Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Discovery You Need To Know
6. Another Used Starship
As we've mentioned countless times before, the accountants behind the Star Trek franchise know how to squeeze a dollar out of a dime. Like her predecessors, Star Trek: Discovery's USS Discovery, even from her very first appearance in season one's "Context is for Kings", is a used ride.
Yes, Star Trek: Discovery was always a show about the USS Discovery, but in a new move for the franchise, the show's first two episodes were set on an entirely different vessel – the much older Walker-class starship, the USS Shenzhou. Because of that filming schedule, the sets used throughout Star Trek: Discovery were, in fact, built for use as the USS Shenzhou first.
In order to accomplish the relatively easy change over between the two starships, sections of the Shenzhou set were designed to be modular, with panels and other distinguishing features capable of being swapped out depending on which ship the sets were supposed to represent.
Not only did the sets for the USS Shenzhou transform into the sets for the USS Discovery, they were also later converted to stand in for the USS Glenn in "Context is for Kings", the USS De Milo in the Short Trek "The Escape Artist", the USS Enterprise in "Brother", "Such Sweet Sorrow, Parts 1 and 2", "Q&A", and "Ask Not", the USS Cabot in "The Trouble with Edward", and as the USS Zheng He in Star Trek: Picard's "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2".