la an star trek actor

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘star trek: strange new worlds’ star christina chong discusses her heartbreaking childhood connection to la’an noonien-singh.

In a revealing chat with THR, Chong discussed turning pain into strength and using all those emotions to better capture and understand the complexities of her character.

By Ryan Parker

Ryan Parker

Former Senior Reporter

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “Memento Mori.”] 

Christina Chong instantly understood her Star Trek: Strange New Worlds character, La’an Noonien-Singh. It was a heartbreaking realization.

With an English mother and Chinese father, the actress was brutally teased in her youth because of her ethnicity. Mostly, it was the last name that made her an easy target for the spewed venom, she explains to The Hollywood Reporter.

La’an, the Enterprise’s newly assigned chief of security, faced similar struggles in her youth as a descendant of the Augment tyrant Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban). She is tormented and ridiculed, and thus as an adult struggles with self-acceptance and building personal relationships. Bottom line: She has some serious walls.

Related Stories

'star trek: strange new worlds' trailer teases 'lower decks' crossover, 'star trek: strange new worlds' season 2 trailer shows captain kirk return.

But in Thursday’s episode, “Memento Mori,” La’an begins to soften as some complicated layers are peeled back while she faces her greatest fear, in arguably the most intense and emotional chapter yet in the new Paramount+ series.

In her chat with THR , Chong discussed turning pain into strength and using all those emotions to better capture the complexities of La’an, all the while developing a new appreciation for the lessons of Star Trek .

We are finally getting to see what a deep and complex person La’an truly is. Between feeling like an outcast for being Noonien-Singh to a horrifying Gorn survival backstory, can you talk about developing her character’s composition?

What I connected to was being judged for who you are and your name. Although my mom is English, my dad is Chinese. And I don’t necessarily look English, and I don’t necessarily look Chinese, but my name is Chong. And throughout my childhood, that brought on bullying and racism. The whole journey of both being judged, having that stigma attached to a name and who you are, was easily translatable and easy to personalize.

How awful you connected to La’an for such a horrible reason.

I had this deep kind of feeling of being ashamed growing up. I remember being at school and if my mom would say, “Your dad is picking you up tonight,” fear would set in because I thought, “If Dad comes to pick me up, everyone will be reminded I’m part Chinese, and the next day the bullying is going to be even worse.” I felt that shame, and I never really wanted to be seen around my dad because of that. I remember this one time walking through the playground to the car and people pulling their eyes in front of my dad.

It was only really when I was about 14, and I went to a performing arts school where everyone was from a different background, that for the first time I felt accepted for who I was. They all were talented, and they all wanted the same thing. And that’s parallel to the crew on the Enterprise. La’an comes onto the Enterprise, and they accept her for who she is. It’s been an incredible journey, how Star Trek has enabled me to use my experience and put that into her. Timing-wise, it all sort of clicked.

In addition to the deep, emotional connection, did you realize right away the strong, classic Star Trek threads in her DNA via Khan and the Gorn?

I had to do a lot of research. There was a two-week quarantine period where I just completely blitzed The Original Series and Discovery . I didn’t really know anything when I’d been given this role. I accepted the job obviously knowing that it’s a huge franchise, and when they told me about Khan, I was just like. “Wow, this is an amazing character arc!” And it’s crazy that you get to know so much about her in such a short period of time, especially in episode four. You get a full history of what she’s been through and understand why she’s so guarded.

On top of all those layers, it seems to me she is plagued with serious survivor’s guilt over the Gorn massacre, which is making her even more closed off to any personal connections. Am I on the right track?

You’ve nailed it on the head. It’s the fibers of guilt, but it’s also accepting her personal loss. The Enterprise crew is her new family. In a way, she’s taken her role as security chief to protect her new family. I think why she’s holding herself back is for her, if you love somebody, they then get killed. So, it’s better to remain guarded, keep that distance. But then when she is faced with her biggest fear, her walls do start to come down. And I think she really starts to realize she’s got to take these risks if she wants to really live. She has to start opening up and connecting and letting people in. She’s still got a long way to go, and that’s her main journey throughout the season.

Backtracking for a moment, that was an intense fight between La’an and Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) in episode three. Tell me about training for that moment.

A lot of rehearsal went into that because we didn’t film the fight when we filmed the episode. That was filmed later as a pickup day, so we had a lot of time to rehearse. But it’s funny, every time we came into the rehearsal room, it would change. So it was like, that fight you learned last week, it’s now this. That happened about five or six times because of things still working out, like the set and different ideas. We did do a lot of it ourselves, but I have to say that the credit goes to our stunt doubles. We did do a lot, but those tricky big throws and lands — all them.

And lastly, I would love to hear what the show has come to mean for you. In my previous cast interviews, I was told the bonds and friendships became strong instantly. Accurate for you, too?

I had no expectations for this show coming in because I had no real knowledge of how Star Trek was loved because if you don’t watch, you don’t understand. For me, coming in, it’s been such a huge gift to slowly unravel. The cast is incredible. We all bring something unique. I love that we all have different personalities, which somehow, weirdly gel on- and off-set. But the biggest revelation for me, on a personal level, was the message that Strange New Worlds continues to pass on of hope, diversity and inclusion.

Interview edited for length and clarity. 

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Conan o’brien returns to ‘tonight show’: “it’s weird to come back”, ‘hapless’ review: british-jewish cringe comedy on peacock plays like u.k.’s answer to ‘curb your enthusiasm’, kit harington-led jon snow ‘game of thrones’ sequel no longer happening, nick offerman and amy poehler on making out for ‘parks and rec’ blooper reel: “everybody hated it”, comedian jerrod carmichael sees backlash over race-based slave play joke, ‘chicago med’ showrunners stepping down.

How Christina Chong held Star Trek canon together in 2022

As La'an in Strange New Worlds , Christina Chong created a fresh way to see the Final Frontier.

The secret main character of Star Trek’s 2022 break-out hit series isn’t who fans expected.

In the very first episode of Strange New Worlds , the new security chief of the U.S.S. Enterprise also has to fill in as acting first officer. Enter Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh, played by Christina Chong.

In terms of Star Trek lore, La’an is an interesting vector of various tricky canon questions. Strange New Worlds takes place before The Original Series , and yet, La’an is the one character who has previous knowledge of two classic adversaries: the Gorn and Khan. As a survivor of a Gorn attack as a child, La’an’s intel on carnivorous lizard aliens predates Capt. Kirk’s old-school Gorn smackdown in TOS . And because her ancestor is the infamous Khan Noonien Singh , she also knows all about genetic engineering and the tyrants of Earth’s past.

Speaking to Inverse in May 2022, Strange New Worlds writer Davy Perez referred to La’an as an “Easter egg basket,” insofar as she “is an outsider and new character, and she also gets to be an audience surrogate.”

“I’ve got goose pimples now thinking about Season 2.”

Strange New Worlds instantly clicked with audiences worldwide, resulting in the most critically acclaimed new Star Trek in more than a decade. And, episode by episode, Christina Chong’s performance as La’an created a through line for the entire series. From her Gorn trauma in “Memento Mori” and “All Those Who Wander,” to her hilarious round of Enterprise Bingo in “Spock Amok,” to her memorable turn as an over-the-top fairy-tale princess in “The Elysium Kingdom,” Chong boldly went where no debut Trek actor has gone before.

Speaking to Inverse as part of our Scene Stealers end-of-year series, Chong reveals her surprise at the importance of La’an’s role, her warm feelings about her fan-favorite appearance on Doctor Who , and what’s in store for Strange New Worlds Season 2 and beyond.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

La’a relives a traumatic memory via a Vulcan mind meld with Spock (Ethan Peck) in the episode “Memento Mori.”

Do you think La’an is an audience surrogate for people who’ve never seen Star Trek?

Yeah, I guess so. Because she’s completely new. She’s new to the ship and new to the team as well. You learn the whole backstory of the Gorn through her. And her last name is literally Khan’s last name. The writers are so clever in how they merged both canon characters and the original characters with new characters. I guess the only word for it is “retro.” It’s modern, but it’s old school.

From the point when you auditioned to when you got actually the scripts, were you surprised by how huge your role was?

Yes, 100 percent. I took this role thinking, “Oh, I’ll be in one or two episodes” or “I probably won’t be in every episode.” I thought I’d have loads of downtime. And then suddenly, I was like, “Whoa, OK, I’m in this whole freaking thing!” And not only that, but the story of the enemy in Season 1 is based around my character. It was incredible and I was so grateful. Obviously, in 2020, I hadn’t worked at all. So to go into 2021 with this character and with the Star Trek franchise was such a blessing.

Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), La'an (Christina Chong), and Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) in “Children of the Comet.”

Strange New Worlds is episodic, but La’an goes on a huge emotional journey in Season 1.

It’s all about what she's been through and her trauma. She has a hard time trusting people. She knows that if you love somebody, they die at some point. So why would I trust and meet these new people, my family on the Enterprise , because, at some point, the Gorn are still out there! She’s thinking, “Something terrible is going to happen; I’m going to lose them.”

It’s a journey of her trusting. And trust is earned. You don’t trust willy-nilly. It’s a process.

Your first big TV role was in Doctor Who in 2011 as Lorna Bucket. How do you feel about that now?

It’s interesting, I just did a convention at the Wales Comic Con, and there’s been this kind of resurgence of Lorna Bucket. It’s been on Twitter as well. Suddenly everyone realized that was me. But at the Wales convention, you know, you have photos out on your table, and there was some Star Trek and some Halo. But the Doctor Who photos were really going. And I thought, well, maybe it’s because not everyone has quite seen me in Star Trek yet. But I was so fascinated that after over 10 years, people still remember that.

“She was the companion who never was!”

I think it’s because she gave River Song her name. It’s a very poignant mark in their journey for that generation of Doctor Who . I also had a death scene — and the fact that she could have been the companion. She was the companion who never was!

In “A Good Man Goes to War,” in Doctor Who Season 6 (2011), Christina Chong played a reluctant soldier named Lorna Bucket, who ultimately helps the Doctor (Matt Smith) and creates an alternate name for River Song/Melody Pond. (Alex Kingston).

You’re so hilarious in the Strange New Worlds episode “The Elysium Kingdom.” How much of this other version of La’an did you create? I mean, it’s basically a totally different character, this fairy-tale princess...

I talked to the director, Amanda Row, before we started filming. I told her I used to do children’s entertainment. I would do parties. And do pantomime, which is very over the top. I told her I was thinking that kind of level, and she said, “100 percent, do that.” It was on the page, she was a princess, but on the day, we were all creating new characters. Which is why I decided to bring the singing element into it.

Everyone was going to play opposite of their characters, and I was like, “Right, in Episode 2 [‘Children of the Comet’] she says she can’t sing.” I didn’t tell anybody I was going to do it. On the day, I just held this massive note and started singing this song. There were a couple of times when I did actually laugh out loud with Babs [Olusanmokun] and everyone else. It was hard to keep a straight face. I just went totally out there. I thought, “You know what, I’ll give a give 120 percent, and they can pull it back if they want.” But they didn’t pull me back.

La’an is transformed into Princess Thalia in the Strange New Worlds episode “The Elysian Kingdom.” The dog, Runa, is Chong’s real dog, also named Runa.

I feel like this is a hallmark of older Star Trek shows getting to do more than one genre in a season. Will that tradition continue in Season 2? Will we see even more genres?

Definitely. I’ve got goose pimples now thinking about Season 2. The showrunners have a lot of fun with it. They’re always thinking “How can we take this to the next level? What’s Star Trek never done before?” I’m really looking forward to those episodes in Season 2. Obviously, after Episode 8 in Season 1, that’s our barometer.

In Episode 9, La’an leaves the Enterprise on a personal mission. In Episode 10, we see her in an alternate future, serving with Capt. Kirk (Paul Wesley). Without spoilers, can you give any clue as to how her journey in Season 2 is different than Season 1?

This isn’t giving anything away, but I think she is continuing on that same kind of trajectory of growth. In Season 1, we saw her come to the point she’s at in Episode 9. She’s focused on helping that little girl, Oriana, find her family. If she can do that, she can have closure. Season 2 is a continuation of her journey. How far can she open up? How much is she willing to risk emotionally?

How long could you play La’an?

It depends on a few things, for me personally as an actor, but also for the franchise as well. We want to keep evolving her. As long as we can find ways to keep growing and evolving, like life. So hopefully, definitely, a few more years. But we’ll see what happens after that.

Ryan Britt's new book on the history of Star Trek's biggest changes. From the '60s show to the movies to 'TNG,' to 'Discovery,' 'Picard,' Strange New Worlds,' and beyond!

This article was originally published on Dec. 23, 2022

• Science Fiction

Warning: Full spoilers follow for Season 2, Episode 3 of Strange New Worlds, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow."

In its second season, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to shine a light on its supporting cast with Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." A one-off time travel story that follows in the tradition of early Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, the David Reed-written script features the unexpected pairing of La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and an alternate timeline version of Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley). The two are stranded together in 21st century Toronto, where they have to analog-unravel a nefarious plot meant to create a cataclysmic change to the timeline. Within the episode, they seek out a pre-Federation Pelia’s (Carol Kane) help, discover a young Khan Noonien Singh and feel the mutual pull of an unexpected romance.

If you’re a long-time Trek fan , there are shades of the all-time great Harlan Ellison/D.C. Fontana episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” to be found in the DNA of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." Curious about how that classic influenced the breaking of this episode, and the nuts and bolts of the time travel and moral quandary plots, IGN assembled executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers and actors Chong, Wesley and Kane to provide their insight into one of the season’s most old school-style Trek episodes.

Origin of a Time Travel Idea

Ask any Trek writer for an example of seminal writing in the franchise and the 1967 episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” is invariably cited. That’s the one where Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) travel back in time to Depression era America seeking to retrieve a drugged up McCoy (DeForest Kelley). While there, Kirk falls in love with a saint of a woman (Joan Collins) who they have to watch die in order to save their future timeline. It’s clever, romantic and features an absolute heartbreaker of an ending.

Goldsman tells IGN that they weren’t looking to remix their own version of that classic story for "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," but he sees the similarities. “The piece that is similar is a love story that has real depth and loss,” he says of the parallel doomed romances. “That's always something that we try for if we have the opportunity. So we had La'an and we had Kirk, and the pieces started to come together in a way that let us reach into a classic Star Trek time travel episode.”

Alonso Myers adds that the episode really evolved in the writers’ room by following the story elements laid out in front of them. “We all love ‘City’ and we're not trying to compete with it,” he clarifies. “We wanted to take it to a natural, emotional place, and that happened to be in a very similar direction.”

La’an and Kirk: Unexpected Chemistry

The pairing of very straightlaced La’an and an even more charming, alt version of Kirk initially came from the writers looking for a worthy story for Chong in Season 2. “The one thing we did know was that La'an had gone through a real journey in the previous season, so it was important to us to try to give our actress something else to try,” Alonso Myers says of crafting this adventure around the character. “It had to be something different, something that might give them a chance to explore another idea.”

He says Chong and Wesley’s rapport in Season 1 set the stage for them to push that even further in "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”

As strangers from different timelines, they have a purely comedic vibe as they bicker and clash about how to navigate their situation. “That kind of sibling vibe is always fun to play because it's a competition,” Chong says. “It's kind of one-upping. But then the first time she sees him take his top off, we've never seen La'an look like that and feel those feelings,” she laughs.

Interestingly, Paul Wesley cites “The City on the Edge of Forever” as his personal favorite Trek episode, so he immediately caught the parallels reading the script. “I very much thought about ‘City’ while filming it,” he admits. “And when I read the script, I was super excited because as a guest star, I got this juicy, meaty script where I get to really dive into Kirk and La'an. Honestly, that’s just a lot of fun. Then it was [also] an action adventure, so it felt like it was this much-needed fun that I wanted to have.”

Asked where she thinks their relationship turns from comedic to something more, Chong says it’s on the car ride to Vermont. “She realizes he doesn't know who she is, or what the Singh [name] means. And she's like, 'Oh, wow, he's not going to judge me.' She's been fighting her whole life with people judging her because of her name. But that's a barrier that doesn't exist with him.”

Pelia’s Past

Setting the episode in the 21st century allows the audience to finally get more context about Pelia’s Lanthanite history and her wandering existence in the universe. Having already admitted her more than 100-year old age to the Enterprise crew, Pelia becomes a resource for La’an in the past, allowing her to look up her future/past shipmate in Vermont and add an ally to their seemingly impossible mission.

Kane tells IGN the script was definitely a helpful source at filling in more of her character’s details. “It's wonderful to have that, just because she's changed a lot since then,” she says of Earth Pelia vs. Starfleet Pelia. “I've been around for hundreds of years before this episode, so maybe we'll explore that too. I don't know.”

For the scene where past Pelia talks science with La’an and Kirk, Kane admits she was able to just literally perform the moment because her lack of any Trek knowledge meant she wasn’t playing to the lore of the Kirk character in any way. “For me, Kirk is sort of just another guy,” she smiles. “And a wonderful actor. Paul is a wonderful actor and handsome guy. So I had fun.”

Another Heartbreaker

By the time La'an and Kirk reach the Noonien-Singh Institute, they’ve bonded as friends, potential lovers and as people trying to do right for the greater good. In Kirk’s case, hearing La’an’s tales of the Federation, and a future more united than his own, spurs him to the ultimate sacrifice.

Wesley says he loved exploring this Kirk, and his unique world view. “He is adamant that his version of the world is the better version and that his timeline is the version that should exist,” he says. “But then towards the end, even though he's basking in and enjoying this Earth, he sacrifices everything for the greater good. And that's Kirk, in my opinion. He's this guy who you can have a lot of fun with, and he's goofing off throughout the episode. But then in the end, he does something quite heroic and it really makes him a very worthy character in the TOS story.”

Devastated by Kirk’s choice, La’an is spurred to complete her mission and not let his sacrifice be in vain. And that's on her mind when she comes across her infamous ancestor, a very young Khan Noonien Singh, who is in the early days of being used as a genetic lab rat. In that moment, she has the choice to kill the future conqueror, and save many from his future crimes, or be compassionate to the young victim. It’s a classic Trek-style moral conundrum that, in this case, allows La’an to set aside the burden of her familial connection to Khan to be a better person.

“She was judged for who she was, right?” Chong poses. “Yet she’s looking at this little boy and going, 'I'm not judging him.' Yes, Khan became this tyrant, but he didn't start like that. At that moment he's a little boy, and I love that scene so much. You're feeling the weight of the whole Star Trek legacy, and Khan’s legacy, in that little boy's eyes with her making that decision to leave him be.”

“Honestly, I think we cheated it a little bit in the best possible way by making Khan an innocent boy,” Goldsman says of that scene. “It is intellectually a conundrum. Emotionally, it isn't really. I think no one in the audience is going, ‘Just shoot the kid!’ For me, when you can tie the emotional journey to the intellectual conflict, that's where we're really cooking with gas.”

A Future Uncharted

La’an ultimately corrects the past and returns back to her timeline and her USS Enterprise, but she’s irrevocably changed in the bittersweet way evoked by all the best Trek episodes. Her incredible time-hopping experience culminates in an impromptu call to this timeline’s Kirk.

