Star Trek: Discovery is an American
science fiction web television series created for CBS All Access by
Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. It is the first series developed
specifically for that service, and the first Star Trek series since
Star Trek: Enterprise concluded in 2005. Set roughly ten years before
the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and separate from the
timeline of the "reboot" feature films.
The series was announced in November 2015,
with Fuller joining as showrunner and wanting to make an anthology
series. CBS wanted a single, serialized show first, with an idea for
a prequel to the original series developed. After further
disagreements with CBS and struggles with other commitments, Fuller
left the series in October 2016, replaced as showrunner by Gretchen
J. Berg and Aaron Harberts for the first season, with producing
support from Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman did not return after the first
season, while Berg and Harberts were fired by CBS during production
on the second; Kurtzman took over as sole showrunner.
Star Trek: Discovery premiered on
September 19th, 2017, at ArcLight Hollywood, before debuting on CBS
and CBS All Access on September 24th. The rest of the 15-episode
first season was streamed weekly on All Access. It was seen in Canada
on the premium cable channel SPACE. The series' release led to record
subscriptions for All Access and positive reviews from critics.
By June 2016, Fuller had met with several
actors, and said that "we want to carry on what Star Trek does
best, which is being progressive. So it's fascinating to look at all
of these roles through a colorblind prism and a gender-blind
prism". A month later is was announced that the series would
feature minority, female, and LGBTQ characters. Fuller said there
would be "about seven" lead characters, and unlike previous
Star Trek series would star a lieutenant commander to be played by a non-white
actress. He said the series would also include more alien characters
than other Star Trek series, and would feature at least one openly
gay character. Fuller, who is gay himself, had been determined to see
this happen since receiving hate mail while working on Voyager when a
character on that show was rumored to be coming out as gay.
By
August, Fuller (left) had discussed the series' casting with Mae
Jemison, the first black woman in space who made a cameo appearance
in an episode of The Next Generation. He anticipated casting
announcements in October, but none had been made by the end of that
month. The majority of the series main characters were believed to
have been cast by then, but no actress had been cast for the series'
lead role. This was a source of "some internal stress" at
CBS. Several African American and Latina actresses were being looked
at for the role, with CBS "not seeking a huge star and
[preferring] a fresh face for the part."
They searched long and hard to find an
actor to pull off Burnham's divided nature between Vulcan and human.
Harberts said, "We read a lot of people and they either went way
too robotic and chilly or way too emotional." Kurtzman (right)
felt the character's portrayal needed to have "remarkable
duality inside her" between being "highly emotional"
while also being "contained".
"That
was the single most important thing to define the character, and I
think we just had a sense that [Sonequa] intuitively understood
it." Kurtzman said, "It's a tough thing to learn with
actors. You either have the ability to roll that off your tongue, or
you don't. And if you don't, everything kind of trips over itself...
And when [Sonequa] read, we all breathed a massive sigh of relief,
because she brought an instant authenticity to it. It was very clear
that the language was not going to be difficult for her."
Sonequa Martin-Green first met with
Discovery co-creator Bryan Fuller at New York Comic-Con in October
2016. Fuller talked to her about Burnham, a human orphan raised on
planet Vulcan alongside Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy in the
original series), leading to a conflict with her two cultural
identities. Knowing that her character Sasha would be killed off The
Walking Dead, she shot a video audition. However, AMC refused to
release her from her contract, leading CBS to look elsewhere. Fuller
revealed that he had long set his sights on Martin-Green to star in
Discovery, but CBS pushed back because AMC would not release her from
her contract until Sasha's death was shown on-screen. CBS' second
premiere date delay from May to September was due to the restrictions
of Martin-Green's contract, though the first delay opened the door
for her to land the role. She auditioned in person in December, and
then began shooting in January.
THE CAST
Sonequa Martin-Green as
Michael Burnham
A
Science Specialist on USS Discovery. Burnham (originally named
Commander Rainsford) was First Officer of the USS Shenzhou, where she
was referred to as "Number One" to honor the character of
the same name portrayed by Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek
pilot "The Cage". (Rebecca Romijn would play Barrett's
"Number One" character when the Enterprise shows up in
season two of Discovery).
Burnham was born to human parents, who
were killed when she was a child during a Klingon raid on a
Human-Vulcan research facility on Doctari Alpha, where the family
lived. She was then adopted by the Vulcan ambassador Sarek (James
Frain) and his human wife Amanda (Mia Kirshner), who are also the
biological parents of Starfleet officer Spock, and moved to the
Vulcan homeworld. She was the first human to attend both the Vulcan
Learning Center and Vulcan Science Academy as a xenoanthropologist.
After completing the academy she was brought by Sarek, who shared his
Katra with Burnham, to the USS Shenzhou to rejoin her people.
The decision to make Burnham related to
the history of original series character Spock was controversial and
some felt it "broke canon" since Spock had never mentioned
having a "sister" before." Others accepted the premise
citing the fact that Spock never mentioned his half-brother Sybok
until he showed up in the film "The Final Frontier" (1989).
Spock also wasn't volunteering the information that his parents were
Sarek and Amanda in the original series episode "Journey to
Babel" (1967, and the first appearace of Sarek and Amanda). A
fact Captain Kirk (and the viewers) learn later. Spock also never
told anyone he was engaged (betrothed from childhood to T'Pring)
until he was in the throes of his Pon Farr (Amok Time 1967). It would
appear Spock never gives away any personal information unless he
really has too. It must be a Vulcan thing.
