Discovery Bits: Nichelle Wants In, ‘Klingon King’ Heads Out, Sonequa Delay Explained

| April 6, 2017 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 50 comments so far

Here are some of the latest bits of news about Star Trek: Discovery to keep you up to date on the upcoming CBS All Access TV show.

Nichelle Nichols looking forward to Discovery, open to beaming in (Trinneer too)

In a new interview promoting her upcoming appearance at this weekend’s Wizard World in St. Louis, MO, Star Trek‘s Nichelle Nichols talked a little bit about Star Trek: Discovery. It appears that she’d be interested in turning up on the show:

St. Louis Dispatch: The new show “Star Trek: Discovery” is the first installment of the franchise to have a black woman as the lead character. Have you met Sonequa Martin-Green? Do you have any interest in appearing on the show?

Nichelle Nichols: I have not yet (met) Sonequa but am absolutely looking forward to the opportunity. If there’s a role that the producers and I think would be a good fit for an appearance, I’m absolutely open to discussion.

Nichelle Nichols at WonderCon last weekend – actress is open to appearing in Star Trek: Discovery

Nichols is the second Trek actor this week to talk about a spot on the new show. In case you missed it, in our own interview with Enterprise’s Connor Trinneer, he suggested that maybe Trip Tucker could show up on Discovery as a hologram recording:

Conner Trinneer: I’ve thought about this. I’m like, “Could I be like Obi Wan, or R2D2, or Princess Leia, when they do a little video presentation of certain things you need to know, and all of a sudden Trip’ll pop up?”

Sonequa Martin-Green’s announcement delay explained

On Monday we reported that CBS finally officially announced that Sonequa Martin-Green had been cast in Star Trek: Discovery. The official acknowledgment came months after she was actually cast and had started working. As we had speculated, this delay appears to be all about her role on AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Showrunner Scott Gimple explained it to TV Line — WARNING: CONTAINS Walking Dead SPOILERS:

TVLINE:  Let’s start with Sasha. Was her death the result of Sonequa Martin-Green wanting to move on to Star Trek: Discovery, or was it strictly a storyline decision?

Scott Gimple: Storyline. The folks over at Star Trek got lucky with the timing.

TVLINE: Were there discussions between AMC and CBS All Access to keep her casting on Discovery a secret, so as not to tip off fans that Sasha wouldn’t survive the season?

Scott Gimple: We were hoping to [keep her casting on the D.L.], but it didn’t happen, which was kind of a drag. It seems like they did try, it just got out. But that just put it on us to tell a great story. The episode is the most important thing.

Martin-Green in The Walking Dead Season 7 finale – producers were hoping to keep her Trek casting a secret until after it aired

The Klingon King isn’t really a King

Last week we reported on a joke co-showrunner Aaaron Harberts made about actor Chris Obi (T’Kuvma) being the “king” of Klingons. That tweet prompted some websites and videos and fans to think that this was some kind of reveal about the show, as can be seen below.


This continued until Harberts felt the need to clarify his remark.

And on Friday Chis Obi addressed the “King” controversy in another one of his famed driving-to-the-set videos.

The King has left the building as production appears to have wrapped on 102

So it appears that “king” Chris Obi is done with work on Star Trek for a while at least, as evidenced by this latest “Dave and Chris Riding in Cars” video from Tuesday (see below).  Obi left Toronto, where Discovery is shot, for New York, saying he was on “a bit of a break now for me” for Star Trek, adding that he felt Trek fans are “the best fans in the universe.”  Obi had this to say about the show:

Chris Obi: You guys are really going to love [Star Trek: Discovery]. You are going to be really proud of your devotion to the this universe, to the world. I believe we have done you guys very proud. Peace out and live long and prosper.

Another Klingon spotted outside of Toronto is actress Mary Chieffo (L’Rell) who has been showing up at events in LA for the  last week. And over the weekend, Supervising Producer Ted Sullivan (and his trusty companion Jason Gorn) also left Toronto to return to the Star Trek: Discovery writers room in Los Angeles, where both are back at work this week. As we previously reported, Ted was the writer who was assigned to oversee production on episode 102.

Discovery writers let their Trek nerd flags fly

While not every writer for Star Trek: Discovery is, or needs to be, a big time Trekkie, there certainly are some on the crew who are genuine fans. You can see that simply by following them on Twitter. As noted before Ted Sulivan is certainly a fan as this tweet today honoring the 50th anniversary of the airing of the TOS episode “City on the Edge of Forever” shows.

And yesterday, Discovery writer Sean Cochran honored First Contact Day by tweeting out some love for Zefram Cochrane, who he likes to imagine is his future son, despite the very slight difference in spelling.

