Star Trek: Discovery arrives in late September. Set in the Prime timeline (as opposed to Abrams' Kelvin film timeline), the series follows the exploits of a brand new Starfleet crew, going boldly about a decade before Kirk's famous five-year mission. This time around, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her shipmates find themselves on the wrong side of a disruptor as the Federation-Klingon cold war heats up.

The first small screen outing since Star Trek: Enterprise ended its run in 2005, Discovery strives to merge the more cerebral themes of its predecessors while borrowing action-heavy beats from theatrical Trek and other modern cinematic offerings. But Discovery has already courted controversy before even hitting the small screen, due to the show's moderate re-imagining of the franchise. CBS clearly felt the need to give modern audiences something fresh yet familiar much like J.J. Abrams did with his 2009 reboot.

Despite its connection to the Kelvin films, especially writer/producer Alex Kurtzman, the direction and tone of the CBS show feels more like a call-back to a different Abrams' soft reboot: Star Wars: Episode VII -- The Force Awakens.

Is Discovery Star Trek’s The Force Awakens?

For all the fan-shade thrown at it, The Force Awakens reignited a world's interest in and love for Star Wars. It's far from a perfect picture, and fans and critics will debate the merits of Abrams' super-homage to A New Hope until their faces turn blue. Still, it remains an eminently watchable movie and still holds up fairly well to scrutiny, at least if The Last Jedi and Episode IX answer some of the mysteries TFA left in its wake.

After Enterprise's failure to connect, CBS was undoubtedly down to avoid repeating their mistakes. Discovery itself was announced a mere month before TFA hit theaters, so the show's development team probably awaited the film's release (and critical response) with Spock-like eyebrows raised. When Episode VII became a global phenom, the developers, including Bryan Fuller at the time, likely pored over every pivotal moment and plot hole, searching for the proverbial thermal exhaust ports of the film. Much like the Trek reboot before them, Abrams replicated the magic of the beloved series and established the franchise's continued commercial viability without ruffling too many feathers.

So, what can the production team learn from Lucasfilm? Even though TFA is set 30 years in the future the only easily explicable place to pick up the Skywalker saga with the original actors and the latest Trek is set ten years before Kirk, both the film and the show convey similar themes: mythology causes conflict (First Order's devotion to the empire and Klingons need to build theirs); generational gaps create friction (Luke/Kylo Ren and Lorca/Michael perhaps); a disconnect from family causes heartache (Rey, Finn, Ren and Michael/Sarek); and naturally redemption is a motivating factor (Luke/Ren and perhaps Michael).

In addition, both Trek and Wars deal with alterations due to in-world and external technological updates. Film, camera techniques, and digital effects have all advanced dramatically, even since George Lucas' innovative if less-beloved second trilogy. For Episode VII, Abrams did his homework, learning that fans loved the lived-in aesthetic of the original trilogy but also enjoyed the stunningly rendered landscapes and vast scale of the prequels. Smartly, he merged high and low tech for his own soft reboot. As evident from the trailers, featuring gorgeous spacescapes and alien species clearly created by physical craftspersons, Discovery took Lucasfilm's blend of practical and CG effects to heart.

Star Wars The Force Awakens JJ Abrams

Abrams also came to the franchise as a fan filming a movie in a familiar mythos. Similarly, much of the Discovery team are seasoned Trek veterans like Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) and Joe Menosky (Star Trek: The Next Generation), although the writers' room boasts some neophytes as well. Reigniting Star Wars and Star Trek come from the desire to watch something beloved grow and flourish again, as much as from a practical ($$) level.

Still, both franchises met with countless hurdles along the way, including fan expectations and a somewhat lapsed public consciousness. In the case of Star Wars, Abrams and Lucasfilm had to capture the loyalty of the hardcore base and appeal to general audiences only peripherally familiar with the story, something they succeeded at handily. Much like Force Awakens, Discovery can only accept so much die-hard input before committing to a unified vision, seeing as every fan has their own franchise dogma. But if Harberts and Berg can juggle fan, network, and newcomer needs, in the same manner as TFA, the streaming saga has a real shot.

By revisiting the central mythos, Abrams' film also crafted a plausible new framing plot and kept it franchise-simple: a new, eviler Empire (the First Order) threatens to blitzkrieg all over the galaxy and a band of plucky rebels (The Resistance), guided by a gaggle of familiar faces, tries to stop them. No frills, but it works well for Episode VII, comfortably balancing the franchise's mystique with its colossal nostalgia quotient. By the same token, Discovery's premise heads to an era just before The Original Series, and its primary antagonists are the most nefarious villains/allies in Federation history: the Klingons.

Thanks to variances in technology and lapses in early series canon, though, the producers have tweaked the Klingons' look and their iconic vessels (which may warrant further explanations later on) to give the show a fresh feel and also frustrate purists. Starfleet also got an upgrade, with sleeker ships and modern bridge design, which is understandable under the circumstances. While the bulkier, model kit ships and push-button controls would've given the series a retro feel, they'd also appear pretty darn quaint to an audience convinced that flip phones are so 2009.

Star Trek Discovery Trailer Breakdown

Yet romanticized aspects of the show did return, including the flip phone-inspiring communicators, Enterprise-TOS bridging uniforms, and era-appropriate phasers. However, blending the tech look and feel isn't the only page the program borrowed from The Force Awakens' book. Abrams once again built his Star Wars foundation on friendly faces, in particular, fan favorites like Chewie, Han, Leia, Luke, and C-3PO. More than just fan-service, though, the classic characters connect old fans and newcomers, allowing Abrams and his descendants to flash-developed the affable newcomers.

Likewise, this version of Star Trek will alter some very common tropes. For instance, Discovery relies on its bridge crew's personal dynamics for greater drama, actually ending the Roddenberry Rule that made Federation types borderline infallible and gave its writing staff endless headaches. The tales also center on Lt. Cmdr. Burnham rather than Captains Georgiou and Lorca. Even though the emotional heft will be carried by an unfamiliar (if talented) bridge crew, the show won't be short on sentimentality, as iconic characters like Sarek (Burnham's adoptive father played by James Frain), Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson), and Tribbles (naturally) will drop by something CBS assumes will pique the curiosity of even the most jaded fan.

Another major departure for Star Trek is a mission-oriented story arc. An interconnected narrative like the Skywalker epic requires an organic, overarching agenda or it dashes the whole serialized feel Lucas was aiming for. Trek, on the other hand, tinkered with story arcs like the enjoyable Dominion War on Deep Space Nine or convoluted Temporal Cold War on Enterprise but rarely relied on a cohesive theme. Much like its far-away galaxy cohort, each episode of Discovery will present a contained storyline and read more like a chapter in a book. The first season goal which deals with an impending Klingon-Federation conflict should infuse each hour of television with a deeper sense of purpose.

As evidenced by the explosive San Diego Comic-Con trailer and prior teasers, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg updated the tone (grittier), aesthetic (slicker and darker), and pacing (rapid transitions and dynamic camera work) for a new generation, much like Abrams did for Force Awakens. The latest outing also inhabits a grayer world than the Starfleet of Kirk and Picard, where Burnham and her crewmates exist along the thin red line between diplomacy and destruction. A more permeable morality is the linchpin to the new adventures, according to showrunner Berg (via TrekMovie), who noted the importance of stepping outside human nature to observe it. What better way to define and re-examine the Federation's values than a tense, hostile standoff between the Federation and the Klingons?

Star Trek Discovery Trailer Breakdown

Discovery takes another cue from TFA and comparable modern movies by giving its female leads something to actually do in the film. Even though Star Trek has always been ahead of the curve, diversity-wise, the franchise only includes one recurring female captain and no black female leads. Much like Rey became the glue that held Episode VII together, Michael Burnham's adventures and her perspective will inform the action. Imbuing the viewers with a feminine perspective, especially during the most male-dominated era of Trek, remains one of the show's most subversive acts. The series will also highlight a well-rounded gay Starfleet officer and hopefully won't shy away from portraying Lt. Stamets as perfectly normal.

The Force Awakens and the latest Star Trek serial are wildly divergent entities in tone, theme, and style. Nonetheless, Discovery and its creatives clearly learned a lot from Abrams' flawed but well-rendered update. The CBS offering will be a balancing act, merging the dynamic action of TFA with the film's little big moments (such as Rey stripping Kylo Ren of his pretenses). A multi-episode serial also leaves a great deal more room to delve into the characters and explain the settings without forcing the awkward exposition, as movies often resort to.

At the same time, if the show's creatives catch too many lens flares to the brain and focus heavily on the CG spectacle or bog things down with procedural elements, Discovery risks missing the point of its serialized nature and Star Trek itself. Thanks to sizable budgets and a staff that already knows the ins-and-outs of the saga, the show should be able to emulate the sweeping cinematic landscapes without shedding the contemplative moments that make Trek work. After all, the interplay between the main players like Captain Georgiou, Lt. Burnham, Captain Lorca, etc., and the alien species they encounter, offers the greatest potential for exploration in the 23rd century.

Sure, Discovery might buck the established canon a bit, but if it returns the Federation to its place in the stars, by way of updating it for the contemporary era, it's worth giving the streaming series some wiggle room. Most of all, it needs to tell a darn good story, if for no other reason than to make up for toying with Trekkies' emotions.

Next: Star Trek: Khan Prequel Series is Reportedly Being Developed

Star Trek: Discovery debuts on September 24, 2017.

Source: TrekMovie, Den of Geek