Before we begin, I must stress that this is a work of fiction. Fiction means it's not real. This is not a history, nor is it to be taken seriously in any way. This is basically my satirical interpretation of what it may have been like to film Star Trek Discovery. ​

Click here for part two. ​

CBS studios, February 2016
​
Bryan Fuller and Nick Meyer walked into a CBS conference room to see Les Moonves standing inside with another man. Moonves introduced the man to Fuller and Meyer, "Bryan, Nick, this is Alex Kurtzman, head of Secret Hideout. He'll be co-producing the show with you." They all shook hands and sat down. Fuller began the meeting.

"So Meyer and I have completed drafts for the first two episodes. You all should have received them in your email yesterday, so we can go through and discuss each aspect of it. The idea is 10 episodes per season, new crew, new ship, new century and new challenges!" Fuller looked around the room, then at Kurtzman, "What did you think Alex, is there anything you can think of that could add to the show?"

Kurtzman seemed pleased that Fuller was asking for his input right away, "Sure Bryan. I went through the script yesterday and it's... good. And there are some aspects of it that feel - generic - but I have a solution to that!" Kurtzman's then got to his point, "Seeing as everything here is new, I was thinking that we could make the main character someone other than the captain."

Meyer began to think about it, "I don't think it would hurt to have a character to focus on. Though traditionally, the main character of Trek was actually never part of the crew, it was the ship itself." Fuller chimed in, "I think it could work, we could give this particular character a backstory that we can flash back to from time to time. It would give the character a little more depth than the others."

Kurtzman was still unsure if they approved of the idea, "So do you guys like it?" Fuller responded, "We'd have to flesh out the character better, but I think we can..."

"Let make the main character black", Kurtzman accidentally interrupted in excitement. Fuller was a little taken aback by the interruption, but approved of Kurtzman's input and wrote it down, "...Ok."

"...and a woman," Kurtzman continued. "A strong black woman."

Fuller and Meyer looked at one another, Meyer then spoke, "Alex, I don't think that's gonna be a problem at all, but for now we should stay focused on making a good story first." For a second, Kurtzman seemed to realize he had gone off topic, "Of course, I'm getting too ahead of myself. I'm just excited to be apart of this."

Meyer smiled, "You're not alone in that Alex."

Fuller moved on to the next topic, "Because much of the plot revolves around the relationship of the crew, we're still gonna need a strong, moral Captain."

"I'm thinking that the Captain could be a parental type to help the crew including this new main character grow," said Meyer. " Who knows, she could even become the captain lat..."

"Let's make the captain a dick.", Kurtzman blurted out of nowhere.

This outburst caught Meyer off guard as he gave out a "Huh?" Kurtzman elaborated, "Think about it. Everybody expects that the captain is always going to be the good role model, or the father figure. Let's switch it up and make him a foil to my main character instead. And I think it would be a great twist."

Meyer questioned this idea, "Yet they're both Starfleet officers on the same ship, they have the same purpose. Why would a captain have a need to foil one of his crew-members?"

Kurtzman paused and pondered this question before suggesting, "Wasn't there a mirror universe in the original show?"

Meyer seemed incredulous at the suggestion, "You wanna bring that in this early?" Fuller spoke over Meyer, "Now, let's not pull out any gimmicks until we at least establish what the story is gonna be about." Kurtzman defended his idea, "It's not a gimmick, there is a mirror world where everybody is bad."

Moonves, who had been silently listening up to this point, called for order, "Gentleman, let's stay on task."

The room went silent for a few seconds. Moonves then nodded at Fuller, who decided to move onto the next topic, "Now, we were able to crack the code on making the old shows a hybrid of episodic and serial years ago. It worked well episodically because each episode, sans the cliff hangers, had a conclusion. It worked serially by adding to the overall development of the characters, and we would write that development into later seasons. "Let's keep that format," said Meyer. "Trek fans have always been satisfied with that type of storytelling."

"Except it doesn't keep viewers." Kurtzman added.

"What do you mean?" asked Meyer, now clearly annoyed.

Kurtzman explained, "When you tell episodic stories, you're telling ten different stories per season, all with 'B' and 'C' plots. And serial dramas tell one main story, with a 'B' and maybe a 'C' plot throughout the whole season. If you miss one episode, you miss out on much of the story, so they wont want to miss it. And serial is also easier for viewers to digest."

