Fanfare for the new Star Trek: Discovery television series is at warp speed thanks to executive producer Bryan Fuller’s recent spill on new details about the upcoming show.
Following a Comic-Con panel in July, Fuller shared tidbits about the 13-episode series’ setting, character and innovations at a Television Critics Association meeting Wednesday.
Production for the sci-fi show starts next month and doesn’t premiere until January, but fans are taking whatever insights they can get.
“We want to arc out the information so you’ll get a little information today, you’ll get a little more information in October, and we’ll keep building the evolution of the ‘reveal’ as we go,” said Fuller, who was a writer on the series Star Trek: Voyager.
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The former Pushing Daisies writer revealed that the main character will be a female human, but not a captain; she will play a lieutenant commander. The story will also feature a gay character.
“I still have in my garage the hate mail that Star Trek: Voyager got because of a rumour that Jeri Ryan’s character (Seven of Nine) was going to be gay,” he said. He resolved that if he ever did another Star Trek series it would introduce someone who is gay.
Also expect a lot of robots and new and improved aliens.
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”You usually have one person with a bumpy forehead and seven other people who look relatively normal,” Fuller said. The series will feature both newbies and the re-imagining of familiar aliens — although the Hannibal writer acknowledged some Trekkies resist change.
Given that previous Star Trek series were all from the captain’s point of view, giving the woman different duties will allow for a new dynamic in both relationships and storytelling, Fuller said.
Fans can also expect the series to incorporate Star Trek lore that has been talked about but not explored. It will allow for a serialized story that takes its protagonist on a journey of self-discovery. The event? Fuller would not say.
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The series will take place in an era that bridges the original 1960s Star Trek and Star Trek: Enterprise, the 2001-2005 series set about a century before. However, the Discovery series will be closer in time to Capt. James T. Kirk’s world and will be able to play with the design “iconography” of those spaceships and uniforms, Fuller said.
Some potential elements include the introduction of young versions of familiar characters like Dr. McCoy, but not in Season 1, and perhaps the inclusion of Amanda Grayson, Spock’s mother (played by Winona Ryder on the big screen).
Casting for the series set aboard the U.S.S. Discovery has yet to be announced.
With files from Lynn Elber of the Associated Press
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