Unlike the protagonists of previous Star
Trek series, Burnham was not made a starship captain, in order to see
the character from a different perspective on the starship, one who
has a different dynamic relationship with the captain and
subordinates. Series creator Bryan Fuller deliberately gave
Martin-Green's character a traditionally male name, which he had done
with the female leads (George, Jaye and Chuck) in three of his
previous series. Martin-Green later decided that the character was
named after her father. Fuller had numerous inspirations for
conceiving the character of Michael Burnham, including the cultural
impact of Nichelle Nichols' portrayal of Uhura in the original
series. Following the announcement of Martin-Green's casting,
Nichelle Nichols tweeted "All my love @SonequaMG, I've been
smiling since I heard. You're gonna knock em dead." Nichols and
Martin-Green both posed together on the red carpet at the Star Trek:
Discovery premiere. Martin-Green shared on Instagram that Nichols
whispered, "Enjoy this time. It's yours now." Sonequa
Martin-Green praised Nichols thereafter saying, "What a
blessing, what a woman. I stand on your shoulders Nichelle Nichols"
The
decision to create a diverse cast led by Martin-Green sparked debate
online on the question of what had been referred to as 'forced
diversity'. George Takei, the actor who played Sulu in Star Trek: The
Original Series offered his view on the issue of cast diversity in
the Star Trek franchise. He said, "You know, when you go out
into space, you're going to have even greater diversity. These
so-called trolls haven't seen a single episode of the new series
because it hasn't been aired. And they don't know the history of
'Star Trek,' that Gene Rodenberry created this with the idea of
finding strength in our diversity."
Martin-Green spoke out on the criticism,
saying she "would encourage [critics of the diverse cast] to key
into the essence and spirit of Star Trek that has made it the legacy
it is, and that's looking across the way to the person sitting in
front of you and realizing you are the same, that they are not
separate from you, and we are all one. That's something 'Star Trek'
has always upheld and I completely believe that is why it's been a
mainstay in society in the hearts of so many people for so many
decades. [...] It's one of the foundational principles of Star Trek
and I feel if you miss that then you miss the legacy itself. I'm
incredibly proud to be the lead of this show and be at the forefront
of an iteration of Star Trek that's from the eyes of a black woman
that's never been done before, though obviously there's been other
forms of diversity that have been innovated by Trek. I feel like
we're taking another step forward, which I think all stories should
do. We should go boldly where nobody has gone before and stay true to that."
Sonequa Martin-Green (born March 21st,
1985) is an American actress and producer who was best known for her
television role as Sasha Williams on The Walking Dead, a role she
played from 2012 to 2017. Before that, she had starred in several
independent films before gaining her first recurring role as Courtney
Wells on The Good Wife. Later, she had recurring roles as Tamara in
Once Upon a Time and Rhonda in New Girl.
Doug Jones as Saru
First Officer of the USS Discovery, Saru
(below left) was previously Science Officer of the USS Shenzhou. Saru
is the first Kelpien to enter Starfleet. Kelpiens, a new species
created for Discovery, were hunted as prey on their home planet and
thus evolved the ability to sense the coming of death, giving them a
reputation for cowardice. Jones based Saru's walk on that of a
supermodel, out of necessity thanks to the boots he had to wear to
portray the character's hooved feet, forcing Jones to walk on the
balls of his feet. The producers compared Saru to the characters
Spock and Data from previous series.
Jones (born May 24th, 1960) is an American
actor, contortionist, and mime. He is best known for his multiple
collaborations with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, starring in Mimic,
as Abe Sapien in Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the Faun
and the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, the ghosts of Edith's Mother and
Beatrice Sharpe in Crimson Peak, and the Amphibian Man in The Shape
of Water. He has appeared in films such as Tank Girl, Hocus Pocus and
The Bye Bye Man. He portrayed the titular Silver Surfer in the
superhero film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and
appeared in the TV series Falling Skies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
and del Toro's The Strain.
Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
Sylvia Tilly (above right) is a cadet in
her final year at Starfleet Academy, assigned to the Discovery. She
works under Stamets aboard the Discovery, where Burnham becomes her
roommate. The character was included to represent people "at the
very bottom of this ladder" of the Starfleet hierarchy. She is
"the most optimistic... has the biggest heart", and
showrunner Aaron Harberts described her as "sort of the soul of
our show."
Mary Wiseman (born July 30th, 1985) is an
American actress who grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, attended the
DC Shakespeare Theatre’s high school outreach program, earned
her BFA in Theatre Arts at Boston University,[2] and studied at
Juilliard School's Drama Division where one of her classmates was
future Star Trek: Discovery collaborator Mary Chieffo (who plays the
Klingon L'Rell). Wiseman has also apearred in Baskets and Longmire.
Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
Paul Stamets (below left) is the Chief
engineer aboard the USS Discovery and a science officer specializing
in astromycology (the study of fungi in space) whose research led to
development of an experimental organic propulsion system on the
Discovery. The character is inspired by a real-life mycologist of the
same name. He is the first openly gay character in a Star Trek
series, and the showrunners "wanted to roll out that character's
sexuality the way people would roll out their sexuality in life."
Rapp noted that Hikaru Sulu was portrayed as gay in the film Star
Trek Beyond, calling that "a nice nod. But in this case, we
actually get to see me with my partner in conversation, in our living
quarters, you get to see our relationship over time, treated as any
other relationship would be treated".
Anthony Rapp (born 1971 in Chicago,
Illinois) is an American actor and singer known for originating the
role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of Rent. Following his
original performance of the role in 1996, Rapp reprised it in the
film version of the show and then the show's United States Tour in
2009. He also performed the role of Charlie Brown in the 1999
Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and originated
the role of Lucas in the musical If/Then in 2014. His older brother
is playwright, novelist, and filmmaker Adam Rapp.
After his parents' divorce in 1974, he was
raised by his mother, a trained nurse. Rapp participated in community
theatre as a child and won numerous awards for his singing in junior
high school. Rapp attended high school at Joliet West High School and
theatre camp at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Rapp had a close
relationship with his mother and credits her for instilling values of
justice and respect in him by leading by example. She died of cancer
at age 55 in 1997 while Rapp was working on the Broadway production
of Rent. During a 1997 interview with Oasis magazine, the actor
explained his sexual identity as "queer" rather than
"gay" and has also identified as "bisexual". In
late October 2017, Rapp alleged in an interview with BuzzFeed that
actor Kevin Spacey made an unwanted sexual advance toward him in
1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. At the time, Rapp and
Spacey were both appearing in Broadway shows – Rapp in Precious
Sons, Spacey in Long Day's Journey into Night. In response, Spacey
said that he did not remember the encounter, which had allegedly
occurred 31 years before, but nevertheless said that he was
"beyond horrified to hear his story" and offered Rapp the
"sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate
drunken behavior". At least 14 other accusers came forward after
Rapp in 2017 ultimately costing Spacey his starring role on House of
Cards and involvement in other projects. Rapp faced harassment and
criticism for the accusation.
Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
Hugh Culber (above right) is a Medical
Officer aboard the Discovery and Stamets' love interest. Cruz (whom
Rapp had previously worked with on the musical Rent) felt that
portraying the first openly gay couple in Star Trek was "a long
time coming" and praised the way the series did not go out of
its way to focus on their relationship, instead just making it feel
normal. The character is killed off during the first season, which
was criticized by some as following the "bury your gays"
trope. However, the executive producers of the series, Cruz, and
GLAAD immediately released a statement saying "death is not
always final in the Star Trek universe" and that the
relationship between Culber and Stamets would continue to be
explored. Cruz was subsequently promoted from his recurring guest
role to the series' main cast for the second season.
Wilson Cruz (born Wilson Echevarría
on December 27th, 1973) is an American actor known for playing Rickie
Vasquez on My So-Called Life, Angel in the Broadway tour production
of Rent and the recurring character Junito on Noah's Arc. As an
openly gay man of Puerto Rican ancestry, he has served as an advocate
for gay youth, especially gay youth of color.
Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca
Gabriel Lorca (below left) was Captain of
the Discovery, a "brilliant military tactician". Isaacs
described the character as "probably more fucked up than any
of" the previously seen Star Trek captains. He plays the
character with a slight southern U.S. accent, and had initially
wanted to ad-lib a catchphrase for the character feeling that all
Star Trek captains should have one, coming up with "git'r
done" which the writers turned down due to it being widely used
and trademarked by Larry the Cable Guy.
Jason Isaacs (born June 6th 1963) is an
English actor and producer, best known for playing Lucius Malfoy in
the Harry Potter film series, Colonel William Tavington in The
Patriot, criminal Michael Caffee in the Showtime series Brotherhood
and Marshal Georgy Zhukov in The Death of Stalin.
Anson Mount as
Christopher Pike
Christopher Pike (above right) is Captain
of the Enterprise who temporarily takes command of the Discovery in
the second season. The character was first portrayed by Jeffrey
Hunter in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage". Mount
described Pike as "very by the book, usually, and a good
person", while executive producers Heather Kadin and Alex
Kurtzman described him as being the opposite of Lorca with a
"very captain-like" presence and "enough confidence
and authority to apologize when he is wrong". Mount did not try
to imitate Hunter's performance.
Anson Adams Mount IV (born on February
25th, 1973) is an American actor. He portrayed the fictional
character Cullen Bohannon in the AMC western drama series Hell on
Wheels. He was also cast in the role of Jim Steele on the short-lived
NBC series Conviction and appeared in the film Tully (2000). In 2017,
he portrayed the Marvel Comics superhero Black Bolt in Marvel's Inhumans.
Shazad Latif as Voq /
Ash Tyler
Voq (below left) is a Klingon who
undergoes surgery to pose as the human Tyler (below center), chief of
security for the USS Discovery. Tyler’s mind is also altered, so
he initially believes he was held as a prisoner of war by the
Klingons. Latif was originally cast in the role of Kol. Voq was
initially credited as being portrayed by Javid Iqbal, an invented
actor named for Latif's father, to hide the connection between the
characters. Latif described his character as "a very complex and
painful and deep character", and noted that "there's a
chemistry, a relationship" with Burnham. Latif's accent for Voq
is Arabic-inspired, and he tried to maintain "a kind of
pharyngealness" to Tyler's American accent. For the second
season, Latif felt that he was playing a third character that meshed
Voq and Tyler together, comparing their relationship to that of Bruce
Banner and Hulk in Marvel Comics.
Shazad Latif (born 8 July 1988) is a
British actor, who starred as Tariq Masood in the BBC TV series
Spooks, Clem Fandango on Toast of London, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
on Penny Dreadful.
Mary Chieffo as L'Rell
L'Rell (above right) becomes the
chancellor of the Klingon Empire after being a battle deck commander
for a Klingon warship. L'Rell is a member of both the house of
T'Kuvma and the house of Mo'Kai, the latter having been first
mentioned during Star Trek: Voyager. Chieffo said that because of
this, there would be an "interesting exploration of what it is
to be of two different ideologies" for the character. Chieffo
looked back at past female Klingons seen in Star Trek for
inspiration, and said that she wanted L'Rell to follow in the vein of
Grilka from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Chieffo was born in 1992 and grew up in
the neighborhood of Valley Village, Los Angeles in California, only
daughter of actors Michael Chieffo and Beth Grant. Her acting debut
was at the age of three when she played a sleeping girl in Sandra
Bullock's short film Making Sandwiches in which her mother too had a role.
Michelle Yeoh as
Philippa Georgiou
Philippa Georgiou (below left) was the
captain of the Shenzhou. Georgiou has a "mother and
daughter" relationship with Burnham after the latter joins the
Shenzhou. Yeoh chose to retain her ethnic Malaysian Chinese accent
for the role, another way the series diversified its cast. Georgiou
is killed in battle by T'Kuvma in the aftermath of the Battle at the
Binary Stars. Later in season one the Mirror Universe Georgiou is
introduced. In this universe she is the ruthless Emperor of the
Terran Empire and adoptive mother of Mirror Universe version of
Michael Burnham.
Tan Sri Dato' Seri Michelle Yeoh
Choo-Kheng (born August 6th 1962), better known by her stage name
Michelle Yeoh, is a Malaysian actress who rose to fame with frequent
roles in 1990s Hong Kong action films, and is best known
internationally for her roles in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow
Never Dies, and the Chinese-language martial arts film Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Her other works include Memoirs of a
Geisha (2005), Reign of Assassins (2010), The Lady (2011), and Crazy
Rich Asians (2018). Rotten Tomatoes ranked her the greatest action
heroine of all time in 2008. In 1997, she was chosen by People as one
of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World," and in 2009
the same magazine listed her as one of the "35 All-Time Screen
Beauties", the only Asian actress to make the list.
Jayne Brook as Katrina Cornwell
Katrina Cornwell (above right) is a
Starfleet admiral. She appears several times as Captain Lorca's
direct superior and later confidant. She and Lorca had a previous
romantic relationship. She was captured by the Klingons while
replacing Sarek as a peace envoy and held on the Klingon Ship of the
Dead. Surviving her ordeal she forms an odd non-friendship with
L'Rell and is later rescued by Burnham and Tyler. Her background is
in mental health and psychology, which was vital in breaking Tyler
out of a PTSD flashback long enough to aid in the escape from the
Sarcophagus ship. After her rescue she returns to Starfleet.
