Direct from the set of Star Trek Discovery comes a leaked photo showing us a bunch of aliens that don't look much like Klingons. And yet, that's how they are labeled. Take a look.
These are very, VERY different than any Klingon we've seen before. They are much more reptilian in appearance with more severe features than what we've come to know over the last 37 years. At a glance, they bear some resemblance to the Klingons as shown in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That look was modified a bit for Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, and that modified look has been in place through the run of Star Trek Enterprise. The JJ Abrams films show an alternate version, but those movies are stand-alone things and are not part of the universe in which Star Trek Discovery is set.
The Motion Picture Klingons were supposed to be somewhat reptilian, according to creator Gene Roddenberry. Hairy, too!
Confused? Me too. Because if these are truly the new show's Klingons, we have not a prequel, but a reboot.
This actually dovetails nicely into the images we've seen in the recent teaser trailer which show things that are far more advanced looking than anything seen in The Original Series (TOS), despite being set 10 years prior to that series.
This totally makes sense, in this writer's opinion, as the technology shown in TOS would be laughably primitive looking to a modern audience. At some point you have to throw out the stuff that is just too damn old.
AT long last, Discovery is shooting it's first episode. To coincide with that event, CBS has released a short teaser trailer that gives very little away but certainly whets my appetite for more.
In case you're living under a rock, here's the trailer:
So. Not much, right? No new shots of the Discovery itself. No props. A quick close-up of a uniform. Let's break this down and see if there's more to it:
First off, we see some extreme set-building (click on each pic for a larger version):
Under way but incomplete. The third shot makes me think "green screen use?"
Next up, "action!" is called and we get a view of something very alien.
We can't say for sure, but the detail on the arms is very reminiscent of the spine piece used on former Klingon costumes. Is this heap a new Klingon armor of some type? This also reminds me of Voyager's Hirogen. A relative?
And speaking of aliens, we get a fast shot of this:
Doesn't look like much. Until you brighten it, that is:
MUCH better. This is definitely the back of an alien head. It looks like some kind of carapace. Does this go with armor we just saw? Seems likely.
Up next: uniforms! Or A uniform, to be exact. They seem to a feature a high collar that opens in the front.
We then see the chest:
Aha! There's the ubiquitous Starfleet Delta, once again done in metal like later Trek incarnations. But what's with all the gold braid? Is this a dress uniform of some kind?
Let's take a closer look at that badge:
The shield is broken down into two pieces with the left piece raised and overlapping the right. I assume they're simply trying to create a distinct look with that approach. OK, I'll buy it. But what's with that small peg down in the lower left corner? What the heck is THAT? Rank pip, ala TNG? It's so small that it won't show up on camera in anything but an extreme close-up. Hmmmm.
Another interesting take-away is the fact that, while the shirt is blue, which in The Original Series (TOS) meant "science division", the small glyph in the badge was that used by "ships services/engineering" and as any fan of TOS knows, they wore red, not blue. Is this a mix-up? Have they changed division colors yet again? let me explain.
In the original Star Trek pilot, The Cage, science wore blue and the patch featured the same sphere-ish glyph used in TOS. But between the first pilot and TOS' run, a second pilot was produced called Where No Man Has Gone Before. The science shirts were still blue, but the glyphs were different. The spiral glyph shown was later worn by Scotty's red shirts throughout TOS. So is Discovery using an obscure piece of Trek detail on purpose and doing a change-up? Or was this simply a mistake? Who knows, but I'm leaning toward "mistake".
Moving on, next we see a ship. Or, rather, a 3D wireframe of a ship.
Based on the teaser CBS released last year before Comicon, we know this is not the Discovery. We've been told that there is at least one other Starfleet ship in the show, the Shenzhou. Is this that ship? We can't know but there's a good chance. It reminds me of the USS Reliant from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Is this an earlier version of that class of ship? Seems likely.
Some plans are then shown:
Any Trek fan worth their salt knows this is for a starship bridge. Probably Discovery herself. We then get some weirdness that can't be identified and end up here:
If that's not the command chair, I'll eat my dilithium. Interestingly, though, while the captain's chair is emblematic for every Star Trek vesrion up to now, that's not really the case with Discovery. Without exception, the main character in every Trek has been the Captain. But we've been told the Discovery's main character is NOT the captain but rather the first officer, or Number One. But the chair is nonetheless still a powerful iconic image for any Trek. We then get the slightly modified show logo:
The badge in the background has been modified a bit to reflect the actual uniform badge, I assume.
So, there you have it. Image by image, that's what we know. Which ain't much. But it's still fun for an old Trek fan like me to ponder and dream. I hope the show is good. If it's great, that would be amazing, but I'd settle for good. I a world where Star Trek has come to mean big action movies with inane, silly plots, anything that touches on the magic of the original will be an improvement.
