Today’s Star Trek: Discovery update features some more insights into what is to come for Michael Burnham and her relationship with Capt. Lorca. We also have titles for more episodes, behind the scenes videos about Cadet Tilly and Saru, delve into delta canon and see James Frain demonstrate his Vulcan error.
Goldsman outlines Burnham’s arc, Isaacs tells us what Lorca wants
Executive producer and director of Sunday’s episode Akiva Goldsman spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about “Context Is for Kings,” and how it presented a different Michael Burnham following the events of the premiere and loss of Captain Georgiou:
“Our first year is about who this terrible moment leads her to become,” Goldsman says. “The version of herself we met and she knew is shattered by the end of episode two. [It’s about] who she will become as a result of the loss of innocence, the loss of her view of herself, the loss of a simpler and less war-torn Federation.”
And in the same article, actor Jason Isaacs talked about what Lorca sees in Burnham:
“He sees in her someone that is prepared to go against regulations to get done what needs to be done and this is wartime,” Isaacs says. “Lorca thinks that that he needs to have people around him who are going to get things done and save the Federation and everybody in it. Whether she can trust him or not isn’t his concern. He’ll go ahead and do the things he needs to do and she’ll make her own judgment. He’s pretty confident she’ll make the right choice.”
Jason Isaacs as Captain Gabriel Lorca and Sonequa Martin-Green in “Context Is for Kings”
Episode titles for 5 and 6
As we reported last week the title for next Sunday’s episode of Discovery is “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For The Lamb’s Cry.” And thanks to the magic of TV schedules, we now know the titles of the following two episodes. Episode 5 is titled “Choose Your Pain” and will be available on October 15th. Episode 6 is titled “Lethe” and will be available on October 22nd.
Get to know Tilly
CBS released another character focus video, this time all about Cadet Sylvia Tilly.
Discovery delta is canon
A new article on the official Star Trek site dispels the bit of “fanon” that the delta insignia was only for the crew of the USS Enterprise during the TOS era, and therefore it isn’t a canon violation to have it be used in Star Trek: Discovery as an insignia across Starfleeet. While there were instances of other starships having their own insignia in TOS, a memo from Star Trek producer Bob Justman to costume designer Bill Theiss explicitly said the delta represented all of Starfleet. So those other instances were essentially in error. The article clarifies the insignia issue thusly:
There are six Starfleet duty insignia used in TOS:
- Starship Duty Insignia (Fleet personnel emblem)
- Spacecraft Duty Insignia (Auxiliary Fleet/ Merchant Marine personnel emblem)
- Outpost Duty Insignia (Outpost and Colony personnel emblem)
- Cadet Duty Insignia (Starfleet Academy student emblem)
- Starbase Duty Insignia (Headquarters, Space stations, Drydocks, and Ground installation personnel emblem)
- Fleet Command Insignia (Senior field commander personnel emblem)
The Discovery insignia does not violate canon, just “fanon”
See how Doug Jones becomes Saru
If you watched After Trek you have already seen this behind the scenes video showing how Doug Jones transforms into Saru, but if not, it is now available online.
Saluting with the Sareks
USA Today. released a video with James Frain (Sarek) and Sonequa Martin-Green talking about doing the Vulcan salute. To Sonequa it appears to come naturally, but Frain admits hegot it wrong on the first try.
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusive in the US on CBS All Access with new episodes released Sundays at 8:30 pm ET. In Canada Star Trek: Discovery airs on the Space Channel at the same time. Discovery is available on Netflix outside the USA and Canada with new episodes made available Monday at 8 am BST.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.
The last episode was brilliant throughout. I am eager to find out more about Lorca and his menagerie. The dissected Tribble closely matched the cutaway graphic of one in DS9. Will a malfunction in the new drive cause a switch to the Frakes spoiler?
TOS “canon violations” are the kinds that least concern me, when that show had Kirk saying stuff like “we can enhance our comms by an order of 1 to the 4th power”. Seriously, TOS violated it’s own canon all the time :S
Yep, I know what you mean. I think a lot of Canonista-extremists like feel “superior” by wheeling out certain canon “facts” in an argument ( against other fans, or even the program makers themselves ), just like the issue with the Trek insignia. I can’t tell you how many people over the recent months claim it is wrong for any other ship apart from Enterprise to sport the familiar logo.
