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Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

• ISBN-13 978-0786444137
• Edition 1st
• Sticky notes Not Enabled
• Publisher McFarland
• Publication date October 23, 2009
• Language English
• File size 2583 KB
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Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating read for those trying to understand pop culture and sexuality in today's world." — Midwest Book Review " Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek maintains a clear focus and presents an engaging argument, centered on an allegorical reading of gender, sexuality and race in the monomyth. In developing this, Greven analyzes how, while Star Trek does not directly represent gay or lesbian characters, queer desire can still be read allegorically and ironically by the significant gay fan base...gives an excellent basis for continued engagement with this 'maddeningly and exhilaratingly complex' monomyth." — Elspeth Kydd, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media "Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek offers new insights into gender (predominantly masculinity) and sexuality in Trek across the various series. As well as offering an intriguing revisionist view of STOS, it also engages with installments that have not so far received much critical examination (such as the 2002 movie Nemesis, or the latest film), largely avoiding covering ground that is too familiar. The focus on individual episodes and/or characters allows for detailed analysis...at its best, Greven's approach matches theory with text in stimulating and insightful fashion." — Lorna Jowett, Critical Studies in Television

“An exhaustively researched book that covers storylines and characters from all of the incarnations of the Trek myth including the recent movie re-imagining of the storyline…I can’t imagine you’ll find a better book on the subject” —Scarlet

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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002X78B2W
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ McFarland; 1st edition (October 23, 2009)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 23, 2009
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2583 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 239 pages
• #569 in Television History & Criticism
• #1,686 in Gender Studies (Kindle Store)
• #1,803 in TV History & Criticism

About the author

David greven.

David Greven is Professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He specializes in nineteenth-century American literature; cinema, television, and popular culture; psychoanalytic theory, queer theory, and gender studies; and the history of American literary and film criticism.

Greven's book "All the Devils Are Here: American Romanticism and Literary Influence," will be published in 2024 by the University of Virginia Press. Herman Melville’s, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, and James Fenimore Cooper’s uses of Shakespeare and Milton reflect not just an intertextual relationship between American Romanticism and the English tradition but also an ongoing engagement with gender and sexual politics. The book makes a new case for the vitality and importance of literary influence.

Greven's volume on Merchant Ivory's film "Maurice" in the "Queer Film Classics" series is now available from McGill-Queens University Press.

Greven and co-editor Brenda Weber have published "Ryan Murphy's Queer America" (Routledge, 2022). Serving as writer, producer, and director, Murphy's creative output includes limited-run dramas (such as "Dahmer," "Ratched," and "Halston"), procedural dramas (such as "9-1-1"), anthology series (such as "American Crime Story," "American Horror Story," and "American Horror Stories"), and long-running serial narratives (such as "Glee," "Nip/Tuck," and "Pose"). This collection takes up Murphy as auteur and showrunner, considering the gendered and sexual politics of Murphy’s wide body of work. Using an intersectional framework throughout, an impressive list of well-known and emerging scholars engages with Murphy’s diverse output, while also making the case for Murphy’s version of a queer sensibility.

Greven's book "Intimate Violence: Hitchcock, Sex, and Queer Theory" (Oxford University Press, 2017) argues that Hitchcock films stage a consistent battle between the heterosexual heroine and queer characters.

"Queering the Terminator" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) examines the entire Terminator film franchise as well as the television series spinoff to track a phenomenon Greven terms "the unlikeliness of desire." Greven argues that the Terminator films, despite their manifest content centered in militarism and violence, often speak to queer viewers in resistant ways.

"Ghost Faces: Hollywood and Post-Millennial Masculinity" (SUNY Press, 2016) focuses on the insidious homophobia in contemporary horror films, beta male comedies, and bromances, with close readings of movies such as "Scream," "Donnie Darko," "25th Hour," Rob Zombie's "Halloween," and "Hostel." "Ghost Faces" was a Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

Greven's other books include "Gender Protest and Same-Sex Desire in Antebellum American Literature: Margaret Fuller, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville," which was published in a paperback edition by Routledge in 2016, "Psycho-Sexual: Male Desire in Hitchcock, De Palma, Scorsese, and Friedkin," and "The Fragility of Manhood: Hawthorne, Freud, and the Politics of Gender." He has contributed essays to recent critical readers such as "Reality Gendervision," "Millennial Masculinity," "The Last Western" (on HBO's "Deadwood"), and "Reading the Bromance." He is completing a book on Hitchcock called "Intimate Violence: Hitchcock, Sex, and Queer Theory."

He is also the author of "Representations of Femininity in the Cinema: The Woman's Film, Film Noir, and Modern Horror," which considers the recurring theme of female transformation in the woman's film. Transformation occurs on several levels, but most dramatically in terms of the woman's appearance. Greven considers the sexual and political implications of these metamorphoses. This book also makes the case that modern horror works should be read as "concealed woman's films." The book treats a wide range of films from "Now, Voyager," "The Heiress," and "Vertigo," to "Carrie," the "Alien" films, and "The Brave One."

Greven's 2009 book, "Manhood in Hollywood from Bush to Bush" (University of Texas Press), argues that a split between narcissism and masochism informs cinematic masculinity from 1989 to the present. Also published in 2009, Greven's book "Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek" (McFarland) considers the allegorical representation of gay characters in the Trek mythos.

"The Fragility of Manhood: Hawthorne, Freud, and The Politics of Gender" is the first Freudian study of Hawthorne's work since Frederick Crews' 1966 "The Sins of the Fathers." Through a queer theory lens, Greven reopens the question of Freud's relevance to gender theory and to Hawthorne's work. Greven argues that Hawthorne offers a powerful critique of normative American masculinity.

Greven's first book, "Men Beyond Desire: Manhood, Sex, and Violation in American Literature" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), studies the recurrent figure of the emotionally and sexually unavailable male in antebellum American literature. David Leverenz, reviewing the book in the Melville journal Leviathan, writes, "Greven's assertions often have imaginative zest... Greven has written a fine first book: sophisticated, smart, ambitious, intellectually courageous." "American Studies Today" describes the book as "a refreshing and comprehensive study of the representation of gender and gendered relationships by authors such as Irving, Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Stowe, among others."

Greven's essays have been published in journals such as Screen, New Literary History, American Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, The Hitchcock Annual, American Literary Realism, The Journal of American Culture, Legacy, Postmodern Culture, Cinema Journal, Genders, Jump Cut, Cineaction, Modern Psychoanalysis, Nineteenth Century Studies, The European Journal of American Culture, Refractory, Studies in American Fiction, Poe Studies: Dark Romanticism, and The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, as well as the critical readers "Melville in Context" (Cambridge University Press), "The Cambridge Companion to Alfred Hitchcock," "The Cambridge Companion to Erotic Literature," "The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic," "Reality Gendervision" (Duke University Press), "Haunting Realities" (on the Naturalist Gothic), "Reel Food," "Action Chicks," and "Reading Sex and the City."

Greven has co-edited a special issue of The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review on the "Late Hawthorne" (vol.35, Fall 2009). He is on the advisory board for the journals Genders, Poe Studies: Dark Romanticism, and The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, and reads essays and manuscripts for journals such as PMLA, J19, College Literature, ESQ, Early American Literature, Cinema Journal, and Studies in American Literature, and book manuscripts for publishers such as Oxford University Press, Routledge, Northwestern University Press, and The University of Virginia Press.

Greven is a winner of a Phyllis W. Meadow Award for Excellence in Psychoanalytic Writing for his essay "Rereading Narcissism: Freud's Theory of Male Homosexuality and Hawthorne's 'The Gentle Boy,'" published in Modern Psychoanalysis vol. 34(2), 2009.

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Spoiler notice: This blog will discuss characters and plot points in various Star Trek shows, including Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery. 

When we began working on our QueerSpace project, especially our second episode that explores queer worldbuilding in science fiction literature , I immediately began wondering about Star Trek and its history with including LGBTQ+ characters and storylines. 

To be honest, I expected Star Trek to be at the forefront of LGBTQ+ inclusion. After all, Star Trek : The Original Series (1966-1969) is so well known for being a leader in terms of gender and racial integration — featuring an initial cast of men and women of different races working together. But it turns out this environment of inclusion did not extend to queer identity. I sat down with space history curator and the Museum’s resident science fiction (and Star Trek) expert Margaret Weitekamp to learn more and explore Star Trek ’s history with LGBTQ+ stories and characters. 

According to Weitekamp, part of the reasoning behind Star Trek 's groundbreakingly diverse cast was to signal that the show took place far in the future: “To have a truly integrated group of men and women and aliens of different races working together, we must be centuries from where we are now.” But that representation then had a profound effect in its contemporary moment.

This makes the delay in introducing LGBTQ+ characters even more pronounced. Surely this future society wouldn’t be exclusively heteronormative and cisgender?

The first openly gay characters in the Star Trek television universe weren’t introduced until the first season of Star Trek: Discovery in 2017. (Although it is worth noting that in the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond it is established that the Hikaru Sulu of the Kelvin Timeline, portrayed by John Cho, is gay — a nod to George Takei, who originated the role of Sulu in Star Trek: The Original Series and publicly came out as gay in 2005.) 

Star Trek: Discovery ’s Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, portrayed by out actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz, are the first openly gay characters and the first gay couple portrayed in the central cast of a Star Trek tv show. “They don’t start with some big reveal,” Weitekamp explains. “They introduce each character in his professional role, doing his professional stuff, and then there’s this great intimate moment of them standing next to each other, brushing their teeth, just like any couple would.” 

There is one disappointing moment where it seems that Discovery is playing into the “bury your gays” trope with the (spoiler alert!) murder of Hugh Culber. But fear not, he is brought back to life (this is still sci-fi, after all). The team behind the show insist that his short-lived death isn’t a “bury your gays” moment , with executive producer Aaron Harberts saying in an interview with IndieWire : “It was essential that this crime not be gratuitous. It had to push the story, and it had to come from character and emotion. Culber is killed because he’s the smartest person on the ship. He’s not killed because he’s gay. He’s killed because he’s a threat…”

Later on in Star Trek: Discovery , a non-binary teenager named Adira is introduced, portrayed by non-binary actor Blu del Barrio. In a scene in season 3, Stamets, not yet aware of Adira’s pronouns, refers to them as “her,” and Adira corrects him, saying, “‘They,’ not ‘she.’ I’ve never felt like a ‘she’ or a ‘her.” I would prefer ‘they’ or ‘them’ from now on,” which Stamets accepts in stride. When we discussed Adira’s coming out scene, Weitekamp was especially impressed by a moment later in the episode when, with Adira asleep at their workstation, Culber and Stamets have a conversation, both referring to Adira using their correct pronouns without hesitation. Seeing those scenes in succession really shows how simple it should be to respect a person’s identity: Stamets didn't know, now he knows, and now he'll use the right pronouns.

Through Adira we also meet their boyfriend Gray, a transgender Trill portrayed by Ian Alexander, the first trans actor in Star Trek history. As Adira and Gray’s story unfolds, “they really present Stamets, Culber, Adira, and Gray as a kind of queer family of choice,” Weitekamp said.

With Star Trek: Discovery , the franchise made huge strides in introducing LGBTQ+ characters, casting queer actors to play them, and making those characters fully-realized and their experiences authentic.

But it took a while for Star Trek to get there. So what took so long? And was the absence of queer characters as conspicuous as it seems today? 

“It’s really in the 1980s that people start to ask questions about same-sex relationships and that kind of representation in Star Trek ,” Margaret shares. In the mid- to late-1980s, a group of science fiction fans formed a group called the Gaylactic Network with the truly incredible slogan, “Out of the closet and into the universe.”

“As various groups of gay and lesbian science fiction fans, like the Gaylactic Network, start to push that they wanna see more positive representation, Star Trek seems like a really likely place because it had been so out in front in terms of positive depictions of African Americans, Asian Americans, women in leadership roles,” Margaret explains. “So they really start pushing for some way of seeing this addressed.” 

There are conflicting accounts on whether Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry promised that there would be an out gay character in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), but ultimately there isn’t. Instead what we see are a few allegories to queer experiences, most notably in the Season 4 episode “The Host” and the season 5 episode “The Outcast.”

In “The Host” (1991) Dr. Beverly Crusher falls in love with a Trill named Odan. The Trill are a humanoid species joined with a symbiont who can pass from host to host with little concern for the presenting gender of their Trill host. After the symbiont Odan’s host body dies, he is eventually transferred to a new host — this time with a female body. Although the new Odan professes love for Crusher, she rejects the overture from Odan as a woman, saying “Perhaps it is a human failing, but we are not accustomed to these kinds of changes… Perhaps, someday, our ability to love won't be so limited.” 

And then there’s Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 episode 17, “The Outcast” (1992). When I spoke with Weitekamp, she told me this is an episode that she frequently used for classroom discussion when she was teaching. It’s quite fascinating to examine the episode in terms of what it hoped to accomplish, how it was perceived at the time, and the way we interpret it today.

The episode features the J’naii, a humanoid race that has no gender, believing that they have evolved past it. Will Riker meets a member of the J’naii named Soren and their chemistry and attraction is clear. 

Soren confesses to Riker that she secretly identifies as female and the J’naii eventually realize this and arrest her. In order to return to her society, Soren must undergo “psychotectic treatments” to remove her gender identity and make her androgynous once again. Riker sets out to rescue her, but it’s too late. “The heartbreaking thing at the end,” Weitekamp explained, “is the character comes back and says essentially ‘I'm so much happier now that I'm a part of the way society is supposed to be.’ She’s clearly kind of brainwashed.”

This whole episode was intended as an allegory for the way that queer people are often treated by their communities. Soren’s identity is called a “perversion” and she is referred to as “deviant.” The psychotactic therapy is a stand-in here for conversion therapy.

And while this episode was very clearly Star Trek ’s foray into a “gay rights” episode, it left many disappointed. After all, the couple at the center of this big moment in Star Trek history was unmistakably heterosexual. Right off the bat, Weitekamp notes, it’s immediately evident that all members of this adrogynous race — including Soren — are played by female actors: “They very clearly cast a woman as this androgynous figure. So you, the viewer, are not made uncomfortable or made to confront an actual same-sex relationship.” Actor Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker, has since spoken on the subject , saying that the show wasn’t bold enough with their casting in the episode and that it would have been more effective if Soren had been played by a male actor, to really push boundaries.

It’s also fascinating to look at this episode, 30 years on, in the way it approached gender identity. In 1992, it used gender identity as an allegory for homosexuality, but watching it today, you can’t help but wish it could have treated the idea of being non-binary not as an allegory but as an idea to explore respectfully in and of itself. This may have been many viewers’ first exposure to non-binary individuals, yet they are presented as the bad guys, trying to oppress others. And their non-binary identity is telegraphed by removing their personality and emotion, implying that a binary gendered identity is what makes someone lively and interesting. 

Although we cannot change the past, what we can do is continue to establish science fiction as a realm that is welcome to people of all backgrounds because, after all, the future — real or imagined — is what we make it. It’s gratifying to see the strides that Star Trek has made in Star Trek: Discovery and I hope it continues on this show as well as across other Star Trek properties. And who knows, maybe someday we’ll revisit the J’naii and see that storyline play out in a more satisfying way.

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Why Did It Take So Long for Star Trek to Embrace Queer Characters?

"it’s bewildering yet predictable that prior to the 21st century, trek only used analogies to talk about queerness.".

Star Trek fandom is made up of several generations, and not all of those generations communicate effectively with one another. “Star Trek Twitter” freely uses the word “Trekkie,” even though older Trekkers shame them on that one. Gatekeeping from historical know-it-alls is a problem in Trek fandom, just as much as it is with Star Wars trolls. And often, much of that gatekeeping simply comes from a “get off my lawn” mentality from older generations.

But one area the smart Trek fan generations are united in is this: It took way too long for the franchise to get its act together with LGBTQ+ representation, and even the fans who didn’t live through those years are aware of that painful truth. The outcry over Dr. Culber’s death wasn’t just about the possible perpetuation of a harmful trope; it was a collective groan from queer Trek fans who, as a community, had been waiting for healthy, happy gay characters in Star Trek since Gene Roddenberry promised they would appear.

