When Star Trek: Discovery debuts in September, it will be the first Star Trek to take place on two ships, the U.S.S. Discovery and the Shenzhou. Not only that, but it'll also be the first to not center around a captain, with this series starring Sonequa Martin-Green as Starfleet First Officer Michael Burnham,the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy.
And today, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg finally revealed more details about Star Trek: Discovery's plot to Entertainment Weekly. As Harberts explains:
"Burnham [has] spent a lot of time on Vulcan, but she's human. Sarek [Spock's father, played by James Frain] plays an important role in her life, which has been completely planned until she makes a very difficult choice that sends her life on a very different path. When we meet her, she's the First Officer on the Starship Shenzhou [captained by Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh]. And Burnham's choice that we're alluding to is most difficult choice you can make—it affects her, affects Starfleet, affects the Federation, it affects the entire universe. That choice leads her to a different ship, the Discovery [helmed by Captain Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs] and there we begin what Gretchen and I call our 'second pilot.'"
With the story revolving around a first officer rather than a captain, Harberts and Berg say this takes the action out of the bridge and lets viewers see different parts of the ship. As we already know, this series will also be the first to break one of creator Gene Roddenberry's cardinal rules about Star Trek, in that it's not supposed to be about conflict between members of Starfleet.
In terms of setting, we know this series takes place about 10 years before the original Star Trek. And, as the first trailer made clear, that after two years of production and delays the extra time has paid off with production values look way above network television and even HBO quality.
