Star Trek: Discovery show runner Bryan Fuller dropped into the yearly Television Critics Association panel on Wednesday evening and revealed a lot of new details about the forthcoming show, set to debut in January 2017, including that the show will be set only 10 years before the voyages of Kirk and Spock’s Enterprise.

Other admissions from Fuller:

Star Trek: Discovery‘s lead character is NOT the ship’s captain! Instead, the focus will be on the perspective from a lieutenant commander. They have not cast this lead character yet, but Fuller confirmed that they will be female and non-white. Deadline has more info: “The story that’s fascinating for me is that we’ve seen six series from captain’s point of view and to see one from another point of view gives us a richer context.” The full cast will number around 6 to 8.

Robots and aliens will be more integrated into the crew and the show than in any other Star Trek production viewers have seen.

Star Trek: Discovery will “absolutely” have a gay character, according to Fuller, further admitting via Variety:

…he still has a folder full of hate mail that the writers received during Star Trek: Voyager (on which Fuller was a writer and co-producer) because of the rumor that Jeri Ryan’s character was going to be a lesbian; revealing that at the time, he vowed that if he ever got the chance to create a “Star Trek” series, he would include a gay character.

The story of the first 13-episode serialized season will revolve around “an incident in the history of Starfleet that has been talked about but never fully explored.” This incident has been mentioned onscreen in the Original Series episodes. Fuller ruled out seeing the Romulan War with the Federation, but noted that tonally the event matches a Kobayashi Maru (i.e. “no win”) scenario.

Although the time frame of Discovery makes it possible to encounter younger versions of iconic characters like Kirk and Spock, the show will not be doing so in its first season, choosing instead to establish its own characters, ship, and tone.

Fuller personally wants to explore the story behind Spock’s mother Amanda Grayson, but doesn’t think that will quite fit into Star Trek: Discovery‘s initial season.

Via Variety: When it was suggested that Lee Pace would make a great Vulcan, [Fuller] responded: “I agree.”

Fuller is aware that the show acronyms out to “STD,” you guys.

The design of the Discovery is indeed inspired by Ralph McQuarrie’s illustrations from the abandoned 1970s Star Trek movie Planet of the Titans.

What incident could Fuller be talking about? Set phasers to speculate in the comments!