“Star Trek: Discovery” is on the way, and while I haven’t dived into hardcore corners of Trekker fandom, I would assess the mood as “apprehensive.” Fans want the the new series to be good, and are reserving judgment, but a new interview with the show’s original showrunner Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal,” “Pushing Daisies“) reveals what could have been. And it sounds awesome.
As it stands, ‘Discovery’ will be your standard series, this time taking ‘Trek’ fans about a decade before the events of the original show. However, much like “Star Wars,” there are all kinds of worlds for “Star Trek” to explore and if Fuller had managed to have his way, ‘Discovery’ would’ve been an anthology series, with each season taking on a different setting.
“The original pitch was to do for science-fiction what ‘American Horror Story‘ had done for horror. It would platform a universe of ‘Star Trek’ shows,” Fuller told EW. Apparently, this vision for the series, would’ve seen seasons jump into the Captain James T. Kirk and Captain Jean-Luc Picard eras, but also venture beyond them as well. That’s not all.
READ MORE: ‘Star Trek’ Never Goes Beyond Its Familiar Orbit, But Entertains Nonetheless [Review]
Fuller and CBS weren’t seeing eye-to-eye on ‘Discovery,’ and it became more acute when David Semel (“Madam Secretary,” “Code Black“) was hired to direct the pilot. Fuller clearly wanted a more auteur name to launch the show, and had approached Edgar Wright for the gig. For someone like me who is pretty on the fence generally about “Star Trek,” Wright’s involvement would’ve made it must-watch material, and certainly would’ve made genre fans very happy given his geek bonafides. (In case you forgot, Wright directed a single shot in “Star Trek Into Darkness“).
Essentially, the friction between Fuller and the network kept piling up for a variety of reasons ranging from budget to the debut date, and the showrunner ultimately become too busy with his Starz series “American Gods” moving full steam ahead at the same time (the first season aired this summer). He moved on, and Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts took over his role.
“Star Trek: Discovery” launches on CBS on September 24th, before moving to the network’s digital service All Access. If you live outside the U.S. and Canada, Netflix will be the spot to watch it. It’ll certainly be very interesting to see if the franchise can get back on healthier footing, particularly seeing as the big screen reboot series is in a bit of holding pattern at the moment.