Chong says in that scene, La’an is just looking for any link to the Kirk she bonded with. But all she receives is understandable confusion. “It’s about her opening up and her vulnerability,” she says of what that moment and her subsequent tears mean. “We've all lost [something], in some way. The part of me that connected with La'an just felt that loss of having that beautiful connection, and then it being taken away. Will she ever find that again?”

She continues, “La’an is definitely realizing that maybe it's not that James, but now that I've experienced it, I know it's something that I can do, so she's very open to [connection]. In her La'an reserved way, she's open to it.

“And I think it will evolve further,” she teases. “But with whom?”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Images

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount Plus.

IGN Recommends

• USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel
• USS Farragut (NCC-1647) personnel

La'an Noonien-Singh

• View history

Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh was a female Human Starfleet officer who lived during the 23rd century . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

• 1 Early life
• 2.1 Starfleet Academy
• 2.2 USS Enterprise
• 2.3 Finding Oriana's parents and stopping the Broken Circle
• 2.4 Return to Enterprise
• 2.5 Time-travel to Toronto
• 3 Alternate timeline
• 4 Personality and abilities
• 5.1 Joseph M'Benga
• 5.2 Una Chin-Riley
• 6 Key dates
• 7.1 Appearances
• 7.2 Background information
• 7.3 External link

Early life [ ]

La'an Noonien-Singh was born December 8, 2228 on Alpha I to Sa'an and Ronu Noonien-Singh . She also had a brother named Manu . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ") La'an and her family were descendants of Khan Noonien Singh , the Augment tyrant who once ruled a quarter of Earth 's population during the Eugenics Wars . She made herself something of an expert on Khan when she was a child, but also suffered bullying from other children due to her infamous family name , being called " Augment " and " monster ", among other things. ( SNW : " Ghosts of Illyria ") She carried her family’s augmentations and worried because of them, she might become dangerous. ( SNW : " Ad Astra per Aspera ")

Young La'an

As a child, Noonien-Singh lived aboard the colony ship SS Puget Sound , which was attacked by the Gorn . The population of the colony ship was captured and placed on a Gorn planetary nursery , where the entire population of the ship except La'an were subsequently either eaten alive or had their bodies slit open and used as breeding sacks. During that time, her brother Manu would sacrifice himself so she could live.

La'an, the sole survivor , was then sent into space on a " raft " as part of a ritual . She was eventually rescued by the crew of the USS Martin Luther King Jr. , including Ensign Una Chin-Riley . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ", " Memento Mori ")

Starfleet career [ ]

Starfleet academy [ ].

Chin-Riley sponsored La'an Noonien-Singh's application and she was able to attend Starfleet Academy where she graduated at the top of her class. Following her commission as a Starfleet officer, she was promoted each subsequent year during her tenure in Starfleet. ( SNW : " Ad Astra per Aspera ")

USS Enterprise [ ]

In 2259 , Lieutenant Noonien-Singh was assigned to the USS Enterprise as acting first officer following Chin-Riley's disappearance. She didn't tell Captain Pike she knew Una, fearing he wouldn't accept her for the mission. He nonetheless offered her a position on his ship after Una's rescue and La'an became permanent chief of security of the Enterprise . ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

Like most of the crew, La'an was infected with the light virus , in her case to the point of nearly causing a warp core breach as La'an attempted to throw herself into the ship's warp core . When Commander Una Chin-Riley saved her life, La'an was exposed to chimeric antibodies from Una which allowed Nurse Christine Chapel to develop a cure to the virus. After learning that her friend was hiding her status as an Illyrian , La'an expressed frustration that Una hadn't told her as La'an had shared her frustrations and past history of being bullied and ostracized as an Augment and a descendant of Khan Noonien Singh with her. However, the two made up with Una pointing out that, unlike La'an, her status made Una being a part of Starfleet illegal and something that she had no choice but to hide or to risk facing prison time if it ever came out. ( SNW : " Ghosts of Illyria ")

During a routine supply mission to a colony, La'an was the first to realize they had ran into a trap by the Gorn . Enterprise was subsequently ambushed by Gorn ships and forced to hide in a gas giant which was being sucked into a nearby black hole . La'an was made acting first officer again, and she advised Captain Pike on the severity of the threat posed by the Gorn. La'an asked Spock to perform a mind meld on her and relive her time on the breeding planet. This helped her remember the code of the light signals Gorn ships used to communicate with each other. La'an was able to employ this knowledge to destroy one of the Gorn ships. ( SNW : " Memento Mori ")

La'an was also hesitant to wear a commemoration pin of the Puget Sound for Starfleet Remembrance Day because she didn't want to remember the painful memories of her childhood, leaving the past in the past. After the encounter with the Gorn, she changed her mind. ( SNW : " Memento Mori ")

When an alien consciousness from the Jonisian Nebula brought the fairy tale The Kingdom of Elysian to life on the Enterprise , La'an was used for the character of Princess Thalia . La'an didn't remember the events after the ship was returned to normal. ( SNW : " The Elysian Kingdom ")

Later, La'an came face to face with the Gorn again, when she was part of a mission to the USS Peregrine , which had made a crash landing on Valeo Beta V after they brought someone on board who was infected with Gorn eggs that hatched and hunted the crew and then the Enterprise 's landing party. She managed to keep her anger in check and help her comrades to survive the encounter. Then, she requested a leave of absence to help a survivor, a young girl named Oriana , find her family. Captain Pike granted her request and asked her to return afterwards, no matter how long it took. ( SNW : " All Those Who Wander ")

Finding Oriana's parents and stopping the Broken Circle [ ]

La'an found Oriana's parents on Cajitar IV , a dilithium mining planet shared by the Federation and the Klingon Empire . By this time, La'an had been on voluntary leave for months and Admiral Robert April expressed doubt over whether or not she ever intended to return. However, La'an discovered an anti-Federation plot by the Broken Circle , a cabal of former Federation and Klingon soldiers who sought to reignite the Federation-Klingon War . La'an sent a distress call to the Enterprise with the command crew under acting captain Spock stealing the ship to help her after April refused to give them permission to investigate. With the help of the Enterprise , La’an was able to help stop the plot and prevent a further war.

Return to Enterprise [ ]

With Oriana safe, La'an returned to her duties aboard Enterprise . ( SNW : " The Broken Circle ")

La'an appeared at Una Chin-Riley's court-martial as a character witness, with her stating her belief that without Una, she would not only not be in Starfleet, but not be alive at all. ( SNW : " Ad Astra per Aspera ")

Time-travel to Toronto [ ]

In her capacity as chief of security, La'an was required to intercede in personal arguments aboard Enterprise , as well as deal with noise complaints and inspections of personal property, to the chagrin of her colleagues.

While on her routine security rounds, La'an encountered a grey-suited man who had been shot, with a bullet rather than a phaser. He warned of an attack in the past, and handed her a device, and told her to "get to the bridge" before he died and vanished. Upon reaching the bridge, La'an was stunned to find a different captain in the chair, who identified himself as James T. Kirk , captain of the UEF Enterprise . She surmises with Kirk that the attack in the past has created an alternate timeline and erased her own, and needs to prevent this attack in order to restore 'her reality'. When Kirk tries to confiscate the device he accidentally activates it, transporting them both to Toronto in the year 2022 .

Realizing that this must be the time and location of the attack in question, La'an and Kirk acquire period clothing, currency and food to aid their survival. They witness the explosion of the Lake Ontario Bridge ; as they both remember this from their own versions of history, they realize this cannot be the attack they are to prevent. La'an recognizes the charring of a piece of wreckage as being that of a photonic bomb , a weapon at least a century beyond the technology of this time. They befriend Sera , a conspiracy theorist who has nonetheless stumbled on more evidence than she has realized, including a photo depicting a Romulan Bird-of-Prey , pointing to Romulan involvement in slowing or preventing Human advancement into space. Kirk remembers the destruction of a cold fusion reactor in Toronto at this time, which wipes out the city in his timeline.

Needing a way to detect this reactor and find it before the Romulans, La'an remembers an earlier conversation with Pelia and heads to Vermont , where she currently resides. Together they improvise a tritium detector using an old diver's wristatch , whose uncovered face would glow when near the reactor. They find the building where the reactor was being housed, the Noonien-Singh Institute for Cultural Advancement , and La'an was able to gain access to the building by her DNA . They are surprised by Sera at gunpoint, who reveals herself as an undercover Romulan agent with a mission to destroy the reactor. When they refuse to take Sera into the building, she fatally shoots Kirk and takes La'an hostage.

With security alerted, Sera improvises a new plan: to kill a young Khan Noonien Singh , one of several children kept at the institute, as a way of preventing Humanity's eventual enlightenment. La'an overpowered Sera despite being at a disadvantage in strength and speed, and cannot resist entering Khan's room to check on him, coming face-to-face with her own tyrannical ancestor. She assures the young Khan that he was where he needed to be, coming to terms with her own lineage and its role in Human history. Doing so allows La'an to return to her own timeline aboard Enterprise , where she was warned by another Department of Temporal Investigations agent not to discuss her experiences with anyone.

During these events La'an formed an emotional attachment to Kirk, culminating in the two sharing a kiss in the past. Following her mission, La'an contrived a reason to contact the James T. Kirk of her timeline, who was still a lieutenant on the USS Farragut , breaking down in tears thereafter. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

Alternate timeline [ ]

Commander La'an Noonien-Singh in an alternate timeline

In an alternate timeline created after Christopher Pike prevented the death of several Starfleet cadets and his own exposure to delta radiation , La'an would transfer from the Operations division to the Command division and reached the rank of Commander by 2266 . She was assigned to the USS Farragut under the command of Captain James T. Kirk . ( SNW : " A Quality of Mercy ")

Personality and abilities [ ]

La'an had a spotless Starfleet record, although she had trouble working in teams and found other people "challenging". ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ")

La'an was a fan of Enterprise NX-01 ; at one point, she noted that she " loves the grapplers " on the ship. ( SNW : " Those Old Scientists ")

She was used to enduring pain and maintaining her composure when in pain. She actually preferred not to be sedated and remain fully aware even during a very painful gene therapy. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ", " Children of the Comet ")

La'an preferred work and her duties over recreational activities, even in her spare time. She had the reputation to be someone "where fun goes to die" with her shipmates. She herself credited her painful childhood for not enjoying childish activities. ( SNW : " Spock Amok ")

She was a strict teacher when it came to tactical and combat training, especially with cadets . La'an's "Lessons of Security" included the following:

• Lesson 1: "A Rigelian tiger pounces with no warning."
• Lesson 2: "There are no breaks in security because threats never take breaks."
• Lesson 3: "Let your tricorder do the investigating."
• Lesson 6: "Know when to bend the rules."
• Lesson 7: "Leave no stone unturned."

Lesson 7 required Cadets to look under Mugatan breathing stones to reinforce the lesson, a rather unpleasant task. ( SNW : " Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach ")

La'an's hand-to-hand combat experience made her a valuable member of away teams to less advanced civilizations where Starfleet technology was not to be used. ( SNW : " Among the Lotus Eaters ")

Relationships [ ]

Joseph m'benga [ ].

La'an and Dr. Joseph M'Benga conducted regular sparring matches, training in hand-to-hand combat . As M'Benga was former Starfleet special forces and La'an was the security chief, it was a way for them to both practice their skills and blow off steam. Joseph saw that La'an was troubled by something, and tried to reach her, not as her doctor, but as her sparring partner. ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

Una Chin-Riley [ ]

La'an first met Una when she was rescued by the USS Martin Luther King Jr. on which Una served as an Ensign. Una was involved in La'an's rescue, helped her recover from the incident, and inspired her to join Starfleet . La'an occasionally called Una "Chief". ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ") When La'an was infected by the light virus , her anger towards augments came to the forefront when she realized Una was genetically engineered. Una later made amends, apologized for keeping secrets from her and the two continued their friendship. ( SNW : " Ghosts of Illyria ", " Ad Astra per Aspera ")

Key dates [ ]

• 2228 : Born on December 8 to Ronu and Sa'an Noonien-Singh on Alpha I
• Assigned to the USS Enterprise as acting first officer , then later offered permanent position as chief of security
• Takes a leave of absence from Starfleet to find Oriana 's family
• Returns to active duty aboard the Enterprise
• Participates in Una Chin-Riley's court-martial

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Strange New Worlds "
• " Children of the Comet "
• " Ghosts of Illyria "
• " Memento Mori "
• " Spock Amok "
• " Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach "
• " The Serene Squall "
• " The Elysian Kingdom "
• " All Those Who Wander "
• " A Quality of Mercy "
• " The Broken Circle "
• " Ad Astra per Aspera "
• " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow "
• " Among the Lotus Eaters "
• " Charades "
• " Lost in Translation "
• " Those Old Scientists "
• " Under the Cloak of War "
• " Subspace Rhapsody "
• " Hegemony "

Background information [ ]

La'an Noonien-Singh was played by Christina Chong . Ava Cheung played La'an as a child in SNW : " Memento Mori " and " All Those Who Wander ".

External link [ ]

• La'an Noonien-Singh at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Ancient humanoid

• April 9, 2024 | Sonequa Martin-Green Talks About Exhausting Last Day On Set For ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• April 9, 2024 | Review: The EXO-6 ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ 1:6 Odo Figure Is The Shape of Things To Come
• April 9, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Director Fesses Up To Unplanned Cameo In Episode 502
• April 8, 2024 | Skydance Reportedly Looking To “Supercharge” Paramount+, Potentially Merge It With Another Streamer
• April 8, 2024 | Preview ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode 503 With New Images And Clip From “Jinaal”

Meet The Cast Of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

| September 8, 2021 | By: Matt Wright 285 comments so far

A new promotional video was just shared with the Star Trek Day audience. In it we are re-introduced to Anson Mount(Pike), Ethan Peck (Spock), and Rebecca Romijn (Number One), who we saw in Discovery season 2 and Short Treks , and then the new cast members are introduced.

Internationally viewable version

Most of the new cast members were announced in March but not their characters—now we know who they’re playing, and there are some familiar character names among them:

●  Jess Bush is Nurse Christine Chapel ●  Christina Chong is La’an Noonien-Singh ●  Celia Rose Gooding is Cadet Nyota Uhura ●  Melissa Navia is Lt. Erica Ortegas ●  Babs Olusanmokun is Dr. M’Benga ●   Bruce Horak is Hemmer

In this new video, we can see that Number One’s full name is Una Chin-Riley, which had been used in some novels, and is now canon.

Other things of interest: the last name Noonien-Singh, a rather infamous name because of Khan, but we weren’t given any more context there. And Hemmer appears to be an Aenar , a subspecies of Andorian. Aenar are usually blind and rarely leave their isolated region of Andoria. Actor Bruce Horack is an eye cancer survivor who is blind in one eye and has severely limited sight in the other.

New sets and uniforms

As we had heard before, the sets and uniforms were not going to be identical to the ones seen in Discovery season 2, since new sets were built in CBS’ new studio space in the Toronto area (Mississauga).  We get our first look at the transporter room behind the actors and a look at the new (more comfortable-looking) take on early TOS uniforms.

Anson Mount as Captain Pike in his new uniform

Ethan Peck as Lt. Spock in new uniform, and a haircut more like Spock in “The Cage”

For reference here’s Spock in “The Cage”

Transporter room

We see the transporter room from a few different angles. The new set seems to have a blend of influences from TOS, Discovery , and the Kelvin movies.

Ethan Peck on the transporter room set

Melissa Navia on the transporter room set

More to come

There is much more to come on this big Star Trek Day, with more announcements expected. So stay tuned to TrekMovie for  our full Star Trek Day coverage .

Keep up with the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

Related Articles

Art , Books , Collectibles , DS9 , Merchandise , Strange New Worlds , TNG , TOS

Star Trek Merch: TOS Art Poster, EXO Ensign Ro, “Subspace Rhapsody” On Vinyl, And More

Awards , Star Trek Universe TV , Star Trek: Picard , Strange New Worlds

‘Star Trek: Picard’ And ‘Strange New Worlds’ Nominated For 8 Critics Choice Super Awards

CBS/Paramount , Celebrity , Merchandise

Star Trek And Kid Cudi Launching New “Boldly Be” Campaign

Star Trek Universe TV , Trek Franchise , Trek on TV

Watch The Star Trek Day 2023 Special

Another character named Noonien-Singh? Are they still trying to find Roddenberry’s lost friend named that?

Descendent.

I know long time not comment… I still lurk, but this brought me out!! I am soooo excited about this show.

Small universe, heh?

This is a bit of my issue with stuff like this. As much as I love classic Trek, why are they so beholden to it? Haven’t we seen that starfleet is a huge organization? Isn’t civilization spread out throughout the galaxy at this point?

Ditto, I hope they don’t turn Trek into Star Wars, where literally everything revolved around the Skywalker family.

Skywalker/Palpatine family. The prequels hinted at Anakin being the son of Palpatine. And Disney made Rey Emperor Palpatines daughter and granddaughter. Its really messed up.

Yeah. Not thrilled about that at all. Wonder what the connection is.

Another point no one else has made. Though I’m glad to see better East-Asian representation (obvious reference to a recent movie), it seems as though Indians (also Asians???) are getting a raw deal yet again.

Three ‘Noonien Singhs’ so far (I think). One played by a Mexican Actor (the best incarnation). One by a White-British Actor. And now an East-Asian Actress. I get that with descendants they can be of any ethnicity. It just seems as though the ‘Noonien Singhs’ are going the way of ‘Captain Nemo’. A little uncomfortable to watch given all the rightful emphasis on representation these days.

Anyway, looking forward to this show, but to steal a Doctor Bashir phrase:

”I hate the uniforms. I do”.

These are a slight upgrade over the DSC unis, but surprisingly, the Kelvin uniforms still look better. Of all the things you didn’t need a huge visual retcon from the original series (and i’m a big advocate of updating the visuals), it’s the uniforms. Give them a bit of texture for HD cameras, maybe a stiffer fabric, and you’re golden. I might have retconned them to be tuck-in shirts with a belt like TNG, but otherwise, no need for unecessary detail.

I like the Discovery version of the colourful uniforms better.

agreed. I am not a fan of the Kelvin movies and I HATE the JJ-Prise, but they did a fantastic job with the uniforms. They look exactly like what the TOS uniforms might have looked like had it been shot in 4K.

I loved Ryan Church’s design, i only wish that had been translated to film. For some reason the changes they made when translated to a 3 dimensional cgi model ruined the concept. Not sure who wanted those changes JJ, or if ILM did them.

I had less of a problem with the design itself as I did with how radically different it was from the TOS Enterprise. I mean just because something is old doesn’t mean you throw it away. But the bridge? That I seriously couldn’t stand.

The Star Trek Beyond uniforms were excellent; like so much else, the ST09 uniforms were off, resembling baseball jerseys.

I did like the Beyond uniforms, but the collar was a little funky (but I did like it). My ideal would be the TNG uniforms, withou tthe black top or sleeves: a single color top, and a black color. I like the shape of it, and that it’s tucked into a belt.

