Star Trek : Discovery Trailer Analysis
CBS debuted the best look yet of Star Trek – Discovery at San Diego Comic Con. We’ve been through the trailer frame by frame, to see if we can uncover some clues as to what we have in store.
Before we get started, did you see the trailer? No? Check it out below:
The trailer begins, in space. We get a shot of a spaceship moving across the stars, and what a nice space ship it is. The spaceship appears to be the U.S.S Shenzhou, the ship captained by Captain Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) under who Lt Commander Burham (Sonequa Martin-Green) serves.
The trailer shifts to a desert scene where Burham and Georgiou are seen making their way across the sand. We are treated to some gorgeous scenery, a real taste of the quality of the CGI of the series. But you have no clue where the two of them are going. Burham does glance behind her, maybe to make sure that she and Georgiou are correctly forging the Starfleet insignia as a way to ask for help during their away mission.
Next in the trailer, the cold war between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire seems to be simmering away.
“The Klingon Empire has been in disarray for generations” Sarek tells Burnham “We have encountered them” She tells him “We have been waiting for someone worthy of our attention” T’kuvma tell Georgiou.
But the Klingons are not just identity-less aliens. We see figures beating up a young Klingon in a scene that feels reminiscent of Spock origin story in the 2009 reboot movie. Could this be the origin story of T’kuvma, the lead Klingon character?
Next we see a bunch of adult Klingons gathered at some sort of ceremony. There is no explanation as to what the Klingons are up to, but the scene implies they will be the big bad for season 1 or will they?
Jason Issacs is well known for playing villains, so he could be living up to his typecast and have a link to the big bad, too obvious? There are many clues to the big bad in the trailer, one of the most chilling is Burnham’s question “What the hell is going on, on this ship?” followed by a scene where she tells others to “run”
Throughout the trailer we are given glimpses of Burnham in a cage of blue light. Is this some sort of brig? Its like no Starfleet brig we’ve seen before. Whatever it is we see Burnham looking out through it to the destruction around her. Is she on the ship that sustains damage in other parts of the trailer? Does the force field save her?
Whilst the trailer tried to present itself as a single narrative, there are clues that these scenes might take place at different times. We see Burnham with two different hair styles. In the brig scenes and the desert scenes, her hair is shorter and straight.
In the scenes where they are trying to find out what’s going on with the ship, she has longer curly hair.
We then see Burnham looking strangely at what appears to be a hydroponics bay and at another science experiment. She seems intrigued and confused by both.
Everyone on the ship seems to have some serious anxiety about something.
Perhaps the anxiety is about Burnham herself? There is much speculation that between her time on the Shenzhou and her time on the Discovery, that Burnham is in prison for something that happened whilst on the Shenzhou. The scene where Captain Lorca ( Jason Issacs) seemingly comes to visit Burnham in prison to recruit her for a mission is reminisce of Janeway recruiting Paris in the Voyager pilot
“All life is born from chaos. The world doesn’t always adhere to logic. Sometimes down is up. And sometimes when you’re lost, you’re found” This feels like part of a conversation Burnham is having with her adoptive father Sarek.
“Logic” is the watch word here. It is the north start of the Vulcan people. But while Burnham may have been raised on Vulcan, she us human. Could she be rebelling against part of her Vulcan upbringing with her partial dismissal of logic?
I’m somewhat of a Star Trek purist and get rather upset when new writers attempt to re-write Star Trek history. I’m not a fan of the reboot movies and feel Roddenbury’s Star Trek shouldn’t be touched. Sarek is Spock’s father and having a human adoptive daughter has never been mentioned before. I hope the writers of Discovery have thought out this history re-write and don’t add it just because.
Rant over.
The trailer ends with Burnham floating through the vacuum of space…..jinkies!
The trailer is really good, though arguably on the action heavy side for a Star Trek trailer. This series looks less like the space workplace drama we know and love and more like an adventure-centric shenanigan of the reboot universe. You don’t get a sense of how these characters are going to relate to each other though. I hope the series does focus a little on character development rather than just being bam pow all the time.
There is a lot to look forward to in this trailer. The cast is diverse, the visuals are awesome, and there’s a hint at a much larger plot at work. Please please please let Lorca be a baddie Captain. We’ve never had this in Star Trek history, but we shall see.
What do you think of the new trailer? Let us know in the comments below.
The show will run exclusively on CBS All Access, the company’s streaming subscription service, although the first episode will additionally air on the traditional CBS channel. The 15-episode season begins on September 24 and the first seven episodes will run until November 5. The second half of the series will start in January.
All episodes will air on Netflix UK a day later.
