Star Trek: Discovery - Cornucopia of Detail

Star Trek: Discovery - Cornucopia of Detail

It's no longer possible to write posts on individual bits and pieces, those tiny tidbits released in a slow dribble over months at a time, because of the sheer deluge of pictures, information and reveals. As much as I like hearing new things about 'DSC' I'm wondering if it's too much now, as so much plot and character detail, not to mention visuals, have been freely loosed as the day approaches when 'Star Trek' finally returns to TV, more than twelve years since it last graced the airwaves. At this stage I don't even know how I'm going to watch it, which is a slight hitch - it's difficult to review episodes without actually seeing them (although some people…). I don't have continuous internet access, so Netflix isn't really for me, and after discovering that it excludes Mac OS users from downloading its content (even though Windows and iOS users are fully catered for!), it was even more disappointing. I'm hoping there will be a DVD release since the makers know Trek followers love to collect things, but as to when that's likely, well, let's just say it could be quite a wait (mind you, if you've already waited over a decade, what's another year or so?). Despite this unfortunate oversight, it hasn't dampened my anticipation for new Trek. Other things have, slightly, but not that!

Where to start? I've already written about the uniforms and the apparent leaning away from established onscreen canon, but it's worth revisiting the issue again now that so much more information has gone public. I have to say, regarding the exterior ship design of both the USS Shenzhou and USS Discovery, I'm liking them. I'd already found the initial design of Discovery had grown on me, in spite of (or perhaps in part because of), all the negative comments about the mock-up trailer last year, and while it hasn't really changed much, I still think it's not bad - I always like a good long nacelle. I'm really hoping the Shenzhou doesn't bite it early on because I actually like that design more, an attractive continuation of the NX-Class of 'Enterprise.' The pair of ships together seem to bridge the gap between time periods of the chronological series' 'Enterprise' and 'TOS,' which is reassuring to a point, but I'm still not thrilled about the internal design looking so foreign and advanced compared to the NCC-1701. I still fervently hope that they don't go down the route of redesigning all the 'TOS' design ethics to suit modern viewer expectation, especially since all the other series' have been very careful to pay tribute and shore up the reality of this era's style of technology. I also hope the series lives up to its initial promise of ships and crews, not just concentrating on one, as that has the capability to be something different than just another crew on another ship, boldly going it alone.

Equally, I hope it doesn't turn into some big galactic issue, because as we saw with the Delphic Expanse and the Xindi, you can do that, but ultimately you have to undo it all, and the bigger you go, the more you have to undo to fit into established history. Suggestions like Burnham's actions affecting the entire Universe (or the latest marketing slogan: 'At the edge of the Universe, discovery begins'), for example, are a bit cringe-making, since how can anything that happens in our small Galaxy affect the rest of a continually expanding Universe? I get they're just colloquial terms to get across the magnitude, and it's not something to be overly concerned about, but attention to detail is important. Very important. In some areas that detail sounds like it is bearing out what they've been promising: the idea that we'll be getting Klingon-only scenes where the aliens converse in their own language with subtitles for us puny humans, is magnificent, and something I always wished for more of in past incarnations. The design, or I should say, redesign of the Klingons themselves is still a bit of a sore point, but hope has returned now we know for sure that T'Kuvma and Kol don't have the ugly domed heads of the Klingons we first saw. This suggests that there will be more than one type of Klingon, and I really hope some of them don't have this shaving craze, and sprout a little of the iconic hair. It also remains to be seen whether flatheads will be part of this Empire. They've announced that there'll be twenty-four Houses (I always think it's unwise to give such exacting numbers, as canon needs to have a little wiggle room in future), so it's possible there will be some Houses of those that were genetically altered, which I would love, but it's equally possible that at this time the flatheads are in disgrace and have yet to gain a firm foothold on Klingon society. Even if they were outcasts that would be enough for me!

