Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is the seventh series in the Star Trek Universe and when it premiered on September 24, 2017, it was the first new Star Trek episode since the Star Trek: Enterprise aired its series finale on May 13, 2005.

A lot can change in 12 years and with Star Trek: Discovery, a lot did. The most notable change that presented itself in the new series was the changing of the guard – Rick Berman was no longer associated with Star Trek.

Star Trek: Discovery was created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, both of whom bring plenty of Star Trek experience to the series. Fuller, a writer and producer, has experience creating shows such as Pushing Daisies, Hannibal, Dead Like Me, and American Gods.

His Star Trek background includes being a writer and executive producer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Unfortunately, issues arose between Fuller and the CBS suits, so much so that Fuller ended up walking away from Discovery to focus all of his attention on American Gods.

Alex Kurtzman, a director, writer, producer, and creator, is well known for TV series such as Fringe, Hawaii Five-O, Sleepy Hollow, Clarice, and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

As far as Star Trek goes, Kurtzman started on the feature film side as the writer of the 2009 film, Star Trek, following that up with the 2013 film, Star Trek Into Darkness. On the television side, Kurtzman began with Star Trek: Discovery then continued on with Star Trek: Short Takes, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and is the executive producer on Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Prodigy.

The Series Starts Before The Events Of The Original Series

When the series first begins, we find the starship Discovery in action a decade before the events began on Star Trek: The Original Series. Here, we pick up with Commander Michael Burnham, whose hasty actions cause a war to start between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingons. Her actions ultimately get her court-martialed, stripped of her high rank, and jettisoned over to the USS Discovery as their new science specialist.

Star Trek: Discovery’s first season ends with the crew helping to put a stop to the war with the Klingons. The second season begins with Discovery still in the 23^rd Century dealing with a strange alien, Red Angel, while investigating seven mysterious signals and fighting off a rogue AI. The season ends as Discovery is propelled 900 years into the future.

The move to push Discovery so far into the future was a strategic one. It allowed the writers to move away from the “same ol” 23^rd Century stories and open up new and complicated worlds for the crew. The move appears to be paying off.

Sonequa Martin-Green Is The Star Of Star Trek: Discovery

Sonequa Martin-Green leads the cast as Michael Burnham (first Commander, then science specialist, finally Captain). Raised with Vulcan culture and traditions, we find out early on that Burnham is the adopted sister of the most famous Vulcan of all, Spock (actor Ethan Peck portrays a young Spock in the second season).

As Saru, Doug Jones is the first officer of the USS Discovery and is an alien species called the Kelpien, a new species created especially for Star Trek: Discovery. On the Kelpien home planet, their species was hunted as prey, which allowed Saru to develop the ability to sense incoming danger.

Anthony Rapp plays Chief Engineer Paul Stamets. He also holds the title of science officer whose ability with astromycology helped develop Discovery’s experimental propulsion system, the Spore Drive. Rapp’s Stamets is the first openly gay character in a Star Trek series, although it was learned that in the 2016 feature film, Star Trek Beyond, Hiraku Sulu was portrayed as gay.

Also joining the main cast are Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly and Wilson Cruz as medical officer Hugh Culber.

Throughout the first four seasons, Star Trek: Discovery has seen a number of actors as part of the main cast for certain periods of time. These include Shazad Latif as Voq/Ash Tyler, Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca, Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Rachael Ancheril as Nhan, David Ajala as Book, Tig Notaro as Jett Reno, and Blu del Barrio as Adira Tal, the first non-binary character in a Star Trek series.

The Series Has A Number Of Star Trek Firsts

There have been a number of firsts with Star Trek: Discovery, the first being Sonequa Martin-Green as the first African American female lead. Secondly, Discovery introduced the first openly gay character with Anthony Rapp’s Stamets, and finally, the first non-binary character was introduced and played by the very first openly non-binary actor, Blu del Barrio.

Star Trek: Discovery has had a somewhat crazy production schedule. It first premiered with 15 episodes in September 2017 but its second season didn’t premiere until January 2019. It took another year and a half for the third season but the fourth season came much faster, only having a ten-month break between seasons.

A fifth season is currently in the works, but by the time fans see it (sometime in 2024), two years will have passed.