Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, first officer of the USS Shenzhou and later the Discovery, along with Doug Jones, Shazad Latif, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, and Jason Isaacs.

The season's war storyline was intended to represent the divide between different political factions of the modern United States, with effort put into redesigning the Klingon species and developing their culture and biology.

The season led to record subscriptions for All Access, and generally positive reviews from critics who highlighted Martin-Green's performance, the production values, and new additions to Star Trek canon.

[27] At the end of July, CBS hired David Semel, a veteran television procedural director who was under an overall deal with the studio, to direct the first episode for Discovery.

[30] Fuller felt he had "found the crucial piece of the puzzle", but the actress would not be released from her contract at AMC until her character's death on The Walking Dead was publicly revealed.

Fuller wanted to differentiate the series from the previous 700+ episodes of Star Trek by taking advantage of the streaming format of All Access and telling a single story arc across the entire first season.

For Star Trek: Discovery, they wanted to take a different approach and begin with a prologue that explored Burnham's initial actions and her relationship to Captain Philippa Georgiou.

When it was noted that this form of travel is not known in the previous Star Trek series (set later in the timeline), actor Jason Isaacs stated that the writers were aware of this, and were "very clear, in not a cop-out way, to both incorporate this stuff which is exciting and very visual, to make sure that it didn't rankle canon.

Harberts explained that the writers knew they would have to acknowledge the existence of the Enterprise at some point due to the series' place in the timeline, and after Fuller left they decided to just "tell this story now" with the second season.

[48] In addition to Martin-Green as protagonist Michael Burnham, the season's main cast includes Doug Jones as Saru, an alien lieutenant commander;[6] Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler, a former prisoner of war;[14][49] Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets, an astromycologist;[6][8] Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly, a cadet;[50][9] and Jason Isaacs as Gabriel Lorca, captain of the USS Discovery.

[7] In November 2016, series' writer and consulting producer Nicholas Meyer mentioned that Michelle Yeoh had been cast in Discovery,[53] and she was soon confirmed to be portraying Captain Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou.

[15] Additionally appearing throughout the season in "co-starring" roles are Emily Coutts as Keyla Detmer,[55] Ali Momen as Kamran Gant,[55] Chris Violette as Britch Weeton,[55] Romain Waite as Troy Januzzi,[55] Sara Mitich as Airiam,[56] Oyin Oladejo as Joann Owosekun,[56] Ronnie Rowe Jr. as R.A. Bryce,[57] Conrad Coates as Terral,[58] and Patrick Kwok-Choon as Rhys.

[73] The skull design includes spaces for "extra sensory receptors" running from the top of the head to the back, as Page wanted to show the Klingons to be apex predators with heightened senses.

[72] Kol, a member of the house of Kor that appeared in the original series, wears more leather and a different set of armor that is closer to those worn previously by Klingons in the franchise.

'"[64] Additional location shooting took place around Ontario, Canada, including at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto which stood in for the Vulcan Science Academy,[80] and in the Hilton Falls and Kelso Conservation Areas for the forest planet Pahvo.

[70] The showrunners were particularly inspired by Star Trek: The Motion Picture and its "wider scope", with Harberts explaining that the first season was shot in a 2:1 aspect ratio which "just lends itself to a very lyrical way of telling the story."

[92] Singer Ayana Haviv recorded arias for the opera, and in a "moment of inspiration" Russo asked her to sing the vocal section of the original Star Trek theme.

[101] In July 2017, Discovery had an extensive presence at San Diego Comic-Con, including a panel featuring Martin-Green, Isaacs, Jones, Latif, Wiseman, Rapp, Frain, Kurtzman, Berg, Kadin, Harberts, and Goldsman, and moderated by Wilson.

Pedicabs inspired by the series gave free rides through the Gaslamp District, while a "#TrekDiscovery Challenge" competition saw fans have to take pictures with "authentically costumed Trek ambassadors", one each representing the crews of the five previous Star Trek series, as well as the captain's chair at the art gallery, and post them online with the hashtag #TrekDiscovery to be eligible to win a Roku streaming stick and a subscription to CBS All Access.

[73] By the beginning of September, promotion was taking place around the world: Isaacs was involved in the Blackpool Illuminations festival in the UK; cast and crew promoted the series at the Fan Expo Canada; a USS Shenzhou-themed photobooth, that took pictures of fans as Klingons, was in operation at the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin; and an outdoor campaign of posters and billboards was underway, including a large billboard on the roof of an LAX Airport building.

The Council found Space to have breached the regulations in not censoring the episode or scheduling it post-watershed, and required the channel to air an announcement stating as such twice during the week following April 19, 2018.

At the time, Bell Media accepted the decision and agreed to comply with the ruling, but did not indicate any intention to change their approach to broadcasting future seasons of the series.

[116] On November 2, 2021, a home media box set collecting the first three seasons of Discovery was released, with more than eight hours of special features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted and extended scenes, audio commentaries, and gag reels.

[118][119] The premiere of the series led to record subscriptions for All Access, with the service attributing its biggest day, week, and month of signups to the debut of Star Trek: Discovery.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Although it takes an episode to achieve liftoff, Star Trek: Discovery delivers a solid franchise instalment for the next generation—boldly led by the charismatic Sonequa Martin-Green."

[122] Matt Zoller Seitz of Vulture praised the series' premiere, feeling it "stands tall alongside the best-regarded incarnations of the Trek franchise... with an almost entirely new slate of characters... and casts them with actors you can't help but like".

He praised Burnham as a "far more rounded, human character than any of the previous captains, with some serious trauma from a Klingon attack in her youth that's left her predisposed to hate the warrior race.

And while Star Trek has plumbed the 'main character has demons' well in the past—most notably with Sisko in Deep Space Nine, and Picard in the later films, when it comes to the Borg—Burnham feels far more compelling for not being a flawless human being in other respects, as her series-protagonist predecessors were.

[129] Brian Lowry from CNN called the first three episodes "Star Trek Lite", criticizing the bridge crew and lore, and describing the series as an "unspectacular addition" to the franchise that was mostly designed "to entice new subscribers to CBS All Access.

[132] Gartenberg criticized the writers for over-using science fiction tropes, repeating plot elements, inconsistently portraying characters' attitudes, and for being unsubtle with the values of Starfleet in the finale.