In 1986, just after the existence of The Next Generation had been made public, fans at conventions started asking whether we’d finally see gay people in Starfleet. At a 20th-anniversary convention in Boston, a representative of a gay Star Trek fan club—the Gaylaxians—confronted Roddenberry directly about the issue. Franklin Hummel, a librarian and member of the Gaylaxians, wanted to know “if there would be a gay character on the new show.” Roddenberry gave a half-hearted promise, responding, “Sooner or later, we’ll have to address the issue. We should probably have a gay character.” Sooner turned out to be later. Much later.

Closeted for much of his early career, George Takei tells a story of Gene Roddenberry swimming toward him at a pool party in Los Angeles, during the run of The Original Series. Takei hit him up with the idea of tackling gay rights and, according to the story, Roddenberry was open to the idea but was too afraid of the series getting canceled over a “firestorm.”

“‘The times will change as we move along,’” Takei remembers Roddenberry saying. “‘But at this point, I can’t do that.’” Assuming this conversation took place when Takei remembers it happening—sometime between 1966 and 1968, it’s notable Roddenberry was talking about this kind of representation at all. Then again, any straight man working in the arts—like Roddenberry—would find himself working alongside gay people.

In fact, the man who designed the costumes for Star Trek , William Ware Theiss, was gay. That said, we don’t really need to pat Roddenberry on the back here too much. Despite what he said to Takei, putting a gay character in TOS at all was almost certainly never on the table. But the fact that George Takei even had this chat with Roddenberry in the 1960s is saying something.

We tend to give Star Trek a lot of credit for pushing racial boundaries on TV, but the truth is, the Civil Rights movement was a very public, massive social movement happening while the show was being produced. The NAACP existed in the 1960s. GLAAD did not. And just to put it in perspective, the Stonewall riots happened on June 28, 1969, three weeks after Star Trek aired “Turnabout Intruder,” its final episode. So, again, assuming this story from Takei is legit, Takei pushing Roddenberry into a “gay rights” story line was a hundred times edgier than any of the other boundaries Trek broke during TOS .

Roddenberry may have been a risk-taker when it came to race issues on TV, but in the 60s, he was also participating in a movement that was fashionable for white liberals to support. This doesn’t detract from the accomplishments of The Original Series , but it does make you think about that tricky pop culture sci-fi mirror. Social change can be amplified by pop culture, and in that way, Star Trek is one of the best signal boosters of all time.

Pre-21st-century Star Trek certainly showed a lot of bravery, but when it came time for gay characters to possibly appear in The Next Generation , that era of Star Trek failed to provide a meaningful mirror. When Roddenberry launched TNG , he promised his writers that writing about AIDS and homophobia would happen on his show. And why not? Star Trek: The Next Generation was a syndicated program and, as such, had fewer rules from Paramount about what they could and couldn’t do. If a local station didn’t want to carry the series because it depicted gay people, that was their business. And yet, with all that freedom, Roddenberry didn’t do it.

Infamously, “Trouble with Tribbles” writer David Gerrold wrote a script called “Blood and Fire” for TNG , which would have depicted gay crew members on the Enterprise while also tackling a kind of 24th-century version of HIV. Although Roddenberry claimed to support the script, the Great Bird of the Galaxy himself seems to be the person who shot it down, allegedly saying the script was “a piece of shit.” Gerrold mostly ascribes these viewpoints to Roddenberry’s manic behavior and substance abuse during the early years of The Next Generation , once recalling that “I don’t know how much [Roddenberry] drank because I never saw him sober.”

Others suggest that Roddenberry’s canceling of “Blood and Fire” can be attributed to his aggressive lawyer and puppeteer Leonard Maizlish. When Herb Wright was assigned to rewrite “Blood and Fire,” he learned that much of the negative notes supposedly written by Roddenberry originated, more likely, with Maizlish. And in 2014, David Gerrold himself blamed the “clusterfuck” on homophobia deriving from longtime Trek producer Rick Berman.

Still, regardless of whose fault it was, the fact remains that “Blood and Fire,” a Season 1 Next Generation episode set to depict gay people in the 24th century, never got made. [i]  In the 2003 Enterprise episode “Stigma,” the Trek franchise asserted a vague HIV analogy; what if mind-melds were considered taboo among Vulcans at a certain point in history? Not only was this episode two decades after the dust-up involving “Blood and Fire,” it also failed to portray any gay characters.

In fact, after The Next Generation debuted in 1987, across four different Trek series for 18 years, all the way up to the year 2005, there was not one explicitly gay character from “our” universe. In Deep Space Nine , it was insinuated that series regulars Kira (Nana Visitor), Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer), and Leeta (Chase Masterson) were all bisexual. Oh, wait a minute. Their evil duplicates from the Mirror Universe were bisexual! In the regular universe, they were not. These bisexual baddies also reinforced negative stereotypes that LGBTQ folks have looser morals, simply by virtue of being not straight. In terms of progress, Mirror Universe bisexual characters were more out, but not exactly good role models in the way other Trek characters are.

Although characters on The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Voyager were often coded or read as queer by the fans, none of the Trek series actually managed to depict an overtly non-straight character without some kind of twist or metaphor. Because of this fact, you can start to understand why Trek fans in 2018 felt like they’d had the rug pulled out from under them with Culber’s fake-out death. It’s bewildering and yet, somehow, predictable that prior to the 21st century, Trek only used analogies to talk about queerness.

For queer fans like S. E. Fleenor, this meant finding characters that were “coded” as queer. When I asked Fleenor about Seven of Nine’s queerness, they pointed out: “We can hold creators, including Gene Roddenberry, responsible for refusing to embrace queer and trans characters and story lines as more than subtext. Their queerphobia and transphobia outside the world of Star Trek had a huge impact on the world created within the narrative.” To their point, even with TNG , some of the attempts at writing toward gay rights issues ended up sending a mixed message.

Perhaps the most divisive episode of The Next Generation is the 1992 episode “The Outcast.” Written by Jeri Taylor, the episode introduces a single-gender alien species called the J’naii. On this planet, gender is considered “primitive,” and if individuals claim to have gender leanings one way or another, they are required to undergo “therapy,” which basically brainwashes them into the cultural norms of the planet.

Watching “The Outcast” today is a mine-field, partly because Riker admits to the guest character Soren (Melinda Culea) that he can’t figure out what pronouns to use if people aren’t either male or female. The most overtly heterosexual character on the ship of course falls in love with a nonbinary alien who, as it turns out, wants to declare their gender as female, which is forbidden by her culture.

Arguably, Taylor’s gay allegory was well-intentioned, but the writing feels directed at heterosexuals. Because a gay allegory was written for a straight audience, many of the queer people in the audience at the time were understandably offended. “We thought we had made a very positive statement about sexual prejudice in a distinctively Star Trek way,” producer Rick Berman said in 1992. “But we still got letters from those who thought it was just our way of ‘washing our hands’ of the homosexual situation.”

Jeri Taylor went on record saying “The Outcast” was intended as an “outspokenly . . . gay rights story.” But was it? Although the contemporary reputation of “The Outcast” is very mixed, the episode has gained some renewed praise in the 21st century. Writing for Star Trek.com in 2020, Nitzan Pincu points out, “By giving Soren the chance to rebel against her oppression, the episode voices a queer plea to free sexual ‘others’ . . . Her reprogramming illustrates the dehumanizing effect of conversion therapy, which was little known outside of the gay community at the time the episode aired.”

Even when Trek failed to provide real representation, “The Outcast” can be read as a case for allyship. As Pincu mentions, Worf initially presents a bigoted attitude toward the nonbinary J’naii, but by the end of the episode, he’s the one who decides to go against orders and help Riker rescue Soren. If the goal of “The Outcast” was to make antigay straight families uncomfortable in 1992 and give kids something to think about that broke through the sexual dogma they’d been taught, then the episode was successful.

I was 11 when the episode aired, and I specifically remember it challenging my assumptions about who Riker was allowed to crush on. The episode may not be remotely progressive by 21st-century standards, but Jeri Taylor’s heart was certainly in the right place. It may not be a moment to applaud, but I dare anyone to find another action-adventure series aimed at families, airing in 1992, that depicted the hunkiest straight dude in the universe falling in love with someone who is clearly queer, and in terms of a contemporary reading, clearly a trans character. Most of Soren’s conversations with Riker at the top of the episode are about pronouns. It’s clunky in 2022, but in 1992, you’d be hard-pressed to find another big TV show in which characters were having frank conversations about which pronouns they preferred.

___________________________

From Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World by Ryan Britt. Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted with permission of Plume Books.

[i]  In 2008, “Blood and Fire” was made as a fan film “episode” by James Cawley’s series Star Trek: Phase II , later rebranded as Star Trek: New Voyages . David Gerrold wrote and directed the piece, which retooled his TNG script into a TOS setting. In this version, Kirk’s nephew Peter Kirk was gay. It enjoyed in-person screenings at Star Trek conventions but existed almost exclusively online as a nonprofit fan film. In 2008, Paramount and CBS had to implement more draconian policies about fan films, meaning “Blood and Fire” probably couldn’t have been made today.

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Devon Maloney

*Star Trek'*s History of Progressive Values — And Why It Faltered on LGBT Crew Members

In 2009, director J.J. Abrams transformed Star Trek into a true mainstream hit with his blockbuster movie reboot, earning $385 million in worldwide box office and shattered the opening weekend IMAX record; with Star Trek Into Darkness about to hit theaters this Friday, he seems poised to do it again.

But long before the 47-year-old franchise was breaking box office records, it was breaking ground as one of the most forward-thinking franchises in television and film history. Thanks largely to the (at the time) radical philosophy of creator Gene Roddenberry, the show attracted audiences with its adventure stories, but it kept them with its utopian optimism: the idea that the raging intolerance of the day would someday become a thing of the past, and anyone could explore the stars if they wanted.

In the future, Roddenberry envisioned race and gender as non-issues. He put Japanese-American George Takei, as Lt. Hikaru Sulu, at the helm; African-American Nichelle Nichols, as Lt. Nyota Uhura, in the communications chair; and even attempted to make the Enterprise's first officer a woman (studio executives rejected that unsavory idea, so the alien Spock took the job). The equality on the U.S.S. Enterprise's bridge was a watershed moment, both in television history and in Americans' understanding of social equality.

"Most television shows, at best, follow cultural trends. Star Trek had clear-cut ideals of its own," wrote Joan Winston, Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Sondra Marshak in their 1975 book Star Trek Lives! , the first and most definitive chronicle of the early years of Trek fandom. "No one would claim that Star Trek was the cause of all the improvement [we've made with problems like racism and sexism]. But it is still harder to believe that it had no effect, when twenty million people tuned in to Star Trek and saw Mr. Spock being treated as friend and brother by Captain Kirk, saw the black and the Russian and the Oriental [sic] and the Southerner and the others treating each other with respect and love."

This heritage makes it all the more unfortunate that the progressive values of the original series seem to have faltered—and even begun trailing the mainstream—with the increasingly pointed absence of LGBT members in later iterations of the franchise, and their failure to treat sexual orientation like the same sort of non-issue that Roddenberry once envisioned for race and gender on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

Star Trek 's passionate fan community has kept it afloat for nearly half a century, contrary to the stereotypical nerdy white dude image many associate with the Star Trek fandom, some of the most instrumental Trek fans have belonged to marginalized groups who found empowerment and possibility in a futuristic utopian television show when they could not find it in the real world.

"[ Star Tre k's inclusivity] is the only thing that kept it alive," Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment and son of Star Trek 's late creator Gene Roddenberry, told Wired. In 2010, Rod released Trek Nation , a documentary that explored his father's egalitarian vision and the power it gave the Trek fan community. "It appealed to people who were thinking differently, whether it was college students who were protesting the war, or mixed-race couples, or just people with different ideas. The whole geek/nerd/dork fan movement was a bunch of people who look at life differently. They're the ones who are leading the charge today, not just with Star Trek , but also, frankly, the world."

Though the show's philosophy no doubt encouraged white audiences' capacity for understanding and tolerance in the '60s and '70s, it was doing something vastly more concrete for people of color who were seeing faces like their own on television, in un-caricatured roles, for the first time.

Nichols' role as Uhura, in particular, was revolutionary: "As most Americans’ first encounter with a nuanced, authoritative character played by an actor who was not only African-American but also a woman, her impact was even more extraordinary considering Nichols almost didn’t return after the show’s first season." As she explained to the Wall Street Journal in 2011, she'd decided to leave the show and return to Broadway, but a chance introduction at a fundraiser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – the self-proclaimed "biggest Trekkie on the planet" – made her reconsider.

"He took my hand and thanked me for meeting him," she remembered, "He then said, 'I am your greatest fan.' All I remember is my mouth opening and shutting. I thanked him so much and told him how I’d miss it all. He asked what I was talking about, and told me that I [couldn't] leave the show." "You are changing the minds of people across the world, because for the first time, through you, we see ourselves and what can be," he told her.

Nichols stayed with the show. In the third and final season, Uhura and Captain Kirk shared one of the first interracial kisses ever broadcast on American television. And though it wasn't the very first (Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. had kissed on-air during a special a year earlier), it became another watershed event in television history. Nichols' continued presence on the bridge had a profound effect on the show's viewers, and was later cited by NASA astronaut Mae C. Jemison, the first black woman to travel into space in 1992, as an inspiration.

The progressive attitude towards race and gender in the original series also set a precedent for later Trek series and films: The Next Generation featured African-American actors in senior engineering and security roles; Deep Space Nine starred Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko, the franchise's first black commanding officer; Voyager featured a female captain, Kathryn Janeway. Whoopi Goldberg, who played the oracular bartender Guinan on TNG , told Nichelle Nichols many years later that watching Uhura, "a black lady on TV who ain't no maid," inspired her to become an actress in the first place. Today, people of all colors and backgrounds working in the sciences (or any field, really) will point to Star Trek as their early – and often only – inspiration. (Don't believe me? Show up at any Trek convention and ask around.)

“Images show us possibilities,” Dr. Jemison explained simply in 1996. “A lot of times, fantasy is what gets us through to reality.”

The Final Frontier

Thanks to the franchise's generally inclusive ideology towards the disenfranchised, Trek attracted its share of LGBT fans, as well. Though the announcements came anywhere from two to 36 years after their last Trek appearances, both George Takei and Zachary Quinto (who plays Spock in the Abrams film reboots) have come out in recent years to the celebration of the gay community and practically zero controversy in the larger fandom — probably because openly homosexual and transgender fans in the Trek world have always been fairly commonplace.

"The Star Trek conventions were one of the few places where people could dress and act [however] they wanted, like nothing society was expecting," said Betty Jo "Bjo" Trimble, a fan who spearheaded a massive (and successful) 1967 grassroots letter-writing campaign known as "Save Star Trek " was rumored that the series would be canceled after two seasons, and helped mobilized Trek's nationwide fanbase to write a rumored one million letters in support of the show.

Those conventions added another crucial dimension to the show's progressive power. Started in New York in 1971 and organized by a female-led committee (including Star Trek Lives! co-author Joan Winston), the conventions acted as a lightning rod for fans of all races, genders, and backgrounds to assemble, share experiences, and even produce creative works; media coverage dating back to the first convention reports that fan-made zines disseminated at the meet-ups were created predominately by women and people of color.

Trimble remembers several openly gay (and openly flamboyant) "locals" who'd frequent the conventions she attended in the '70s. That fan empowerment has spilled over creatively, too; in 2008, a gay-themed episode called "Blood and Fire," penned by well-known Trek screenwriter David Gerrold but originally rejected by Paramount as being unfit for audiences, was brought to life by Star Trek: Phase II , a fan-helmed web series based on the original television show.

But on the studio's part, Trek 's progressive bent has faltered, just as this generation's civil rights battle could use it the most.

As with all reboots of beloved series, the Abrams reimagining of the Star Trek universe has fostered some inevitable dissent amongst faithfuls. But its most pointed (and salient) critique has been that of a long-empty promise: gay characters on the Enterprise's bridge.

