Conflict: Star Trek Discovery's Final Frontier

It's been a source of frustration for many Stardates - as part of creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of a more enlightened future, Star Trek writers have long had to contend with developing stories that shied away from any conflicts between crewmembers, or portrayed them in a negative fashion. "Drama is conflict" has been a mantra since the Greeks. But it's been a limitation on Star Trek that's caused many who've worked on the various iterations of the franchise to feel a bit hobbled over the years.

Thanks to a fascinating story in the current Entertainment Weekly, we're learning that the showrunners on the new CBS Star Trek Discovery have 86'd this age-old condition of the series in the hopes of telling more dramatic stories. This is good news, and a hopeful sign that they're spending a good amount of time working on good stories - putting the emphasis on the writing.

Showrunner Aaron Harberts explains, "We're trying to do stories that are complicated, with characters with strong points of view and strong passions. People have to make mistakes - mistakes are still going to be made in the future. We're still going to argue in the future. The rules of Starfleet remain the same. The thing we're taking from Roddenberry is how we solve those conflicts. So we do have our characters in conflict, we do have them struggling with each other, but it's about how they find a solution and work through their problems."

One other significant departure from previous Star Treks is that Discovery's narrative will be highly serialized, as opposed to the "planet of the week" model Star Trek began with.

I found this to be extremely encouraging news. Not that we should expect a darker, more brooding Star Trek. But that the showrunners are trying to find a workable mix between what makes Star Trek unique, while making sure the format connects with modern audiences. After all, Star Trek veteran Ronald D. Moore launched his Battlestar Galactica update largely in response to the storytelling limitations imposed while working on Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Just knowing that the people involved in Star Trek Discovery care enough to avoid serving us leftovers is pretty fantastic. Star Trek has always been about pushing past the borders of the frontier, and it sounds like we're in for a fresh new perspective that goes where no previous outing has gone before.

Star Trek Discovery debuts September 24th.