Kurtzman Hints At ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 2 Surprises – Confirms April Shooting Start

(source: Twitter @abaiers)

NOTE: Article discusses spoilers from the season one finale of Star Trek: Discovery

Following our roundup of post-finale comments from the creatives behind Discovery, there are some more interviews and highlights today giving some insight into the finale and season two.

Get ready for surprises on board the Enterprise, maybe even CG Shatner?

Speaking to EW, co-creator Alex Kurtzman talked about what fans may be wondering when it comes to the introduction of the USS Enterprise, hinting there are surprises on board.

Obviously, they’re going to be wondering who’s on board the Enterprise. I think there will be some surprises there. We will maintain consistency with canon, but there will be surprises.

He later gave more detail on how they would approach introducing characters from Trek canon.

…if we bring in characters from The Original Series, they have to adhere to canon. So anything that’s been mentioned in TOS, either storyline or character-wise, we have to stay consistent with.

When asked if this could include a CG Kirk – as William Shatner has suggested – Kurtzman said there has been no discussion but he was “open to it.”

The Enterprise was the surprise cliffhanger for the next season

If they were to show the Enterprise interior design, it would be “protective” of original

While Kurtzman emphasized how character stories have to match with TOS canon, when it comes to the look of the show, he gets more flexible. He wouldn’t confirm that they will be showing the interior of the USS Enterprise, but he did address how they would do it hypothetically:

Our goal is to be interpretive in a way that feels it’s protective of what the Enterprise would look like if, in theory, if we were to build any Enterprise sets. But if we built it like it looked in The Original Series, there would be a massive visual disconnect.

Tyler confirmed for season 2, issues with the Klingons may “flare up”

Last night’s article noted that the return of Shazad Latif as Tyler was indicated as likely, but Kurtzman confirmed the character will be back and gave some details on his arc.

Tyler/Voq has had a major evolution over the course of the season, and we love Shazad. He’s capable of absolutely everything we throw at him, and we have great plans for his character in season 2.

In a separate interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Kurtzman got into more detail about how the fallout from L’Rell ending the war will play out with the Klingons in season 2:

…just because we found a way for a truce to happen, does not mean that the Klingons are now happy with it. Look, we say that all the houses are divided, and L’Rell, through her ingenuity and with the help of Starfleet, is able to figure out a way to basically out chess maneuver them into making a choice they don’t want to make. In the episode right before, she’s extremely clear about it. She says, “We’re never going to stop until everybody is dead.” That’s just the way of the Klingons. There is a détente, that’s forced by ingenuity, but it does not mean that the Klingons have decided that everything’s fine. That problem could flare up at any point.

Leaders of the Klingon Houses

Shooting begins in April

In a separate article in Variety focused mainly on the music from the finale – including the recording Alexander Courage’s original Star Trek theme – Kurtzman also confirmed that shooting on the second season begins in April. He also confirmed that composer Jeff Russo will be back for season 2.  As we reported previously, the writers have been hard at work since January 1st.


Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access It airs in Canada on the Space Channel and is available on Netflix everywhere else.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.

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Please. Enough with the Klingons. Let’s see some boldly going from now on!

No. This isn’t a “boldly going” type of show, nor should it be.

The tone changed so much in the final episode that they could take season 2 in any direction they wanted, including adding more ‘boldly going’.

Nor should it be? It’s in the bloody title of the show. To trek. To go. Among the stars. And discover something. Preferably in a bold fashion.

if you don’t go boldly, you can’t make dramatic missteps, and without those, you aint’ got the necessary drama.

Then why is the ship called the “Discovery”?

This is not going to be a planet of the week show but I can see them doing some exploring or encountering strange phenomena. In the shows most Trek fans are used to, the ship and crew were given a different mission each week. Even on DS9, there was a different thing each with with the background story being serialized. This show isn’t like that and it’s very interesting watching some fans have trouble breaking themselves of expecting the old format and others just get mad and say they won’t accept it.

April is sooner than I expected. Can we count on airing season 2 in September 2018?

Early 2019 is what they’ve been saying. Remember a lot of the production time for a show like this is because of all the things needed in post-production (lots of complex VFX, editing, music, sound mix, etc.).

AGGGGHHHH!
Must … be … patient

Shows with a start date of April it will be ready for the fall. CBS can’t afford to put the show off until 2019.

Remember the first season started filming in january and was filming through october. So there was 8 months from the filming of the first episode to the premiere. April start date could imply a January 2019 premiere.

But the first two episodes were essentially a stand alone motion picture with different sets, and a much broader scope than most episodes. The question is, when did episode 4 begin filming – and how long was it taking per episode then?

My guess is that they will want to do a split season again to maximize All Access dollars, and with Orville starting in January, that they will want to get the first 6 episodes out before December – I’d bet on a start in October through the end of November, and then the second half starting in Feb or March.

Maybe by “April” they did not just mean the date but also the captain. In best GoT fashion: April is coming! ^^

Yet it was well into the Pike era. If Discovery began 10 years before Kirk and we knew from The Menagerie that the events which occurred with the Telosians happened 13 years before Spock’s trial as well as one year having passed in Discovery’s first season we are 4 years after the events of The Cage.

They ruined the design of the original Enterprise, the have created a universe that’s far to advanced, the design aesthetic is way off….what more can they do to ruin the Star Trek universe. I can only imagine the disaster they might have in store if they show the interior of the ruined Enterprise. Heck, they will probably make Pike gay. But hey, I’m not allowed to have these opinions and thoughts. I must conform and love Discovery.

They didn’t ruin anything. They just changed things. Now, shut up and love Discovery.

Yes, 21st century technology is too advanced. Everyone knows the 23rd century will look just like the 1960s…

Frankly I haven’t been able to take Star Trek seriously ever since Enterprise came out and they didn’t have a black and white view screen.

My feelings exactly. The NX-01 clearly should have looked like Captain Proton’s ship.

