You had your starters with the release of the first-look trailer for Star Trek: Discovery.
If you’re hungry for more there is good news, we now know when you can have your main
course. Welcome to The Final Frontier; so how much longer do you have to wait?
For those in the US, DSC is set to undock with an hour-long premiere at half past 8
in the evening of Sunday, 24 September on CBS. The first and second episodes – along
with the companion after-shows – will then be available on-demand on CBS All Access immediately
following the premiere, with weekly episodes thereafter. Unfortunately, due to time differences,
those of us watching on Netflix in the UK will have to wait until Monday. From what
I’ve heard that actually means 8am so for most it will mean we’re a full day behind
every week – not exactly great.
The 15-episode first season has also been split into two parts, with the first eight
episodes running from 24 September through 5 November. The season will then resume from
January 2018, thereby allowing more time for post-production.
For the eagle-eyed, you may have spotted something very tantalising – yes, we have our first
look at the USS Discovery NCC-1031! The ship – which is now confirmed to be older [ERROR: Discovery is NEWER] than
the USS Shenzhou – can be glimpsed in this animation… but we get a much clearer look
from the poster. A cursory look suggests a ship similar to that seen in the original
teaser from last year with different nacelles. We also have very distinctive pattern on the
main fuselage, which screams to me that this vessel is not a traditional Federation starship.
But, we haven’t even got to the most interesting bit: the saucer section. At first glance,
this looks like a typical Federation saucer design but it is potentially anything but.
Look at the two dark rings on the saucer and the lighting on the edge of the visible rings;
what we’re perhaps seeing here aren’t dark sections without lighting but the saucer
literally has two circular gaps right through it – rather like a doughnut. Computer: enhance
image to show saucer section struts. Now you can get a clearer view of the four struts
that join the outer and inner rings, no doubt these are access corridors. What we’re seeing
is something we’ve previously seen in the Kelvin universe’s USS Vengeance, which is
ironic as I’ve previously imagine that the USS Shenzhou, with its advanced tech, is a
Dreadnought class ship like the Vengeance. We may even be looking at a spherical primary
hull where the bridge would be, something that would be smaller version of the Federation’s
Daedalus-class starship or even the medical Olympic-class starship from the TNG era.
So, let’s now go inside and look at the Discovery's captain, Gabriel Lorca, described as a 'steely
Federation starship captain who is considered a brilliant military tactician'. Funnily enough,
a description that sounds eerily similar to that of one Garth of Izaar… so THAT rumour
still doesn’t want to go away despite the different names. We get a glimpse of the Discovery’s
bridge but there isn’t really a great deal to see; the captain’s chair has a touchscreen display
so technology is certainly more advanced that what we saw in The Original Series, but as
this ship is older [ERROR: It is newer] than the Shenzhou I suspect we will see a ship that isn’t as advanced. What we do get a good look at is the uniform: this is the exact same
uniform and, interestingly, the same Starfleet badge as Captain Georgiou of the Shenzhou.
This is confusing as they are two different ships and, in this era, should have a unique
badge. Which brings us back round to early rumours that the Shenzhou is destroyed and
becomes the Discovery… but the two ships now look very different
and we know that the Discovery is older than the Shenzhou [ERROR: Not true!] so I don't think this fits any more. Perhaps the Shenzhou and Discovery are sister ships
on the same mission, hence the reason why First Officer Michael Burnham and Lt Saru
eventually end up serving on the Discovery.
And talking of Burnham. We had a lot of speculation on the nature of her relationship with Vulcan.
Well, it has been confirmed that – as we suspected – she is not half-Vulcan. Instead
she has a close relationship with Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda, and was the first
human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center as a child and then the Vulcan Science Academy
as a young woman. She will therefore go on a journey to discover what it means to be
human, to be a Starfleet officer, and what it means to be a hero.
Finally, we get a sneak peak at this… have a guess what this is? Yup; it's one of the Shenzhou’s
transporter rooms. Boy, do the designers love their gold leaf but what on earth is going
on here with the massive circular item behind them? Not even the Kelvin universe changed
the transporter tech like this. I don’t mind the look of what I assume are circular
beam generators – to me, it looks like something that could create a particle beam and construct
and deconstruct molecules. But what I don’t understand is why they aren’t above the
person they are beaming? What happens if you have a small person or item that needed beaming
that wasn’t in line with the centre-point of the generator? What happens if Georgiou
stepped sideways; would it beam Saru instead? It just looks far too different to the tech
we’ve seen; something that would have been easily solved by placing them above the item
being beamed.
But one element I do love is the sneak peek at the very TOS style phasers, and also a
thumbs up to the body armour with Starfleet logo.
Three more months.
I. Cannot. Wait.
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