“To be or not to be, I think that is the question that preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk.” General Chang, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Frustration. Excitement. Nervousness. Most of all, puzzlement. That’s what I, and many Trekkies and Trekkers alike, are feeling right now after recent news that the premiere date of Star Trek: Discovery has been delayed yet again. This time, there is no timetable as to when the show will premiere. Should this be cause for major concern? Originally, the show was going to be released in January as the flagship program for the fledgling CBS All Access streaming service. Then, it was pushed to May of this year. In between that time, show creator Bryan Fuller, someone uniquely qualified to put this show together, abruptly left. Why so suddenly remains to be seen, though he has said he would still be involved in the show just not in the capacity he was in before. Now we’re not sure when it will premiere. Instead of STD launching as the flagship program for CBS All Access, a spinoff of The Good Wife will be the new flagship show. Should we panic? Should we be excited? There are various reasons shows and movies are delayed, sometimes for good and sometimes not. Let’s take a further look.
Reasons to Be Nervous
Bryan Fuller’s departure was certainly a warning sign to all those who were expecting things to go smoothly. If you check out his IMDB bio, he is listed as a “Self professed Star Trek geek who watched and loved the Trek series ‘Deep Space Nine’ and set out to write for them.” A die-hard trekkie who has a lot of respect for canon and continuity (two things that were considered a joke by the producers of Enterprise, which led to its ultimate demise), and who many felt was the perfect person for the job. He did state that he had to spend more time on his new series American Gods, which is based off the Neil Gaman novel of the same name. Nevertheless, it was a big sign of worry. The timing was also pretty worrisome: soon after we learned the series premiere had been moved to May.
To be honest, my first sign of worry came months before that. Throughout 2016, Discovery was being promoted as a show to kick off 2017. How awesome was that going to be? Sherlock, Dr. Who, AND Discovery all at the same time! August, September, October, November rolls around…and nothing. No mention of who has been cast, what the stories were going to be, images from the set, promotional images, nothing. The only thing we got were the images of the show logo and the Discovery leaving the dock…and this was less than two months before the premiere!!
Let’s focus on the ship for a moment because that is also something that has given me, personally, a cause of concern. First, here’s an image of Discovery as it stands now:
And now here’s an image of the concept art for how the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 was re-imagined for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Keep in mind, Star Trek: TMP took place in 2271…15 years after Discovery is set to take place:
Also keep in mind that this was rejected in favor of the much cooler ship design that we got for Star Trek: TMP. Why? Personally I think it looks like a lazy design. Instead of creating something new that looks like it could eventually morph into the ships we see in TOS, they take a rejected design from TMP and tweak it. Finally, here’s the symbol for Vulcan. Does the shape look familiar? Throw some warp nacelles on the side, take out the big yellow circle, and you’ve got yourself a ship!:
Was the ship design for Discovery rushed? Did the producers feel they needed to get SOMETHING out there to show that work was being done? Is this the final design? Who knows? The fact that so much is being kept under wraps, including why we have so many delays, is a bit unnerving.
Going back to Fuller’s departure, did corporate meddling have anything to do with why he left so abruptly? Enterprise was derided by Trek fans for its inability to stick to canon. Show producers didn’t want the same old Trek, they wanted something “hip and sexy.” Remember this magazine cover?
Did Fuller, a die-hard fan of Trek, get upset because CBS wanted something that was not very “Trek” in order to draw in the non sci-fi crowd?
Granted, all of this is pure speculation as to the delay. CBS is keeping very quiet about the whole thing, which makes many of us nervous. While there are any number of reasons as to why a show or film runs into delays, usually the reasons are either: 1.) tragedy on set, 2.) subject matter too close to a current, unforeseen catastrophic event 3.) turmoil with writers/producers/director/anyone on set over vision. Sure, it is possible that they want to take their time and “get it right,” as the press releases are saying, but to go from the flagship show of CBS All-Access to…”we’ll get there when we get there” will make anyone a little nervous.
Reasons to Be Excited
As mentioned before, delays can happen for any number of reasons. While it is likely that the reasons for the delays have a lot to do with wanting to “get it right” or that there was just too much dissension on set, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is destined to fail. Though a movie, take for example Star Trek: Beyond. Production was halted at one point and the premiere delayed because of the drama surrounding Film writer/Director Roberto Orci. For those who don’t know, Orci had worked with Alan Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams on the Star Trek reboot in 2009. When Abrams went to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Orci was asked to write and direct Beyond, which would have been his directorial debut. However, in December of 2014, he left the entire project and the script he had written was scrapped. Starting from square one, Simon Pegg took over a large chunk of the writing duties and director Jeremy Lin came on board to direct. When the first trailer was released, it looked awful and nothing more than an action-packed shoot-em up with the Beastie Boys blaring to bring in the folks who loved The Fast and the Furious (which, by the way, Jeremy Lin had directed, as mentioned in the trailer for Star Trek: Beyond.) Delays, poor trailer, director leaving, new writers…it was destined to fail, right? Nope! 84% on Rotten Tomatoes says no, and so says I. I rank it as the fourth best of all the Trek films.
Another reason not to worry: Star Trek: Discovery has a cast! And so far, it’s a good one. We have familiar aliens (Klingons), a new alien (played by Doug Jones, who played this guy from Hellboy), Michelle Yeoh and more. Of those that have been cast, I am most excited about these two:
I love Sonequa Martin-Green’s character in The Walking Dead, and no doubt many who tune in to watch Discovery will like her acting as well. I like that Discovery‘s main character will focus on someone that is not a captain for the first time in Trek history. Months I waited for this role to be announced. When it was announced, right in the middle of all the delays to the show, it gave me hope that finally something was being done and being done right. Progress was finally being seen.
Another sign that things may not be so bad: When the announcement came that they were delaying the premiere of Discovery yet again, the producers also announced that James Frain had been cast to play the role of Spock’s father, Sarek.
For those of you who have seen the show Orphan Black, Frain plays the character Ferdinand, an odd fellow with a very dry sense of humor. Personally, I think this is a slam dunk casting choice. He has a Vulcanesque look and, after seeing him in Orphan Black, I have no doubt that he would be able to embrace the Vulcan mentality. According to IMDB, Sarek is only in two episodes of Discovery. Still, the fact they chose someone like Frain to play him and they made the announcement at the same time they announced they were delaying the premiere date, is more a good sign than a bad one.
Should We Worry?
If we put our worries about the success of Discovery on a scale from 1-10, with 1 being “calm as a the flame in a Vulcan meditation lamp” and 10 being “calm as the flame in Vulcan blood during Pon Farr”, I would say the worry level is probably a 3. Our ears should perk, but we should remain optimistic that this is going to be done the right way and with the values and canon of the entire Trek universe.
How do I Get the Most Up to Date Info on Star Trek: Discovery?
For those of you who have not done so, please check out Cattdork’s YouTube channel. Without a doubt, this is where I get the most comprehensive and up to date information on Discovery and interesting insight. Oh, and she’s a pretty good artist, too.
Take Me Out to the Holosuite 
