Last night saw television impresario and showrunner behind Star Trek: Discovery, Bryan Fuller, drop a rake of hints about the upcoming series.
There were a number of big points to take away, but the biggest one for us was its setting. According to Fuller, the series will take place in the Prime Timeline - which is essentially the timeline in the original Star Trek series, the one in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The one in Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond is called the Kelvin Timeline.
Moreover, Star Trek Discovery will be set ten years before the events of the original Star Trek series with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. This, in turn, answers a few other questions we've had about the series. For one, it's definitely going to draw on the '60s futurist designs - something we already saw in the teaser and the design of the Discovery.
It should be noted, however, that the design of Discovery isn't the final design of the ship that'll be used in the series.
The next big point is that the lead will A) not be a captain and B) will be a woman. As we know, a female-led Star Trek isn't anything new. Voyager was led by Captain Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew who you'll know from Orange Is The New Black. Moreover, there was a reasonably fair balance of male and female-led story arcs throughout each series - but, still, it's definitely cool to see another female-led Star Trek series.
The point about the lead not being a Captain, however, is interesting. According to Fuller, the lead will be a Lieutenant Commander on Fuller has said in the past that he wanted to do a Trek series with Angela Bassett of American Horror Story and, well, loads of stuff. Malcolm X, What's Love Got To Do With It?, Boyz In The Hood all the way up to Olympus Has Fallen and a voice role in BoJack Horseman.
The identity of the lead is still being kept a secret, but odds are it'll be announced fairly shortly as the series is due for a January release.
The final point is that Star Trek Discovery will also have a gay character; again, something the series has had before, but not in the main cast. You might argue that Judzia Dax in Deep Space Nine was gay, because of an on-screen kiss with a female character, but the truth is that Dax's host at the time was a woman and had previously been a man, so it's hard to put it into a category. There was a bit of controversy over the fact that Hikaru Sulu, played by George Takei in the original series and John Cho in the new films, was now openly gay.
Long story short, Takei wasn't a fan - even though he's openly gay himself - and felt it was going against Gene Roddenberry's vision. When we talked to John Cho about it in our recent interview with him, he said that he hoped it was done in a tactful and meaningful way and that Takei would change his mind once he saw the film.
We're still a while away from anything more concrete, but it's interesting to see how the series is shaping up. What do you make of all this news? Let us know in the comments!