Yesterday appearing at the CBS All Access panel for the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles, showrunner and executive producer Bryan Fuller revealed some compelling new information regarding his brand new Star Trek series.

The first of which is that the “lead character” in the series will be a female, and will not be the Captain of the starship, but rather a Lieutenant Commander.

“The rank comes with caveats,” Fuller explains. “The story that is fascinating for me is, we’ve seen six series from a captain’s points of view… to see different characters from different perspectives, we thought it would give us different contexts.

A different dynamic and relationship to the crew. For [her] to truly understand something alien, she has to understand herself, [and her journey will] teach her how to get along with others in the galaxy.

We haven’t cast her yet, so we don’t know what level of diversity she will be.”

No other casting announcements at this time, though Fuller did mention to expect both “robots” and “a few more aliens than usual” in the lead characters – including some “reimagining of existing alien species.”

Additionally it was revealed that the the show will be set approximately ten years before James T. Kirk takes command of the Enterprise, in the Original Series.

We’re much closer to Kirk’s universe [than that of Archer’s], so we get to play with all of that [TOS-era] iconography of those ships and those uniforms.

Speculation arose regarding the addition of Amanda Grayson (Spock’s mother) at some point and what significance the Earth-Romulan War and Section 31 may play in the storyline. To that end, Fuller remained coy and would not elaborate further.

“Star Trek: Discovery” premiere episode will debut on CBS in January 2017, all subsequent episodes will air on their streaming service, CBS All Access.