The thing that bothered me about the original uniforms (and this followed through to the JJ movie) was that the top is just shapeless– it hangs like a t-shirt, and with the vibrant colors it makes them look like they’re wearing pajamas. Fitted tops, tight like TNG S1 or otherwise, don’t work.

Which is another strike on DSC: you’d think after season 1 of TNG, they’d have learned that those extremely tight fitting tops don’t look good.

Oh God…. I missed that. Had to go back and look at the clip to be sure. Good grief…. For the love of God WHY???????

I’m flabbergasted as well, ML. My level of interest has plummeted. Everything leads back to Khan, he is the Darth Vader of Trek.

So, has Mr. Mount been working on his monologuing skills? He’s gonna need them for log entries, and of course, the intro.

I’m sure he has been.

Anson does a really good podcast called The Well, so I think his voiceover skills are at the top of their game.

it truly is an excellent podcast.

Loving the uniforms. Surprised about the younger versions of Uhura and Chapel.

Thank Kahless they did away with those weird Discovery collars. Just never needed to be there. And I also have a feeling now all the Discovery uniforms will have just suddenly disappeared completely for these uniforms, but I’m ready to be proven wrong (but REALLY hope I’m not ;)).

Yep and even Discovery crew themselves no longer wear them in the 32nd century.

Those uniforms never seemed practical and so many of those wearing them seemed very uncomfortable to the point that their movements looked awkward.

I’ve got cosplay with the blue DSC uniforms. It’s actually one of the most comfortable ones I have. Well, except for my Saru cosplay, the boots are murder.

I always said they’d update the uniforms for SNW and I’m glad they have. For the sake of continuity I’d be happy to still see a few Discovery uniforms from time to time. I never actually disliked the actual outfit I was just disappointed with the way they attempted to visually reboot the franchise in season one but the idea of multiple uniforms being in use has been there from very early in Star Trek.

I don’t mind seeing the DIS uniforms either, just as long as they are no longer the main ones going forward.

The uniforms are way better than the disco enterprise uniforms. The collars on those were superfluous and too busy

The collars were less of an issue than the “too much bling” factor on the sides and shoulders.

They keep saying it’s filmed in Toronto. It’s filmed in Mississauga. The ‘sauga never gets any love……….

“Perky ‘Canada’ Has Own Laws, Government”

Haha poor Mississauga! Remember the audience is not only the US, but also a global one. When I lived down in the States, almost everyone knew Toronto but nobody knew about Etobicoke which is where I was from so of course I would always say I was from Toronto. Pretty cool that CBS built that studio out by the 401 and Dixie – I will have to drive by there sometime to check it out.

I’ve been waiting for a USS Mississauga or a Mississauga-class ship.

C’mon Lower Decks show the fam up at CBS Stages Mississauga some love!

Is Missiassauga a suburb of Toronto, or a completely separate town in its vicinity?

Distinct separate city but is attached to Toronto separated by “Etobicoke Creek”

I didn’t even know that and I live in Ottawa. We call all that Toronto too :D

Mississauga is a separate city, adjacent but in the County of Peel.

It includes Toronto Pearson International Airport just to be extra confusing.

Toronto was amalgamated in the 90s to be one huge city such that a lot of towns (Etobicoke included) were rolled in. When people refer to the Greater Toronto Area or GTA, adjacent municipalities, Mississauga, and all of Peel, would be included.

Mississauga used to be the butt of running jokes as Canada’s 4th largest city that was really suburbia and the land of car dealerships.

Now, the ‘sauga has fallen to sixth in population but looks urban. It has astonishing tall modern towers and the car dealerships are lobbying for zoning protection from things like movie and television studios.

I mean, no more confusing that DCA (which is in Arlington) or SFO (which is owned by the City of San Francisco but is physically in Burlingame).

I live in Skokie which is so close to Chicago I can be there in less than 10 minutes. Anyone outside my area I just say I’m from Chicago which is known worldwide

Mississauga has more than ten times the population of Skokie and is the sixth largest city in Canada.

It’s not quite the same thing.

It’s a suburb. It’s exactly the same thing. Mississauga isn’t known worldwide, Toronto is.

It still doesn’t look that urban (I live in the GTA, too).

I actually don’t live in the GTA, and never have for more than a month here or there for a project.

So it’s not loyalty…more just frustration that we’re expected to know about Santa Barbara or San Diego or Brooklyn or the Bronx, but it would be too much to suggest that it might be the same for Mississauga.

To me that’s a little like people from Orange County whining that they get lumped in with Los Angeles. The fact is Orange County is part of the LA area just as Mississauga is a part of the greater Toronto area. So deal with it.

Super excited! glad to see legacy characters, but not totally surprised. Looking forward to it!

Thanks. Just had to throw my jacket in my lap…🚀

Laurie called it.

Dr. M’Benga! Yeah!

Pretty cool.

M’Benga made a good impression on me during the two episodes he was in; I’m very happy that they’re adding his character.

They really need more Asian characters, though. Asians are like a third of Earth’s population, so on a human-heavy ship, there should be lots.

(No, I’m not Asian. It’s just that I can count. :-D)

Gene Roddenberry had tentative plans to spin-off a hospital show with Dr. M’Benga as the lead. That’s why they gave him so much to do. Too bad that show never happened, sounds like it would have been a cool concept for a 60’s show.

Ah, interesting! I didn’t know that. I’ve read that Booker Bradshaw was asked to play doctors frequently and was rather bored with that, so maybe it’s good the spin-off didn’t happen. :-)

The 60’s and and 70’s was full of hospital shows in the US. Setting one in space wouldn’t be so Surprising. I think the UK had a sci-fi show like that. Got canceled I think.

I’m not sure how the actress playing La’an identifies, but her father is of Asian descent.

Yes, but one out of all those characters is not one-third…

Is it too much that they actually cast a Sikh, or even a non-Sikh Punjabi, actor to play a descendent of Khan Noonian Singh?

Agreed on Asian characters. And Southeast Asian.

I recall being kind of against the idea of Olusanmokun playing M’Benga principally because the actor is about a decade older than the guy who originated the role and he’s playing a version of said character that is almost a decade younger than when we last saw him. That ships sailed now though with this announcement and to be honest I no longer care, I’m just really exited to learn more about M’Benga.

Inconsistensies like that are just opportunities to tell a cool story. Maybe M’genga encountered some strange energies that rejuvenated him? Not like that’s never happened on Star Trek :D

To be fair I was only basing this argument on the actors actual age when he played M’Benga but in my opinion he did look older than 27 so I guess I can just ignore it. You never know though, they could factor it into that story. For all we know it might not even be that M’Benga but an older relative although the marketing certainly seems to be stating that they are one and the same.

It’s a tv show. They picked the best actor for the roll. Think of TOS as a rough draft of ST.

It’s kind of cool that they recast BOTH Majel characters.

Now, I’m waiting for Lwaxana Troi to time travel back in time and meet Nurse Chapel and Number One/Una..

And the voice of the computer.

Well, then. They’re bringing in quite a few more legacy characters than I’d expected. I was thinking maybe Yeoman Colt or some other such characters from “The Cage”, but Uhura? M’Benga? Chapel? Also someone named Noonien-Singh, and we all know the connection there…

I regret feeling so ambivalent. If I didn’t have my own personal history reaching back decades experiencing these characters and the others we already know (most especially Spock), I’d probably be super-excited. As it is, I can’t help but feel like this show will feel like an interpretation of the “real” thing (even if a lot of these versions will likely be far more fleshed-out than the incarnations we see in TOS and the other older productions, Spock excepted). But if I were a newcomer to the franchise, I’m sure I’d be over the moon right now.

I’m afraid they’re going to ruin Spock. Avika Goldman wants to use the emotional Spock we saw in “The Cage,” and that will totally destroy the meaning of the character.

Spock was emotional in “The Cage” because Number One was the emotionless character back then. When the second pilot was written, that lack of emotion was transferred to Spock. The human-Vulcan hybrid who was determined to act completely Vulcan no matter what is now going to be playing with emotions? That’s NOT who Spock is!

Also, Ethan Peck’s ears look ridiculous. They need to get a better prosthetic maker to re-do his ears ASAP.

So much fake melodrama.

What a mean thing to say. What did I ever do to you?

Yea, that was uncalled for. Mods need to step in on that person — lot’s of personal snarky comments like that from them lately.

You have a legitimate opinion. If someone disagrees then they should tell you why.

Oh, give it a rest.

Nothing at all, and I wasn’t saying anything mean. I was agreeing with you. There will likely be a lot of fake melodrama involving Spock since they’re basing this on the overly emotional version of the character from The Cage. We even saw that in season two of Discovery. Sorry if my comment somehow seemed mean, but it was actually meant to agree with you.

I misunderstood your comment; I thought you meant my concern about their approach to Spock was melodramatic! Sorry for the confusion.

Wow Lorna Dune. You’re treading on thin ice. Been seeing lots of unpleasant things from you recently. Consider this your warning.

Wait, what? I don’t understand what I said that was unpleasant. I was agreeing with Corylea. There will likely be a lot of fake melodrama involving Spock since they’re basing this on the overly emotional version of the character from The Cage. We even saw that in season two of Discovery. So I fail to see how my agreeing with a comment is mean, unpleasant or cause for a warning.

LOL! Nice move. Still time to use the same apology to Brennon in the Prodigy thread. He might have “misunderstood” you too when you said the exact same thing to him ;))

I don’t know what that response refers to.

https://trekmovie.com/2021/09/08/full-length-star-trek-prodigy-trailer-drops-with-premiere-date/#comment-5535989

Corylea was actually voicing concerns. To which you replied “So much fake melodrama.” I’m not sure what you thought was going on there, but that looked like you’re telling Corylea they were being “fake” and “dramatic.” Please try to be aware of how your reply looks to others before posting.

OK, so noted. But this has all been taken entirely out of context. I know she was voicing concerns, and I was agreeing with her. Anyway, I’m just going to walk away now, perplexed.

You have a record on this board of calling members melodramatic or odd and you are perplexed if they take that as an insult? I don’t have an issue with your snarkiness but your hypocrisy and pretended innocence is a little hard to take serious.

I have no idea who you are, odradek, so your opinion of me and my supposed “record” doesn’t matter in the slightest.

I think he looks a lot like Nimoy in Where No Man Has Gone Before . Not quite the look Spock finally ended up with.

The hairstyle, yes, and I assume that’s deliberate, though I wish they hadn’t done it. The ears, no; the ears are just bad.

I’m with you on this. Supposedly, this takes place after the events in Discovery.. the Spock from the Cage has already progressed beyond that stage. You could see that in Discovery. Doesn’t mean he can’t struggle with his human side still. I’m holding out judgement but Akiva’s comments along with little things like his hairstyle in this trailer, make me wonder if they’re trying to make him regress. That, or perhaps they are going further back than the events of Discovery.. I’m just not sure. Either way, I just have concerns that they’re not honoring what has been portrayed before the same way they did that on Discovery. I would love to be wrong and hope that I am.

Remember this is Akiva Goldsman we are talking about the guy who wrote Batman and Robin. So I think a little trepidation goes a long way with him.

Even when he won the Oscar, I couldn’t get past that he was the writer on those two Batman movies… because of those I groaned when it was announced he was coming over to Trek.

His Involvement with Star Trek Discovery doesn’t help his standing very much either.

Yeah. I’m happy for them to flesh out Uhura and Chapel and M’Benga however they want, because those characters weren’t very well developed during TOS. But we KNOW who Spock is! They really need to honor the TOS portrayal of his character. Leonard Nimoy’s acting was good enough to show us that Spock DID have emotions, but Mr. Nimoy was so very good at being subtle that they were only hinted at, and the audience had to pay attention to see them. I would hate to see Mr. Nimoy’s excellent work undone.

Mr. Nimoy worked very hard — not just on his acting, but with lots of behind-the-scenes memos — to keep Spock IN character. I doubt Mr. Peck has the clout to force the producers to keep Spock in character, even assuming he wants to.

In some ways they already have. Spock’s story in Discovery is not well weaved into the Spock we know. The biggest, to me, is how they try to supplant Kirk with Burnham as being the impetus for his journey forward. Is their room for both? Maybe.. but it really devalues Spock’s friendship and growth as a character to retread ground already told.

I agree; I didn’t care for their trying to make Burnham be the most important thing in Spock’s development. She’s already saved the universe; she can leave Spock alone. :-)

Right. I don’t mind that Burnham was a lost sister of Spock’s that we have never heard of before. But what I do mind is that Kirk never knew of her if she was THAT important to Spock. It just ring true to me.

As I said MANY times, everyone should know who Burnham was and her history in Starfleet, at least if you were IN Starfleet at the time, being both the first mutineer and supposedly started the Klingon war on top of it. She would be infamous at this point.

I agree from the perspective she started the Klingon war. But that doesn’t bother me nearly as much as how an entire division of StarFleet (section 31) was completely lost a mere 80+ years later.

We could go on and on with all the problems with the Burnham character. And you are correct in your assessment here too. One of my many issues is the fact that Spock actually says there’s never been a mutiny when his own adopted sister was known to have lead one. I know there are liberties to be taken with this sort of thing but when a major line of dialogue openly contradicts what you do in your “prequel” then you have a problem. And as we have all seen, there is a laundry list of problems.

Really?! The same Kirk who didn’t even know that his First Officer’s father was the Vulcan ambassador?

(Which, truth be told, was some pretty poor writing on the part of the usually awesome D.C. Fontana, who should’ve understood better than anyone that storytelling logic shouldn’t be sacrificed for a cheap, melodramatic hook before the opening credits.)

Whatever the real-world reasons for Spock’s behavior in “The Cage,” the performance nevertheless has been filmed canon for going on sixty years now, not only as an unaired pilot but as a two part, Hugo-winning episode. I don’t know what rationale they’ll come up with for exploring Spock’s more emotional side, but have no objections to it on principle if it’s done well.

Which is, of course, a big ‘if.’ Mount said it himself: SNW is a real high-wire act, and whatever they do some fans will be unhappy. But I can say that I thought Ethan Peck did a very credible job with Spock on Discovery, all things considered. With the rare exception of an Arlene Martel or Mark Leonard, many of the actors portraying Vulcans have been just terrible. Peck was far better than most, including (at least for my money) Zack Quinto.

That was an excellent post, Blondie-Wan. You summed up my feelings pretty exactly, there. I too feel ambivalent, and as you suggested, perhaps it’s just because my own decades-long relationship with the franchise is coloring everything coming now for me as simply a flashier remake of what’s come before. And the fact DSC has disappointed me so much. I’ll give this a chance, though.

I’m a little disappointed it looks like we aren’t getting Colt. 3 legacy characters does feel like a bit much. Especially when the one that fist the best wasn’t even among them! (Scotty)

I’m curious as to who is going to be the Chief Engineer.

That has always been an important character on Trek starships.

Not on Discovery. For a show that focuses on science and engineering there is a very odd discomfort with the idea of showing the engine room.

On the other hand, there’s been a semi-tradition on Trek series to only confirm the chief engineer some ways into the first season. Perhaps there’s someone more to come.

But Star Trek Discovery is weird in that they seem to have NO senior staff. We have yet to see the CMO (unless what’s her name is is) or a Chief Engineer. When the captain gets his staff together it’s the show characters and no department heads. That was always weird. But then, Star Trek Discovery has decided that “sense” (among other things) was something they didn’t seem to care about.

I’m guessing Hemmer or Ortega at the moment.

Except in TNG prior to LaForge taking over as Chief Engineer.

UHURA and CHAPEL ARE BACK!!!!!!!!

OMG, crazy! Most people assumed that was Uhura but I didn’t expect Chapel at ALL!! And even M’Benga is there who I admit I utterly forgot about as a character until my grand rewatch of TOS earlier this year! So welcome aboard brotha! This is pretty amazing! I was already excited about the show but now much more hyped for it!

No one should kid themselves thinking we weren’t going to get more TOS characters on this show. All these new shows are basically fan service for the old ones lol. It was 100% guaranteed just like we are getting more TNG and VOY characters on the other shows. I couldn’t be more thrilled about it. I haven’t looked any other place yet but I’m guessing the news is blowing up everywhere.

Kirk will show up in the second season

Or sooner maybe. Ethan Peck made some cryptic comments about Spock’s established relationships with characters being explored in SNW.

I fully expected that. Can’t wait to read all the angry comments. :)

OOOF, I don’t know. Kirk is a hard one to pull off. Pine has way more power over his character IMHO than Quinto has over Spock. But then again CBS and Paramount are merged now so I guess anything can happen.

Like a few folks I called Uhura. Really surprised by the others. I never would have guessed they would bring back a fairly minor character like M’Benga.

Yeah I was pretty certain that was Uhura too. As far as Chapel, it’s funny how I never even considered she would be on this show, but yeah nothing stops it either (and not being played by the same actress helps ;)).

As for M’Benga, as said, I honestly completely forgot who he was until recently and I been watching the show since the late 70s lol. But that’s probably why they brought him in, he has a ‘name’ to the hardcore fans (VERY hardcored ;)) but was just in two episodes so they can literally do anything they want with him, like Pike himself basically. It’s smart to make him the head doctor on the show although it may be a Culber situation and he’s not the CMO himself, but kind of is. ;)

Don’t ask me which, but I think M’Benga got some love in a few novels.

Yes! I found him in some novels too and didn’t know who he was. I recognized him in TOS afterwards.

I don’t think him being the CMO is a good idea. It raises some questions. None are good for M’Benga. I brought them up in my initial post which should be below…

I was also one of those that called Uhura. I didn’t get Chapel though, I’d guessed Colt for that particular actress and whilst I conceded there was a possibility of M’Benga I was against that casting at the time because this actor is a lot older than the guy who played him in TOS was at the time.

Honestly I didn’t see this coming. They could have gone with all new characters (aside from Pike, Spock and Number One) but that’s already basically happening on Picard, Discovery, Lower Desks, and soon Prodigy, so I was blown away by all these legacy characters who I honestly have wanted to know more about. Along with this being more episodic Trek (which I loved about the old shows) and the high production value (which I love about the new shows). My anticipation level is at a fever pitch now. If we get a teaser trailer anytime soon I’m going burst lol

My personal preference was to have Scotty be the only legacy character. To me he makes the most sense. If he was already on board under whoever was the actual Chief then he gets promoted when Kirk takes over it fits with his odd love of the big E. He would have spent years working on her and then to finally be responsible…. It just fits better than anyone. Even Chapel.

M’Benga, Uhura and Chapel all served with Pike before? I know nothing contradicted that but it sure seemed like only Spock had any attachment to him in the Menagerie. Maybe those other 3 were secretly helping Spock take Pike to Talos offscreen…

I don’t remember Uhura or Chapel playing a large role in the Menagerie. Have to go back and look sometime.