Veiled dialogue between characters about cultural differences in Trek movies and later series like TNG and Voyager often flirted with LGBT themes. Whoopi Goldberg once edited one of her own lines, from "When a man and a woman love each other" to "When two people love each other"; another TNG episode featured an alien race that could be loosely considered transsexual; another centered around the romantic relationship between the ship's doctor, Beverly Crusher, and an alien that lives within humanoid hosts (and how it crumbled when that alien had to take a female body).

In 1991, Roddenberry told the press that he planned to add an LGBT character to the TNG cast that season, but when he died suddenly a few months after the interview, his promise vaporized. His successors implemented quasi-transgender subplots on later episodes of Voyager and Deep Space Nine years after his death, but they were largely plot devices used as comic relief; nothing as simultaneously explicit and incidental as an intelligent communications officer who just happens to be a black woman has ever solidified for an LGBT character.

The franchise's new bosses aren't doing much about the controversy, either. In 2011, Brannon Braga, a producer on The Next Generation , Voyager and Enterprise , admitted regret at not having pushed for gay characters when he had the chance, implying that it still would've been a fight with the studio and network to get those elements on the small screen.

“There was a constant back and forth about well how do we portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing casually, you know, just two guys together in the background in Ten Forward,” Braga told AfterElton.”At the time the decision was made not to do that, and I think those same people would make a different decision now... It was not a forward thinking decision.”

The same year, Abrams expressed surprise when he learned that there had been no openly LGBT characters characters in *Star Trek. *He agree that it "should happen" in the franchise, and that he would bring up with the writers of Into Darkness , though he added it would be a "a tricky thing" to add organically. That was nearly two years ago, however, and the idea hasn't been discussed any further, despite nudges from fans and media.

Whether or not an LGBT character will manifest on the big screen this Friday remains unknown (if unlikely), but either way the fact remains: In a post-Roddenberry world, there's no philosophical visionary on Star Trek projects pressuring the studio to push the sociopolitical envelope, so there hasn't been much – or any, really – burden to continue challenging norms.

Copping Out of this World

Thanks to the success of the 2009 reboot -- the most successful Star Trek property ever in box office terms -- Paramount has regained a blockbuster franchise with wide-audience appeal, but there’s no reason to think it would have been any less successful if it had been more faithful to the franchise's subversive spirit. Ignoring social advances and stymieing the franchise's hallmark ideology seems, at best, to be the path of least resistance.

"It's sort of a cop-out, and I don't think that community appreciates this answer," says Rod Roddenberry, "but in the 23rd and 24th century, and preferably much sooner, whether you are straight, gay, black, white, male, female, it's a nonissue. You don't need to see someone walking around the Enterprise with a rainbow flag, or any of the other stereotypical things that would announce that they're gay. I mean, there were interspecies relationships on Star Trek , so we're just beyond the point where homosexuality is an issue."

It’s worth noting that Roddenberry’s role as Roddenberry Entertainment CEO is largely limited to the licensing of the franchise and thus doesn't include input on plot decisions; Paramount and CBS, obviously, are the licenses' current owners. But the argument he makes is precisely the problem.

In the 1960s, Uhura and Sulu weren't standing on soapboxes. They simply did their jobs as senior officers on a starship and just happened to be people of color, or women. It was people, not pointed plot lines, that challenged norms through Star Trek . (Also, interspecies romances only painted wide brushstrokes meant to symbolize universality; they didn't change anybody's view of the 20th century or empower marginalized fans like the presence of Uhura or Sulu did.)

The invisibility of gay characters isn’t neutral; it’s negative, and represents a glaring double standard. After all, many a heterosexual romance has played out on the Star Trek screen, often involving notorious ladies' men like Kirk and The Next Generation 's Commander William Riker. The omission of a simple homosexual storyline, regardless of how many interspecies or interracial or almost-homosexual romances have been featured, is still very much a point of concern. We are, after all, still living in the 21st century, not the 24th, and it would still be significant to see an LGBT officer serving on the bridge today, much as it was to see a black woman in the '60s when civil rights battles were being waged.

"I won't say that [Rick] Berman and [Brannon] Braga and Paramount and J.J. [Abrams] don't get it," Roddenberry offers. "I think they certainly do, but they kind of came on to carry the torch and do the best they could to represent Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry. But they – including myself – are not Gene Roddenberry, and therefore it's not organic. It's not coming from a visionary, from the creator. The fans have taken over that vision. It's their hands now."

Barring a remarkable big screen surprise this weekend, it seems like for now, that's all we're going to get.

Updated 5/14/13 11 AM PST to correct box office total of Star Trek .

Angela Watercutter

Eric Ravenscraft

Jason Parham

Jennifer M. Wood

• The Inventory

How Queer Is Star Trek ?

Star Trek is not just one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises ever, it is also the most hopeful. The Federation represents the pinnacle of humanity: the idea that we can and will make a better life for each other. Yet, despite Trek’s message of a better future for all, LGBTQ+ characters are few and far between, and this exclusion has led to more than a few clashes between Star Trek creators and fans in the past. As Star Trek: Discovery heads into its next chapter , let’s look back at the franchise’s history of LGBTQ+ representation. Does Discovery fulfill the promise of a more harmonious, progressive future? Or does it, too, fall prey to the pitfalls that have plagued Star Trek’s past?

Not in front of the Klingons

For decades, queer people have been drawn to Star Trek , and the shows have gained cult status within the gay community. Why? To answer that question, we need to slingshot around the sun and time-warp back to The Original Series , a show with so much sparkling chemistry between its male leads that Kirk and Spock became the OG ship, launching a thousand fan fictions—which, back in the ‘60s, were painstakingly typed out on typewriters and handed around at conventions.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not vocally oppose the fans interpreting Kirk and Spock as lovers. Always a supporter of fan works, Roddenberry attended many of the first conventions, and encouraged his writers to read fanzines ( Spockanalia , in particular)—and although these didn’t include “slash” fanfiction, he wasn’t unaware of this fan response to the show.

When interviewed in 1979 for the book Shatner: Where No Man , Roddenberry was asked what he thought of the fan belief that Kirk and Spock were in love. His response was thoughtful: “Yes, there’s certainly love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, we never suggested in the series [that there was any] physical love between the two. But we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century.”

But it wasn’t just the homoerotic subtext that LGBTQ+ fans subscribed to. Star Trek has long been a beacon of hope for marginalized people, as it presents the vision of a better future , one in which humanity has learned to celebrate diversity. Star Trek teaches us that we can not only resolve our differences but learn to love them, an idea that has strengthened countless viewers.

That was certainly the case for Wilson Cruz, who plays Dr. Hugh Culber, Discovery’s doctor and husband of Chief Engineer Paul Stamets. Speaking to me on the eve of Discovery’s season two premiere, Cruz explained that Star Trek was very important to him as a child. “I was one of those kids who needed to be reassured of a hopeful future, and Star Trek did that for me. It helped me imagine a future where I could love whoever I wanted, and inspired me to do whatever I needed to do to get us closer to that.”

This message, along with a comparatively broad scope of representation in terms of race and gender, has long appealed to the queer community. We watch Star Trek because it gives us the rare opportunity to see a version of the future where we also have a place among the stars. Or at least, it does in theory.

Unfortunately, there is a divide between what the Federation claims to be, and what it actually is. Star Trek’s writers want us to believe that the Federation is a utopian society, wherein the social problems of the past have been solved. And yet, nothing is ever that simple, and fiction can’t help but be a product of its time. The Federation might be beyond sexism, racism, and homophobia, but its creators certainly aren’t—which became more evident as the years wore on, and fans started to demand canon gay representation.

Infinite diversity…except for the gays

Trek’s vision of a utopian future was perhaps strongest in The Next Generation , as the crew of the Enterprise-D traversed the galaxy, solving conflicts with diplomacy and staying true to the Federation’s values (even veganism ). With this new era of possibilities came the idea that Star Trek could actually feature a gay character. This was suggested to Gene Roddenberry during a Boston fan convention in 1987, and he pledged to introduce a gay character in The Next Generation . This led to “Blood and Fire,” an unaired episode penned by David Gerrold in 1988 that has become infamous among LGBTQ+ fans.

Eager to address the AIDS epidemic , Gerrold’s proposed script saw the Enterprise crew encountering a ship infected with Regulan bloodworms. The solution called for Enterprise officers to donate blood, a plot point that Gerrold hoped would encourage viewers to do the same, as he told TrekMovie in 2014: “I wanted us to put a card at the end of the episode saying you can donate blood, contact your local Red Cross.” Aboard the infected ship were two male characters (Lts Freeman and Eakins) in a committed romantic relationship. Tertiary characters at best, the two men only appeared in “Blood and Fire,” and their relationship was established in a few lines of dialogue . “How long have you two been together?” asks a one-episode character from the Enterprise. “Since the Academy,” replies Eakins, and nothing more is said about it. As representation goes, it was refreshingly matter-of-fact—or it would have been, had the episode ever made it to air.

In the decades since, opinions have differed on why the episode was canned. According to Gerrold in his interview with TrekMovie , producer Rick Berman raised concerns that the subject matter was too risqué for The Next Generation’s timeslot, and that it would cause the show to lose viewers. This led to weeks of heated debate among the staff writers, resulting in the episode being axed and Gerrold furiously quitting the series. While we don’t know exactly what went on behind the scenes, it seems safe to say that there were concerns among the producers that showing gay characters onscreen would hurt ratings. Roddenberry, however, didn’t give up on his promise to fans—though he wouldn’t live to see it fulfilled.

On August 8, 1991, Roddenberry was quoted in the magazine The Advocate as saying: “In the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, viewers will see more of shipboard life in some episodes, which will include gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances.” This interview was conducted in response to a fierce letter-writing campaign from fan group the Gaylactic Network, which implored the Star Trek writers to include gay characters. Both sci-fi novelist Arthur C. Clarke and actor Leonard Nimoy (Spock) wrote letters in support of this campaign. Yet, despite Roddenberry’s renewed pledge to include gay representation, he died just two months later, leaving Rick Berman at the reins of the franchise. The Next Generation never featured a gay character…although it did come close.

The Next Generation often explored social topics through allegory, and in the season five episode “The Outcast,” the writers tackled themes of sexuality, gender, and ostracisation. In the episode, Riker falls for Soren, a member of an androgynous race who identifies as female, in defiance of the accepted neutral gender. Soren is ultimately forced to undergo “treatment,” a brainwashing procedure that is a clear criticism of conversion therapy —a bold stance to take in 1992. For Jonathan Frakes, however, the writers fell short of making a real impact.

“It seemed to me that it was such a great opportunity, since Roddenberry had always taken such pride in addressing these issues, to cast a man in that part instead of a female actor.” Frakes, who played William Riker and continues to direct many episodes of Star Trek shows, told io9 that he feels that by casting Soren as a woman, The Next Generation missed the chance to show a true outcast story, as two male actors portraying a romantic couple would have challenged viewer perceptions at the time. “I mean, that was the message of the whole show,” he said, “But we had this girl and we put a Puck wig on her to make her look unisex. I don’t know, it was very bizarre.”

Considering that “The Outcast” was The Next Generation ’s only response to the fan campaign for gay characters, it’s a shame that the writers yet again fell back on allegory. And it didn’t have to be allegorical—although having a male actor portray Soren only occurred to Frakes years later, the writers considered casting a man, but the idea was shot down. Explaining the situation to the San Jose Mercury News later in 1992, Berman again raised his concern of viewer reactions: “Having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers.”

Had “The Outcast” featured a male actor in the role of Soren, this would have been a huge stride forward for television, as there had only been four gay couples on TV thus far . Yet, just like with “Blood and Fire,” attempts to make Star Trek queerer were prevented before the episode aired, and Soren was portrayed by a cis female actor instead. As it stands, “The Outcast” was still an important step for Star Trek challenging the boundaries of gender and sexuality, and it was one which paved the way for the next spinoff to be even bolder.

“Time to win the war”

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Discovery marks the first time a queer relationship was depicted on Star Trek . But while Stamets and Culber are the first long-running gay couple, the honor of the first kiss between two women in Trek history goes to Deep Space Nine .

Jadzia Dax was a Trill, an alien comprised of a 700-year-old symbiote and a mortal host. As symbiotes switch between male and female hosts, this enabled the Deep Space Nine writers to push the boundaries of sexuality: Jadzia commented on the attractiveness of various women, and would often talk about her experiences living as a man. This came to a head in the 1995 episode “Rejoined,” wherein Jadzia is reunited with Lenara Khan, wife of Dax’s previous male host. Despite the Trill law against reassociation, ie: rekindling old romances, Jadzia and Lenara are unable to overcome their attraction to one another—and thus was born Star Trek’s first gay kiss.

When io9 spoke to Ronald D. Moore on Deep Space Nine’s 25th anniversary , we asked him why, as co-showrunner and writer of “Rejoined,” he chose to cast Lenera Khan as a woman. “It was really built into the concept of the Trill, so we thought what if Dax encountered a woman from the past that it had been involved with as a man, y’know, wouldn’t that be daring. At this point, love between two women was very controversial to portray.”

For Moore, this decision was rooted in a sense of duty to Star Trek’s history of social commentary. “We thought let’s do it, because we are Star Trek and we’re supposed to be challenging these things, in the way that the original series challenged a lot of taboos about race relations back in the ‘60s. So shouldn’t we be trying this too?” Challenging taboos was never going to be easy. But after much back and forth between producers and writers, Moore is happy they were able to get the episode on the air. “We were able to push it through the system and get the episode made,” he said. “Ultimately it was the right moment to win that war.”

“Rejoined” was a heart-wrenching love story, which still resonates with fans today thanks to its exploration of societal prejudices. But beyond the social commentary, “Rejoined” established a crucial fact about the Federation—that same-sex relationships are not just accepted, but unremarkable, as none of Jadzia’s coworkers are surprised at the idea of two women being in love. This was a subtle but significant victory for Star Trek , especially considering how Beverly Crusher had balked at the idea of rekindling her own romance with a now-female Trill in The Next Generation episode “The Host,” which aired in 1991. “Rejoined” was also something of a landmark episode for television at the time, airing just four years after the first gay kiss in USA TV history (on LA Law in 1991), and featuring the fifth lesbian kiss ever to be shown on television. And yes, it did indeed prove to be controversial.

Before the episode even aired, several of Paramount’s regional affiliates cut the kiss from the broadcast, and in the aftermath, Paramount’s phone lines lit up with complaints from conservative viewers. In an interview for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion book, producer Steve Oster recalled one viewer phoning the show to accuse them of “ruining my kids by making them watch two women kiss like that.” According to Oster, the production assistant who took the call asked the man if he would be all right with his children seeing one woman shoot the other. When the man replied that this would be fine, the PA said, “Then maybe you should reconsider who’s ruining your kids.” However, Oster also revealed that for every phone complaint the show received, other fans wrote in expressing their gratitude to Deep Space Nine for showing romantic love between women.

The battle continues...

Ultimately though, this was just one episode, and for the rest of the show, Jadzia’s romantic plots focused on men. While modern viewers may be able to recognize Jadzia Dax as bisexual (and arguably genderfluid), much of her sexuality was confined to suggestive comments and subtext, and we never saw her in a romance with another woman. It’s worth noting that Deep Space Nine did feature queer characters in the Mirrorverse episodes, with Intendant Kira Nerys sharing a kiss with the un-joined Trill Ezri Tegan (the eighth lesbian kiss on TV) in season seven’s “The Emperor’s New Cloak,” but they were minor antagonists who didn’t return after that episode.

Then there’s the question of Garak, a recurring character whom actor Andrew Robinson played as “not having a defined sexuality.” Speaking to Liz Sourbut for Amazon in 2012, Robinson explained that for him, Garak’s sexuality was “inclusive,” and that the Cardassian tailor always found his close friend Dr. Bashir attractive. However, he hit roadblocks in trying to portray this attraction. “This is a family show, they have to keep it on the ‘straight and narrow’, so then I backed off from it. For the most part, the writers supported the character beautifully, but in that area they just made a choice they didn’t want to go there, and if they don’t want to go there I can’t, because the writing doesn’t support it.” However, Robinson has subsequently penned several Star Trek books that confirm Garak’s “inclusive” sexuality.

