David Farnor | On 07, Jan 2018

Star Trek: Discovery returns for the second half of Season 1 tomorrow, and the show’s producers have been teasing details of what’s in store for the show.

CBS’ revival of the long-running sci-fi franchise has been a hit since it premiered last year, both on CBS’s own streaming service in the USA and on Netflix everywhere else in the world. Some backlash notwithstanding from the early departure of one character, and how its lead, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), fits in with the original show’s canon, Exec Producers Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts have reassured that the series will become more like the Star Trek fans will recognise.

Speaking at this weekend’s TCA panel in America, Berg emphasised that Burnham’s journey of discovery and self-discovery would continue to be at the series’ heart.

“She had a big hole to climb out of emotionally, spiritually, and how she feels she fits in the world. [This second half] is about getting her back to a place we saw her in in the beginning,” she told the press.

“Redemption’s a huge theme,” added Harberts. “The other thing that’s a huge theme for us is taking the Federation from the darkness into the light. Everybody wants this optimistic version of Star Trek right out of the gate. And I feel that our show has a lot of hope in it from episode to episode, depending on storyline we’re tracking… by season’s end, people will see the Federation they’ve come to know and love from TOS on.”

There’s a war to get through first, though.

“The back-half is definitely again a war story and how the war is going to play out. Your characters find themselves in a place where their identities are challenged. It’s an emotionally raw back half of the season,” continued Harberts, adding: “What happens tomorrow night firmly anchors the back-half of the season.”

The USS Discovery crew will have to be creative survive against enemy forces in unknown territory. But if Klingon subtitles have been an issue for you, there is good news:

“Because of the story we were telling about the Klingons and how they wanted to make sure they kept their race pure, from a storytelling point of view it made sense,” the EPs noted, but reassured that “in the back-half the audience will see fewer subtitles”.

The show has already been renewed for Season 2, and both Harberts and Berg divulged some details of what to expect in years to come: “The second season is not a war season… we are very interested in tackling themes of science versus faith. We’ll be nine years before [Star Trek: The Original Series] and there are things from TOS that we want to do some nods to.”

You can catch up with our reviews of Star Trek: Discovery here.

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