Every year the Anaheim Convention Centre is home to the pop-culture extravaganza that is
WonderCon. This year, one of the many panels present was a one-hour "Making Of"
Star Trek: Discovery panel, hosted by L'Rell actress Mary Chieffo.
The panel included Executive Producers and Showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, Production Designer Tamara Deverell, Costume Designer Gersha Phillips, Props Master Mario Moreira, Prosthetics & FX Makeup artist Glenn Hetrick, VFX Supervisor Jason Zimmerman and the show's composer Jeff Russo. On it, they shared insight into bringing the franchise back to television, crafting a Trek show for the modern era and also teased details about the show's second season.
WHAT TIME(LINE) IS IT?
One of the biggest hang-ups that people have in terms of the new show is its continuity and just how it fits in the timeline of Star Trek. it was always made clear that this show takes place in the Prime Timeline of the original CBS television shows despite being aesthetically incongruous to the rest of the franchise.
A lot of this is a simple byproduct of the show being made in 2017 and the creators and designers wanting to make the most dynamic and modern version they can, not unlike the shift in design between The Original Series and The Motion Picture.
Despite this, lots of fans are sticklers for even surface-level continuity and so the question again arose about the show’s place in continuity.
Speaking to this, Executive Producer and Showrunner Aaron Harberts stated:
“The idea was to always be in the Prime Timeline. Obviously, there are questions and concerns and things that are different. Our technology is a little different. We have a ship that runs very differently. We are our own show in a lot of ways. Season two is really exciting for us. This is our opportunity to really show how Discovery fits into this Prime Timeline. We are firmly committed to that.”
TO BOLDLY GO
Star Trek: Discovery offered a different milieu to the Trek universe, showing a more complex and desperate state of affairs. The decision to make the first season set against the fog of war proved to be a smart decision in the long run, as it allowed some real exploration into earning the ideals of Starfleet when it’s hardest, and also made those moments far more cathartic.
The second season of the show promises to explore more somewhat traditional Star Trek fare, however, the showrunners have already previously revealed the thematic throughline will be about Spirituality vs Science but they again spoke about a more traditional second season:
Gretchen J. Berg: We are aware it is a different era and a different format for the show. I don’t think we are gunning for shock value. Everything always comes out of character and story. If it feels like something that would happen in that world and in that context, we go in that direction. It is not a group that leads with wanting to shock people or horrify people.
Aaron Harberts: [Season one] was an interesting season because it was set against the backdrop of war. One of things we are looking forward to in season two is a tone that we can now be in a more exploratory phase and a more diplomatic phase – maybe a bit more of a Trekian chapter…But, everything for us is really driven by character.
LOVE IS BLIND
When the first images of Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Yeoh as Michael Burnham and Captain Georgiou hit the internet, there were some that inexplicably started to refer to Star Trek: Discovery as “white genocide in space” and bemoaned the fact that Star Trek had become an SJW political fest. Apparently completely oblivious as to what Star Trek is and always has been.
There’s a four-letter word best used to describe people like that but they were wisely and justly ignored, with most audiences and fans celebrating the shows wonderful continuation of Roddenberry’s vision of social progress. Speaking of the inherent representation in the show’s storytelling Gretchen J Berg revealed:
“We were always gender blind and sexual orientation blind when it came to the story. I’m really proud we have so many kickass women behind the camera and in front of this show.”
Certainly behind-the-scenes, Berg is one of only two women to ever serve as showrunner on a Star Trek show with Aaron Harberts being the first openly gay showrunner in the history of the franchise.
To that latter point, Star Trek: Discovery finally gave the television franchise its first openly queer couple in Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz’s Stamets and Culber, something that many felt was long overdue in a franchise that had so long been at the forefront of representation.
In fact, there were multiple instances of Star Trek: The Next Generation almost having displays of same-sex relationships on the Enterprise, from something as simple as showing couples in Ten-Forward to the famously scrapped David Gerrold episode Blood and Fire. Every time either by the producers or the studio these attempts were shut down, and so it criminally took to 2017 to see this realized.
