I’m guessing that the folks at CBS are starting to sweat. ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is supposed to be one of the main cornerstones of CBS’s new Streaming service, CBS All Access. While I think that the show will just become one of the most pirated in history, because I can’t see people paying a monthly fee to get access to the shows CBS isn’t confident enough to put on their TV network when they are already paying for Netflix, HULU, Crackle, Seeso, ETC, it is clear that they think people are going to pay for it (along with the Good Wife spin-off, The Good Fight).
The problem here is that Star Trek Discovery has been plagued with problems. They came out of the gate strong with Bryan Fuller as both the creator and showrunner. Last October, he left. The series was supposed to premier this month. Fuller get the show pushed back so the writers could actually create characters and stories worth watching. that moved things to this May. Now, it’s being announced that the show is being delayed, and there’s no new release date announced.
The new problem has to do with the show’s lead, Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green. The network is worried that fans could get confused if they start promoting a show in which she’s a star, while she’s still on Walking Dead. It’s nice that TV executives will sometimes happily show us how stupid they are by showing us how stupid they think we are, because this is one of the dumbest excuses I’ve ever heard. Additionally, they want to make sure the SFX look great, because Trek fans are going to rain fire upon it if they don’t.
The show actually starts production this week. So, we know at least a first episode will get made.
Along with Martin-Green, who plays the lieutenant commander on the Discovery, the show also stars: Michelle Yeoh as Starfleet Captain Georgiou, Doug Jones as Starfleet Science Officer and alien Lt. Saru, Anthony Rapp as “astromycologist” and fungus expert Lt. Stamets, and a trio of kilngons played by Chris Obi, Shazad Latif, Mary Chieffo, and James Frain whom it was just announced will be playing the role of Spock’s father, Sarek. The show will not be part of the current cinematic universe and it takes place 10 years prior to the christening of the USS Enterprise.