And finally, writer Bo Yeon Kim has made no secret of her love of Trek. In the last week she has shown off her Mr. Spock doodle and made no excuses for her love of Deep Space Nine’s Dax, but perhaps this tweet showing what she wore to WonderCon sums it up best.

Well that’s it for this week in Discovery. As usual TrekMovie will keep up with all the news on the upcoming Star Trek TV show.

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Well I certainly could see Trip & T’Pol as an old couple on Vulcan being consulted by the Federation on something . And also Nichelle as an old pioneer of some sort !

I expect CBS won’t let DSC have anything whatsoever to do with Enterprise characters. I think that’s a period of Trek history they very much want completely forgotten.

And I just don’t get this silly Jason Gorn business. Does anyone actually find that amusing?

I’ve never heard of Jason Gorn before you mentioned it . Some sort of fan fiction ?!

I doubt CBS would restrict them from using an Enterprise character should the writers deem it appropriate. Enterprise era ideas made it into the last film…

They have a little plastic Gorn figurine that they photograph in strange places, then post the pictures to Twitter.

lol no, Ted Sullivan twitter feed has been showing images of a small Gorn figure around the production of Discovery. Check it out.

Ugh, so negative. Its also quite possible the Nichols and Trinneer if in an episode would not be playing their original roles. Besides, Enterprise is fantastic and fun.

And Jason Gorn, just relax about it. What the F is wrong with being a little silly? Its just a bit of fun. You need to chill, have a beer or smoke a joint or something. Ted Sullivan is just having a bit of fun on set and teasing the fans. Not something to be so damn negative about. If you don’t find it amusing you might want to have that pickle up your a** removed.

“I expect CBS won’t let DSC have anything whatsoever to do with Enterprise characters. I think that’s a period of Trek history they very much want completely forgotten.”

And you’d be wrong about that.

I agree and let’s be honest Star Trek as a whole needs a good shot in the arm.Paramount didn’t help with rushing out ”Beyond”which I enjoyed but didn’t do the box office they thought it would.Yet so far Disney has managed to put out good films with Star Wars once a year.For you, Enterprise bashers how about cutting some slack.That series wasn’t as bad at all.Let’s remember DS9 was bashed to hell back in its day as too dark and slow and yet now it’s considered by some as the best out of the bunch. Time changes perspectives or hindsight.So a lot is riding on Star Treks future in this new TV show.Let’s hope it delivers.

“I expect CBS won’t let DSC have anything whatsoever to do with Enterprise characters. I think that’s a period of Trek history they very much want completely forgotten.”

I have no idea where you are getting this but Beyond’s back story was completely built around Enterprise. In fact every movie in the KT film had an Enterprise reference in it.

And like the KT films, Enterprise will be the only show canon for Discovery since it will be the only show that existed before then so I would suspect references, even if minor. Maybe nothing huge of course but every Trek show and film always referenced the other shows and films as proven, this won’t be any different.

And just because a show wasn’t as successful as others doesn’t mean the company doesn’t use them. In fact just the opposite as Enterprise gotten Blu Ray HD treatment which the more successful shows DS9 and Voyager haven’t gotten. Its run on All Access and every single streaming site like all the other Trek shows are run on. Novels are still being released on the show. The company still very much release material for Enterprise all the time a decade after it ended. Its not like its shunned and ignored, quite the opposite in fact.

And frankly highlighting a past show in another show only gets more people curious to check out past episodes of said show so it makes good business sense to do it, especially with Enterprise being on All Access like Discovery will be.

Having Trip & T’Pol as an old couple would involve somehow retconning the Enterprise finale, either making the novel’s version of events canon or coming up with some other explanation. Not sure that is something they would want to deal with for a cameo.

No ENT characters!!

Possibly Cameos , Curious Cadet ! My experience with the Many that hate Enterprise , haven’t really seen it . It’s a great series added to Canon . It was well produced . I’m sure Discovery will also add well to Canon !

I don’t hate Enterprise, but there are many things about it I don’t like, and episodes I literally can’t watch, but that’s also true for DS9, and VOY. It’s not my hate for the series here. It’s shoe-horning characters from a past franchise installment into a new reboot only to pander to the fans. I didn’t like it when they did it with McCoy in TNG, I didn’t like it when they did it with Kirk in GEN, I didn’t like it when they did it with Riker & Troi in ENT, and nothing good can come from it now, except seeing a couple of good actors paraded around in old-age makeup, or playing relatives of their future characters.

I’m sorry Curious , but my most favorite bits in the Star Trek Series are the reunion episodes or cameos by well known actors or fans , such as the ones you mentioned . I don’t really look at Star Trek for the Action or Science , but for the human stories and background stories ! A Fan of Federation and Space Politics !

But that is not true for every fan. It’s especially not likely true for fans who have only come into the franchise through the Abrams films over the last decade. Add to that, fans tend to be polarized over many of the characters — I for one never want to see any of the ENT characters again, even though I actually like some of them in the series. And that’s the point — Discovery is a chance to make a clean break from the past. Change the look, change the continuity, but otherwise honor the canon. If they need a character introduced in a previous series or film, then recast them as they have done with Mudd. Other franchises do that without issue. It’s time for Trek to start approaching the franchise without pandering to overt sentiment tied to individual actors. About the only cameo I agree with is Leonard Nimoy in ST09, and to a lesser degree in TNG. Most, if not all of the others just milked a beloved character (often past their prime), for nostalgia, and little else. My point is, don’t hamstring a fresh approach to a stagnate franchise by returning to the same tricks it’s always relied on. If there’s an organic, compelling, and integral reason for including one of these original characters (like Spock in ST09), then by all means include them. But if it means making up one of them in old age makeup, then by all means re-cast, and maybe get an even more compelling actor into the role.

Seeing McCoy on TNG or Kirk in Generations were things I loved (although yes they could’ve handled it better with Kirk but still loved him there). And I think most fans do. Yes I agree they can go too far with it but for the most part they are usually handled pretty well. I agree how Troi and Riker was handled in Enterprise WASN’T handled well at all but they could’ve found a better way to use them without the actual cast of the show being holographic characters 200 years in their own show.

And in this case this has become a tradition of seeing a former Trek character hand off the new show or even film franchise like the TOS characters in Generations or Spock in the KT film. I would love to see T’Pol hand it off but it doesn’t have to be a main character. It could be someone like Soval or even Shran. But it would be nice to see someone from Enterprise though since it was the last show.

Agreed, Darfyn. It’s possible that T’Pol and Phlox are still alive in the mid-23rd century setting of DSC. If there’s a story that calls for one or either of them to cameo, I’d love to see it.

Thanks LordEdzo ! Discovery may be a completely new iteration , so it would be nice to see some little but exciting nods of Star Trek continuation , but I’m not going to worry too much about it all .

All the Series have links to others . The time period of the new series would suggest a connection . And production rumors suggest that there is.. Platitude !

isn’t ENT part of UPN, thus NOT accessible, material-wise, to CBS? I mean, it’s cannon but… not exactly usable?

~Pensive’s Wetness

Pensive,
Oh my, you’re confused, but to be fair the split up of Viacom (which involves Paramount Pictures and CBS) is kind of confusing.

ENT is very much owned by CBS Corp., like Voyager (also a UPN show), and the rest of the Trek on TV catalog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Corporation

On June 14, 2005, the Viacom board of directors approved the split of the company into two firms.The CBS Corporation name would be revived for one of the companies, to be headed by longtime television executive (and Viacom co-President) Leslie Moonves, and would include CBS, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Showtime Networks, and Paramount’s television studio.

CBS retained virtually all of the prior firm’s broadcast TV assets, including its various syndication companies.

See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Television_Studios

Archer was mentioned in ST09 so I can’t believe any aspect of Trek is truly verboten.

@Torcheood, Archer was shoe-horned, pandering to the fans. Just like Delta Vega, and we all know how that turned out.

Yeah, it was a great movie.

Pandering or not, the line added nor took anything away from the film. If a little nod like that can be thrown in, without hurting the film, it doesn’t bother me. Marvel movies and shows do it all the time and fans get a kick out of it.

It’s when a movie or show shoe-horns in something that alters the dynamic of the film’s story or action just so fans can go “Yeah, I remember that! Awesome!” that it bothers me.

How does Archer or Delta Vega’s mention in ST09 hurt that movie?

You need a lobotomy.

@Darfyn, Just because all the other series jumped off a cliff, this one should too?

@CC Is there anything about Star Trek you like?

Trip was killed off in the last unsuccessful prequel.

And the golden rule in Sci-Fi is any dead person can come back.I don’t recall seeing a shot of Trips body, did you?There could be many ways to bring him back, alive, it’s been done before.

So was Spock. ;)

I hope T’Pol at least has a cameo in the pilot for Discovery. It would be nice if they kept up the tradition of having a character from the previous show appear in the pilot for the new show.

My thoughts exactly

I thought Cochranes appearance on Enterprise was the most clever… I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing someone like Soval guest in Discovery’s first episode.

Well Torchwood , any guest appearances for Discovery have probably already been worked out . And you’re a knowledgeable Trekker , but here is a cutting floor scene of Soval made by a well known fan criminal – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrlNSGbgrlQ

That troll tweet made me embarrassed as a fan. I just want to say to Harberts “we’re not all like that…”

I am still very much confused… have they actually started doing anything apart from Ads or are they still in pre-production? This is getting somewhat messy…

There’s nothing messy. They’ve been in production for a few months now. This article even mentions that it seems the second episode has already wrapped production. So…read more closely, experience less confusion. The information is literally right in front on you.

