Star Trek: 10 Secrets About The USS Discovery-A You Need To Know
6. Slap a Plaster on It
At the conception of Discovery's third season, there was no plan to upgrade the ship with 32nd Century features. In its first appearance of that year, Far From Home, the ship had crashed with the vision that it would simply be repaired. That in itself is unique since no other hero starship has successfully returned to active duty or even back to space after such a catastrophic event.
According to concept artist Ryan Dening in the magazine for Eaglemoss' Discovery-A replica, the thought was to have the ship almost wrapped in bandages. This would have the ship's damaged areas filled in the same way that a wound heals and at the same time augment it with 32nd Century tech.
The bandage concept would stay but be slightly modified into the new surface detail of the Discovery and then further work would be put on hold while Dening worked on other designs for the third season. In fact once he and production designer Phillip Barker returned to the hero ship there would be significant developments in the look of the 32nd Century that would go on to influence the way Discovery evolved. As Dening notes, there's an almost throwaway line in The Hope Is You, Part 1 which references floating buildings which was transferred into the wireless designs of the Discovery.