The battle to include queer characters in the main cast of a Star Trek show would rage on for years—and fans hoped this would finally happen when Seven of Nine was introduced to Voyager . In 1995, a fan organization dubbed the Voyager Visibility Project was formed to pressure Paramount to add a gay or lesbian character to the show. This project was endorsed by GLAAD , and Voyager producer Jeri Taylor seemed sympathetic to their cause. When it was announced that Seven of Nine would be added to the show in season four, rumors abounded that she would be a lesbian, or at the very least, that she would “experiment with her sexuality” while adjusting to life after the Borg.

However, in the March 1998 issue of TV Guide , Taylor regretfully debunked these rumors, saying: “The idea is something I’m absolutely sympathetic with, and I have tried several times to do it. But for various reasons there has been opposition, and it gradually became clear that this is a fight I could not win.” Neither Voyager nor prequel series Enterprise featured a queer character in the main cast, and as time wore on— Enterprise ended in 2005—fans got increasingly exasperated with the lack of representation.

The producers were far from oblivious about the fans’ desire for LGBTQ+ characters. In 2011, Brannon Braga (longtime Star Trek producer, and showrunner for Voyager and Enterprise ) told magazine AfterElton that he regretted never including a gay character in the main cast of any Trek show, explaining that the decision-makers were “squeamish” about the prospect. “There was a constant back and forth about how we [should] portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing [it] casually, just two guys together in the background in Ten Forward. At the time the decision was made not to do that.” Braga said he felt confident that nowadays, those same decision-makers would make a different call—and with Discovery , the time finally came for Star Trek to live up to Roddenberry’s promise, for better or worse.

Discovery fulfills the promise, but falters

Before Star Trek: Discovery even had a name, another promise was made that we would finally see gay characters walking the decks of a Starfleet vessel. In August 2016, then-showrunner Bryan Fuller told fans that there would “absolutely” be a gay character in the main cast, achieving what had been fought for but blocked for so many years. However, we’re far beyond the era of sneaking gay kisses past censors, and the new show’s queer representation has been contentious to say the least.

Discovery season one introduced us to Lt. Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber, a married couple whose love story was already years in the making—which resonated well with Anthony Rapp (who plays Stamets) and Wilson Cruz’s long-term friendship. Reflecting on his time playing Culber, Cruz told io9 how impressed he and Rapp were from the first moment they read the Discovery scripts. “We were moved by how seriously this relationship was being treated by the show, that it was being held up as an example of true love.”

Culber and Stamets are your typical married couple, and it is the understated nature of their relationship that, ironically, makes it rather remarkable. So often in media, if queer people are included it’s to make some kind of socio-political point. We even see this in Star Trek : both “The Outcast” and “Rejoined” revolve around relationship taboos, and feature tragic or bittersweet conclusions. While this has its place, LGBTQ+ life is not inherently political, and it’s important to show queer relationships as just another part of life. This was something that Cruz really appreciated about Culber and Stamets’ romance.

“Our lives are more than just our relationships and our sex lives; our lives are as complicated and complex as anybody else’s,” Cruz told us. “Not all our problems have to do with who we love. Most of them don’t actually. So I’m happy to see that that evolution is happening in media.”

However, Discovery’s approach to representation has not been without its share of controversy. Culber’s death at the hands of sleeper agent Ash Tyler led to huge fan backlash, as many people felt that Star Trek had fallen prey to the surprisingly common “bury-your-gays” trope, in which gay characters are introduced only to be killed later. To say this is damaging would be an understatement, and while no one is arguing that LGBTQ+ characters should be immortal, when representation is so sparse and then queer and trans characters are more likely to die, that hardly sends an affirming message. For this to happen to Star Trek’s first gay couple after years of fighting for LGBTQ+ representation in the franchise, Culber’s death felt even more personal to fans—and to those working on the show.

As he directed “Despite Yourself,” the season one episode in which Culber is killed, Jonathan Frakes was reminded of “The Outcast,” and the shadow of what could have been. “Stamets and Culber’s relationship was so powerful,” he explained, “So important to them and to the show. And I thought oh my God, this is like a strange revisit of a missed opportunity. You don’t want to kill one of the lovers of what is going to be an iconic gay couple on a hit television show! It just doesn’t make any sense.” Frakes also recalled the moment that Cruz was told Culber was being killed off. “I was with Wilson weeping at the idea that he would die on that show. This show was huge for him. It was huge for all of us! But when he got the phone call before he shot that scene, it was devastating.”

Culber’s death was not without purpose, though, and at the end of season one he was able to guide Stamets from beyond the grave. This made for a beautiful moment, one which Cruz found heartening: “I may have died but it really was our love that allowed [Stamets] to save not just our universe, but every universe. Gay love did that! And that’s pretty incredible.”

It is very rare for heroic, romantic moments to be awarded to LGBTQ+ people; if romantic love is going to save the day, usually it will be the love between a man and a woman. Yet, as groundbreaking as it was for Discovery to give this moment to a gay couple, its importance was far overshadowed by the controversy of Culber’s death…although there was still more to the story. [Warning: Spoilers for Discovery season two to follow.]

“You’re my home”

Culber’s resurrection in a shocking season two episode allowed the show to explore him as a character, as he confronted his purpose and found it difficult to reunite with his husband. “I got to define him a lot more this year,” explained Cruz. “He’s such an empath and he really wears his heart on his white sleeve, and that makes him a better doctor.” This made for a compelling story that granted Culber some meaningful character development, while revealing what made Culber and Stamets’ relationship work, even as it fell apart.

Although this plot often falls prey to the trap of telling, not showing (and we’re left wondering if it was tacked-on last minute), every moment between Rapp and Cruz carries great emotional weight, which is due in large part to the strength of the actors. The scene in which Culber tells an ailing Stamets that he’s staying on the Discovery , because Stamets is his home, is one of the finale’s highlights . Of course, the show could always do more—we still haven’t seen any trans or non-binary characters on Discovery —and sole responsibility of the franchise’s LGBTQ+ representation cannot rest on just two characters. Thankfully, there are no longer just two in the main cast, but here, again, we see Discovery both succeed and falter in providing good queer representation.

In a touching finale scene with Culber, new character Jett Reno (played by Tig Notaro) refers to her late wife, continuing the trend of refreshingly matter-of-fact representation. This is an effective way to establish that a character is queer, as Reno’s story doesn’t revolve around her sexual identity. The only weight this revelation carries is to create romantic solidarity between Reno and Culber—not because they’re both queer, but because they have both experienced love and loss. So, points to Discovery for that.

Then there’s Michelle Yeoh’s deliciously amoral Emperor Georgiou, who seems to have a fluid sexuality: At the end of season one, she goes to bed with two Orion dancers, one male and one female. Georgiou being queer is fantastic, especially as she’ll be Star Trek’s first LGBTQ+ lead once her Section 31 series is released. However, she is also a textbook Depraved Bisexual , a damaging trope wherein a bi character’s sexuality is framed as another part of their villainy.

While you could argue that Georgiou doesn’t like boundaries of any kind, there’s a scene in the episode “ The Red Angel ” which is stunningly tone-deaf, as Georgiou hits on Stamets only to be told that he’s gay, which she scoffs at. Not only is this a strange way to establish that the terms “gay” and “pansexual” are still being used in the 23rd century, it also perpetuates negative stereotypes about opportunistic bisexuality and sets a bi woman against two gay men. Again, Discovery tries for good representation but plummets into the pitfall of another damaging trope.

Yet, as the USS Discovery sails into the future in season three , Discovery has an excellent opportunity to provide LGBTQ+ representation that goes beyond the classic definitions of gay, straight, and pan/bisexual, as well as binary gender. Everyone deserves to get a slice of that bright future, and showing LGBTQ+ youth a world where they are accepted and loved is what Cruz has always considered to be the most rewarding part of his role. For him, Discovery “sends a message to those young people that we have always been here. That we are a part of the human fabric, and that we will reach the kind of society where your sexuality and gender have less to do with how you’re valued than what you do and who you are. For me, the most important thing is the reassurance to young people that everything is going to be all right.”

Looking to the future

Speculative fiction plays a vital role in our narrative pantheon. It is the space where we can imagine literally any possibility, build better futures, and hope to influence real life by showing what’s possible. If LGBTQ+ people are consistently ignored and cut out of this genre, then a clear message is sent: In all these realms of possibilities , queer people still don’t have a place. That certainly doesn’t support Star Trek’s core theme of inclusivity and celebration of diversity. The promise of the Federation is the promise of the future, a future free from prejudice, a future in which we’ve evolved beyond everything that holds us back.

After the years of prejudice that have plagued Star Trek’s journey to queer representation, Discovery has taken some huge strides forward. It’s no longer surprising if anyone mentions a lover who is the same gender as them. “The universe in which we live in on the show is a place where everyone is willing and capable of loving anyone,” says Cruz, and that’s crucial to establish for an apparently utopian society. Although Discovery has stumbled in providing representation, Star Trek is finally learning how to live up to the hopeful promise of the Federation: That one day, decades or centuries from now, we will all find a better future among the stars—regardless of who we love.

For more, make sure you’re following us on our new Instagram @ io9dotcom .

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Historic Timeline: Star Trek’s LGBTQ History

Published by Erica Leff on April 17, 2024 April 17, 2024

Star Trek’s LGBTQ History

I chose to make a timeline regarding one of my favorite things,  Star Trek . It has a messy but increasingly positive history with LGBTQ issues. I would break  Star Trek ‘s LGBTQ history into 3 “eras”:

• The Original Series Era (1966-1987), where there’s no real depictions onscreen of LGBTQ issues, although fans in the late ’60s started writing Kirk/Spock fan fiction because of the characters’ relationship subtext. This is the start of the “slashfic” subgenre of fan fiction, depicting male/male relationships.
• The Reboot Era (1987-2016), where the shows  The Next Generation ,  Deep Space Nine ,  Voyager , and  Enterprise  are released, as well as the TOS reboot movies Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). During this time,  Star Trek occasionally touched on issues of gender and sexuality and were usually slightly ahead of the times on these issues. There is a lot of gay subtext in this era, as well as the controversial first female/female kiss in 1995.
• The Second Reboot Era (2016-present), starting with Star Trek Beyond , the third reboot movie, where this version of Hikaru Sulu is revealed to be gay. After this, we get the shows  Discovery ,  Picard ,  Lower Decks ,  Prodigy , and  Strange New Worlds . Here we get explicitly LGBTQ characters and stories.

It should be noted that for decades, actors playing  Star Trek  captains and other characters voiced their desire for more representation. Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer on  Enterprise , said “I haven’t heard anything coming down the pipeline, but I would be in favor of it. … It would be wonderful … if it was not such a huge issue, but was just there” (Starr, 2002). Fifteen years later, LGBTQ characters became a regular part of the  Star Trek  universe. While  Star Trek  is known for always having been a progressive franchise, the lack of true LGBTQ representation until after  the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States is troubling.

Initially, when making this timeline, I simply found photos of the most important scenes. I realized that images on Imgur don’t upload very well into TimelineJS, so I decided to find videos on YouTube, which also made more sense, since a video can tell more of a story than a still image. I included the Original Series Era to make it visually clear where the eras begin and end, despite not including any points in time from that era. The timeline’s large gaps speak volumes about how afraid  Star Trek  and its owner, Paramount, were about including LGBTQ representation. I had a little trouble getting my timeline to work because I misunderstood the “publish to web” step. I thought I had to click out of window and copy the URL from the published version, not the spreadsheet itself. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, it worked perfectly.

Starr, M. (2002, January 17). Starr report.  New York Post .

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They're here – and now they're queer: is rewriting TV characters' sexuality just a gimmick?

Star Trek’s Seven of Nine, once firmly under the male gaze, has seemingly been confirmed as queer. Even so, on television and beyond, changing backstories can feel piecemeal

T he recent first season of Star Trek: Picard boldly went in an unexpected direction, ending with the consciousness of the titular starship captain downloaded into a new synthetic body – meaning that the high-minded humanist of The Next Generation was technically no longer human. But for many fans, the transformation of another legacy character felt even more significant.

Seven of Nine was formerly a catsuited “babe ” who was added to the cast of Star Trek: Voyager in 1997 to lure back the 18-30 male demographic, who had apparently jumped ship thanks to the show’s female captain. Played by Jeri Ryan, she was reimagined in Picard as a gun-toting, hard-drinking vigilante. Even more strikingly, in the closing moments of the season finale, she was glimpsed holding hands with another woman.

Those who were paying attention five episodes earlier had already noticed the reference to a “close personal relationship” between Seven and the villain of the week, Bjayzl. But the ambiguity of their brief exchange – cut short when Seven vaporised her – left fans in limbo. Had Star Trek really just queered Seven of Nine?

Many were thrilled at what they saw as a bold new direction for the character. A former member of the Borg collective (a group of cyborgs known for physically mutilating and mentally controlling their unwitting victims), Seven had long proved a source of inspiration to survivors of abuse, and now she could do the same for queer fans as well. Others remained unconvinced, pointing out that, 20 years earlier, Seven once propositioned a male crewmember and shared a romantic picnic with another. As far as they were concerned, she was straight until “canonically” proven otherwise.

It was just the latest chapter in Star Trek’s chequered history with queer representation. Although creator Gene Roddenberry promised to introduce a gay character back in 1991, it took a quarter-century for his pledge to be fulfilled. S tar Trek: Discovery now boasts three gay crewmembers (played by Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz and Tig Notaro) among the regular cast, so why is Seven of Nine’s sexuality so important to fans? The answer, it seems, goes further than just representation. When she was first introduced in Voyager, Seven was a symbolic battleground for the politics of the time. While Trek’s liberal-minded creatives wrote about a young woman gradually recovering from decades of trauma and abuse, the show’s producers squeezed Ryan into an outfit so figure-hugging that she would occasionally pass out on set. (In Picard, she returns in a gender-neutral sweater, jeans and leather jacket.)

From the start, Seven’s sexuality was a source of controversy. A rumoured lesbian plot never came to pass. Voyager showrunner Jeri Taylor, who was committed to honouring Roddenberry’s promise, shared her frustration with TV Guide, saying: “It gradually became clear that this is a fight I could not win.’ In the end, the best Taylor could do was include a couple of brief gay moments in one of her licensed Trek novels. Meanwhile, fans took to the nascent internet forums, imagining a relationship between Seven and her on-screen mentor, Captain Janeway.

Star Trek’s conservatism – somewhat at odds with the progressive model of the original 1960s Enterprise, which featured Russian, African and Japanese-American crewmembers – was to some extent a product of the time, when genre shows often included characters who were “queer-coded” rather than unambiguously queer. Perhaps the most notorious example was Xena: Warrior Princess, in which the title character shared a bed, plenty of meaningful looks and even a number of on-screen kisses with her sidekick and friend Gabrielle.

Arguably, such a coy approach came perilously close to “queerbaiting” – teasing an LGBT audience with the prospect of an onscreen same-sex relationship, while refusing to actually depict one for fear of alienating heterosexual fans.

These days, the bait doesn’t always end in a switch, but savvy producers still use the prospect of a gay character as a way to attract audiences. It has been five years since Kevin Feige promised a gay hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and so far none has materialised (unless their superpower is complete invisibility). In the same period, on the small screen, the other comic-book behemoth, DC, has provided a lesbian Batwoman, taking her cue from a 2006 reinvention of Batman’s 1950s love interest in a limited comics series. It even presented, in the prequel series Gotham, a romance between the arch villains the Penguin and the Riddler.

Reinventing legacy characters is, of course, a mainstay of comic-book storytelling, a way of keeping them fresh throughout the decades. But other long-running entertainment franchises can afford to follow the same example. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was perhaps ahead of its time when Willow shared her first same-sex kiss with another witch in the show’s fifth season. The Simpsons, meanwhile, took 16 years to reveal that Marge’s sister Patty was a lesbian.

However well-intentioned, the timing of such coming-out moments can be critical. When JK Rowling let slip in 2007 that Harry Potter’s headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was gay, a mere three months after the final book in the series was published, many readers felt it was a shame she hadn’t mentioned it earlier. And when the writers of the reboot movie Star Trek Beyond announced in 2016 that the franchise’s first gay character would be a reimagined Hikaru Sulu, George Takei, the prominent LGBT activist who had originated the character 50 years earlier, called the move “unfortunate ”, feeling it suggested he had been living in the closet for half a century.

