Right- As we've seen many examples of in Star Trek- last name nor accent will specifically tie to ethnic or racial origins. Repeat after me: "It's too early, it isn't important, it doesn't matter"
I've always been quasi-curious about what "The God Thing" would've been like. It's something that would've been amazing in the sense of "I can't believe they did that!" or it would be really bad and drop like a lead weight. link Might "The God Thing" be an influence for the second season? EDIT: Nah. Probably not. It would drive off too many subscribers. But what a crazy way to go out if that did happen.
I have mixed feeling about it. I think if we put science up there to be analysed and held accountable then spirituality is fair game. That being said I personally hope that there might be representation of both, like in the one character. That the two systems of understanding (science and faith) don't have to be polarised or at odds. However, that probably doesn't make for a good story.
Ball's Falls is a historical settlement near Niagara Falls - the Wiki page describes it as a ghost town, so its appearance as a frontier town isn't surprising. I wonder whether the cemetery was built for filming, or if it's a real one. The building in the background appears to be Ball's Falls Historical Church - there are photos at https://npca.ca/conservation-areas/balls-falls.
"Glory to the first saved" or how to both sound and not sound Christian at the same time. So this will be Crystal Dragon Jesus" or "Silicon inteligent dinosaur Jesus"?
The tombstones are all fake. They're too pristine, too similar, too lined up, and most importantly, all have the New Eden atomic symbol carved into them (in place of a real life cross or whatever). "The First Saved" might even be more literal than that (while evoking the idea of Christian salvation). It could be a person or group of people saved from certain death by (natives/Starfleet/fluke of weather/their own gumption) in the long, long ago, that their descendents idolize or idealize in a mild form of ancestor worship. Or it could just be Space Jesus. Probably Space Jesus.
Hmm, we already had Space Hitler and could be getting Space Jesus. Plus there's a log cabin in the background. Dare I hope for ...
If it was a real historic cemetery, then local preservation boards, etc., probably would have blocked them from trampling over the area with all those fake headstones to use as a filming area. Kor
I was mainly joking. But it´s true that even texts on tombstones suggest some sort of manism. Power of Archer compels them. Don´t forget they must be all women now. Even Good old Abe.
Okay, after careful observation of the good Reverend's illegal twitpic taken on the set of "Green Harvest", I see 21 tombstones, of which I can decipher 19 names. They are, by row, from left-to-right: 1. J. WHITE - In Our Hearts Forever and Always 2. K. PEREZ 3. J. GREEN - Her Gentle Spirit Will Shine on Us 4. In Loving Memory - WHITE - Beloved Brother 5. D. NELSON - In Our Hearts Forever In Our Minds Forever 6. B. EDWARDS - A Dear Mother and [???] 7. R. SMITH 8. S. MILLER 9. J. SCOTT - Forever in Our Hearts 10. J. LYNN 11. G. ALLEN 12. J. JACKSON 13. R. NGUYEN 14. D. JONES 15. A. RIVERA 16. N?. WILSON 17. In Loving Memory - BROWN 18. L. BROWN - [???] [???] [Uncle?] Friend 19. In Loving Memory - JONES 20. [??? Possibly another JONES] 21. In Loving Memory - [???] Two (maybe three) Jones, two Browns, and two Whites suggests that this is a small community of close families, and we may have characters with these names. There are at least two women (Green and Edwards) and one (White), possibly two men (L. Brown), but due to the lack of first names it's impossible to tell genders outside those with descriptions. The two Browns next to each other might be a married couple, but there are no other signs of joint burial plots as is common around here. D. Jones might be a reference to actor Doug Jones. Other than that, though, I don't recognize any of the names amongst Discovery's cast and crew. The names are very monocultural (other than Nguyen, Rivera, and Perez), but even moreso they're just plain common. We have both Smith and Jones (several of them), as well as Brown, Miller, and Wilson. Five of the top 10 last names in the United States. Most of these names are probably not written by a writer with a thoughtful history behind them. Just random names, I would guess, thought up by someone in production design. Except for Rivera (#61), Nguyen (#229), and Lynn (#862!), all the names (13 out of 16) are in the top 50 of the US Census Bureau popularity list.
I did think they looked awfully clean (and awfully close together), but I didn't notice the significance of the symbol. My bad.