On the contrary. My experience is that the cheerleaders feel superior because they think of themselves as less superficial.
What is a “cheerleader” in this context.
Yeah, I’m a die hard fan and my knowledge is pretty vast… but I don’t care about most TOS canon violations. They were incredibly inconsistent back then.
That article about the insignia was really weak. Come on, the Constellation’s insignia was…a constellation. (And I have no idea why no official source realizes that the Engineering “hook” is neither a hook nor an “e” but a spiral galaxy.) The retconning is fine, but don’t pretend it was the truth all along.
Ummm… I hate to tell you Nachum, but there was an official memo in the 60s stating that all the Starfleet ships were supposed to have the delta shield. As the article above states, there were different emblems for different services – but all Starfleet ships were supposed to wear the delta shield, and if you had watched, there were only 1 or 2 mistakes.
I saw the memo. And they admit it wasn’t always followed. And sometimes even the memo can be wrong, like when they eliminated lieutenants jg in TMP. Like I said, I have no problem ignoring onscreen mistakes and even retconning. They just shouldn’t pretend it was some grand plan.
@Nachum — and this is exactly why visual canon is meaningless. Those other insignias were a mistake. Period. If you believe otherwise, explain why the dead crew of the Defiant, depicted in the TOS episode “The Tholian Web” were wearing the same Delta shield as the Enterprise crew? Oops.
I agree. See my response above.
What at always gets me about canon discussions ist hat something like /Star Trek/Star Wars, the things didn’t start out as popular.
They BECAME popular.
There was no canon in the beginning.
Now, it is treated as something sacrosanct.
But it didn’t mean anything at the time, because it didn’t even exist.
But it IS sacrosanct now. Many of us grew up on this stuff. We’ve come to know the setting, the rules that this world runs on… I don’t see the point in saying “At one time, none of this mattered!” So what? It matters now, man.
I think canon to be very important in Trek, especially because I’ve grown up with it. And if they’re going to shoehorn a show in, set a mere ten years before the incarnation that started it ALL, they damn well better be adhering to canon (with the occasional exception, begrudgingly). If they had set the show post-TUC or post-TNG, they could have played a little more fast and loose with it, IMO.
Well they didn’t.
They didn’t stick to canon in TOS, TAS, the TOS movies or any of the series. IE – Checkov in TWOK.
Yep. Great example. To accept that you have to retcon an explanation for it. Since the movie turned out to be pretty good I don’t remember a whole lot of conniptions thrown over it either, aside from a few grumbles. Maybe the fans, happy to get any new Trek at all, were just less whiny back then.
Canon is important because its a 50 year franchise which exists in the same continuity.
There is “respecting” canon and then being “a slave to” canon. They should always try to respect it. I always rejected the Orci argument that they needed to erase canon to play in their own sandbox. Especially because they jerked us around with canon all the time when it suited them. It was a cheat for lousy writers.
Having to play in the established sandbox should actually make you a tighter writer because you cant just make up new things. You have to make YOUR stories and ideas fit in the bigger picture in a logical way.
I agree, TUP. Honestly, I think dispensing with the broader canon is the mark of a crap writer. You either understand the source or you don’t. I’m fine with jettisoning some canon from TOS, just because TV has come a long way and they always played fast and loose with their own canon anyway. But only so far. To dispense with it so completely like the JJ movies did is unforgivable. (Even though I liked JJ Trek 1 & 3)
While there might be lots of good reasons to dislike any show, Discovery included, fans who get hung up on this sort of minutiae are, for my money, missing the forest for the trees.
Agreed. For the most part, anyway. lol
It’s good to see the return of intriguing and cryptic episode titles. The more, the better.
Sadly, “For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky” still remains unsurpassed in its sheer genius. ;)
Agreed, that’s one hell of a title.
Yeah, absolutely with you on that.
