Star Trek: Discovery

Don't mind me, just getting high on SpaceShrooms!

My friends and I are all very excited to see Anthony Rapp in Star Trek. I just saw him perform live in concert last month! I've seen him perform on stage in "Rent". He had so much energy and amazing stage presence. He was in "If/Then" with Idina Menzel when I was in NYC, but I didn't get a chance to go, even though I really wanted to. (He also was in the musical episode of the show "Psych".)

It will be great to have an openly gay character as a regular on Star Trek.

Rapp said on Twitter that he has seen Star Trek before, but I don't know how much. He seems thrilled to be in the cast. He posted that above photo on Twitter and said his friend loaned him all of Trek tv. He implied he was going to watch it all in preparation. Someone on Twitter wrote back asking if he was serious or is this just fanservice? He replied that he is serious. Though, I cannot imagine how he could watch all of Trek tv by even the CLOSE of filming of Discovery.

Yes, but Discovery airs starting in May. He wouldn't be halfway done by the time filming CLOSES.

Not the movies? Pfft, fake geek actor.

TWD is a pile of rubbish but back when I watched it I thought she did great work with subpar material. Very happy with this casting choice.

Music titled 'The Final Frontier.' Very probably, this is the title theme music for the show. It seems a bit Spielberg movie, or possibly SeaQuest DSV, to me:



But, you know, it's fine, a nice conventional orchestral 'space is wonderful' theme, I'll take one of those for a dollar.

And, uh, cast James Frain as Sarek. The show's release is also being delayed too, which as it only begins filming this week is not that surprising.

I'm not that familiar with James Frain, he was apparently in the Tunnel but I barely remember as what - he made a little more impression in his arc on Orphan Black, where he played a stuffy, uptight British weirdo. Sarek is more than a little uptight, and perhaps a bit stuffy, but he's - to me - definitely not British... though, of course, that is precisely how he was cast for the 2009 film, with Ben Cross in the role. (This said, I thought Ben Cross was quite good as Sarek, and is probably the one character from that film they should bring back which they haven't.)

But, of course, for me, Mark Lenard is Sarek:


Anyway, what does this tell us about the series? Not a lot. Beyond being Spock's father, Sarek is an important Ambassador in the Federation's history, present at many different difficult negotiations - but the canonical cases he has been involved with happened either during the original series, years after it (most notably the Khitomer Accords with the Klingon Empire), or have not been dated. At the least it implies there is some kind of diplomatic crisis, but I think the vague hints about some sort of problem between the Federation and the Klingons have provided that context regardless.

Sarek is estranged from Spock and has not spoken to him for years by the time this show is set, so his involvement with the show could be fairly large without his son ever appearing. He could of course only appear on the show for an arc of a couple of episodes too, as he has been cast quite late in the process.

Why do they keep announcing air dates when they've not done a days's shooting?

Excited to hear they are finally going to start filming. That indicates that the show may actually air this year! At some point! Wooo!

I really like James Frain. He made one hell of an impression in a guest appearance on "The Closer". That was the first thing I'd ever seen him in. I lobbied for him to get an Emmy nomination for Guest acting. One of the most memorable guest performances in that show's entire run. Of course, after I saw him in that it seemed like he started to appear everywhere.

Stepping into the role of Sarek seems like it would be intimidating. But, he's a great actor, so hopefully he can pull it off.

So this actual video has now happened.


I think we might be looking at a new design for the Klingons and these are related to it:




Also some new looks at Starfleet design and what might be the Shenzhou (at any rate, it's not the Discovery)

Seems I'm right those are Klingons, according to this leaked photo.

They do have hair, Roy Batty's Pet Dove. Normally, anyway. This would be the biggest redesign Klingons have had since 1979.

From their original Mongolian look:


To the headbump look of the Motion Picture:


Though this, in turn, has been changed. Note that the ridges above are just a straight line going from the nose. It became more forehead bumps with their second screen appearance in Search for Spock:


And this is more or less how they looked in subsequent productions, from the Next Generation to Deep Space Nine to Voyager to Enterprise.





There were exceptions, however - most notably in The Undiscovered Country, where a number of Klingons went lighter on the forehead bumps:



Anyway that was it until they returned in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness, which is a significant difference, and, notably, had no hair:

The hairlessness doesn’t bother me, and I think the makeup looks really good except for that damned elongated skull (and lack of earlobes). Really makes them look like an alien of the week from late-season Voyager rather than Klingons.

I am with Desert Dweller on this one.

Five bees for a quarter. Etc.