Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 11 “Su’Kal” was filmed in a Canadian former prison

Kingston Penitentiary, Kingston, Ontario

DECEMBER 23, 2020 - It was around this time last year, in a similarly slow spell of Star Trek news, that we brought you the story of a very special location in Canada that was being used to film Star Trek: Discovery. And now, it looks like this week is the week we finally get to see it in action.

A story from the Kingston Whig Standard out of Kingston, Ontario, said this week that scenes filmed in its historic former prison, Kingston Penitentiary, will air in this Thursday’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery. The old penitentiary, nicknamed “Kingston Pen”, is one of Canada’s oldest and most notorious. It’s also home to some remarkable architecture. The site, which opened in 1835, was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990, and operated as a prison as recently as 2013.

Nowadays, it’s used mostly as a filming location due to its distinctive architecture. Use of the site for film and television productions is seen as a boon to the local economy, since it’s usually local laborers who build the sets. The Kingston Whig Standard says the local film office attributed more than $160,000 of local economy upside to the production of Star Trek: Discovery.

And it’s not just Discovery helping Kingston Pen onto the small screen; the site has also been used as a backdrop for Murdoch Mysteries, Titans and Alias Grace, as well as The Amazing Race Canada.

Star Trek: Discovery season three episode 11, “Su’Kal” airs this Thursday, Christmas Eve, on CBS All Access in the United States and on CTV’s Sci-Fi Channel and Crave TV in Canada. It’ll air on Christmas Day on Netflix in other parts of the world.