The Star Trek franchise has long been known for its massive scale and productions, but that doesn't make the scope of Star Trek: Discovery any less amazing to actor Anson Mount. Mount, who has worked on big productions like Marvel's Inhumans and AMC's Hell On Wheels, recently spoke about the massive enterprise Season 2 is and painted a picture as to just how much space the show can occupy:
It's also the biggest production I've ever been a part of, and I don't just mean TV production, I mean anything. There's six soundstages that we fill. It's enormous. The sets, the whole machine of it all, sometimes running two units at once.
Anson Mount has been around Hollywood for quite a while, so for him to say that about Star Trek: Discovery really shows just how big the show can be. One downside of big productions, however, is that they often mean a lot of extra work, and Mount said he's spent some long hours on set while filming his role as Christopher Pike. Luckily, Mount told Comicbook he's allowed to have his dog Mac hang out with him during filming to keep him company, but added the dog has a bad habit of snoring at the least opportune times. One has to wonder just how loudly that dog is snoring considering how big Mount said these sets can be!
Although the show sets can be big, Anson Mount's view of Star Trek: Discovery's typical production may be just slightly inflated. His stint on the show comes at the same time CBS removed former showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg from the show. Mount was part of the first episode of the season, and the cost for that episode was reportedly so high that future episodes would have to compensate to make up for it. That said, Mount seemed to have no complaints as he talked about working on Episode 2 of the show and what it means to him to be a part of the Star Trek franchise:
It's crazy man. Getting cast in Star Trek is not like getting any other job. It's also kind of like a rite of passage that very few actors get to enjoy. It's nuts, because you're not just joining a cast, you're joining cultural touchstone. A big family. Jonathan Frakes, who played Number One in Star Trek: The Next Generation, he's our current director for episode two. Of course, I worked with Colm Meaney and they're constantly asking me about Colm and Marvin Rush, who was the DP on Hell on Wheels, shot a lot of Star Trek.
Anson Mount will be featured in at least the first couple episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, as the Season 1 cliffhanger showed the Enterprise face to face with the Discovery. As mentioned, Mount plays Captain Christopher Pike, who was captain of the Enterprise just before William Shatner's James T. Kirk took command. Whether or not the show's sets will continue to stay massive now that Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg are out as showrunners remains to be seen, although CBS certainly has a vested interest in making the show feel big to keep viewers interested in subscribing to CBS All Access.
Star Trek: Discovery is still in production for Season 2, and is expected to air on CBS All Access in 2019. For a look of other things headed to streaming services in the near future, visit our Amazon and Netflix premiere guide. For a more general look at what's coming to television, hit up our summer premiere guide.
