[S2E2] Creature Feature - Part 2

The season finale had to answer all the season's mysteries, complete its character arcs, feature a large battle, and set-up stories for the next season. While planning this, the writers realized that they could not do justice to it all within a single episode's length. It was around this time that CBS added an additional episode to the season's order, which allowed the writers to expand their plans to a two-part season finale. Executive producer Michelle Paradise compared the scope of the finale to a feature film.[55] A goal of the showrunners for the season was to "cement Discovery firmly in the timeline" by reconciling some of the apparent continuity errors from the first season, such as why Burnham has never been mentioned by Spock in the franchise or why Discovery's advanced spore drive technology is not used on other starships in later Star Trek series.[56] The season ends with Discovery and its crew traveling over 900 years into the future, and Spock recommending to Starfleet that the starship and its crew never be mentioned again to prevent the events of the season from being repeated. Kurtzman said this solution was chosen after months of work with the writers, which included considerations of the future of the series; he compared the decision to the film Star Trek (2009) starting a new timeline to avoid established continuity.[48]

[S2E2] Creature Feature - Part 2

Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page of Alchemy Studios, who provide prosthetics and armor for the series, teased in May 2018 that the season would feature a "truly alien" character for which they had to figure out new ways to reduce the weight of the prosthetics and make it breathable for the actor, as well as try improve the actor's vision because the eyes of the creature did not align with where human eyes are positioned. Hetrick said there would be more interesting prosthetics for extras, while the pair were able to use a species from earlier Star Trek canon that had not been in the first season after producing a of species they would like to use for the executive producers.[69]

There had been plans to show the interior of the Enterprise during the first-season finale, but this was ultimately saved for the second season. Deverell did extensive research on the original sets before trying to recreate them using Discovery's style, including searching through the CBS archives to do color tests on the original bridge sets which feature a distinctive red that sometimes appeared to be orange on the original series (Discovery includes a joke about the bridge being orange, though Deverell insisted that it is red). The Enterprise bridge set was built on a new soundstage specifically for the two-part second season finale, rather than being a repurposed set.[71] James Cawley, owner of the Official Star Trek Set Tour, provided reproductions of the buttons from the original bridge set for Deverell to base hers on.[74]

Kurtzman hoped that if the series was projected in a theater it would appear indistinguishable from a feature film, and chose to use anamorphic lenses for the season to "immediately [convey] a sense of scope and scale". He also pushed the lighting and design departments to use color in ways that are not traditionally considered for television, and challenged the episode directors to each shoot a scene where they would not use the same shot twice; this was to encourage them to use more inventive shot choices rather than just typical "coverage", which is when a master shot of the scene is filmed plus whatever extra angles from different sides there is time to capture. Kurtzman wanted as many options available to the editors as possible during post-production. Addressing the fact that Star Trek was originally inspired by naval tradition, Kurtzman said that the season would be leaning further into that than the first did, especially in the way that they filmed the bridge scenes and a funeral sequence. He named Crimson Tide (1995) as an influence for the filming style.[76] Frakes reiterated the cinematic approach to the series, especially comparing the camera work to the style of the Star Trek films directed by J. J. Abrams. He added that Osunsanmi encouraged the episodic directors to "express ourselves visually in as exciting a way as possible".[77]

Again for the second season, Critical Role hosted livestreamed watch parties in which Mica Burton and guests from the cast or crew of The Legend of Vox Machina watched the three most recently released episodes of the series and answered questions taken from the live Twitch chat. These streams used Twitch's Watch Party feature and were scheduled for each Tuesday at 7:00pm PST after episodes release. The question and answer portions, without commentary made during each episode, were collected and posted to YouTube the following Wednesday at 3pm PST.[3]

On top of that, I also quite enjoyed learning about the Redcaps in this part of the film. Like I said, we get a few glimpses here and there of these little monsters and their handiwork, but for the most part, we learn about them through what the characters say. For example, one of them claims to have seen the creatures, and we also find out that Maeve had a child who she believed was killed by the Redcaps.

There's a magical creature in my dreamsIt lives on a branch of a magical treeIt sleeps by day, but in the cool of nightIt comes to life and takes flightIt flies over the landIt flies over the seaIt travels through my dreamsIt is a part of me.

