As we get closer to the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, more Trek tidbits come out nearly every day. Take a look at what’s new since our last roundup of Discovery news.
New Discovery pin with CBS All Access deal
Our friends at ThinkGeek are working with CBS All Access on a special deal on a limited-edition Star Trek: Discovery pin from Fansets. The CBS All Access pin featuring the U.S.S. Shenzhou costs $29.99 but comes with a $25 credit to use with CBS All Access, which would buy you four months of the commercial plan or three months of the commercial-free plan.
Kurtzman says more Trek is possible
Star Trek: Discovery executive producer and co-creator Alex Kurtzman had something tantalizing to in a conversation with DigitalSpy. We have heard before that Bryan Fuller was interested in doing a large anthology series, and Kurtzman touched on the idea of more series options beyond Discovery, including that one:
“I think that’s totally possible, it was a really cool idea, but it wasn’t necessarily an idea that everyone immediately agreed with.”
“I think the idea might be that there are more Star Trek series [further down the line].”
This opens up a question: If Discovery is successful, would they do two series concurrently such as Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead? It certainly seems to make sense–if they alternated shows that way when one was on hiatus, another would be airing. It would also be a boon to CBS to keep All Access subscribers, since there would be no “off season” for Trek.
Sarek character animation
Last week CBS posted a number of character teasers, today they added Sarek to the group.
If you’ve got an eye for detail, you may have noticed that the character teasers are being posted at oddly specific times. They’ve been posted at exactly 10:31AM or 12:27PM Pacific. Those numbers aren’t arbitrary; NCC-1031 is the registry of the USS Discovery, similarly, NCC-1227 is the registry of the USS Shenzhou. We haven’t seen all the characters yet so there may be more coming.
Sonequa Martin-Green talks Discovery diversity, canon and serialization
E! News caught up with Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green outside the CBS TCA presentation, where she talked about the reaction to her casting and how Discovery is a different kind of Star Trek.
Producer: Discovery will surprise
Once again Star Trek: Discovery co-executive producer Ted Sullivan has taken to Twitter to evangelize the show. Perhaps continuing his response to Seth MacFarlane’s claim that Star Trek has moved away from its optimistic roots, a tweet sent over the weekend promised the show will surprise those who have pre-judged it.
If you think @startrekcbs is gonna be any other TV show, you got a big surprise coming #cinematic #michelleyeoh pic.twitter.com/3HCZ6kCzBa
— Ted Sullivan (@karterhol) August 12, 2017
Fun from the set
Now that more of Discovery has been revealed, Sullivan has been occasionally tweeting behind-the-scenes photos. He tweeted one Saturday of himself and Discovery writers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt on set with Doug Jones in full costume, who’s so tall as Saru that even leaning down he still nearly blocks all of Michelle Yeoh.
I love #michelleyeoh peeking over @actordougjones head & how happy @extspace looks! @gryphonmetal is not frowning! @startrekcbs is coming! pic.twitter.com/gmic3zx0MF
— Ted Sullivan (@karterhol) August 12, 2017
Tweet of the day: Pike re-imagined
Today we have a new example of a fan-made retcon of past Trek to fit Star Trek: Discovery, this time featuring Captain Pike:
Best I don't say how much crotch work was involved, But here is Captain Pike as he might look in Discovery. #StarTrekDiscovery pic.twitter.com/5njLPQKd5J
— Hellfreezer (@Hellfreezer) August 13, 2017
Star Trek: Discovery premieres on September 24th on CBS with all subsequent episodes on CBS All Access in the US. In Canada Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on Bell Media’s CTV and the Space Channel on the same night. Netflix will launch Star Trek: Discovery on Monday, September 25 to countries outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Pike looks good in the Discovery chair! Like that uniform in gold too.
I so agree.
I’m not sure why blue = futuristic these days, but it’s a common choice. It’s boring. I wished the Kelvin Enterprise had the more colourful bussard collectors. It’s more interesting to look at, imho.
No mention of Jason Isaacs’ recent comments to the New York Daily News!!
Um…what about them? Why don’t you just tell us about them?
There you go.
============================
Isaacs, 54, said the new show will throw away the legacy of William Shatner and Patrick Stewart – and expects it to upset die hard Trekkies.
“I don’t mean to sound irreverent when I say I don’t care about the die-hard Trek fans,” he told us at an event in Los Angeles. “I only ‘don’t care’ about them in the sense that I know they’re all going to watch anyway. I look forward to having the fun of them being outraged, so they can sit up all night and talk about it with each other.”
He’s taking an enterprising approach to the sci-fi franchise.
“It’s ‘Star Trek,’ but not as we know it,” he said. “There are places obviously where they’ve observed canon to do with things like uniforms and badges and stuff, but there are places where the rules of storytelling are reinvented.”
You seem to find these remarks damning. If so, how?
Sounds like a guy who wanted to play his little organ for the mindless drones to dance to on command. And it worked!
I’m not necessarily seeing a down side to this….
There is very little in his quote that supports your statement.
I applaud Isaacs for those comments, and totally agree with him. His description of DSC as Trek but not as we know it just gets me even more excited. Can’t wait for September
@Ahmed – Not concerned one bit, homeboy. I’m excited as can be about Discovery!
So “Discovery” really is more like the “Orville,” than Star Trek?
In the immortal words of William Shatner… “Get a life!”
bot.
????
Sorry, Trek fan 67.
I was really happy with my post above (at 6:51).
Thought you were being a bad robot about it.
Yeah, thats a good thing.
Star Trek Shoudl reinvent itself and not ride the waves of the past!
In a sense he is right.People seem to forget hard core trek fans at the time bashed the next gen series and then DS9, Voyager,Enterprise.All those series changed certain things like the Borg was new. Nobody yelled about canon. DS9 with its dark tone and crew not getting along was accepted in time.Canon was changed in small ways and has to for Trek to survive. Star Wars does this all the time and nobody cries foul. There is an old saying ”Life goes on with you or without you”.
So you hard core Trek fans that want a Trek of the past, ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Get over it ,its just a dame TV show.
His comments were great, refreshing. He is awesome and will be awesome in DSC!
Well, Isaacs strikes me as a pretty irreverent guy. (And good for him.) Even so, was there anything about his remarks you found particularly objectionable?
@Michael Hall,
I suppose taking his audience for granted & bashing them in the process is not objectionable for people like you.
@Ahmed – It must suck to be ridiculously over-sensitive and eager to whine about something. My sympathies.
What a lovely bunch of sycophants we have here.
Ahmed, you come across as a whiney simp. Grasping at anything to put down the show. If you dislike what you see… don’t watch. But you always ready to read even article that comes out and whine about. Wouldn’t you just be happier not reading everything about it?
@Trek fan 67,
Are you suffering from Alzheimer’s, grandpa?
I said multiple times that I’ll watch the pilot and will make a final decision afterward. Meanwhile I will continue voicing my impressions and concerns. If that means watching sycophants bending out of shape about it, so be it.
The funny thing about sycophants that non-stop praising of the show, as long it’s has Star Trek slapped on it, is valid opinion but any criticism is seen as “whining”.
Can you cite some praise for a show that no one here has yet seen? Because I honestly don’t think I’ve encountered it here, myself.
Personally, Ahmed, I don’t see any difference between those who say “What I’ve seen thus far this show looks like everything is going to be positive” and those who say “from what I’ve seen thus far this show does not bode well”. Both are subjective conclusions based on what has been released to the public. Why one side has to rip on the other I have no idea….
You’re suffering mental illness yourself if you think everyone who doesnt share your narrow, silly empty glass opinion is a sycophant. I mean, sure you learned a new word this week and have been dying to try it out. But its not impressing anyone.
Stop with the insults. Plenty of people, myself included, have expressed concerns about certain aspects.
You still come across as a whiney simp in all your posts. Whine, complain, negative.
Or, you can look at the present state of fandom. A lot of us are just tired of the drama, the politics, etc. these past FIVE years. We’re ready to move forward, and some of us are willing to give DSC a chance upon actually watching the show. So, if you want your words to carry more weight, I would recommend that you wait until the show premiers, then give your opinion. Sandbagging a show that no one has seen is pretty silly, I think.
When you put out such an attitude what do you expect back? You’re routinely the worst person to post here regularly. Why dont you take a deep breath, go for a nice walk, try to smile and come back and stop trying to troll everyone?
This is a great community. But people dont embrace nonsense.
I think that Isaacs is right about how SOME fans will react.
But, they will be a vocal minority
He was not taking his audience for granted. Just disturbed trekkies. :-P
Well, since I’m part of that audience I suppose that makes me a masochist. Only no, not really. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame Isaacs at all for tweaking Trek fans a little, if indeed that’s what he was doing, as fandom has not exactly distinguished itself of late. But I actually read his remarks not all that differently than Nick Meyer’s in 1981, when he more or less declared his artistic independence by telling the fans that he owed them nothing except making the best Trek film that he could. A lot of them took that very personally back then, too. But it turned out they shouldn’t have.
