fight was epic and shot in a day. It should have been a month, but it’s TV, so what are you going to do? Michelle is a brilliant fighter and can fight at six times the speed that my eyelids work at, so it was tough to keep up with her and look like I was fighting her and not just being beaten up by her.
Plus she’s also very delicate, so when I hamfistedly swing my big legs and arms around, I was being careful not to break this exquisite creature. She ended up very bruised.
The one that was a surprise was Sonequa because I hadn’t seen her fight; obviously, we’ve all seen Michelle fight. I mistook Sonequa a couple times for her stunt double across the room because she moves with such clean lines and dynamic energy. She looks like a Nintendo version of herself.”
Over at Buzzfeed, the actor spoke on the restrictions in speaking with the public — and fans — about Lorca, and that he had difficulty “lying” to keep the secret.
“It’s been embarrassing/awkward/torturous lying to so many people, including close friends and family members, but particularly to the press, and indirectly to the public.
But Star Trek fans particularly are incredibly smart and highly attuned to every nuance in the story. So you just couldn’t give them a clue.”
“People… are always asking, how do you feel signing up for seven years for something, and what it’s gonna be like being on the ship forever? And you’ll be known as this for a long time, and I’m thinking, I’m dead in three weeks! So that’s been an odd feeling.
Even people in Toronto [where the show shoots] around me who I’ve become friendly with… who assume I’m gonna be visiting, coming back for six months every year, and I couldn’t tell anybody. I felt slightly ashamed.”
Series executive producer Aaron Harberts also shared the tidbit that while the inclusion of the Mirror Universe as part of Discovery‘s first season came from former showrunner Bryan Fuller, Lorca didn’t start out as being from the Terran Empire until Harberts and co-showrunner Gretchen Berg took command.
Harberts explained that the writers knew from the start, when creator Bryan Fuller was first planning out the show’s serialized storyline, that the inaugural season of Discovery would end up in the Mirror Universe. (Fuller eventually left the show due to creative differences with CBS, elevating Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg to showrunner status.)
But at first, the writers planned for Lorca to be a hawkish captain given a chance to shine thanks to the Federation’s war with the Klingon Empire. It was only after the writers began discussing why Lorca would be so skilled with warfare that they hit upon the idea that he’d secretly be from the militaristic world of the Mirror Universe.
Typically, showrunners keep their actors in the dark about any major twists in store for their characters — it helps contain the surprise, and saves the actors from having to actively lie about the role. But given that Lorca would have his own secret agenda throughout the season, Harberts and Berg realized they had to tell Isaacs about their plan for the character from the start.
Finally, speaking to IGN, the actor detailed how the seeds of Lorca’s deception were planted throughout the season to date.
“I had to know the whole thing, because I had to plant little seeds and secrets. I had to be able to give clues here and there, and more importantly, I had to play him honestly like a guy from the Mirror Universe who was lying and hiding. So if I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have been able to play it.
And even when I’m doing things that seem noble or heroic, they’re always only to engender more loyalty in Michael Burnham, or to make sure that I keep the ship so that I can work on the spore drive and get home again.”
But what about the “good” Gabriel Lorca, who shared so much history with Admiral Cornwell and got universe-swapped with Mirror Lorca and the Buran? Isaacs shared a bit of backstory with EW.
“There was a Prime Lorca, he was captain of the Buran in the Prime world. He swapped with him and found himself captain of the Buran. This never came out, this backstory detail we never put in the dialogue: Although Lorca spins this story having had to sacrifice the men on Buran and had to blow them up to save them from Klingon torture.
Actually, if I remember correctly, there was some kind of DNA identification that would have exposed Lorca as not being Prime Lorca, and so he blew up the ship and killed everyone on it.”
“We don’t know anything about the fate of Prime Lorca. Is he as interesting as Mirror Lorca? What is his taste in fashion? Does he wear leather coats, does he wear puffy-sleeve shirts, does he have a goatee, does he blow-dry his hair? Who knows? We know nothing.
Or is he that different? Frankly, I mean, how different are any of us from the Mirror version of ourselves? They say we’re all five meals away from being savages. This particular administration in America has brought some of the ugliest parts of human nature out from in the shadows.
