Here's How Star Trek: Discovery Will Set Up Everything That Came Before

Star Trek: Discovery aims to go where no man has gone before, but also to set up where all the previous men have gone.

The CBS All Access series takes place 10 years before Star Trek the original series, however Discovery wants to set itself apart from the Treks that have come before. The biggest change between this new series and the ones before is how the stories of First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew unfold.

"This is by far, the most serialized version of Star Trek that has ever existed, as such it is long-term character storytelling," executive producer Akiva Goldsman told critics at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Tuesday. "Without conflict, there is no long form character storytelling."

Star Trek: Discovery Will Feature That Human-Vulcan Love Story

The full story details of the series still haven't been revealed, but we know that the crew of Discovery will be waging war with Klingons. It's a time period that hasn't been depicted on screen yet -- and the producers are not regarding the Trek novels of canon, though they are aware of them -- thus Discovery will be used to establish the principles of the subsequent series.

"Part of what we've tried to do is speak to how those philosophical precepts came to be," Goldsman continued. "We're in a period of time that's pre-[The Original Series]. We're in a time of war. We're trying to figure out who we are as a federation and who we are as a peoples in a set of adversity. It is a goal of the show to arrive at the [central] principles that are endemic to Star Trek."

Star Trek: Discovery premieres Sunday, Sept. 24 at 8:30/7:30c on CBS before moving exclusively to CBS All Access.

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