In fact, Sulu’s “gay moment” in Beyond – putting his arm around another man as he is reunited with his daughter – was so brief that had it not been highlighted in the film’s press campaign fans might easily have blinked and missed it. Similarly, the much-touted gay storyline in the most recent Star Wars movie, Rise of the Skywalker, turned out to be a momentary clinch between two background characters. Evidently, fan pressure for the bromance between Poe and Finn to spill over into something more serious had fallen on studiously deaf ears.

Unlike Takei, Ryan seems delighted with the queer reinvention of her Star Trek character, enthusiastically tweeting out rainbow flags when the Picard season finale was released. But so far that reinvention has hinged on an ambiguous line of dialogue and another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment of physical contact. In the next season, the writers will need to do much more to prove that queering such a popular character is more than just a gimmick.

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Star trek: a queer history of the franchise.

While the Star Trek franchise has only added explicitly LGBTQ+ characters in the last 4-5 years, it has had ties to queer themes from the beginning.

The Star Trek franchise has always been known to push the boundaries of what is acceptable on mainstream television, and one of the ways it has done this is with explorations of LGBTQ+ themes. Star Trek: The Original Series kicked off the franchise in 1966, in a decade where a lot of social norms were in flux. The topics of race, gender, and sexuality were all being brought to the forefront of the public consciousness, and  TOS began the tradition of using episodes to hold a mirror up to the social and political issues of the day. Following in the footsteps of  TOS ,  every  Star Trek  captain and crew have since continued the trend of addressing pertinent real-world topics.

It is worth noting that, while TOS was a trendsetter in its storylines about race and gender politics, the show never had any explicit representation of queer characters, and neither did Star Trek: The Next Generation . During the time it was airing, there were a considerable number of established rules about what was and was not regarded as acceptable to show on network television. TOS got away with a lot that the network may have not wanted it to show, as did subsequent shows in the franchise, but it is only in the last four to five years that any explicitly LGBTQ+ characters have become part of the increasingly diverse  Star Trek franchise .

Related: Discovery Season 3 Makes Star Trek's TOS Message Relevant Again

This fact may seem like it refutes the idea that  Star Trek  has any kind of queer history. While explicit representation is very important, however, the  Star Trek  universe has historically not needed to be overtly queer in order to still be tied to the LGBTQ+ community. Whether through LGBTQ+ actors, the exploration of sociological and political themes, or by garnering the interest of queer fans who have felt a connection with certain characters, Stark Trek has a thread of queerness that can be followed throughout the majority of its shows and movies.

Star Trek: The Original Series

As stated previously, TOS  did not feature any LGBTQ+ main characters, but George Takei, who portrayed Helmsman Hikaru Sulu , came out as gay in 2005, years after the end of the show's run. Since then, Takei has been a visible and active member of the LGBTQ+ community and champion of LGBTQ+ rights, for which he is known by even younger generations of sci-fi fans. Sulu was one of the main characters on TOS , and to know now that he was portrayed by a gay man who has always championed queer issues makes both Sulu and Takei very important figures in Star Trek's queer history.

Additionally, TOS saw the creation of a fan community that became drawn to two characters for what they perceived as the characters' queer subtext, namely Captain James T. Kirk and his First Officer Spock. The fandom that sprung up around Kirk and Spock is credited with the origins of "slash". Slash is when fans create fanworks such as writing or art that depict two male or two female characters from a specific piece of media in a same-sex relationship. The name slash comes from the backslash that is often added between the two characters' names to denote them as a couple (i.e. "Kirk/Spock"). Despite never being a couple on the show, Kirk and Spock were portrayed as one by fans in a number of fanzines that were passed around via mail during the 1970s, the precursor to current online fan communities. Whether the queer subtext between Kirk and Spock was intentional or not, the two characters are inextricably linked to the LGBTQ+ community for people who know their fandom history.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Similar to TOS , Star Trek: The Next Generation , which ran from 1987 to 1994, had no explicitly LGBTQ+ main characters. One episode of the series, however, stands out as a compelling allegory for queer issues. Season 7 episode 17, titled "The Outcast", tells the story of the Enterprise crew encountering a group of aliens called the J'naii from a planet where binary gender does not exist. The J'naii all identify as gender-neutral, and anyone who harbors feelings of being either male or female is considered deviant and sick by society. During the course of the episode, Commander Riker works very closely with a J'naii named Soren, who reveals to him that she feels as though she is female. True to Riker's romancing skills , the two become close and begin a romantic relationship, but when they are discovered Soren is immediately put before a hearing to decide her fate, where she makes an impassioned plea for herself and people like her to be treated better by J'naii society. "It is not unnatural." She tells her people. "I am not sick because I feel this way. I do not need to be helped. I do not need to be cured."

Related: Lower Decks Proves TNG Era Is The Best Version Of Star Trek

Soren's speech during her hearing is a powerful and poignant message about the plight of those deemed different from the rest of society, and for those in the LGBTQ+ community watching this episode of The Next Generation when it first aired in 1992, her words must have hit home in some very meaningful ways. Sadly, they were not enough to save Soren from undergoing treatment that "cured" her inclinations towards femininity. A tragic end such as this one was the long-time norm for most queer characters on television and in movies, but despite this, the show still uses "The Outcast" to push the boundaries with regards to gender and sexuality, showcasing the plight of LGBTQ+ people during the early 1990s.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Arguably, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the first show in the Star Trek franchise that had a main character who could be read as queer, in the form of Lieutenant Commander Jadzia (and later Ezri) Dax. Dax is a joined Trill , which means that she shares a body with a slug-like symbiont. While Trills have a lifespan similar to humans, the symbionts they coexist with are extremely long-lived and share multiple bodies across multiple lifetimes. More importantly, although Trills do have binary gender, the symbionts are not placed in exclusively male or exclusively female bodies, meaning that Dax has lived lives as both men and women.

Jadzia identifies as female, but the Trill as a race seem to have no issues with switching gender identity, or similarly, with same-sex relationships. "Rejoined", the sixth episode of  Deep Space Nine   season 4, shows Dax rekindling a relationship with Lenara Kahn, the wife of one of her past hosts. Although Dax used to be in a male body when she was married to Kahn, both are in female bodies when they reunite. Ultimately, the two women are barred from resurrecting their relationship by a different taboo in Trill society, one that prevents joined Trill from "reassociating" with past lovers lest they be ostracised. This taboo can be read as another allegory for the real-life discrimination LGBTQ+ couples face, but the show does not treat the fact that Jadzia and Lenara are women as a big deal. "Rejoined" was the first Star Trek show to depict a same-sex kiss, a big step forward for representation in the franchise.

Additionally, like TOS , Deep Space Nine is another example of a show where fans took an interest in two same-sex characters because of their queer subtext. The characters of Doctor Julian Bashir and Elim Garak, a Cardassian tailor were the subject of much speculation by the fandom, and interest in them as a couple remains high to the day. This interest, unlike what sprung up around Kirk and Spock, was also somewhat supported by both actors and the writers during the show's run. Andrew Robinson has said he deliberately played Garak as attracted to Bashir, and some of the creative heads including producer Ira Steven Behr expressed interest in exploring the idea of a romance further, although the idea ultimately never came to fruition.

Related: Star Trek DS9: How Dax Became A Trans Icon

The Reboot Films

The reboot films are the next stop on Star Trek's queer timeline, mostly because Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise were largely devoid of queer themes. The reboot, however, picks up the thread in 2009, following alternate timeline versions of Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the TOS  Enterprise crew. Similar to the show that inspired them, the films feature an openly gay actor as part of the main cast: Zachary Quinto, who was cast in the role of Spock in Star Trek (2009). Quinto   has also been publicly out as gay since 2011 and is a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and issues, much like George Takei.

Besides having a queer actor, the reboot films are arguably the first time an explicitly queer character becomes part of the Star Trek franchise. As a nod towards Takei, the creative team behind the third film,  Star Trek: Beyond , chose to have their version of Sulu be in a same-sex relationship. The relationship is revealed at the beginning of Beyond , in a small scene that garnered both praise and criticism from fans. Some felt that the scene was too brief, and did not depict enough of the relationship to be called representation. George Takei even agreed with this, saying that while he appreciated being honored in this way, making Sulu gay betrayed Gene Roddenberry's original vision for the character. Despite this, Sulu and his family did mark another step in the right direction.

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is one of the most recent additions to the franchise, and also the show that has the most LGBTQ+ representation to-date. Star Trek: Discovery , premiered in 2017, has a total of five explicitly queer characters as part of the main cast. Engineer Paul Stamets and ships Doctor Hugh Culber were introduced as Star Trek's  gay couple in the first season, and actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz, both part of the LGBTQ+ community themselves, have garnered praise for their portrayals of the characters. Meanwhile, the character of Jett Reno joined the crew in season 2, played by openly gay stand-up-comedian Tig Notaro. Discovery also boasts two newer queer characters as part of the cast in season 3; Adira and Gray are non-binary and transgender respectively and are played by actors who share their characters' gender identities.

This massive influx of queer characters is jarring when looked at against previous representation in the franchise, but it is also indicative of the time in which Discovery was created. During the twelve-year gap between the end of Star Trek: Enterprise and the beginning of Discovery ,  the amount of LGBTQ+ representation on television skyrocketed. Where other shows in the franchise existed in an age that was still reluctant to depict queer themes on-screen, Discovery  has no such qualms by virtue of airing in the 2010s. This has allowed the show to fulfill the full promise of one of Star Trek's  best-known mottos: infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery’s Most Important Retcon Is Stamets and Culber

This can be best observed in Adira and Gray's story arc in  Star Trek: Discovery season 4. Back in season 3, Gray gets killed during an attack on the ship, and Adira volunteers to join with Gray's Trill symbiont Tal, causing Adira to gain the memories of not just Gray, but every previous Trill host to Tal. After Adira and Tal are properly joined, Adira Tal continues to talk to Gray as an entity that only they can see. In  Star Trek: Discovery  season 4, Dr. Hugh Culber uses the technology that created Jean-Luc Picard's synthetic body to give Gray's consciousness his own body, allowing Adira Tal and Gray to reunite in the physical world. Through Gray and Adira Tal's still-developing relationship,  Star Trek  not only advances transgender and non-binary representation, but also explores non-traditional relationships and the continued evolution of queer identities.

Star Trek: Picard

Like Discovery , Star Trek: Picard is a recent addition to the franchise, and further contributes to queer representation by diving deeper into the sexual orientation and gender identity of two classic characters. This can be seen in the final episode of Star Trek: Picard  season 1, which revealed that Seven Of Nine, a fan-favorite character first introduced on Star Trek: Voyager , is queer. In Star Trek: Picard , Seven was shown sharing an affectionate moment with another main character, Raffi Musiker, during which the two women held hands and exchanged a meaningful look. Directly after the episode, actress Jeri Ryan expressed that she thinks Seven is pansexual. While fans have yet to see any more of Seven and Raffi's relationship, the emphasis put on their small scene suggests there is definitely more to come.

The decision to reveal more about the sexuality of an already established character like Seven of Nine lends further credence to the idea that there have always been queer themes in the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek has never shied away from their message of a utopic future for everyone, no matter how they look, how they identify, or who they choose to love. From the very beginning, way before characters like Seven of Nine could be openly gay, the franchise has helped LGBTQ+ people see themselves as they would like to be seen, and while this has only gotten easier as society has become more accepting, Star Trek has been part of a queer television legacy from the beginning.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Lower Decks protagonist Beckett Mariner has been confirmed as bisexual by series creator Mike McMahan. As McMahan explains, Mariner's close friend Capt. Ramsey was Mariner's lover during her days at Starfleet Academy. There are more hints about Mariner's bisexuality in  Star Trek: Lower Decks  season 1, as seen in the sexual tension between Mariner and Jack Ransom, and Mariner mentioning that she dated an Anabaj, who seem to be predominantly female. According to McMahan, he and the writers didn't intentionally write any of the characters as straight, cisgender, or heteronormative, citing how all Starfleet officers are most likely, at the baseline, bisexual. In  Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2 , McMahan follows through on his promise to more explicitly depict Mariner as queer, as seen when Mariner says  “Oh I'm always dating bad boys, bad girls, bad gender non-binary babes, ruthless alien masterminds, bad Bynars.”  Moreover,  Star Trek: Lower Decks  was the first animated  Star Trek   series, which means that it boldly advances queer representation in spaces where none of the live-action series and movies have gone before.

More: Star Trek: Is The Phrase "To Boldly Go" Grammatically Incorrect?

The ‘Star Trek’ Cast on the Radical LGBT+ Representation of ‘Strange New Worlds’

FINAL FRONTIER: PRIDE

The out stars of “Strange New Worlds” discuss what the show’s unapologetic depiction of queerness and gender means to them and the “Star Trek” franchise’s history of allyship.

Pari Dukovic/Paramount+

When the Starship Enterprise finally continues its voyage this week, the loud and proud contingent of LGBTQ+ Star Trek fans will see something very special: themselves, represented in the 23rd century.

“I love that we’re premiering during Pride Month,” actor Melissa Navia tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, speaking ahead of the Season 2 launch of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds June 15 on Paramount+. “I feel like our poster is about that, too,” she adds. Promotional advertisements and videos prominently feature rainbow coloring and graphics, much to Navia’s delight. “I don't know if that was on purpose, but I’m going to go ahead and say it was!”

On Strange New Worlds , Navia plays Erica Ortegas, the pilot of the U.S.S. Enterprise . The Star Trek prequel series is set in the future, but also the past; the adventures take place in the 2200s, but it’s several years before those depicted in the original series from the 1960s, when Sulu (George Takei) served as helmsman under William Shatner ’s iconic Capt. James T. Kirk.

When Strange New Worlds launched last summer, Navia was asked by Variety about her character’s androgynous appearance and demeanor. “I like that we’re approaching it in a way that nobody bats an eye. Like, they shouldn’t, right? Everybody should be a bit queer,” she said. “I know I give off this wonderful queer energy. It’s just been a part of who I am.”

Kharen Hill/Paramount+

Almost a year later, Navia tells us she “absolutely” stands by those statements, and the community.

“Throughout my career, the trans and LGBT community have been just such rock stars for me, in terms of people who love what they see in me. They love what I bring to the screen and what I bring to characters,” she says. “The fact is, gender [fluidity] plays almost inherently a part of me and always has. So whenever I’m cast in things, I think people somehow see that. [The LGBT community] have been absolutely my biggest fans.”

“I’m queer,” says actor Jess Bush, without hesitation, speaking about both her own life away from the TV screen and on the Paramount+ streaming series. “I am so delighted that there's more representation for all expressions of sexuality and gender in Star Trek . That’s really exciting to me, and I’m really proud to be a part of that representation.” The Australian native returns as Nurse Christine Chapel, who in this incarnation is an openly bisexual character—but still with the hots for Spock.

“I would like to see [sexuality and gender] explored more for Chapel and for anyone else who’s on the show,” said Bush. “That is something that I think the fandom really appreciates, and it’s also a direct reflection of our society right now. The increased visibility and the increased acceptance of queer folk is something that's being celebrated a lot right now, but is also threatened a lot right now. There’s a lot of violence towards people who are queer.”

Bush was alluding to incidents like the Glendale, California, Board of Education meeting that erupted in a brawl between anti-LGBTQ+ and pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrators this month. And as The Daily Beast has reported , far right extremists have been targeting schools that show support for queer students. Bush mentions how, throughout its history, Star Trek has addressed current conflicts through science fiction storytelling, from war to racism and, more recently, LGBTQ+ and nonbinary inclusion.

“I think Star Trek has a certain power that could be used to fight that [violence],” she said. “I urge the [producers] to do that with the writing. I think it’s an opportunity for them to really step up and stand behind our queer fans.”

Those fans have long fantasized—and composed reams of fan fiction—about a potential romance between Star Trek’s original lead characters, Kirk and Spock, shipping them as “Spirk.” Paul Wesley plays a young Jim Kirk on Strange New Worlds , while Ethan Peck, the grandson of the legendary actor Gregory Peck, wears the famed pointed ears this time around.