Kol is apparently of the House of Kor (fantastic - but how are they going to deal with Kor himself, who was initially a flathead, but later reverted to traditional bumpy, assuming they show him?), there must be a House of Duras, and of course, a House of Mogh. But will there be a House of Martok? It's surprising how little of these Klingon Houses have been revealed in Trek history, so it is a ripe area to explore, but I hope they keep to the few established facts that we know: namely the head ridges of a family are all similar. If they can get that right it will go a long way towards my acceptance of the look of their clothing and ships, which I find overly detailed and not in the Trek 'clean' aesthetic that they've always had. The 'Torchbearer,' which brings to mind the Uruk-Hai Berserker in 'The Two Towers,' if not in the suit design, is extremely intricate, and the costumes don't exactly look like good fighting gear, which is what the Klingons care most about. But if you look at the model that was on display you can see d'k tagh daggers, or some variation (sadly, looking rather more ornate than the functional and favourite later Klingon weapons), and further evidence that Klingons do remember what they looked like with hair - just as with the sarcophagus, you can see an old-style Klingon head with flowing locks. They seem proud these designs are so complex they couldn't be made without 3D printing, but as Mr. Scott said, the fancier they are, the easier to gum up the works, or words to that effect.

I've never found the Klingons to be scary. Fascinating, yes. Deeply cultured. But not frightening in and of themselves, so I don't see why they're going down the route of trying to make them scary, as sounds like the intention with the weird coloured eyes, very dark complexion and stripping away of hair so their pointed ridges stand out more starkly. Why not make a new race that hasn't been seen before if you want a nasty, scary enemy (and sadly, they've also said they won't be exploring other established races, something which shows how little you can do in a season if it's one continuous story, as opposed to a smattering of standalones - they also said it will be more serialised than even the later seasons of 'DS9,' so the likelihood of actors returning as their characters from other series', time travel, or those episodes where they deeply explored specific races or characters, look less and less likely). It's the name recognition of brand Klingon, obviously, they're using as the draw, which is why I still have some trepidation over the guiding decisions behind the series, with no single person there who was handed the Roddenberry torch, as Rick Berman was, to carefully oversee what can and can't be done, knows what has and hasn't been done, and can keep an overarching vision for all aspects of the franchise. I also hope they don't choose to redesign familiar aliens just for the sake of spending money, because so much of what has gone before is iconic. 'Enterprise' updated some 'TOS' aliens, but they were done in a respectful way that added to the look, and were the culmination of over a decade's continuous development in makeup. I still would've liked to see trotters on the Tellarites and deeper-set eyes, but in so many ways Michael Westmore and his team did an incredible job defining the look of the aliens and I don't want to see them undo that because they feel this is 'their' Trek. It isn't, they're just the current torchbearers and they need to respect the shoulders they're standing on.

Of all the Klingon Houses, the most famous is Worf's, the House of Mogh. It still feels sad to think we could have had Michael Dorn reprise his 'Star Trek VI' role of Colonel Worf, which would have been absolutely amazing to see. Hardly unprecedented, either, since he happily moved from 'TNG' to 'DS9,' but as we know the contract negotiations prevented an artistic delight from happening (though there are rumours that Captain/Admiral/President Archer could be in the pilot to keep up the tradition of a character from a previous series appearing to send them on their way, though this is pure rumour and as far as I know has absolutely no basis in fact, beyond wishful thinking - my own as much as anyone else's). On the one hand I can see it from Dorn's perspective: he was offered a pittance compared to what he got for his last Worf appearance in 'Star Trek Nemesis,' the tenth film in the series, fourth in the 'TNG' series, and sadly, the one that bombed and put the Prime Universe films to bed. He was a big star of Trek, I would even say the fifth best known character of all (after Kirk, Spock, Picard and Data), and certainly one of the absolute greatest. At the same time I can see it from the other perspective, that this is a business, and as much as it's unfair, you're only as good as your last film, and Dorn hasn't had any mainstream effect in anything since 'Nemesis,' and in that his character wasn't very well used.