"If that cereal is Coo-coo Puffs." muttered Meyer under his breath, clearly not buying into Kurtzman's reasoning.

Before Kurtzman could respond, Fuller interjected, "But it's a streaming service, it's not like broadcast where if you miss the episode you have to wait months until they air it again, they can just go back and watch it."

Kurtzman was clearly meeting resistance, "I don't know, I'll defer to your judgement Bryan, but seeing as we have until January 2017 to put this out, I just think it would be simpler and less expensive overall to have just one main plot per season.

Fuller, getting annoyed himself, attempted to change the subject again, "I'll take it under advisement, Alex. Moving on. The bridge crew is going to have a huge roll to play in the plot. They'll all play a part and will all need small speaking scenes to acquaint the viewer to them." As soon as Fuller stopped speaking, the whole table looked at Kurtzman, expecting another outburst.

Kurtzman, feeling the tension, decided to raise his hand this time, "I have a suggestion," Fuller and Meyer continued to stare at Kurtzman, "Let's make the crew diverse."

Both Fuller and Meyer put their palms to their faces in frustration, "Have you..." Fuller began to yell before catching himself and lowering his voice, "Have you watched the old shows, it's always been diverse."

Kurtzman seemed confused, "I saw the pilot and the crew were all white men except for Number One."

"That was a pilot!" yelled Fuller, finally losing his temper, "The actual show had Sulu and Uhura and Chekov! Every single crew since then has always been diverse!" Realizing that he had lost it, Fuller walked out of the room, "Jesus Christ let's take a break, I need a cigarette."

Meyer stood up, "I'm gonna go talk to him", and walked out after Fuller. Kurtzman, all of his excitement gone, stood and started to leave when Moonves called after him, "Alex, could you stay for a few minutes?"

With the two now alone in the conference room, Moonves stood up and put a hand on Kurtzman's shoulder. "Don't let them get to you Alex, they're very protective over this franchise." He paced the room as he continued, "I don't see what they see, but I do know that we make over $13 million a year off of merchandise and licensing alone. There's gotta be something there."

Kurtzman seemed a little sad, "I get that they want to protect it, but their format is outdated. And when I co-wrote Star Trek 2009, they let us change everything and the movie was a hit."

Moonves leaned on the table and pondered this. He remembered how the ratings fell in the mid 2000's to the point where he felt the need to cancel the Enterprise series. To him it was a bland show. Then again, any space series was bland to him.

Maybe Alex was onto something, Moonves thought. "Do you think they're being too ridged?" he asked. "Yes, I think they're being a little too anal about their rules", Kurtzman answered, putting "rules" in air quotes.

The word "anal" brought Moonves to a laugh, "Ho-ho-ho! I can tell you some stories about anal."

"And, that's a red flag." Kurtzman said matter of factly. A flash a fear could be seen in Moonves' eyes as he quickly apologized, "Sorry. Look, I'm going to be skipping these meetings after today. I'm clearly not needed here." Kurtzman looked down in sadness so Moonves tried to cheer him up, "They took your idea of a main character, so give them a chance, I'm sure they'll be collaborative. But if you think they're not going to budge on anything else, then just let me know what you want and I'll tell'em to change it."

Kurtzman thought about this before hesitantly saying, "Well, there was this one idea that has had me thinking."

"What is it?" Moonves asked. "I know they want to push this story into the 25th century," Kurtzman started. "But really why can't we have this show take place during the Kirk era?"

​To be continued...

Before we begin, I must stress that this is a work of fiction. Fiction means it's not real. This is not a history, nor is it to be taken seriously in any way. This is basically my satirical interpretation of what it may have been like to film Star Trek Discovery. 

​CBS studios, January 2016 

Nicholas Meyer, long time Star Trek writer and director, walked into the CBS meeting room to see that Les Moonves and Bryan Fuller were already sitting and waiting. "Thanks for waiting for me Les, and Bryan." he said as he shook Moonves' hand. "Don't worry about it, have a seat." he replied. Meyer also shook Fuller's hand, as they had been acquainted previously. As soon as they sat down, Moonves started the meeting, "Now that everybody is here we can begin with the pitches. Bryan?" 