During the panel, a fan asked whether we could expect to see any display or exploration of female queerness in the show, Aaron Harberts gave this response.
“In terms of your question on same-sex couples on the female side, you may well be already watching one and just don’t know. As a gay man, what is really important to me about presenting gay characters is that they always lead with their competence and their character first, and not with their sexuality. So, that is true of all of our characters on our bridge. All of our characters who are so different, they lead with their professionalism and their strong character first. So, you may already have a window into a relationship and you just don’t know it.”
OH, CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
One of the standout characters in Discovery’s inaugural season was Doug Jones’ First Officer Saru. Starting off as something of a timid and overly cautious character, uncertain of his capabilities to actually be in command, by the time the show ended Saru had become the perfect embodiment of a Starfleet captain in the vein of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Many fans felt that it should Saru should have permanently been given command of the Discovery following the events of the finale and not the as yet unknown Vulcan. While Harberts doesn’t confirm that he’s on his way to the center chair, he does reveal that we’ll learn a lot more about our Kelpien officer in the coming season.
You will learn more about Saru this season. We had to lay some pipe early in episode 2 [of season one]. What are those threat ganglia? What do they do? What do they represent in the Terran Empire and a lot of that stuff will fold back in when we are back on the air.
THE CLOTHES MAKETH THE MAN
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery ended with the eponymous vessel receiving a hail and coming in contact with the USS Enterprise.
Set predominately in 2256, Star Trek: Discovery takes place while James T Kirk is still a lieutenant and according to Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future by Michael and Denis Okuda, this is also the year in which Captain Christopher Pike finished his first five-year mission.
So it will be he, that commands the Enterprise that Burnham and crew come across which led many to wonder whether we would see Pike or even Burnham's adoptive brother Spock in the new series, and if so: what uniforms would they be wearing?
When asked about whether we’ll see something more in line with the original uniforms in the show’s second season, be it with the crew of Discovery or elsewhere, Aaron Harberts stated:
“We meet up with the Enterprise at the end of the season and we know what kind of uniforms they wear… so we’ll leave it at that.”
Interestingly enough, original showrunner Bryan Fuller had envisioned Discovery’s uniforms as “a subdued spin on the original series’ trio of primary colors” but this was dropped when he left the project. Whether these are the versions we’ll see Pike and the crew of the NCC-1701 adopt in the forthcoming season remains to be seen.
BACK IN BLACK
Star Trek Discovery was a masterclass in slow-burn, long-form storytelling with lengthy pay-offs. It’s no mistake that the creators of the show refer to it as a “novel” and its season halves as “chapters”. Almost all of the questions, worries, fears, and doubts that fans had at the beginning of the season were all answered and assuaged by the show's climax.
One thread that didn’t return, however, was the black Starfleet insignia’s spotted on the USS Discovery in Context is for Kings when Michael Burnham and her fellow inmates are brought on board. Many theorized that the elite and mysterious science-vessel turn warship (and her captain) were under the command of Section 31, a morally grey autonomous clandestine organization that serves works in the best interest of humanity no matter the cost.
This fan speculation about Discovery and Lorca proved false, but in an exclusive bonus scene, it’s been revealed that fans were right on the money with the link between those black badges and Section 31.
Originally shot for the finale episode, the scene reveals that Georgiou remained on Qo’Nos seemingly now running the Orion Syndicate brothel. It then shows Shadowhunters’ Alan Van Sprang as “Leland” who, while disguised as a Trill inducts Georgiou into the shadow organization, leaving behind the telltale black delta shield.
Whether this plot thread will come home to roost in a Season 2, that is said to be getting away from the darker elements of the first season, remains to be seen - but it’s clear we’ve not seen the last of Section 31 or Emperor Georgiou.