Star Trek: Discovery producers take lessons from Game of Thrones
By Corey Smith
When you have a show as wildly successful as Game of Thrones, the rest of Hollywood takes notice. And according to Entertainment Weekly, one of Hollywood’s most successful and oldest franchises — Star Trek — is taking notes.
Star Trek: Discovery, the first Stark Trek TV show since Enterprise ended in 2005, will debut this year. And according to showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg, it’ll take a page from Game of Thrones by being willing to kill its main characters. Said Berg:
"Game of Thrones changed television. They almost made it difficult to fall in love with people because you didn’t know if they were going to be taken away from you. That show’s had an influence on all TV dramas that have come after it."
Harberts added that while there will be death on Discovery, it won’t be used for shock value — rather, “when it happens we want to make sure that people really feel it.”
It’s rare for main characters to die on Star Trek show — no more than one main characters has died on any of the five shows that preceded Discovery. And when main characters did die, it was generally because the actor wanted out (e.g. Deep Space Nine’s Terry Farrell or The Next Generation’s Denise Crosby), rather than being motivated by the storyline. Fans could take solace that no matter how dire the situation appeared, their favorite crew members were likely to walk out alive, something the audience for Game of Thrones hasn’t felt since Ned Stark lost his head.
Either way, it sounds like you won’t want to get too attached to anyone on the CBS drama, but at least the series’ infamous “red shirts” will have some company.
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Star Trek: Discovery debuts on Sunday, September 24 on CBS before moving to CBS All Access, the network’s streaming service.