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New details on the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery popped up courtesy of series producer/showrunner Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, American Gods). He revealed to Ain’t It Cool News the timeline in which the new series will take place, a name (sort of), and more.

First up is the female lead, who is a lieutenant commander on the ship. She will be referred to as Number One (how very Commander Riker of her) for the majority of the first season; her real name won’t be revealed until towards the end. Strange, but not unfounded. Captain Jean-Luc Picard often referred to Commander William T. Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes) as Number One, but it was only Picard. Everyone else referred to him by rank and name. That leaves me to wonder just how much interaction she’ll have with the rest of the cast. Or…she might be a proto-Data with no name yet. I’m just guessing.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery will be told over 13 episodes where “each episode is a chapter, within each chapter will be a beginning, middle and end,” he told EW.

Fuller also said that the first hour of 13 will be penned by himself and Alex Kurtzman, and the second hour will be written by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country — so…the good ones). The series will also take place in the Prime (aka Classic) timeline where Captain Kirk is still William Shatner. The universe in which the most recent Star Trek movies currently occupy is referred to as “Kelvin.”

“We’ll probably have a few more aliens than you typically have on the show. We wanted to paint a picture of Starfleet where we’re going to have new exciting aliens and also new imagining of existing aliens,” Fuller previously revealed to EW. And will there be a gay character? “Absolutely we’re having a gay character,” he added.

Star Trek: Discovery is set about 10 years before Captain Kirk sets off on his mission with the Enterprise. “There’s an incident and and event in Star Trek history, that’s been talked about but never been explored. To do this series, we’re telling a much more serialized story, to dig deep into a very tantalizing storyline. And we have a character who’s on a journey, and in order to understand something that is alien she first has to understand herself,” Fuller added.

Fuller also said that they will be focusing on the new characters for the first season, but as they move forward, original Star Trek characters could appear in some way. I hear Scott Bakula technically works for CBS right now on NCIS: New Orleans. What are the chances we’ll see him reprise his role as Captain Jonathan Archer in some way?

Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) will serve as co-showrunners on the new series. Jesse Alexander (Alias, Heroes, Hannibal), Kristen Beyer (various Star Trek novels), Aron Eli Coleite (Heroes), and veteran Star Trek series writer, Joe Menosky, are on the writing staff.

Star Trek: Discovery begins production in Toronto this September and is set to debut on CBS in January 2017 before permanently setting up shop in their streaming service CBS All Access.

Source: ComingSoon.net

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.

3 CommentsLeave a comment

  • First thing that comes to mind is Cpt. Pike and Number One from the original pilot of Star Trek- The Cage. Perhaps this is Number One’s ship just before she went to the Enterprise under Pike’s command?

  • If they are referring to the kobiashi maru incident, then it follows that Captain Archer would be involved somehow. The timeline is correct, since Enterprise was set 100 years before TOS. They could also explore the beginnings of the Federation, which would also involve Captain Archer. I’m hopeful. I want to see Scott Bakula in Star Fleet uniform again!

  • grac There are few things to unpack here. First, this essentially confirms that the lead will the second-in-command of the ship, a first for the captain-centric Trek franchise. Second, this is a very cool nod to the character played by Majel Barrett (later Majel Barrett Roddenberry) in the original Star Trek pilot “The Cage,” which featured a female first officer who only goes by Number One. NBC and early test audiences balked at the thought of a woman being so far up the chain of command and the character was removed entirely from the second pilot, with Leonard Nimoy’s Spock taking on many of her qualities. Third, Fuller says that her real name will be revealed before the end of the show’s first season, which opens the door to another big question: why is her name hidden and why save it for such a big reveal? Is it possible that Number One is somehow related to someone else in the Star Trek timeline? Or will it be a reveal that somehow serves the plot of the show’s first season, which is be heavily serialized.The full interview is a treasure trove of intriguing tidbits, so let’s run down what you need to know:As we’ve previously heard, the series will be set in the “Prime” timeline rather than the Kelvin Timeline of the recent movies. This decision was made to keep the series independent of the new films, allowing both to operate separately. Specifically, Discovery is set after the events of Star Trek: Enterprise and a decade before Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise begin their five-year mission.