Star Trek: Discovery Showrunners Explain Delays

With today’s premiere date announcement, the long wait for Star Trek: Discovery seems to finally be coming to an end. Still, some fans may be wondering what caused so many delays in the first place.

With the premiere now on the calendar, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg are opening up about what really caused the delays. Partly it was waiting for star Sonequa Green-Martin to finish with her commitments to The Walking Dead, but more than anything it was the intense work put into building the world of Star Trek: Discovery.

“There is so much artistry and custom craftsmanship that go into every prop, every costume, every set,” Harberts explained to Entertainment Weekly. “These things have to be designed and manufactured. We flew a costume designer to Switzerland to pick up the fabric for the Starfleet uniforms. Several items on our uniforms are 3D printed. Some of our sets can take over six weeks to make. CBS has given us the time and the money to make something the fans will find worthwhile.”

“You can’t cut corners or have 95 percent of what’s on screen be completely original and inspired and then have five percent something you bought at a store,” Berg says. “It has to be cohesive — and it is. I’m so proud of what’s on screen, it’s so beautiful and it’s taking world-building to a whole new level.”

Star Trek: Discovery was originally slated for a January 2017 premiere but a production delay pushed the release window back first to May and then even further. While fans have been waiting impatiently for the first Star Trek television series in over a decade, executive producer Alex Kurtzman has assured fans that the final product will be worth the wait.

CBS wants Star Trek: Discovery to be a prestige series on par with the likes ofGame of Thrones, something that can really sell the CBS All Access streaming service. To that effect, CBS has added all of the past Star Trek television series to the CBS All Access streaming service, as well as a handful of the Star Trek feature films.

Star Trek: Discovery was created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. Fuller was originally intended to be Discovery’s showrunner but was forced step down due to commitments to Starz’ adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts have taken over as showrunners.

Star Trek: Discovery takes place roughly a decade prior to the five-year mission of Star Trek: The Original Series. In breaking with franchise tradition, the show’s main protagonist will not be a captain. Instead, it will be First Officer Michael Burnham, played by The Walking Dead alum Sonequa Martin-Green.

Star Trek: Discovery‘s cast also includes Jason Isaacs as the starship Discovery’sCaptain Lorca, Rainn Wilson as Star Trek: The Original Series character Harry Mudd, James Frain as Sarek, Spock’s father, and Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou, the captain of another Starfleet ship, the Shenzhou, which will be important to the plot of Star Trek: Discovery. Doug Jones and Anthony Rapp both play science officers. Mary Wiseman will play a final year Starfleet Academy cadet.

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