‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Producers Reveal Season 2 Themes

Star Trek: Discovery’s sophomore season will explore themes of “science vs. faith,” producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts revealed during CBS’ panel at the Television Critics Association winter tour.

“We are very interested in tackling themes of faith next year, science vs. faith,” Harberts said (via Slashfilm).

“We’re interested in different points of view on that and we’re still hashing out what we want to tell. The second season is not a war season,” Harberts explained.

“We’re in this interesting pocket of time, 10 years, now nine years before [The Original Series]. There are a lot of things in terms of TOS canon that we want to do some nods to and we’re still figuring it out. This next season is going to be jam packed with stuff that we wanted to do [the first season].”

Berg and Harberts said Discovery will introduce a “huge new development” and nice nods to the original 1966 Star Trek series.

The writing staff resumed work in December, with three episodes developed thus far and a season outline handed to producers.

“We have time this year, so we have time to do things like more away missions, newer planets, stories that might fall a little bit more into a framework of allegory that people love to get from Trek,” Harberts said. “But we will always continue to have that overarching serialized thread.”

Discovery resumed its premiere season Sunday with “Despite Yourself,” killing off a member of its core cast.

The Star Trek revival was renewed for a second season in October, after the series drove “subscriber growth, critical acclaim and huge global fan interest for the first premium version of this great franchise,” according to Marc DeBevoise, President and Chief Operating Officer, CBS Interactive.

“This series has a remarkable creative team and cast who have demonstrated their ability to carry on the Star Trek legacy,” DeBevoise said. “We are extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished and are thrilled to be bringing fans the second season of this tremendous series.”

The CBS All Access exclusive series is now available for streaming through Amazon Channels.