And who knows what other exposures the Mirror world might have done. Who knows where he is.”
The Gabriel Lorca we’ve been watching on Star Trek: Discovery is dead and burned, and Jason Isaacs bid his farewell to the Trek family tonight — and on After Trek, series star Sonequa Martin-Green also Skyped into the program to say goodbye to the departing actor.
The newest episode of Star Trek: Discovery — “What’s Past is Prologue” — has just debuted, and we’re sure you’re ready to dive into a discussion on all the events that just took place.
Here’s your place to take on all the new Trek lore this episode brought us, with no restrictions on spoilers. If you haven’t yet watched the episode, that’s your last warning!
This thread will remain open until our episode review is posted, later this week.
ANOVOS announced the first Star Trek: Discovery Type II phaser for consumers back in November, and these high-quality prop recreations began shipping to preorder customers this past week — and we’ve got one here at TrekCore headquarters for your inspection!
Created based upon the original screen-used phaser prop seen in Discovery, the ANOVOS replica is built using the same 3D print techniques used to craft the “hero” models used on the television series, the three-part prop recreation is a three-piece unit that assembles to form the standard Starfleet sidearm of the 23rd Century.
The original DISCOVERY phaser prop, on display at STLV 2017.
This is ANOVOS’ second Star Trek phaser replica, after their Star Trek Beyond weapon kit went up for sale last fall, and their take on the Type II phaser is structured just like the Discovery prop, with a separable Type I ‘cricket’ phaser that slots into the top of the Type II phaser grip, and a removable power pack that slots into the grip itself.
Along with the 3D printed assembly, the phaser also includes LED components that light up to showcase power levels, plus ‘stun’ and ‘kill’ intensity settings, depending on your orders from Starfleet Command. This is not an inexpensive piece, retailing at $500 and matched up to the original components used on the Discovery television series.
Before we get into the review, please note that this is a prop replica, and not intended to be a ‘toy’ release like the Playmates Toys releases of the 1990s, which had integrated audio, colorful stickers and graphics, and were produced from injection-molded plastic.
The replica arrives in a fairly plain cardboard box lined with protective padding. While it would be nice to see a prop of this expense come in a more formal delivery case, like the great Star Trek Original Series Phaser Universal Remote, at least it’s well-protected for shipment.
Also missing from the box are the advertised display stand and certificate of authenticity promoted to come with the phaser; ANOVOS notified preorder customers earlier this month that the certificates are expected for February shipments, but the display stand won’t be coming until April or May.
While the phaser is balanced so that it can stand on its own for a few months, it’s kind of disappointing that the accessories aren’t ready with the prop itself. It seems like the phaser would be a more labor-intensive production process than a stand and printed certificate.
Concept rendering of the phaser, with stand, via ANOVOS’ user guide.
The phaser’s power pack runs on three lithium batteries; two power the Type II’s setting display light, while a smaller one runs the LED on the power pack itself. Thankfully, there’s no proprietary battery or charging cables needed for this, replacements can be easily obtained if needed.
Unexpectedly, the power pack does not click in to the grip when you insert it; you actually need to hold it in place and then tighten a hex screw (with included hex key) to lock it in. It certainly stays in place once you’ve finished, but it lacks a certain satisfaction of loading the weapon for battle — but if McFarlane’s toy version has a removable power cartridge, it’s likely that one will have a pop-in-and-eject design.
There’s a small toggle button on the bottom of the power pack to activate the internal LED, which lights up the phaser’s energy meter on the side.
'Star Trek: Discovery' Phaser - Power Pack
1 of 5
The phaser power pack.
Removable batteries can be replaced as needed.
Inserted in to the grip.
Locked in place.
The power meter activated.
The Type I phaser, a smaller version of the overall weapon, is a pocket-sized component of the replica which slots into the top of the Type II grip with a set of built-in magnets.
This two-part design hearkens back to the phaser design of the original Star Trek series, and while it’s not yet been featured on the series, is a function of the Star Trek: Discovery hero prop as well.
The Type I has its own (non-functional) trigger and emitter assembly sculpted into the design, along with a pair of dials on its top. While the silver dial on the right has no function on the prop replica, the ridged dial on the left activates a spring-loaded targeting viewer, hidden under the bronze Starfleet badge, which pops up when released.
