Star Trek: Discovery & The Sheliak Corporate?

As the January 2017 date for the premier of the latest live action series in the now 50 year old Trek franchise entitled, Star Trek:Discovery draws closer, new details have recently emerged helping ravenous Trekkers fill their insatiable desire and appetite to know more about the new CBS All Access show. In this article we will discuss why we think the show will at the very least initially revolve around the conflict with the Sheliak Corporate and the events leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Armens.

Brian Fuller who is one of Discovery’s creators and executive producers, told Ain’t It Cool News that the new ongoing series will in fact be set in the ‘Prime‘ Universe; that is the universe of the original Star Trek series as apposed to the alternate ‘Kelvin‘ time line of the reimagined Trek movie franchise featuring Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk. The reasoning behind this decision to keep the new series based in the ‘Prime‘ Trek universe seems to be for continuity purposes between this live action series and all of its television predecessors with Fuller saying, “…there was the cleanliness of keeping our series independent of the films.  That way we don’t have to track anything [happening in the movie universe] and they don’t have to track what we’re doing.  And you can have two distinct universes — one where Sulu is straight and one where Sulu is gay.”

Now whether or not there is any relevance to Sulu’s sexual orientation in this or the other Trek universe as it specifically pertains to Star Trek: Discovery is unknown but interestingly Fuller did say that the new show would in fact feature a more diverse company of aliens than were previously seen in other Trek shows, with the inclusion of an openly gay character who would presumably be a member of the crew although this fact was not specified. Either way however, seeing a multitude of different alien races representing the diversity inherent within the Federation would seem quite logical. Likewise, the inclusion of an openly gay character in Star Trek: Discovery is long overdue and clearly an appropriate expression of the ways in which humanity continues to mature both in the future as well as in the ways in which our contemporary global community understands, accepts and defines itself socially and within the mainstream media.

It also seems that the adventures of the USS Discovery will in fact be taking place some ten years before Captain Kirk’s five year mission would have in fact began. So the new series will in some ways be more like a TOS prequel in that it will be set just before the original series in the year ‘2255′, but interestingly still contemporary to the original crew. While Fuller indicated that the first season will in fact center around the crew of the Discovery,  he left the door open to the possibility of already established characters possibly making cameos of some sort in future seasons. An idea that most Star Trek fans should find appealing given that Kirk would be serving aboard the USS Farragut, with Spock and Pike also serving together during the Enterprise’s first five year mission.

Fuller even went on to elaborate further into not only the temporal setting of the new Trek show but in fact gave some interesting hints as to the historical events surrounding the adventures which the crew of the Discovery will be dealing with, “There’s an incident and event in Star Trek history, that’s been talked about but never been explored. To do this series, we’re telling a much more serialized story, to dig deep into a very tantalizing storyline. And we have a character who’s on a journey, and in order to understand something that is alien she first has to understand herself,”

Fuller also went on to insist that the events he is alluding to are in fact not the Romulan War which actually ended in the year 2162, and if the story of the USS Discovery takes place ten years before the start of Kirk’s five year mission on board the Enterprise in 2265, then the Romulan War is definitely not the historical incident being referred to.

What has been speculated about on the internet and what would at first glance seem to make sense would be some historical incident dealing with the Klingons around 2255, primarily due to the fact that beginning about 2223 or so in the Prime universe, the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire were constantly on the verge of war.  In fact there were quite a good number of skirmishes which took place between the Federation and the Klingons all through out what was then very contested interstellar space.

During this time period there are in fact a good number of documented incidents and conflict which could be pointed to between the Klingons and the Federation that would be very fun and familiar TOS related Klingon incidents with which to begin telling the story of the USS Discovery and her crew. Good examples of these would be the disputed area around Sherman’s Planet, the crisis involving the Archanis Sector, or even the conflict on Organia as well as The Battle of Donatu V. But perhaps a very tempting and even more notable setting would be the Battle at Axanar involving Captain Garth of Izar, which took place approximately 2251.

And with all of the issues surrounding the recent and very public legal battle between CBS and Axanar Productions over the fan films depiction of this time period in Federation history, it would be easy to see a skeptical connection surrounding the legal conflict over CBS wanting to possibly begin the story of Star Trek: Discovery during this time period of immense interest and popularity.  But while the conflict between the Federation and the Klingons will most certainly be touched upon and must surely in many official and even personal ways affect many members of Discovery’s crew, the dates pointing to a specific related Klingon incident referred to in Star Trek history but never having been explored in 2255 simply do not exist.

A closer examination of Fuller’s words pertaining to the incident in question potentially leads us away from the Klingons as a possible focal point of Star Trek: Discovery’s first season. In describing the event which USS Discovery will in fact be dealing with, Fuller spoke specifically about the impact which this historical event in Star Trek history will have upon the story’s main protagonist which Fuller described.

It seems that the main character will in fact be a female Lt. Commander referred to as “Number One“, which is a lovely homage to Majel Barrett’s character in the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage“. Speaking about the new ‘Number One’ Fuller said, “… To do this series, we’re telling a much more serialized story, to dig deep into a very tantalizing storyline. And we have a character who’s on a journey, and in order to understand something that is alien she first has to understand herself.”

These last comments by Fuller talking about Number One’s journey in Star trek: Discovery, when taken together with another of Fuller’s statements alluded to earlier in the article, “There’s an incident and event in Star Trek history, that’s been talked about but never been explored . . .” does not sound like it fits neatly into the ongoing cold war between the Klingons and the Federation, but rather seems to fit more with another incident which took place not in the original series, but rather in an episode of The Next Generation entitled, “The Ensigns of Command.”

In this episode we are introduced to an elusive and very alien race known as the Sheliak Corporate which reportedly and coincidentally signed the Treaty of Armens with the United Federation of Planets in 2255. Fans of the TNG episode will recall the very tough negotiating style of the Sheliak in dealing with Cpt. Picard and the very specific nature of the Treaty in question, which in 2255 reportedly took 372 Federation legal experts to draft, containing more than 500,000 words.

This conflict and journey would seem to be a very tantalizing event in Star Trek history which could easily give our new Number One a dilemma which could require a great deal of inner soul searching before allowing her to understand the Sheliak. This is however pure investigative speculation, which is for now entirely up to the reader to decide for themselves until January of 2017.

It seems that the first season of Star Trek: Discovery will also be only 13 episodes long with Fuller saying, “We have the first three scripts [completed] and then we have outlines for [hours] four and five. We know what the story is for episode 11 and it’s one of my favorites for the season.” Likewise Fuller indicated that casting announcements could be expected in October with hopefully people he’s worked with before, so actors from those shows he’s worked on might very well be in Star Trek: Discovery.

So hang in there Trek fans as your long wait is almost over and the dawn of a new age of all things Trek seems quite promising indeed with the upcoming release of Star Trek: Discovery!

Live Long and Prosper!