Anyone who has watched the Season 3 premiere, “That Hope is You, Part 1,” knows how gorgeous it looks. Director Olatunde Osunsanmi utilizes the unique geology of Iceland to truly make it feel like Burnham has landed in a strange place (and time). Iceland, famous for its dramatic landscapes, is volcanically and geologically active, which means much of its countryside is made up of dark volcanic rock and basalt covered; geologically, the island includes sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers. It is like nowhere else on Earth and, while it is on Earth, for many Star Trek fans, it looks like it could be on another plant. In the first episode, Discovery mostly uses Iceland as a stand-in for the planet of Hima, where Burnham crashes after her trip as the Red Angel through a temporal wormhole, pulling Book’s ship down the surface in the process. “Well, obviously we jumped to the future, and so we wanted a place that looked very different,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman told TrekCore of the filming location back in 2019. “I’ve wanted to shoot in Iceland for a really long time, so we looked at a bunch of different options and Iceland turned out to be doable — so we did it!” “It was amazing,” said showrunner Michelle Paradise. “The landscape is absolutely incredible, and it feels otherworldly just walking around. The places where we got to shoot were just tremendous and everyone [we worked with locally] was phenomenal. We were very fortunate to have been there.” Filming on Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 began back in July 2019 on location in Iceland. After wrapping up there, production moved to Pinewood Studios in Toronto and Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario. A post shared by Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadise1) on Oct 12, 2019 at 10:30am PDT A post shared by Michelle Paradise (@michelleparadise1) on Oct 12, 2019 at 10:41am PDT