Unless this is set before the events of Discovery, this is a few years after The Cage .

discovery season 1 takes place in 2257 the cage takes place in 2264 and the first 2 episodes of discovery take place in 2256 so there is only a year between the cage and discovery and from what has been siad before this picks up were season 2 of discovery leaves off which is 2258

The Cage was 13 years before The Menagerie according to dialogue, and The Menagerie was in 2265 or 2266. That puts The Cage at 2252 or 2253. If Discovery Season 2 is 2258 as you say, that is five or six years later.

nope the cage took place in 2254 that has been extablished as canon even the canon discovery novels say as much so does everyones favorite resource memory alpha says 2254 and only the final 2 part episode of discovery season 2 takes place in 2258 the rest of the season 2 takes place in 2257 like most of season 1 except the first 2 episodes which take place in 2256 and the menagerie two part tos episode takes place in 2267

Novels are not canon. Canon by definition is what is depicted on screen.

Where are you getting that The Menagerie (in the middle of Season 1) was set in 2267?

Where are you getting that there was a one-year time jump between Through The Valley Of Shadows and Such Sweet Sorrow ? Or do you mean the final few minutes (where Pike, Spock and Una say the Discovery was destroyed) was a year later? Even that is debatable, since that means they were still being debriefed about those events a year later.

they state the years in thew show with the stardates

also cbs viacom and the creators of the shows have siad the discovery and picard novels and comics are canon tie ins and they had to delay the picard comic so it it was accurate to the show since it was a last minute decision to have la forge survive the destruction of utopia planetia in the show the reason is they are using the books and comics as canon tie-ins is the same as disney uses thier star wars novels,comics and games as canon tie-ins to give back stories to characters and events from the movies and shows

Yes I know when the show takes place. I just don’t recall any significant Pike/Uhura interaction.

This is why I come to this forum. To be corrected on mistakes I never made. It’s fun.

I was just pointing out that a few years have passed since the Talos IV incident. Plenty of time for Uhura or Chapel to have come aboard the Enterprise while Pike was still Captain.

The post mentions The Menagerie (Pike in wheelchair, Commodore Mendez etc) — not The Cage.

Uhura and Sulu (in xenobiology not as pilot) were on board before Kirk arrived. So it’s canon that they serves with Pike, but not as to when they joined the crew.

That has never been said onscreen, no.

Nope. Nichelle Nichols did not appear in either “The Cage” (the first pilot) or “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (the second pilot.) Her first appearance was in “The Corbomite Maneuver.” So it wasn’t canon that she served with Pike until SNW put her there.

Sulu was in WNMHGB but was not in “The Cage,” so it’s also not canon that he served with Pike. And Sulu wasn’t a xenobiologist; he reports himself as being in Astro Sciences in WNMHGB.

You’re right about Uhura. Also Chapel says she signed up with Starfleet fairly recently in the hopes of finding her fiancé Roger Corby in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, so she shouldn’t be on SNW either. However, there’s grey area with Sulu. Remember The Cage (2254) and WNHGB (2265) are separated by 10 years. DSC S2, and thus SNW, takes place a few years after The Cage. So while I don’t love more legacy characters being included, Sulu actually could have served with Pike during his second 5 year mission.

I’m not saying that they COULDN’T have been on Pike’s ship; I was responding to TG47’s saying that it’s CANON that they WERE. It is not canon that they were … at least, it wasn’t until SNW came along. :-)

Ahh gotcha.

These won’t be the only original characters we see. Sulu or someone similar will probably show up at some point, even if they don’t become series regulars. I don’t think this braintrust running the show can help themselves. To me, Scotty seems the most logical as we get closer to the time Kirk takes over. I’d bet real money that this series ends with the transition to Kirk, and we get him.

Well Scotty is the oldest and has served the longest so he makes the most sense. I hope if he shows up they adhere to the canon of the career he had prior to the Enterprise established in Relics.

My thoughts exactly. A Lt Scott on the Enterprise who reports to the Chief Engineer works perfectly. And flows best with what we know of the character. I was kinda hoping they find a way to get him in but with 3 other legacy characters I now think it will be overkill,

But still hoping the show works.

We were specifically responding to the above comment “ Uhura and Sulu (in xenobiology not as pilot) were on board before Kirk arrived. ” even though no canon stories ever said they were.

I suppose it’s true that Sulu could have been there and I can’t refute canon. I just grew up assuming that just like Leonard Nimoy was the only actor that came over from the original pilot, Spock was the only crew member from Pike’s command to stay under Kirk’s command.

Uhura could have been on a different shift in WNMHB and SNW is after The Cage. I think she was actually on the Enterprise under Cage in the novel Enterprise.

Yes, she COULD have been on the ship; I was replying to TG47’s statement that it’s CANON that she was on the ship. It isn’t. Or at least, it wasn’t until SNW came along. :-)

That’s the beauty of prequels….now it is! ;D

I have a disturbing doubt. the presence of Uhura in this period of time gives space to the love story with Spock. it’s a possibility that scares me!

Uh. No. No way. Let’s leave that in the Kelvin Universe HOWEVER they could have some origin story regarding Chapel developing her crush on Spock…

Chapel is supposed to be engaged, so her crush on Spock before “What Are Little Girls Made Of” is kinda strange to begin with, unless she’s polyamorous.

I don’t see the conflict, actually. I think it could set up some interesting love triangle kind of thing. Could be just an attraction that is never consummated or really acted upon, but palpable and conflicting for her (to me, that’s the most interesting, and most logical. I don’t see Spock intentionally violating someone’s relationship), or they disregard anything already established and have it be some sort of romance, even if she is canonically married prior to this show airing.

She did try to flirt with him in several episodes of TOS, and Goldsman’s saying that they could include relationships that were only hinted at during TOS makes me think that may be where they’re headed.

I never considered that but ouch I hope not. An officer so should not be dating a cadet. So illogical.

She’s still only a cadet in SNW so it doesn’t necessarily follow that she would be get the Enterprise when she graduates Starfleet Academy but she likely would aspire to get back there. Now if SNW goes multiple seasons like Discovery then they’ll have to cross that bridge and if she remains on the show then she would realistically have to be assigned to the ship but then again she might only be on one season of the show for all we know. Interestingly Kurtzman brought up the Starfleet Academy project when being interviewed by Wil Wheaton for Star Trek day and he reiterated that this is a concept that they remain excited about. For all we know this might be being developed as another TOS prequel show and Uhura could transfer onto that series.

All that could be true but I have a feeling they aren’t thinking that hard about it. My guess is Uhura will just stay on the ship through the end. If so, she and Spock will be the Kolbe Bryant of Starfleet and their entire career will be on one ship (OK, technically two ;)).

uhura is a cadet in strange new worlds so she is either 3rd or 4th year much like how tilly was serving on the discovery as a cadet

I would think it would be more like Nog being a cadet and serving on DS9. Which I thought was a bit weird that he would be there for very long as he still has his studies to deal with.

Just like Chekov played a role on season 1 of TOS. 😉

Will Spock have Ponn Farr on Strange New Worlds? Will Pike help him deal with: Una, Uhurah and Chapel? Are there other choices?

Will Spock have a relationship be with M’Benga that is sort of “straight” as an alternative to the humor of his relationship with McCoy? Or just nothing special?

IIRC there was a bit of flirtation between Spock and Una in one of the Short Treks so maybe something will come out of that

Chapel doesn’t make an appearance in “The Menagerie” at all. Uhura actually has a fair amount of screen time by the standards of the character, but there’s little in the episode to suggest that she has any personal connection to its events.

Crew on a ship of that size would rotate in and out, and there would be multiple shifts. Ops would likely have crew cross train, so it would be possible any given crew member could be serving anywhere on a large ship, depending on circumstances.

And that is another reason why I feel like too many legacy characters could be a bit of a continuity problem.

Wish there was a teaser trailer. Yet with these streaming shows they don’t release trailers until 6-8 weeks before release start date. Wonder if they’ll make minor design changes to the Discoprise Enterprise.

going by a produxction crews shirt they gave the enterprise tmp refit pylons and might have moded the nacelles a bit but the rest looks relitivly the same

Yeah the biggest disappointment. THIS was the trailer everyone was hoping to see. But knowing Paramount, they will probably drop one 2 days later or something just to throw people off. ;)

Is there some in universe explanation for why the Discoprise becomes the actual Enterprise of Shatner Kirk, or its just because its modern day and they like to do a modern take. It would be hilarious if the 60s design was the first refit.

they have visually updated the 60’s designs and they used the tmp refit/1701-a as a reference for the basis for the visual update while keeping certian elements to the 60’s design in it

Yeah. Say what you will about the Discoprise, it is orders of magnitude better than the Kelvinprise which just looks utterly ridiculous. Both of them.

Agreed. I still prefer Matt Jeffries’ original, but can easily live the Disco interpretation of it. The broad strokes are mostly fine; it’s the lighting and texturing of the model on Discovery that I had a problem with. Hopefully, as with the uniforms (and, it appears, the bridge lighting) SNW will take a different approach.

I think the notion that the look of Star Trek was part of canon was thrown out the window the second Discovery aired. Canon had always honored the look of TOS up until then. Some say it never was, but if that was the case, why was Archer on a faithful looking Defiant? Why did Scotty stand on an accurate TOS Bridge in TNG? Why was DS9 so faithful in Trials and Tribulations? I get the need to update the look, but I do think they aren’t faithful enough. The sets look great, including the Enterprise Bridge. I appreciate the effort they made to pay homage to the TOS design, but I also think they went to far. The design of the model Enterprise in Discovery was baffling to me in the liberties they took to make it look different that they didn’t have to. I think they could have done better.

*Should read “I don’t think they are faithful enough.” sorry… typo

I totally agree. I get this isn’t 1960’s and you can’t make sets out of cardboard and jellybeans and ships are CGI, etc… But you can be more faithful to the iconic TOS design than they are being. But I will say they did a great job with the bridge. The exterior of the ship (esp the nacelles and the slanted pylons) not so much.

Wish it wasn’t geolocked! As usual,all the Trek stuff is just for the US. Oh well,might check it out one day,lol.

The official site has the promos and should be region free: https://www.startrek.com/day

Thanks Matt,will try that. Sometimes they work,sometimes they don’t. Great that you post a few pics from these though. Thanks for that too!

I was hoping to see a trailer but the cast intro was just as good. We not only saw some great legacy and new characters but we got a first peek at the new uniforms (I am sure many will be happy they got rid of those collars) and a look at the slightly revised bridge. Can’t wait to take a closer look when they release a video we can pause haha. This was definitely worth checking out on Star Trek Day and I hope they can give us a premiere date soon.

well i don’t think the cgi vfx are finished yet the show just finished filming a month or two ago they explained that all the computer monitor displays on the sets are live and react to the cast tapping and pressing on the screens

I am so, so, so, SO happy they got rid of those strange collars. There were so many ‘what were they THINKING???’ ideas they did in Discovery first season that is now thankfully being fazed out between both shows, especially DIS being throwing a thousand years into the future and all.

Like many (or everybody ;)) I was hoping for a trailer too, but we’ll live. We are getting a lot in general on all the shows, so it’s fine. I haven’t really went back and looked at the SNW sets yet since I’m still watching but can’t wait to hear all the analysis over the tiniest bit of minutiae we come to know for decades! ;)

Oh wow!! Very different from what I’d thought it would be… Especially the uniforms. Uhura and Chapel… Didn’t see that one coming either. nevertheless, very exciting.

Especially their haircut. Very strange (new world) to see Uhura which such short hair.

An Aenar! That’s awesome!

The most awesome part about that being that this time they’re using an actor who is actually blind. From a representation standpoint, that’s honestly great.

That said, I wish they weren’t bringing back all these legacy characters with new performers. Honestly, I wish they just had a totally different ship and a crew we’ve never met before in some other era. But oh well. I’m sure the cast will be great and all.

I’m fine with it all if they truly forge ahead and don’t keep trying to recreate TOS. A little dipping in to characters we know and love can be ok, but coming from this group of creatives, some of the character choices in this are concerning to me… not because they are there, but because the people behind Discovery have, so often, delved into Trek’s past at the expense of propelling the show forward. Trying to be reverent is a fine line. I hope I’m wrong.

I agree with you on these new announcements, but exploring Pike’s era is a part of Trek lore that I believe is warranted, coupled with Mount’s performance of the character. He was the best part of Discovery so far, and I do want to see more. If he can bring what he brought to Star Trek in Discovery, and they build off of that, then I remain hopeful.

Honestly, I’m in the camp that Akiva Goldsman as the driving force behind this series may be the biggest problem with being full on optimistic about this. I’m not her to bash Akiva.. I just think he’s over reliant on the past of Star Trek in the wrong way.

OMG, wow that IS cool! I didn’t catch that. I just thought he was an odd looking Andorian. LOVE to see more and more Enterprise canon making it onto the shows. I don’t love prequels but that is the one cool thing about them, that, if done right, it bridges aliens and old story lines more. In this case, a new prequel building on the previous prequel.

He might be an Aenar (sorry the spelling may be wrong) who decided he wanted to see the outside world.

Well, experience the outside world, anyway.

Haha yes so true and I forgot that they are blind.

I noticed that and didn’t comment on it. I HOPE they know he’s not blue! But my main deal with the Andorrans is that their antenna move with their emotional state like they did on Enterprise. That was the best classic alien upgrade I have ever seen!

The actor Bruce Horath is one of a very few legally blind actors. He is completely blind in one eye and has very limited vision in the other.

More, his blindness was caused by a childhood cancer that clouds the visible portion of the eye like the Aenar were depicted in Enterprise.

So, this seems like very fortuitous and intentional casting of an Aenar to represent people with visual limitations in-universe.

I would really hope to see the animatronics back in the antenna too. I’m trying to recall though if that was as much a thing for the Aenar though. Their antenna were different than Andorians and serves different purposes.

I don’t remember if their antennae showed emotions, but they definitely moved around when they were reading people’s minds.

Man, Anson Mount is HANDSOME, Ohh Myyy! Exciting that we get to see young Uhura, how cool for that actress to be stepping into such an iconic role! Awesome that it appears that they’ve hired a blind actor to play a blind character – can imagine that that will be really empowering and inspirational for a lot of people out there. And very glad to hear that it’ll be more episodic in nature – hopefully in the same vein as The Mandalorian was episodic in that each episode featured a unique chapter in the journey that can be enjoyed on it’s own, but also connected to a larger story and always keeping it simple and character driven. Would love to see that type of approach here, and mixed with this cast I’m sure we’ll all be very happy with the results. LLAP

 Jess Bush is Nurse Christine Chapel!!!! Celia Rose Gooding is Cadet Nyota Uhura!!!! Babs Olusanmokun is Dr. M’Benga!!!! Transporter room looks good. ANDORIAN ON THE SHIP!!

WARP SPEED!!!!

I AM ALSO EXCITED!!!

It’s going to be fun to have TOS characters on this show and TNG era characters on the others again. And then there is Discovery. ;)

Once they confirmed Uhura was showing up my excitement level jumped even higher than it was! Chapel was just the extra icing needed.

It’s an aenar played by a blind actor!

Do I really gotta be the one to point out how annoying it is when writers shoehorn in connections to future stories as nostalgia bait? Noonien Singh, really?? And young Uhura too? For crying out loud, not every character in a show has to be connected to the shows we’ve already seen. This means, what, we get exactly 2 new characters in this entire show? I’m so sick of this… Despite all its claims to the contrary, Star Trek in its current iteration has become a conservative, regressive show. Instead of taking chances, it falls back on the familiar like every other media franchise in production today. Discovery is rooted in nostalgia, Picard even more so. Lower Decks is entirely referential. These writers know nothing except how to take established characters and change them into their own hollow interpretations. I was so excited for SNW to show us a new crew of the Enterprise, and literally we’re getting exactly what we had before or someone with some completely unnecessary connection to Khan, because everything in Star Trek has to connect back to Khan somehow, it was the movie that everyone loved so it’s gotta be about Khan. God I hate our modern media diet… Rant over 🖖🏼

Dude, I’m so with you on this. This franchise and its creatives cannot get past Khan. Every single movie from TNG forward can’t seem to get away from the villain motivated by revenge format.. or directly trying to recreate the character, which is damn near impossible… so now we see this character name and have to wonder… why? And not wondering why in an intriguing way.. why in a “WTF does that mean” way. The obsession with Khan and recreating Star Trek II is the one thing they really need to get away from.

Rant appreciated, actually. All good points. I really wish I had any faith at all in the writing teams at Kurtzman & Co.

Fully understand the frustration. I am with you to a point. I agree with SH constantly hardening back to what Trek has done before. Unfortunately they do it because it’s usually safe with most fans. Most fans love the call backs. Just look at this board when they brought in Talos and the Guardian of Forever. Many ate it up. I knew they would have a call back and at least one legacy character. But was hoping for fewer.

And the Singh thing…. Good grief. I really hope there is no relation.

Okay, now I officially miss the strange DSC uniform collar. Their necks look naked without it :-)

Concerning the characters: I only guessed Uhura right.

M’Benga? Chapel? Those I had thought to be Clark Terrell and Carol Marcus.

But instead of those TWOK characters we get… a Noonien-Singh??? La’aaaaaaaan! La’aaaaaaaaaaan!

The only huge disappointment is the name Erica Ortegas. I was so much hoping they’d call her Macha Hernandez, Tasha’s original name from an early TNG draft.

But yeah, hit it! Let’s fly…

Oh man… having Clark Terrell and Carol Marcus would have been awesome too!!! Dr M’benga I think had to be there now. That being said still think we should see Dr. Boyce, Lt Tyler and Colt… hope they show up..

Carol Marcus? I dunno. I don’t think everyone in Kirk’s life needs to have had to have come from the Enterprise.

Wow, never thought they’d include Dr M’benga but that is cool. I always thought he was an underrated character in TOS. Including Uhura and Chapel were unexpected but I knew these producers couldn’t help themselves to include legacy characters. They always take the easy way out. By the way is the actress playing Uhura related to Cuba Cooding Jr? It would have been fun if Rebecca Romijn had actually played the Chapel role as well, but probably too much work so it didn’t happen.

Of course not. We all knew the second SNW was announced, half of TOS will probably show up before first season is over. I joke, but…

The people making Trek today are ultimate fanboys and girls. It’s why we have everything from Q to the Guardian of Forever back (I still want them to team up like the strangest buddy cop story in history). It’s ALL coming back kids. All of it by the time they are done.

As far as the actress being related to Cuba Gooding Jr, since it hasn’t been brought up once since she was first announced, doubtful. But you know I’m usually wrong. ;)

But when is it starting? After Picard in mid/late 2022?

They didn’t say, but based on production/release schedules I would guess starting shortly after Picard in late April/early May 2022.

So I will hold out on subscribing to Paramount+ until then. SNW is the only Star Trek show I am looking forward to, so I will wait until then to subscribe. I will watch the other shows then, but I can be patient with those.

Same here, VZX. I’m in no hurry to sign up for yet another service as it is.

knowing picard comes out on either febuary 17th or 24th 2022 depending on if discovery season 4 has 13 or 14 episodes in season 4 that would put strange new worlds coming out either april 28th 2022 or may 5th 2022 since we know picard will have 10 episodes

I’d say 22.2.22 (or 2.22.22) would be the perfect date. As long as it’s not February the 29th… :-P

:D Would be nice date!