“I do think one’s relationship with another actor offscreen, or your general chemistry, does actually translate onto the screen,” Wesley says. Spock meets Kirk for the first time in Season 2, and Peck says their foundational friendship was key to that scene.

“It really added a lot of nuance to that moment, the momentous moment that these two characters meet,” Peck says, after which Wesley deadpans: “Can we get ‘Spirk’ tattoos?”

Celia Rose Gooding is breaking ground in Strange New Worlds , not just as the first actor to portray communications officer Nyota Uhura since the death of the trailblazing Nichelle Nichols , but also as the first queer actor to play the role.

“As an out queer person, as someone whose relationship with their gender is ever-evolving and ever-changing, it is so exciting to be a part of this, especially playing a role that has been originated by cis women and has historically only been played by cis women,” Gooding says , adding that she is humbled to be trusted with Uhura’s story .

“To the trans and nonbinary queer community, know that there is an entire cast of people who want to do right by y’all and want to represent y’all in a way that is human and true and beautiful and lovely. And to have your support means the moon and beyond to all of us, but especially to me, because I am someone who has learned the most about myself from queer people, and as someone who is myself every day and has to show up as myself to play this character,” Gooding says.

“It just means a lot to me to be a part of this and to be just a small piece of an incredibly delicious franchise pie and have my little queer stamp on it and say, ‘A queer person was here and reprised the role and made sure that everyone knew that this person is here and is proud to be a part of this community and has a role to play in Star Trek.’ ”

Rebecca Romijn, who fans may recall as Mystique in the first three X-Men movies, plays a character who was hiding a terrible secret that was exposed in the first season. The revelation resulted in her arrest in the season finale, and she will go on trial in the second episode of this second season. Romijn’s character is Una Chin-Riley, an “augment,” meaning she is the result of genetic engineering, which is banned by Starfleet and the Federation. She is the Enterprise’s first officer and Capt. Pike’s “Number One.”

Given that Romijn also previously played a trans woman on TV’s Ugly Betty, we asked her if she saw a parallel between her characters’ experiences and the way society treats trans people as outcasts.

“It's like these three characters keep coming back in my life and I love it,” Romijn says. “Even though we have this utopian, futuristic world in Trek, sometimes we still grapple with these very human issues like prejudice and persecution. That episode really puts the spotlight on that. I think that the message that Una wants to send is, just because I can hide doesn't mean I should have to. And I would like to think that's what a lot of trans people feel like, too.”

Romijn also shouts out Jesse James Keitel, the out trans actor who played a nonbinary villain in a groundbreaking Season 1 episode directed by a trans woman, Sydney Freeland. “Having that episode with them, with Jesse James Keitel, she was so amazing on our show. We just can’t wait to figure out a way to bring her back.”

It’s clear that the stars of Strange New World know how powerful and how radical the show’s LGBT+ representation is.

As an active user of social media, Navia has heard from queer fans, asking about her character’s love life. “I know people want to see more of Ortegas in terms of her relationships and what I would say to that is, ‘Just hang on. Hang on for sure!’” she says. “I can't wait to see what fans and especially the trans and LGBT community continue to see in Ortegas. And hearing from them also inspires a lot of what we then bring to the role. So, thank you to them and, yeah, Pride month: Let's do it!”

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Published Sep 2, 2020

Star Trek: Discovery Introduces First Transgender and Non-Binary Characters

Blu del Barrio and Ian Alexander join the cast for season three.

StarTrek.com

CBS All Access, ViacomCBS’ subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, today announced that season three of Star Trek: Discovery will introduce the Star Trek franchise’s first non-binary and transgender characters, furthering the “Star Trek” universe’s ongoing commitment to Gene Roddenberry’s original vision of celebrating diversity and inclusion.

The Star Trek universe’s first non-binary character is Adira, played by Blu del Barrio. Adira is highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years. They will find a new home on the U.S.S. Discovery and form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). The first transgender character is Gray, portrayed by Ian Alexander. Gray is empathetic, warm and eager to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a Trill host, but he will have to adapt when his life takes an unexpected turn.

“ Star Trek has always made a mission of giving visibility to underrepresented communities because it believes in showing people that a future without division on the basis of race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation is entirely within our reach,” said Michelle Paradise, co-showrunner and executive producer. “We take pride in working closely with Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander, and Nick Adams at GLAAD to create the extraordinary characters of Adira and Gray, and bring their stories to life with empathy, understanding, empowerment and joy.”

Blu del Barrio is a non-binary actor who uses they/them pronouns. Del Barrio was in their final year of studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art when they auditioned for the role of Adira. Del Barrio has been acting in theater and short films since the age of 7, and they’re incredibly excited to make their television acting debut in season three of Discovery .

Ian Alexander is a 19-year-old actor who uses they/them and he/him pronouns. He is best known for their roles as Buck Vu on the Netflix series “The OA” and Lev in Naughty Dog’s video game “The Last of Us Part II.” They are the first out transgender Asian-American person to act on television. They are also an advocate for transgender equality, racial justice and mental health awareness for LGBTQ+ youth.

The third season of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on Thursday, Oct. 15. New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery ’s 13-episode third season will be available on demand weekly on Thursdays, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the United States.

The First Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Trailer has Arrived

Star Trek: Discovery streams on Paramount+ in the United States, airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada, and on Netflix in 190 countries.

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The final frontier is here for Star Trek 's queerest crew

The final frontier is here for Star Trek's queerest crew

Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season marks the end of the most diverse and LGBTQ+ inclusive series in the 58-year-old sci-fi franchise.

After a television journey that’s lasted seven years, five seasons, and 65 episodes, the gays, queers, trans nonbinary, and even the straight characters of Star Trek: Discovery sashay away with a bang!

The first two action-packed episodes of the 10-episode final season of the science fiction drama are now streaming on Paramount+ ( and for free on YouTube ). The storyline this time around is pure adventure, mystery, intrigue, and a search for ancient clues (no more spoilers!) that continues this series’ intense focus on the characters’ relationships, but also calls back to Star Trek’s roots.

“There is action,” said actor Doug Jones, who plays the alien Saru . He paused briefly as he searched for the right word in a recent interview with Out. “Action mixed with, with family. The relationships in this show are so deep by now, by season five especially, that the action means something when there's so much at stake between all the characters and why we love each other and want to care for each other.”

Love was a theme repeated by everyone connected with the series who sat down to speak with Out recently.

“That's what we strive for in every episode and every season,” lesbian showrunner Michelle Paradise told Out . Discovery was nominated five times for Best Drama at the GLAAD Media Awards and won in 2021. Paradise is especially proud of how her series has been a beacon of LGBTQ + representation, boasting a cast of at least seven out actors who are gay, queer, transgender and trans nonbinary playing roles not all that different from their actual lived experience.

“The representation is so important to us, and it's very, very intentional,” said Paradise. “Every season, every episode, it's intentional.”

When the series launched in 2017, it was intended to be a prequel to the original Star Trek series of the 1960s, set at least a decade before the 23rd century adventures of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise . Discovery was the first spinoff whose central character was not a starship captain, and the first to revolve around the misdeeds, keen insights, and growth of a Black woman.

Sonequa Martin-Green plays Michael Burnham, a human orphan raised on Vulcan, the never-before revealed adopted sister of Spock, and Starfleet’s first mutineer — who did ultimately rise to the rank of captain by the end of the third season.

On a red carpet in 2017, Martin-Green told this reporter her hope was to stand up as a role model in the same way Nichelle Nichols did in the very first Star Trek series, as Lt. Uhura. She told Out that Nichols very much inspired her own performance in this leading role.

“I have been very grateful to stand, and I think I can say that I have at this point,” she said. “Everything that she did, the impact she made in front of the camera and behind it, in society, my goodness! She made it so that I could stand with her.”

When Star Trek: Discovery’s third season propelled the crew of the Starship Discovery into the 32nd century, it introduced two new queer characters: teenage lovers Adira (played by Blu del Barrio ) and Gray (played by Ian Alexander ), who are reunited in this fifth and final season. Del Barrio has a recurring starring role and Alexander returns as a guest star in the third episode. Although Alexander previously identified as a trans man, they and del Barrio told Out in 2022 they are both trans nonbinary.

For del Barrio, that evolution of identity occurred just as much in front of the camera on a soundstage in Toronto, as it did behind the scenes.

“I think it's been a really scary thing to do it through this show and to do it so openly and for lack of a better word, but transparently,” they told Out recently. “And at the same time, I'm incredibly grateful to have been able to start and go through the beginnings of my transition while also playing this character.”

As Star Trek’s first-ever recurring gender nonconforming character, and as a 26-year-old exploring their own trans nonbinary identity, del Barrio told Out they were glad for the good that it did for young viewers back on 21st century Earth to see themselves on that same trajectory.

“It really feels like a sacred thing to me,” they said. “This piece of work feels really sacred because there was a huge change going on for me emotionally. Medically transitioning, all of that was during the last four years. It's like a really crazy snapshot in time.”

But becoming a role model was never something del Barrio sought, they said.

“I really did not think that I deserved to be the person to do that. And I think I've now realized that I did not see other trans people in the media. I didn't necessarily see myself, someone that was maybe a little bit anxious and scared and nervous.”

Actor Wilson Cruz told Out that Star Trek: Discovery provides an answer to that feeling of anxiety that so many share in these troubled times.

“I think the best possible word, given this moment culturally and politically, is resilience. I think, if we can inspire you to be resilient in this moment and to show up for your communities, then I will have done my job.” Cruz plays Dr. Hugh Culber, the gay partner of and fellow “space dad” with Anthony Rapp’s character, Commander Paul Stamets.

“Wilson has used this phrase that I'm going to borrow from him,” Rapp told Out . “One of the things that this show is doing, is showing that we're in the future. The fact that two of the main crew members who are really good at their jobs have been there from the beginning.” There’s never actually been an episode dealing with Culber and Stamets’ orientation; it’s just a given that they are a gay couple, as it would be if they were straight.

“And then we brought into our family and crew this brilliant young person. Adira, that we keep kind of saving the universe, that we're among the ones that really make a huge difference. I do think that this sends this message loud and clear that, ‘Hey, we're still alive, we're still going to be here, hundreds of years into the future. We've always been here, throughout history, some of the major minds of the world have been queer folks throughout history. And that will continue to be the case.’”

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Rapp, who was in Tokyo performing his one man musical Without You at the time of our interview, said he and Cruz have heard repeatedly from fans the positive impact they’ve made.

“We've heard from so many people over these several years who've been profoundly impacted by that representation, by seeing the way that we are with each other and how much it's helped them, either young people themselves that were coming out, or just came out, seeing themselves in Adira, and parents of young people who are like Adira. Just seeing that it has been profoundly meaningful to them, that in turn, is very meaningful to us,” said Rapp.

His next statement is especially prophetic given the recent controversy over the International Transgender Day of Visibility. “It’s essential,” Rapp said. “Visibility is essential to the safety and equality of queer people. It always has been, and it is what has made the difference over the last 50, 60 years. People finally were saying, ‘We're here, we're queer, get used to it, etc.’ It's taken a while. In some places, there's still very far to go. But we've taken as much ground as we have because of that visibility.”

A character who became less visible in the prior season was Ensign Sylvia Tilly, always played with aplomb by out queer actor Mary Wiseman . And, without providing any spoilers, it’s a joy to say she is back and better than ever. “Super fun,” is how Wiseman described to Out what it’s like to return in a different capacity than what fans have seen Tilly do before.

“I think it's kind of nice for Tilly to be both inside of it and outside of it,” she said. “It just feels like she has a lot of autonomy. And for me, it's great, because I get to be there, and it's a nice character development that Tilly gets to come in almost as a consulting expert, instead of being just part of the crew, as she always was. I think it orients her in a different way, where she has a lot more agency, and has gained a lot of confidence by going off on her own and teaching at Starfleet Academy.”

Starfleet Academy is the name of the next Star Trek series, now in pre-production, under the supervision of executive producer and man in charge of all things Trek , Alex Kurtzman. He talked with Out about what made Discovery far more LGBTQ+ inclusive than any other iteration of the 58-year-old franchise.

“I think you hire different showrunners, so that they will give you their vision of Star Trek, right? Nobody wants the same vision for every show,” said Kurtzman. “There has to be certain common denominators, right? Trek is about an essential vision of optimism and inclusion and a sense that our future can actually be bright, even in times of darkness. But beyond that, part of what I love about Star Trek is that each writer of each show brings their own interpretation to it, and I think that's how it stays fresh. So, in no way, shape or form am I taking credit for being the one who's doing all of it, because I couldn't. This show doesn't exist without Michelle, just as every other show doesn't exist without the showrunners and all the amazing writers and crew that work on them.”

“That people are feeling seen and that people are seeing themselves, amidst all of the fun and the cool storytelling and the action and the adventure, that's wonderful,” added Paradise. “That is a wonderful thing about this show. And hopefully that's what people think of, among many other things, once the show finishes its run.”

Even when the characters are in a binary male / female relationship, Star Trek: Discovery finds a way to draw parallels to contemporary issues of love across cultures and other barriers. Can a Kelpien ambassador and a Vulcan president find love in the 32nd century?

“Saru and President Karina, played by Tara Rosling, has been such a fun journey, and I think they're both in love for the first time ever as grown adults,” said Jones. “They've had such a sense of duty all these years that now it's like, ‘Wait, but my heart beats as well, so I can have both!’ That's been lovely to explore and unfold and see. Can career and duty and diplomacy and all of the things that they represent, can that also coincide with ‘I love you,’ and me finding out that I think it can.”

David Ajala is back as well, in the role of Cleveland “Book” Booker, also introduced in the third season. “I love the fact that Michael Burnham and Cleveland Book have been through so, so much, but yet they're in a place where they're able to just try to build bridges.”

The ending of the fourth season saw Burnham and Book separate, and the tension between them is palpable in the first four episodes of season five screened for reporters. Ajala said love is a central theme this go-round, in addition to all the Indiana Jones-style action.

“Love, that's my anchor,” he said. “Love has more currency when it is expressed in action. And I think going forward in season five, Cleveland Book is in a position where he's on a redemptive journey and his love is shown in his actions. He is a student of life and a student of love.”

Out asked Ajala where he stands in terms of the LGBTQ+ community, and the well-known mantra, “Love is Love.”

“Absolutely! You said it. So, I stand in the middle of all that love which everyone is deserving of.”

Martin-Green, the series lead, took the opportunity to frame the series’ end as the end of her own personal evolution, standing up as Nichols did, as Kate Mulgrew did, as Avery Brooks did. Each of them in their own way was a pioneer in the Trek universe, expanding what it means to be seen, and to lead.

“I understand now because of the journey that I've taken, because my journey as Sonequa has paralleled Burnham's in a lot of ways. And there's been so much evolution and maturation and growth. I understand now that I do stand, and that that is why the people before me went through what they went through, that they would want me to stand freely, they would want me to stand confidently. And I understand that that's what I do, and that's what I will continue to do in honor of them, and in honor of whoever might come after me.”

When the cast of Star Trek: Picard was introduced at New York Comic-Con in 2019, Martin-Green took a seat all alone in an empty Madison Square Garden theater mezzanine, watching from afar, but spotted by this reporter. For this story, Out asked her if she had any idea back then what her work on Star Trek: Discovery would make possible: The launch of not only Picard but four other Trek series, namely Strange New Worlds, Prodigy, Lower Decks and now Starfleet Academy .

“Oh, my goodness! We just never in a million years would have imagined,” said Martin-Green. “I don't think any of us could have imagined what we were going to be doing. You know, the fact that we were making television history, with me, with so many others, with our diversity, the fact that we were innovating the franchise and pushing it forward, doing it justice. Now, we've become this mothership. Apparently, fans call this, this time is now called the ‘Platinum Age.’ And so, we're the mothership of the Platinum Age, and now we have our own children, and that is mind blowing. It's mind blowing.”

Platinum, with a whole lot of glitter and rainbows on top.

Season 5 of Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on Paramount+ , with new episodes dropping every Thursday.

