Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Discovery season two behind the scenes photos, and other Disco updates

Lots of Discovery updates today, including the latest promo bits and bobs, and lots of behind the scenes photos.

First up, looking ahead in the season, the title for episode two has now been announced: New Eden, which will be directed by Jonathan Frakes.

And looking further ahead in the season, Michelle Yeoh recently shared this photo of her working on an ADR session in London. Note a new view of one of the new ships in the season on the screen:


Meanwhile looking back, with the first episode now out, the first waves of behind the scenes bits and bobs are finding their way to the web. Lets start with the official releases: Here's a new video from CBS focusing on Tig Notaro's Jett Reno character (geolocked alas):



Showrunner Alex Kurtzman also spoke about the casting of Notaro in an insightful interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
Tig and I have known each other for over 20 years; we were assistants answering phones together. We really liked each other a lot. But over the years, our careers went in different directions. She was always really funny, but when she became a famous comedian, I was not at all surprised. She was always so deeply insightful and just a wonderful human being. It gave us a great chance to reconnect. As I was thinking about this character, Tig came into my head. We were so delighted to work together after having started our careers together. The idea that Trek represents all kinds of people is not just a mission statement for us; it’s the way we go about things. We really didn’t have anybody like Tig on the show, and she would be such a unique and wonderful addition. And she was everything I hoped she would be.
In the same interview Kurtzman also spoke a bit about the red angel mystery thread this season, and interestingly how it links to the ongoing use of the sport drive:
In the original series, religion doesn’t exist. Yet, faith is something that has always been a major topic in different ways. The idea of this mystery that has no answer immediately suggests a presence or force greater than anything anyone has ever known. It was intriguing to us. The other reason for the Red Angel was that it sheds specific light on Spock’s dilemma at that point in his life. Spock has, as we all know, a unique relationship to logic. And logic fails him in dealing with the Red Angel. He doesn’t know whether to turn to logic or emotions to solve the mystery. The only way he can work through it is with his sister, to whom he has a very complicated relationship. It felt like a really wonderful way to get them to have to wrestle with each other over a larger mystery.
The spore drive is still a big part of Discovery and will remain so. What we’ll discover this year is that even the spore drive can’t help them with the problems they’re facing. This is where the Red Angel mystery comes into play. You’ll be in for some surprises about what travel means in the universe.
The interview discusses several other of the key themes and characters we've seen so far, and hints at where they will take us, including of course, Spock:
We discover in season one that Michael has a relationship with Spock. The mystery of why Spock, who we’ve known for over 50 years, has never mentioned his sister, is huge. It felt like there was no way we were going to be able to answer that question in one or two episodes. It was easily going to be the substance of a whole season. This season is a deep-dive into that relationship and what went wrong, their history and where they're headed. That excited me. It’s the unwritten chapter of how Spock became the character that we meet in the original series. We’ll come to understand that were it not for his relationship with Michael, many of the things we know and love about Spock may not have flowered in the way that they did.
Speaking of Spock, here's his younger self with his older sister, aka Sonequa Martin-Green and Liam Hughes (spotted on the latter's IMDB page by TrekMovie):


Producer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi has tweeted several photos of the crew location scouting for Sarek and Amanda's house, including it's glorious blue staircase (in reality a rather amazing private residence called Integral House, which you can see and read more of on Architecture Art Design):





Also via Osunsanmi is this shot of Alex Kurtzman (with his director's hat on) and and Director of Photography Glen Keenan at work in a more familiar set:


Via the Star Trek writers room Twitter we have this, umm, motivational poster? Of Linus the Saurian:


And finally for this round of behind the scenes goodies we have a nice shot via writer/producer Bo Yeon Kim, from the Short Treks episode The Brightest Star, which highlights the absurd height difference between Michelle Yeoh and Doug Jones! Both busy being directed by Doug Aarniokoski:


But wait, there's more! To mark Martin Luther King Day, CBS released this short video of Sonequa Martin-Green reflecting on the legacy of Nichelle Nichols groundbreaking role in TOS, and Martin Luther King's influence on making sure that early benchmark of representation happened:


And on a lighter note here's Doug Jones giving some workplace conflict avoidance advice on behalf of Saru:



For an overview of the Discovery so far, including behind the scenes coverage, and details of tie-in products, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page. Or for details of each episode, including links to previews and reviews, see my episode list.




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