Discovery’s VFX Supervisor Talks New Designs

Another week, another interesting Star Trek: Discovery interview. This one is about the visual effects.

VFX supervisor Jason Zimmerman had an interesting challenge ahead of him when facing down work on the third season of Star Trek: Discovery: establishing the visual language of an entirely new era of the show’s canon, one that is farther removed from established times than anything we’ve ever seen in the series. What should it look like? How faithful should it be to what came before? Would it even be recognizable to our heroes?

Talking to Wil Wheaton for “The Ready Room,” Zimmerman discusses the challenge and particularly the difficulty that goes into, say, designing a new take on Federation headquarters, or the Voyager. It’s a tricky balance, as he shares it, wanting to develop new thing while still capturing something that fans can recognize and claim as their own.

Honestly, this would be a pretty compelling interview show if Wheaton just let the guests talk more. All the same, Zimmerman has some really interesting things to say here. Discovery is going to some fascinating places, and Zimmerman’s role in designing the visual language of those places is significant and really interesting.

Star Trek: Discovery is airing weekly on CBS All Access. 

For more, make sure you’re following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom.