Star Trek: Discovery showrunners tease a universe altering choice

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Now that Star Trek: Discovery has an official release date and production seems to be moving forward relatively hassle-free, we're finally beginning to discover more about the upcoming Star Trek series. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek: Discovery showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg dropped a hint about how the first season of the CBS series will unfold, and how a difficult choice made by Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) will set the "second pilot" in motion.

Burnham’s background is that she was the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center and Vulcan Science Academy – so she’s spent a lot of time on Vulcan, but she’s human. Sarek plays and important role in her life, which has been completely planned until she makes a difficult choice that sends her life on a very different path. When we meet her, she’s the first officer on the starship Shenzhou. Burnham’s choice that we’re alluding to is the most difficult choice you can make – it affects her, affects Starfleet, affects the Federation; it affects the entire universe.That choice leads her to a different ship, the USS Discovery, and there we begin what Gretchen and I call our second pilot.

I'm desperately hoping that Burnham's choice doesn't spell doom for Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and the U.S.S. Shenzou, but, I suppose she needs to get onboard the U.S.S. Discovery somehow. Although the series features a large cast of characters, Aaron Harberts added that it will primarily serve as exploration of Sonequa Martin-Green's character.

It’s a serialized telling of a tale; an exploration of one particular character, Michael Burnam, along the path of discovering what it means to be human and finding her individuality. Those types of stories have been really well told in the ‘Star Trek’ movies, but it’s been hard to do in the television iterations because episodes have been so closed-ended.The joy is in the journey. The advantage to [Burnham] not being in charge of the bridge right now is we get to tell stories from a different point of view. It’s a fresh feeling because we’re not on the bridge all the time. We get access to more parts of the ship.

Entertainment Weekly also revealed a new image from the series, depicting the rather unique looking transporter room aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou. As Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) prepare to beam down, you might notice that they're suited out in body armor and have some appropriately old-school phasers at their sides. If you're not a fan of the Shenzhou's transporter room, fear not, EW says that the as-yet-unrevealed transporter room aboard the U.S.S. Discovery will be "very different."

Star Trek: Discovery will debut on CBS on September 24, 2017 before moving to CBS All Access.