TWOK is revered now, but if Internet forums had been around, it would have been lambasted for being too dark (there was quite a bit of blood, something rather absent from TOS) and, of course, for Spocks’s death. That was a massive punch in the gut.
Harve Bennett’s mandate wasn’t to keep the Trekkers happy; it was to make a Star Trek movie for less than 40,000,000 USD. He found a story based on emotion rather than special effects and a director who could put in on screen.
No dearie, he’s not taking his audience for granted. He’s telling the moronic idiots who keep complaining about the show for no reason to get a grip and get over it.
I suppose some might say, those comments could be directed at a so called “fan” such as you.
His comments acknowledge that Trekkies gonna whine, so have at it! Smart. Just flashy enough to draw attention without real controversy. Good PR.
“Get a life”
:-D Exactly!
@Corinthian7,
Lazy & unoriginal.
Please make use of the gray matter in your brain and come up with something original next time.
Ahmed’s mad that everyone here is NOT in an uproar over the comments made by Isaacs. Who cares what he says. I thought he was clever in what he said. And he’s right!
It’s impossible to quote somebody and be original Ahmed.
Dang! Captain Pike in that gold uniform looks awesome. I think I would like the uniforms a lot more if they adhered to the Classic color schemes for command, sciences, and operations.
Sybok In Exile The Series. Make it happen.
It could be done Indiana Jones-style, Sybok seeking artifacts accross the galaxy that point to the location of Sha Ka Ree.
I’d watch. :-P
One for the Fans , Salvador \!//
Not shocked they are already thinking about another show. This is CBS, home of spin offs. And yes I think it would make sense to have another Trek show on AA when the other is on hiatus. Again hopefully a real Trek show (no more Khan, MOVE ON already) and no more prequels. But yeah I expect to be totally let down lol. But the comments about Discovery are good. I really hope they knock it out of the box. With so many fans already hating it, they basically have to.
If there are two shows on at once, it is more than likely that the other show will not be a prequel to DSC. :)
Seriously, though, it will probably be concurrent with DSC because it would make perfect sense to amortize the cost between the two series to allow for some overlap in sets, costumes, props, characters, etc. That’s what happened all the years DS9 was on the air, because they had access to much of what TNG, VOY, and even the TNG movies had, if they wanted to use it. Having two concurrent shows run in the same timeline would give added production value to both shows.
The shows all had separate production and were legally set up as separate business entities. DS9 could not “borrow” sets or costumes from the other shows. The production had to pay to rent them from the other production. Very little savings in fact.
@Luke Montgomery,
I didn’t know that, thanks for the info.
@Tiger2,
Kurtzman is doing the very same thing that Abrams did last year with the announcement of Star Trek 14 before the release of ‘Beyond’. In order to encourage fans to watch their new product they tease the prospect of something more if the current product is successful.
I agree with you but in this case all they need to do do is say Discovery is getting another season. And it sounds like he’s talking a few years down the line and doesn’t sound like anything is actually set up unlike Star Trek 14 where they supposedly had/have a story line ready to go and even promised to bring in Chris Hemsworth.
But I think, sure, if Discovery is really successful another show will happen. Its Star Trek, its become famous for spin offs at this point.
Plus there is a natural inclination to assume multiple seasons. Even with a show like Big Little Lies which was only meant to be one season and they exhausted the source material, people openly speculated about a second. its the nature of TV.
With JJ, it seemed a bit odd in how he was talking about Trek 4. But once you saw Beyond it seemed somewhat likely he knew it wasnt going to generate a lot of money and was trying to dangle the carrot of a “better” story.
I agree. I think the difference was it felt like they were dangling another Star Trek film to get people excited about Beyond. It felt like ‘if you all go out to see this one, then the NEXT one is going to blow your socks off.’
And of course we assume another film is always coming as well but like you said I think they knew Beyond was in trouble market wise and all the behind the scenes struggles made it worse so it was just a way to get people excited for the future.
Oddly you can say the exact same thing about Discovery lol. It too had a lot of behind the scenes issues and PR problems. But in this case though I think there really is a plan to make another show in the coming years. I’m guessing that was always part of the plan if Discovery does well. We had two Trek shows on at the same time over 20 years ago, in todays franchise world having two on again would feel like old hat these days when you could have THREE CSI shows on lol.
Some of us were sort of talking about this on another thread. Netflix is taking on huge debt to create original content especially as studios pull their content from the service.
We know original content is a larger driver than archival. And we’ve seen how Netflix has been so successful even as their rental side is virtually non existent now. It’s an example to other OTT services to invest in content.
Discovery is an expensive show. So I wonder if they’d be willing to take one two series at once. But if they see a large subscriber boost for Star Trek and a drop when it’s over then it might create an ergency to do so. Especially if Netflix wants it and will pay the freight.
Maybe, but I’m betting they won’t commit to that kind of additional investment shy of DSC being a big hit–maybe not GoT-sized but substantial all the same. And given what happened with Berman-era Trek in the ’90s I’m guessing that the risks of franchise overexposure would be figuring into their assessment as well. Even with my affection for this franchise, were I a CBS executive with fiduciary responsibilities to the company I’d be cultivating a healthy skepticism towards dumping even more truckloads of cash into Trek right now.
GoT is hitting series’ high ratings of 10 million viewers. If CBSAA got half that, Les Moonves would be marching through Times Square in full Klingon garb.
Netflix’ strategy is interesting for sure. As said, they are essentially financing a competitor. But, if I recall, CBS was pulling all their Star Trek titles from Netflix so part of this deal lets Netflix keep Star Trek and get the new series. And as someone else said, they probably have first look deals for potential spin offs.
For Netflix sake, hopefully they have a long deal in place and perhaps a staggered renewal (ie. CBS can pull some but not all series’ at specific times). Who knows.
Netflix is probably quite wary in view of what Disney has just done to them. By buying a Trek series from CBS, they are essentially financing the building of a rival, one that could hurt them a couple of years down the line.
The market is changing with emergence of new players. Streaming is still a very young business. CBS Trek may not be the best strategy for Netflix, especially at that cost. If the costs were lower, though, like let’s say with another series that has little to do with the one starting in Septemeber, it may be more worth the risk.
Netflix has a wee bit of money to burn. I have a feeling they have a first look deal for any seasons after this, although if there are spin offs, that may be different. Anyone here have any ideas in that area?
I agree. Netflix’ debt isnt a bad sign. In fact, its probably a great sign. The amount of debt they are willing to undertake shows how comfortable they are in their direction which is original content.
As for Trek spin offs…hmmmm, the fact Kurtzman touched on Fuller’s original idea might indicate a thought process to moving the next series to a new era. And really, dont you have to? Because if you do a series in the same period, you sort of handcuff both creative teams to making sure their biggest stories dont mess with the others’ biggest stories.
And if you take place in the same era, there is probably a desire to connect the shows and I’d think CBS would be reluctant to do that only in the sense that if you’re attracting people to an OTT service, do you want them to have to review multiple series’ multiple seasons to catch up?
Even with Walking Dead, their spin off went back in time and the nature of that story is you could co-exist in the same era and never run into each other.
If they do another series, I’d love for it to be Enterprise B. You could do a back door pilot scenario where something on Discovery leads to a time travel element that takes you into the future, introduces us to those characters and stories and the new series takes off from there.
Planning spinoff = decent chance they think it is good
I may not watch this it looks just bad I’m watching Star Wars now anyway, Star Wars is superior and always was superior to Star Trek.
Wouldn’t you be needing a new handle, then?
WOWA !!! Did I just hear brass balls hitting the floor ?!!!!
I tried watching Rogue One when it was added to Netflix a few weeks ago. About a third of the way through, I thought, isn’t this the same story, yet again? And I shut it off. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is about Star Wars, but I just can’t get into it, never could since I was 7. Watching it just feels like a chore to me.
Once I finally saw ROGUE ONE, I was more than a little disappointed. When you’re doing what is essentially WHERE EAGLES DARE or THE DIRTY DOZEN in space, it SHOULD be almost impossible to not deliver a great ride. And yet …
I liked it when I saw it in the theatre, but I thought that the first act was by far the weakest. If they started just before they leave Jedha, with a quick introduction of the characters and situation, then it would have probably been much better.
I agree. I enjoyed it but they really had trouble with that first act, establishing characters. I think the wavering on whether to include a scroll or not might have impacted it. With no scroll, they felt the need to show us more.
Bless you.
Im not sure I see the connection between Star Trek & Star Wars. Like, you’re watching Star Wars films so you can’t watch Star Trek TV series?
Okay. Thanks! Maybe we’ll see you on here when the next Trek film comes out.
DS9 is King I seen your posts on Trekcore as well and I’m being honest here but you seem waaaaay too obsessed about the war elements of Trek. You seem to want Trek to be Star Wars. Well, its not. Yes DS9 did feel like it had that vibe once the Dominion war started up but thats not Star Trek overall.
They already said Discovery’s first season would revolve around the Klingon war. What else do we need?
And you know you can just watch both? Star Wars make a movie a year and before that one every 3-10. My guess is you can squeeze in this show with new Star Wars like the rest of us.
There seems to be so much hatred of Star Trek fans. If it wasn’t for those idiotic crazy fans there would have been no continuation of Star Trek in any form period!! If the actor playing the captain and those who really want to see something different then ‘don’t’ use “Star Trek in the title or any of its symbols or insignias! Just called the ‘damn’ show Discovery and let it Fly on its own! I would prefer to see a Star Trek with characters moving to the Future with the beings-human or otherwise with higher states of consciousness and far more enlightened with brand new futuristic tech ie; new discoveries in subatomic and genetics research and photonic life-forms like the doctor on Voyager!)) AND with NO dogs,cats or ‘pet robots’ like R2 D2 etc; coming to the rescue and solving all the problems)). Also please NO phasers sounding like and working like 20th century pistols. If you’re going to shoot to kill make sure the phaser disintegrates your adversary–‘be a little gangsta’ about it sometime when you’re back into a corner and you have no choice!!! Star Trek and HIP HOP forever!
My gosh, DSC hasn’t even debuted and the interviewer/writer/whoever above is speculating about a sequel/concurrent series. Can we just concentrate on this ONE show and see how it goes? Sheesh, live in the damn moment, and don’t forget that even Star Trek isn’t immune to “fan fatigue.” Remember those days?
@LordEdzo — Fan fatigue is a myth. That’s not what killed Trek more than a decade ago.
Ratings were actually pretty consistent. There was a drop during TNG’s run but the rest of Trek was pretty consistent. Enterprise dropped a bit more though not a crazy amount but enough that the expense of the show likely wasnt worth it.
Ironically, if Discovery gets the amount of viewers as Enterprise, it will be considered a rousing success…at least for awile.
Well I wouldn’t say its a myth either. Maybe its not as macro as people are suggesting but I can tell you personally as a fan I got a little sick of it by the end. Its not so much it was too much Star Trek and more the in the fact how long it was going for. By the time Enterprise got on the air, Star Trek was on for nearly 15 years from TNG on. Thats a long time!
Now don’t get me wrong, I think if Enterprise was just a better received show people would’ve stuck with it. But why I think the fatigue theory is partly true is because Enterprise didn’t get the fan bounce like TNG and DS9 did once the show got better by third season meaning it kept dropping. And yes I didn’t give Enterprise a chance either (I basically stopped watching after 1st season) even after I heard it got better. I think it just sort of became a shrug to a lot of Trek fans. We all know how bad TNG was early on but people stuck with it because it was the only Trek on at the time. I guess what I’m saying is if Enterprise debut earlier more people would’ve stuck with it as well but I think people just stopped caring by then.
And once Enterprise ended there WAS a lot of fans suggesting over and over again ‘let Star Trek rest for a few years’. Paramount sort of listened, it took nearly a year before they announced a new movie series lol.
But I don’t disagree it was because it wasn’t deemed a good show (nor Nemesis a good film and in fact still my worst film in the franchise), at least at the beginning, why people just stopped watching but after 15 years of Star Trek with so many films and spin offs it probably did need a break at some point.
I did wonder how the uniforms would’ve looked if instead of the blue they were department colors with black pants. I like the navy blue which is more uniformed to me but it adds a nice touch.
That fan edit of Pike is a great example of how they were kind of close but then got scared by the “ZOMG CAN’T BE THOSE COLORS BECAUSE 1960’S CARDBOARD AHHGHHGHGHGHHGHGHGLAUGHABLE HAS TO BE TOTALLY MODERN AND I WILL BE OK WITH IT!!!”
If anything, i’d think they likely went in a different direction to be different than the JJ films.
I sort of agree. If its me, I want to fit in with what came before so I’d have gone with something closer to TOS. But unless it IS Tos, its still different and once you’re open to different, it sort of opens the door to anything.
Who knows, if there is enough feedback that viewers were confused and didnt like the uniforms, nothing stops them from changing them up for season 2 (or featuring classic unis on other ships).
is there more redcon Art?
I also thought about stuff like that.
Cool! I got an idea for the next television incarnation of “Star Trek” after “Discovery”: it should broadcast on either CBS (not just streaming on CBS All Access) or The CW (with streaming on the CW website and CW Seed) or in first-run syndication (with episodes streaming weekly online for free at StarTrek.com), take place sometime after the events of 2002’s “Nemesis,” and return to the roots of making a starship commanding officer a viewpoint character.
How novel!!!