The trouble is, that pull between value of an artist and recognition of short memories, often decides the outcome of such things. Just look at the effort to get William Shatner to guest star in 'Enterprise' which fell through again on financial negotiation, but also on creative ones. If you pay an actor enough then they'll probably be willing to do most things. It makes sense, that's how they earn their bread and butter and the stock market of actors is always rising and falling based on the success or failure of their latest venture, so they must choose wisely and well. Navigating the vagaries of such a business must be a tough part of the job, especially if you only want to make good art. The thing with Shatner and Dorn is that they've had their successes and they probably don't need to act. It's also true that they're older men now. All this means if you want someone of that stature in the Trek world, and you want them in your Trek, you need to make it worth their while. Still, I wish Dorn had been so excited to come on board a new Trek that he'd accepted the demands of falling stock and made a new name for himself among a younger generation. The irony is that if you don't get out there you do get forgotten. It makes me think of Harold Lloyd and his famous position in the silent films canon, and that because he didn't need the money and held onto his films, rather than selling them off, they were kept in a vault for years and not seen until much later, so generations weren't exposed to his brilliance and subsequently he isn't the first name most people would think of: Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin reel out of people's mouths, when Lloyd has as much right to be remembered by popular culture.

I'm not saying that Dorn will be forgotten, his Worf will live on in 'TNG,' 'DS9' and the films, as a permanent monument. I'm just saying he could have taken an even greater position. Part of it probably has to do with his failed campaign (much like George Takei in the Nineties), to get himself a Trek series based around his character, and the subsequent rejection of this proposal. The thing is, if his character in 'DSC' had been as wildly popular as Worf there could have been the possibility of a spinoff, but we'll probably never know now. The reason I suggest this is because of a new interview with Bryan Fuller that has recently come out, surprisingly laying some new facts into the light about what happened with him as show-runner: one of the most fascinating revelations is that his original premise was for the rumoured anthology series. It just shows that sometimes rumours are true, and this one was shot down in favour of one straight up series, but it turns out he wanted to do seasons in each of the main time periods: pre-'TOS' (basically what 'DSC' became), during 'TOS' (I'm not sure I would have liked that, especially if they had done what they did with 'DSC' in changing the technological look), and much more excitingly, the 'TNG' and post-'TNG' eras! Just imagine having a season set in the heart of the Dominion War, or the aftermath or buildup to the destruction of Romulus… The potential is wonderful.

The studio wasn't having it, they wanted the success of the Kelvin Timeline films transferred to TV, and it's interesting to note that Fuller even wanted uniforms that were closer to 'TOS' than a complete departure as they are now (I'm still hoping the explanation will be that these are special ships and so have a different uniform to the Starfleet standard - easily explainable, much more than going from Pike-era to 'TOS' with these inexplicably in-between!). I'm not saying all his ideas were gold, it was, lest we forget, Fuller that wanted to alter the Klingons' image, and I was both excited that a known Trek name would be in command of the production, but also wary with his comments that suggested he wanted to include more 'adult' content than Trek has traditionally contained. Trek has always been on the edge of family viewing, for the most part, with plenty of moments unsuitable for younger viewers, and more complex issues that would go over the heads of children, or that they'd find boring, but it's generally stayed (with the odd exception), clean and acceptable family viewing. It's interesting to hear that Captain Lorca actor Jason Isaacs ad-libbed a word that has been deemed inappropriate, since people of this time wouldn't use blasphemy because there are apparently no human religions then. That's patently untrue, there are plenty of references to Christmas, chapels and other religious festivals like Divali - I think Worf's adopted human parents were even Jewish! If they do clamp down on language like this, I'll be very pleased, whatever rationale they give, because it is offensive and unthinking, especially in this day.

It is sad to hear that CBS were against Fuller's ideas which included a more complex narrative. I wonder if it was he who wanted a large cast, because that's one thing I'm not so keen on. It fits that they are mostly human (or Klingon), since having half the cast as aliens as 'DS9' and 'Voyager' did wouldn't feel right for this time period where you expect to see more humans. I can't help thinking the era was chosen partly for its being closer to our own, the same reason Berman and Brannon Braga wanted 'Enterprise' to be set in the 22nd Century: so the characters can be less idealised Starfleet officers and more like the people viewers would expect from contemporary TV series'. Personally, as much as I've been glad to see the Trek timeline fleshed out with other centuries, I think all Trek produced in the 21st Century as being generally inferior. Not every episode, as there are some crackers in 'Enterprise,' and the last couple of seasons of 'Voyager,' but in general I prefer that which was made in the 20th Century, and that goes for the films too. I like the eleventh film, despite its multifaceted flaws and antithetical choices, but the others are merely passable viewing. It remains to be seen if going back to the prequel era of 22nd/23rd Centuries is really the wisest course to take Trek back to success or whether this series, too, will flounder as it fails to deliver the complexity, moral outlook and detailed characters in favour of the Kelvin films' action-over-substance style.

