Star Trek: Discovery to feature a female lead, diverse cast

Bryan Fuller has shared new details about the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery series on CBS: All Access, including information about the commander and the crew.

Slowly but surely, Star Trek fans are getting new tidbits of information about the first Star Trek television series to hit the air since Enterprise. Bryan Fuller talked about new series Star Trek: Discovery at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where he gave fans more clues about the crew of Discovery.

Fuller shared that the new ship, called Discovery, will be helmed by a lieutenant commander instead of a traditional captain. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new officer in charge will be female, and there’s a possibility that she will be “diverse.”  The fact that she is not a captain in rank will allow for more exploration through the lens of a very different perspective.

(As a side note, Commander Sisko was not a captain but he was in command of Deep Space Nine.)

This isn’t the first time a woman has been in charge of a starship. Captain Janeway was a formidable leader on Star Trek: Voyager. Fuller spent time working on the Voyager series, and he recognizes the importance of the diversity in Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future. Fuller has also created an openly gay original character for Discovery, and not only will the lead cast of seven characters be diverse, but the series will feature more aliens than in the past. The Hollywood Reporter also confirms that the show will feature “an openly gay actor to play one of the male leads, a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser and a British male doctor.”

While Fuller wasn’t at leisure to divulge secrets about the show’s plot, he did tell THR that it’s something that has been discussed but never explored before in past series.

"There’s an event in Star Trek history and Starfleet that had been talked about but never fully explored. We’re set in the Prime universe (i.e. following the timeline before the events of the Star Trek movie franchise reboot), 10 years before Captain Kirk. We have the opportunity to bridge the gap between the Enterprise and the original series and really help us redefine the visual style of Star Trek."

Star Trek: Discovery debuts in September before moving to its permanent home on CBS All Access in 2017.