@ Paul: If I remember correctly, filming on the pilot started in January 2017. If they only finished the second episode by now they seem to take a lot of time shooting this show. Or they are taking breaks between episodes. I’m not complaining. From what I heard, shooting schedules on earlier TREK shows could be quite brutal, so if this slower schedule gives them more time for rehearsals or for more complex setups (e.g. VFX or stunts) then I’m all for it. They will probably get faster once everybody settles into their roles (not just the actors, but everyone involved).

It’s likely they have more than one episode in production at a time. They will usually shoot the bulk of photography over a 7-10 period, but the following week, actors may have to do pickup shots as they prep or shoot the next episode, so there is some overlap. They are likely to have more in the can than just two episode’s worth of footage, that’s just how much is complete.

I’m not sure where this 102 information is coming from. However, even if they are shooting 10 (business) day episodes which is huge for a 1-hour show, they would have easily shot those two episodes and any and all pick-ups and re-shoots by the end of February. That said, it’s entirely possible that once they got the episode into post, which on an efx heavy series like this could take as long as 30-60 days, or more, to finish in post; during which time, they may have discovered they needed to re-shoot something, or add another unplanned shot from the original production script. So that would bring us up to now.

In addition, due to the relaxed schedule most shows enjoy, i.e. not trying to crank out 24+ episodes a year, they have the luxury of consolidating costly set pieces built for specific scenes in multiple episodes, or location shoots for multiple episodes, into the same production days. So another possibility is that a scene for 102 was consolidated with a set or location not ready during the 102 production dates and planned for use in a later episode as well, or a location also needed for 103 or 104, which scripts weren’t written yet; and shot weeks after principal photography had wrapped on 102.

What they will not do, is take longer to shoot an episode, or complete it in post merely because the schedule accommodates it. Every employee working on the production is paid for every hour they work on any part of it. Therefore, extending the production or post schedule is just increasing the budget unnecessarily. The only possible way this would happen is if the production shuts down between episodes, which sometimes happens when writers aren’t ready with shooting scripts, but this also increases costs as rents on facilities have to be maintained longer than needed, and in no event would a shut down of weeks ever happen.

@ Curious Cadet — Yeah, it’s unclear from the article where they got the info that Obi was leaving Toronto b/c 102 had wrapped. I’m assuming post production is happening in LA and not Toronto, right?

You are a hundred percent correct on the budget issues. They will not add time unless it’s absolutely required to deliver the final product. And I doubt they are shutting down between episodes if they can help it – as you say, extra expense with no benefit. Good point about consolidating episodes that require expensive locations or set pieces. That is another plausible reason why it would take 3 months to wrap photog on two episodes.

It’s also been mentioned that the first episode is a two parter, so 102 could actually be the third episode. Meaning they’ve filmed 3 episodes in two months (production began end of January). That’s pretty damned slow, but actually gives me a lot of reassurance that they’re not rushing things.

They have only been shooting recently , Torchwood . Maybe a few weeks ?!

Sorry Chris Obi but I think Trek fans are the worst fans in the universe.

Some of them truly are.

Thanks for the updates!!! Was jonesin’ for some news!! :) :) :)

This was the first time I watched a Chris Obi video and, I gotta say, he seems like a great ambassador for DSC. Really nice, really pumped. Understandably needs to watch what he says, of course. That only makes me curious to see what he’ll say after the show premieres and he’s free to “let loose” regarding all the fun he seems to be having. Peace out yourself, Chris.

Glad to see that the people making the show are psyched about it!

Hey hey, my tweet to Aaron Harberts included in a trekmovie article :D awesome!
I had to comment on that tweet cuz i’m getting frustrated by certain fans getting upset over insignificant issues. And look, in the end Aaron confirmed he was not being literal. Hey, i’m a hardcore trek fan who cared about continuity and canon but not to the point I am going to protest and new show because they change a few things and do something different. “Those” trek fans need to be a little more mellow and relax about changes. Im amazed yet not that these views started with TNG “not being Star Trek” happened with DS9 and Enterprise and continue to today and Star Trek Discovery. Granted the JJ Star Trek movies were not what I expected but was pleasantly surprised at how fun they are. Discovery will be awesome and people should relax about the changes and differences from previous Star Trek.

Ive been following Chris Obi and Ted Sullivan on twitter and their passion and enthusiasm have been amazing. Its that kind of positivity fans should focus on, not what the ship looks or the uniforms like or being called the Klingon King, those things are insignificant to the whole picture.

Nichelle’s health isn’t great. Doubt she could be insured.