First look at Star Trek Discovery sets, ships, and costumes

Star Trek: Discovery has finally started shooting, and to mark the occasion CBS have released a teaser video. We get lots of little samples of costumes, sets, and starships. Continue below for a detailed look, plus other updates from the production.


If you can't see the YouTube version thanks to the annoying region locking, try Facebook:



So lets start with sets, as they look jolly impressive! The video seems to show one particular set at various stages in construction, including giving us a look inside the raised walkways of a large column dominated alien/ancient looking set.

The clapperboard shot meanwhile seems to show a more familiar asthetic, that reminds me of the USS Franklin bridge design.

Talking of familiar, a new starship schematic has a certain NX class feel. We know there are multiple ships featured in Discovery, could this be Captain Georgiou's USS Shenzhou?

Also some shots of the USS Discovery itself, which doesn't seem to have changed much since the teaser trailer.

What is different is this armour? Could this be a more aggressive and organic update to the Klingons?

And something else alien in this helmet? Or maybe even an alien head?

We get our first look at a uniform, including an updated Starfleet insignia badge.

Set plans, for a bridge maybe?

And a captain's chair (we've been teased this design before)

You might also notice the series logo has been updated,sing that new insignia design (these were posted on the Discovery Facebook page):

Meanwhile behind the scenes, several new people appear to have joined the production. The Star Trek writers room Twitter posted this photo, showing actress Michelle Yeoh (aka Captain Georgiou) with many members of the writing staff. Gretchen J. Berg, Aaron Harberts, Erika Lippoldt, Ted Sullivan, Bo Yeon Kim, Craig Sweeny, Sean Cochran and Tyler Dinucci.

Many of those are new names:

• Erika Lippoldt, who appears to be quite new to TV writing, with just a couple of episodes of the series Reign to her name.
• Bo Yeon Kim, also fairly new, and an alumni of Reign.
• Ted Sullivan, has a longer writing career with recent credits including several episodes of Revenge and Supergirl.
• Craig Sweeny, also has lots of TV work behind him, including writing and producer credits on many episodes of Elemantary, Limitless, and The 4400.
• Sean Cochran, also previously worked on Revenge, and several other series, but as a production assistant rather than writer.
• Tyler Dinucci, has also worked as a writing assistant on several shows, including Drop Dead Diva, where he has one full episode writing credit.

Additionally production artist Neville Page revealed on Twitter that he is involved in the series. The name might sound familiar as he worked on designs for several creatures and aliens in the first two nuTrek movies.

In other Discovery news, Star Trek novels publisher Simon and Schuster recently amended the listing for David Mack's first Star Trek: Discovery novel, now suggesting a release date of the 30th of December 2025. I imagine this is simply a placeholder until a new more reasonable date is settled on, once the new launch date for the series is established. The new listing also notes that the novel will be available in audiobook form too.

Star Trek: Discovery is due to start some time this year, it will be distributed almost everywhere in the world on Netflix, except for the US where is will be available on CBS All Access, and Canada where it will be on Bell Media channels and services. To keep track of all the latest details from the new show, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page.