Discovery bridge tour, behind the scenes, character details, and more

CBS have released a video tour of the USS Discovery bridge set, full of beauty shots of the dark and alluring new bridge. Check it out below, along with other Discovery updates (PS, you guessed it, region locked. So check out a backup if you're outside the US)

Welcome aboard the bridge of the U.S.S. Discovery. Stream the #StarTrekDiscovery world premiere Sept 24: https://t.co/acwPpBk46H pic.twitter.com/8s39fPa88M

— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) September 15, 2017

Meanwhile writer/producer Ted Sullivan has posted a couple more behind the scenes images. This time we see a turbolift schematic (of the Shenzhou I presume), and a bottle of Chateau Picard (previously reported to be kept in Captain Georgiou's ready room):

Finally, StarTrek.com have posted a second interview piece with showrunner Aaron Harberts, who this time talked a lot about the details of many aspects, including representation, running times (episodes vary from 40s to 50s of minutes), freedoms of being a streaming show, TOS connections and more! He gave lots of character details:

That's a really good question. I see myself in a lot of them. I think I relate most to Stamets. Stamets is this curmudgeonly, slightly sassy, slightly doesn't suffer fools gladly (guy), but right underneath the surface is somebody who would take the shirt off his back for his crew. His voice is sort of my voice. I also absolutely adore... If we talk about characters I love to write, Mary Wiseman's character Tilly is a joy to write for. She’s unbridled, she's optimistic, she's a nonstop talker. She's Burnham's roommate and Michael, who's so intense, and a woman of few words, when partnered with this young cadet, their scenes are really fun to write.

And made particular note of the storyline featuring Stamets and Culber:

That's one of the big stories we're telling for them. Lt. Stamets makes a couple of choices that really put his partner in a tough situation. What happens in a time of war when your partner becomes a key to helping win the war? But what are the costs? The fact that Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) is a doctor only adds to that.

He also made sure to reinforce the general Star Trekiness:

We wanted to make sure that this was a show that leaves you with a feeling of hope at the end. Even though there might be dark themes or tough times, a tough setting, we always wanted to make sure our characters were putting their best foot forward. We always wanted to make sure that at the end of the episode, you’d be like, "Wow!" rather than, "Aw."

And finally reflected on how the writing room interfaces with the tie-in writers:

Oftentimes, a lot of stuff we've discussed in the writers' room ends up being fodder for the books. Then, Kirsten (Beyer) goes away to the comic book writers and the book writers, and basically develops stories that are spoking off of (episodes). Then, she'll come back and say, "OK, this is what we're doing for here." Sometimes we'll pitch a story and she'll say, "Oh, we're actually doing that in the book." Sometimes we will say, like in the early phases of the book, "Sorry, we're stealing it back." The writers of the books and comic books are reading all of our scripts and Kirsten knows exactly what they're all doing, so I'm really hoping it's going to be a pretty cool, symbiotic, really synergistic (situation). The writers of those books, I think they're just brilliant, and some of the best feedback we've gotten has been from those authors. That is what warms my heart. When Kirsten comes back and one of her writers is like, "I did not see that coming and I have read every script. I can't believe you guys just did that." That's been pretty gratifying because they're hardcore.

Star Trek: Discovery is due to start this September, and 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.