Star Trek fans are understandably nervous as we approach the (oft-delayed) premiere date for the newest TV iteration of the series, titled ‘Star Trek: Discovery.’ The production of the first series has been plagued by several difficulties, including the departure of original showrunner Bryan Fuller. Initial production design showcases and the few teaser trailers released to date have many Trekkies questioning the design and aesthetics of what they are seeing, given that the show is supposed to take place in the Trek timeline about 10 years before the “classic” 1960s series.
One of the producers of ‘Discovery,’ Alex Kurtzman, took the opportunity in a recent interview to attempt to assuage some of these fears. As he puts it:
“If you are a fan of Trek, you are going to see a lot of things which hearken back to the original series and elements of the original series… I’m not just talking plot, but the spirit of what that show was. We are going to be revisiting a couple of things on ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ that I think people are going to find familiar. Without spoiling anything we are adhering to a timeline and sticking to the rules, but also I think finding some new areas and avenues that have only been alluded to, but never fully explored.”
A little vague, but it is comforting to at least know that fan concerns are being noted. As Kutzman also mentioned, the creative team behind ‘Discovery’ is well-versed in Star Trek lore, and it’s their priority as well to keep the show in-line with what has come before:
“You’ve got a roomful of people with very different and very devoted relationships to Star Trek in that writers room. And that carries on a pretty proud tradition of Trek being written by fans. You have to respect canon as it’s being written. You can’t say, ‘That never happened.’ No, no no, you can’t do that, they would kill you. Star Trek fans would kill you. No, you have to respect canon. You have to understand the timelines and what the different timelines were and what the different universes were and how they all worked together. You have to keep very meticulous track of who, what, where, when and why. And we have people in the writer’s room whose sole job is to say, ‘Nope, can’t do that!’”
Fans won’t have too long to wait in order to find out what the show will feature, as the premiere of ‘Discovery’ is just a few short months away!
‘Sat Trek: Discovery’ will premiere on CBS on September 24, 2017, before moving to the streaming-only service CBS All Access for the remainder of it’s first-season run.
