The newest installment of the “Star Trek” series premiered last weekend. “Star Trek: Discovery” takes place about a decade before the original “Star Trek” series. It is not in the same timeline as the J.J. Abrams “Trek” movies that have been released recently.
The premise of the show is the character Klingon T’Kuvma, attempting to join the 24 great Klingon houses, which leads to a war between his people and the United Federation of the Planets. The story heavily focuses on the characters aboard the “USS Discovery” and how they are involved in the war and the Klingon species conflict.
The main character of the series is Michael Burnham, which is played by Sonequa Martin-Green. She also portrayed the character Sasha Williams in AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” In the last season, her character sacrificed herself to help her family defeat the Saviors.
Since her role in “The Walking Dead” ended, she has been working on “Star Trek: Discovery”. Her character, Michael Burnham, is the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center and Vulcan Science Academy. She is called the “Number One” which is a reference to the same character played by Majel Barrett in the original series. The character of Burnham is the first black female lead in the entire “Star Trek” series.
Giving her a male name was done on purpose by co-creator, Bryan Fuller, as he has done this with the other female leads of his previous series.
Doug Jones plays the character Saru, who is a lieutenant on the Discovery. Saru is the first Kelpien to be a part of Starfleet. The Kelpien Species was created for this series, and were hunted on their home planet and thus have developed the sense of coming death. Since they have the ability to sense death, they have developed a reputation among the Federation as being cowards.
Shazad Latif plays the character Ash Tyler, who is a former prisoner of war. He is a Starfleet lieutenant and has chemistry with Michael Burnham.
Paul Stamets, a character played by Anthony Rapp is a science officer studying astromycology, which is the study of fungi in space. His character is inspired by a mycologist of the same name.
Sylvia Tilly, played by Mary Wiseman is a senior in the Starfleet Academy and is roommates with Burnham. She follows under the wing of Paul Stamets and is recognized as one of the most optimistic people on the Discovery.
The last main character is Gabriel Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs. His character is the captain of the Discovery and is recognized as one of the most disturbed “Star Trek” captains.
“Star Trek: Discovery” started production in January of 2017. The first official trailer was released in May of 2017, and was an assurance to “Star Trek” fans that this series was not just a rumor. During the 2017 San Diego Comic Con, the creators and several actors were there in support of the show and appeared in a panel for the fans.
The pilot premiered at the ArcLight Hollywood theatre on September 19, 2017. It was released to the public on the CBS network on September 24, 2017. The series will only be accessible through CBS’s streaming service “CBS All Access.”
The first season of the show will be 15 episodes that are divided into chapters. The show’s first chapter will run until November 5 and the second chapter will begin streaming January 2018.
So far it has premiered to positive reviews, with critics praising Martin-Green’s performance especially.
Paige Rogers
Reporter