At long last, CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery finally commit to a September premiere after delays from January, to May and beyond. The departure of showrunner Bryan Fuller was an understandable setback, but Fuller’s replacements now explain the delays, owing to “artistry and custom craftsmanship,” along with a brand-new bridge.

The first Star Trek: Discovery trailer finally clued us into the elaborate design and cinematic quality of CBS’ new fall series, so much so that the expanded fifteen-episode order needed time to perfect its craft. As showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg told Entertainment Weekly, international production design and 3D-printing added considerable time to the production process (to say nothing of star Sonequa Martin-Green’s post-Walking Dead availability):

Harberts: There’s is so much artistry and custom craftsmanship that go into every prop, every costume, every set. These things have to be designed and manufactured. We flew a costume designer to Switzerland to pick up the fabric for the Starfleet uniforms. Several items on our uniforms are 3D printed. Some of our sets can take over six weeks to make. CBS has given us the time and the money to make something the fans will find worthwhile.

Berg: You can’t cut corners or have 95 percent of what’s on screen be completely original and inspired and then have five percent something you bought at a store. It has to be cohesive — and it is. I’m so proud of what’s on screen, it’s so beautiful and it’s taking world-building to a whole new level.

As EW also points out, the bridge glimpsed in the initial trailer belongs to Michelle Yeoh’s Captain Georgiou and the U.S.S. Shenzhou  not the Discovery itself  so there remains additional production work to reveal before September. The Shenzhou design certainly evoked some of the lens-flared looks of J.J. Abrams’ reboot trilogy, so might the Discovery skew closer to the original series?

Star Trek: Discovery will premiere the first half of Season 1 on Sunday, September 24, so watch the trailer again below in the meantime.

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