Production officially began last week on the first season of Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access. To celebrate shooting getting under way, the streaming service debuted a preview that gives fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of the sets that are being built for this series, along with a look at how this iconic franchise was created, with Gene Roddenberry typing three words on a blank page back on March 11, 1964, "Star Trek is..." Those three words helped spawn a franchise that has lasted for more than 50 years, and will continue this fall with Star Trek: Discovery. The series was originally slated for a May 2017 premiere, but it was recently pushed to a fall debut.

Star Trek, one of the most iconic and influential global television franchises, returns to television 50 years after it first premiered with Star Trek: Discovery. The series will feature a new ship, new characters and new missions, while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers. The series will premiere on the CBS Television Network with all subsequent episodes available on CBS All Access, the Network's digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service, and will be distributed concurrently by CBS Studios International on Netflix in 188 countries and in Canada on Bell Media's Space channel and OTT service CraveTV.

The cast is lead by Sonequa Martin-Green, marking the first time an African-American female has lead the show, and the first time the lead character is not a captain, portraying a lieutenant commander. The cast also includes Michelle Yeoh as Captain Georgiou, the Starfleet Captain aboard the Starship Shenzhou, Doug Jones as Lt. Saru, a Starfleet Science Officer and a new alien species to the Star Trek universe, Chris Obi as T'Kuvma, the Klingon leader seeking to unite the Klingon houses, Shazad Latif as Kol, the Commanding Officer of the Klingons and protégé of T'Kuvma and Mary Chieffo as L'Rell, the Battle Deck Commander of the Klingon ship. Star Trek Discovery will also feature the first openly-gay character, Lt. Stamets, played by Anthony Rapp, an astromycologist, fungus expert, and Starfleet Science Officer aboard the Discovery. The most recent casting addition is James Frain, who will star as "Sarek," the famed father of "Spock." First introduced in the original Star Trek, "Sarek" has made multiple appearances throughout the franchise over the last five decades.

Star Trek Discovery is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Alex Kurtzman's Secret Hideout, Bryan Fuller's Living Dead Guy Productions and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Bryan Fuller, Heather Kadin, Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts, Akiva Goldsman, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers. When this new Star Trek TV series was first announced back in November 2015, the plan was to debut the series with a special preview on CBS in January 2017, before the show moved to its permanent home on the streaming service CBS All Access. Then in October, the show was being pushed to May 2017, and shortly thereafter, Bryan Fuller stepped down as showrunner. Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts immediately stepped in to serve as showrunners, with production now under way for an unspecified fall premiere CBS, followed by the rest of the first season shifting to CBS All Access.

CBS All Access is the CBS Television Network's digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service. In addition to its upcoming original series, CBS All Access gives CBS fans the ability to watch more than 8,500 episodes on demand - spanning current shows from primetime, daytime and late night, as well as past seasons of select series and classic TV hits. CBS All Access is currently available online at CBS.com, on mobile devices via the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, and on Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Fire TV. Take a look at this behind-the-scenes preview from the highly-anticipated Star Trek TV series below.