• 'Star Trek: Discovery' Stars React to Show's Ending With Season 5 ›
• Cover Stars Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz Are the 'Space Dads' We Need ›
• Star Trek's Blu del Barrio & Ian Alexander: Transgalactic Heroes ›
• Star Trek: Discovery's Anthony Rapp on Playing the Shows First Openly Gay Character ›
• Meet the Lesbian Co-Showrunner Queering 'Star Trek: Discovery' ›
• How Star Trek Helped 'Discovery' Star Emily Coutts Come Out ›

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The Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Guide

Since 1967, when the first Star Trek comic was published, 2,635 Star Trek stories have been released in print, comic, and original audio form. In the first decades, the majority of these were standalone stories that only referenced the show. However, over most of the past twenty years the majority of Simon and Schuster novels took place in a shared continuity in which the events of one novel often had major repercussions on the novels following it. This modern continuity will be referred to here as the STAR TREK LIT-VERSE.

       Unlike the Star Wars Expanded Universe or various other media tie-in lines, no Star Trek novel, comic, or game is considered canon. Even those written in conjunction with the new, currently in-production series. However, that doesn't take anything away from the quality of the material or its ability to entertain. Even as Star Trek has returned to the small screen and the Simon and Schuster novel continuity has mostly drawn to a close, the inter-connectedness of the novels will likely continue in some form as it has for the majority of Trek history.

       The complete Lit-verse consists of a continuity web of more than 1100 stories. That is approaching half of all Star Trek fiction ever published. In addition to the majority of the novels which have been released over the past two decades, many older novels have been referenced in this continuity as well. Available to the left are reading lists for each of the series. Don't be overwhelmed by the length of some of the lists. All anthology short stories and many comic issues are listed individually, so it's not as much reading as it seems to a newcomer. Not all connections are noted, only the ones which form the branching out of the lists. Author annotations can be found for many stories to provide more extensive references.

       My placement of a story in the Lit-verse is not intended to imply that there are no continuity discrepancies included in the material. There are definite contradictions in the lists I've compiled. The fact is, not even the shows themselves are free of continuity errors, some quite large. The older novels do not always agree in every detail with the Lit-verse, or even with modern canon. Indeed, even the newer novels, written with the modern continuity in mind, sometimes contain a few mistakes. The majority of all this can be ignored, or explained away by a creative mind. My goal here was to include every link possible and leave the continuity problems up to the reader to resolve. If you don't want a book in your personal continuity, then just ignore it. Don't become so invested in continuity that you forget to enjoy the stories themselves.

A Note On the Format of This Website

       Each Star Trek series is given its own reading list page. The major Lit-only series, New Frontier, SCE, Gorkon, Titan, Vanguard/Seekers, Mirror Universe , and Myriad Universes also have their own pages. The easiest way to include Stargazer, The Lost Era, and certain other like-period pieces was to create an Early 24th Century reading list containing them all.

       I then have a simple list of Simon and Schuster stories that take place after Star Trek: Nemesis grouped into "chapters". A more detailed timeline of the stories following Star Trek: Nemesis is given on the Post-Nemesis: Month-By-Month page. Note that these stories were published in the years before Star Trek: Picard premiered, and the authors were given free rein to explore the late 24th century. Things do "eventually" lead back into the modern television continuity now shown in Star Trek: Picard and other series, but tell an alternate history of the intervening years that only makes sense in relation to the canonical storyline at its conclusion in the Coda trilogy.

       Also to the left is a month-by-month breakdown of the Five Year Mission. The Complete Pocket Books Novel List updates the novel list as given in the back of Pocket Books novels in years past, before the list became so long that it was considered impractical to include in every book. I also have a list of all the ebook exclusive Trek stories which have been published and never been released in print. Then there's a vast examination of the minutiae of Klingon date keeping systems. I've keep an exact count of every Star Trek story ever published, updated with each new month's releases, and a count of just how many stories have been told that take place in the Five Year Mission. And for the first two seasons of Discovery, I kept an examination of the dating of each episode. Don't miss pictures of my 1:5000 scale Star Trek ship model collection, and a page where I log all the updates to the site, for those interested in seeing what is new and what has changed.

       Forthcoming is the Complete Lit-verse reading list, which will include every story from the main reading lists in order. Also to come will be more specific reading lists (character specific lists, species specific lists, storyline specific lists). I also want to build a "Simple Pre-Nemesis Reading List." Someday I will develop an explanation of my own personal continuity and a list of what it includes.

       Each anthology is broken up into individual short stories, and each novella and comic issue is included separately. Special cases were The Lives of Dax and No Limits. These were both broken up into their individual stories (which spread them out over different series) and also placed in their respective series as a whole (for those only reading that series.) For example the short story 'Q'uandary from New Frontier: No Limits is essentially a TNG story and is included in that reading list, but for those only reading New Frontier , the entire No Limits anthology is listed there as well. In addition to being broken up across series lines, each story from Tales of the Dominion War is also included on the DS9 page, because of the centrality of the overall story to that series.

       New Frontier presented a specific challenge in that much back story had to be presented to get the series established, because of its Lit-only nature. Thus to experience many of its short stories in chronological order without breaking up some of the New Frontier flashbacks into separately listed sections would have been somewhat unintelligible to a new reader. This is not the case for the TV series based book lines, nor is it a circumstance shared by the other Lit-only series. So with New Frontier some of the flashbacks are presented as separate portions of the list. This is explained further on the New Frontier page.

       With comic series, miniseries were treated as whole unique stories, but only individual linked issues of anthology or ongoing series were included. I didn't consider the "Previously in Star Trek--" intros in Marvel comics to rise to the level of a story reference. Where possible, I have condensed miniseries or story arcs into single entries to trim the length of the reading lists. Above all the proceeding considerations, however, my overriding rule was that if multiple stories were published in the same work, such as a short story anthology or multistory comic book, all stories between those two covers would be included if anything from that volume was connected to the Lit-verse.

       The Strange New Worlds anthologies were forced to break this rule though. At least one story from almost all the volumes of SNW was referenced, and this would have necessitated putting almost every SNW story into the reading lists. Also specifically not included are references involving RPGs or video games.

       The timeline used for these lists was derived from the Timeliners chronology in Voyages of the Imagination by Jeff Ayers and lots of research done on my own, with the Memory-Beta timeline being a very important resource. Much of my process of figuring out the timeline of the various series was recorded on the TrekBBS. Starting here , with more to come in the future.

Note of Inspiration and Thanks

      Very special thanks goes to turtletrekker of the TrekBBS message boards. His work in compiling at least half of these continuity connections was both the inspiration of and basis for this website. This entire idea began from the dozens of message boards questions about what books had to be read before reading Keith R.A. DeCandido's Articles of the Federation. The specific thread that can be considered the grandfather of this website can be found here . Turtletrekker ran with this and compiled the vast Charting the Novel-verse project, the second version of which can be found here . My interest in the project began and was first manifested in a discussion here and continued here .

       More thanks to all the TrekBBS members who contributed to these discussions. Thanks also to Steve Roby, whose amazing Complete Starfleet Library is a great resource. And on the other side of the literary coin is Mark Martinez's Star Trek Comics Checklist , which is invaluable to me, and Curt Danhouser's Guide to the Star Trek Story Records

       None of this would be possible without the original Timeliners who created the Voyages of the Imagination timeline, and all of my colleagues who have kept it alive over the years. I thank them for their allowance to include small tidbits of information here and there. Keep in mind this is simply my interpretation of Star Trek continuity. Your mileage may vary. Enjoy, everyone!

      Questions? Comments? [email protected] Twitter: @ryan1234560 Or vist the Trek BBS Thread

The Star Trek Litverse Reading Guide is not affiliated with CBS Studios Inc.. Star Trek ® is a trademark of CBS Studios Inc.

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Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) isn’t thrilled by this prospect, pointing out before she leaves that it’s too dangerous a mission for a captain to undertake. But Burnham disagrees that this is enough of a reason to stop her; it’s a nice reminder that this is a show and a character that originated in the time of James T. Kirk, a time when captains didn’t stay behind in the face of danger.

But it’s not only that, there’s something else going on. Burnham gives Rayner permission to be blunt, quoting a classic work on Rayner’s native Kellerun , The Ballad of Krull , asking him to “serve it without a crumb of ossekat .” (As far as made-up Star Trek idioms go, that’s a pretty good one.)

It’s also the beginning of a sudden and relentless onslaught of references to Rayner’s culture, but more on that later. What’s Rayner’s problem? He’s uncomfortable with the prospect of being left in command of a ship and crew that aren’t “his.” Welcome to being second in command, buddy.

Book and Burnham take off, heading into the wormhole and finding it to be an inhospitable place. They quickly drop out of communication range with Discovery , there’s ship debris everywhere, including the wreckage of Moll and L’ak’s ship…. and what’s that, the  ISS Enterprise ?!

(A side note before we get too excited about that: what is the deal with all the empty space in the new shuttlecraft set, introduced in last season’s “All Is Possible”? The two pilot seats looked like they were crammed into the corner of a huge unfurnished room.)

Okay, Enterprise time. Burnham and Book rightly surmise that this is where Moll and L’ak must have escaped to and beam to the ship, which of course turns out to be a redress of the Strange New Worlds  standing sets. A quick scan identifies that no one else is aboard — though the clue, which Moll and L’ak have found, does also have a lifesign, hmm — and that Moll and L’ak are holed up in sickbay. Burnham takes a few moments to ponder her visit to the Mirror Universe back in Season 1 and wonder what the alternate version of her half-brother Spock might have been like (bearded, for one).

And aside from some brief storytelling about Mirror Saru’s role as a rebel leader, that’s about it for the Terran Empire of it all. Star Trek: Discovery has spent plenty of time in and around the Mirror Universe already, and I personally don’t think they need to revisit it again. But introducing the  ISS Enterprise — the ship that started it all with The Original Series ’ “Mirror, Mirror” — and then not doing anything momentous with it? Strange decision, and one that makes it ultimately feel more like this was a way for the show to get to reuse a set on the cheap than it does a materially significant addition to the episode.

In fact, in some ways it’s actually a detriment to the episode. If the action had been set on any other ship it would have been fine, but being on the ISS Enterprise I kept expecting something — like seeing Paul Wesley as Mirror Kirk slinking around, or finding Anson Mount camping it up as Mirror Pike in a personal log. If they’d set the action on a generic derelict ship, what we got wouldn’t have seemed like a let down. As it is though, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop… and it simply never did.

Maybe in a subsequent episode, it’ll turn out that there’s an advantage in having an entire functional starship composed of atoms from another universe at Starfleet’s disposal — or to have a convenient collection of Constitution -class sets available for that Starfleet Academy show to borrow once in a while — but until that happens (if it even does) the use of the ISS Enterprise just seems like a name drop and a “We have to set the action somewhere , why not here?” instead of a significant use of the setting and the huge amount of lore and history that comes with it.

It’s like setting something aboard the Titanic without ever mentioning any icebergs.

As Burnham and Book make their way down to sickbay they do find evidence that the ship was being used in a way that seemed unusually gentle for a Terran Empire vessel: signs that children and families were aboard at one time, and that they were the kind of people sentimental enough to have keepsakes and favorite stuffed animals. But again, nothing about this seems like it needs the Mirror Universe connection. Ships of people trying to escape adversity are already a Star Trek staple.

Burnham and Book find Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) in sickbay, and after a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at getting them to surrender, everyone starts shooting. Moll and L’ak have a Breen blood bounty — an erigah — on their heads and surrender is simply not an option. During the firefight a lockdown is triggered, forcefields coming down that split the group into pairs: Burnham and L’ak stuck in sickbay, while Book and Moll able to go back to the bridge to try and reset sickbay.

Pairing off also gives Book the opportunity to continue his efforts to connect with Moll, and I have to say, I don’t think I’m a fan. Setting aside the portion of this that’s purely a strategic attempt to forge a connection with someone who is very to keen to kill him, my first reaction to the way Book talks to Moll about her father (and his mentor) was distaste.

I don’t think Book meant it this way, but the way he’s written in these scenes feels unpleasantly close to the “Well, he was a great guy to me , I never saw him do anything bad” response that’s sometimes made to accusations of misconduct. A person can be wonderful to some people in their life and terrible to others; both experiences are true for the people who received them, but they’re not mutually exclusive.

Book is preternaturally empathetic, and yet he doesn’t seem to see how continually assuring Moll that her father loved her is an act that’s both unwanted and actively painful for Moll to hear. I understand that Book is just trying to bring a sliver of comfort to Moll – but in the process he’s dismissing her own experiences of her father and his place in her life. Unless Moll asks him for this, it’s really none of Book’s business.

I suspect they’re setting up Moll’s character for a nice, cathartic arc where she comes to terms with her life, forgives her father, releases her past, whatever. And when that happens in real life that’s great — but it doesn’t always, and that’s okay too. If Moll never sees in her father the man Book saw in his mentor, it’s not a character failing. Discovery is really hammering home the theme of confronting one’s past in order to take control of one’s present and future, and I think it would be valuable if they included an example of a character learning to do the latter… without having to be okay with the former.

And to return to a question I posed in my review of “Under the Twin Moons,” I know Book is isolated and excruciatingly lonely after the destruction of Kweijan and his split with Michael, but the weight he’s placed on his relationship with Moll as “the closest thing he has to family” seems like he’s setting himself up for disappointment. Maybe I’m just a cynic, but this does not feel like a hopeful storyline to me. Not everyone wants to be family, and right now it doesn’t seem like Moll’s been given much of a choice in the matter — despite her frequent and very powerful explanations of why she’s not interested.

Clearly frustrated with Book’s topic of conversation and desperate to return to L’ak, Moll makes a reckless decision to brute-force a solution and overload some circuits. It works, and the forcefields in sickbay come down, but it also sends the Enterprise onto an unstoppable collision course with the too-small-to-pass-through and also going-to-be-closing-forever-soon wormhole. They’ve got eight minutes to figure this out.

Meanwhile aboard Discovery , we see Rayner’s struggles to interact with the crew. This thread could have gone so many different ways, Rayner seeming “too good” for a temporary command, him seeing this as his chance to do things “better” than Burnham or show how it’s “really done,” but instead the show takes the much more subtle and satisfying route: Rayner is deeply respectful of the captaincy, as a rank and a role, and really doesn’t want to step on Burnham’s authority.

He’s more than willing to disagree with her on command decisions , but he doesn’t question her command . And more personally, he doesn’t want his gruffness and lack of experience with this crew to cause problems. He’s trying, in his own Rayner way, and more importantly he’s succeeding — and, as we see as he shepherds the crew through figuring out how to communicate with and then rescue Book and Burnham, the crew does their part and meets him halfway.

Rayner is learning that he needs to tone down his temperament just enough that he doesn’t come across as an actual asshole to this crew, and the crew is learning that his gruffness isn’t a sign of disrespect but simply a desire to cut to the chase and get to direct, actionable information with a minimum of fluff. There are shades of Nimoy’s Spock or Voyager -era Seven of Nine here, but couched within a distinctly different temperament, and it’s fascinating to watch. I’d love to have seen him interacting with the crew of the Antares , where he presumably felt more comfortable.

The interpersonal stuff with Rayner and the crew is great; where Rayner’s thread feels distractingly like a box being checked is the explosion of “Rayner is a Kellerun!” being shouted from the bulkheads. I could practically hear the writers yelping out a panicked “Oh crap, we forgot to say what kind of alien Rayner is!”

Again, Discovery is back to its old self with the clunky, heavy-handed, and oddly paced character work. Rayner goes from having zero cultural touchstones to having about five in the span of the 15-20 minutes of screentime that his story gets this week. They’re good touchstones, don’t get me wrong — I’m skeptical of Kellerun citrus mash, I have to be honest, but I’d give it a try; not so sure about boiling a cake though — they’re just very present .

As with Rayner’s alienness, the frequent flashbacks throughout the episode to Moll and L’ak’s meeting and courtship feel like a “We forgot to explain this and now we’re trying to reference it!” correction. The content of the flashbacks is fine, there’s a lot of interesting Breen worldbuilding for a species that’s been mysterious from the start — and watching Moll and L’ak’s relationship grow from one of mutual convenience to one of true love is genuinely moving. But the way it’s woven into an episode that, again, feels like it’s composed of bits and pieces of storyline, makes it hard to shake the sense that I was watching a To Do list get checked off.

