Star Trek: Discovery EP Explains Connection To Original Series And Canon

Star Trek: Discovery is going to carry a strong relationship with Star Trek: The Original Series in more ways than one.

In an interview with CNET, executive producer Alex Kurtzman says that fans will find certain aspects Star Trek: Discovery to be recognizable from Star Trek: The Original Series both in terms of story and of tone.

"If you are a fan of Trek you are going to see a lot of things which hearken back to the original series and elements of the original series," Kurtzman says. "I am not just talking plot, but the spirit of what that show was. We are going to be revisiting a couple of things on Star Trek: Discovery that I think people are going to find familiar. Without spoiling anything we are adhering to a timeline and sticking to the rules, but also I think finding some new areas and avenues that have only been alluded to, but never fully explored."

Kurtzman may be cryptic about the details of the plot of Star Trek: Discovery, but he is crystal clear about the reverence he and the show's writers have for established Star Trek canon.

"You have got a roomful of people with very different and very devoted relationships to Star Trek in that writers' room. And that carries on a pretty proud tradition of Trek being written by fans," he says. "You have to respect canon as it's being written. You cannot say, 'That never happened.' No, no no, you can't do that, they would kill you. Star Trek fans would kill you. No, you have to respect canon. You have to understand the timelines and what the different timelines were and what the different universes were and how they all worked together. You have to keep very meticulous track of who, what, where, when and why. And we have people in the writer's room whose sole job is to say, 'Nope, can't do that!'"

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 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.

Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24, 2017.

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