Today the cast and crew of Discovery took the stage of Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic con bringing with them news of the next chapter of Star Trek and sneak peeks ahead of the shows September debut!
Michael Burnham
During the panel we learned more about Burnhams relationship with Sarek and their back story. They revealed that Burnham/s parents were killed and that Sarek became a surrogate father to her. But for those wondering why we’d never heard of Spock’s human adopted sister, executive producer Alex Kurtzman took the issue head on, “we’re aware Spock’s stepsister isn’t canon.” He said, adding, “Be patient with us.”
Aaron Harberts was one of many to give praise to the new lead Sonequa Martin Green, echoing previous showrunner Bryan Fuller’s comments that it was difficult to find the right person and so they waited for her contract on The Walking Dead to come to an end.
Isaacs continued the praise, calling her the queen of the set and describing her as ‘fierce’.
As for Sarek, Frain spoke of his character and how they explore who he was in his youth and the reasons behind him marrying a human and trying to raise a human in Burnham. Frain also revealed that Sarek chose Georgeou (Michelle Yeoh) as a mentor to Burnham.
Emotional Complexity.
With Frain setting the stage and discussing the evolution and internal emotions of Vulcans, Shazad Latif, who will play a Lt Tyler on the show, added that the characters on the show will be ’emotionally complex’.
Putting it more bluntly, when asked about Captain Lorca, actor Jason Issacs said his character had a lot of sharp edges as he tries not to emulate his predecessors. when it comes to his emotional complexicty, Issacs described Lorca as more ‘f–ked up’ than we’ve seen of a captain before.
The Look
One of the most debated parts of the show was how it looked in comparison to the original 1960’s design. Kurtzman addressed this saying in the modern world that they can’t give sets that mimick the 60’s, but with so many behind the scenes huge fans of the original series, it became an inspiration and they are always mindful of the canon; reinforcing comments he made to EW in which he claimed one of the writers was a stickler for ensuring they kept within the lines of established Trek.
Doug Jones revealed something we didn’t know about the look of the show, or more accurately his character. He has hooves! Performing the ‘Saru Walk’ on stage, he revealed Saru was as tall as 6’8 on screen!
Unity
Diversity and unity was a hot topic, with Martin-Green commenting on how important those ideals were to Star Trek and what made it so important. It seems it’s still at the core of the show with Aaron Herberts claiming one of the main motivations of the series is to show how conflict can be resolved by finding peace and common ground.
He added that the Klingons will also be fleshed out. They won’t be one dimensional thugs but a diverse culture we, the viewers and the Federation, want to understand. Though to understand them, we’ll need subtitles as co-showrunner Gretchen Berg added that Klingons will be subtitles throughout their appearances.
Akiva Goldsman added that the search for peace and the solution to those conflicts will show a Utopian and hopeful future in the sporit of Star Trek.
“I promise you that we passionately believe in what we are doing.” Anthony Rapp added, “We want to do something meaningful & honor what came before.”
Star Trek Discovery launches on September 25th in the UK. For more on the panel and all over SDCC, SFCQ2 member hub Starbase Europa has recaps and photos from the event and exhibition.
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About the author
Mark Mitchell; 1969-2026
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