On Wednesday, at their upfronts presentation in New York, CBS announced that they had ordered two additional episodes for their upcoming series Star Trek: Discovery. A few hours later, the network also posted the first trailer for the series (this after the first image of the series was posted last night, showing Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou and Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham).
The new series is set a decade before the original series (i.e. prior to Kirk and Spock meeting). Lead character Michael Burham, a lieutenant comander aboard the USS Discovery, played by Soneque Martin-Green, is obviously the focus. She is surrounded by klingons, vulcans, and human characters. Along with Maritn-Green, the cast includes Jason Isaacs, Michelle Yeoh, Doug Jones, James Frain, Anthony Rapp, and Maulik Pancholy.
According to Deadline, CBS increased the episode order for the first season from 13 episodes to 15 episodes. They also have announced plans to have an after show called Talking Trek that will be used to discuss the recently premiered episode (similar to AMC’s Talking Dead for The Walking Dead, or Talking Bad for Breaking Bad).
Star Trek: Discovery has not had an easy time getting to air. Expected to premiere in fall of 2016, production has been delayed due to creator Bryan Fuller voluntarily stepping down as showrunner in October, citing his involvement with other projects (most likely Starz American Gods) as the main reason he desired to take an executive producer role instead. Fuller worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager in the 1990s.
We can expect the pilot episode to premiere on CBS All Access this upcoming fall, with the remainder of the series to premiere on the broadcast network. Star Trek: Discovery is the first original series for OTT subscription service CBS All Access. Currently, the cast and crew are filming the sixth episode.
Check out the trailer below: