Wrath Of Khan Writer To Pen Star Trek Discovery Episode

The Star Trek franchise is celebrating its 50th anniversary in two major way. The first was the release of Star Trek Beyond into theaters, and the second is the January 2017 premiere of Star Trek Discovery, the first new Star Trek television series in a decade. Few details about Discovery have been revealed as of yet, but showrunner Bryan Fuller just spilled a few more.

Perhaps most exciting for longtime Star Trek fans is that the second episode of Star Trek Discovery will be written by Nicholas Meyer. Meyer is the screenwriter of three of the six Star Trek movies to feature the crew of Star Trek: The Original Series (the three good ones, many fans would note): Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Meyer’s episode will follow the premiere episode, which is written by executive producers Fuller and Alex Kurtzman (who co-wrote 2009’s Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness).

Fuller also noted that the first season of Star Trek Discovery will be 13-episodes longs, but hopes to cut future seasons down to 10 episodes. The idea to mimic HBO’s Game of Thrones model, meaning Fuller would rather go big through 10 episodes than stretch the show’s resources over a longer season. This is probably also a boon to Fuller personally, as he is also serving as the showrunner of Starz’ American Gods, which will debut with nine episodes in 2017. To that same end, Fuller has hired co-showrunners for Star Trek Discovery, the writing team of Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts. Berg & Harberts worked with Fuller previously on Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies.

The last major bit of news is a new detail about the show’s main protagonist. We know that this character will be a human woman who is an officer of Starfleet, but who is not at the rank of captain. We still don’t know her name, but Fuller revealed that she is referred to in the show as “Number One.” That phrase should ring a bell for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Number One is how Captain Jean-Luc Picard referred to his first officer. An Easter egg, perhaps?

EDIT: H Lucas Campbell on Twitter (@GoSpaceChimpGo) noted that Number One as also used to designate the first officer of Captain Pike in the original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series, and that this Number One was a woman. We know that Discovery is set in the original Star Trek timeline, and fans have speculated that the series will take place sometime between the events of Star Trek Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series (based on the registry number of Discovery, the ship that gives the series its title). Could Pike’s first officer be the protagonist?

Star Trek Discovery will premiere on CBS in January 2017, then will continue on CBS’ streaming service CBS All Access.

Source: AICN