Fuller stood up as he began, "Thank you, sir. First I'd like to know if you have any plans or expectations for the series, before we begin to incorporate a story together..." By the time he finished his sentence however, Moonves had taken his phone out of his inner jacket pocket and started typing at it as he tersely said, "We have none."

Noticing the lack of involvement from Moonves this day, Fuller began to nervously pace around the room, "Ok, well I have a few pitches and I'd like to know your thoughts, sir." Moonves was still focused on whoever he was texting as he said, "I'll listen, but remember that everything today is subject to change. We still don't have our other producer here yet". Fuller understood this, so he laid out his first idea. 

"Well one of the things I had in mind was this idea where each season could take place in a different century, with a different crew. We could move this well past the 25th century, and it will remind the audience of the essence of Star Trek - The journey."

As Meyer began to think about it, he stroked his chin and added, "That has potential for interesting stories. We could even maybe follow someone's lineage through that time." Fuller's eyes lit up at the suggestion, "I like that idea. Plus they don't always have to be in Starfle..."  

"Wouldn't that mean building new sets every season?" Moonves interrupted as he looked up from his phone. "Sure," Fuller admitted. "But we can certainly recycle old sets too. We used to do it all the time." Moonves dismissed this idea as he went back to his phone, "What else you got?"

Fuller closed his eyes and visibly sighed. It was both in frustration and as a psychological reset for his next pitch, "I did have this idea that comes from the Countdown comic. This story begins after Ambassador Spock has disappeared into the rupture and into the space-time continuum, which created the Kelvin Universe. What if before Romulus was destroyed, Data saved part of the population by using Borg technology to mass-beam as many Romulans from the planet as possible?"

Meyer re-calibrated his mind to accommodate for the new pitch as he openly suggested, "Hmmm... if the Romulans didn't know that the Federation was implementing Borg technology, to see people being beamed up en-mass, like the Borg can do, could potentially be traumatic for them."

Fuller, glad that Meyer was following his idea responded, "Exactly and it will be, because Data with the help of Seven of Nine, will use captured Borg cubes to beam them up, which those Romulans could see from the planet. Remember, after Endgame the Borg were badly crippled and so the Federation had since took advantage. The Romulans are being saved, but to them it looks like an invasion. Data is going to be accused of being insensitive to organics and his friendship with Picard will suffer since..."

"Nope," said Moonves as he put away his phone. "We've already reached out to former cast-members and neither Stewart nor Spiner want to be in another space show. Besides, they would be too expensive to bring back and if this show isn't cheap, it isn't happening." Fuller was starting to feel a little annoyed at Moonves' dismissive attitude towards the potential cost of his pitches, but said nothing. Moonves continued speaking as if he knew the franchise casually, "Damnit, why can't we do it on the cheap? Like the original show was?" 

Fuller and Meyer paused and glanced at each other. Fuller finally responded, "The, uh... original show was not done cheaply. Even back then they were using expensive cutting edge technology to tell the stories."

"Well, I don't know why all these ideas have to be so expensive," said Moonves as he stood up. "I'm going to leave you two at it. You guys seem to play off of each other well." Before Moonves left Fuller asked, "Uh sir, we still have another 50 minutes left in the meeting, where are you going?"

Moonves winked as he said, "Hot date! Don't want to be late." and walked out the door. Meyer waited until he was completely gone before confiding in Fuller, "What a pig." 

Fuller agreed, "You know that he didn't even know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars?" Meyer was surprised, "Are you serious? No wonder he cancelled Enterprise. Everybody knows that Star Wars is about fighting and Star Trek is about discovery." 

"There was another idea I had," said Fuller. "Where we'd go into the 25th century and just keep the story moving."

"That might be the cheapest idea if we're gonna please the pig." said Meyer. Fuller began to let his frustration show, "He just doesn't get it. We're making a series about the future. You can't just go to IKEA and pick up modern furniture for sets, everything has to be custom made." 

"He's gonna have to accept the costs." Meyer concluded before changing the subject, "So what is Starfleet up to in the 25th century?" 

"Terraforming." said Fuller. 

"Ah," Meyer was intrigued, "project Genesis?"  

"No," said Fuller, "Mushroom spores!"

Meyer thought he was joking at first, "Huh? Hahaha, are you pulling my leg?"

