Why Star Trek: Discovery might seem like it's violating Star Trek canon

There's been a lot of buzz about new CBS series Star Trek: Discovery already - a show that will tell the story of the USS Discovery crew around ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. Now co-showrunner Aaron Harberts is adding to that buzz with a warning for fans. 

"The thing for the audience to keep in mind as they digest the show is that there may be an episode or a moment where it seems like we’re violating canon," he tells SFX. "They need patience, because what we’ll end up doing in another episode is showing them how we're getting around it. So what I would ask from the audience is to consume this series as you would a novel and not make decisions based on a chapter, or on sentences in a particular chapter. This is long-arc storytelling and we're doing things for a reason."

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The cast of characters includes Sarek, father of Spock, and intergalactic conman Harry Mudd, so there's definitely plenty of places for the series to mess with Star Trek history. 

"Sometimes it might feel like we’re flirting with controversy, but we have a way around it. [If people] binge the show they’ll see how we're making these plans and how we're paying things off," adds Harberts.

The show will air on September 24 in the US and on September 25 in the UK.

Don't forget to subscribe to SFX for more in-depth stories from the dark recesses of space and all your favorite movies and shows. You can read more of SFX's interview with Star Trek: Discovery showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg in the new issue of SFX. The latest issue includes an eight-page Star Trek: Discovery set visit. 

Rachel Weber
Managing Editor, US

Rachel Weber is the US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team.