It’s early days yet, but there’s hope for a more inclusive Trek in the news series, Discovery, which is set 10 years before the original series. A female lead has been promised, however, she will not be the captain. Sigh. So, not all that great on the inclusive front, but a bit better. There’s noise about a Black female lead, but the role has not been cast. At least one LGBT member has been promised as well, but it would be nice if these roles were more than tokens, after all, it is the 21st century.
When Star Trek (briefly) returns to TV screens next January, it’ll be with a women in the lead position, a crew full of aliens, and at least one gay character, presenting a utopian, space-faring future that sounds like an actual nightmare held by the sort of people set to vote for Donald Trump. CBS announced the first character details for Bryan Fuller’s upcoming Star Trek: Discovery—set to debut on the network in January 2017, before moving to CBS’s online All Access service—today at a Television Critics Association press tour event. And while we still don’t know much about the composition of the show’s crew, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are both reporting that the series’ lead will be female—but not the captain of her ship.
A.V. Club has the full story.
I read yesterday that the lead character is the First Officer…which, honestly, made me think of Number One (the XO from Star Trek’s first first pilot back in…1963? Which pilot all serious Trek fans recall was recycled into STTOS’s only 2 part episode, “The Menagerie”). Being a girl nerd I have to confess…Number One has long been one of my favorite ST characters, and I’ve been a little sad that no reference has been made, yet, in other iterations of Trek… Hm, I wonder if she will appear in some way in the new one.
I would love to see a good movie adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, just to see how the social conservatives would react to the part where the majority of the population is homosexual.
Patricia @ 1:
That was my first thought, too. I’d love to see that strong of a character back, and be unapologetically strong, too. One thing I was hoping for, but not with any sort of faith, was for an accurate Indian character, with a specific nation identity, a character who, like actual Indians, is very much part of the modern world while holding traditional ties. I’ll probably be dead before that happens, and no, don’t bring up that effing mess that was Chakotay. Gad. Instead, they’re going with the “lotsa aliens!” route, which is okay, but get the people right first, please.
CC:
Right. When we’re still at the “wimmin can’t be a captain!” stage, that’s not gonna happen.
Crimson Clupeidae@#2:
That would be delicious!
I hope it’s good but I am soooooooo tired of Hollywood treading and re-treading the same boards. Why not make a standalone short series, with a good story arc and a compelling cast of characters, film it, make a ton of money, and go on and make something else? These endless series of retreads and comic book remakes and whatnot -- all they do is drive the bar lower and lower to the point where it’s possible to foist a used diaper like “Independence day 2” on the viewers. Just give us good movies!! (shakes fist at the general direction of Los Angeles)
What I’ve taken to doing is exercising the time-veto. If something comes out and gets good reviews and I want to see it, I go see it. Otherwise, I wait and watch it for free with netflix or buy the DVD for a dollar on ebay. The studios are forcing themselves to try to shovel crap out and cash in before the viewer audience realizes the movie sucks. Waiting -- even as little as a week -- destroys that game.
@Caine -- glad to know I am not the only Number One fan out there! :) As for Chakotay…yeah. Well, I did have an interesting discussion once w/ a friend about possible origins of Chakotay’s community but that’d be a long discussion for another day.
I do like the idea of ‘lots of aliens’, as after all Starfleet is part of the United Federation of Planets and thus, there oughta be a lot of aliens! Bit odd when all the ships are so human-centric.