‘Star Trek: Discovery,’ the flagship show that CBS chose to launch exclusively on their streaming-only pay service, CBS All Access, got an early renewal for a second season from the network. It’s a move that should surprise no one, of course, as there was really no way that CBS would let the flagship show end after just one season, which would essentially be admitting defeat in their attempt to breathe life into the All Access program.
The question for fans now, of course, becomes one of what they can expect to see in Season 2. Fortunately, ‘Discovery’ has a large creative team led by co-showrunner Aaron Harberts, who does love to talk at length about the show. Speaking at a panel for reporters following the Television Critics Association presentation, Harberts took plenty of time to chat about the next season and what’s coming to a screen near you:
“We are very interested in tackling themes of faith next year, science vs. faith. We’re interested in different points of view on that and we’re still hashing out what we want to tell. The second season is not a war season. We’re in this interesting pocket of time, 10 years, now nine years before TOS [‘Star Trek: The Original Series’]. There are a lot of things in terms of TOS canon that we want to do some nods to and we’re still figuring it out. This next season is going to be jam-packed with stuff that we wanted to do [in the first season].
“We have time this year, so we have time to do things like more away missions, newer planets, stories that might fall a little bit more into a framework of allegory that people love to get from ‘Trek.’ But we will always continue to have that overarching serialized thread.
“Redemption is a huge theme [of the second season]. The other thing that’s a huge theme for us is taking the Federation from the darkness into the light. One of the things we do hear about is everybody wants this optimistic version of Star Trek right out of the gate. I feel that our show has a lot of hope in it from episode to episode on the character storyline that we’re tracking. By season’s end, people will see the Federation that they’ve come to know and love from [The Original Series] on.”
While CBS doesn’t release specific viewership or subscriber information for the show, its individual episodes, or the streaming service in general, the network has confirmed that its subscription numbers are at an all-time high, and that other shows exclusive to the All Access service are on the way.
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ airs Sunday nights exclusively on CBS’s streaming service, All Access.
