Star Trek: Discovery trailer breakdown
We break down the good, the bad, and the lens flares in CBS’ first real trailer for Star Trek: Discovery.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains scenes from Star Trek: Discovery. If you don’t want to see something that might possibly spoil the show then don’t read this article. You can’t go back in time and unread this, unless you have a Klingon Bird of Prey with time warp capabilities.
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Star Trek: Discovery has had a bumpy launch. The show has been delayed numerous times, the first trailer was not a hit with Trekkies, and CBS seems to be doing all they can to fumble the greatest science fiction franchise of all time. Even the launch of this new trailer was a bit of a mess with CBS debuting the trailer only on CBS.com for the first few minutes. The CBS.com version of the trailer required Adobe Flash and was country locked, meaning many fans couldn’t see the trailer.
Hopefully, this trailer is the start of a new chapter for Star Trek: Discovery and the newest Trek finally gets to boldly go. First, let’s watch the trailer and then you can check out our breakdown below.
First off what’s up with all the lens flares? Star Trek: Discovery is allegedly in the Prime Star Trek universe, that’s the universe of the original Star Trek shows and films. The lens flares make the show look decidedly Kelvin universe though, that’s the universe the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek films are set in.
The next thing you might notice is the music and the look. The uniforms are a nice touch, they really do look like they are somewhere between Star Trek: Enterprise and Kirk. You can see the difference in the divisions of Starfleet in the colors of the piping on the uniforms. It looks like command is gold and science is silver.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
The music and uniforms also make you think of the original Star Trek films. The space suit used by Michael Burnham is very similar in style to the one used by Spock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
Burnham is certainly the focus of the story and most of the trailer revolves around her. It also appears that she might be part Vulcan. We see her as a child possibly being lectured on by Sarek himself.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
Then we see her later in life looking at a hologram of Sarek. Sarek could be some sort of mentor of hers. This could be a one-off flashback, or it could point at time travel. What’s Trek without time travel right?
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
One of the most striking things about the trailer is that we never see the Discovery. The ship in the trailer is the USS Shenzhou. This, of course, points to the series being split between two ships and could also point to time travel.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
The aliens in the trailer really do look spectacular. These are some impressive alien looks for Star Trek. Trek has a habit of just putting a few ridges on someone’s head after all.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
The Klingons also look fantastic. We really like this new Klingon look, but if you don’t it’s OK. You shouldn’t get too upset about the new Klingons because these Klingons are on a special religious ship. It may be that other Klingons at this time don’t look anything like this.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
It was also nice to see technology on the Shenzhou that we’ve seen start to develop in our own real world. There was a robot that is certainly no Mr. Data.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
And then there was this Star Trek version of Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back.
screengrab from the Star Trek: Discovery trailer
The pacing on the trailer was a bit slow, and we could have done without all the lens flares, but Star Trek: Discovery shows a lot of promise. The more you dig into the trailer the more Trek you find as well.
What do you think of the first live action trailer for Star Trek: Discovery? Let us know in the comments below.