It’s hard to believe that Star Trek debuted 50 years ago, but it’s really been that long. Since then, there have been multiple movies and TV shows that have taken place in the universe created by Gene Roddenberry, and soon, there will be another.
CBS has announced that a new show called ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ will debut in May 2017. While the show will not be on network television, it will be available for streaming through CBS All Access, a streaming service that provides exclusive CBS content. After it has appeared for 24 hours on CBS All Access, the show will then be able to be viewed on Netflix.
The first trailer for Star Trek: Discovery debuted earlier this year, and everyone has been clamoring for more information ever since. In the meantime, facts are trickling in slowly, and here’s a rundown of what’s been established so far:
– Bryan Fuller, who is known for his work on the shows Pushing Daisies and Hannibal, is serving as the executive producer for Star Trek: Discovery. Nicholas Meyer, who wrote and directed Star Trek II and Star Trek VI, will be working as a writer and a producing consultant on the series, while David Semel is directing the first episode.
– The ship in Star Trek: Discovery is inspired by the NASA space shuttle Discovery, as well as the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick.
– Star Trek: Discovery will be set 10 years before the original Star Trek series and will be set in the main universe which was inhabited by William Shatner’s Captain Kirk rather than the Star Trek universe that is currently being depicted in the films. Basically, this show fills in the more than 100 year gap between the TV show Star Trek: Enterprise (mid-22nd century) and the original Star Trek (2260s).
– There are some rumors that each season will be unique in the style of Fargo or American Horror Story with a different cast and characters, but this has not been confirmed.
– The female lead on Star Trek: Discovery will be the Number One rather than the captain. The show will focus on her as the main character, departing from the other shows that have dealt primarily with the captain’s experiences and point of view. This will provide a different sort of perspective that will separate the new series from all the others.
– There will be one gay character on Star Trek: Discovery, and Fuller has also shared that there will be robots and aliens aboard the ship in true keeping with the classic spirit of the show.
– The first season of Star Trek: Discovery will consist of 13 episodes and will tell a continuous story rather than 13 different individual stories. It does not seem that all of the episodes will be made available at once, as is the usual with streaming on Netflix. Rather, it appears that a new episode will be released on a weekly basis.
Commenting in a joint statement on the upcoming show, which has now been pushed back from January to May, co-creators and executive producers, Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, stated:
“Bringing Star Trek back to television carries a responsibility and mission: to connect fans and newcomers alike to the series that has fed our imaginations since childhood. We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality.”