There is much to ponder with the season three premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, and the official after-show The Ready Room has some answers as well as a clip from next week’s episode. There is also a new official Instagram account you may want to follow and the cast of Discovery gives you the “A to Z” about the show.
Watch: Ajala talks “Book” and clip from 302
The main feature of this week’s episode of The Ready Room hosted by Wil Wheaton is an interview with David Ajala, talking about the season premiere and his character of Cleveland “Book” Booker, working with a cat, and even gives a virtual tour of Book’s ship.
Ajala gave his assessment of Book’s arc in season one:
[In episode 1] we see this guy is somewhat of an activist. He is someone who is guided by a moral compass to make a small contribution to making the world a better place. That really is the essence of Cleveland Booker, but what I really love about this character is that’s his introduction and throughout the entire season you see how this guy literally in front of your eyes morphs and changes and is forced to reassess his outlook on Starfleet, his outlook on family, his outlook on being a lone wolf. Looking at the pros, looking at the cons. And also developing a really wonderful relationship with Michael Burnham.
He also discussed Book’s special abilities:
We will learn more as the season goes on. He definitely does have an ability and there are some significant moments, in really intimate moments… What’s really interesting about Book’s ability and powers is when his forehead glows and a moment occurs, Michael Burnham is always there to witness it.
The Ready Room breakdown
01:35 – Publicity video with cast/crew about episode 1
04:45 – Wheaton interview with David Ajala (at 15:01 discusses Book’s ship with video of interior)
25:30 – Publicity video with Mario Moreira on props
30:25 – Episode 302 clip
Discovery Logs
CBS has launched a new Instagram account @startreklogs which will feature in-universe logs each Thursday, recorded by the cast in character. This week’s log is from Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).
Discovery A to Z
The cast of Star Trek: Discovery joined Entertainment Weekly to break down the show’s “A to Z.”
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery premiere on Thursdays on CBS All Access in the U.S. and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on Crave. Episodes will be available on Fridays internationally on Netflix.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
Hm… “The Burn”… Michael Burn-ham… I always had that line “Burnham all!” on my mind and I wonder whether this is more than just a coincidence. Given how personal last season’s mystery turned out it might well be that Michael will be in the center of things and once again the answer behind the mystery of the burn…
A bit redundant if true but last time I was thinking alien religious zealots when the Red Angel first appeared and it turned out to be Michael… How she ends up doing that I don’t know yet… Maybe Book will teach her his powers and Michael ends up a space-faring torch, a true ESPer à la Gary Mitchell.
“Given how personal last season’s mystery turned out it might well be that Michael will be in the center of things and once again the answer behind the mystery of the burn”
Didn’t you know Garth? Discovery is really a parody on millennial narcissicism, with the universe (in this case, literally) revolving around them! It will all be revealed in the series finale. Everything was a bad dream for St. Michael, but at least an autoerotic one :)
No. She’s secretly a Q without knowing it. That’s what makes most obvious sense, duh! /s
Michael Burnham is the center of the universe.
Book’s special powers…
It actually reminds me of Chakotay’s much lampooned ‘ethnic’ powers.
Akoocheemoya! Unless there will be a treknological explanation, it would be Trek’s second foray into human lead characters having fantasy powers (third if we count Sisko’s prophets).
Are we sure that Book is a human?
Maybe they do a reverse Idris Elba and he turns out alien under a human skin ;)
Chakotay’s powers were no more than a well-toned mind, (lucid dreaming, which is a real thing anyone can learn), a hallucinogenic device that allows him to contact his sub conscious and unconscious, and possibly a bit of alien dna from the species that led his ancestors to the Americas. (They obviously have some strong psychic abilities.) As for Sisko, he was half-human half-profit. As for Book, either tech implants, alien dna giving him abilities, or some humans underwent rapid evolution to the point of have some of them develop abilities of their own, ala X-Men. None of these ideas are remotely absurd when compared to Star Trek standards. Having a piece of tech called a Heisenberg compensator, now that’s absurd.
I heard Book’s midichlorian count is off the charts, like 3 million.
That’s higher than Master Yoda’s!
Burnham: Commander Burnham’s log, stardate 3188.04. I’ve just been attacked by the Orion Syndicate. There’s no sign of my ship and…
Book: Who are you making these for? I told you there’s no more Starfleet and no more Federation! And I thought the true believers at that giant Miles O’Brien statue were crazy…
LOL
That would be an epic crossover, even if only a reference lol
I need this now…
Could Booker be an evolved descendant of Data/Dahj organic synths?
Oh look, that whole “fill the space scenes with as much s… as possible, that’ll make it automatically epic” is back. Greeeat.
That’s what you get by employing a full roster of hacks instead of artists ;)
Or maybe it’s the difference between special effects from 1990 versus 2020?
Your negativity seems to know no bounds.
Its called a joke, Bob ;) So you are saying SFX has actually regressed in 30 years? Because this doesn’t look realistic like space, but like a cartoon or video game.
Agreed. I think the space scenes in every incarnation of Kurtzman-Trek thus far have looked abysmal, overloaded, bland and just no fun to look at. Lower Decks seems to feature the best, which means yes, I think the cartoon looks better than real sfx.
Waaaay too overloaded. It’s become a trend of just fill the screen with visual noise somehow making for a compelling or memorable scene, when in reality the opposite is true, at least with Discovery and Picard. Don’t get me started on that Copy/Paste fleet stand off.
There’s been a shortage of top quality space battle action in recent times more generally too. JJ Abrams is TERRIBLE at it, the best we’ve seen lately is probably Rogue One.
The chase scene in the first episode looked and almost sounded like a mishmash of scenes from the first 2 Star Trek reboots to me.
It goes beyond space backgrounds and SFX. Cluttering is the trend DU JOUR. Just look at the costume and set design, especially in season 1. They constantly mistake “more” for “better”. No students of “2001”,they are. Well at least we know how John Eaves is keeping his job :)
VS, sometimes I don’t think we’re watching the same series.
Discovery has had genuine variety of design and detailing.
One of the things that struck me about 301 was how clean and sparse the interiors on both Book’s ship and the Federation relay station were. It was a stark contrast to the busyness of the Mercantile.
Or consider the sparse environments on Vulcan or in the quarters on Discovery.
I am so over seeing the continuous 90s Trek settings of beige or gray carpet and American southwest interiors and civilians decorated with drapery fabric.
TG47, I had the past seasons in mind, especially the super-busy “Gothic” Klingon interior design, ships and costumes. The underlying design aesthetic for everything seemed to be “more is more”, not “less is more”.
I fully agree with you that Book’s ship is a breath of fresh air and the ships from the preview look promising too (as I remarked in the new thread), but it’s way too early for a verdict on season 3 (the gray carpets and beige paneling should be reserved for the 24th century only, alas Picard didn’t feel the need to provide some continuity with TNG even on that level, safe for the uniforms).
Needless to say, seasons 1 and 2 of Discovery did not win me over design-wise, with the notable exception of anything related to the Enterprise, no bloody A, B, C or D (including the costumes). But that was really the fan backlash from season 1 forcing their hand to go more retro, and they were bound by the historic designs of Matt Jeffries and William Ware Theiss.
Burnham: What is The Burn?
Book: Here’s a history book.
Burnham: But you are the Book, aren’t you?
Book: But then you are the Burn, Burnham, aren’t you?
John Gill: Are you up for some ancient book burning, guys?
Burnham and Book: NO!
Kirk (Nexus): Oh no! I burned my ham!
This was a very thoughtful interview about the character and acting… Wil Wheaton and David Ajala’s rapport is insightful.