Are you hungry for Star Trek: Discovery updates?
Well, I promise you I will not disappoint because we have DSC news coming out of our
Ferengi earlobes.
We have a NEW Starship…
NEW crew members…
NEW Klingons… a NEW logo…
NEW uniforms… and NEW theme music too.
In fact, we have so much new information that I’m going to split this update into two
more easily digestible videos.
Welcome to The Final Frontier, this is everything we know about Star Trek: Discovery; February
edition – Part ONE.
NEW Music THAT music you hear in the background?
Well, that’s a composition entitled ‘Final Frontier: An Original Star Trek Theme’ released
on Twitter by Charles Henri Avelange.
So could this perhaps be the DSC theme tune?
It kinda reminds me of the Voyager theme mashed up with a little bit of Galaxy Quest, but
I think it’s a win, but let’s face it: anything is an improvement over the Enterprise
tune!
If you wish to hear the full composition then follow the link in the description below.
Also, please click on the poll card on the screen right now to let me know what you think
– hit or miss?
NEW Logo So DSC has a new logo.
Gone is the rough look for the delta symbol and it’s replaced with a smoother look,
but you’ll notice that it continues to be split into two parts, although the separation
is no longer as obvious.
And we also see the return of the command star in the centre of the symbol.
NEW Starship To mark the beginning of shooting at the end
of January CBS released a lovely video with lots of juicy teasers for the show (the link
to the full video is in the description below).
One of the biggest things you will notice are images for two starships; we see the Discovery
and also a wireframe design for a second ship.
First of all, note that the pictures of the USS Discovery are pretty much the same as
those seen in the Comic Con trailer that was released a long time ago in a galaxy far,
far, away; the colours of the impulse engines and the front of the nacelles do look slightly
different and the hangar bay doors look like they might be open but this is certainly not
the redesign of the Discovery that we know has taken place.
So what about the wireframe of the second ship – could CBS be trolling us with this
being a completely new version of the Discovery?
This image seems to be very much reminiscent of designs by the concept artist John Eaves.
And this shouldn’t be a surprise as he’s worked on DS9, Enterprise, the Star Trek films
and I am assuming he is on board with DSC too.
I think that if the original Comic Con trailer had shown this ship then the fan reaction
would have been much more favourable.
However, the guys at the YouTube channel TrekYards seem to be in the know and they say it is
NOT the Discovery, which would mean it is most likely the USS Shenzhou.
In fact, the TrekYards guys also have some surprising inside information on this new
ship, in particular its size… and this is going to surprise you because THIS is the
new ship next to the original Enterprise and what is expected to be the size of the Discovery.
Yup – this thing is HUGE, just look at how the warp nacelles are longer then the Enterprise
itself, which is supposed to be one of the larger Starfleet ships of the time.
TrekYards seems to think that this ship is from the future and I’ve put a link to their
video in the description so do check out their rationale.
Yes; the nacelles are a complete departure from what we expect to see in this timeline,
and perhaps something we would very much expect to see in the TNG or post-TNG era.
But I do not agree that this ship is from the future.
For one, there are elements of the ship that are consistent with this era, namely the deflector
dish at the front that looks very much like that of the Enterprise NX-01 and especially
the Columbia NX-02.
Moreover, Bryan Fuller specifically said that he did not anticipate an over-reliance on
time travel to tell the first season’s stories.
Interestingly; there is precedence for nacelles like we see in the wireframe model and also
for a ship of this size around the time that DSC is set.
Unfortunately, many of you are probably not going to like what I am going to show next…
Yes!
This is the Dreadnought class USS Vengeance from the Kelvin universe as seen in Star Trek
Into Darkness.
The Vengeance was designed by Khan Noonien Singh and Section 31 for the purpose of preparing
the Federation for what was deemed an inevitable war against the Klingon Empire in a secret
spacedock near Jupiter.
So is the USS Shenzou the Prime universe’s Dreadnought class?
Given that DSC is set in in a time of high tensions, if not all-out-war, with the Klingons
then the presence of such a ship would make complete sense.
So what of the Discovery herself?
With the Shenzhou very much identifiable as a Starfleet vessel, it does raise questions
about why the Discovery looks different.
Sneaking out of an asteroid in the Comic Con trailer does suggest a more clandestine nature,
so I think the Shenzhou and Discovery may have antagonist roles in the show.
Whereas the Shenzhou may be an all-out warship dedicated to fighting the Klingons, the Discovery
may be on a mission to unite the two warring factions or on a mission that requires the
two factions to set aside their differences and work together, perhaps even featuring
Klingons on its crew?
This would explain it’s unique look incorporating some elements of the Klingon D7 Battlecruiser…
maybe even featuring loaned cloaking technology?
I think we’ll know much more when we finally get to see the new nacelles.
NEW crews So who is going to be on these various starships?
We know the show’s main protagonist is Sonequa Martin-Green who will play Lt. Cmdr Rainsford
of the Discovery, and will be known as ‘Number One’.
She is joined on the ship by Anthony Rapp as Lt. Stamets who is an astromycologist (a
fungus expert) and possibly by Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer and
an alien species new to the Star Trek universe.
IMDb also mentioned Emily Coutts as a conn officer, although her name is no longer on
the IMDb page.
On the USS Shenzhou we have Captain Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh.
We also have Ensign Connor, played by Sam Vartholomeos, who is a Junior Officer in Starfleet
Academy and the Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Nambue, played by Maulik Pancholy.
And on the side of the Federation we also have Admiral Anderson, played by Terry Serpico,
who may or may not be aboard one of the Federation ships – but if he is then I would suggest
the Shenzhou.
Finally, we have a big cast announcement as Sarek – who is of course Spock’s Vulcan
father will appear on the show, and be played by James Frain.
NEW uniform The teaser trailer gave us some insight into
the possible look of the new Starfleet uniform, which seems to be an evolution of that worn
by Archer’s crew in Enterprise.
What we see here is the newly redesigned delta symbol which is split into two parts – one
side brushed and the other shiny and it has the symbol that is typically used to denote
‘Operations’.
So it looks like DSC will use symbols to identify the division of an officer, ie Command, Sciences,
Medical or Operations.
If you also look carefully you can see a little pip on the bottom of the badge so perhaps
this would denote rank, although it would be difficult to spot with a casual glance.
I doubt these will be combadges as we see in TNG.
And talking about technology, we also get a glimpse of what we can expect the show to
look like and an idea of the ship technology we can look forward to… but I’m afraid
you’re going to have to look forward to Part 2 of this DSC update to get the lowdown
– warping it’s way to you very soon!
So please click the thumbs up button below if you’ve enjoyed this update and also do
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I’ll see you in Part 2 shortly…
Live Long
and Prosper.