I'm not in favour of producing characters for the point of killing them off in a dramatic moment, because I don't think death is the best drama. It's harder to live and stay the course than have an easy way out. Not to say characters couldn't go out in a wonderful way, but it's always been Trek's way to create a family that you want to sail the heavens with, and part of the reason I like that is for its security and comfort. 'TNG' isn't my favourite Trek, but I do love it for the reason that it's like a warm bath you can sink into. Its 24th Century sequels I prefer, but then they require active engagement. I like to experience their world, too, but I miss the sense of familiarity and ties that 'TNG' gave us, and which has generally fallen away this side of the Millennium, with 'Enterprise' failing to be that very thing - while there were friendships, some characters were forgotten and poorly used. I don't want to see that happen again, as it's the characters, at its core, that keep us coming back to Trek, even after the effects are no longer state of the art, and the stories familiar: it's the characters we want to spend time with as if they're our real friends, and constantly being on the edge of your seat for the cheap dramatic potential that any episode could be a character's last, doesn't encourage me. I'm not saying Trek has to play it safe, and many have complained about its style since other genre fare has come along, like 'BSG,' but as much as I can enjoy a number of episodes of that series, I don't enjoy its bleakness and distress, playing with horror and hatred, depression and dark days, where Trek should be light and sure.

I'm not one of these that complains about war being in Trek - I couldn't, since 'DS9' is my undeniable favourite of them all, the war only serving to heighten the brilliant conundrums and challenges the crew faced. I was fully anticipating the Romulan War that should have arrived if 'Enterprise' had gone to a Season 6 (and even now I hope that one day, perhaps even in 'DSC,' we'll have flashback episodes to that time and conflict as the aborted eleventh film once promised). So a war with the Klingons isn't a concern of mine, as long as it's done well, and as long as it doesn't become merely an excuse for lots of running down corridors shouting as the camera careers wildly about (like the Kelvin films), blasting enemies and zipping about firing phasers. Not that that can't be an exciting time, but I want more than just that, nor even a focus on that. Moral depth and characters facing up to personal and professional challenge. The way I always describe Trek is to say that it's good people solving problems, and a cathartic problem-solving team is just what we need, especially if they're going up against the bloodthirsty and the ruthless, not just alien culture and attitudes. I can see the Klingons being used as terrorists are in our world today: the unknown enemy that we don't fully understand, and if we do, must oppose because of their destructive will. But I'm also all for understanding the Klingons as every major threat to the Federation has been eventually, whether it was the Dominion or even the Borg, there were always examples of those that we could trust, not band them all together under the same banner for simplification and greater security.

Although I'm yet to warm to any of the characters (unsurprising, considering I've only seen pictures, watched trailers, and read comments), I am intrigued by Lieutenant Saru, the Spock, the Troi, the Odo, the EMH, the Dr. Phlox, the odd alien out of the mix that we don't know and have never encountered before, giving them plenty of space to explore with him. He's been named as a Kelpien, a prey species (some internet wag mentioned the Hirogen, a hunter species, should show up!), the only one in Starfleet. He has the very alternate physicality to humans and even other aliens we've seen, in the same way Phlox was more extremely alien with CG enhanced smile and tongue, but we've rarely seen a very tall, thin alien and I suspect he could be the character with greatest potential to be the breakout. One thing I'm not keen on is the news (that had been circulating for many a month), that the comics and books based on the series will be considered canon. Now, though they have the reins, it's not for the 'DSC' makers to decide to change the rule that has always been so about only live-action on film and TV being canon, so I very much hope they don't go too far down that lucrative route that is obviously only aimed at taking as much money from viewers as possible (once again we're back to the business side of it). I'm happy for there to be spinoff merchandise, but not that it should be considered essential, nor that the 'DSC' writers should feel bound by any other artists outside their group, bar what has been made as episodes and films.

