Before this week’s episode “An Obel for Charon” debuts, we have some fun diversions for you while you wait.
Teases for tonight’s episode
IGN got an exclusive clip of the interplay between the USS Discovery’s lovable curmudgeon Stamets and guest character Reno (Tig Notaro).
In addition, actor Doug Jones shared an image from the episode, noting it is going to be “very emotional.”
The Star Trek: Discovery writers’ room also got in on the action, giving us a glimpse of some greenery from tonight’s episode.
New episode “An Obol for Charon” tonight! #startrekdiscovery #eatyourgreens pic.twitter.com/T4Ai15FVNz
— Star Trek Writers (@StarTrekRoom) February 7, 2019
Behind the scenes on “Point of Light”
Executive producer and director of the episode Olatunde Osunsanmi has been sharing a wealth of tidbits on his social media. Here’s a couple of his latest from the filming of the episode, which aired last week.
BTS Vid of the first scene shot on the 31 set. Before I hit record, that crane came in from the first floor, rose to the second, and did a 180 to follow Georgiou’s walk to Tyler. pic.twitter.com/0TavmA5dl1
— Olatunde Osunsanmi (@CenterWillHold) February 4, 2019
Section 31 just before I shot it for the first time. @tamaradeverell built this set on Stage 8. It’s a beauty to shoot. Everywhere I point the camera is a perfect frame. This set was challenging for the Art Dept. cause of the two stories, glass floors and massive size. pic.twitter.com/81sy9S9Y1s
— Olatunde Osunsanmi (@CenterWillHold) February 4, 2019
Storyboard art from @rob__mccallum . I work with him to draw the more complex shots in my head, much easier to communicate to the crew that way. This drawing is literally identical to the shot in the episode of @marythechief pic.twitter.com/Fr5Gf4BCuZ
— Olatunde Osunsanmi (@CenterWillHold) February 4, 2019
L’Rell actress Mary Chieffo shared this moment on the set with her co-stars Kenneth Mitchell (who was also Kol in season one), Michelle Yeoh, and Shazad Latif.
Production design event this weekend
This weekend in Toronto, the Directors Guild of Ontario will host an event with many of the production design staff from Discovery.
Set designer Emilie Poulin spoke with the MPAA to promote the Toronto event. In it, she discusses how the engineering bay (Stamets’ lab) has been changed and customized a number of times for different uses, and goes in-depth about making Saru’s home planet of Kaminar both on location and on stage for Short Treks and an upcoming episode of Discovery season two.
On designing the huts of the Kelpiens’:
The structure we designed was a pair of 18 sided elliptical huts so, if you imagine 18 slices of 3-dimensional pie curving up to a circular peak. For the pattern of the facade, I took inspiration from Saru’s face. I loosely traced the geometry of his cheekbones, philtrum, and brow and then developed a series of iterations with them – extruded, stretched, and mirrored the linework until I came to a form that felt original and exuded the essence of the Kelpien race.
There’s more in the full article, it’s a quick read and worth your time if you like to know more about how a TV show is made.
Saru (Doug Jones) in “The Brightest Star” with a Kelpien hut in the background.
The Directors Guild of Ontario has teased the event on social media as well, showing off the designs for the Starfleet Shuttle seen in Discovery.
DGC Ontario Set Designer Michael Stanek shared with us behind the scenes photos and drawings of the @startrekcbs Discovery Shuttle. Join us for a special Q&A with the Creatives behind #StarTrekDiscovery on Saturday, February 9th at 7:00 p.m. 🎟 ➡️https://t.co/sQJqQjPkRr pic.twitter.com/VJVhhpeVYP
— DGC Ontario (@OntarioDGC) February 6, 2019
New CBS All Access campaign
Today CBS launched a new promotional campaign for CBS All Access, with the theme “It’s On.” This includes a video featuring Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green talking about why you should sign up.
More fun Discovery cast social media posts
Anson Mount (Captain Pike) has spoken about his love of classic Trek and what a great time he had being directed by Jonathan Frakes. Mount teased their fun working relationship on Twitter.