"Not at all. You know how fungus can function as a sort of network?" Meyer thought about it, "I've read about that. I think it's called the Mycelium network?"

"Yes, and that's how we terraform!" said Fuller. Meyer thought about it some more, "Cleaver! Also, one of the things I've never really seen - and we can do this well today - is a non-humanoid life-form as a reoccurring character." 

Fuller's brain started lighting up, "Non-humanoid, like what? A ball of goo or something?" Meyer clarified, "More like an actual creature, like a bug or..."

"...Or a microscopic organism..." chimed Fuller. They both went silent for a few seconds before both coming up with an answer: "Tardigrades!"

​Click here for part three

Before we begin, I must stress that this is a work of fiction. Fiction means it's not real. This is not a history, nor is it to be taken seriously in any way. This is basically my satirical interpretation of what it may have been like to film Star Trek Discovery. 

CBS studios, late 2015

Les Moonves, head of CBS, was reviewing some paperwork in his office when the phone rang. "Yes Jane", he said to his secretary on the other line. She formally responded, "There is a Bryan Fuller here to see you, sir."

"Jane, what have I told you about calling me sir," Moonves said playfully, "call me Daddy.", Jane stiffly said, "I'll send Mr. Fuller up, sir." and hung up. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. "Come in" Moonves called, half focused on his paperwork, and Bryan Fuller walked into his office. After exchanging pleasantries, Fuller got to the point of why he came. 

"Sir, I've been running the numbers from the Abrams Star Trek movies, and I think now would be a great opportunity to capitalize on creating a brand new Star Trek series." Moonves seemed unphased, "Bryan, I think we're already putting a lot of money into the Abrams movie, we don't want to count our chickens before they hatch." 

Fuller was a little confused by this. While Star Trek Beyond was in production, CBS had no involvement with the movie other than the licensing agreement with Paramount. Fuller asked for clarification, "Uh sir, we're not paying for Star Trek Beyond." 

"Beyond?" inquired Moonves now equally perplexed, "I thought we were calling the Trek film The Force something?" Fuller now understood the source of the confusion: Moonves didn't know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars. 

"No sir, that's Disney's franchise. You guys own the other one with Spock and teleporters, not the one with Luke and lightsabers. I used to work on the other shows before the split and I think we're in the right moment for a revival." Moonves wasn't very interested in science fiction television, so decided to let Fuller down gently, "Ok Bryan, let me run some numbers and I'll see what we can do, but we're not in much need of new content, all of our timeslots are full." 

Fuller expected this type of response and decided to throw a second pitch at Moonves, "What about your streaming service?", Moonves looked dismissive "All Access? That's for old shows, it's not even making us a lot of money", "But what if you did what Netflix does and put some of your new content exclusively on All Access?", Fuller countered. "Let's put this in perspective. Star Trek is about to celebrate it's 50th anniversary and it's made you billions already. New content would only bring in more profit."

Moonves sat still for a moment contemplating. To Fuller it was obvious that he was swaying him, but to what point? Finally, Moonves stood up and extended his hand. "I was mistaken Bryan, now I realize that I'm gonna need a lot of new content soon." They shook hands, but in reality Fuller's whole body was shaking. He just convinced the head of CBS to allow him to create a new Star Trek series after being off the air for ten years. 

The next day, Fuller's phone rang and he saw that Moonves was calling, "This is Fuller" he answered cautiously, "Bryan, it's Les. I spoke to legal about your space series and according to our contract, we are under a no compete clause with Paramount."

Fuller's stomach dropped. Looks like it may have been too good to be true, Fuller thought. He was about to thank Moonves for his time when he continued, "Good news is I found a way around it!"

"You did?" Fuller asked with hope. 

"Yes, Bad Robot is going to send one of their representatives to help co-produce the show. Goes by the name of Kurtzman and his production company is called Secret Hideout". Fuller was once again relieved.  It's normal to have multiple producers on a show. "Ok, so we're still a go then", "Still a go" Moonves confirmed. "Thanks for letting me know, sir.", Fuller said.

"Before you go," Moonves added, "I also wanted to let you know that there will be a press release tomorrow", "Ok, sir. Thank you." Fuller said before hanging up. 

As Fuller sipped his coffee, he thought to himself, Wow. I get to make Star Trek for a new generation.