Re: New Star Trek TV Series in 2017!
It's related to the original trek, not the Kelvin Timeline Trek. That much has been verified.
I've never really been a fan of Michelle Yeoh, though I've only ever seen her in Tomorrow Never Dies (a film that she nearly single-handedly killed, despite an intriguing premise and great villian. Of course, "stunt-casting" actresses in Brosnan-era Bond films was more the norm than the exception, so you can't really single her out).
Doug Jones, though, intrigues me. He's such a GREAT prosthetic/CGI actor, I hope his character turns out good. I can't recall seeing Rapp in anything.
Honestly, the big things that kill my enthusiasm are 1) having to subscribe to this new CBS All Access for ONE show (ok, lots of shows, but most of those are already on Netflix), and 2) That ugly, UGLY ship design which I hope they completely trash and start over.
BUT I agree with the idea of focusing on lower ranking crew. There was a book trilogy back in the day called "Errand of Vengeance" that was about a Klingon agent placed inside Starfleet, as part of a program to replace low-ranking crew who wouldn't be noticed across the fleet (along the lines of what Arne Darvin was doing). The agent was a redshirt, and was one of the unnamed redshirts who went on away missions with Kirk et all. Each one of the books was set "behind the scenes" during an episode of TOS, with the plot of the episode being the "B" plot. Lower Decks was an awesome episode that I loved of TNG, which of course did the same thing. I wish they actually did that, at least in a miniseries...like "Trials and Tribble-ations" but over the course of multiple episodes. So I'm intrigued with the idea, but we'll see how they actually execute it.