Now THIS is the future….oh, wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdSxDNnqRlo

Analog. I’m really looking forward to that big @$$ console TV in Pikes quarters making a reappearance.

“Heck, they will probably make Pike gay. But hey, I’m not allowed to have these opinions and thoughts.”

No, you’re allowed to have a thought like “They’ll probably make Pike gay.” Just be aware it makes you look pretty bad.

Or, have the thought, but don’t say it in a public venue and make an ass.

It’s not so much you’re not allowed to dislike a gay Pike but I for one wonder why you would watch a historically progressive franchise like Trek if you’re uncomfortable with minorities.

yeah, but didn’t Pike spend all of eternity playing hide the bone with Vina on Talos IV? I don’t think gay will work with this guy.

Jack, you are clearly and obviously allowed to have your thoughts and opinions, but when you make ignorant, small minded comments about gay men you have no business calling yourself a Trek fan. As a gay man myself, your comment disappointed and disgusted me.

Justin, it was a crass remark, but you really need to grow a thicker skin. Real life doesn’t come with a trigger warning for snowflakes.

Dom, calling offended people “snowflakes” is a weak excuse for being too cowardly to apologize for acting like a jerk.

No. It’s that people live in a perpetual state of taking offence these days. Just shrug, acknowledge the person’s made a stupid remark and get on with your life. I didn’t make the original remark, incidentally. And the remark wasn’t made towards Justin, so Justin’s just looking for a bit of attention.

you really like preemptively acting victimzed

No Jack, you ARE allowed to dislike Discovery. That’s fair enough. But don’t go out of your way to victimise yourself and don’t make off colour jokes about gay people. It’s 2018: grow up.

Why are all of the Klingons missing their hair??

The DISCO production team just can’t say it: Look at 1960s TOS through different glasses. Truth is, visual design is being changed and updated.

Canon is canon. But visuals have simply changed.

Because the war story would have been super confusing for new viewers if the Klingons looked like on TOS.
I’m still certain we will get some form of update on the “smoothies” either in the T’Kuvma comic or at some point down the line of the show.
Most likely they currently are outcasts of some sort, barred from military service. And the unaffected Klingons took to shaving off their hair to distinguish themselves as much as possible from the victims of the augment virus.
L’rell maneuvers the Empire to a more open culture reintegrating them into the Klingon Defence Force and voila! TOS Klingons.

Or, they find Tyler’s appearance so beguiling they just have to do the same thing!
KLINGONS OVERCROWD PLASTIC SURGERY CLINICS

That’s exactly it. They really would have done themselves a favor if they said, this is the prime timeline and we wrote it where it fits in with canon fans know, but it is a visual update to help modernize the show and expose new fans to it. I’m ok with that. As a lifelong Trekkie, I get it. I also really enjoy Discovery.

I think they have said that, PEB…

Rogaine shortage in the Empire. Even the girls are bald.

What do you mean “canon is canon”? When has this show even tried to incorporate canon? Truth of the matter is Discovery has changed both visual design and canon.

@Jordan – provide examples. They incorporate canon all the time.

So they’re going to try and get Zachary Quinto without telling us, right?
And then settle for Brandon Routh or something.

If Kurtzman going to keep arguing ‘visual disconnect’ then Quinto wouldn’t make any sense either.

Just be glad it’s not Jason Schwartzman.

Does this mean we will see the U.S.S. Farragut with a young James T. Kirk?

Could happen. Kirk would be about 23 or 24.

Could get even more interesting if this was the Mirror Universe Enterprise… with Kirk assassinating his Captain Pike in Season 2 as part of the storyline.

Then again, that might not align too well to the TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror”.

Although DISCO writers do throw major plot curves into the storylines…

Agreed. Had a good chuckle.

Please no CG Shatner. If motion picture budgets still can’t produce believable CG human characters, I doubt a television budget would even get close. At some point, characters must be recast. It’s up to the audience to accept the new actor in the role. The alternatives are bad CG recreations of the original actors or never showing the characters ever again.

I could cope with ropey cgi if we get to see Shatner perform as Kirk again.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

So much for that claim in the new book that the visuals of the original show were unique to constitution class ship.

LOL that never made any sense anyway. People have to remember the books aren’t canon for a reason.

But didn’t the creative forces behind discovery not make a big giant song and dance out of the fact that this time the books and comics were actually canon.

I guess if visuals are not canon maybe the excuse for this one will be writing is not canon 😜

Not canon per se just that they’d work closer together to avoid stepping on each other’s toes.

Closer to canon than trek books in the past, but still not quite canon.

So kinda like the discovery show itself 😜

As others said not officially canon but they are working closer together unlike previous productions and books and why they manage to make the stories more closely tied together (since the book was written before the show even premiered).

It could still look strikingly different from Discovery and Shenzhou but and still be more modern than the 60s. Just wait and see

@PEB I think so too. Wasn’t the point of making Shenzhou and Discovery interiors and tech so different (also in terms of modernity) to show that vastly different ship classes are in service at the same time? Maybe this was just setup for the inevitable Constitution class interiors if they always knew we would end up there!

Wait…the books explain that the Connie looks 200 years inferior on purpose?? lol Come on…

“…if we bring in characters from The Original Series, they have to adhere to canon. So anything that’s been mentioned in TOS, either storyline or character-wise, we have to stay consistent with.”

Why start now?

😂😀😀😀😀😂

where have they violated Canon Kirok?

Disco… All the places that have been previously mentioned. Do a google search and you get plenty of hits on the subject. If you have watched the show and haven’t seen it then I think it is because you just don’t want to see it or don’t care about canon. Either is fine of course. It is just entertainment.

I know. We’ve had this conversation before. I was just curious what you consider a “canon violation” because I think there are differing opinions.

@Kirok – in other words, you are unable to provide any examples. And this is why people are so dismissive of your posts.

let the hate flow through you. it’s comical at this point.

PEB, sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of hate yourself. Hatred of anything that goes against your own opinion. Well, it is the internet.

The classic Star Wars line occurred to me, too.
The hate for this show seems palpable with some.

I can’t imagine being so miserable just because a tv show doesn’t look the way I want it to look.

No kidding Kirok is consistently miserable about this show (which Im not even convinced he watches based on previous remarks he made).

Trex, you made two very bad assumptions. First, I’m not miserable at all. Im quite content. Pointing out that Kurtzman said something hypocritical doesn’t mean I’m miserable. Next, nothing I said had anything to do with the Discovery production design.

You’re welcome

My 2 predictions are…

a) With the new amazing DeepFake technology… we will easily and cost-effectively see Nimoy CGI mapped onto an existing stand-in actor. Look up what’s been going on with DeepFake AI the past 3 weeks.

b) Season 2 will feature Sybok at some point. A Sybok storyline will completely validate the magical existence of Michael Burnham in prime universe canon. Perhaps Sybok and Michael see eye-to-eye and it further pushes Spock away from all of them. Which would also explain why Sarek is such a dick to Spock in TOS.

That DeepFake AI probably isn’t capable of doing something at the level of fidelity required for a 1080p presentation. It would likely need to be done the way movies have been doing it which a TV show wouldn’t have the budget for.

I’m betting that Pike informs them that Spock is off on an assignment somewhere and we don’t see him.

Oh my. Then you haven’t seen some of the results already. It’s amazing.

They already said Spock won’t be appearing.

? Who said dat? Did you watch AfterTrek last night?

https://trekmovie.com/2018/02/11/star-trek-discovery-producers-talk-finales-big-reveal-and-hint-at-season-2-story/

Aaron Harberts: “[W]e realize how incredible Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto’s performances were and what [Star Trek movie director] J.J. Abrams and the original series were able to pull off with that character. Finding another actor that could even come close to what Leonard Nimoy did with the original portrayal, we’d never want to go down that road.”

LOL thank you! Yeah I read that same article on this site. I’m not sure why others are not seeing it?

Of course they can change their mind, but they made it quite clear why they thought its not even worth trying to do.

They could use CGI to composite Nimoy’s Spock with his Cage look into the background somewhere, I suppose, as he wasn’t Exec back then and doesn’t need to be on the bridge. It seems a bit odd to have Sarek and Burnham with the Big E, but no Spock. Of course you could have great fun with a comedy episode where Spock spends the 40-ish minutes avoiding Sarek and Burnham, using body doubles and compositing shots of Nimoy into scenes, having him disappear into a toilet as Sarek and Burnham walk past, or turning a corner as they come into shot. At the end, when Sarek and Burnham try to talk to him from back on the Discovery, Spock sabotages the viewscreen. The episode closes with Spock bellowing ‘Check the circuit!’ ‘Can’t be the screen then!’

Then why would Kirk appear?
Spock was on the Enterprise before Kirk.

Who said anything about Kirk appearing?? I don’t think they have any intention for either. At least not now.

Interesting idea about Sybok. On After Trek one of the writers said, and I’m paraphrasing here as I don’t remember the exact quote, that one of the the themes of season 2 would be exploring the line between science and spirituality. A Sybok story line would seem to fit into that and like you say it would also help validate the Burnham character and enhance canon much like Lethe did by adding context to Spock and Sarek’s falling out.

Hmmm. Very interesting to use Sybok. It has potential but I just don’t trust this group of writers. I just hope it gets better.

I’m actually depressed about the Enterprise redesign last night. This is silly, but I feel like I was sucker punched in the gut. I was buying just about everything Discovery was selling up to that point.

Since the fact the entire universe look so different from TOS did you really think you were going to get a direct lift of the Enterprise from the sixties??? The ship would’ve looked out of place and hokey, especially next to the Discovery which looks like its from another century itself. They had to update it to make it look like it fits in this universe.

But if you just don’t like HOW they designed it, thats different but it was going to be different.

I don’t get it, looks closer than the TOS reboot (wish this was the ENT in ST 2009) I love the TOS Enterprise and love her portrayal in Discovery. Still looks 110 percent better than anything in TNG, DS9 (absent the TOS Ent), Voyager (absent Excelsior) and ENT (absent the TOS Ent). Hope Pike, Spock and Number One have big parts in Discovery

Yeah it looks like a nice updated version, which is fine. I don’t know why people thought they were going to use the same one from TOS, it would’ve felt too hokey. Its not my favorite ship in the franchise but its fine and certainly better looking than the Enterprise in Abram’s films.

They already said though we won’t see Spock at all. But Pike will probably show up.

Not true. Look at ST Continues and Axanar, adding just a little bit of detail and the old looks still are very much viable. All the Enterprise needed was a little light Aztecing on the hull to break up the flat look, not a complete overhaul like what Discovery did.

Thats because ST Continues still uses the 60’s aesthetic, based on what I seen. Discovery DOESN’T, everything on this show looks different, contemporary and higly advance. I mean look at the Discovery bridge and then look at the NCC-1701 bridge? Do you think they look or feel similar in any way? And yet they are suppose to be in the same period. It would make the whole think feel jarring so they had to update the look of the ship at least a little.

And I haven’t seen Axanar so I can’t speak on that.

I felt a double punch. Although I didn’t hate the look of the Enterprise (in fact I would have LOVED it if they went that way in JJ Trek) but it’s another indicator that they are changing things just because they can. I wish the Enterprise would have looked correct. However, the first gut-punch I felt was when I thought the emergency distress call was going to be coming from (Prime) Lorca, I was just sure that’s who was calling out. Then it turned out to be the Enterprise. I was momentarily recovering from this hit, hoping ol’ 1701 would be herself. Alas….

you don’t really know for sure the reason they are calling Discover is because they have Lorca. You just don’t know. He could be super pissed about being in the mirror U that he came back and has no idea wtf went on in PU and Pike is all ‘what the eff is your problem…?’ and Lorca be like’ stfu and get me to the Disco..” You just don’t know.

