The Toronto-based Star Trek: Discovery will be taking a two-week break out of “an abundance of caution.”
Disco goes on break
Late Friday Deadline reported (and confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter and Variety) that production on Discovery was halted due to a “Zone A individual” coming into contact with someone who tested positive with the COVID-19 virus earlier in the week. (Zone A individuals are defined as “key cast and production members in direct contact with them.”) Contact tracing identified just a single contact with one person not associated with the production, and it happened outside of Pinewood Studios in Toronto where Discovery is filmed.
The Zone A individual will be in quarantine for two weeks. Production should restart on May 6. Discovery began production on season four last November and should wrap up this summer. No one else in the cast or crew was required to go into quarantine.
Toronto has been experiencing a new surge in Coronavirus cases and the city is currently under a stay-at-home order. Earlier in the month, CBS protocols detected a positive test for a guest actor set to appear in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is also shot in Toronto but at CBS Stages Canada. In that case, those who had contact with the actor were quarantined and production continued.
According to Deadline, Discovery season four is expected to premiere in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Find more news and analysis for Star Trek: Discovery.
Such a pity. Stay safe. Can’t wait for the next season.
I hope this doesn’t delay the new season, but obviously they have to do whatever is necessary to keep everybody safe.
yeah, like distribute vaccines like a normal western country
That’s snarky.
Canada is in the position of having contracted for vaccines made in other countries that haven’t yet arrived. They are rolling out as they arrive, but other countries are prioritizing vaccine availability for their own populations.
Not cool. The whole world is having serious challenges with this stubborn virus. Everyone is having enormous setbacks, not all at the same time.
I wouldn’t go as far as to talk about “normal Western countries,” but it is clear that some places — Israel, the Gulf Arab states, the UK, and yes, the US — have done much better with vaccine rollouts than others.
Canada has done *much* better overall than (Trump-era) USA in dealing with covid, homeboy.
It would be wise for Picard to shoot their seasons back to back(2 and 3) just to get it over with. Stewart looks healthy but at almost 81 he’s at much higher risk than the other cast mates.I kind of worry for him, even though I know he’s had the vaccine.
People complained that Picard S1 was rushed and poorly written, and critiqued the showrunners in S2 for saying that the extra time gave them the chance to really flesh out and preplan S2. Rushing S3 so you can film it back to back basically ensures an underwritten story where they don’t know how it ends when they start shooting it. Think of the other movies shot back to back – Matrix 3, BTTF part 3 – they were horrible, an afterthought.
It depends. The new Picard showrunner Terry Matalas is well known for having locked down all the detailed plotting for the last two seasons of 12 Monkeys.
It’s a complex time travel series that actually nailed the landing in the finale.
So, if he worked with the writers room to plot out all of S2 and S3, it would work.
I really have to find the time to watch 12 monkeys, it’s sounds so awesome.
I’m pretty sure I read that that was indeed the plan- Stewart wants to do only three seasons and wants to film the second and third back-to-back, not because of Covid or health in general, but just that he’s not young and wants (much as he enjoys doing it) to get it done quickly.
I dunno about that. The latest interview with Akiva he was asked if they are going to film back to back with Picard and he basically said “no comment “
Ah, thanks for that.
Hope they are all safe and healthy. Can’t wait to see all the upcoming shows!
Oh, my. Keep safe and keep masking up.
I’m sure all that hugging and high fiving didn’t help…..
Well wishes to everyone at DSC, and hoping the person outside of DSC who is sick heals quickly and easily. LLAP
dr. crusher would have dealt with sars2 within 45 minutes. pandemic solved.
Right! And that’s exactly why I’ve really grown to hate serialized TV… TV shows are mere escapism to me. I don’t want them to reflect too much of that dragging reality. Back in the day, standalone episodes cut crises short to 45-90 minutes. That was great. Crusher would have crushed that virus in 44 minutes and 30 seconds, even quicker in the re-runs…
Now, we are getting the real-life version and it feels like 4 seasons of one of those new TV gold standards… meandering back and forth and boring the hell out of me…
You know, when I get up in this pandemic there is that voice in my head. It’s Edward James Olmos grudgingly saying “Last time on Battlestar Pandemica”… and yeah, I feel exactly like his face…
I am not quite sure what the relevance of your grievance is. Trek is not doing a season-long pandemic storyline.
If done well, serialized season-long stories are far more satisfying than anything that can be delivered in 42 minutes. DSC and PIC have not managed to do that, but I continue to be bewildered by this notion that serialized television is “worse.” It has its pros and cons, but when both serialized and episodic shows are at their best, the only reason to prefer episodic if you ask me, is when rewatching.
For example, when rewatching a show like Justified (one of my favorite shows of all time), you have to watch an entire season to get the most out of it even on a repeat viewing.
Whereas something like TNG you can drop in on any given episode as a singular experience. But it doesn’t have nearly the level of nuance and depth as a show like Justified.
Again, pros and cons.
I think he’s arguing that reality is doing a serialized pandemic storyline, and he’s getting bored of it. Which is, frankly, a stupid argument, but whatever.
Reality always does serialized storytelling. And since I want to escape from reality, I prefer episodic shows for their lack of realism… I want problems to be solved in no time. That’s so much better – better as in campier – than reality and serialized mature, premium, adult, quality TV…
Strong in this one, the sophistication is.
Who says I even want an overabundance of sophistication? I’m an escapist, autist, over-grown man-child and I don’t have any issues with being conceived that way. And no, I don’t consider overly complicated, disjoint multiply plotlines that you are hardly able to follow “progress”…
This is why Westworld or American Gods simply cannot work for me… It’s jumbled, disjoint chaos… And that’s why I ADORE The Orville for bringing back what I love…
It’s an outdated format, I know, so then I’m outdated… That’s okay. There is no obligation that one has to follow everything just because a new generation happens to like that…
I like living in the past. I like standing apart, like your Vulcan science officer :-) I like being different. Nuff said.
No, I’m not complaining about Trek. DSC and PIC have found a balance of serialized and standalone storytelling, SNW will even be further back to the roots.
Damar is right, I’m complaining more about reality and I compare it to the monotenous nature of most dark serialized genre shows, especially NuBSG… because I like the “Pandemica” pun :-)
In case you didn’t notice… this post was actually supposed to be fun, a joke…
I DO prefer episodic TV series, but this was meant to be just a funny side remark.
As for serialized TV shows… I’ve only been able to finish half a dozen of those: NuBSG, LOST, GoT, Gotham and (strangely) Killjoys… and I’m still watching The Expanse and Stranger Things… all the rest I’ve given up after 1-2 seasons or a few episodes… The ones I finished disappointed me in the end, so I’m not in a hurry to give any more of them a try…
No idea what Justified is… Doesn’t sound like a genre show… and I only watch scifi and fantasy stuff…
Well, I guess it’s because I don’t really care about “nuanced, deep characters”. This is why DS9 is my least favourite show of the five classics.
Being an autist, I’m probably not able to grasp any of that human depth anyway. I get “Greek” archetypal characters a lot better than those round modern antiheroes of modern TV…
I care much more about colors, shapes, soundtrack scores, ship designs, uniforms, alien creatures, phenomena, sound FX, alien planets ranging from cardboard sets to CGI and hot Theissian outfits… Visuality, variety of setting, audiovisual and musical creativity, that’s my cup of tea…
The shades of blue and green skinned aliens, the colors of lightsabers, the sound FX of alerts on various Trek shows, the countless sets of uniforms and of course starship designs, bridge designs, truly alien worlds and creatures, the majesty of names like Gormaganders, Ozyra or Ba’ul … that’s what I love about Trek and the genre in general…
Again, this is just my humble approach, I totally understand that other people care about different aspects… It’s just not in my nature…
Well, like so many other genre’s serialized TV gets lots of eyes on screen. Until something else comes along, this is what you got. There’s plenty of episodic reruns on MeTV and HandI if that’s what floats your boat….
In the meantime, best wishes to the cast and crew of Discovery, and stay healthy.
You misunderstand… I’m GLAD that I don’t have to care about so many serialized shows anymore. I don’t have the time to watch all of these anyway. I took me some time to realize that, but yeah, I definitely prefer rewatching older stuff that I already own on BD and DVD… SeaQuest, Space 1999, classic BSG, Knight Rider and of course the older Trek shows… living in the past in yet another way of getting my head away from reality… it’s good… only a select few modern shows can stay… definitely Star Trek and Star Wars :-)
God forbid. Can’t you just subsist on a diet of Big Macs and Starsky and Hutch?