Jayne Brook (born Jane Anderson on
September 16th, 1960) is an American actress, best known for her role
as Dr. Diane Grad on the medical drama Chicago Hope, as a series
regular for five of the show's six seasons. Her first acting role was
in the film Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987 and went on to
appear in numerous film and television roles including: Kindergarten
Cop (1990), Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), Sirens
(1993), L.A. Law (1993), Bye Bye Love (1995), My Mother, the Spy
(2000), Boston Legal (2006) and NCIS (2007) with her former Chicago
Hope co-star Mark Harmon.
James Frain as Sarek
Sarek (below left) is the Vulcan
ambassador to Earth, an astrophysicist, the father of Spock, and the
surrogate father of Michael Burnham. Frain appears as a younger
version of the character who was first portrayed by Mark Lenard in
the original Star Trek series episode "Journey to Babel".
James Frain (born March 14th 1968) is an
English stage and screen actor. His best known roles include those of
Thomas Cromwell in the TV series The Tudors (2007–2009), vampire
Franklin Mott in season three of the HBO drama True Blood, as Richard
Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, in the BBC drama serial The White
Queen (2013), as Ferdinand in Orphan Black (2015), Theo
Galavan/Azrael in Season 2 of Gotham as David in Spartacus (2004).
Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson
Amanda Grayson (above right) is the human
wife of Sarek. Kirshner appears as a younger version of the character
who was first portrayed by Jane Wyatt in the original Star Trek
series episode "Journey to Babel". Majel Barrett provided
the voice of Amanda in the animated Star Trek series. Cynthia Blaise
played her in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In the 2009 Star Trek,
the role of Amanda Grayson was played by Winona Ryder.
Mia Kirshner (born January 25th, 1975) is
a Canadian actress, writer and social activist who works in movies
and television. She is known for her role as Jenny Schecter on the
cable TV series The L Word (2004–2009), and for her recurring
guest role as the terrorist Mandy on the TV series 24
(2001–2005). She has also been seen in: The Black Dahlia, Road
to Avonlea, Wolf Lake, CSI: NY, The Vampire Diaries and Defiance.
The Discovery bridge crew includes: Sara
Mitich as Lt. Commander Airiam, the USS Discovery’s Spore Drive
ops officer (above left), Oyin Oladejo as Lieutentant j.g. Joann
Owosekun, Ops officer (abover center), Emily Coutts as Lieutenant
Keyla Detmer, Conn officer (above right), Patrick Kwok-Choon as
Lieutenant Rhys, Tactical officer and Ronnie Rowe, Jr., as Lieutenant
B.A. Bryce, Communications officer.
Other characters included charismatic
con-man Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd (portrayed by Rainn
Wilson above left). Wilson was cast as a younger version of the
character first played by Roger C. Carmel in the original Star Trek
series episode "Mudd's Women". He described his version as,
"a reimagining, a reinvention in the same way so many things
have been reimagined and reinvented. He's a bit more dastardly than
the original. But that character made such an impression on me, and
it is a dream come true to try to bring him to life with as much
drama and comedy as possible." Wilson "stole a lot of
things that I loved from [Carmel's] performance, and then added a lot
more of my own." Stella Mudd was portrayed by Katherine
Barrell). An android replica of the character was previously
portrayed by Kay Elliot in the original Star Trek series episode
"I, Mudd".
Clint Howard (above right) portrays an
Orion drug dealer who Tilly encounters on Qo'noS. The role was
written specifically for Howard, adding to his previous appearances
in the franchise, with guest roles on episodes of Star Trek: The
Original Series (in 1966 at age seven), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(in 1995), and Star Trek: Enterprise (in 2002).
In season two Rebecca Romijn plays Number
One (below left), First Officer to Pike on the Enterprise. The role
first portrayed by Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek pilot
"The Cage". Also introduced in season two, Tig Notaro plays
Jet Reno (below right), the Chief Engineer of the USS Hiawatha.
Notaro joined the series because of a preexisting relationship with
Kurtzman, who had the part written for the actress. The character was
originally named Denise Reno, but Notaro was able to rename the
character and changed it to Jet Reno.
Untitled
On November 2nd, 2015, CBS announced a new
Star Trek television series to premiere in January 2017, "on the
heels" of the original series' 50th anniversary in 2016. It is
the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: Enterprise concluded in
2005, and the first show to be developed specifically for the CBS All
Access on demand service. Alex Kurtzman, co-writer of the films Star
Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, and Heather Kadin were set as
executive producers on the series, which is "not related"
to the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond. The January 2017 date was the
earliest that CBS could release a new Star Trek series after an
agreement the company made when it split with Viacom in 2005.
Showtime, Netflix, and Amazon Video all offered "a lot of
money" for the rights to release the series, but after heavily
investing in the new All Access service, CBS believed that a
returning Star Trek could be "the franchise that really puts All
Access on the map" and could earn more money in the long run.
In
February 2016, Bryan Fuller, who began his career writing for the
series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, was
announced as the new series' showrunner and co-creator alongside
Kurtzman. Nicholas Meyer, writer and director of Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, also joined
the series as a consulting producer. In March, Rod Roddenberry (the
son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of
Roddenberry Entertainment also joined the series as executive
producers. Fuller said that working with people previously involved
with Star Trek was "really about making sure that we maintain authenticity".
Fuller had publicly called for Star Trek
to return to television for years, particularly because of its impact
on minority groups and wanted to be part of that representation for a
new era. When Fuller first met with CBS about the series, the company
did not have a plan for what the new show would be. He proposed an
anthology series with each season being a standalone, serialized show
set in a different era, beginning with a prequel to the original
series, then stories set during the original series, during Star
Trek: The Next Generation, and then "beyond to a time in Trek
that's never been seen before". Fuller compared this to what
American Horror Story did for horror, and described the proposal as a
platform for "a universe of Trek shows". CBS instead
suggested a single serialized show to see how that performed first,
and he began further developing the concept of a prequel to the
original series.
