Home TV News ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Changes Showrunners Again

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Changes Showrunners Again

by Dave Elliott
‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Changes Showrunners Again

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Changes Showrunners Again

Things are changing a second time behind the scenes at Star Trek: Discovery. Current showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts are out and will be replaced by exec producer, and co-creator, Alex Kurtzman.

Berg and Harberts took over the showrunner role partway into Season 1 production after Bryan Fuller, the ‘Littlest Hobo’ of exec producers, left the project over the speed at which the production was progressing. According to reports, this latest change is also related to “leadership and operational” issues rather than the old line of “creative differences”. Production costs had started to balloon, and there had been “tension” in the writer’s room due to Harberts allegedly being verbally abusive to one of the staff. This resulted in some writers threatening to file HR complains and to quit entirely. It was at that point Kurtzman stepped in.

“We’ve made some producer changes at Star Trek: Discovery,” commented CBS Television Studios in a statement. “The series continues under the creative vision and leadership of executive producer and co-creator Alex Kurtzman. Discovery remains on course for season two in 2019 with new and continuing stories that build on its successful premiere season.”

The show is apparently coming up to a planned hiatus after filming the first 5 episodes of Season 2, which gives Kurtzman a natural break in production to get all his ducks (or Klingons) in a row before taking over as showrunner. He will initially do the job solo, but it’s possible a second showrunner could join him at some point to help carry the load.

Along with co-creating ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, Alex Kurtzman was the co-creator on ‘Sleepy Hollow’, ‘Hawaii Five-0’‘Fringe’, and co-wrote the ‘Star Trek’ movie reboot. He is a frequent collaborator of J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof, and often works with writing and producing partner Roberto Orci.

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ follows Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, a wayward Starfleet Officer who finds herself on the USS Discovery as she learns that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The show has been a massive hit for CBS’s All Access digital service in the US, breaking records for daily, weekly and monthly subscription sign-ups when it launched.

Star Trek: Discovery’ airs on Netflix in the UK, and Season 2 will arrive in 2019.

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