Aside from Doctor Who, Star Trek is the television series with the greatest longevity helped, in part, by an ability to create new series along different time lines. In order of real-time occurrence, first would come Enterprise, followed by the original 1960s Star Trek, followed by The Next Generation, then, overlapping to a degree, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
After a substantial gap from television screens, despite the rebooted movie franchise going strong, Star Trek will return to home entertainment in 2017. The new show is Star Trek Discovery and it is set ten years before the 1960s series, providing a bridge between Enterprise (which received a lukewarm reception) and the series that started it all with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly playing Kirk, Bones and McCoy.
Other than the place to be occupied within the history of the franchise, other details have emerged this week about the new series. It will feature a female lead and while there is said to be seven main characters, the lead will not hold the Starfleet rank of captain and instead will be a lieutenant commander. To add to this, Deadline speculates that the ethnicity of the character will not be white in what is seen as an attempt to increase diversity. The site also passes on a rumor that another character will be gay.
Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) “Each episode is a chapter, within each chapter will be a beginning, middle & end.”
Speaking with the BBC, the show’s executive producer Bryan Fuller said the creative team decided not to focus on the captain because “we’ve seen six series from captain’s point of view and to see one from another point of view gives us a richer context.”
It is possible that some of Kirk’s original crew will feature as younger incarnations, although the only character confirmed is Amanda Grayson the mother of Spock. The role will again be played by Winona Ryder.
