'Star Trek: Discovery': Nicholas Meyer Not Invited Back for Season 2

An important voice from Star Trek's past was not invited back to work on Star Trek: Discovery Season Two, and he isn't sure why.

Nicholas Meyer tells Midnight's Edge that he did some work on the first season of Discovery, but hasn't heard anything from CBS regarding the show's sophomore outing.

"I was involved with it for the first year, and I worked on it, I wrote things on it, and then I was not invited for the second year. I don't know why," Meyer says. "I was brought on to it by Bryan Fuller, who was the original showrunner. I had never worked on a television series before and thought that would be an interesting thing to do, as indeed it was. What my contributions to it were hard to determine, because television is a group effort and there is so much overlap that I can't either claim or refute credit for the end result because the difference between what is written and gets filmed and what was talked about in conference before things are written is very, very hard to determine with what you would call meaningful or objective precision."

Meyer's lack of involvement may have to do with the creative shuffle around Discovery's showrunner slot. Fuller left Discovery before the first season debuted. Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, two writer/producers that Fuller had worked with before, were then chosen to share showrunner duties for Season One. Partway through production on Season Two, Harberts and Berg were fired for bad behavior in the writers' room and Discovery co-creator/executive producer Alex Kurtzman replaced them.

Meyer confessed that he couldn't name his specific contributions to Discovery as television is such a collaborative medium. He also refused to comment on Fuller's departure from the series, as he was "not privy to what went on" and didn't want "to peddle unsubstantiated gossip that I wasn't privy to," though he did note that Fuller was also committed to Starz' American Gods.

Meyer is a key voice in Star Trek's history. He is sometimes credited as helping to rescue the franchise with his direction and uncredited script doctoring on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan after the poor reception and performance of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He went on to write the screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and to write and direct Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He's also written Ceti Alpha V, a three-hour miniseries about Khan Noonien Singh, though the project's future is uncertain.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the U.S., through CraveTV in Canada and through Netflix in other international markets.

Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto and will premiere on CBS All Access on January 17, 2019.

[H/T] TrekMovie