The forthcoming Star Trek TV series will feature a female lead character.
The original 1960s show was a trailblazer for diversity and featured Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), one of the first African-American actresses to be cast in a role other than the stereotyped maid or nanny. However, over the course of six TV incarnations and 13 films only one lead character has been female.
Bryan Fuller, who is creating the new series Star Trek: Discover for American network CBS, is intent on ensuring the show focuses on a female character, although unlike other iterations she will not captain a spaceship.
“It is ensemble, but we do have that main female protagonist,” he tells America’s Entertainment Tonight, explaining, “We’ve seen six series now from captains’ points of view and to see a character from a different perspective on a starship who has a different dynamic, relationship with the captain, with subordinates felt like it was going to give us richer context to have different types of stories with that character.”
Editors at the U.S. website also report that Bryan has even spoken to Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African-American astronaut, about crafting the character.
The only female lead up until now in the franchise has been Captain Kathryn Janeway, who was played by Orange Is the New Black star Kate Mulgrew in the 1990s TV series Star Trek: Voyager.
However the new show, which follows hot on the heels of 2016 blockbuster film Star Trek Beyond, will be told from the point of view of a female protagonist.
“It is a hero, her story,” Bryan adds, revealing the character will have a “strength and a sensitivity and also an amusing neuroses (sic) that goes with exploring space, which is incredibly dangerous and potentially terrifying.”
The screenwriter also revealed the show will focus on an unexplored part of Star Trek‘s mythology, adding, “There’s an incident, an event in Star Trek history and in the history of Starfleet that had been talked about but had never really been explored.”
Star Trek: Discovery will debut in the U.S. on CBS, and around the world on streaming service Netflix, next year (17).
