Before I dive into the facts, I want to take moment to editorialize. While I’m excited about a new Star Trek series, especially if it means Bryan Fuller is the one making it happen, I’m worried that it’s doomed from the start. This has nothing to do with the quality of the show. It’s more that I envision this being one of the most pirated TV shows in network history.
Access to Star Trek: Discovery is limited to CBS’ pay app. That means that you’ll be paying $6 a month to get access to the show, along with all the other stuff that CBS offers on regular network television. This is on top of what people pay for cable, premium cable, internet, Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and whatever else the subscribe to. The main difference being that those other services offer a lot of new things to the consumer, while most people would realistically be subscribing to watch Trek. Sure, if it goes well, CBS probably has a slate of shows lined up and ready to go. I just picture more people downloading the show than paying for it.
Now, let’s talk about the facts.
In a recent interview, Fuller described the show as a novel, and each episode is a chapter in the story. This has always been my preferred form of visual narrative. Stand alone stories have their place, but I like a story with depth. Fuller also noted that this will be the first version of Star Trek that isn’t focused on the Captain. In fact, the main character will be a woman of color with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
In regards to the show’s place in the Star Trek Timeline, Fuller has announced that Discovery will take place 10 years before Captain Kirk’s 5-year mission, and “will act as a bridge between Scott Bacula‘s Enterprise series and the original.” The show will definitely intersect with a famous event from Star Trek Canon, but he didn’t say which, just that it will not be the Romulan War.
Finally, it’s been said that we might see familiar faces from the Trek universe in the show. It will be interesting to see just what that means. I’m guessing that it firmly plants it in the new Star Trek timeline, as it wouldn’t make sense for anyone from TOS to reprise a role 40 years after the fact in a story that takes place 10 years before theirs did. There is always time travel…