Fuller announced in June 2016 that the
first season would consist of 13 episodes, though he would had
prefered to produce 10 episodes a season. A month later, Fuller
announced the series' title to be Star Trek: Discovery, and revealed
that it would be set in the "Prime Timeline" (which
includes the previous Star Trek series, but not the modern reboot
films) to keep the concurrent series and films separate, so "we
don't have to track anything [happening in the films] and they don't
have to track what we're doing".
CBS
Studios International licensed the series to Netflix for release
outside the United States and Canada, a "blockbuster" deal
that paid for the show's entire budget (around US $6–7 million
per episode). During pre-production on the series, Fuller and CBS
continued to disagree on the direction of the show, which was
starting to overrun its per-episode budget, and was falling behind
schedule due to Fuller supervising all aspects of the series as well
as another new show, American Gods. This caused frustration among CBS
executives who felt Fuller should be focused on having Discovery
ready for release by the January 2017 premiere date. By August 2016,
Fuller had hired Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, who he had
worked with on Pushing Daisies, to serve as co-showrunners with him.
A month later, he and Kurtzman asked CBS to delay the series' release
so they could meet the high expectations for it, and the studio
pushed the series premiere back to May 2017.
At the end of October, CBS asked Fuller to
step down as showrunner, and announced a restructuring of the
production: Berg and Harberts were made sole showrunners, working
from a broad story arc and overall mythology established by Fuller;
Kurtzman and Fuller would continue as executive producers, but with
Fuller moving his attention fully to American Gods; and Akiva
Goldsman would join the series in a supporting producer role, similar
to the role he held on Fringe alongside Kurtzman. CBS reiterated that
they were "extremely happy with [Fuller's] creative
direction" for the series, though some elements of the series
that came directly from Fuller were dropped, including some designs
and "more heavily allegorical and complex story" points.
Fuller later confirmed that he was no longer involved with the
series, but expressed interest in returning for future seasons.
With production set to finally begin in
January, "a lot of careful deliberation [was] continuing to go
into making Discovery special, from the choice of directors, to set
design, to the special effects." Ted Sullivan also joined the
series to serve as supervising writing producer.
At CBS's 2017 upfront presentation, CBS
Interactive president Marc DeBevoise confirmed a "fall"
release date for the series, and announced that the episode order for
the first season had been expanded to 15 episodes. In June, CBS
announced a new premiere date of September 24th, 2017, with the
season airing through November 2017, and then beginning again in
January 2018. This break gave more time to complete post-production
on the second half of the season. Also that month, Kurtzman said that
he and Fuller had discussed future seasons before the latter's
departure, and promised that "what's there in terms of story and
certainly in terms of set-up, character, big ideas, the big movement
of the season, that's all stuff that Bryan and I talked about"
and would not be altered. Goldsman said in August that the producers
wanted "a hybridized [anthology] approach. I don't think we're
looking for an endless, continuing nine or 10 year story. We're
looking at arcs which will have characters that we know and
characters that we don't know." Kurtzman added that the success
of Discovery could lead to other new Star Trek series that could
potentially use the anthology format. By the end of August, Berg and
Harberts had developed a "road map" for a second season,
and "the beginnings of one" for a third. It was also
revealed that an average episode of the first season had ultimately
cost US $8–8.5 million each, making it one of the most expensive
television series ever and exceeding the original Netflix deal,
though CBS still considered the series to be paid for already due to
the number of new All Access subscribers that the show was expected
to draw.
After the series' premiere, Kurtzman said
that the producers wanted to avoid announcing release dates and
having to delay those for any future seasons, due to the external
pressure that caused with the first season, but that he hoped a
second season would be available in early 2019. The second season was
officially ordered in October 2017, for 13 episodes. Goldsman did not
return for the season after clashing with the series' writing staff
during production on the first, and in June 2018, when production on
the second season was underway, CBS fired Berg and Harberts. This was
due to the first episode of the season going significantly over
budget, and alleged abusive behavior by the pair directed at the
series' writing staff. Kurtzman was made sole showrunner, and was set
to "regroup" the writers without causing any delay to the
season's production timeline. The season was subsequently confirmed
to be on track for a January 2019 premiere. The series was renewed
for a third season on February 27th, 2019. Michelle Paradise will
work on the series as showrunner, alongside Kurtzman.
The series' writers are based in Los
Angeles, and include "fans who all have very different
relationships to Trek," which Kurtzman said is "a healthy
thing and it's a good thing". Fuller wanted to differentiate the
series from the previous 700+ episodes of Star Trek by taking
advantage of the streaming format of All Access and telling a single
story arc across the entire first season. He and Kurtzman developed
this story from "so many elements of Star Trek", taking
certain episodes of the original series and using their
"DNA" to find "the spirit of what Star Trek offers,
both in terms of high-concept science fiction storytelling and really
wonderful metaphors for the human condition". Berg said that the
series' writers "are so in love with" The Original Series,
The Next Generation, and the family aspect of those series, while
Harberts added that Meyer's Star Trek films were an especial
influence on Discovery because "his storytelling is complex and
intellectual and yet there's a lot of room for character voices".
The titular ship was named after Discovery
One from 2001: A Space Odyssey (above left), NASA's Space Shuttle
Discovery (above right), and "the sense of discovery... what
[that] means to Star Trek audiences who have been promised a future
by Gene Roddenberry where we come together as a planet and seek new
worlds and new alien races to explore and understand and collaborate with".
Fuller saw the series as a bridge between
Enterprise and the original series, which are set around 150 years
apart, but set much closer to the latter to allow the series to
"play with all the iconography of those ships and those
uniforms". In May 2017, Sullivan described the series as "a
genuine prequel" to the original series, with Goldsman later
adding that there were many classic Star Trek elements that fans
among the writers wished to include in the series, but couldn't
because they were included in the original series as something being
discovered by Starfleet for the first time then. The choice to
feature a single serialized story throughout the first season was
inspired by the general change in television to tell more realistic
and serialized stories rather than the "new destination-based
adventure each week" format mostly used in previous Star Trek
series. Fuller had been one of several writers during the 1990s
pushing for Deep Space Nine and Voyager to move towards this style.
Also inspired by modern, "peak television" series such as
Game of Thrones was a willingness to kill off major characters for
dramatic reasons, though the writers wanted to avoid doing so
gratuitously or for "shock value".
