The Unfettered Critic – December 2020/January 2021

Back in April (hard to believe that was this year), our column revealed that we’d completed another book, titled The Art of Star Trek: Discovery.

The timing was less than propitious. The world had just been smacked by a pandemic. No one, as yet, realized how far-reaching an impact it would have. Life began to—shall we say—modify. Restaurants closed. Live music went silent. Theater—forget it. Sadly, the aforementioned column appeared only online because the Review did not release a printed edition. We suspect some of you didn’t see it.

In it, we’d said that the book would be in stores on June 2. Ha! As the pandemic slammed into country after country, the world slowly closed down. Our publisher, located in the U.K., went “on furlough.” Then the printer, located in China, locked its doors. The June 2 date became moot.

Plans for the book, however, persisted! Our editor, working from her home, assured us that it would happen. She just didn’t know when.

Well, we have reason to think that this is a good spot to backtrack and refresh our mutual memories on what the book—and the television series it’s based upon—is about. Like previous Trek shows, Star Trek: Discovery is an action-packed adventure about a group of people traveling throughout the galaxy in a very cool starship. Unlike previous Treks, Discovery’s central protagonist is a human woman, Michael Burnham (Yes, a woman named Michael. Live with it!). She’s a science officer (played by the dazzling Sonequa Martin-Green), orphaned at an early age and raised on Vulcan, a planet where, you may recall, everyone is trained in the art of logic. This Vulcan training gets her into big trouble when she uses it to avoid a conflict—and winds up triggering an interplanetary war.

The mandate for our book was not to trace this fascinating storyline. It was to introduce readers to the artists and artisans who created the show’s stunningly beautiful look, and in so doing, produce a lavishly illustrated art guide. We interviewed dozens of people who work on the show, from Discovery’s creators/producers, to the talented men and women responsible for every visual aspect of the show: scenic designers; set builders; makeup designers; prosthetic technicians responsible for transforming humans into nonhumans; costume creators; prop masters; the visual effects teams that manipulate every star, every phaser blast, and every creature that doesn’t actually exist. We even visited with the design firm responsible for the series’ gorgeous opening credits.

When we started, Discovery was the newest kid on the block, and the only Trek series in production. But it proved so successful that now more Star Trek shows are airing or on the horizon. Star Trek: Picard, featuring the remarkable Sir Patrick Stewart of The Next Generation fame, debuted early this year to much acclaim. Star Trek: Lower Decks, a ribald animated comedy focusing on underling crewmembers launched this summer. Still in the pipeline are Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a spinoff of Discovery featuring the pre-Captain Kirk crew of the Starship Enterprise. We’re especially excited about Star Trek: Section 31, about Starfleet’s top-secret “black ops” division. And then there’s Star Trek: Prodigy, an animated series for Nickelodeon said to be aimed at a younger crowd even than Lower Decks. This all points to the fact that, pandemic or no pandemic, a whole fleet of new Star Trek is warping in.

We’re happy to be in the mix. Yup, The Art of Star Trek: Discovery FINALLY will land in bookstores (and be available online): December 8, 2020—just in time for Christmas.