I HOPE that’s why they’re calling DISCO. But why would they give a distress call? That’s against protocol …!

But Chris thanks for the description of Lorca on the Enterprise, LOL!

The fact the distress calls is garbled (i believe they said) would indicate something bad has happened that has hindered the Enterprise. Its not just a normal “hey, we could use some help” as they are close to Earth and would presumably just call Starfleet.

Something has hindered the ship making their distress call weak, picked up by the passing Discovery.

They might have picked him up in the transporter along with Admiral Archer’s dog!

Why? It looks amazing.

I still think a truly creative team that put in the effort could do updates that would not jar modern sensibilities while still making the overall aesthetic recognizable as TOS. I actually think Black Mirror’s USS Callister did a reasonable job in this respect. I just think the set designs in the nuTrek films and Disco just throw out the baby with the bath water and don’t even put in an effort, which I think is dismissive and lazy. In a couple years time the Apple Store bridge of nuTrek will look dated too (and this from an Apple fan). Too bad. I wish they would have taken the time to do something with the sets and ships that was more akin to the props in Disco (phaser, tricorder, etc.) The exterior of the Enterprise is not bad, but I don’t see the point in adding the TMP nacelle struts. Does it really make it look any more ‘mod’ than the original? Personally I don’t see it. Seems change for the sake of change which is disruptive for no good reason. I’m not with Kirk, but with Scotty on this one, “If my grandmother had wheels she’d be a wagon.”

I feel like you wrote exactly what I’ve been thinking this whole season. I was reading your message thinking that I’ve written exactly those thoughts previously. I don’t hate the show, I just feel they could have tried harder.

Very good points, and I think this laziness is not only a problem of Star Trek but many other big franchises too and not only in production design but in writing as well. I mean we see lazy writing everywhere from Transformers to Star Wars and people are actually excusing this form of writing as “character driven”. Basically for me “character driven” is a code for “we couldn’t come up with any cool or creative plots so we just want to write the characters”. Same thing with the production designs too.

Ya know, the thing that makes me crazy is this: I get the love for the TOS version of the Enterprise. It’s a beautiful design, simple, elegant. But it’s not timeless. I’m fortunate to live in DC, and was at the Smithsonian the other day standing next to the 11-foot model of the TOS Enterprise, and as amazing as it is – it’s dated, very much a product of its time. It would look out of place if you took it an put it in and amongst ST:Discovery’s universe. And for those of you that say “Well, they did it on DS9 and ENTERPRISE and it looked fine”, you’re wrong. Was it great to see the design in those shows, absolutely. Did it pull at the heartstrings and make us all gooey nostalgic – absolutely. But if step back and look at it PURELY from an aesthetic standpoint, it stood out (as did the costumes and sets) as out of synch with the look and feel of the present day ST universes.

Think about it this way. A 1957 Chevy Bel-Air is a beautiful thing to behold. Truly a classic. Incredible lines, gorgeous to look at, but put it on the road next to modern day cars and it looks out of place, like it doesn’t belong. Its design, while classic and beautiful is not timeless.

The TOS version of the Enterprise is the same way. Beautiful, amazing, but not timeless. It is only logical that the slight (and admit it, it really is slight, comparatively) redesign they’ve given the Enterprise keeps all of the things we love about it, but makes it work, aesthetically, in this modern-day Trek universe.

I like the TOS ship but it looks ridiculously outdated compared to all the other ships from Enterprise D to Discovery. Its no way they would put that on a modern show. They got away with it in DS9 and Enterprise because they decided to keep the entire look of TOS in tact. But Discovery completely changed all of that so none of it would hold up. Its no way the interiors will look like TOS either but I imagine they will keep the basic idea of it but it will be severely updated like everything else.

None of it is “timeless” (back to my point about the Apple Store bridge in nuTrek—give it 15 to 20 years and it will scream “late aughts”). Besides, not saying they should just plug in TOS Design into a new show, but an update that respects the original and doesn’t just toss it all in the bin should be tried IMHO. They did it with the Disco props and looks like they mostly did it with NCC-1701 in the final reveal pics. Personally, I just think the nacelle struts in TMP style were an unnecessary change for the sake of change—sort of like the Klingons v. 3.0. But that is just my opinion. More important things to worry about these days though, so best to give it a rest. In Shat’s immortal words, “It’s just a TV show.”

SHATNER??? WHY SHATNER?

It was a reasonable question given he’s the biggest star in the history of Star Trek and originated the role as Captain (no disrespect to Mr Hunter).

It would be like saying we’re going to run into the Millennium Falcon during Rogue One and someone not asking if Han Solo would be there. Its a reasonable question. And a reasonable answer.

Ummm TUP I would argue that Nimoy is the biggest star in the history of Star Trek.

Patrick Stewart, Picard 😁

@Marja – really? I wouldnt. Shatner is iconic as a celebrity and has had a longer, larger career as an actor (notwithstanding that Mr Nimoy passed away). Shatner was winning acting awards for Boston legal.

The argument could be made that Nimoy’s inclusion in the JJ films made him more widely known to new audience. And I suppose if you asked 1000 people on the street to tell you a character from Trek, Mr Spock might win…it would be close.

But you could do TOS without Nimoy (as they nearly did) but not without Shatner. Nimoy declined Generations and that was ok. Had Shatner declined, that film doesnt happen.

Agreed Fabio.

What is the problem of a third actor playing Spock? Is it so different from a new actor playing Mudd? Anyway, I’m more anxious to see the Number One.

Because…
Aaron Harberts: “[W]e realize how incredible Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto’s performances were and what [Star Trek movie director] J.J. Abrams and the original series were able to pull off with that character. Finding another actor that could even come close to what Leonard Nimoy did with the original portrayal, we’d never want to go down that road.”

Could be a red herring. There is nothing sacred about Quinto’s performance. Time marches on.

Much as I love Quinto, I agree.
And the same goes for any Shatner, though I confess I do not love him.
I liked Shat-Kirk for the first year and a half of TOS. Then he started phoning it in, and sadly, became a caricature … in WOK he brought some game though.

Shatner was tremendous in all the films really. WoK was the highlight but the scene of him reacting to David’s death in TSFS was outstanding.

He’s a good dramatic actor. And also can be really funny. Where he falters is when the comedy is sort of too goofy or self deprecating. For example, in the cabin scene in Generations. However, every time he spoke to Picard seriously (“I couldnt see past my own uniform”, “Who am I to argue with the Captain of the Enterprise”) those moments were fantastic.

He has a very very strong screen presence. He’d be great in a season long arc on Discovery.

Can’t believe the bunch of sooks we have who like star trek. I have been an avid Trek fan for 30 plus years and sat through most of its incarnations when they first aired. They are all different, done at different times. They feel different and have different messages. Some better, some worse. Seems to me the people who are objecting to anything and everything the most are the loudest. OMG, you changed how a ship looked, a bit, a lot, not enough blah blah. Big deal. Time you gave up on this show and moved on instead of banging on trying to convince people that they should hate it as much as you do.

here’s a tip go to https://www.tvmaze.com/ and find something else to watch. You might feel a whole lot better :)

I love discovery. I can’t wait to watch all episodes back-to-back now. Great job people, hopefully season two will be better still

I don’t get it I read an article that said Production on Season 2 began back in November 2017 I even saw a Picture of Jason Issacs going into CBS studios with his uniform on and now they say filming begins in April so I am a little confused did production Start in November or not.

You misunderstood what you read before. They didn’t start production on season 2 in November 2017. Nothing to be confused about–you simply misunderstood.

The picture you saw of him in uniform in CBS studio in November, was a picture more than likely he put on his instagram. That I am sure was for retakes. Actors have to do occasionally, not in regular shooting schedule. It was made known last week that Discovery was booked for first of April shooting schedule in Toronto.

Didn’t need to see Enterprise. Dear god, please no CGI 24 year old Shatner. The Federation is a big f**king place, isn’t there anyone else you can show?

I loved TOS, thought TNG was awful. Loved seeing the big E. I don’t get it, looks closer than the TOS reboot (wish this was the ENT in ST 2009) I love the TOS Enterprise and love her portrayal in Discovery. Still looks 110 percent better than anything in TNG, DS9 (absent the TOS Ent), Voyager (absent Excelsior) and ENT (absent the TOS Ent). Hope Pike, Spock and Number One have big parts in Discovery

I hope we see Number One and that she is given a name. But it will be a real challenge to find an actress who can pull off looking and sounding like Majel. Maybe they will even say Number One is going to be the future starfleet computer voice ! Dr. Boyce was a great character too that I hope will turn up as well.

The Enterprise looked as good as could be expected. This show is heavy on production design and FX, so it had to look like everything else. What they seem to need is heavier stories without the tease factor — fan service and call backs. This show is so different from TOS, which was a breezy, upbeat, kind of pulpy SF adventure, that any TOS references are almost jarring and out of place.

Does it violate canon if Robert April is the
New Captain of the Discovery?

@Gary 8.5 — nope.

Thats what I thought, thanks Curious Cadet!

I want Prime Lorca!

Let me say Pike is the perfect TOS captain for Discovery and our time! He was axed in the 1960s because he was written as a dark, broody, moody, conflicted character with a back story of violence that made him wary of serving in Starfleet (“The Cage”). Sounds like your typical Discovery character, no?

So, please, let’s please have you on record saying Discovery fulfills the original intent of Gene Roddenberry for Star Trek. :-)

Actually I always liked “The Cage” and Pike better than what we eventually got, more serious both in color scheme and characterization, but you know, it is 1 episode against 78 (TMP and TNG rectified this problem). But make no mistake, Discovery is no Cage so far just because of one character! Pike was believably conflicted, not a black and white plot twist cartoon like Lorca, and the show was neither gratitiously violent nor viciously partisan in its messaging. At this point Discovery can only dream of being so subtle and cerebral! And that’s after 15 episodes, not 1.

Pike was axed because Jeffrey Hunter declined to return for the second pilot.

@Thorny Then axed is the wrong word. They could’ve recast Pike and kept the personality but went with the significantly lighter and less troubled Kirk instead.

They could have recast Pike but I think the plan was always to reuse the pilot footage but I could be wrong about that. You’re spot on though, Pike as portrayed in the Cage is perfect for Discovery.

“We will maintain consistency with cannon” lol

Does inconsistent consistency count?

Here’s the thing, Mr. Kurtzman. When you conceive a season of Star Trek depicting a foundational clash between Klingon and Federation, you need to devote more than 30 seconds of screen time explaining how that conflict comes to a close, or “detente.” What you did was basically, “Here’s a bomb, will you save Earth please?” “Sure.” >CUT TO: “Yo, fellow Klingons, I have a bomb, war’s over.” “Darn. OK.” THE END. The critic at Vulture defended this, “but past Star Trek had hasty endings all the time.” Yes, but 1) Prior Trek was forced to wrap up their stories in standalone episodes (and isn’t CBS aiming higher than the confines of Voyager on the UPN?). 2) Discovery had ample time to plan out an entire season with a properly sussed-out ending – there is no excuse for the ramshackle conclusion other than incompetence by the writers/producers. I’m shocked at the number of critics and fans giving this season a pass (I see many “B” grades) when it so often fails the most basic test of Storytelling 101. All the debates about what is canon and what is Star Trek don’t mean a fig if the show can’t make one scene follow logically from the next, and can’t bother building episodes to proper culmination.

