Watch More Makeup Transformations + Studio Owner Suggests Tours Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Sets

It’s time to catch up again with what’s been happening with Star Trek: Discovery, starting with the final push for Emmy votes. We also have a bit of season 2 info, a look back at a season 1 reveal, and the chance that set tours may become possible.

Emmy voting ends today

Voting for Emmy nominations ends tonight, June 25th at 10 pm PT, as a couple of Star Trek: Discovery actors are quick to remind Academy members in some last-minute appeals via social media.

Emmy nominations will be announced on July 12th, which will kick off a new round of “For Your Consideration” promotions.

More makeup transformations

As part of the FYC promotions, CBS has been releasing some time-lapse videos, profiling the work of the makeup team (see previous report with Airiam video). In the last week they have released more videos, showing transformations of Doug Jones into Saru, Mary Chieffo into L’Rell and one for an Andorian.

Yeoh returns to Toronto

Late last week, actress Michelle Yeoh announced she had returned to Toronto, presumably for more work on Discovery. The bonus scene showed at WonderCon in the Spring revealed that Yeoh’s exiled Mirror Universe Emperor had been recruited into Section 31. Since production started in April on the second season, Yeoh has been in Toronto in early May and late June, which indicates she may appear in at least a couple of the early episodes of the upcoming season.

What a welcome back to Toronto!! 🌷

A post shared by Michelle Yeoh (@michelleyeoh_official) on

Hiding the Lorca reveal behind Voqler

Before it was announced  that Aaron Harberts had been let go as co-showrunner for Discovery,  Vulture posted a look at some of TV’s big plot twists, which included some comments from Harberts. The now-former Discovery executive producer talked about how the Voq/Tyler twist was a bit of distraction from the big twist that Lorca was actually evil Lorca:

By the time we got into the mirror universe, then it became a lot more dangerous in terms of treading on things that could expose the character. So you’ll find that in episodes 10 and 11, we actually sort of sidelined Lorca a bit. The other thing that we did is, knowing that [the Lorca twist] was our biggie, that was the one that we really wanted to protect, then you sprinkle in other twists along the way, so the audience can go, “Hey, we’re onto this show.” In particular, like, the Tyler/Voq reveal [an apparently human character is actually a ­Klingon], which the audience was onto early. That ended up distracting them in a lot of ways, so they weren’t looking at Lorca.

Miss me yet?

Discovery set tours?

We round out today’s Discovery update with the tantalizing possibility that you may someday be able to visit the USS Discovery. In an interview earlier this month with Toronto’s Star, Randy Lennox,  the president of Bell Media, who recently purchased Pinewood Studios where Discovery is produced, suggested that they may start offering tours:

“Our ambitions are huge for this…It would absolutely be a dream for me. We didn’t buy Pinewood to keep it the way it is. There is so much potential. People are always intrigued at what happens behind the scenes. Maybe you can go on the Star Trek: Discovery set and then go take your picture in the transporter room. We can do that.”

Of course, there is no indication that the generally secretive CBS is on board with this plan, but one can always hope.

Pinewood Studios Toronto, could tours inside be coming?


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

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

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Just read that Bell Media has an open submission policy for writing projects. Hmm …

Kmart, could you please tell us where you read this? Thanks!

Never mind, found it. Thanks!

Has Bob Orci critiqued your script yet?

He did, Anthony. First, in private emails, he said he liked it and that it was good.
Then, when STID came out, and I dared to criticize it on this site, he suddenly announced my script was crap and that I would never make it as a writer.
Gosh, who would ever expect a “true professional” to act that way?

Love the andorian!!!!!!

Me too. I really grown to love them generally after Enterprise. If its any species I want to see more of on this show its Andorians.

The Lorca twist was not much of a surprise to most of the hard core fans. I think most all the twists were called way in advance. Maybe it was good for casual viewers, but for folks who visit sites like Trekmovie it’s pretty hard to have a truly successful twist. I hope they focus less on this next season and work more on good science fiction stories.