It is referred to as a "Tylosaur" in the pitch animatic for the episode.[1] Despite how Genndy dubs the creature, it highly resembles Liopleurodon, thanks to its features that applies to Pliosaurs, including its elongated snout, short tail, and size compared to Spear. This was confirmed by David Krentz, as the animal was intended to be a Liopleurodon.[2]

In "Chapter 10: The Passenger," Din, the Child and their passenger -- a character referred to as Frog Lady -- inadvertently crash-land on Maldo Kreis while attempting to flee a pair of New Republic X-Wing pilots, who had identified Din as the bounty hunter involved in breaking out the prisoner Qin in the Season 1 episode "Chapter 6: The Prisoner." Much like how Din and the Razor Crest were attacked by a Ravinak while taking off on Maldo Kreis in the series premiere, "Chapter 10: The Passenger" pits Din and his companions against another one of the planet's giant monsters: the Krykna, a creature previously featured on Star Wars Rebels. As he did before, Din manages to make it off the planet with his crew alive, though only after sustaining heavy damage to his ship and getting an assist from the X-Wing pilots in destroying the Krykna and its babies.

Episode 2x10 - "Sleepers" was developed because the producers wanted to do a Tesla-centric episode, as they view him as one of their favorite characters. Episode 2x11 - "Haunted" rounds Druitt to "something unexpected." The producers were aware that Druitt became more insane the more he teleports, and they wanted to find an explanation why, hence the creation of the energy creature. "Kali" was designed as a somewhat "faith versus science" episode, with faith as the winning party, because any host to the Makri would need a spiritual understanding to it; the Cult of Kali are religious, so they would make suitable hosts, but Edward Forsythe is a believer of science, and would not make a suitable host as he does not share the cult's understanding. In the original draft, Magnus would fall ill, but that later changed to Will before the episode was filmed. Some episodes in the season originally followed a different order. Episode 2x05 - "Pavor Nocturnus" was originally going to be the fourth episode, while Episode 2x04 - "Hero" would become the tenth. Episode 2x10 - "Sleepers" would also be in an earlier slot. However, the order changed, partially due to availability issues with Jonathon Young for Episode 2x10 - "Sleepers". The writers were also working on a Bigfoot-centric episode, where he returns to his home. However, before it could be written, the networks were unhappy with the idea.

Andrew Lockington was appointed the series composer in the season. The producers liked Lockington's contribution to the score as it was more heightened than it was in the first season. Lockington would also capture the emotional temper when it comes to scoring for the emotional scenes. The composer sampled several instruments from around the world to give the score a more ethnic, international feel. Some episodes feature the score taking different styles. For instance Episode 2x06 - "Fragments" features a "cool Michael Mann soundtrack." In "Kali", the score adopted a more Bollywood-style theme, particularly during Will's dance sequence. In addition to the score, there were occasional instances where popular music was featured. "End of Nights" featured a track from the Toronto-based hip hop group 'Down with Webster'.

The second season introduces "moving zorts," an upgraded technique the film crew used to complete the effect where Druitt teleports. The zorts were used specifically to make the sequences where the cast around Heyerdahl freeze until he leaves the screen. The producers wanted to have the camera move during those shots, as they believed it would be "way cooler to have those zorts on the move." One of the more difficult moving zorts included a "triple zort" with other characters who could teleport on the same shot in Episode 2x13 - "Kali, Part II". The sequence was difficult for Tapping, as she had to carry a prop weighing approximately 73 pounds. A three-dimensional hologram of Rachel's office was included in Episode 2x06 - "Fragments"; it was originally intended to feature the hologram throughout the episode, but because doing so would be costly, the producers decided to have one scene with the hologram, so Henry could use it as a blueprint to make an identical office with boxes. For the finale, Anthem decided to make the makri and Big Bertha look like the same creature, though Bertha would be a considerably larger creature. Some scenes involve the makri interacting with real life objects, including clothing. To make a scene where the makri enters a jacket, Wilson used fishing wire to move a sleeve slightly. Big Bertha's actions meanwhile, were largely made underwater. Anthem found that making underwater effects was difficult because there was a different style of movement. Additionally, Anthem produced a sequence where Wexford launches depth charges from his ship. The producers were looking for stock footage of the dropping depth charges, but they could not find one in high-definition. 041b061a72