Who was Chief Medical Officer? Who was the Chief Engineer? How can we have a show without seeing them? Why is *Cadet* Tilly going along on Away Missions when they have other crew with experience?

I think this entire “lower deck” promise was a cop-out and went out of the airlock together with “deep Klingons” ;-) It is clear by now these are lower decks in anything but rank. There’s no chain of command in between them and the admirals of Starfleet Command… I wished they would just drop the pretense in season 2 and make Stamets the chief engineer. Well Culbert is dead anyway and Burnham reinstated as science officer. What totally wouldn’t work is if they belated introduced a CMO and CE and claimed they were there all along. Big mess!

The lower deck thing was likely a Fuller idea. It certainly wasnt borne out in the season.

Tilly is fine since she is a specialist. But yea way too glaring an omission to not have the Department Heads.

Fingers crossed for romulans in season 2! Michael Burnham, with her intimate knowledge of the Vulcans, has to infiltrate a romulan ship and lo and behold finds a romulan commander who looks exactly like sarek !!!

I am glad the L’Rell thing is on the prime platter for them for season 2 because frankly this was the weakest link of the finale. How can one person hold an entire Empire hostage with one bomb and one detonator? If (human) history is anything to go by, even T’Kuvma had something much more powerful to unite the Klingon houses: an ideology, and a common enemy. And he failed faster than anyone can say “Make QonoS great again”! Just because the Klingons were too bloody thirsty and one dimensional in the beginning does not mean they should be all Federation enlightened and honorable either. That would be (once again) the wrong century!

I agree. It was not a good way to end. It should have been an honourable gesture or sacrifice that led to the Klingons coming to unity on their own

It was awfully hasty.

I think we’ll see some good Klingon intrigue in Season 2. At least I hope so. Because they can’t just let it end on that wheezy “I got a bomb” thing.

if the Klingon bus goes under warp 5, the planet gets it. The Klingon only got a watch for retirement and demands all 24 houses unite.

As it’s the Pike era Enterprise, then the aesthetic of the Enterprise interiors from The Cage would fit more in line with the modern aesthetic of Discovery than the Kirk era Enterprise. I actually think Discovery has some visual cues from Pike’s Enterprise such as the shape of the corridors and the more formal colour scheme etc.

As for Pike – I wonder if they could have a CGI Jeffrey Hunter. Although if we are actually going aboard Enterprise next season they would probably recast. Maybe we will get to see Dr Boyce and Number One as well.

One would imagine they will build some Enterprise interior sets and use them for a few episodes to get the monies worth from using them, similar to what they did with Shenzhou over a number of episodes.

If they want to avoid Pike they could have the distress call be about Pike being hurt or abducted and Number 1 is in command.

They literally say the incoming call is Captain Pike, so that wouldn’t work.

@TUP Actually now that you mention it the far more likely character for such an abduction scenario would be Spock himself! That would elegantly solve the “can’t recast him” problem, raise the stakes especially as Sarek and Burnham are aboard, and they can pull a princess Leia at the end for a few seconds – that would be ok (and financable).

Great idea.

Not particularly bothered by the tweaked appearance of the Enterprise — although it does feel like the ship was brought into the show too early as a tactic to ensure DSC was renewed for a second season.

Major issues with the way the Klingon War arc finished, but Kurtzman is clearly aware of that. Prediction: The Empire is unified, but things don’t end well for L’Rell. It could ultimately go badly for Tyler/Voq too, especially if he does turn out to be DS9’s Albino.

Prediction 2: DSC will need to improve the storytelling quality in the next season, otherwise it’ll get cancelled. Audiences have many other viewing choices, higher expectations and less patience these days. You can’t compare DSC to its Trek predecessors having the luxury of a few years to “find their feet”; it’s a very different time now.

I knew we’d see Enterprise but I too was surprised it was this early. But I dont think it was a stunt. I think they had an idea and this is it.

DS9’s Albino?? I don’t remember that, refresh me?

I think L’Rell will not be finished, I think she’ll be an ongoing character, and would be interesting. She has a LOT to manage now!

“DS9’s Albino?? I don’t remember that, refresh me?”

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Albino

@Jai Agreed and agreed. Kurtzman’s spot-on description of Star Treks mission of inclusiveness was a far cry from what they actually did in season 1, with literally vilifying part of the traditional Trek audience! I see Harberts at the core of that agenda and hope he is gone eventually. As surprising as that sounds, but Discovery seems to be in better hands with Abramstrekkers Kurtzman and Goldsman (sloppy finale writing notwithstanding – but the message was spot-on!)

The general emerging concensus here seems go be that for whatever reasons, the Klingon War was mishandled and the extended MU journey was a mistake (especially how Lorca was handled!) Can’t do much about the latter apart from a guest episode with Prime Lorca, but the Klingons can be fixed still.

Jon Hamm would make a great pre-TOS Pike, whether you want “Greenwood Pike” (early 50s in the JJ movies) or “Jeffrey Hunter Pike” (around 40). The makeup team would obviously need to age Hamm a few years for the former, but he could easily channel the Greenwood coolness and gravitas.

I think George Clooney would actually be the best alternative to Greenwood — he’s the closest “match”, in a way — but casting him as a guest star probably isn’t a realistic option. Technically he’s also too old for the PU version of Pike at this point (but the right age for the movie version, ironically). There are fewer complicating factors with Hamm, and the former Mr Draper has enough charisma for the role too.

I think DSC should model it’s storytelling on Mad Men not on Game of Thrones! This week, we pitch the Federation to… (But I am serious!)

Pike is an important character. I love Greenwood. He’d be great.

Pike existed before Nero arrived so the JJ Pike and the TOS Pike ARE the same character despite the age difference.

My choices would be Greenwood first. If not (perhaps legal reasons), look at Hunter and cast someone along that line.

I’m loving TrekMovie.com at the moment – so full of regular content and debate.

