It’s been a long time sinceStar Trekwas on television, but the franchise is returning in a big way to CBS All Access—CBS’s streaming-only service—later this year.Star Trek: Discoveryhas had a curious road to production, withHannibalshowrunnerBryan Fullerserving as co-creator before departing the seriessomewhat abruptly, and the initial early 2017 launch date now having been pushed back to Fall 2017. Everything’s now on track as production is underway anda trailer has been unveiled, and fans are mighty curious to see what this newStar Trekseries has in store.
In the wake of Fuller’s exit,Gretchen BergandAaron Harbergwere promoted to showrunners, and the show has no lack of veteran producers sheparding the series—namelyAlex Kurtzman. TheFringeco-creator has been one of the writers and producers on the feature filmStar Trekfranchise, and he’s intimiately involved in bringingStar Trek: Discoveryto life. So when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Kurtzman in anticipation of the release ofThe Mummy, which Kurtzman directed, he asked aboutStar Trek: Discovery.
Specifically, with Fuller gone, are his footprints no longer noticeable on the show?
“No absolutely there are footprints left on the show. Someone once described Bryan to me as a unicorn and that’s just the truth. He’s a one of a kind writer. He’s just unbelievably brilliant and I really, really loved working with him and I loved seeing the way that his mind worked. Bryan was very involved inAmerican Godsand I think that the scope and scale of whatTrekhas become made it so that Bryan elected to say, ‘I don’t wanna short-change either of these two things,’ they’re both sort of beloved to him, so we sat down and we figured out how are we going to take what we can have of you and continue that through not only this season ofTrekbut hopefully set up things that are coming next season. So much of what’s there in terms of story and certainly in terms of set-up, character, big ideas, the big movement of the season, that’s all stuff that Bryan and I talked about.”
Kurtzman didn’t want to talk too much aboutTrekthis early—they’re currently shooting Episode 5 out of a total 15 for the first season—but he did note that the writers room is full of diverseTrekfandoms:
“I’m really excited for everybody to seeTrekand I was extremely pleased with the reception that our trailer got. It was awesome, it was really cool. All I’m gonna say now is that you’re talking about a show that’s being written by a roomful of fans who all have very different relationships toTrek, and I think that’s a healthy thing and it’s a good thing. They love different aspects ofTrek. We’re really excited with how the scripts are going; the scripts are going great.”
As for those delays, Kurtzman said as the scope of the show got bigger, CBS was amenable to ensuring they could launch with the best possible version of the series:
“We postponed our schedule because the truth is we did not want to put out something that was subpar, and as the vision expanded we started feeling like we weren’t gonna be able to deliver the scope and the scale that was on the page. And CBS was extremely supportive in saying, ’Okay you know what, this is streaming, it’s not like we have to beat out right away, let’s do the best version of this,Trekis too important for all of us.’”
Kurtzman also noted that given the intense fandom surroundingTrek, he’s gottenmanyrequests for celebrity cameos—so keep those eyes peeled:
“So many actors are fans. We literally got a list of them that were like, ‘Here are people who said they want to be onStar Trek’. It was awesome… To just be in an episode or come in or out.”
One of the main things that Fuller wanted to bring to the series was LGBT representation, givenTrek’s legacy of being a forward-thinking show. Kurtzman says that will absolutely be prevalent inStar Trek: Discovery:
“I don’t feel that—going back to what you said about where television is at right now, it would be foolish of us to not only ignore it but not to take advantage of the fact that that’s how people are consuming stories and they’re hungrier for more complicated stories. What would have been a taboo subject 10, 15 years ago is now everywhere, and that’s a beautiful thing.”
Click hereif you missed what Kurtzman had to say aboutBill Condon’sBride of Frankenstein. Look for our full interview with Kurtzman on Collider soon.
