And you thought that ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ was divisive to fans.
Before the show has even premiered, the newest incarnation of the franchise, ‘Star Trek: Discovery,’ is causing some serious inner turmoil in the hearts, stomachs, and other various organs of Trekkies around the world.
First, all but the first episode of the show was announced to be “televised” exclusively on CBS’s “All Access” streaming service, meaning that fans will have to pay the $5.99/month premium just to watch it weekly. Next, the show underwent multiple push-backs of its premiere date, going from January 2017 to May 2017 and finally landing all the way in the last week of September 2017. The first trailer and images from the show made brows furrow when it was shown that the costumes and sets look very sleek and modern – at odds with the fact that the series is set 10 years before the 1960s “Original Series” in the timeline (oh, and the Klingons now look way different than they did back on that show too). Most recently, there was a bit of a stir at San Diego Comic Con when the creative team proclaimed that the series’ main character, African-American human character Lieutenant Michael Burnham (played by Sonequa Martin-Green), was in fact Original Series main character Spock’s “half-sister” (a claim they later even more confusingly attempted to clarify as being not really that thing they said).
So yeah… fans are a little on edge. This next on-set anecdote, then, from the upcoming feature on the show by Entertainment Weekly, probably won’t help matters any:
The director halts the action and Lorca, played by British actor Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter fame, steps off the stage. The episode’s writer, Kirsten Beyer, approaches to give a correction on his “for God’s sakes” ad lib.
“Wait, I can’t say ‘God?’” Isaacs asks, amused. “I thought I could say ‘God’ or ‘damn’ but not ‘goddamn.’”
Beyer explains that Star Trek is creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a science-driven 23rd-century future where religion basically no longer exists.
“How about ‘for f—’s sake?’” he shoots back. “Can I say that?”
“You can say that before you can say ‘God,’” she dryly replies.
So the show and it’s creative team, who just mere weeks ago so adamantly proclaimed that they were moving past the “archaic” Roddenberry Rule about not having any conflict among Starfleet shipmates, has chosen to attempt to enact this seemingly arbitrary guideline? After there was a whole Trek feature film dedicated to the entire premise of possibly finding God in outer space decades ago (that’s ‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,’ for those of you keeping track at home)?
We don’t have long to wait to see what ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ can truly bring to the table.
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ premieres September 24, 2017 on CBS.