My only input into DISCO (which I love, by the way) is this:
They were brave enough to recast Sarek, why not do the same with other characters from Trek canon? I personally would not be offended to see a recast Pike, Spock and ultimately Kirk himself. Not to mention the rest of the crew.

The Kelvin films have shown recasting can work out fine. I think, if anything, that proved that we’re ready for a new cast to play those beloved characters and still be part of the Prime Universe.

Suspension of disbelief is what Sci-Fi is all about. If we can get past James Frain not looking exactly like a young Mark Lenard then I reckon the rest of the TOS cast will be just fine.

Just my thoughts. I’m not trying to soil TOS, far from it. I love TOS and will always revisit those episodes and films if I want the Shatner/Nimoy cast. However, I also want to see what they got up to in between TOS and TMP (for example). Recast and we could have films, TV series etc. DISCO has given me hope that these stories will be further expanded upon and in a proper way.

TS

I have no issue with recasting as well. its story telling. Ultimately it would be great if they had a story that could use Shatner as an aged Kirk. But if they have a story idea for a 20-something Kirk, then so be it.

The idea that “Spock” is so sacred that the character cannot be recast is silly. They recast him in the JJ films and its not like Quinto was a great Spock. he was ok but mostly due to resemblance than anything else.

Id assume Pike will re-cast. Hopefully he is true to his character from The Cage.

Wish they would do a Shatner story already.

Discovery is perfect for Shatner. A season-long arc where you can explain the nuances of the story. He’s been highly acclaimed for his work on TV.

You could use the spore network as a gateway to the Nexus.

Ofcourse, the story has to be interesting to Shatner.

No Shatner. If Lt James T Kirk appears he should be played by a young actor. I would rather learn more about the crew members who only appeared in The Cage.

I’m glad Russo will be back. His scoring was a highlight of Season 1.

The USS Enterprise above looks much better. Will we see any of the Abramsverse cast appear in Star Trek Discovery?

@ Marja – DISAGREE. A whole Klingon war and we didn’t get the Klingon theme from TMP or anything even coming close to resembling it or being as cool. On carrying the scenes, we did not get any TOS style music that made the scenes more dramatic at all. Again the only highlight, the TOS theme…

@Marja I dunno. His reverence for TOS is commendable but I don’t remember any of his own music from last season as a stand-out (neither is the theme particularly strong) – which means it is utterly forgettable. A far cry from what Ron Jones brought to the table in early TNG – music that can really carry the scenes – and he was axed for being not enough “sonic wallpaper”. Now ironically the latter is back. For a series that has multiple times the budget of TNG and far less episodes per season (i.e. music to commission) it also wouldn’t hurt to have a few more composers at hand that can bring (wait for it) diversity to the series!

I would like to see Ryan Gosling as Spock. He has that long face, serious logic look to him and can evoke ancient wisdom in his eyes.

As the Disco gang sets out to discover the mysteries of season two, here is some helpful advice from Nerdist Industries- “As great as the cast on Discovery is, they can’t make up for some truly bad writing. This is an issue that affects every member of this ensemble, starting with the lead, Michael Burnham. Ostensibly, this series was supposed to be about Burnham’s journey from Starfleet’s first ever mutineer to decorated officer by the end of season one. But it wasn’t really much of journey; Burnham may not have had the rank, but she was never really treated differently by the crew of Discovery. [other than a few glares.] During the first season, she gets a best friend, the respect of her captain and crewmates, and even a boyfriend.

Speaking of her boyfriend, the writing was equally wonky in regards to Lt. Ash Tyler, the Klingon/human sleeper agent who falls in love with Michael despite his mission aboard the Discovery. For starters, Tyler never suffered believably severe ramifications for the murder of Dr. Culber, roaming the ship freely thereafter and not even getting too harsh a reaction from Cruz’s life partner Lt. Stamets. Just as vexing is when Ash confronts Burnham about why she doesn’t want to date him anymore, he actually suggests to her it’s because ‘she’s afraid to love.’ No, it probably had something to do with the time you tried to strangle her. (C’mon, guys. You can do better by these characters.)” – Eric Diaz

“But if we built it like it looked in The Original Series, there would be a massive visual disconnect.” Um…YEAH! Because you people CREATED the massive visual disconnect. Your entire series is a massive visual disconnect. At least the previous shows celebrated the quirky dated look of the original series and wore it as a badge of honor.

Discovery didnt create a visual disconnect with TOS. Enterprise, the JJ films and modern society did. So if you want to re-do Enterprise and the JJ films to look dated compared to TOS AND also manage to stop the copmputer age from happening and stunt our current technological advancement, then go for it.

I think part of the problem with Star Trek in general is that people forget that it takes place in a parallel universe to our own. This is due to TOS being written in the 60s and imagining what the future would be like. So, unless I slept through the eugenics wars and the rise of Khan Singh, then Star Trek all takes place on an alternate dimensional plane. So, there’s no problem with a 23rd century ship looking like it did in TOS for me because it’s an alternate future and who knows what those buttons and screens can really do (that we just never saw on the show). Personally I loved how they faithfully recreated the Enterprise in tng DS9 and ent. I wish the “visual reboot” of disco wasn’t necessary for modern audiences but the sheer number of people screaming for everyone to “get over it” indicates that the days of die hard fans like Ronald D Moore making Trek are over. Now it’s more about saying “look we’ve done this thing to your franchise and if you don’t like it you must be a hater”. Tbh I still can’t believe they changed the millennium falcon for “Solo”, but at least it’s not just Trek that’s affected by this. To quote chancellor Gorkon “if there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it”. Strange to think that line was a reference to TNG. maybe they’ll eventually explain that someone screwed with the timeline in season 2. Probably just after the episode where captain pike fights the Borg alongside Michael Burnham.