Fuller said the series could "push
the content envelope since it won't be constrained by broadcast
standards." Harberts ultimately described the series as a
"hard PG-13", saying the series could include "some
violent things or [a] tiny bit of language" but they still
wanted the show to be for families and to "honor what the
franchise is."
The series' writers chose to ignore Gene
Roddenberry's longstanding rule that Starfleet crew members not have
any significant conflict with one another or be depicted negatively
(a rule that Roddenberry himself did not always strictly follow).
Harberts explained, "We're trying to do stories that are
complicated, with characters with strong points of view and strong
passions. People have to make mistakes, mistakes are still going to
be made in the future. We're still going to argue in the future...
the thing we're taking from Roddenberry is how we solve those
conflicts." Because of the show's position as a prequel to the
original series, the producers felt it was more important for
Discovery to build towards Roddenberry's ideals, and to show that
"you can't simply be accepting and tolerant without working for
it, and so this show is about that struggle."
Mark Worthington and Todd Cherniawsky
served as initial production designers for the series, with Tamara
Deverell taking over during production on the first season; Gersha
Phillips and Suttirat Anne Larlarb designed the costumes for the
series; veteran Star Trek designer John Eaves designed starships with
Scott Schneider; Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page of Alchemy Studios
provided prosthetics and armor, with Page having previously designed
for the "Kelvin Timeline" Star Trek films; and Mario
Moreira served as prop master for the series. The series also
employed seven art directors, over nine illustrators, more than
thirty-five set designers, and over four hundred and fifty painters,
carpenters, sculptors, model makers, welders, set dressers, and prop
builders. The designers consult with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
for scientific accuracy.
Fuller
said on the general approach to design on the show, "we're
producing the show in 2016. We have to update the style of the
effects, the style of the sets, the style of the makeup... all of the
other series have been produced [at a time that] isn't as
sophisticated as we are now with what we can do production-wise,
we're going to be reestablishing an entire look for the series"
and for Star Trek moving forward. Fuller had wanted the series'
uniforms to reflect the primary colors of the original series, but
this was discarded after his departure. However, Fuller's designs for
the Klingons, which he "really, really wanted" to redesign,
were retained. 3D Systems' "cutting edge" 3D printing
techniques were widely used in the making of the series. For the
prosthetics, Page and Hetrick took detailed laser scans of the actors
so they could simulate make-up and prosthetics in a virtual
environment before creating the practical version. Fabric for the
Starfleet uniforms seen in the series was custom-dyed in Switzerland;
the costumes were cut and assembled in Toronto by Phillips and her
department. The main uniforms seen in the series are a navy blue
specifically mixed for the show, with gold or silver embellishments
depending on the division of the officer. Medical officers wear a
"hospital white" variant, also custom-dyed in Switzerland,
while the captain's uniform is the standard navy blue but with
additional gold piping on the shoulders. Starfleet insignia badges
were molded from silicon bronze, and then polished and plated by a
jeweler to create custom colors for the series, based on the division
of the officer wearing the uniform: gold for command, silver for
sciences and medical, and copper for operations. Props such as
tricorders and hand scanners, communicators, and phasers were
produced with 3D printing and heavily inspired by their designs in
the original Star Trek series.
The design of the USS Discovery is based
on an unused Ralph McQuarrie design for the USS Enterprise from the
unproduced film Star Trek: Planet of the Titans in the 1970s.
McQuarrie's designs were based on the concepts created by Ken Adam to
feature a vessel with a flattened secondary hull. Fuller wanted
"something distinct about what our Star Trek was going to
look" like, and after seeing McQuarrie's design (below) "saw
sort of harder lines of a ship and started talking about race cars
and Lamborghinis in the '70s and James Bond cars and started working
on the designs, taking those inspirations and coming up with
something completely unique to us." The design for the Discovery
went through several revisions and refinements before the final
version was approved in December 2016. Variations of McQuarrie's
design had been built before and had appeared both in the background
in spacedock in Star Trek III, and also in the debris field at the
Battle of Wolf 359 and the ship graveyard depot at Qualor II.
Discovery's call letters, NCC 1013, was specifically chosen by Fuller
to represent his favorite holiday, Halloween.
The sickbay on the Discovery was inspired
by that of the Enterprise from the original series. Other Federation
starships created for the show include the USS Shenzhou and the USS
Europa. Sets for the Discovery's interiors were described as a
"tangle of corridors and rooms", and were designed to match
with the exterior design of the ship, so "the rooms [could
believably] fit inside the house", but there was some artistic
license taken in places. The graphics used for the Starfleet computer
systems were designed to be believably more advanced than modern
technology, but to also "honor the look and feel" of the
designs used in previous series. The initial colors allowed for the
graphics were mostly restricted to blues, with the intention of these
becoming more colorful the closer the series gets to the time period
of the original series.
The opening title sequence for the show
was created by Prologue using 2D motion graphics. The sequence, which
uses a "vivid, sepia-soaked palette", depicts elements from
throughout the history of Star Trek, such as phasers, communicators,
and the Vulcan salute, and deconstructs them, which was intended to
be an homage to past Star Trek series as well as an introduction to
the more grounded and gritty tone of Discovery.
In the Short Treks episode
"Calypso," it’s revealed that the crew eventually
abandons the ship some thousand years or so after 2410. After being
ordered to stay put until the crew returned in the future, the
ship’s advanced computer software begins to do what we all fear
robots will do in the end: becomes self-aware and sentient. She names
herself Zora and has a fascination with the Audrey Hepburn movie
Funny Face. In "Calypso," she is seen in avatar form when a
man named Craft (adrift in a V'draysh escape pod) is caught in a
tractor beam from the USS Discovery and is brought on board.
Star Trek: Discovery is filmed at Pinewood
Toronto Studios and took advantage of multiple soundstages at the
studio, including the largest soundstage in North America. Some
episodes for the show were filmed solely on existing sets while some
scenes from the show have been filmed on locations around Toronto.
The Aga Khan Museum stood in for the planet Vulcan, while scenes from
the Kelpien homeworld were shot at the Scarborough Bluffs.
For the visual scope of the series,
Kurtzman felt that the show had to "justify being on a premium
cable service". The showrunners were particularly inspired by
Star Trek: The Motion Picture and its "wider scope", with
Harberts explaining that the series is shot in a 2:1 aspect ratio
which "just lends itself to a very lyrical way of telling the
story." He added that some of the series' visuals were
influenced by the modern Star Trek films from J. J. Abrams. The
producers worked closely with pilot director David Semel to make the
series look as cinematic as possible. The cinematographers for the
series wanted to emphasize on set sourcing, with lighting built in
wherever it would naturally appear to help create a more realistic
feel, and distance the series from the "stage" feel of the
original series. The lighting could also be controlled to create
completely different situations and Harberts said that the
cinematographers wanted the series to have a "Rembrandt texture".
Visual effects producers were hired to
begin work on the series during the initial writing period, with
Fuller explaining that the series would require such things as
"digital augmentation on certain alien species" and
"the transporter beams". He said, "We're trying to
cultivate distinct looks for all of those things that are unique to
our version of Star Trek and carry through the themes we love seeing
in fifty years of Star Trek, but doing a slightly different
approach." Pixomondo is the primary visual effects vendor for
the series, with Spin VFX and Crafty Apes also working on the show.
Kurtzman noted that the series utilizes multiple CG environments
which take several months to properly render. The shuttle bay of the
Discovery is completely computer-generated, with actors performing in
front of a green screen for scenes in that environment; using the
digital set is more expensive than any other set created for the
series, including the practically-built ones.
The first teaser for the series featured
music composed by Fil Eisler, which he "threw together as an
audition" within three weeks. Before production on the series
began, Charles Henri Avelange had also composed and recorded music
for the series, which he described as "a showcase for CBS".
In July 2017, Jeff Russo was announced as composer for the series and
recorded the series' score with a 60-piece orchestra, incorporating
elements from the original Star Trek theme. Russo noted that not all
fans were going to appreciate the new theme, but felt that regardless
of how some felt it compared to previous Star Trek themes it still
accurately represented this series. Soundtrack albums for two
chapters of the first season were released on December 15th, 2017,
and April 6th, 2018, respectively.
The first full trailer for the series was
released in May 2017. Forbes's Merrill Barr noted that the trailer
was a good sign for many who believed the series would never be
released following the many production setbacks and delays, saying,
"Having a legitimate trailer that can be watched over and over
again brings signs of hope, particularly for fans that have been
waiting over a year for this moment. Star Trek: Discovery is real,
and now we have proof." Chris Harnick of E! News described the
trailer as "gorgeous" and "truly cinematic", and
because of the appearances of Sarek and the Klingons in the footage,
"this is the Star Trek you know and love." Aja Romano at
Vox called the trailer's visuals "sumptuous" and
"modern, but still very much in keeping with the aesthetic of
previous Trek series".
McFarlane Toys signed a toy license deal
with CBS to produce "figures, role play weapons and
accessories" for Discovery. CBS Consumer Products senior vice
president Veronica Hart explained that McFarlane was chosen as the
first licensee for the series because of its "commitment to
quality and dedication to fans". The deal will also see the
company "create merchandise from the entire Star Trek universe,
ranging from the classic Star Trek: The Original Series to its
popular movie franchise."
The first episode of Star Trek: Discovery
aired in a "preview broadcast" on CBS in the United States
on September 24th, 2017, as well as being made available with the
second episode on CBS All Access. Subsequent first-run episodes,
making up the first chapter of the season, were streamed weekly on
All Access through November 12th. The second chapter began streaming
in January 2018.
CBS Studios International licensed the
series to Bell Media for broadcast in Canada, and to Netflix for
another 188 countries. In Canada, the premiere was simulcast with CBS
on September 24th, 2017, on both the CTV Television Network and on
the specialty channel Space before being streamed on Crave; it was
also broadcast in French on the specialty channel Z. Subsequent
episodes will be released through Space, Z, and Crave, with Space
airing each episode 30 minutes before it's streamed on All Access. In
the other countries, Netflix will release each episode of the series
for streaming within 24 hours of its U.S. debut. This agreement also
saw Bell Media and Netflix acquire all previous Star Trek series to
stream in their entirety, and to broadcast on Bell Media television channels.
In June 2018, after becoming sole
showrunner of Discovery, Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal
with CBS Television Studios to expand the Star Trek franchise beyond
Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series.
Kurtzman announced in July 2018 that a spin-off miniseries of shorts
would be released between the first two seasons of Discovery to
"deliver closed-ended stories while revealing clues about what's
to come in future Star Trek: Discovery episodes. They'll also
introduce audiences to new characters who may inhabit the larger
world of Star Trek."
In
September 2016, Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer announced that CBS
was working with IDW and Simon & Schuster to produce more content
revolving around the setting of the series, starting with at least
one novel and a comic series tied to the television show. Beyer, the
writer of many Star Trek: Voyager novels, explained that she would
work with fellow Star Trek novelist David Mack and Star Trek comic
writer Mike Johnson to ensure that all three media "are coming
from the same place". The release of the books and comics was
set to coincide with the series' premiere. Mack described writing
around the continuity of Discovery as "tricky to get right",
as the time period "is light on detail and almost unique within
the Star Trek continuity. That made it a challenge to represent that
era faithfully while also staying true to the new elements being
introduced" in the new series.
The first tie-in to the show is Desperate
Hours, a prequel set a year before Discovery and a year after
"The Cage". Written by Mack, the novel follows Burnham as
she serves aboard the Shenzhou. Fuller had asked for a book to be
written based on that premise, and Mack had worked with the Discovery
writers to stay "in the loop throughout the season with all the
scripts and the story development. There were a few false starts, but
eventually, it allowed us to collaboratively create this story".
The second Discovery novel, Drastic Measures, was written by Dayton
Ward and is set 10 years before the show, following the characters
Georgiou and Lorca as they hunt for "the man whom history will
one day brand 'Kodos the Executioner'". A third novel, Fear
Itself, was written by veteran Star Trek author James Swallow, it
focuses on Lieutenant Saru's attempts to overcome his fears as a
Kelpien and become a successful Starfleet officer. The fourth novel,
The Way to the Stars, follows Tilly's life at age 16 and the events
that leads her to decide Starfleet was her future.