I was pleased to hear mention of a theme tune being worked on, and an orchestral one at that, which suggests to me that the series will have an opening credits sequence as all the others have. I had my doubts they would keep to such an identifiable Trek staple simply because it's become the norm to eschew this in favour of a few seconds of displaying the logo on screen, then the actors' names appearing over the opening scenes, post-teaser, which I always find distracting (even though I don't mind it when it's the comparatively fewer guest stars, writers and directors, but when added to the main cast as well…). Quite apart from the fact I feel it's a necessary part of a Trek series' identity, I also find it helps me get in the mood for the episode and I've never understood the argument that time will be saved for the episode, especially as these episodes don't need to have a set time since most won't be aired on conventional TV. Of course I could have got the wrong end of the stick and they were referring to end credits theme music, but I have faith (of the heart…), that they'll do right by this.

Though the interior design of these Starfleet ships isn't pleasing in the way they appear to have abandoned 'The Cage' style, which is the only episode to occur at this time in history, there are a couple of little things they've got so right: the Communicator and the Phaser. First, the Communicator I'm not that bothered about, but I'm pleased it looks so similar to the classic 'TOS' model, but it's the Phaser that really impresses: just like 'The Cage' and its 'lasers,' there's a cap on the front which looks like it can be twisted to each of the three nozzles as we saw in that episode, which is exactly the kind of detail you'd want in a series bridging the gap between that time and 'TOS.' It's an amalgamation of 'Cage' design and classic Phaser, and though I wish the transparent style of 'Cage' Communicator could have been extrapolated to the other equipment, it's one of the few things I give a big thumbs up to. They've yet to release a Tricorder, which could be trickier to do now, since 'TOS' had bulky versions like a solid satchel with a shoulder strap, but who knows. With so many other areas looking inspired by the ugly modern design of the Kelvin Timeline (the Discovery Transporter is the worst - even 'Enterprise' had a little alcove that was reminiscent of 'TOS'!), it's gratifying to see one or two little details done right (that and the use of the Klingon emblem please me a lot!).

The only other big issue to come out so far is that Michael Burnham is not just a protege to Sarek's mentor, but his adopted daughter, so of course there's been all kinds of furore over canon violation, while on the other side people have been citing Sybok's reveal so late in 'TOS' continuity, and I'd have to agree. I don't mind this addition to the story because we've seen so often that Vulcans don't discuss things with people, they keep quiet about their personal lives - it's another facet of their discipline and self control, as it is so much of an emotional race's need to talk about what's in their minds, but Vulcans don't need to, or it's another aspect of their nature they suppress, an admirable quality, especially in this age when so many people feel their private lives should be splashed about all over social media, with an attitude that everyone should know everything about everyone, and have an opinion on the subject! Once again, Vulcans lead the way with their suppressed attitudes, something else that makes them one of the best races in Trek. And if they want to throw in the occasional reference to Sybok (whom I've always considered a truly fascinating character), or even have him show up, I'd welcome it.

I still await a proper cast photo, since we've had so many released, including a comedy one with them larking about on the (frankly, Kelvinverse version of the Enterprise), Transporter pad (they would never have been allowed to do such a thing in my day, shock, horror!), but then it's still uncertain who are considered to be part of the main cast, and who are merely recurring characters. Maybe the distinction doesn't exist any longer and I'm still thinking like a human! But it would be nice to know who are considered the core cast. Will Captain Georgiou last the pilot and will we genuinely have two Captains and two ships? I still feel sure that Gabriel Lorca will turn out to be a Section 31 operative - why else cast Jason Isaacs, who so often plays bad guys, not to mention he's English and Americans like to cast English people as villains, although this time he's doing an American accent. The plot thickens, I just hope I don't know everything about the series before I eventually get to see it (whenever that is…). And I thought it was tough back in the days when it was just one 'Star Trek' magazine to worry about. Now it's the whole internet!

Anticipation Rating: ***