“Star Trek: Discovery has staked a lot on the idea that it was telling a different kind of Star Trek story — a tighter, more plotted-out version of Trek instead of the crisis-of-the-week style of earlier shows, which were designed to meet the needs of syndication. But Discovery — which just wrapped up its first season on Sunday — didn’t embrace long-arc storytelling. The creators and writers divided the season and its story into disparate pieces, and crammed them so full of flashy plot twists and reveals that the series rarely reached beyond hammering home its core conceit: that war is bad, and morals are good.

And boy, does Discovery want its fans to feel the weight of that motto. The show’s cycling plotlines looped from the pilot (almost unrelated to the larger story), to the nearly standalone middle episodes, to the larger Klingon war arc, the Mirror Universe detour, and then the slightly different second Klingon war plot. And throughout, the writers’ room seemed willing to try any tactic to get that central point across. But by shattering the season into fragments of stories, Discovery ended up with characters who barely changed over 15 episodes. They spent the whole season going through the same motions in whatever Mad Libs scenario a given episode required.

At one point in the movie Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey’s character quotes an alternate interpretation of Murphy’s Law as ‘Whatever can happen, will happen.’ Star Trek: Discovery takes place in an entirely different science fiction world, but McConaughey’s motto works there, as well. Almost every familiar science fiction plot device that could have popped up, did. So why does it feel like none of it mattered?” – Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

I listened to the Trek Movie Shuttle Pod for the first time, discussing episode 14 of CBS Disco Doom. Was pleased to see I’m not going crazy- the podcasters had basically the same reaction I did – that Discovery tells us things because it is incapable of properly showing us; and the things it tells and its big character moments feel cheap and unearned. This says it all – when it came to assessing Burnham’s and Voqler’s 3-hankie General Hospital confrontation, the host of a podcast dedicated to Star Trek Discovery admitted he couldn’t finish watching the scene, as he cared about Burnham and Voqler so little. Here’s some advice for season two – when you’re taking an ensemble format show and switching it to protagonist-driven, try to make the main character more compelling than a cold bucket of soup.

Now that the dust is settling, the catastrophe of Disco Trek is coming into focus. BCSWowbagger breaks it down:

I’m going to have to go the other way on this- Discovery’s first season was the worst in the franchise.

The second-worst was certainly The Next Generation’s, which handed us basically unwatchable piles of bad writing and dragged-out cliches like “The Last Outpost” and “Lonely Among Us.” But The Next Generation’s awfulness was leavened by its episodic format, because it was able to occasionally break through and make an episode that was decent—or even good!

Discovery was locked into a serial format instead, which meant that there were no opportunities for a breakout. There was only one large, sprawling story, and that story was bad. Thus, the entire season was bad. I think, in a few years, once the “new Trek!” shine has worn off, we’ll recognize that quite a lot of DISCO Season 1 is actually just as unwatchable as “The Last Outpost.” (Already, I find that I would absolutely rather watch “Hide and Q” or “Manhunt” than have to slog through “Despite Yourself” again — talk about bad writing and dragged-out cliches!)

Worse than that, every bad thing Discovery did was imported into every other episode. The nearly-decent mid-season finale couldn’t be read on its own; it had to be read in the context of everything leading up to it, and then you could only conclude that all the good feelings and teamwork it depicted were unearned. The ludicrous high-energy action of “What’s Past Is Prologue” could perhaps have worked quite well as a standalone along the lines of Die Hard (a la “Macrovirus” [VOY] and “Starship Mine” [TNG]), but it really suffered because of the way it took Lorca, who had developed over the past dozen episodes into a very interesting character, and drove him into the Evil Overlord Pastiche #47 ditch. “Lethe” was a neat Trek adventure if you pretended that Burnham’s Sarek is someone completely and utterly different from all prior Sareks. And so forth.

It’s a bit of a shame, because the closest thing to a standalone episode in Discovery Season 1, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” was also its best. (“Lethe” was its second-best, and just happened to mirror the old “main character goes on a mission and gets a personal revelation” formula.) So there was potential in Discovery. But everything had to serve the season arcs, and the season arcs sucked, so these 15 episodes of Trek were more or less squandered. I can still go back to TNG Season 1 and really love “Conspiracy” and “11001001” and “Datalore” without dipping my toe into the trash heap. Thanks to its fumbling of the format, and particularly the way it crashed and burned in the denouement (which this article explains nicely, I think), Discovery Season 1 turns out to be all trash heap. There’s no escape. At least for me, there’s nothing from Disco Season 1 I’m eager to rewatch, except perhaps “Magic to Make the Sanest Man.”

…which makes it, in my opinion, the worst season of Star Trek ever produced.

You’re right, of course, that, if Discovery can figure out how to do a good serial story next season, it could be one of the best seasons ever. But when you’re a serial, and the story you’re telling is just fundamentally bad, it’s far worse than if you’re an episodic program that strikes out most weeks but occasionally hits a homer.

-BCSWowbagger

I think if we see any of the interior of the Enterprise, much of it will come from redressing the sets for the Discovery as they did for the Shenzhou. That makes sense both from the point of view of keeping the look of this show consistent, and from a budget standpoint. That’s not to say they wouldn’t build a few specific things, and that the look won’t crib heavily from TOS (e.g. in terms of applying some of the colour palette).

As for other aspects, the prequel novel with the Shenzhou and the Enterprise had the Enterprise crew in different uniforms and I could easily imagine them taking the basic look of ‘The Cage’ ones and refreshing it for this to something in between.

I’m OPEN to the idea of CG Shatner, CG Nimoy, CG Doohan, and CG Takei as well as CG Pike! The interiors of Enterprise as seen in The Cage would make a lot of sense… The exterior part Of Enterprise could be different. Long live Trek!

If they have any character interact with the Discovery, my guess is it would be Pike. So much to explore where that character is concerned. My suggestion would be to cast Lee Pace (of Halt and Catch Fire and Pushing Daisies). He’d be an amazing Pike, in my opinion.