In July 2017, IDW announced the first
tie-in comic series, also titled Star Trek: Discovery, to be written
by Johnson and Beyer with art by Tony Shasteen, who previously worked
with Johnson on the comic Star Trek: Boldly Go. Johnson compared
working with Beyer on the comic to his work on the Star Trek:
Countdown comic, a tie-in to the 2009 Star Trek film that he wrote
with Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, saying that her position as a staff
writer on the Discovery show "means we have all the inside
access that we need. So the story in the comic will really matter and
not just feel like a one-off. It is actually able to expand the story
you guys are going to see in the show itself." The first comic
would be a four-issue miniseries focused on T'Kuvma and his followers
and that IDW intended to create a series of comic miniseries based on
different aspects of the series to create "targeted stories on
some different subjects". The second four-issue miniseries was
given the subtitle Succession and will be set in the Mirror Universe,
expanding on the Mirror story arc from the second half of the first
season. Additionally, a Star Trek: Discovery annual comic was
released March 2018, focused on Stamets' mycelial research.
By
August, Fuller (left) had discussed the series' casting with Mae
Jemison, the first black woman in space who made a cameo appearance
in an episode of The Next Generation. He anticipated casting
announcements in October, but none had been made by the end of that
month. The majority of the series main characters were believed to
have been cast by then, but no actress had been cast for the series'
lead role. This was a source of "some internal stress" at
CBS. Several African American and Latina actresses were being looked
at for the role, with CBS "not seeking a huge star and
[preferring] a fresh face for the part."
"That
was the single most important thing to define the character, and I
think we just had a sense that [Sonequa] intuitively understood
it." Kurtzman said, "It's a tough thing to learn with
actors. You either have the ability to roll that off your tongue, or
you don't. And if you don't, everything kind of trips over itself...
And when [Sonequa] read, we all breathed a massive sigh of relief,
because she brought an instant authenticity to it. It was very clear
that the language was not going to be difficult for her."
A
Science Specialist on USS Discovery. Burnham (originally named
Commander Rainsford) was First Officer of the USS Shenzhou, where she
was referred to as "Number One" to honor the character of
the same name portrayed by Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek
pilot "The Cage". (Rebecca Romijn would play Barrett's
"Number One" character when the Enterprise shows up in
season two of Discovery).
The
decision to create a diverse cast led by Martin-Green sparked debate
online on the question of what had been referred to as 'forced
diversity'. George Takei, the actor who played Sulu in Star Trek: The
Original Series offered his view on the issue of cast diversity in
the Star Trek franchise. He said, "You know, when you go out
into space, you're going to have even greater diversity. These
so-called trolls haven't seen a single episode of the new series
because it hasn't been aired. And they don't know the history of
'Star Trek,' that Gene Rodenberry created this with the idea of
finding strength in our diversity."
In
February 2016, Bryan Fuller, who began his career writing for the
series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, was
announced as the new series' showrunner and co-creator alongside
Kurtzman. Nicholas Meyer, writer and director of Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, also joined
the series as a consulting producer. In March, Rod Roddenberry (the
son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and Trevor Roth of
Roddenberry Entertainment also joined the series as executive
producers. Fuller said that working with people previously involved
with Star Trek was "really about making sure that we maintain authenticity".
CBS
Studios International licensed the series to Netflix for release
outside the United States and Canada, a "blockbuster" deal
that paid for the show's entire budget (around US $6–7 million
per episode). During pre-production on the series, Fuller and CBS
continued to disagree on the direction of the show, which was
starting to overrun its per-episode budget, and was falling behind
schedule due to Fuller supervising all aspects of the series as well
as another new show, American Gods. This caused frustration among CBS
executives who felt Fuller should be focused on having Discovery
ready for release by the January 2017 premiere date. By August 2016,
Fuller had hired Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, who he had
worked with on Pushing Daisies, to serve as co-showrunners with him.
A month later, he and Kurtzman asked CBS to delay the series' release
so they could meet the high expectations for it, and the studio
pushed the series premiere back to May 2017.
Fuller
said on the general approach to design on the show, "we're
producing the show in 2016. We have to update the style of the
effects, the style of the sets, the style of the makeup... all of the
other series have been produced [at a time that] isn't as
sophisticated as we are now with what we can do production-wise,
we're going to be reestablishing an entire look for the series"
and for Star Trek moving forward. Fuller had wanted the series'
uniforms to reflect the primary colors of the original series, but
this was discarded after his departure. However, Fuller's designs for
the Klingons, which he "really, really wanted" to redesign,
were retained. 3D Systems' "cutting edge" 3D printing
techniques were widely used in the making of the series. For the
prosthetics, Page and Hetrick took detailed laser scans of the actors
so they could simulate make-up and prosthetics in a virtual
environment before creating the practical version. Fabric for the
Starfleet uniforms seen in the series was custom-dyed in Switzerland;
the costumes were cut and assembled in Toronto by Phillips and her
department. The main uniforms seen in the series are a navy blue
specifically mixed for the show, with gold or silver embellishments
depending on the division of the officer. Medical officers wear a
"hospital white" variant, also custom-dyed in Switzerland,
while the captain's uniform is the standard navy blue but with
additional gold piping on the shoulders. Starfleet insignia badges
were molded from silicon bronze, and then polished and plated by a
jeweler to create custom colors for the series, based on the division
of the officer wearing the uniform: gold for command, silver for
sciences and medical, and copper for operations. Props such as
tricorders and hand scanners, communicators, and phasers were
produced with 3D printing and heavily inspired by their designs in
the original Star Trek series.
In
September 2016, Discovery writer Kirsten Beyer announced that CBS
was working with IDW and Simon & Schuster to produce more content
revolving around the setting of the series, starting with at least
one novel and a comic series tied to the television show. Beyer, the
writer of many Star Trek: Voyager novels, explained that she would
work with fellow Star Trek novelist David Mack and Star Trek comic
writer Mike Johnson to ensure that all three media "are coming
from the same place". The release of the books and comics was
set to coincide with the series' premiere. Mack described writing
around the continuity of Discovery as "tricky to get right",
as the time period "is light on detail and almost unique within
the Star Trek continuity. That made it a challenge to represent that
era faithfully while also staying true to the new elements being
introduced" in the new series.
