‘Star Trek: Discovery,’ the flagship show that CBS controversially 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.
After a bumpy first season that left some fans excited for “new life” breathed into the franchise but turned others off through its many liberties with existing Trek canon, the question now becomes one of what we can expect to see in Season 2. Fortunately, ‘Discovery’ has a large creative team led by co-showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, who attended WonderCon recently and, in their panel, took the opportunity to talk about “what’s next” for the show.
Berg spoke specifically about how ‘Discovery’ carried a different tone than previous iterations of Trek:
“I think that we are aware of the fact that it is a different era and it’s a different format for the show. I don’t think we’re all necessarily gunning for shock value. Everything always comes out of character for us and story. So, if it feels like something that really would happen in that world and that context, we go in that direction. It’s not a group that leads with, ‘We want to shock people or horrify people or get them talking about it.’ Because it has to follow out of where we are in the story and where we are with the characters, always.”
Harberts added some info about how the show may (or may not) relate to what was established in Trek lore via ‘The Original Series:’
“This was an interesting season because it was set against the backdrop of war. One of the things that we are looking forward to in season two is a tone that we can now be in a more of an exploratory phase, a more diplomatic phase, maybe a bit more of a ‘Trekian’ chapter of this. But everything for us – like Gretchen said – is really driven by character and we felt that that was a great way to…and you’ll learn more about Saru this season, and we had to lay some pipe early on too. What are those threat ganglia? What do they do? What do they represent in the Terran Empire? And a lot of that stuff will fold back in when we’re back on the air.”
Interestingly, the question was asked about how the show might reconcile the issue of how ‘Discovery’ uniforms are so markedly different than those shown in ‘The Original Series’ – a question that bears particular relevance after the last show of the season revealed that the USS Discovery is about to directly meet the crew of the USS Enterprise. Harberts coyly answered the question thusly:
“Well, we bump up against the Enterprise at the end of our finale, and we know what kind of uniforms they wear. So, we will leave it at that.”
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is expected back on the air with new episodes on CBS All Access sometime this Fall.
