We have some breaking Star Trek: Discovery news this evening, as series showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg have been released from the series as Season 2 continues production in Toronto.
Harberts and Berg took over the series from original showrunner and series creator Bryan Fuller back in late 2016, helming the show from the premiere episodes of Season 1, and have served as the face of the series’ production team since mid-2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfB3C8QUdwY
The pair leave the series as of Episode 205, reports The Hollywood Reporter, and while they’ll be credited on their episodes of the next season of Discovery, the show will be led by executive producer Alex Kurtzman for the remainder of the season. Kurtzman, who got his start in the Trek franchise in the Kelvin Timeline film series, has been with Discovery since the show’s original announcement in late 2015.
Here’s more of The Hollywood Reporter‘s take on the situation, as writer Lesley Goldberg reports that the show was facing both “ballooning” budget issues and a writers’ room that was near the point of “[human resources] complaints” due to behaviors displayed by Harberts and Berg.
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 the latter 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.
In a year filled with high-profile members of the Hollywood community being taken to task for a wide variety of inappropriate behavioral issues, it’s unfortunate that Star Trek: Discovery now becomes part of that conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2o1AZdN5I
Also departing the series for Season 2 is executive producer Akiva Goldsman, director of “Context is for Kings” and Season 1’s finale “Will You Take My Hand?.” Goldsman had, as THR reports, “a management style and personality that clashed with the writing staff.”
CBS issued a comment to THR about the situation:
We’ve made some producer changes at Star Trek: Discovery. 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 series is about to take a “a planned production hiatus” after Episode 205 is completed, not expected to impact delivery of the series to viewers in 2019, to allow Kurtzman to settle in as the new showrunner and straighten things out inside the Discovery production machine.
This shakeup at Discovery comes at a critical time in the year, just a few weeks before 2018’s San Diego Comic Con in late July — while the cast and crew has not yet been announced for this year’s event, this may impact the chances of seeing a repeat of 2017’s cast and crew panel while things get resolved behind the scenes.
We’ll continue to bring you the latest on the changes at Star Trek: Discovery as we learn more.