But right after Picard S2, would make it to first half of 2022, would be great! Nevertheless its like 3/4 of a year :o

Anyone knowing, if they are already working on scripts for a S2? Maybe it would give them enough time, to take enough care on the details and logic.

What about Dr. Boyce who was seen in The Cage? Or Dr. Piper in Where no man has gone before? (A bit offtopic, but interesting: in the german dubbed version, which was notorious for getting things wrong, they made it right and presented Dr. Piper as “replacement for Dr. McCoy” ;-) Also with the eugenic wars which were placed in the 2090s and almost with the time period of TOS: “it’s the year 2200”)

This is years after The Cage, so Boyce could be retired or even dead. But we still might see him. At the very least they will probably reference him in some ways. Dr. Piper is the complete opposite, he didn’t show up until years later, so I don’t it matters much.

Even though its wrong, it would actually make a lot more sense if the Eugenic wars took place in the 2090s. Or at least be the direct cause of WW 3.

At the very least they will probably reference him in some ways. 

Maybe again in the german dubbed version “I’m the replacement for Dr. Boyce”. ;-) (No, not really… it’s not 1972 anymore, when german viewers didn’t have any knowledge about the original version.)

Oh I see what you mean now. But as said it was dubbed wrong. And of course, they may just ignore stuff. Everyone is trying to piece together every little thing, but this is the group that skipped over the part about visiting Talos IV warrants the death penalty or pretends Sybok never even existed (or maybe I’m wrong and he shows up next season ;)).

Other words, they know most won’t care about every obscure piece of minutiae, especially something from a single episode that didn’t have any real story basis.

The uniforms can never alligne anyway. The Cage and WNMHGB had the same uniforms. Doesn’t matter. That’s production history.

I’m more concerned with SNW being called the “maiden voyages” of the NCC-1701. There was Robert April before Pike and that is canon due to TAS…

Discovery had Robert April as one of Saru’s inspiration’s for commanding a ship.

The German dubbed version :-) Oh my, we got Sol Drive instead of Warp Drive back then and Gary Seven was called Felix Sevenrock because of a ZDF guy named Siebenrock :-) They only broadcast half of the TOS episodes in the 70s with the other half to arrive in the 80s… Amok Time was depicted as a dream and Patterns of Force premiered in the late 90s…

Funniest thing about the German dubbing is Picard’s voice. First three and a half seasons and in the movies he had that old man’s voice that would NOW perfectly fit for older PIC Picard (the great voice actor has sadly passed though). Seasons 5-7 had that spot-on younger Stewart’s voice…

Piper was only in WNMHGB because DeForrest Kelley, who Roddenberry wanted, wasn’t available to play the ship’s doctor. So the character became a historical footnote. But it was the actor’s connection to Trek which landed him a similar role on “Battlestar Galactica” a dozen years later, which I’m sure was much appreciated.

Interesting Cast, but i feel a bit disappointed because Kurtzman ignored the Wish to hire Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Boyce.

Nah, I’m glad that it’s not Jeffrey Combs as Boyce as a regular CMO.

But I am hoping that Shran is still alive and that we’ll see him.

The Aenar population was so small in the 22nd century and Shran both married into the community and lived with them for a period. In a community of few thousand everyone knows everyone.

So, it would be actually unexpected that Hemmer didn’t know Shran. More, Shran would not be able to resist keeping tabs on an Aenar serving on a ship named Enterprise.

I the guy playing M”Benga the charcter we know from TOS or that character’s father? Because beside not looking anything like him, regarding his age he has to be his father. Dr M”Benga would be in his early twenties.

The last scene of the series finale:

(INT.) Enterprise bridge

The turbolift doors open and all hands look to see who is entering the bridge.

Enter the new boy: CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK, confident and cocky along with his friend, the new ship’s physician DR LEONARD MCCOY. Striding to the captain’s chair as if he has been on this ship his whole life, KIRK sits, leans back, and surveys his new crew one by one. He is ready to begin his new adventure.

KIRK: Helmsman, take us out. Half thrusters.

SULU: Aye, sir.

SULU turns back to the helm and begins piloting the ship. The rest of the bridge crew turns to look at the viewscreen as the structure of the drydock passes from view and is replaced by a field of stars.

SULU: Captain, we have cleared spacedock. What is our heading, sir?

KIRK: (Smiling) Helmsman’s discretion. Let’s see where destiny takes us.

MCCOY: (Mutters sarcastically) Oh boy, this is gonna be good.

SULU: Course plotted, sir.

KIRK: Ahead, Warp Factor five.

SULU: Warp Factor five, aye.

KIRK: Engage!

The stars on the viewscreen rush by ever faster until there is a flash of white, and…

This is what I love about message boards, the show hasn’t started yet and fans are already thinking how the last episode will play out lol. And sure, I can see something like that playing out. But I have a feeling we may see both McCoy and Sulu before then, even if they are not on the ship.

Where is Yeoman Colt? She should have been in the show, perhaps at a higher rank.

But this cast looks great! This is the only Star Trek show I am looking forward to.

Agreed… I’d have her start low and work up the ranks. Also fun to have a noncommissioned officer on the crew, plus aren’t there unresolved feelings between her and Pike?!?

Not on Pike’s side.

So whats Dr. M’benga do to get demoted from CMO so that McCoy can take over?

Perhaps he was never CMO. After all we already have Boyce and Bryce.

Why does he have to get demoted? Maybe he’s just transferred after Pike retires and McCoy takes over at the request of the new Captain?

Absolutely. The length of time that senior officers stay with the hero ships on Star Trek shows is really unusual.

I expect that Mbenga is CMO and off doing other things at a new posting during TOS. The acting when he covers for McCoy is an acting role during the absence of the officer who holds that role rather than an acting rank.

My thought is M’Benga goes to Vulcan for a tour, having learned about the Vulcan Science Academy from Spock.

He may not be the CMO, just on staff like Culber is in Discovery.

All very good points, could’ve went to Vulcan, could just be a doctor on staff, after all they just said he was playing dr. M’benga, mayyyyybe there’s a smalllll chance that Boyce will be a recurring character playing by our favorite recurring character actor…

As a TOS fan, this preview gave me goosebumps throughout. I love that they are honouring TOS characters both well known and less so. So looking forward to seeing an actual trailer.

Why can they not stay away from trying to tie everything in and revisit stuff? This is the show I’m most looking forward to. As excited as I am to see a character like Uhura.. is she really necessary? Are they painting the franchise into a corner? But the single most puzzling and potentially maddening? The Khan reference. On one hand, If the Noonien-Singh name is an Easter egg, that kind of lack of imagination is frustrating to see. If it’s a relative, that’s downright concerning at this early stage. I really hope they don’t screw this up. After Discovery and Picard, I was hoping this would be the Trek that would quench my thirst. There is a lot to like about this (Anson Mount as Pike, the episodic format) but this seems less fresh and new than It should be after the cast announcement. God, I hope I’m wrong.

Maybe Uhura is a recurring character or is assigned to a another ship that Enterprise encounters on its way. I agree with you about having too many legacy characters but I also think we should be patient and see if the writers/producers surprise us. Also now that Q is officially part of Kurtzmans Trek universe I believe he/it can be the grand deus ex machina that sets everything (all the continuity problems etc….) to as it was at the very end of all these series.

I’d probably feel different if the creative braintrust hadn’t let me down before…. if this were truly brand new. I’m hoping I’m wrong, and I guess my point is I don’t have a warm and fuzzy that they’re forging ahead. That’s all. I will be open minded as I watch this new series.. I promise.

A main character being named “Noonien-Singh” is too big of a thing to be an easter egg. A descendant is really all she can be. With maybe .001% Augment DNA in her. Enough that she doesn’t display any abilities and can serve in the fleet. But it wouldn’t stop people from showing her resentment. That’s my take anyways.

Interesting to see that the uniforms have been given a few tweaks since what we saw on DISCOVERY.

But just as I prefer to view ‘The Cage’ pilot episode as being an ‘alternate universe’ storyline of different characters and elements to the main TOS show crew to allow for the differences (I happily skip the ‘The Menagerie’ two-parter during a rewatch to allow for this, by the way)….I’m also going to look on STRANGE NEW WORLDS as being an ‘alternate universe’ show to TOS too.

Looking forward to some good new characters and stories hopefully!

Well, if you think so. But I think they did an awesome job with those uniforms. The zipper jackets actually have some sort of collar. And with at least three sets of uniforms, it’s easy to imagine the Cage uniforms being there or having been there as well…

Is this the first year ever that we may get Trek year round, from October to October, perhaps with small breaks in between?

-Prodigy in October -Discovery in November -Picard in February -Strange New Worlds in May -Lower Decks in August

Pretty exciting.

Yeah seems that way. We may get a few weeks break between whenever SNW airs and a new season of LDS but it may not be that long at all.

And its a bit surprising Prodigy and Discovery will be airing the same time as each other. They kept saying they didn’t want any of the shows to overlap but I’m not complaining. ;)

I love the idea of having at least 1 Trek show airing at every point of the year.

José Tyler must have gotten killed somewhere along the way. Or transferred. It will be interesting to see if any of the other Cage characters (Tyler, Boyce, Colt) are referenced in this new show.

Continuity question now that we have Nurse Chapel. I’m completely convinced there is going to be a Roger Corby episode somewhere in this series. There is much to elucidate since she is in a relationship with her professor and by today’s standards, this would be inappropriate and perhaps a warning sign for them both.

So my question is: would an episode set during SNW be set after they were engaged? After they broke up? How does that fit with the backstory in TOS that she too was doing research with him?

This was the best part of the whole Trek Day show. Our friends around the country were watching the same thing were were but once the character reveal happened. My phone exploded with text messages. My wife was happiest that Uhura was back on board. So…. doers this mean we will see more TOS characters in the various episodes? Lt Kirk on the Farragut? Scotty on one of his other ships? Sulu in the Astrophysics Dept? Maybe even Dr Boyce serving Pike a chilled martini.. the possibilities are endless.

I’m so in for this! Everything looks on point, and Mount is an excellent captain.

TBH the one TOS character I was most expecting to see was Scott. He’s the oldest and most experienced in TOS, and even at that point the old girl was at least as much his as Kirk’s.

In the penultimate episode we’ll see the death of the chief engineer, and in the last scene of the finale, a ship will arrive with new personell, and the the transporter chief will read out the name, “It’s our new chief engineer, Captain. Name? Looks like…(beat) Mr… S…C…(looks up at Pike)…O.T.T…

Cut to black. Cliffhanger.

The more I think about it, the more I think I’d prefer a wholly original crew for Pike and to explore how they grew and left. In some ways, a fresh Kirk coming aboard and taking over Pike’s last crew kind of diminishes him a bit. Kind of like a new manager taking over a massively successful football team.

I wouldn’t mind Scott being there, or Bones in a lower medical role, as they are older characters (age wise). But the younger ones being there before Kirk? We largely got to see Picard choose his team in Encounter at. Farpoint.

They are adding unnecessary questions to those that already exist. Existing: why does Commander Chin-Riley not become Captain? Why does M’Benga not become CMO? Why does the name Noonien-Singh not ring a bell even before Space Seed (they recognise it quick enough in that episode)?

Yep, I know I’m griping before I’ve watched a scene, but this was the show I was looking forward too. I wanted Boyce, Colt, and Tyler.

The only point I do get is M’Benga not becoming CMO… The other issues I do not share at all…

Cpt. Chin-Riley may either die at some point or get another command. Since we don’t see her on TOS, that isn’t an issue at all yet.

La’an bearing that infamous name may be adressed directly. Khan could have had many offsprings. Maybe she’s even an augment created from his DNA. That may be illegal but that could be the whole plot point. Who knows? It offers great opportunities.

Boyce probably has retired, Colt is an outdated role model and Tyler… well, he may be there, but not as a main character. There were many recurring characters on TOS…Probably didn’t do him because there already has been a Tyler on DSC…

M’Benga could have transfered to Vulcan for a tour, maybe further his studies at Vulcan Science Academy while Mc’Coy elsewhere becomes a hot shot MD. Plus Kirk could have requested McCoy from his past command.

Given that Mbenga was a specialist physician who McCoy asked to come back to the Enterprise to cover for him during an absence, it actually makes sense that he had previously served on the ship.

He could already be the CMO, and comes back to act. Bringing back former department heads for an assignment is often better than promoting someone on an acting basis in cases where specialized expertise or experience are crucial.

There’s no reason expect that he would have stayed on as CMO with a new captain. As a Vulcan specialist, he would want to be somewhere with more than one Vulcan patient in the long run, like the medical base that has been envisaged in the TOS back door pilot.

I’m coming around to the logic around this one.

I wonder if this series takes place after the events of the Cage. Boyce has retired, M’Benga will be “acting Chief Medical Officer” while they await the arrival of new personel. I said it jokingly in another comment but the finale could see new crewmembers arrive, including Chief Engineer Scott and CMO McCoy.

Give us something big to look forward to.

They already said the show takes place after the events of Discovery season 2. It would basically box them in if they started before that season or some crazy time jump later.

Yeah there are a lot of possibilities they could do.

Chin-Riley (not loving that name so far, but fine) could just be a Riker situation and get her own ship by the end of the series. Or yes, just die, but I think she will just get an opportunity to start fresh somewhere else. Or here is a CRAZY idea, maybe she just leaves Starfleet and does something else? I know seeing so many characters through the years where being part of Starfleet is basically like being part of a religion is almost sacrilege to leave, but yeah in the real world some people would just leave and do other things. Not exactly sexy I know but yeah that is actually possible (but no I don’t EVER see it happening lol).

Or this being Star Trek get lost in another universe or time period. ;)

M’Benga just may decide he doesn’t WANT to be CMO. I mean not everyone in life is concerned about moving up to the next rank or position. Maybe he just likes doing what he does and more concerned about his research instead of running sick bay on his own. It could just be that simple but it’s not exactly hard to find a reason for a character not being promoted.

La’an Noonien Singh now that’s not very simple and launches a huge can of worms lol. You can’t really get around that too much. IF Space Seed was just an obscure episode the way the episodes M’Benga showed up in TOS, then maybe they can just retcon whatever they wanted and no one cares. I know A Private Little War is famous, but it’s pretty self contained in general. But in this case they have to somehow tow the line that she is somehow related to Khan (and obviously she is or what would be the point) and yet surprised by who Khan is when he shows up in 10 years or whenever.

Honestly this is one of those things where you wonder WHY do they do this to themselves? Why give yourself this kind of extra work that is not needed? But we also know these people are real fanboys and girls and they clearly want a way to bring up Khan even in the vaguest ways possible so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Many are wondering will she be an augment herself, but I don’t see how that could be possible seeing how much Starfleet is so against genetic engineering. Up through the 24th century they are literally still jailing people who dabbles in it, but again we’ll see.

I didn’t really think about it that much because I was so excited for Uhura and Chapel coming back but yeah this one will be interesting for sure.

But most of these are not huge deals. The reality is with the exception of Spock NONE of these characters are developed much, even Uhura and Chapel. Their entire backgrounds are based on a few lines they said on the show mostly. The others were literally in just 1 or 2 episodes, so yeah. Like they done in every show they will probably just ignore or retcon a few things but overall they can do basically what they want for most of them.

I hope they bring in Boyce, Colt, and Tyler.. if only as minor characters on another shift. Colt for sure, she could have been a Tilly but as a non-commissioned officer. Maybe have an arc where Starfleet ends up not being her thing yet she endures because of her family legacy or something and finds happiness on a colony. Also I am pretty sure The Cage set it up where she had unresolved issues with Pike!

Uhura, Chapel, M’Benga wow! This looks great, what a thrill. I can’t stop smiling.

Excited and fascinated of the choice to bring back the Aenar and cast an actor who is blind in the role.

I must admit it’s the original characters more than the legacy ones that I’m looking forward to. Having more than half the cast be legacy characters seems overkill.

I’m also looking forward to see if any of the other bridge crew that we saw on the Enterprise in Discovery’s S2 finale are brought back.

Yes me too TG47!

In a weird way seeing an Aenar aboard got me the most excited lol. Because we still don’t know THAT much about them and it will be really fun to see how they are developed. When they appeared on Enterprise, they were really a fascinating species. Related to Andorians but have also evolved differently from them. The fact some have telepathic powers also made them more distinct.

It never occurred to me we would even see them again because they have been completely ignored in both the Kelvin movies and Discovery. That’s the beauty of Star Trek, eventually everything comes back again. It may take years, even decades lol, but it can happen.

I’m still looking for the day to see the Xindi show up again, maybe on this show or even on one of the 24th century shows or Discovery!

Agreed, having an aenar and developing the character grows the universe while having too many legacy characters just makes the universe smaller. I think M’ress or Arex would have worked better instead of Noonien-Singh and Uhura.

I really like having the opportunity to get to know new characters, but perhaps a fresh take on the episodic format will allow these characters the chance to lead the occasional episode.

Uhura and Chapel were mostly background in TOS. While Uhura got more line and time in the movies, it was actually TAS where she was given the opportunity to lead and shine.

So, depending on how they’re used it could work, especially as 10 episode seasons don’t give much opportunity to build out a large number of new characters. The creators may have felt that starting with characters that are somewhat but not deeply known would avoid the first season drag that Star Trek series often suffer from.

Interesting tidbit about Una Chin-Riley having some connection to another “legacy character”… If she was born a Riley married to a Chin she may actually have some relations to Kevin Riley from TOS. His parents were killed by Kodos on the Tarsus colony so maybe she’s his sister and an orphan, too.

La’an Noonien-Singh is also pretty exciting. Maybe she’s an offspring of Khan or of those 22nd century augments on ENT. Maybe she’s on a covert operation for Section 31. They have a thing for augments.

Also excited about Hemmer being played by an actual blind actor. The Aenar are blind, too, so this is yet another stance of authentic representation. The sad aspect: the actor has got the MUCH better name for a Star Trek character. I wish it was Horak played by Bruce Hemmer :-)

And as far as puns go: Horak is almost as near to Hulk as Bruce Hemmer is to Bruce Banner ;-)

I hope she’s not a direct offspring of Khan. She would have to be over 300 yrs old and even for an augment that is OLD. And also augments should not be serving in Starfleet.

How long before the hate starts pouring into this show? I can already see the dripping.

Why would I want to “hate” THAT show? It’s the closest thing to classic Trek one could ever hope for. Minor canon-violations, should they occur, don’t bother me at all.

I also do not “hate” DSC, especially after they have arrived in the future to be explored and fleshed out. The two issues I had with DSC were tech issues and the Klingon redesign…and some grizzly stuff in S1…

LDS is a mixed bag for me as my mind doesn’t “get” animated comedy. It’s so frantic and superficial. But I’m beginning to like the characters for what they are.

PIC is a bit of an issue, both stylistically and content-wise. The writing of S1 was just all over the place and the TV-MA aspects felt forced and overdone. The cursing admiral, Icheb, drinking smoking, taking drugs…It didn’t feel very Trek-ish. S2 quite obviously tries to get around those issues by placing it in an alternate timeline and in our present. That way, they can get down and dirty without contaminating the primeverse any further with their TV-MA shenanigans…

But SNW and PROD are the shows I’m looking forward to the most. The one brings back classic Trek, the other one appeals to my inner child… where is the pew-pew-pew-button :-)

JJ Trek is the best Classic Trek in my opinion. You haven’t seen anything of this show yet. This reminds me of when the first trailer of Picard aired.

