Star Trek: Discovery prop master Mario Moreira talks upgrading tech for the 32nd century

Star Trek: Discovery prop maker Mario Moreira explains the props from season three

FEBRUARY 8, 2021 - The Star Trek: Discovery prop team knows what it takes to make a feature-film quality production look authentic down to the last detail. In a video posted to StarTrek.com this week, Discovery prop master Mario Moreira takes viewers through some of the upgraded and redesigned props you can see in the show’s third season, which sent both the Discovery crew and the prop department boldly into the future.

The first item on the prop table walkthrough is a piece of “dilithium”, a material which features prominently in season three. After settling on a color, prop makers dyed large pieces of acrylic. Moreira explained the next step in the process was to give the dilithium the appearance of having been extracted through a laser mining process. “We sort of hacked away at it and then we laser cut one edge,” he said in the video. “It's a small detail that we’ll really never see on camera, but it's something that we know exists. And the actors know it exists. So when they're handling it, they know exactly that this piece was cut from [...] a larger rock.” Moreira noted that the heightened sense of realism can enhance the performances of the actors who interact with those props, ultimately creating a better production.

Not only do the new props look great on screen, some of them can also be put to use in stunt sequences without sacrificing detail. Knowing that season three would require a “lot of heavy duty stunts and [...] big action sequences”, the props team started experimenting with softer materials combined with “new paint technologies”, creating safe to use, detailed items. One example is the new hand cannon. Moreira pointed out that while the prop weapon looks amazing on film, it is actually constructed with foam and soft to the touch. “They’re all fully stunt ready,” Moreira said of the new designs, adding, “Every [prop] is a 'hero prop' now.”

With detailed craftsmanship, 3D printing technology and creative use of visual effects, the Discovery props team is moving into the future nearly as fast as Discovery itself. “Because we're so far into the future this season, a lot of our props are working in conjunction with VFX,” Moreira said. That collaboration means that the “standard equipment” for any Starfleet officer (the communicator, tricorder and phaser) have all been redesigned, integrating visual effects technology to bring the audience - and the production, itself - into the future. “It’s less of a challenge every year,” Moreira said, adding, “the technology is definitely catching up to our ideas.”

To learn more about the new props and how they’re made, watch the full Discovery prop table walkthrough at StarTrek.com. As a fair warning, this video does contain some season three spoilers. To avoid that problem and to see these new props in action, you can watch season three of Star Trek: Discovery, now available to stream on CBS All Access.