CBS is preparing to take audiences back to the Final Frontier with an all-new and enlightened original journey with STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. The latest installment of the franchise has already hit some turbulent space and it hasn’t even launched the airwaves, but set your phasers for stun and prepare to engage!
When CBS first announced that it wanted to bring Star Trek back to television, many imagined that the network was caught up in the celebratory sensations linked to the long-enduring franchise which is still in the midst of its 50th Anniversary. The Original Series which took popular culture by storm and introduced us to Gene Roddenberry’s crew of the now legendary USS Enterprise created a phenomenon that has lead to four proper spin-off series, an animated Saturday morning TV show, thirteen motion pictures and countless hours of fan adulation!
With the growing advent of original subscriber base content CBS is hoping to lure a larger audience into its clutches on CBS All Access with Star Trek: Discovery the first new series hitting the television market in 12 years. The last of course being the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise which starred Scot Bakula. Since then Star Trek was rebooted on the big screen thanks to J.J. Abrams who with his genius engineered an entirely refreshing take on the original recasting all the major roles and turning the Enterprise into a luxury-sized space Lexus!
There have been three films to follow, Abrams dictum, the last released in 2016 Star Trek Beyond doing well enough at the box office to stimulate interest in the studio to pursue a follow-up that may will bridge the generations. In the meantime, there is more than enough Star Trek to go around and CBS is hoping to pique audiences enough with the latest journey which promises to be a very different voyage in to the far reaches of space, with a focus not necessarily on the individual sitting in the captain’s chair, but on a crew member embarking on their greatest adventure yet.
Actor Jason Isaacs in the role of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY Capt. Gabriel Lorca in an image first released by Entertainment Weekly.
Of Discovery
This much we already know about the new Trek series, it won’t be about the captains at the center of the seat. There will be captains along this journey, the captain of the Starship Discovery will be played by Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter fame. He plays Captain Gabriel Lorca, a master tactician who will find himself in the crosshairs of the Federation’s oldest adversaries, the Klingons. The series is set before Captain James T. Kirk’s historic mission, making Star Trek: Discovery another prequel series.
And although their will be some familiar faces popping into the narrative, it’s not necessary centered on the enduring legacy of a certain Starship Enterprise. It follows the life trials of a first officer played by Sonequa Martin-Green who left from one franchise hit (The Walking Dead) and into the spotlight of another. Martin-Green will be playing First Officer Michael Burnhum of the USS Shenzhou and her life is about to open up when she sets foot aboard Discovery. This will be the first time that a Trek series will be seen through the eyes of someone outside the captaincy.
Martin-Green has commented that it hasn’t escaped her, the enormity of what she’s about to step into and the legacy that is Star Trek. Though there has been certain controversies surrounding the production, first the obvious delays in production, the fact that it will be a serialized story that will run the length of the season, but strangely some have commented on the diversity among its cast, which is truly shocking! Considering Roddenberry’s mission of inclusivity of all cultures, races and religions that have at the core of Star Trek’s eddic, Discovery is a reflection of the times.
Her character, Michael Burnhum (deliberately a name that is most commonly associated for a man’s name) is on a very unique trajectory, one that audiences of Star Trek have never experienced before. Burnhum is a student of the Vulcan Learning Center and the Vulcan Science Academy — in fact the first human to emerge from these academies, hence her unique relation to Sarek, Spock’s father (played by James Frain). Show-runners Aaron Harberts and Grethen J. Berg are promising it will be very different, following the path of this one character to discovery.
Fans won’t have much longer to wait! Star Trek Discovery is set to premiere on CBS on Sept. 24 before transporting on the CBS All Access streaming service, with distribution on Netflix across the world.
Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sept. 24th on CBS with First Season episodes streaming on CBS All Access.
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