This +1 If it’s action/adventure on the final frontier where inperfect people confront challenges – I am all in. Especially love when a starship is something special, not a dime a dozen, where they are on their own, and response from Starfleet Command is days away let alone reinforcements and any screw up on their part and half the quadrent ends up learning to speak Klingonese. I think shows with perfect people who play holodeck in hotels when they aren’t taking marching orders or having whatever they did made obsolete by reset buttons deserve some hard defendable scorn for being generic forgetable snoozefests.

I don’t think SNW will be perfect and frankly I wouldn’t be too shocked to see some of the same issues that plague both DIS and PIC seeing its by the same people. BUT I do think they have at least learned from their mistakes they made in DIS a lot more, at least in terms of how they deal with the prequel setting. Again, don’t expect it to be perfect…but better.

And yes DIS is just a better show being in the 32nd century. It should’ve been a post-Nemsis show from the start, but they wanted the TOS tie ins. Now they have the best of both worlds. SNW can REALLY tie in to TOS as much as they want basically and it won’t feel so forced while DIS can just be its own thing and actually create new canon the way TNG did when it premiered. And if you still hate that show it’s VERY easy to ignore it now lol. For me however, I’m just happy to finally see a new time period explored and going forward again.

That’s what is fun about all these shows though, they really can be their own thing on one hand but dig into nostalgia or canon when they want, especially all the 24th century shows. Between the three of those, they have an embarrassment of riches of taking whatever they want from the TNG era in terms of characters and storylines but STILL be their own thing.

And since none of them take place at the same time as each other they can put their own stamp on whatever they want (well SNW still can’t as much but that’s OK too now).

Uniforms are such an improvement

Hoping this is good, but very disapointed there seems to be no Dr. Boyce. His relationship with Pike was well established and memorable.

I’m pumped for this, now we need a premier date.

nice…looking forward to this one.

Surprised at how excited I am for this given TOS is well, it’s a product of its time, but Pike, Spock and Una were such highlights of Discovery season 2 that it’ll be a joy seeing them again.

Hopefully there’s a nice juicy lost era plot.

Could the new series’ timeline might be happening before Pike and company met the crew of Discovery? Or do we know for sure this will follow after Discovery disappeared?

I just don’t see it taking place before season 2 of Discovery. They would have to do a time jump at some point and they would have to adhere to stuff like the DIscovery uniforms (not the crew but Starfleet in general). I’m pretty sure its after Discovery jumps through the wormhole.

And we know Uhura or Chapel wasn’t on the ship then.

La’aaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The costumes look great — and Peck looks so much better as Spock here (love the hair). I kind of hoped they wouldn’t have red for security, as per the first twoTOS pilots – but it looks fine.

The sets look brighter/cleaner than the Disco versions, from the little shown here –which is great.

Christina Chong Was All Too Familiar With La'an's Struggles In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

One could easily imagine a version of "Strange New Worlds" where the main trio of stars are given the meatiest storylines and the vast majority of screen time. Anson Mount's Captain Pike, Ethan Peck's Spock, and Rebecca Romijn's Number One are all  established characters that Trekkies are familiar with, after all. Thankfully, that couldn't be more different from how the series currently airing on Paramount+ is playing out.

"Strange New Worlds" has quickly gained a loyal following since its premiere, due in no small part to the focus on the series' supporting characters and the strength of the cast. The refreshingly episodic nature of the series means that a different character gets to step into the main spotlight each week, which allows the actors in the ensemble to showcase their particular talents. On any given week, an episode of "Strange New Worlds" could focus on the tragic backstory of Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), or a young Uhura ( Cecila Rose Gooding ) finding her way among the intimidating crew of the USS Enterprise.

Christina Chong's La'an Noonien-Singh occupies the unique role of a brand-new character who also has overt connections to "Trek" history, as the granddaughter of the most famous franchise villain of them all, Khan. As if that added pressure (both in-universe, given her ancestor's notoriety, and for any actor tasked with embodying such an iconic role) wasn't enough, Chong recently revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that her own upbringing brought an uncomfortably relevant layer to her portrayal of the Enterprise's chief of security. Her personal connection to the role serves as a fitting reminder of why the diverse and inclusive values that "Star Trek" stands for continue to appeal to fans (and actors) all over the world.

Deep personal connections

When La'an Noonien-Singh first steps on board the Enterprise as an officer on the bridge in the early episodes of "Strange New Worlds," it's immediately clear that she doesn't feel she quite belongs. Luckily, her entire ship of crewmates accept her, and help to make her feel at home. Christina Chong herself, however, didn't have that luxury growing up. By her own account, her experiences of being raised between two very different cultures and never fitting in with either helped her connect more deeply to the character of La'an. When asked about La'an feeling like an "outcast" due to her ancestry, the actor responded:

"What I connected to was being judged for who you are and your name. Although my mom is English, my dad is Chinese. And I don't necessarily look English, and I don't necessarily look Chinese, but my name is Chong. And throughout my childhood, that brought on bullying and racism. The whole journey of both being judged, having that stigma attached to a name and who you are, was easily translatable and easy to personalize."

Needless to say, many people of color who grew up in other countries can easily (and painfully) relate to this particularly insidious form of bullying, which Chong went on to say made her "ashamed" to even be seen around her father, for fear of her classmates seeing him, being reminded of her background again, and subjecting her to even more abuse. But it wouldn't be "Star Trek" if this story didn't end on a more optimistic note.

'For the first time I felt accepted for who I was'

As awful as it is to hear these kinds of stories, "Strange New Worlds" allowed Christina Chong to turn a profoundly negative experience into something good. Because of this personal connection, Chong was able to infuse the character of La'an with even deeper and richer layers. She went on to explain:

"It was only really when I was about 14, and I went to a performing arts school where everyone was from a different background, that for the first time I felt accepted for who I was. They all were talented, and they all wanted the same thing. And that's parallel to the crew on the Enterprise. La'an comes onto the Enterprise, and they accept her for who she is. It's been an incredible journey, how 'Star Trek' has enabled me to use my experience and put that into her. Timing-wise, it all sort of clicked."

Chong has already shined in multiple episodes with storylines centered on La'an that have put her full range on display. One, concerning her backstory with the sinister Gorn, is deeply tragic. The other, where she bonds with Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) during an impromptu scavenger hunt in one of the franchise's beloved "shore leave"  episodes, is much more lighthearted. Taken together, these have helped make La'an (and Chong) a welcome member of the show.

Even if an actor is able to tap into their trauma to turn around a fantastic performance, nothing can justify being treated so poorly in the first place. But perhaps Chong's openness and vulnerability in sharing her pain can serve as inspiration for others who've similarly felt like outcasts.

New episodes of "Strange New Worlds" air on Paramount+ every Thursday.

Why La'an Noonien-Singh From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Looks So Familiar

La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) has a last name that tends to get her in some hot water in the Federation. This is because she is a relative of Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a genetically altered human being who, at one point, controlled over a quarter of the surface of Earth during the Eugenics War. He is eventually stopped, but the last name of Noonien-Singh carries some pretty serious stigma. That doesn't stop Captain Christoper Pike (Anson Mount) from trusting her in her capacity as Chief of Security for the USS Enterprise in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." 

La'an has a rather serious demeanor and cold personality that tends to keep most people away, though that's not an issue holding back her friendship with Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), another crew member on the Enterprise that tends to carry an aura of mystery. However, this is far from Chong's first role as an actor, and she actually has had a varied and diverse career up to this point. Where exactly have we seen her before?

Chong appears as a stewardess in Johnny English Reborn

Perhaps one of the first times people may remember seeing Christina Chong is in the 2011 film, "Johnny English Reborn." This particular movie is a spoof on "James Bond"-style spy thrillers and stars Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Dominic West, Roger Barclay, and Eric Carte (via IMDb ). Atkinson played the titular character of Johnny English, a bumbling spy who manages to stumble his way through dangerous and unpredictable situations.

In "Johnny English Reborn," Chong portrayed a minor character named Barbara. Although not connected to anything in the high-stakes world of spy games, Barbara is a stewardess on an international flight that sees her serve Johnny a glass of champagne, and the legendary spy attempts to flirt with her. Although she only made a brief appearance in "Johnny English Reborn," the role helped Chong get some notoriety, and she went on to star in bigger and more important roles.

Chong is a specialized doctor in the short-lived British series Monroe

The next big adventure for Chong was in the short-lived British medical drama, "Monroe." Running from 2011 to 2012, "Monroe" is about a brilliant neurosurgeon, and it starred James Nesbitt, Tom Riley, Sarah Parish, Luke Allen-Gale, and Susan Lynch (via IMDb ). Chong played the character of Sarah Witney, who appeared in all 12 episodes of the show. Inspired by television series like "House," writer Peter Bowker told The Guardian in 2010 , "It may be foolish to compare the two but with neurologists, as with House, there is this very intense 10 days when you work with them on a case and then you say goodbye – it is really quite fascinating and will hopefully make great drama."

Chong's character of Witney is subordinate to Dr. Bremner (Parish) and is a cardio-thoracic registrar on the show, which is a specialized doctor in the British National Health Service that focuses on the heart, lungs, and other organs of the chest. According to Broadcast , the show was eventually canceled due to low ratings, but that certainly didn't slow Chong's career down.

Chong is a CIA operative in 24: Live Another Day

Casting aside her stewardess and doctor's uniforms, Christina Chong lent her talents to the television miniseries "24: Live Another Day" in 2014. This series is a direct and limited sequel to the popular series "24," and it starred Kiefer Sutherland, Yvonne Strahovski, Tate Donovan, Mary Lynn Rajskub, William Devane, and Kim Raver (via IMDb ). "24: Live Another Day" picks up with Jack Bauer (Sutherland) in exile, and immediately casts the character into a vast global conspiracy involving drones, China, Russia, and the U.S. president.

Chong played Mariana, a CIA operative tasked with mostly administrative work. Appearing in five episodes, Mariana is important because she works at the London office of the CIA and helps maintain the flow of information between agents and the section chief. She even interacts with Bauer as he interrogates a suspect. In the last episode Mariana appears in, Bauer sets off an explosion to act as a diversion, but Mariana remains unharmed. 

Chong helps fill in the story between Halo 4 and Halo 5 in Halo: Nightfall

Utilizing her previous acting experience as government agents, Christina Chong's next notable role was in the limited series "Halo: Nightfall." Based on the hit video game series and created with the help of Ridley Scott's production company, the five-episode "Halo: Nightfall" series starred Steven Waddington, Mike Colter, Christian Contreras, Alex Bhat, and Luke Neal (via IMDb ). "Halo: Nightfall" is about a far-flung human colony that is exposed to an incredibly virulent biological agent. Its storyline helps connect the stories of the video games "Halo 4" and "Halo 5."

Chong played Talitha Macer, who is part of the Sedran Colonial Guard, and appeared in every episode of "Halo: Nightfall." Speaking with the Evening Standard about her role on the show and how it was the most intense thing she had done up to that point, Chong stated, "We were shooting in Iceland and Belfast. It was minus 40 in Iceland but we had to pretend it was 50 degrees as we ran over ragged rocks in the rain." 

Having played a stewardess, doctor, government agent, and soldier, Chong definitely has what it takes to be the USS Enterprise's Chief of Security.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.

• Akiva Goldsman
• Alex Kurtzman
• Jenny Lumet
• Anson Mount
• Christina Chong
• 1K User reviews
• 38 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 32 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Captain Christopher Pike …

• La'an Noonien-Singh …

• Lt. Erica Ortegas …

• Una Chin-Riley …

• Nurse Christine Chapel

• Nyota Uhura …

• Dr. M'Benga

• USS Enterprise Computer …

• Lieutenant George Samuel 'Sam' Kirk

• Jenna Mitchell

• Captain Batel …

• Admiral Robert April

• Captain James T. Kirk …

• T'Pring
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

IMDb's 2024 TV Guide

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Bruce Horak , the actor who plays Hemmer, is legally blind, just like his character's species, the Aenar, who are also blind.
• Goofs There are some rank insignia mistakes. Number One is introduced as "Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley" yet she is wearing the rank insignia of a full commander: two full stripes. A Lieutenant Commander's rank insignia is a full stripe under a thin stripe (in TOS it is a full stripe and a staggered stripe). It is not uncommon for a ship's first officer to be a Lt. Commander if they have not been in the position long. Spock at this point is a Lieutenant but he is wearing Lieutenant Commander's stripes; a Lieutenant just has one stripe. La'an is the ship's chief of security and the ship's second officer. She is also wearing Lt. Commander stripes but is addressed as a Lieutenant, but it would make more sense for her to be a Lieutenant Commander. Either way both of their rank insignia are not matching the rank they are addressed by. Ortegas is addressed as a Lieutenant but is wearing Lieutenant Commander's strips. A Lieutenant Commander may be addressed as a Commander or Lieutenant Commander but never as just a Lieutenant, so either her rank insignia or the manner she is addressed by the rest of the crew is in error.

[opening narration]

Captain Christopher Pike : Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

• Connections Featured in Nerdrotic: Woke Hollywood is FAILING, and That's a Good Thing (2022)

Technical specs

• Runtime 52 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Den of Geek

Strange New Worlds Finally Corrects One of Star Trek’s Biggest Mistakes

For all its talk about overcoming racism and embracing diversity, Star Trek has sometimes fallen into harmful tropes, including when it comes to the character of Khan.

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds article contains spoilers.

At the end of the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , La’an Noonien-Singh makes a shocking discovery. Hurled back to 21st-century Toronto, alongside James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), to stop a history-changing attack by Romulans, La’an finds the holding area of her infamous ancestor, the genocidal warlord Khan Noonien Singh.

Tempted by the opportunity to not only destroy a vicious warlord but to also shake off the hatred for her name that still exists in her reality, La’an enters the room, gun drawn. However, she finds not the glowering madman played by Ricardo Montalbán in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan nor the simmering terror played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Instead, she finds a small child, whom she immediately comforts.

As sweet as this moment is, even more notable is who is playing Khan in the scene. It’s talented young actor Desmond Sivan ( FUBAR ), who is of both Latino and South Asian descent, meaning Star Trek has finally cast a performer of South Asian heritage to play Khan, who is Indian in canon. This is a big deal, especially when you consider the franchise’s blunder when it cast Cumberbatch, a white actor, to play the villain in 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness , leading some fans to accuse the movie of whitewashing Khan.

Ad – content continues below

It boggles the mind that it’s taken this long to see such an iconic Star Trek character correctly represented by an actor of similar background. After all, Khan was identified as “a Sikh from the northern region of India” in his very first appearance in The Original Series episode “Space Seed” in 1967.

There’s no question that it was the great Montalbán who immortalized Khan as an all-timer of a villain both on the big and small screen, but it’s also true that he was born in Mexico from white European parents. When viewed from a modern lens, this casting is problematic, but it’s important to note that Montalbán was in his own time a revolutionary actor, breaking into Hollywood at a time when there were very few Hispanic performers dominating American screens. His casting in Star Trek as a character of color on a popular TV series would have still felt progressive at the time.

But then Star Trek Into Darkness doubled down on casting a European actor to play the character when Cumberbatch’s terrorist John Harrison reveals that he is actually Khan. To be fair, the Khan twist in the divisive movie, which takes place in an alternate Trek timeline, has more to do with winking at the audience than anything that made sense within the film’s reality. It’s also true that director J.J. Abrams originally cast Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro , but given its opportunity to bring in a performer that could better reflect the character’s background, why didn’t Into Darkness consider a South Asian actor for the role from the start? Perhaps Abrams wanted to wink at an earlier version of the character that didn’t make it into “Space Seed.”

Behind the scenes, Khan wasn’t always Khan. In earlier versions of the “Space Seed” script, writer Carey Wilber imagined the character as a Nordic man called “Harald Ericsson.” Later versions had the character operating under the pseudonym “John Erickson” before revealing himself to be the tyrant Ragnar Thorwald , a conceit that eventually returned in Star Trek Into Darkness . At some point, the character was renamed Khan Noonien Singh, perhaps during the rewrite by the episode’s other credited writer Gene L. Coon, but more likely at the behest of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry served in World War II alongside a man named Kim Noonien Singh, and hoped that the episode would get his attention, leading to a reunion between the old friends.

Interestingly, the Khan we meet in Strange New Worlds exists in an alternate timeline too, one where he’s still a child during the 2020s, not a conqueror during the 1990s. It’s unclear how much the show will use Khan going forward beyond this cameo, despite the season’s clear interest in the Eugenics Wars. But even if this is all just meant to be another wink at fans, the character’s return in this way is Star Trek setting a new, better course, stepping away from Into Darkness ‘ mistake and getting that much closer to creating the future it has always imagined.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

Star Trek’s Paul Wesley On Whether Kirk’s Womanizing Tendencies Will Surface In Season 2 With La’an And Uhura

Paul Wesley gave an honest answer.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is just around the corner, and with its return comes more adventures with Paul Wesley 's James T. Kirk. Wesley popped up in the Season 1 finale and is confirmed to return for Season 2. The trailer showed Kirk on an adventure with La'an in a familiar setting and what might be the first canonical meeting of Kirk and Uhura. Kirk is known for his womanizing tendencies, so should we expect that to factor into his relationship with either character? 

CinemaBlend tried to get an answer out of Christina Chong about Kirk and La'an about that last year but to no avail. Fortunately, I had a chance to speak with Paul Wesley and the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ahead of the Season 2 premiere. I asked the actor whether or not Kirk may try to woo La'an or Uhura in these meetings, and this was his response: 

I definitely think he has, I mean, yeah, he likes women, and that’s part of the character [laughs]. He’s definitely a flirt. He’s definitely someone who enjoys the company of a female. I think that, yeah, you can certainly expect some romance to some degree. I’m being vague, but yeah, definitely.

Paul Wesley was careful with his words but ultimately confirmed that there's going to be some sort of romance with James Kirk in his return to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . The question is with who, though, as both have a small history with the character. 

La'an was a commander on Kirk's ship in the alternate timeline flash forward, and Uhura once shared a kiss with Kirk in the prime timeline. There's also a possibility that Wesley is referring to someone we don't even know is in the season yet, which would drastically open up the list of possible candidates. 

Some Star Trek fans may be surprised by Paul Wesley's reveal, though I'd question if this is really a spoiler for any who are familiar with James T. Kirk. Flirtation is a staple of the character, and I don't think it's any secret that it was a large part of William Shatner 's portrayal. It would almost be weirder if Kirk wasn't flirting in Strange New Worlds , so it's good to learn that the show is sticking to the core traits of his character. 

We'll see the reality soon enough, assuming readers have their Paramount+ subscriptions current. Star Trek fans are no doubt eager to see if Season 2 of Strange New Worlds will live up to the hype. The cast has spent most of the past year promising it'll be great, though it's not like we expected stars like Melissa Navia and Anson Mount to tell us anything different. Even so, it's encouraging to hear how excited they are for the new season and how pumped they are for fans to see it. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ on Thursday, June 15th. Keep with CinemaBlend in the coming weeks as we continue to share more thoughts on the series from the actors and what they have to say about all the adventures to come. 

