‘Star Trek’ Series Has A Name, A New Teaser, And Early Plot Details [Video]

Little by little, CBS is releasing details for their new Star Trek series, and while many have criticized the network for their plans to air the new Star Trek series strictly on their online streaming service, CBS All Access, mounting excitement indicates that won’t keep fans of the franchise from watching the show. Recent events at San Diego Comic-Con have confirmed that the interest in the new CBS Star Trek series is infectious, proving that CBS’s gamble that Star Trek fans will pay for the streaming service to see the show may actually pay off.

CBS Debuts A New Teaser For Their Star Trek Series

Hoping to draw an even wider audience, C-Net reveals that CBS sent a Star Trek panel to San Diego Comic-Con. The panel consisted of Star Trek legends William Shatner (Star Trek), Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager), and Scott Bakula (Star Trek: Enterprise) and while that is an impressive array of guests, it’s possible that Bryan Fuller may have been the Star Trek panel’s biggest draw.

It was Fuller’s presence that suggested fans might learn more about the upcoming CBS series because he has been brought in to serve as executive producer on the new Star Trek series. If fans thought they might have gleaned just a few tidbits about the new show, they were in for sensory overload. Not only did Fuller reveal that the new show would bear the title of the new Starfleet vessel – it will be called Star Trek: Discovery– but he also dropped a new, exciting trailer for the series.

At first glance, the teaser for Star Trek: Discovery is an exciting glance at a new ship, as it disembarks from a Starfleet space station, but a closer inspection suggests there’s more here than meets the eye. In the first teaser for the newly named Star Trek: Discovery, it has been theorized that the new series will explore the time frame between Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (because it seems to show the destruction of Praxis) and the events of Star Trek: Generations (because it also seems to show the explosion of the Amargosa Observatory). While this theory has not been either confirmed or denied, further clues come together to paint a fuller picture. The new Star Trek: Discovery trailer shows a view of the U.S.S. Discovery that reveals a new shape configuration, one which bears a striking resemblance to the Vulcan IDIC symbol. Could this mean the Discovery will be populated by a primarily Vulcan crew? If so, that fact and the name of the ship would suggest that the new vessel is primarily a science research vessel, giving Star Trek: Discovery quite a different perspective than the plots of earlier series.

Also interesting is the way in which a line dissects the Starfleet emblem, as the Star Trek: Discovery logo materializes at the end of the teaser. This might suggest some dissent in Starfleet or in the political ruling body of the United Federation of Planets. If so, the new series may take place a bit further in the future than analysis of that first teaser has indicated. Star Trek: Discovery may take us to a new era, when the Federation faces annihilation from within.

What Else Did The SDCC Panel Reveal About Star Trek: Discovery?

Meet the U.S.S. Discovery, the main ship from Bryan Fuller's new Star Trek TV series.https://t.co/3EzRObk3H7 pic.twitter.com/ZcQpjTIUaI

— Den Of Geek UK (@denofgeek) July 24, 2016

As IO9 reveals, much more was revealed by Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Bryan Fuller. For starters, the executive producer admits that the design of the Discovery was based on the 70s designs for the Enterprise, done by Ralph McQuarrie, though he says he can’t comment further on that until legal constraints have been eliminated. Fuller didn’t infer that there was any kind of a legal battle going on, only that he wished to avoid creating any potential problems by commenting on the ship design prematurely.

Also onboard to assist Bryan on the Star Trek: Discovery production team is Heather Kadin (Sleepy Hollow, Limitless), and fans at SDCC were curious to know if bringing in a female executive producer at such an early stage might mean the new series would show a greater female presence than past series.

“As a female, you’ll see, when you start to hear more about the series, that that’s a big part of it,” says Kadin.

What about time? More than anything, fans wanted to know when Star Trek: Discovery would take place and in which timeline. Fuller’s response seems to indicate that CBS is aware of the conflict among fans over the Abramsverse, which is something that doesn’t inhibit fans when it comes to the prime universe.

“It is in the prime timeline,” Bryan said.

Fans asked the Star Trek: Discovery showrunner when exactly the show would be set within that timeline and that’s where Fuller became a little cagey.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to say yet because there are so many new things about this series,” Fuller said. “There’s a lot of new and exciting things we’re doing with this show, that we [don’t] want to [over]saturate you.”

Star Trek: Discovery is set to premiere in January 2017.

[Image via CBS]