Starsky and Hutch? I only watch sci-fi and fantasy… Anyway, this is a non-topic, I guess. Everyone has his personal tastes. I’m into episodic genre TV as I care more about an abundance of ideas and designs than “character growth”… I primarily conceive genre stuff as a mainly visual art form, escapist trip into the unknown… a healthy dosage of character-oriented stuff I can tolerate but it has never been my focal point…
This is all so damn ridiculous.
Congrats. You’ve just posted the most vague and non-informative comment here.
I try just for you.
Good that they’re using an abundance of caution.
Exactly. The keep it open mentality is the reason this thing is not going away.
Darwin still has some work to do. It does get tiring having to explain quarantine and contact tracing over and over and over….
For production to shut down you’d almost think it was the star of the show who has been quarantined. If it was anyone else, why wouldn’t they just keep filming?
Easily could have been. Or at least it was someone who was essential to the next batch of scenes to be shot. The Force Awakens was a very ensemble movie but it shut down for 2 weeks after Harrison Ford was injured.
If that person was in close contact with a number of crew, those crew need to be quarantined for at least 10 days, and tested repeatedly.
Yes, but they’re saying only the one cast member is in quarantine. If it was someone minor, they could continue full steam ahead!
Apparently, you’re not educated on how the virus works.
Nonsense. You love to troll, but never have anything to back it up.
I never troll, so your point is moot. The fact remains that your understanding of how COVID-19, quarantines and contact tracing work is clearly lacking, given your comment above. Whether or not it was “someone minor,” if people had contact with that person then the quarantine was necessary. Educate yourself, kid.
The article states “no one else in the cast or crew was required to go into quarantine”. That means they could continue if they want, jackass. Obviously, they’ve decided not to proceed, thus it may be the lead star who is absent.
Grow up. You’re such a man-child.
FINAL WARNING for personal attack
Keeping it contained is a better option then playing Covid Roulette, which cast or crew member has the loaded virus in the chamber that takes you from zero to dead in forty eight hours.
Let’s be clear. It says that a “Zone A individual” came in contact with someone with covid OUTSIDE and AWAY from the studio. Therefore, that one cast member has now gone into quarantine. If that one cast member had been exposed to the infected individual, and then interacted with the rest of the cast, THEN they would ALL have to self-isolate. BUT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN, so production (in theory) could continue, unless it’s the STAR of the show who is in quarantine. Then, it makes sense to shut everything down.
EVERYBODY GOT THAT??!!
Bummer. But safety is important.
You know… I really do love Discovery, but I can’t stand Michael Burnham as a character. She’s so broadly written and acted, and the fact that Starfleet keeps overlooking her mutinous actions and disobeying of orders shreds believability. Discovery is only the second Star Trek show, along with Enterprise, for which I’ve loved the show but not been able to enjoy the main character. I wish I did, as Burnham’s ridiculous antics knock me out of an otherwise fun story. The same was true of Archer–I found him so bland that it kept hampering my ability to enjoy what was otherwise a strong series.
Interesting how you said “I never troll” in a comment above, but this comment has zero to do with the actual article and is all about how you don’t like Micheal Burnham. Pretty much the definition of trolling.
How is this relative to the topic at hand?
Warning for off-topic trolling.
Why aren’t they vaccinating all cast and crew (in the United States, if need be; I realize that vaccine rollout has been slower in Canada)?
We still need to get our essential workers vaccinated before we start to worry about the cast and crew of a TV show. I love Trek, but honestly, the production of entertainment is not the highest priority thing on the list right now if there are frontline workers that should be taken care of first.
Our core problem here in Canada is that a while ago we gave up our ability to produce our own vaccines. A number of federal powers have come and gone since then, and we were content to import what we needed. So now we are at the mercy of what other countries are able to export to us.
There is work to rectify this going on right now, but rebuilding the capacity to manufacture things like this is not an overnight endeavour.
Even covered with a mask SMG’s over-acted angsty face is annoying.
Warning for trolling. closed
.. I’m sorry, off set to what? Oooh that thing again. Ironic that the states, cities etc who have lifted “restrictions” and allowed what from the very beginning more qualified scientists, doctors and all than doctor falsey.. said from the start that we should have never locked ourselves away and should have done the same as h1n1 and just about every other virus, flu.. it’s called herd immunity and now it’s being proven to work. Why are they pushing a vaccine for a virus that still has a 99.9% recovery rate, a less than 1% fatalities vs actual cases, less than 5% true novid only fatalities?