First Season Wrap
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery has officially wrapped here in Toronto, Canada.
Filming for the show began in late January 2017, after an initial delay. At the time, CBS had booked their space with Pinewood Studios and the production crew through until late September 2017. With the addition of 2 episodes to the first season, filming ran later than originally planned.
Shooting wrapped up early in the morning on October 12th, with series executive producer Aaron Harberts making the announcement via Twitter.
That's a wrap on Season 1 @startrekcbs. Thanks to cast, crew, and fans. You have made this show soar. #startrekdiscovery
— Aaron Harberts (@AaronHarberts) October 12, 2017
However, this doesn’t mean that production on the first season is fully complete. There’s still plenty of work that needs to be complete before any of the recently-filmed episodes can air.
Digital visual effects on Star Trek: Discovery have proven to be lengthy components of the post-production process. We’ve hear reports of each episode taking visual effects artists as long as three months to complete. Though this doesn’t come as much of a surprise with such an effects-heavy science fiction series, which is reported to have a budget of $7-8 million per episode.
The season finale that wrapped filming on the 11th won’t likely air until February of 2018 or later.
Unclear if film sets will remain at Pinewoods
It’s not clear if CBS and series showrunners plan to completely dismantle the sets at this time or leave them in place. With rumours of season two getting the green light, filming for the season is likely to start up early in the new year. Of course keeping the sets and stages in place at Pinewoods, or any studio, is expensive. Star Trek Discovery occupies a number of sound stages at the Toronto Pinewoods location, including the largest purpose-build sound stage in North America.
Many of the sets were made in a way that they could be easily dismantled or changed. For example, the transporter room on the USS Shenzhou could be reconfigured to be the transporter room of the Discovery.
