News is now rolling in regularly on the newest Star Trek series, which is set to premiere on September 24, 2017. Recently, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg announced that the show will be not follow a franchise restriction instituted by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Writers of the various Star Trek shows were urged not to pen storylines that involved major conflict between principal characters. Roddenberry’s goal was to show that in the future Starfleet crew members had risen above some of humanity’s baser flaws. The guideline was used through most of the 700 episodes across the various shows with the exception coming when a crew member was possessed or altered by some outside force.
However, many writers found this to be a challenging roadblock to writing dramatic episodes. As the showrunners Harberts and Berg are going to use the groundwork planned by executive producer Bryan Fuller. The CBS All Access series will allow writers to infuse the show with conflict between crewmembers.
“We’re trying to do stories that are complicated, with characters with strong points of view and strong passions,” Harberts said. “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 rules of Starfleet remain the same,” Berg added. “But while we’re human or alien in various ways, none of us are perfect.”
The show will draw inspiration from Roddenberry’s ideals. “The thing we’re taking from Roddenberry is how we solve those conflicts,” Harberts said. “So, we do have our characters in conflict, we do have them struggling with each other, but it’s about how they find a solution and work through their problems.”
Another big change is that the new series will tell stories in a serialized format. Previous Star Trek series relied on episodic storytelling where each story began and ended within the episode. Occasionally story arcs would unfold over two or three episodes but were usually finished by the time the credits rolled. Discovery will tell extended stories with the expectation of more dramatic storylines and higher stakes.