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

We Asked Star Trek: Discovery’s Mary Wiseman About The Starfleet Academy Series, And Her Response Is All I Need

'Civil War' Interviews With Kirsten Dunst, Alex Garland, Cailee Spaeny And Wagner Moura

‘The Most Traumatic Experience I've Ever Had In The Best, Coolest Way’: Kathryn Newton Details The Exceptionally Gory Abigail Scene That Left Her Exhausted

Most Popular

By Carly Levy April 08, 2024

By Erik Swann April 08, 2024

By Heidi Venable April 08, 2024

By Jeff McCobb April 08, 2024

By Adreon Patterson April 08, 2024

By Philip Sledge April 08, 2024

By Dirk Libbey April 08, 2024

By Mack Rawden April 08, 2024

By Caroline Young April 08, 2024

By Nick Venable April 08, 2024

• 2 Why Alan Ritchson Got A Tattoo While Filming Reacher And The Meaning Behind It
• 3 Viral TikTok Shows Bill Murray, Paul Rudd And More Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Stars Adorably Give Kid Advice On Dealing With Ghosts
• 4 Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley Explains How Her Approach To The Rey Movie Is 'Different' Compared To When She Started On The Sequel Trilogy
• 5 Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Director Knows The Spinoff People Want. Why We're Getting A 'New Chapter' Instead

Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

• Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series 6 days ago
• ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Star Sonequa Martin-Green on the Show’s Unexpected Final Season, the ‘Pressure’ of Representation and Taking the ‘Trek’ Cruise 7 days ago
• Jerrod Carmichael Was Terrified of Being Seen, So He Made a Reality Show: ‘This May Be Unhealthy. It Is a Little Dangerous’ 2 weeks ago

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 5, Episode 1 of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” now streaming on Paramount+.

By the end of the episode, however, the mission has pushed Burnham and her crew to their limits, including slamming the USS Discovery into the path of a massive landslide threatening a nearby city. Before they risk their lives any further pursuing this object, Burnham demands that Kovich at least tell her why. (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.)

Kovich’s explanation evokes the classic “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” episode “The Chase” from 1993 in which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — along with teams of Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians — learn that all humanoid life in the galaxy was created by a single species that existed billions of years earlier, and seeded thousands of planets with the DNA to pass along their legacy. (Along with presenting a profound vision of the origins of life, the episode also provided an imaginative explanation for why almost all the aliens in “Star Trek” basically look like humans with different kinds of forehead ridges.)

Kovich tells Burnham that the Romulan scientist was part of a team sent to discover exactly how these aliens — whom they call the Progenitors — made this happen; the object they’re seeking winds up being one part of a brand new “chase,” this time in the 32nd century, to find the Progenitors’ technology before it can fall into the wrong hands. 

“I remember watching that episode and at the end of it just being blown away that there was this huge idea where we all come from,” Paradise says. “And then they’re going to have another mission the next week. I found myself wondering, ‘Well, then what? What happened? What do we do with this information? What does it mean?’”

Originally, Paradise says the “Discovery” writers’ room discussed evoking the Progenitors in Season 4, when the Discovery meets an alien species, the 10-C, who live outside of the galaxy and are as radically different from humans as one could imagine. “As we dug deeper into the season itself, we realized that it was too much to try and get in,” Paradise says.

Instead, they made the Progenitors the engine for Season 5. “Burnham and some of our other characters are on this quest for personal meaning,” Paradise says. Searching for the origins of life itself, she adds, “feels like a big thematic idea that fits right in with what we’re exploring over the course of the season, and what our characters are going through.”

That meant that Paradise finally got to help come up with the answers to the questions about “The Chase” that had preoccupied her when she was younger. “We had a lot of fun talking about what might’ve happened when [Picard] called back to headquarters and had to say, ‘Here’s what happened today,’” she says. “We just built the story out from there.”

More From Our Brands

Drake bell says he’s ‘still reeling’ from sharing his story in ‘quiet on the set’, ponant just added a new 79-foot sailing catamaran to its fleet for more intimate cruises, ncaa men’s final ratings can’t match women amid uconn routs, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, the rookie’s eric winter opens up about filming this week’s ‘raw’ #chenford scene: ‘tim has spiraled’, verify it's you, please log in.

Crime and Public Safety | ‘Game of Thrones’ actor sues LA County,…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Investigative Reporting
• Environment

Crime and Public Safety

Crime and public safety | ‘game of thrones’ actor sues la county, charging ‘botched’ criminal probe ruined his career.

LOS ANGELES — “Game of Thrones” actor Joseph Gatt has sued Los Angeles County and District Attorney George Gascón, alleging in federal court that his career was ruined after he was charged in 2022 with allegedly engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor — charges that were later dropped after the purported evidence was found to be fabricated.

Gatt, 52, alleges in Thursday’s suit that the defendants carried out a “thoroughly botched criminal investigation, entirely lacking any probable cause, led by an obviously conflicted deputy district attorney who sought to destroy Gatt based on nothing more than bias and personal animosity,” according to the lawsuit filed in downtown Los Angeles.

Gatt names Gascón, Deputy District Attorney Angela Brunson, and the city and county of Los Angeles among defendants.

A representative from the District Attorney’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the $40 million suit, Gatt contends he was falsely labeled as a pedophile based on uncorroborated evidence put forth by a 16-year-old “admittedly obsessed fan.”

The complaint alleges a violation of constitutional rights, arriving nearly two months after a Superior Court judge tossed the felony criminal case against the British-born actor on the advice of prosecutors, according to the lawsuit.

“While the baseless criminal charges were ultimately dismissed, substantial and irreparable damage had already been done to Gatt,” the suit states. “As a direct result of defendants’ reckless investigation and malicious prosecution, Gatt has suffered immeasurable mental anguish and emotional distress that made him physically ill, and his reputation has been utterly destroyed.”

The suit also says that Gatt has not worked as an actor since his arrest, “which has resulted in a total loss of all income from acting in a burgeoning career that, prior to the arrest, was on the precipice of exploding.”

Gatt’s acting credits include “NCIS: New Orleans,” “Game of Thrones,” “Thor” and “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

• Newsroom Guidelines
• Report an Error

More in Crime and Public Safety

Crime and Public Safety | Drug-trafficking feud led to 2015 quadruple murder plot in Orange, Fontana, prosecutors say

Crime and Public Safety | LA County OKs $25 million settlement for deputy shooting that left man paralyzed

Crime and Public Safety | Authorities locate and arrest inmate who escaped from Los Angeles reentry program

Crime and Public Safety | San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy with alleged ties to Mongols motorcycle gang pleads not guilty

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• Personal Finance
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• March Madness
• AP Top 25 Poll
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Personal finance
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 14-20

America Ferrera arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

• Copy Link copied

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 14-20:

April 14: Actor Julie Christie is 84. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore is 79. Actor John Shea (“Gossip Girl,” ″Lois and Clark”) is 76. Actor Peter Capaldi (“Dr. Who,” ″The Musketeers”) is 66. Actor-turned-racecar driver Brian Forster (“The Partridge Family”) is 64. Actor Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 64. Actor Robert Carlyle (“Once Upon a Time”) is 63. Singer-guitarist John Bell of Widespread Panic is 62. Actor Catherine Dent (“The Shield”) is 59. Drummer Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees) is 57. Actor Anthony Michael Hall is 56. Actor Adrien Brody is 51. Singer David Miller of Il Divo is 51. Rapper Da Brat is 50. Actor Antwon Tanner (“One Tree Hill”) is 49. Actor Sarah Michelle Gellar is 47. Actor Rob McElhenney (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) is 47. Musician JD McPherson is 47. Singer Win Butler of Arcade Fire is 44. Actor Claire Coffee (“Grimm”) is 44. Actor Nick Krause (“The Descendants”) is 32. Actor Graham Phillips (“The Good Wife”) is 31. Actor Vivien Cardone (“Everwood”) is 31. Actor Skyler Samuels (“Scream Queens”) is 30. Actor Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) is 28.

April 15: Actor Claudia Cardinale (“Pink Panther” films) is 86. Singer-guitarist Dave Edmunds is 81. Actor Michael Tucci (“Diagnosis Murder,” “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”) is 78. Actor Lois Chiles (“Austin Powers,” “Moonraker”) is 77. Actor Amy Wright is 74. Actor Sam McMurray (“The King of Queens,” “The Tracey Ullman Show”) is 72. Actor Emma Thompson is 65. Singer Samantha Fox is 58. Guitarist Ed O’Brien of Radiohead is 56. Actor Flex Alexander (“One on One”) is 54. Actor Danny Pino (“Cold Case”) is 50. Country singer Chris Stapleton is 46. Actor Luke Evans (“The Hobbit”) is 45. Drummer Patrick Carney of The Black Keys is 44. Bassist Zach Carothers of Portugal. The Man is 43. Actor Seth Rogen is 42. Actor Alice Braga (“I Am Legend”) is 41. Singer-songwriter Margo Price is 41. Drummer De’Mar Hamilton of Plain White T’s is 40. Actor Samira Wiley (“Orange Is the New Black”) is 37. Actor Leonie Elliott (“Call the Midwife”) is 36. Actor Emma Watson (“Harry Potter” movies) is 34. Actor Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) is 27.

April 16: Singer Bobby Vinton is 89. Midnight Oil singer-turned-politician Peter Garrett is 71. Actor Ellen Barkin is 70. Actor Michel Gill (“Mr. Robot,” “House of Cards”) is 64. Singer-bassist Jason Scheff (Chicago) is 62. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 61. Singer David Pirner of Soul Asylum is 60. Actor Jon Cryer is 59. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 59. Actor Peter Billingsley (“A Christmas Story”) is 53. Actor Lukas Haas is 48. Broadway actress Kelli O’Hara is 48. Actor Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”) is 22.

April 17: Actor David Bradley (“Game of Thrones”) is 82. Musician Jan Hammer is 76. Actor Olivia Hussey is 73. Actor Clarke Peters (“Treme”) is 72. Rapper Afrika Bambaataa is 67. Actor Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings”) is 65. Actor Joel Murray (“Dharma and Greg,” ″The Artist”) is 62. Singer Maynard James Keenan of Tool and of Puscifer is 60. Actor Lela Rochon is 60. Actor William Mapother (“Lost”) is 59. Actor Leslie Bega (“The Sopranos”) is 57. Actor Henry Ian Cusick (“Scandal,” ″Lost”) is 57. Actor Kimberly Elise is 57. Singer Liz Phair is 57. Rapper-actor Redman is 54. Actor Jennifer Garner is 52. Singer Victoria Beckham of the Spice Girls is 50. Actor Lindsay Korman (“All My Children,” “Passions”) is 46. Actor Tate Ellington (“The Brave,” “Quantico”) is 45. Actor Charlie Hofheimer (“24: Legacy”) is 43. Actor Rooney Mara (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) is 39. Actor Dee Dee Davis (“The Bernie Mac Show”) is 28.

April 18: Actor Robert Hooks is 87. Actor Hayley Mills is 78. Actor Dorothy Lyman (“Mama’s Family”) is 77. Actor Cindy Pickett (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) is 77. Keyboardist Walt Richmond of The Tractors is 77. Actor James Woods is 77. Bassist Jim Scholten of Sawyer Brown is 72. Actor Rick Moranis is 71. Actor Eric Roberts is 68. Actor Melody Thomas Scott (“Young and the Restless”) is 68. Actor John James (“Dynasty,” ″The Colbys”) is 68. Bassist Les Pattinson of Echo and the Bunnymen is 66. Actor Jane Leeves (“Hot In Cleveland,” ″Frasier”) is 63. Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is 62. Actor Eric McCormack (“Will and Grace”) is 61. Talk show host Conan O’Brien is 61. Actor Maria Bello is 57. Actor Mary Birdsong (“Reno 911!”) is 56. Actor David Hewlett (“Stargate: SG-1”) is 56. Actor-rapper Fredro Starr of Onyx (“Moesha”) is 53. Actor David Tennant (“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) is 53. Guitarist Mark Tremonti of Creed and of Alter Bridge is 50. Singer Trina of Trina and Tamara is 50. Actor Melissa Joan Hart (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”) is 48. Actor Bryce Johnson (“Pretty Little Liars”) is 47. TV personality Kourtney Kardashian is 45. Actor America Ferrera (film’s “Barbie,” TV’s “Ugly Betty”) is 40. Actor Tom Hughes (“Victoria”) is 39. Actor Ellen Woglom (“Marvel’s Inhumans”) is 37. Actor Vanessa Kirby (“The Crown”) is 36. Actor Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development”) is 35. Actor Britt Robertson (“Under the Dome”) is 34. Actor Chloe Bennet (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” ″Nashville”) is 32. Singer Nathan Sykes of The Wanted is 31. Actor Moises Arias (“Hannah Montana”) is 30.

April 19: Actor Elinor Donahue (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Father Knows Best”) is 87. Keyboardist Alan Price of The Animals is 82. Actor Tim Curry is 78. Singer Mark “Flo” Volman of The Turtles is 77. Actor Tony Plana (“Ugly Betty”) is 72. Actor Tom Wood (“The Fugitive,” “Ulee’s Gold”) is 61. Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight is 59. Country singer Bekka Bramlett of Bekka and Billy is 56. Actor Kim Hawthorne (“Greenleaf”) is 56. Actor Ashley Judd is 56. Singer Luis Miguel is 54. Actor Jennifer Esposito (“Blue Bloods”) is 52. Actor Jennifer Taylor (“Two and a Half Men”) is 52. Singer Madeleine Peyroux is 50. Actor James Franco is 46. Actor Kate Hudson is 45. Actor Hayden Christensen (“Star Wars Episodes II and III”) is 43. Actor Catalina Sandino Moreno (“Che,” ″Maria Full of Grace”) is 43. Actor Ali Wong (“American Housewife”) is 42. Actor Victoria Yeates (“Call the Midwife”) is 41. Drummer Steve Johnson of Alabama Shakes is 39. Actor Courtland Mead (“Kirk”) is 37.

April 20: Actor George Takei (“Star Trek”) is 87. Singer Johnny Tillotson is 86. Bluegrass musician Doyle Lawson of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver is 80. Keyboardist Craig Frost of Grand Funk Railroad is 76. Actor Gregory Itzin (“24″) is 76. Actor Veronica Cartwright (TV’s “24: Legacy, film’s “Aliens”) is 75. Actor Jessica Lange is 75. Actor Clint Howard is 65. Actor Crispin Glover is 60. Actor Andy Serkis (“Lord of the Rings”) is 60. Country singer Wade Hayes is 55. Actor Shemar Moore (“Criminal Minds”) is 54. Actor Carmen Electra is 52. Actor Joey Lawrence (“Blossom,” ″Brotherly Love”) is 48. Multi-instrumentalist Clay Cook of the Zac Brown Band is 46. Actor Clayne Crawford (TV’s “Lethal Weapon”) is 46. Actor Tim Jo (“The Neighbors”) is 40. Actor Carlos Valdes (TV’s “The Flash) is 35.

‘Game of Thrones’ actor sues LAPD and L.A. County over false pedophile case

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

Actor Joseph Gatt has appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including “Game of Thrones” and the live-action “Dumbo” movie from Disney. But in the early hours of April 6, 2022, police officers and detectives swarmed his home and arrested him.

In the days after, his face was attached to a Los Angeles Police Department news release asking the public for help to find “any additional victims,” announcing that Gatt was arrested on suspicion of communicating with a minor in a sexually explicit manner.

But over the course of the next year, the case against him fell apart.

On Thursday, Gatt sued Los Angeles County, Dist. Atty. George Gascón, the city of Los Angeles and the investigators who built the faulty case against him.

Prosecutors dropped all charges against the 52-year-old British actor in February.

When his case was dismissed, Gatt took to Instagram to say that he and his team were ready to present “overwhelming evidence” in court showing that the accuser manufactured evidence, that the search of his home was “illegal,” and that the case was marred by prosecutorial misconduct.

He wrote to Gascón, “I hope you read this.”

“It’s happening under your watch, right now,” Gatt said. “I voted for you and still believe you’re the best candidate, but this is exactly the kind of corruption you promised to clean up.”

Venusse Dunn, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the case was dismissed due to “valid concerns regarding the sufficiency of the evidence.” She did not respond to additional questions about the investigation into Gatt. The case was dismissed “in the interest of justice” on Feb. 9, according to court records, the same day a preliminary hearing was scheduled where Gatt could have aired his allegations in open court.

Gatt’s lawsuit alleges prosecutors and police failed to thoroughly investigate the claims made against him, including failing to conduct a forensic analysis of the victim’s phone or even interview her until after the actor was arrested and faced public scrutiny over the charges.

The lead prosecutor on the case, Angela Brunson, “resigned” from the D.A.’s office shortly before the case was dismissed, according to the lawsuit. Court records now show she works for the Riverside County district attorney’s office. She did not respond to an email request for comment.

A high-level source in Gascón’s office, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with the media, said the lawsuit has triggered an internal review of how the case was handled. The source said they “would not be surprised” if there was merit to Gatt’s allegations.

Prosecutors based their case on the allegations made by a girl in Kent, Wash., whom Gatt calls an obsessed fan. The girl’s older sister found fake Snapchat conversations on the girl’s phone about a year before Gatt’s arrest and took pictures of the conversations with her phone, according to Gatt’s 38-page federal lawsuit filed in the Central District of California.

The older sister uploaded the photos to a Google Drive and sent a link to the Kent Police Department. The older sister also uploaded two images of men who did not have clothes on, but their genitalia and their faces were not shown, Gatt said.

The men in the pictures were not Gatt, according to his complaint, but the images were taken by a second phone, thus removing the ability to verify the data through the actual photos.

When police searched Gatt’s Beverly Grove home, they took a purple blanket that could be seen in images the actor had shared on his social media accounts. One of the images taken from the Snapchat conversations on the girl’s phone showed a faceless man lying on top of a purple blanket, which looked similar to the one in Gatt’s home, but is not unique, according to the complaint.

The Snapchat conversations sent to police appeared to be snippets of the same conversations but with different responses. One supposedly showed Gatt writing that he and his partner had an arrangement that allowed him to pursue other relationships. Other screenshots show the same questions but with different responses, as though someone were trying out different answers with a software program.

“That conversation never happened; Jane Doe created it out of thin air,” Gatt said.

When Kent police tried to contact the 16-year-old girl, her older sister replied via email that “no further assistance is needed.”

Police noted in the case that they “did not find probable cause of a crime regarding the messages,” according to the lawsuit.

A month later, the girl agreed to an interview with investigators with her brother-in-law present. She admitted to police that she had a crush on Gatt and claimed that Gatt had engaged in sexually explicit conversations that turned out to be false, Gatt said.

Calls and e-mails to the Kent Police Department were not immediately returned Friday. The LAPD declined to comment due to the pending lawsuit.

