1st Peek: “Star Trek: Discovery”

Update: The trailer has dropped. See it here (don’t worry if you’re outside the U.S., we have a non-geolocked version for you too.)

CBS has finally released something on the highly anticipated Star Trek: Discovery,  the first Trek series to be released behind a paywall on a streaming service instead of on broadcast television. The photo showed up on Entertainment Weekly this morning, ahead of CBS’s ‘upfront’ presentation this afternoon – their annual event showcasing the company’s upcoming shows for advertisers. This was “put up or shut up” day for the troubled production, where the show has to demonstrate some usable progress to potential advertisers in order to sell that all important advertising space. If they don’t show something substantial that demonstrates that they’re on target for release this fall, they’re done. Fortunately, it’s looking like they have it in hand.

Here’s that first production photo from the forthcoming Star Trek series, and it features the captain of the Shenzhou, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) along with fellow Starfleet officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) in heavy-duty desert gear.

Pictured (l-r): Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. STAR TREK: DISCOVERY coming to CBS All Access. Photo Cr: Dalia Naber. © 2017 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.

We don’t know where they’re standing (it was apparently shot on location in Jordan), but they seem to be wearing some really retro looking Starfleet gear,  with classic flip-style communicators and a tricorder large enough to require a carrying-case. Have a look at these close-ups.

Pre-TOS Starfleet gear: communicator and tricorder.

Here you can see the traditional pre-TOS flip-top communicator, reminiscent of the one we saw in full close-up for the first time in Where No Man Has Gone Before. This one looks a bit less like it would break if you looked at it funny, though. The other device has got to be a tricorder, though it’s smaller than you’d expect it to be given how they looked in Star Trek: TOS.

We couldn’t help noticing that these costumes look embarrassingly like a cross between Rey’s desert gear from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (down to the goggles) , and Obi-wan Kenobi’s Jedi robes. That’s silk tussah, by the way, folks – pricey stuff at $35-$40 a yard, but it’s got that magical combination of having a thick and visually interesting texture while still draping well over the human form, and it’s the same stuff they used to make the tunics for Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

There’s supposed to be some kind of teaser footage released from the CBS upfront event today as well. Watch this space.

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SCIFI Radio Staff

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