Would have been much better if they hadn’t saved the reveal for the last minute. It was kind of stupid to have the entire Evil Lorca storyline resolved in one episode. He was such a careful planner and manipulator right up until then …. I would like to have seen a slower coup, rather than an over-confident evil evil villain glorying in his victory to be knocked down. The sword through the heaart was a good allegory though.

The TyVoq thing was not a surprise.

That quote by the former show runner seemed to suggest they were more interested in “gotcha” moments than they were with creating a good Star Trek show. Which is what many have theorized all season long. Really hope the departure of those two is the start of a much larger purge of behind the scenes staff. In better hands the show might have gone somewhere.

Exactly. The character, as portrayed, was actually a lot less interesting as mirror Lorca than Prime Lorca. The way Jason played him made him much more complex as the Prime version.. instead he’s just an evil bad guy in disguise. So well acted, mind you.. but as a reveal it was actually more anticlimactic than Voqler IMO.

I can’t think of a showrunner or studio who wants their set open to tours. I don’t see this happening. A studio tour, sure. Tour of actual sets? No.

The Warner Brothers studio tour in Los Angeles does actually take you on sets, but they must work it out with the producers which sets will be allowed to be visited. When I took the tour in spring 2017 we walked through the police station set for the Lethal Weapon series.

I can’t imagine that CBS would allow tours of the Trek sets.

Yup, that.

I really liked the Admiral Andorian/Mirror Andorian from session 1. Hope to see more of him in session 2. But not as a typical Star Trek Admiral gone wrong Admiral. I like him as a good guy.

As far as I’m concerned, there can never be enough Andorians and Tellarites doing anything, but preferably talking and being non-evil Starfleet character. Both species have been tragically underused in Star Trek, except for Enterprise.

Totally, the Andorians were one of my favorite things about Enterprise. I love how they fleshed out the back story between them and the Volcans.

Full agreement. Loved seeing the return of Andorians on Enterprise. REALLY loved the moving antenna. I read they moved them to display emotion. Thought that rather clever.

I live about 2 miles from the studio. If the tour ever opens, I may just take the plunge.

You’re Canadian? Gosh, you don’t sound Canadian. ; )

Gee, Denny, you don’t find me to be polite to a fault? :)

“That ended up distracting them in a lot of ways, so they weren’t looking at Lorca.”

hahahaha…. nope. The moment Lorca revealed his sporedrive data to Stamets it was pretty much clear that he indeed isnt from this universe. He event said the words “parralel universes”… so yeah, fail! Glad Haberts is gone when he thinks this is a biggie.

Yup. I was very disappointing to have had all those episodes of set up only for it to be damned obvious what it was by then, with him going on to be a one dimensional moustache twirling villain, just as Michelle Yoeh’s reappearance was obvious. The less said about Voq/Tyler the better. Frankly the only part of the season that I didn’t see coming was Culber’s murder.

100% correct. The only big move that felt organic to the show and that provided the “gotcha” moment they were hoping to have with Lorca and Ash was Culber’s murder. The Lorca reveal was just so amazingly and utterly stupid it completely undermined the entire show after that. It just could no longer be take seriously. Every move felt like a groan inducing joke. It was their big move and it was also the move that destroyed the show. Worse… It was PLANNED from the beginning. SMDH.

Saved me from starting my own post there, jako. The Lorca ‘twist’ was a ‘biggie’ and the Voq/Tyler ‘reveal.’ Please. Yes, Harberts, I was distracted alright, but by the vapid plot and erratic, insipid characterization.

“That ended up distracting them in a lot of ways, so they weren’t looking at Lorca.”

People weren’t considering Lorca was really evil Lorca because the idea was so monumentally STUPID no one figured anyone involved with the show would have endorsed such idiocy. (Well, some on line did theorize he was Lore-like Lorca (evil twin) but I dismissed it thinking the show runners weren’t that dim. Boy was I wrong.)