I think a very simple in-universe explanation for the different insignias is that ship captains, during the TOS time period, had the discretion to choose something different for purposes of team building among their crew. This could perhaps also explain the different uniform styles in the period.
Nope, the insignias were all the same. Any on screen difference simply doesnt exist in the fictional world of Star Trek.
Exactly. I mean, as much as I appreciate consistency and everything – and think that most major things should remain unchained – good stories are good stories. If you need to bend canon here and there in minor ways for understandable reasons, fine. It’s all fiction anyway. Delta shields were always the standard across Starfleet. Why? Because they said so. That’s why. Behold, the power of fiction.
The only things I really didn’t care for were the Klingons. They don’t look, act, or sound anything like canon Klingons. T’Kuvma’s voice was especially annoying. He sounded more like (and sorry to mix franchises here) a version of Chewbacca that could speak English.
I don’t know they still have the brow of a klingon.
I recognize them that way.
Ben, I feel strongly that they need to ease up on the Klingon mouth appliances, because the Klingon speech sounded muffled and garbled. Not that I understand Klingon, but I’d at least like to understand that they are speaking words! [I like the subtitles, but even if I knew Klingon, I would still need them!]
If you’d knew Klingon you’d definitely NOT need them… I know, I didn’t :)
Yeah, in my head: Discovery takes place in the 25th century and these “Klingons” are a new alien race.
Since I initially thought this might have been about the ‘After Trek’ show, which I was pretty hard on last week, I just thought I’d mention in all fairness that last Sunday’s edition went down a lot easier than the first. Much more intelligent questions about the actual subject matter from the host, and fewer self-congratulatory attempts at looking clever. More of this, please.
Okay, I’ll give After Trek a go….
Thank you. I haven’t felt necessary compelled to watch After Trek, maybe I’ll give it a try.
“Lethe”, hmm? Will we be dropping by the Tantalus colony?
I don’t mean to troll, I’m honestly looking for people’s opinions on the matter. Why is the Vulcan salute not a matter of cultural appropriation? Seriously, it’s a gesture used in Jewish culture exclusively at one of the holiest ceremonies in their culture. No disrespect for Mr Nimoy, perhaps he wasn’t thinking. I’m just wondering why it’s not spoken about or discussed. Again, seriously interested in perspective.
Mr. Nimoy had mentioned in hundreds of interviews as to where he got the salute from. It hasn’t been a secret.
Cultural appropriation isn’t a real thing.
His culture. His to use. Though he may have had some ‘splaining to do to his rabbi.
It’s not spoken about or discussed because I don’t recall one Rabbi, Israeli politician or anyone of the Jewish faith ever calling out the Vulcan salute as offensive to their faith or in someway misappropriating their culture. They have had much bigger issues to contend with over the past decades, centuries and millennia.
I’m Jewish too. I think I’m not offended, just saddened that such a thing happened. Obviously people will do what they want, I’m just surprised that no one else has brought it up. Oh well.
All I can tell you is that I’m Jewish, and I’m not offended. Never heard of a fellow tribe member who was, either, though I suppose anything is possible. That’s actually something I never even considered, to be honest.
My rabbi always used to mention how much he loved Star Trek when he used that gesture.
“Choose Your Pain?” That sounds like the kind of thing that the less famous of Michael’s foster brothers would say.
Sounds like a klingon episode.
The “article” dispels nothing. It isn’t “official”; it’s clearly labelled as a GUEST BLOGGER. It’s one fan’s personal opinion — based on one of many many memos that Justman (and other producers) wrote that ultimately weren’t enforced. Roddenberry himself insisted that each ship had its own patch, and “In Mirror Darkly” proved it once and for all.
Years ago, while working on the phone in customer service for a large hotel chain, I spoke on the with Richard Arnold. I noticed his name, and then noticed that his email address in the system included a Trek reference. I was pretty sure he was THAT Richard Arnold, so I asked. He was a little surprised I knew who he was, but then I gushed about being all sorts of into Trek production details and knowing he was Roddenberry’s assistant and the canon czar during the TNG days. I often wonder how much Excedrine Migraine he has to pop to handle JJ-Trek and Discovery. lol