There’s no electronics or imagery on the viewer, but again, this is a replica of the on-screen prop rather than a phaser toy, which would tend to have a sticker or similar plant-on graphic. Once you’re done with the viewer, you can close it by just pressing it back into place.
'Star Trek: Discovery' Phaser - Type I
1 of 8
The Type I phaser with distinctive Starfleet branding.
The trigger assembly underneath.
The targeting viewer, opened.
The viewer from another angle.
From the front.
The molded beam emitter.
Slotted in place on the Type II grip.
The on-screen prop, separated.
The largest component of the phaser is the Type II grip, which holds the entire device together when assembled and gives it that classic Star Trek phaser shape.
Moving features a nice clicky trigger, rotating barrel for beam width and intensity, and a toggle switch to change between power settings. On the top rear of the phaser, you’ll find an activation button to power up the phaser (once fully assembled), along with a nicely-molded bronze heatsink along the rear structure of the phaser.
Until you assemble the rest of the device, however, the electronics remain deactivated.
'Star Trek: Discovery' Phaser - Type II Grip
1 of 5
The Type II grip, minus accessories.
The barrel rotates between three beam widths.
The bronze-and-silver trigger assembly.
The activation button, powered off.
The triangular toggle to switch between 'stun' and 'kill'
Once you assemble the entire phaser, that’s when the interactive lighting functionality becomes available — pressing the rear activation button, it turns on, complete with a brightly-lit ring to indicate that the weapon is in either ‘stun’ or ‘kill’ modes, indicated by a blue or red light, respectively. (The LEDs shine brightly in low-lighting, but are still visible in bright settings as well — see the comparison photos in the gallery below.)
The side toggle switch instantly changes the lighting to match your intended setting, but neither the rotating barrel or the trigger interact with the phaser’s electronics in any way — again, expect that to be part of the McFarlane toy version coming in the fall.
You can also, of course, release the targeting viewer on the integrated Type I just as easily as when it is separated, and the power pack’s illuminated display is visible through a slot in the side of the grip.
'Star Trek: Discovery' Phaser - Assembled and Powered Up
1 of 7
The phaser, fully assembled.
The phaser, fully assembled.
With targeting viewer raised.
Powered up and set to 'stun.'
Switched to 'kill' status.
The LEDs shine bright in low-lighting conditions.
Burnham changes her phaser from 'stun' to 'kill.'
There’s a lot of positives about this Discovery phaser design that make this a great piece for any Trek collector’s arsenal — it’s balanced well when you hold it, and having seen the “real” prop in person at the STLV 2017 display gallery last August, it really seems like this may have just found its way off of the Toronto set and into our hands.
That being said, while the 3D printed construction is surely exacting to the specifications of the screen-used props, this definitely shouldn’t be the Discovery toy you wear on your hip at a Trek convention. The plastic, while solid, has a waxy feel to it and is soft enough that you can make an impression with your fingernail with moderate pressure.
For the price point, we really hoped there’d be some more features like trigger functionality, electronic lighting in the phaser barrel, or some sort of audio component — but this is clearly an item meant to be a display piece for high-end collectors. And while the 3D printing construction process is likely expensive, $500 is a high target for a mostly-plastic item.
If you are planning Discovery cosplay, we’d really advise you to wait for the McFarlane version unless you are very, very careful with it — that toy version likely be much more “play friendly,” and won’t set you back $500 if you damage it.
So that’s our take on the ANOVOS Star Trek: Discovery phaser — which is still available for ordering, if you don’t mind waiting nearly a year for delivery (based on ANOVOS’ current estimates).
Be sure to check out the above unboxing, assembly, and hands-on video we’ve got up above to see the lighting interactive features in action, then sound off in the comments below with your thoughts!
S1 Soundtrack: Chapter 1
S2 Soundtrack
BRIAN VOLK-WEISS: It’s hard to talk about toys without talking about my first time watching Star Wars. I saw Star Wars when I was a little kid, and thought it was like a documentary – my mom started to get worried about me when I told her that I was going to join the rebellion when I grew up!
Novel #4:
Novel #5:
Novel #6:
