New Star Trek Discovery Posters

If you are interested, there are 11 new character posters for Star Trek: Discovery. Each focuses really close on the upper left eye of the character with the a light effect for Klingon or Federation logos. You can find the set here.

Star Trek: Discovery Pitched as Anthology, Clashes with Fuller

The cover story for Entertainment Weekly includes a behind the scenes look at making Star Trek: Discovery. Surprisingly the EW issues actually provides a few details on Fuller being fired from the show. Considering EW's primary job is marketing with all the grins and "no problems, move along" that normally entails, it provides a few solid examples that suggest a completely different show was in the planning stages. Bryan Fuller's brief tenor as executive producer of Star Trek: Discovery started with him pitching the show as an anthology series that would jump time periods and have new cast each season, wanted a movie director, seemed to want a look and feel that was closer to The Original Series rather then the Abrams' movies, wanted more complicated stories and more. Since Fuller isn't with the show, you can guess how all those arguments went.

Eras considered for the anthology series for each season included TOS, TNG and beyond. In response CBS said they wanted a "single serialized show and then seeing how it performed" which in itself is a major change for the series since before most episodes were effectively self contained. DS9 is the only series in the franchise to come remotely close to serialized story telling with their final 3 or so seasons.

Arguments with CBS brass over show's format was just the beginning of a relationship that would eventually sour to the point that Fuller quit (or more likely was fired) the show. Another arguments was Fuller wanting a “a more heavily allegorical and complex story line” along with costumes that would be a "subdued spin on the original series' trio of primary colors." I suspect if arguing over costumes they also argued over sets and make-up and more. My read is CBS ordered "make it like look and feel like the recent movies" while Fuller was arguing "this isn't the Kevlin-verse, if you wanted it in the movie universe then set it there." As we have seen from the trailers, the Starfleet costumes are their own whatever but the sets, Klingons and more have much more in common with the movies then any of the series that came before. Whether that turns out to be a good, bad or whatever we will see in a few months.

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer, Spock's Sister and More from SDCC

This weekend the panel for Star Trek: Discovery was held at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con. With it came the release of a new trailer for the TV series that premieres September 24th on CBS All Access along with a few new tidbits of information. The trailer teases Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd, Federation ships exploding, potential Klingon battle and more.

From the panel:
- The main character, Michael Burnham, is Spock's sister via adoption. Sarak and Amanda took her in after her parents were murdered. Apparently there is a story reason why Spock and Sarak never spoke of her. Its sci-fi, just learn to go with it, less stressful.

- Klingons speak Klingonese with subtitles for the audience (which must really suck for the actors)

- Doug Jones' character of Lt. Saru is a Kelpien with hooved feet which causes the actor to walk funny (which must really suck for the actor)

- Reconfirmed the 15 episode season will have one story-arc

- Wilson Cruz (My So Called Life) joins cast as Dr. Hugh Culber, medical officer on Discovery and boy friend to Anthony Rupp's character.

- Jason Isaacs' Captain Lorca is "probably more fucked up than any of them" with "lot of sharp edges."

- Series music composer is Jeff Russo (Fargo Tv series, American Gothic)

The trailer is below, stills from it can be found here. Besides the panel there is a little more from the weekend. CBS rented a gallery to show off the costumes, props, and art that was created for the show. You can find images from that here, here and here. On a slightly related note, you can check out The Orville trailer which is a spoof TV series of Star Trek from Seth McFarland (Family Guy).

New Star Trek: Discovery Poster, New Klingon Explanation

Here is a new poster for Star Trek: Discovery that was put together for the San Diego Comic-Con later this week. It provides the first solid look at the Discovery ship. In addition the producers spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the series' Klingons who look like most of their design was from the Abrams's movies even though the series is set in the Prime-verse of The Original Series.

“In the different versions of Trek, the Klingons have never been completely consistent,” [showrunner Aaron] Harberts said. “We will introduce several different houses with different styles. Hopefully, fans will become more invested in the characters than worried about the redesign.”

So in short, because they felt like it. My question remains is so much have seen up to this point regarding in design for this series clearly been more inspired from the Abrams' movies rather then the TV series? Seems like instead of blazing their own path they just grabbed discarded movie designs while adding an occasional touch of TOS. Was it CBS' mandate? Just a preference choice? Coincidence?

Star Trek Discovery Star Introduces Character

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) spoke about her First Officer Michael Burnham, essentially giving an introduction to the character. While a recent trailer seemed to hint she was Vulcan (or half Vulcan) that theory never made sense as Spock has long been established (both in TOS-vere and the 1st Kelvin-verse movie) to be the first Vulcan/half Vulcan to graduate from Starfleet Academy.

Instead the character is "the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center as a child and then the Vulcan Science Academy as a young women." In earth terms that is like someone graduating from high school at 12 and Yale at 16 so it implies right away that the character is incredibly smart. From her schooling she developed a close relationship with Sarek (James Frain) and Spock's father.

“I’m the first officer on the U.S.S. Shenzhou that is captained by Captain Philippa Georgiou, who is played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh,” she says. “I have an inner war and it’s a journey of self discovery and finding out what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a Starfleet officer, what it means to be a hero.”

“I have the Vulcan conflict in my life from Sarek and Amanda so there’s always going to be that inner conflict with me. But I think it’s relatable because we all have some kind of inner conflict going on — who we are versus who we present ourselves to be. There’s a lot to be discovered.”