I've got to say, as hardcore Trekkie, I am absolutely thrilled at the prospect of a new series. Let me just summarize most of what we know about it currently for those reading who may not be checking their phones hourly waiting for more news. The series is going to be called Star Trek: Discovery. It will be an arcing story set in the Prime Star Trek timeline (not the divergent J.J. Abrams timeline from the recent movies). It will take place aboard a ship called the Discovery, approximately ten years before the original Star Trek series era and somehow involves a historical event that has been mentioned in previous canon. Rather than an ensemble cast, it will mostly center around a female lieutenant commander who has yet to be cast. The captain of Discovery will also be female. The lead will also likely be a person of color, and at least one other character, Lt. Stamets (played by Anthony Rapp) will be openly gay. Currently the only other confirmed characters cast so far are Lt. Saru, played by Doug Jones, and (my favorite so far) Captain Georgiou of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, played by Michelle Yeoh. Other yet to be cast characters include a British doctor, a Klingon captain, two admirals.
I, for one, can not begin to say how excited I am to see a return to the Prime timeline. Let's face it- Into Darkness was trash. The 2009 movie that kickstarted the J.J. Abrams filth (referred to as the Kelvin timeline in official publications) was passable, but still not that great. I haven't wasted my time or money on Beyond. I was super excited to see that Bryan Fuller was spearheading the new series, and pretty bummed to find out he later stepped down due to scheduling conflicts. Hopefully he molded the first little bits well enough that whoever steps in can't screw it up too bad.
It's about time for some more diversity in Trek. Yeah, I realize we've had both a black man, and a woman in charge of previous series, but most crews don't come across as being multinational, even if they are, and when they do, they're usually from largely white or largely English speaking countries. The inclusion of an Asian woman in the main cast is refreshing, and Michelle Yeoh is awesome. There were a few negative comments popping up in various places online about the choice of sticking an Asian character on a ship with an Asian name, but really, when you think about it, the population of China makes up about a sixth of the world's population, which will probably still be true in 200 years. The odds of having a Chinese captain on a Chinese-named ship are actually pretty good.
Now, one thing that I would really want to say to the show's producers- "DON'T DO TO GAYS WITH LT. STAMETS WHAT YOU DID TO NATIVE AMERICANS WITH CHAKOTAY!!!" I mean, I liked the character of Chakotay, he seemed like a nice guy and a competent commander, and I'd rather have worked under him that Riker... but damn... even their Native American expert they brought in to help create the character was a fake Indian. I don't want to see Lt. Stamets prancing around in a feather boa or leather fetish gear while blasting The Village People over the ship's comm system. Please no more bad cultural stereotypes.
Lt. Saru is being played by the guy who played Abe in the Hellboy movies. I'm a little annoyed that he's a new species we haven't seen before. This is the 23rd century, and the franchise stretches out a hundred years into the past and future. Why not stick to the list of aliens we've seen before? Surely there's something here you can make him instead?
I'm cautiously optimistic. Star Trek is my life, let's be honest. I'm less of a fanboy and more of a worshiper. This series needs to be GOOD. We NEED Star Trek on the small screen, because that's where it works best. I loved all of the Prime timeline movies, but truthfully, as good as they were, their story-telling abilities were limited. Wrath of Khan and First Contact were incredible films, but they don't quite add up when they're stacked against "The City on the Edge of Forever", "The Measure of a Man", "Chain of Command", "The Visitor", or "In the Pale Moonlight". It's also unlikely that modern movie-going audiences would understand or accept the cerebral qualities of a good Star Trek story.
Star Trek is back where is needs to be.
