Opinion: Can a new version of Star Trek cut it with today's cutthroat TV?

Can Star Trek achieve warp velocity in this strange new era of prestige television? The sci-fi caper has returned to the small screen with Star Trek: Discovery – a new series set a decade before the original adventures of Kirk and Spock. But Trek’s rebirth is at an awkward moment, with Star Wars the dominant space opera and recent attempts to reinvigorate the Live Long and Prosper franchise falling short of expectations (last year’s utterly competent Star Trek Beyond, for instance, stiffed at the box office).

The omens ahead of Discovery’s debut on Netflix have not been positive. CBS, which is airing the series in the United States, refused to allowed reviewers watch the show in advance – usually a signifier that all is not well. Moreover, the production has been deeply tumultuous – with original show-runner Bryan Fuller allegedly fired from the production, and fans all but in revolt over the decision to depict the Klingon alien race as reptile-like monsters (these things matters if you are hardcore).

Yet the riskiest decision of all, surely, is to transition to joined-up storytelling. With the exception of the excellent but largely forgotten Deep Space Nine, Trek has always been about one-off stories told with verve and imagination. Even the iconic Next Generation arc in which Captain Picard was transformed into a member of the Borg took place over the span of two installments. Long-form narrative has never been Trek’s thing.

Discovery aims to change that. In this age of binge viewing, one off high-jinks aren’t enough to sustain a multi-million dollar series. So Discovery will boldly go where no Star Trek (apart from the aforementioned DS9) has ventured, in chronicling the rise of the Klingon Empire and seeds of the conflict between the barbarian aliens and the Federation.

In the original Star Trek, producer and show-runner Gene Roddenberry forbade any conflict between the crew of the Enterprise (unless it was the result of alien skulduggery). In the far future humanity, he reasoned, would have moved past petty squabbling. So it’s ironic that petty squabbling was very much in evidence in the run-up to the new Discovery.

The reboot was the brainchild of Bryan Fuller, the closest contemporary television has to an enfant terrible. He pushed boundaries with his grotesquely gorgeous retelling of the adventures of Hannibal Lecter (by comparison Jonathan Demme’s Silence Of The Lambs feels like a Disney film) and is currently overseeing Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.

With Trek, he envisaged a galaxy-spanning anthology analogous to Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story. Year one would be set just before the original Trek; later the series would revisit the Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Sisko eras etc. However, when he made the pitch to CBS the response was cautious. They agreed to an initial run preceding “classic” Trek. The future of the saga would depend on audience response.

Everyone agreed that the cast had to score highly for diversity. The lead character would be African American, while one of the Starship captains was to be played by an Asian (the role eventually going to Michelle Yeoh).

“I couldn’t stop thinking about how many black people were inspired by seeing Nichelle Nichols on the bridge of a ship,” Fuller said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how many Asian people were inspired by seeing George Takei and feeling that gave them hope for their place in the future. I wanted to be part of that representation for a new era.”

Yeoh agreed: “I understand when I’m sitting in that chair and I’m coming across as an Asian woman captain, it means so much to women of Asian descent everywhere around the world. It is very empowering and it is very inspirational. In the past I didn’t used to think about it, but now I can understand how powerful a motivator it is, especially for (young girls). They’ll think, ‘If she can do this, I can do this.’”

Fuller’s first choice for the pivotal part of First Officer Burnham – our eyes and ears in this new world – was The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green. However, AMC refused to allow her leave that series until the death of her character Sasha.

Which meant pushing the Discovery premiere date back (it had already been delayed once). Tensions were meanwhile manifesting between Fuller and CBS – with the show-runner unhappy with their choice of cop show veteran David Semel to direct the pilot.

Fuller’s role as show-runner of American Gods was a further source of division. Starz’s splashy fantasy epic was due to launch in the same window as Discovery – and there was a suspicion in CBS that Gods was a distraction. Finally, the inevitable occurred with the network giving the wunderkind his marching orders and then changing fundamental aspects of his vision, such as the design of the Federation uniforms and his knotty storyline (which has been considerably simplified).

Whether Trek has overcome these rumblings will be for fans to decide. Ahead of the premiere this month, Fuller has sounded philosophical and detached from the franchise he helped bring back from deep space. “I got to dream big,” he reflected. “I was sad for a week, and then I salute the ship and compartmentalise my experience… I was happy to see a black woman and an Asian woman in command of a starship.”

Star Trek Discovery is on Netflix.