CBS ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Confirms Female Lead, Pre-Kirk Setting
Long before Bryan Fuller was officially announced to lead a new CBS Star Trek series, the franchise alum spoke openly of his interest in a more diverse Trek, even naming Angela Bassett as an ideal actor for Captain. Fuller’s vision is now one-step closer, as Star Trek: Discovery will indeed have a female lead, operating in a pre-Kirk setting, among other new details.
CBS confirmed the female lead ahead of the TCA press tour panel, albeit without offering many additional details. The Hollywood Reporter also added “with the role potentially also being diverse,” while further announcements from the panel are listed below:
- CBS All-Access will stick with orders of 10-13 episodes for the foreseeable future, confirming Discovery at 13.
- Bosses remain committed to the Star Trek: Discovery title, despite any possible “STD” abbreviation. It’s DSC, people!
- The All-Access service will have 12 minutes of “content” ads per hour, as well stream in HD, rather than 4k.
- Fuller says that a spoken-of, but unexplored event in Trek history will be a major part of the series.
- The series is officially set in the Prime universe, 10 years before Kirk and the Enterprise mission!
- No casting as of yet, but expect larger reveals in October.
- “Absolutely we’re having a gay character,” says Fuller. Also robots! And “re-imagining of existing aliens” aliens! What?
- Despite initial reports, the show will have a female lead, who isn’t necessarily the Captain, but rather a Lieutenant-Commander.
- The series is NOT set during the Romulan War. As to the timing choice, Fuller said so “we can play with all the iconography of those ships and those uniforms.”
- As previously reported, the Discovery design is still being tweaked, despite its Ralph McQuarrie inspiration.
- Certain scenes will be shot or edited multiple ways for sex and violence, in order to find the boundaries with CBS All-Access.
- Fuller notes that we’ve had enough series from the Captain’s point of view, while a female lead of a lower rank “felt like it was going to give us richer context.”
- Fuller is open to exploring known characters pre-Enterprise, but wants to focus on the main cast first.
Shooting in Toronto this fall, the new 13-episode Star Trek: Discovery is officially said to return to the timeline previously rebooted by J.J. Abrams’ film series, as well to be “heavily serialized,” akin to a novel, more-so than an episodic nature. Prior reports have also suggested the series will take place before Kirk and Spock’s Star Trek, as evidenced by the Discovery’s NCC-1031 designation.
Bryan Fuller will headline the new streaming iteration of Star Trek as co-creator and executive producer, while Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer has also joined alongside Gene Roddenberry’s son Rod, fan-favorite Voyager novel alum Kirsten Beyer, franchise vet Joe Menosky and Heroes writer Aron Coleite. So reads the initial synopsis for the series, which debuts on CBS in January 2017 before moving to All-Access:
The brand-new “Star Trek” will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.
Additional details will emerge soon, but what should we expect from the new streaming Star Trek: Discovery?
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