When news of a Star Trek television revival was first floated around, it’s safe to say some fans weren’t expecting the series to land on a premium streaming service.
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But according to showrunner Aaron Harberts, Star Trek: Discovery being on CBS All Access does not guarantee certain elements of mature storytelling.
“Every writer’s impulse when you get to work on the streaming shows with no parameters is to go crazy.” Harberts explained to Entertainment Weekly. “But then you look at things like: How does nudity play on Trek? Eh, it feels weird. How does a lot of [profanity] on Trek? Not so great.”
As Harberts explained, Discovery will be more mature than the earlier Trek properties, but will honor those predecessors.
“I’m not saying we’re not doing some violent things or doing a tiny bit of language.” Harberts said. “But what’s important to the creative team is the legacy of the show — which is passed down from mother to daughter, from father to son, from brother to brother. We want to make sure we’re not creating a show that fans can’t share with their families. You have to honor what the franchise is. I would say we’re not going much beyond hard PG-13.”
According to Harberts, Discovery will still push boundaries – but with regards to the characters within it.
“Are there moments where it merits it that we’re trying to push here and there? I would say we’re trying to push more by having the type of complicated messed-up characters who aren’t necessarily embraced on broadcast.”
Set 10 years prior to the five-year mission of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Discovery follows the adventures of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new lifeforms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The series will feature a new ship, new characters, and new missions while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.
Star Trek: Discovery‘s cast also includes Jason Isaacs as the starship Discovery’s Captain Lorca, Rainn Wilson as Star Trek: The Original Series character HarryMudd, James Frain as Sarek, Spock’s father, and Michelle Yeoh as CaptainGeorgiou, 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.
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 was announced in 2015 and, though the series intends to abandon at least one key Roddenberry principal and adjust the series for modern expectation, CBS hoped to have the series debut as part of Star Trek‘s 50th-anniversary celebration. CBS missed that window and instead the series will come close to a debut on the 30thanniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24, 2017.
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