"Star Trek" is making a debut to the television for first time after an absence of over 10 years with the latest entry in the 50-year-old-franchise unveiled as "Star Trek: Discovery."
According to Screen Rant, the term 'discovery' has a long history with the science fiction and scientific communities and hence, it is not unsurprising the production chose to name the ships and show after the evocative term.
"Star Trek: Discovery" is known to take its name from the Starship featured in the series, the U.S.S. Discovery. Show runner and executive producer while speaking in a video shown at Star Trek: Mission New York, Bryan Fuller highlighted why they chose that name for the ship and for the series. In addition to explaining its essence, Fuller expounded upon what the show's title means for the future of the larger "Star Trek" franchise.
In the video show, Fuller discussed the reasons the ship plus the show were named "discovery." The word itself has significance through its connections to books, film and human exploration. The executive producer specified that the term was an indication of the sense of wonder the new "Star Trek" outing is aiming to capture and recapture for the series.
"A number of reasons are behind this ship been called the Discovery," he explained. He said it is not the least of which is Stanley Kubrick's contribution to the Discovery on 2001:"A Space Odyssey," NASA's vessel the Discovery, and also the sense of discovery. Fuller noted that the title of "Star Trek: Discovery" was also about what the term 'discovery' means to "Star Trek" fans who have been promised a future by Gene Roddenberry where they have come together as a planet and look for new worlds and new alien races to explore and understand and collaborate with.
He went on to reiterate that sense of discovering would manifest as the show introduce and reintroduces alien species, ships, and technology both familiar and strange. This messes with fans' overall understanding of the project so far.
Set 10 years before "The Original Series," this latest series will follow the ship's female, non-alien second-in-command. Also, it will include a whole host of alien species both on-board and beyond the Discovery.
This spirit of discovery sits well with what little audience know about "Star Trek: Discovery" so far. In addition, the new episodes will follow a non-standard format, serialized rather than the episodic nature.
According to Comic Book, "Star Trek: Discovery" will be the first "Star Trek" series whose main protagonist is not a captain. The series will instead focus on a female, lesser-ranking Starfleet officer who is referred to as "Number One," and may or may not be the same Number One who was the first officer to Captain Pike in the first "Star Trek: The Original Series" pilot.
"Star Trek: Discovery debuts on CBS in January 2017, before it move to the CBS All Access streaming service for the remainder of its 13-episode first season.
Here is a video of "Star Trek: Discovery" official ship test: