"Star Trek: Discovery," coming soon to CBS All-Access, intends to follow Gene Roddenberry's original vision of "Star Trek" as a morality play. During a TCA panel, showrunner Bryan Fuller shared some details on the new series, whose timeline is set 10 years before Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, and will act as a bridge between the Scott Bakula "Enterprise" series (set a century before Kirk's mission) and the original.

Fuller said they haven't started casting yet, but diversity is a focus. The female lead will likely be a woman of color, Collider shared from the panel, but a lieutenant commander, not a captain, because they have already shared several series's worth of captain points of view. Fuller said there will be a gay character, and more diversity in the alien realm as well. He said the writers are asking "what can we say with diversity in every role?"

Back in June, Fuller talked to Moviefone about Mae Jamison, the first African-American female astronaut, and Nichelle Nichols, the only African American female cast member on the original "Star Trek" series, as inspirations for the characters on his show. "I think that 'Star Trek' is a show of firsts."

The series is meant to have a standalone structure, with each episode working as a chapter with its own arc, and there will be 13 episodes to start, but more if it's successful. Variety said shooting is set to start in two months, with the series premiering in January, with the first episode airing on CBS, and the others on the subscription app, All-Access.

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