CBS Fires Star Trek: Discovery's Showrunners

It seems Star Trek: Discovery's showrunner problems continue. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts were fired as showrunner on the program with Discovery Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman (The Mummy, writer on Star Trek movies) taking over duties for the rest of the season. The show is already several episodes into filming.

Sources say the decision to oust Berg and Harberts was based not on the creative but instead for leadership and operational issues. Production on Discovery's first five episodes of season two are near completion, with Kurtzman likely taking over for episode six and beyond. Berg and Harberts, who were longtime collaborators with original showrunner Fuller, will likely still be credited on the episodes they oversaw. Sources say the budget for the season two premiere ballooned, with the overages expected to come out of subsequent episodes from Discovery's sophomore run. Insiders also stress that Berg and Harberts became increasingly abusive to the Discovery writing staff, with Harberts said to have leaned across the writers room table while shouting an expletive at a member of the show's staff. Multiple writers are said to have been uncomfortable working on the series and had threatened to file a complaint with human resources or quit the series altogether before informing Kurtzman of the issues surrounding Berg and Harberts. After hearing rumors of HR complaints, Harberts is said to have threatened the staff to keep concerns with the production an internal matter.

Sources tell THR that Discovery is nearing what has been characterized as a planned production hiatus after episode five, which will allow Kurtzman time to regroup the show's writing staff. Production is not expected to be impacted by the showrunner change.

In another departure for season two of Star Trek, THR has learned that executive producer Akiva Goldsman did not return to Discovery after serving as Kurtzman's right-hand man during its freshman run. Goldsman was brought in to help build the world of Discovery, but the veteran producer, who directed the season one finale, is said to have had a management style and personality that clashed with the writing staff. It's unclear if Goldsman will continue to receive an exec producer credit on season two.

Have to give the writer's room credit with three people fired in one season is quite the accomplishment. At this point have to wonder what the various sides of the story on this one as firing the bigwigs of the show is not a minor thing for any production but this first blush version of the story isn't sufficient information. There have been comparisons to first few season of The Next Generation which suffered from writers' room and producer turnover but that was generally due to conflicts with Gene Roddenberry. This isn't quite the same as doesn't seem based on a difference in vision (Gene's perfect future vs desire to make things bit more messy for drama purposes) but personality conflicts. The 13 episode season 2 is expected to premiere on CBS All Access sometime in early in 2019. Good luck to Alex Kurtzman on his new role.