As "Star Trek" celebrates 50 years this week, fans have been gathering in New York for the Star Trek: Mission New York convention. Showcased were the franchise's previous movies (13) and TV series (6), as well as the latest addition, "Star Trek: Discovery."
Bryan Fuller, the showrunner for "Star Trek: Discovery," was present at the panel for the New York "Star Trek" event, along with co-producers and writers Alex Kurtzman, Nicholas Meyer and Kristen Beyer. They revealed more details on what fans can expect from the coming series, which will begin its run in CBS All Access on January 2017.
Fuller said that the name for "Star Trek: Discovery" was influenced by many reasons. NASA's actual Discovery vessel and Stanly Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" film are two of those. The executive producer also believe that "Discovery" is a fitting ode to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the original series in the 60s, per Slash Film.
In the newest series, viewers will expect to see new aliens, planets and ships or vessels that have never appeared in other "Star Trek" iterations, per New York Daily News. The show was intentionally set 10 years before the original series to do away with featuring characters that have been in the other stories. "It's about finding a space in the chronology where there's room to maneuver and create stuff," said Meyer in the panel.
Witness the test flight of #StarTrekDiscovery, coming to #CBSAllAccess & CBS in January 2017 https://t.co/qLYrEF4ed7https://t.co/sROKlnAyXl
— Star Trek: Discovery (@startrekcbs) July 23, 2016
Fans of the franchise might be thrilled to know that "Star Trek: Discovery" will not be limited as a TV series. The team revealed there are also plans to launch a comic book series to tie in with the show, per Tom's Guide. The writing staff hopes that this will eventually boost the show's strength to build on the stories better.
"Star Trek: Discovery" on CBS All Access will be a subscription-based viewing engagement, which means fans will have to shell out $4 to $6 to watch its episodes. Streaming will begin in January 2017, with one episode a week. The show will also be made available on Netflix following the initial release on CBS All Access.