Kent police referred the case to police in Los Angeles, where it was eventually presented to the district attorney’s office and Brunson took over. Gatt claims that the prosecutor has a “bias and personal animosity” against him, but he did not elaborate on the nature of the bias in his lawsuit.

As a result of his arrest, Gatt’s agent and the public relations firm that represented him dropped him as a client. He lost acting roles, and scenes he had already filmed for two other movie projects were cut or reshot with different actors, according to Gatt.

He stopped receiving any new offers for work, was forced to sell his car and received death threats, according to the lawsuit.

His lawsuit goes beyond blaming law enforcement for casting him as a “serial pedophile without any evidence or probable cause,” and accuses police and prosecutors of breaches of fundamental practices and a disregard for due diligence.

“These charges originate entirely from the unverified story of Jane Doe, a then 16-year-old whom Gatt did not know and has never actually met, and whom [investigators] did not even bother to interview or even remotely assess for credibility until almost one year after arresting Gatt and prosecuting him,” the suit said.

Gatt is seeking more than $40 million in damages.

More to Read

Todd Chrisley is ordered to pay Georgia investigator $755,000 in defamation lawsuit loss

April 9, 2024

Scientology tried to ‘derail’ star’s rape trial by harassing prosecutor, suit says; church calls claim ‘false’

April 4, 2024

Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend sues actor alleging defamation, battery a year after his arrest

March 19, 2024

Start your day right

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Matt Hamilton is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with colleagues Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle and was part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack. A graduate of Boston College and the University of Southern California, he joined The Times in 2013.

Nathan Solis is a Metro reporter covering breaking news at the Los Angeles Times. He previously worked for Courthouse News Service, where he wrote both breaking news and enterprise stories ranging from criminal justice to homelessness and politics. Before that, Solis was at the Redding Record Searchlight as a multimedia journalist, where he anchored coverage of the destructive 2017 fires in Northern California. Earlier in his career, he worked for Eastsider L.A.

James Queally writes about crime and policing in Southern California, where he currently covers Los Angeles County’s criminal courts, the district attorney’s office and juvenile justice issues for the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Can California curb retail theft without changing Prop. 47? Assembly Democrats unveil their plan

Plan accordingly: These four Disneyland rides will be closed in coming weeks

OK, the eclipse was cool, but those glasses aren’t. Now what?

A California border town’s first transgender mayor faces recall. Is gender the reason?

site categories

Studiocanal’s the copyrights group bolsters exec team as ‘paddington ip’ gathers steam; ntr jr.’s ‘devara: part 1’ secures distribution – global briefs.

• Canadian Filmmaker Mélanie Charbonneau Begins Principal Photography On Sophomore Feature ‘Out Standing’

By Zac Ntim

International Reporter

More Stories By Zac

• UK’s Winnersh Film Studios Enters Administration Due “Cash Flow” Problems Linked To 2023 Labor Strikes
• Israeli Film Festival Says UK Cinema Chains Have Backed Out Of Hosting Screenings Over “Safety Concerns”

EXCLUSIVE: Canadian Filmmaker Mélanie Charbonneau has rolled cameras on her sophomore feature Out Standing , which will shoot on location in Montreal, Quebec, and Hamilton, Ontario, throughout April and May. 

The pic stars Nina Kiri ( (The Handmaid’s Tale ) alongside Vincent Leclerc ( The Revenant ) and Antoine Pilon ( Matthias & Maxime ). Rounding out the cast are Adrian Walters ( Star Trek: Discovery ), Stephen Kalyn (Essex Country), Noah Parker ( Who by Fire ), Anthony Therrien ( Falcon Lake ), and Nicolas Fontaine ( Victoire ).

Related Stories

Tony Hawk Kickflips Into Animated TV With 'Skatebirds' Children's Series

Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jay Ryan & Braeden Clarke Among Cast Joining Netflix & CBC's Newly Named Arctic Comedy 'North Of North'; Production Underway In Canada

“From the moment I read Sandra Perron’s memoir, I knew I had to make it into a film,” said Charbonneau. “Sandra fiercely pushed into uncharted territory so that those who followed could go even further. It’s such an honor to bring her story to the big screen.”

Out Standing is director Charbonneau’s sophomore feature. Her previous shorts ( Seule, Luna Orbit Rendezvous ) have screened at numerous festivals, including Cannes and Lorcano. Her debut feature Fabuleuses won the Busan Bank Award at Busan in 2019.

Out Standing is produced by GPA Films and January Films. The film’s producers are Marcel Giroux ( No Trace ) of GPA Films and Julia Rosenberg ( Charlotte ) of January Films. 

Must Read Stories

Michael douglas talks democracy & apple drama ‘franklin’ in france.

WB Unveils ‘Joker: Folie A Deux’ Trailer, ‘Furiosa’ & ‘Mickey 17’; More

Francis coppola’s epic to premiere in competition at cannes, sets new release dates for ‘the crow’, ‘saw xi’, ‘never let go’ & more.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

No comments.

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘Too much to bear’: Black actors condemn racial abuse of Romeo & Juliet star

More than 800 performers sign letter of solidarity after Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was targeted online

More than 800 predominantly Black female and non-binary actors have signed an open letter in solidarity with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who has been targeted with online racial abuse after the announcement of her casting in a new production of Romeo & Juliet.

Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are among the 883 signatories of the letter, alongside actors Lolly Adefope, Freema Agyeman, Wunmi Mosaku, and Tamara Lawrance.

It reads: “Too many times, Black performers – particularly Black actresses – are left to face the storm of online abuse after committing the crime of getting a job on their own.”

It comes after a statement by the Jamie Lloyd theatre company condemning the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” that has been directed at Amewudah-Rivers and saying further harassment would be reported.

The abuse, the company – run by the director Jamie Lloyd – said, followed the announcement of the show’s cast including Amewudah-Rivers as Juliet and Tom Holland as Romeo.

Wednesday’s letter, which was organised by Enola Holmes actor Susan Wokoma and the writer Somalia Nonyé Seaton, stated: “When news of Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’ casting in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Romeo and Juliet was announced so many people celebrated and welcomed this news. Many of us took to social media to shower our baby sis with love and congratulations – a huge deal for someone so young in their career. A huge rising talent.

“But then what followed was a too familiar horror that many of us visible Black dark skinned performers have experienced. The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear. For a casting announcement of a play to ignite such twisted ugly abuse is truly embarrassing for those so empty and barren in their own lives that they must meddle in hateful abuse.”

Lynch is best known for her roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films (MCU) as well as for playing MI6 agent Nomi in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die. Atim is a double Olivier award-winning Ugandan-British actor, singer, composer and playwright who has appeared in a number of stage and TV shows, while Jean-Baptiste came to prominence following her role in the 1996 film Secrets & Lies, for which she received Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta nominations.

The signatories welcomed the theatre company’s statement and said they hoped it would “extend to committed emotional support for Francesca on her journey with the production”.

They added: “Too many times theatre companies, broadcasters, producers and streamers have failed to offer any help or support when their Black artists face racist or misogynistic abuse. Reporting is too often left on the shoulders of the abused, who are also then expected to promote said show.

“We want to send a clear message to Francesca and all Black women performers who face this kind of abuse – we see you. We see the art you manage to produce with not only the pressures that your white colleagues face but with the added traumatic hurdle of misogynoir. We are so excited to watch you shine.”

Romeo & Juliet runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre from 11 May to 3 August and marks Amewudah-Rivers’ West End debut. The actor has previously starred in Shakespeare plays Macbeth and Othello as well as Sophocles tragedy Antigone across London theatres. She also starred in two seasons of the Bad Education on BBC.

The play will also be the Spider-Man star Holland’s first big theatre role since his debut in Billy Elliot: the Musical .

Lloyd is known for mounting bold, megastar-led versions of classic plays such as Doctor Faustus with Kit Harington , Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and The Seagull with Emilia Clarke . His new production of the musical Sunset Boulevard , with Nicole Scherzinger, recently ended a sold-out run at London’s Savoy theatre and is transferring to Broadway in September.

Last year Lloyd directed Taylor Russell and Paapa Essiedu in a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play The Effect at the National Theatre, before opening at the Shed in New York in March.

Romeo & Juliet is billed as “a pulsating new vision of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers and fighters”.

• Online abuse
• Jamie Lloyd
• Romeo and Juliet
• Discrimination at work

Most viewed

Screen Rant

1 star trek actor starred alongside 5 classic captains.

Joseph Ruskin holds an impressive Star Trek record by appearing on screen alongside five of the franchise's most recognized, classic captains.

• Joseph Ruskin's unique distinction lies in appearing alongside all classic Star Trek captains, solidifying his legacy across multiple series.
• His diverse roles range from commanding as the Cardassian Informant to guiding as the Vulcan Master, showcasing his versatility.
• Despite brief appearances, Ruskin's impactful performances and distinct characters add depth and intrigue to the Star Trek universe.

Actor Joseph Ruskin appeared alongside five classic Star Trek captains . Appearing in small or minor roles amid ensembles including Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), and Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), Ruskin holds an important and distinguished Star Trek claim. Joseph Ruskin is the only actor to have worked alongside each of the franchise's earliest captains (not including Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), Star Trek's pilot episode commanding officer.

Born Joseph Richard Schlafman, Ruskin sadly passed away from natural causes in December 2013 at the age of 89. Besides voice acting roles in two video games, Ruskin's Star Trek links include working alongside many franchise actors on other creative projects – including Leonard Nimoy in "The Outer Limits" (1964) and Chris Pine in "Smokin' Aces" (2006). Both Nimoy and Pine, Spock, and James T. Kirk, respectively, starred in Star Trek movies as captains, further enhancing Ruskin's captainly distinction. Ruskin's roles in four Star Trek series and a movie are a unique glimpse into the layered intergalactic community's diversity and a fun exploration of Ruskin's convincing and comprehensive acting talents.

How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order

6 star trek: the original series season 2, episode 17 - "the gamesters of triskelion", joseph ruskin as galt.

In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion", Joseph Ruskin plays Galt, a mysterious figure dressed in a black robe with a large red collar. The master thrall of the planet Triskelion, Galt is a mildly chilling figure, able to dole out a painful punishment for bad or undesired behaviors, his eyes shining like stars as the new thralls’ collars of obedience glow and cause severe discomfort. Playing with themes of slavery and consent, "The Gamesters of Triskelion" is somewhat dark and disturbing, and Ruskin’s role as Galt is subtle, muted, strong, and unflinching.

Galt marks the obedience collars once thralls have been purchased by the highest bidding Providers, overseeing training exercises, employing the use of less valuable thralls for target practice and example, and issuing painful and unpleasant punishments for refused participation or commands. The ominous, imposing Galt is a menacing and mighty allegory of humanity’s terrible past and the allusion to potential other-worldly dangers awaiting mankind throughout space. It’s a strong, if undefined, performance – and a dependably noble first franchise performance from this long-spanning Star Trek actor.

A photograph of Galt, along with drill thralls Tamoon (Jane Ross) and Shahna (Angelique Pettyjohn), was shown in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 2, Episode 5 - "An Embarrassment of Dooplers."

5 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3, Episode 3 - "The House of Quark" & Season 5, Episode 3 - "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places"

Joseph ruskin plays tumek.

Joseph Ruskin appeared as the Klingon Tumek in two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Prominently Klingon culture-driven, these episodes revolve primarily around Quark (Armin Shimerman) , with Tumek introduced as a respected and much-trusted advisor to Grilka (Mary Kay Adams). Older and wise, Tumek had an essential role in Grilka's house and demonstrated an insightful, honest, loyal, and honorable personality with a keen understanding of familial politics and a tired clarity and awareness of other characters' motivations.

In the DS9 season 3 episode, "The House of Quark," Grilka abducts Quark to her home on Qo'noS and later weds him at knifepoint after he falsely claims responsibility for her husband's accidental death in an attempt to boost his business. As Quark quickly finds himself in a dilemma of deception, alien customs, and relational manipulation, Tumek informs him that he's played into the devious schemes of Grilka's opponent. Though Quark eventually navigates his way out of these circumstances with a distinctly Ferengi financial flair, this episode is an exciting look at Klingon culture, tradition, and inter-species relationships.

Ruskin impressively aids the narrative with a commanding and convincing character

Similar themes are also explored in the DS9 season 5 episode, "Looking For pah'Mach in All the Wrong Places." Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) and Quark learn about Klingon mating rituals and work together to woo Quark's ex-wife, Grilka. Ruskin's Tumek quickly warns Worf away , with the much-loved Klingon character subsequently working to aid Quark's efforts in love. When Quark and Grilka retire for their Klingon mating ritual, Worf is engaged in a similar ceremony by Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell). Ruskin impressively aids the narrative with a commanding and convincing character, demonstrating skillful acting prowess and a sympathetic understanding of the subject matter.

4 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3, Episode 20 - "Improbable Cause"

Joseph ruskin plays a cardassian informant.

In this first part of a complex and winding two-episode story , the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine officers launch an investigation following an explosion in Elim Garak’s (Andrew Robinson) tailor shop. With traces of a bomb located in the debris and Garak’s list of enemies a mile long, the scope of Constable Odo’s (Rene Auberjonois) task to uncover the culprit(s) is daunting. Later rocked by another explosion, a potential poisoning, Garak’s own complicity, and suspicions over Romulan involvement in the attacks on Garak’s life, Odo meets a shadowy contact on a lifeless moon.

Ruskin again performs well here, manipulating the audience and narrative with a series of obscure and stylized shots that show little of his appearance

The Cardassian Informant (Joseph Ruskin) is mysterious, suspicious, and literally cloaked in a veil of darkness. He confirms Odo’s suspicions about the Romulans’ involvement but alludes to a bigger picture with the revelation of Romulan vessels along the Cardassian border and news that other operatives of the Obsidian Order (besides Garak) were recently killed in suspicious circumstances. With an impressively clear Cardassian countenance, Ruskin’s Informant is vague, credible, and yet questionable. Evoking an air of Garak-esque duplicity, the Informant is informative and dubious, doing much to escalate the tension and secrecy of the scene.

Remarkably removed from his previous franchise roles, Ruskin again performs well here, manipulating the audience and narrative with a series of obscure and stylized shots that show little of his appearance but his eyes and overall presence. With this limited physical opportunity, Ruskin impressively conveys a multi-layered, intelligent, and memorable character with a wealth of qualities and depths. Ruskin offers a compellingly intriguing character of questionable morality in an exciting tale of conspiracy, assassination, and deception.

The Obsidian Order was an intelligence agency in the Cardassian Union.

3 Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 13 - "Gravity"

Joseph ruskin plays a vulcan master.

When a USS Voyager shuttle crash lands on a class D desert planet, Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeil) and Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ) encounter Noss (Lori Petty) and quickly work together to establish shelter and activate The Doctor (Robert Picardo) to treat Noss’ wounds. Noss’ developing feelings for Tuvok provokes the Vulcan to remember his experiences from his youth with a Vulcan Master (Joseph Ruskin) where he admitted to various volatile emotions stemming from a romantic attraction. Ruskin’s Vulcan Master promptly informs the young Tuvok that he must train to control his emotions to avoid being consumed by them – particularly pertaining to love.

Ruskin's performance is balanced and gentle, but characteristically intense and wholly transformative

Occupying a pivotal influence on Tuvok, Ruskin’s role in this episode is both brief and dignified . Patiently guiding an emotionally unbalanced and untrained young Tuvok, Ruskin’s Vulcan Master offered guidance and teaching on powerful emotions and the power of embracing logic. It’s a pleasant character, again offering interesting insight into Vulcan culture and tradition, and demonstrating ongoing importance through Tuvok’s own recalled memories. Ruskin’s performance is balanced and gentle, but characteristically intense and wholly transformative – using a small, shared space to make a strong, artistic, and impactful statement.

Star Trek: Voyager Cast & Character Guide

2 star trek: enterprise, season 1, episode 1 - "broken bow", jospeh ruskin plays a suliban doctor.

Joseph Ruskin as a Suliban doctor in Star Trek: Enterprise 's series premiere , "Broken Bow". The Suliban doctor works alongside Silik to administer truth drugs to Klaang (Tiny Lister, Jr), a Klingon courier who crashed on Earth. Klaang's transport to the Klingon homeworld was the inaugural mission of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the NX-01 Enterprise, which the Suliban disrupted in their efforts to capture Klaang.

Playing a Suliban doctor is a questionable and admittedly limited role for Joseph Ruskin, not offering as much opportunity to shine as in previous performances, but Ruskin still makes a clear and noteworthy impression. Maintaining his pattern of distinctly different character portrayals in each role, Ruskin again works with little to create much. It’s an interesting study of the actor’s range, particularly in so full a costume, and the impressive ability to convey a layered personality and rich mindset with little room to maneuver in the story’s script or narrative.

1 Star Trek: Insurrection

Joseph ruskin plays a son'a officer.

In Star Trek: Insurrection , Joseph Ruskin plays a Son'a officer who has a showdown with Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) late in the film. Ruskin's Son’a officer aboard the flagship of Ru’afo (F. Murray Abraham) faces a choice between destruction or defeat when Riker sets the USS Enterprise-E on a collision course with the Son'a ship, and Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) confirms that it isn’t a bluff. Ruskin’s character orders evasive maneuvers, exposing the ship to direct fire from the Enterprise – and effectively surrenders. The ship’s life support subsequently disabled, the Son'a are transferred to the Federation flagship.

Ruskin's role in Star Trek: Insurrection is relatively brief yet well-rounded and resonating.

Joseph Ruskin has an interesting role in Star Trek: Insurrection, not a large part, but certainly one of note. Like his other appearances in Star Trek , Ruskin’s part in Star Trek: Insurrection is relatively brief yet well-rounded and resonating. Picking up an impressive credit as an actor in each of these early series alongside five of Star Trek ’s most important captains, Joseph Ruskin demonstrates originality, creativity, longevity, and depth . In roles ranging from minor enemy support characters to a traditional Klingon advisor and a learned Vulcan guide, Ruskin’s easy, dynamic, and approachable performances in each instance remarkably reflect an earned and innate inner confidence and obvious natural talent.

Star Trek: Insurrection is available for streaming on Max.

All Star Trek series (except Prodigy) are available for streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series follows the exploits of the crew of the USS Enterprise. On a five-year mission to explore uncharted space, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) must trust his crew - Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Forest DeKelley), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Sulu (George Takei) - with his life. Facing previously undiscovered life forms and civilizations and representing humanity among the stars on behalf of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise regularly comes up against impossible odds and diplomatic dilemmas.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.

Star Trek: Voyager

The fifth entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, is a sci-fi series that sees the crew of the USS Voyager on a long journey back to their home after finding themselves stranded at the far ends of the Milky Way Galaxy. Led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, the series follows the crew as they embark through truly uncharted areas of space, with new species, friends, foes, and mysteries to solve as they wrestle with the politics of a crew in a situation they've never faced before. 

Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise acts as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, detailing the voyages of the original crew of the Starship Enterprise in the 22nd century, a hundred years before Captain Kirk commanded the ship. Enterprise was the sixth series in the Star Trek franchise overall, and the final series before a twelve-year hiatus until the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. The series stars Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer, with an ensemble cast that includes John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, and Connor Trinneer.