I have no idea who this man is. He kept following me around the set, telling me what to do, where to go, how to sit, how to stand. I would have been annoyed had his ideas not been so good. He helped me find Pike. And he’s apparently still stalking me on Twitter! @jonathansfrakes pic.twitter.com/iE7vtfZLq9
— Anson Mount (@ansonmount) February 4, 2019
As we discussed with special effects make-up supervisor James MacKinnon at the red carpet last month, Airiam not only got a new actress under the makeup, but they’ve taken time to tweak her look a bit. The new Airiam, actress Hannah Cheesman, posted her excitement for tonight’s episode with a nice side-by-side comparison.
Todaaaaay! I’ll be watching @startrekcbs from Toronto, where we film the show. Airiam 2.5 is back in black (blue) but can you spot any differences between the new Airiam (me – on the L) and Airiam of S1 (@SaraMitich – on the R)? pic.twitter.com/TBuhqZ6nIO
— Hannah Cheesman (@HannahCheesman) February 7, 2019
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on Space and streams on CraveTV. It is available on Netflix everywhere else. “An Obol for Charon” will be released on All Access and Space on Thursday, February 7th, 2019, and on Netflix Friday, February 8th, 2019.
We have been reminded again that Stamets is not the Chief Engineer! Still have not met that officer or the Chief Medical Officer. It will be interesting if we ever do!
To be fare, TNG had a different chief engineer every week during season 1.
I think Dr. Pollard is the CMO of Discovery. We see her a few times in this episode.
For the love of all that’s decent and holy…
More Tig. Please.
I hear that. She steals every scene she’s in.
I’m glad she wasn’t just a one-episode wonder.
Lovable curmudgeon? Stamets spent a good part of last season being a prick, as I recall….
Just finished the episode. I won’t spoil. I’ll just say that it’s more inline with the first two episodes of the season in terms of Star Trek-ness.
NO SPOILERS – Just finished watching and IMO it is more like TOS and TNG than what we saw last week. Even next week looks like they are going to continue with that theme, despite the return of some characters not previously associated with “seeking out new lifeforms” and “boldly going where no one has gone before”.
Considering the spore drive is non-existent in trek the rest of trek canon, I guess she won this argument.
We can only hope Discovery ends up as well…
First impression of this episode: wonderful! The title now makes perfect sense. Lots of track laid.
P.S. — wanted to add that the acting of Sonequa Martin-Green and Doug Jones this evening was exceptional.
Agreed, it was great character building. I thought they both did awesome!
I agree. First time I thought SMG’s acting wasn’t terrible. It was quite good in this episode. I didn’t know she had it in her and I’m glad to see it. She seems like such a lovely person from her interviews.
Doug Jines was wonderful as always. I was really upset they seemed to be killing off Saru, one of if not the best character on the show.
This episode was so good! I don’t know where to start. I’m going to watch it again!
AMAZING EPISODE! LOVED IT! CRAZY GOOD! CLASSIC TREK STORY AND VALUES! Just, wow. Wow. :)
Loved everything except THE WHOLE UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR PART WAS BS. How does the universal translator affect your vocal chords. WTF. What did I miss?
I thought it translating what everyone else hears rather than what language they spoke. Notice it started with Linus in the conference room. And I was glad to see Linus again, too.
The universal translator itself is BS. Always has been, always will be. I don’t mind much; you’ve got to accept a certain amount of that kind of BS to watch sci-fi shows.
This verged on being too much for me, but since it was basically just a Macguffin I ended up being fine with it.
This episode. Just one word: Wow.
Friendship, weird science, and tons of different interactions with different crew members.
Egads. This was such a fantastic episode.
Thank you for posting the info about the Discovery Event in Toronto. I will be there that evening and I just registered. Fun!
Loved this episode. I haven’t heard anyone mention how Pike said “Rip out every hologram projector out of the Enterprise “. With that and the spore drive mentions, it seems like they are really trying to satisfy the fans expectations.
Fanservice. JMHO.
Those two should hookup.
She sounds so bored reciting that technobabble.