By the time the season is over it might be clear that there was simply no extra room to give a full episode over to Moll and L’ak’s meeting, or maybe an episode without any of the main cast wasn’t something they were willing or contractually able to do, but I would have loved if these flashbacks were pulled out and expanded into a full-length episode of their own. Some of the worldbuilding felt hasty to the point of hindering the emotional beats — at times I wondered if I’d forgotten a whole bunch of Breen lore and at others I was just trying to keep up with what was going on.

For example, my confusion about L’ak’s comment about having two faces, which Moll seemed to completely understand — “Duh, everyone knows the Breen have two faces” — was a distraction in the middle of an otherwise nice and significant moment. This is later clarified as the translucent face and the solid face, but again I was distracted from fully appreciating an interesting bit of Breen culture because I was busy applying what I’d just learned back to the previous scene.

The quickly (and maybe not totally clearly articulated notion) that Breen deliberately restrict themselves to their translucent form for reasons that are entirely to do with avoiding any perception of weakness is a potent if hasty bit of social commentary, and as I said I nearly didn’t catch it.

Whether holding the translucent form requires the armor for protection or the armor necessitates the translucent form — it seems like it would be more comfortable wearing that helmet all the time if you were the texture and consistency of lime jello — this is surely a metaphor for the increasingly rigid, isolating, and emotionally and sometimes physically unhealthy things men in certain circles feel they must do to be appropriately masculine. Seeing L’ak free himself from that rigidity is powerful.

With the forcefields in sickbay down, Burnham and L’ak immediately spring into action:  Burnham trying to get the artifact from L’ak and L’ak simply trying to get away. They fight, and Burnham impressively proves she can hold her own against a Breen. When L’ak accidentally falls on his own blade, Burnham grabs the clue and speeds to the bridge where she manages to get a message to Rayner through some tractor beam trickery. The message? Another reference to that classic of Kellerun literature that gives Rayner the info he needs. Hey, did you know Rayner was a Kellerun?

The ISS Enterprise makes it through the wormhole, Moll and L’ak zip away in an escape pod, and it’s time to wrap things up. We head to Red’s for a quick but significant moment between Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Culber (Wilson Cruz), as Tilly offers advice and an ear to a Culber who’s going through a quiet existential – maybe also spiritual? – crisis.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• In addition to the dedication plaques on the bridge, the ISS Enterprise has an additional plaque in its transporter room — one which, despite recounting the heroism of rebel action hero Mirror Saru, still states “Long Live the Empire.”
• The transporter room plaque is marked with “Stardate 32336.6,” which is about 9 years before the events of “Encounter at Farpoint.”
• The plaque describes the fate of Mirror Spock, who was killed after instituting the reforms which later led to the fall of the Terran Empire (as described in DS9’s “Crossover”).

The full text of the ISS Enterprise transporter room plaque:

The new High Chancellor presented hope and justice as if they were natural to our world. His words, “The light of hope shines through even the darkest of nights” became our rallying cry. He spoke of reform, and changed many of us. But some saw this as weakness. They killed him, and we sought help from an unlikely ally: A Kelpien slave turned rebel leader.   He spoke of visitors from another world… a near perfect mirror cast our darkness into light. With his aid we secured the Enterprise and stayed behind to continue his work. We bear scars from our escape, but our hope remains. May it carry us into a pristine, peaceful, and just future.

• Not counting L’ak’s previous appearances this season, this episode marks the first time we have seen the Breen in live action since their involvement in the Dominion War in Deep Space Nine.  (The species has appeared in  Star Trek: Lower Decks three times.)
• The 32nd century Breen wear updated encounter suits clearly based on the designs introduced in  Deep Space Nine ; their digital speech is extremely faithful to the incomprehensible noises Breen soldiers have spoken in past appearances.
• Given the fact that Moll appears to be just fine in the environment of the Breen ship, I guess Weyoun was right when he said the Breen homeworld was “quite comfortable” in “The Changing Face of Evil.”
• When L’ak is stabbed he gently oozes some green goo — but as we learned in “In Purgatory’s Shadow,” Breen do not have traditional humanoid blood.

• During his time in command of Discovery , Rayner never sits in the captain’s chair.
• This episode closes with a dedication plaque that reads “In loving memory of our friend, Allan ‘Red’ Marceta”. Marceta was, I presume, the namesake for Discovery’s bar.
• Someone aboard Discovery keeps a Cardassian vole as a pet. Going by Tilly’s reaction, and what we know from  Deep Space Nine , this is not a good thing.
• Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) plays a mean piano.
• Owosekun and Detmer get the off-screen cherry assignment of flying the ISS Enterprise back to Federation Headquarters, alone. I’m thinking that’s going to inspire some fanfic…

We don’t learn what this week’s clue is, though we know there’s a blue vial tucked away inside it, but we do learn that the crew of the ISS Enterprise did indeed make it to our universe. The scientist responsible for hiding this particular clue there was one of them, a Dr. Cho, who eventually made it all the way to branch admiral.

They strove for something positive and succeeded against all odds. Hopefully Discovery will be able to do the same as they continue their pursuit of Moll, L’ak, and the Progenitors.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 returns with “Whistlespeak” on Thursday, May 2.

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’: David Ajala Talks Book & Michael’s Relationship, Plus More Grudge

Where No One Has Gone Before

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Book ( David Ajala ) may not be able to get through to Moll ( Eve Harlow ), one of the crew’s foes this season in pursuit of a great power—and also someone he considers all he has left of family, given she’s his mentor’s daughter—but maybe the rest of the final season of Star Trek: Discovery will be a bit easier for him? Not likely.

Not only is there his and Captain Michael Burnham’s ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) complicated relationship, but the crew’s mission is to find technology from a race of ancient beings called the Progenitors who created life as we know it. Below, Ajala teases what’s ahead for both and more Grudge, plus talks about saying goodbye (or not) to Book and the show.

Book and Michael’s relationship remains so complicated. How does he feel about her at this point?

David Ajala: They will always be in each other’s lives. In what capacity, that will unfold as the series progresses, but these are two individuals who understand each other, who have seen the best and the worst of each other. I hope their relationship will progress and become stronger.

What can you say about what’s next for them? Their professional relationship has been complicated as well. 

Absolutely. And behind every great woman is herself. I think Cleveland Booker has no issues whatsoever standing by the side of Captain Michael Burnham and letting her lead. However, I just feel that there’s some wounds which need a bit of TLC to really, really heal, but I think Cleveland Booker will always have deep, unconditional love for Michael Burnham.

What’s coming up in Discovery ‘s mission ? Because it is quite the mission to put them on for the final season.

It is, and I’m happy that we’ve gone big with this season. One thing I will say is that the moment that Starfleet seem to have a handle and an understanding on the way things are panning out and to be able to kind of intercede at the right moment, another spanner’s thrown into the works, but you guys love the drama.

What can preview about the finale?

I can say that the finale was an absolute joy to film. I can say that we have stumbled upon some legacy stuff. I can also say that there will be tears, but there will also be so much joy.

Michael Gibson / Paramount+

How will you remember Book and the show?

I will always remember Book as that cheeky chappy who snuck in through the back door to a party he wasn’t invited in, jumped onto the dance floor, started to dance, and became part of the furniture. I was embraced by the other dancers on the dance floor. Cleveland Booker will always be Grudge’s companion.

Grudge is amazing.

She really is. She truly is. And we’ll be seeing a lot more Grudge in this season as well.

How has it been saying goodbye to Book and to the show?

In all honesty, I think you’re probably the first person I’ve said this to: I haven’t said goodbye to Cleveland Booker, and I don’t think I will. If there’s anything I’ve learned from playing this character is the power of selfless love, the power of being intentional behind pursuing something that is greater than yourself, that hopefully should contribute to what is making the world a better place. Cleveland Booker’s  definitely made me a better person because he’s given me a perspective to offer people more grace, patience, and kindness.

Could we see you on another Star Trek show going forward?

Stranger things have happened. You never know.

'Star Trek: Discovery' Reveals Moll & L'ak's Backstory

What are you enjoying most about who Book is this season?

I’m enjoying how—not that he needed to at the beginning, but he is a version of himself that’s so stripped down because of life experiences that doesn’t feel the need to prove anything to anyone. I feel that he has a real understated internal peace, which I think is a bit of a life hack. I’m enjoying playing that peace within Cleveland Booker.

I really like the Book and Culber ( Wilson Cruz ) scenes, too.

Oh, bless. Thank you. That’s some of my favorite stuff, getting to work with Wilson Cruz and just that moment of two friends talking, giving space to each other, nonjudgmental—curious but not judgmental—and just being there for one another. It is a really wonderful friendship, which has blossomed in the most organic way, and I’m really, really happy for it.

And it’s like moments like that I think that make Star Trek stand out because we get so much heart amidst all the sci-fi.

Yeah, I think so, absolutely. It’s such a wonderful balance to be able to have so much heart within a genre which just happens to be science fiction.

Do you have any idea in mind what you want to do next?

I’m in the jungle next. I kid you not. I’m prepping to be in a jungle and I’m very excited to be part of this new special TV series, which is far removed from the world of Star Trek , but I’m equally as excited to work on it.

Star Trek: Discovery , Thursdays, Paramount+

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Star Trek: Discovery

David ajala.

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Star Trek is a series of episodes initially divided into three seasons and produced by America based producer Gene Roddenberry which was an experiment of its own kind and later set the legend for many people. Star Trek is highly appraised by many people around the world for its futuristic thinking as per the time and era it was created in. There are huge crowds at its big conventions where people can meet their favorite stars and discuss episodes and theories with other people. The genre of science fiction got a new meaning through this show and the ideas used in each episode. While initially this show was not quite famous and accepted widely it stopped producing once CBS cancelled it in 1969 after which the show got quite famous through a process known as syndicate broadcasting where a channel can buy the original rights of a television show to broadcast it as per their timings. Soon it grew famous and remained a legacy throughout the 70’s becoming a huge hit and a cult classic with people known as trekkies devoted to each and every aspect of the show and having great knowledge about it. Such people regularly attend the meetings and events of Star Trek and maintain an amazing fan base for the series at all times.

Storyline of the books: The story of the episodes of the Star Trek book series originally released are adventures of the starship which travels through a part of the milky way galaxy and is known as the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). The crew members aboard the space ship are the leading captain of the crew James T. Kirk whose role is played by William Shatner who became quite famous for his acting through the show along with other cast once the show gained popularity. Other members of the crew are First officer and science officer Spock played by Leonard Nimoy and is often compared with the crew’s captain Kirk, another crew member is the chief medical officer Leonard McCoy who is played by DeForest Kelly.

The storyline of the show is based about the year 2260’s and the time is measured in startime in the series. The initial series got the name after its fame as Star Trek: The Original Series so that it always stands out amongst the massive fan along with media franchise. Captain Kirk often states the purpose of the series in the beginning of the episodes in the world renowned series by introducing the show as voyages of the Starship Enterprise and its mission for five years is to go on an exploratory mission on different planets in order to find and research them and seek out new life and civilizations primarily by going where no human has gone previously.

Creation of Star Trek: Gene Roddenberry, finished drafting a short plot for a series based on science fiction on March 11th 1964, which he referred to as Star Trek and was set aboard a spaceship on the 23rd century. While his influences to the idea of Star Trek as accepted by Roddenberry himself include the stories featuring spaceship Space Beagle written by A. E. van Vogt along with Marathon which is a series of stories written by Eric Brand Russell along with the film Forbidden Planet launched in 1956.

While the works of Roddenberry are one of their kind and imprinted in history people have been seen debating his television series similar to a television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger launched in 1956 which has similar elements to that of Star Trek along with a few technologies displayed on the show as well. While Roddenberry accepts deriving elements for his show from the Horatio Hornblower novels which depict a daring sea captain who goes on a journey for a noble purpose and overcomes various feats using his authority and daring and Roddenberry sometimes refers Captain Kirk by referring to him as Horatio Hornblower in Space.

Roddenberry had a good share of experience in writing successfully crafted television series which depicted his fine artistic skills through their popularity in the decades following 1960 and 1950. Except Star Trek: Deep Space Nine all the later movies based on Star Trek are based around the idea originally used by Roddenberry in the original series which depicted each episode as having a separate storyline contained within a single episode through a different adventure. In short the script was drafted such that each episode is a new adventure of the ship at a new location while their main motive remains carrying on at a slower pace. Thus, any person can view an episode as each episode has its own different story and is quite independent of others.

Books published in Star Trek: James Blish was the first person to write Star Trek books through short stories for each episode into one book. He wrote total 11 books based on the three seasons of original Star Trek episodes. The books were quite famous once the show gained popularity and Bantam Books republished Blish’s books in three volumes one for each season. There was an acknowledgement stating that after Star Trek 7 or Star Trek 8 the credit for writing Star Trek novels goes to his wife and mother J. A. Lawrence who ghost wrote the books for him. A short story written by Blish’s wife known as Mudd’s Angels was published with the book. The Star Trek books were published from 1967 to 1975 based on rough initial drafts for the show and initially they were not referenced to the show since James Blish was based in United Kingdom and the show had not yet been aired there.

With time the fans have grown for the show and books and people and experts often state the phenomenon of Star Trek as ever growing with time and people are found in huge crowds at the premiering of new episodes, movies, comics, books, graphic novels etc. at the Star Trek conventions. There are new experiments done by a variety of writer and a number of franchised shows for Star Trek have been released along with books over time. Many of the Star Trek books and comics along with shows cover the original show in an enhanced or detailed manner there are also a vivid variety of cases where people have based the book on a show or with their unique inputs. Some famous fan or company based books have also become the plotline of famous Star Trek movies or stories while some comics and book series of star trek are genuinely famous for their writing style and regular updates. Many of these franchised books do not relate to the original series in many aspects along with the plotline and there is a huge variety to choose from.

What to Choose: While there are a number of options available to the readers beginning with the initial novels of Blish are the best idea as it gives the starting plot of the story thought by the creator at that point. There are also a huge number of famous and appraised novels created by fans and other companies along with a wide array of books which grow in number each week and many of these books are quite impressive.

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Sci-fi TV is in its golden age: What you need to know now

In a career that spans 50 years, John Peel has done it all, written it all and seen it all in sci-fi — published some 120 novels, including a few dozen tie-ins of established classics like “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who,” written sci-fi books for kids and young adults, and sci-fi series under his own name (like “2099").

But the Manorville resident since 1991 admits he has never seen anything quite like this — more sci-fi splashed across more networks and streaming services than any single human being could hope to consume in a year.

Local sci-fi author John Peel in the library/office of his Manorville house on April 18, 2024 where he has a full collections of classic sci-fi series. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin

Much of this bounty is good, he says, much compelling, much bleak. A proud Trekkie  born in England 70 years ago, Peel explains that “''Star Trek'' was very optimistic because "that was [creator] Gene Roddenberry's vision — that we can make things work. Nowadays, some of these shows say 'No we can't!' ”

Using sci-fi to stare into the dark night of our collective souls is hardly all that's behind this new golden age of sci-fi, he says. Rather, “people are really turning to sci-fi at the moment because the world has changed so much.”

We're frankly living through a moment right now that's science fictional. - Lisa Yaszek, Georgia Tech, Atlanta

The idea of science fiction as a beacon to guide us forward to a bright and distant future — or a dark and threatening one — has been around since at least the 1940s, when Isaac Asimov first began publishing his monumental “Foundation” series (about, indeed, a “dark” age that would last 30,000 years, now a brilliant series on Apple TV+). TV embraced the genre not long after (“Buck Rogers,” “Captain Video”) and hasn't let go since.

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But what's going on right now is unprecedented. There are dozens of series on a half-dozen streamers  not counting cable channel Syfy (which after all is sci-fi-all-the-time, with a smattering of horror). There are another 15 shows in development arriving between next week (“Dark Matter,” Apple TV+, May 8) and well into next year (including “Dune” and “Alien” prequels).

Streaming is obviously behind this TV sci-fipalooza. The adaptations of videogames to TV series are as well.

Yet Peel and some other observers point to something else — a transformative moment in the culture at large that feels both restless and anxious. Sci-fi is, and always has been, made for times like these, they say.

Maybe we look to sci-fi to predict where we are going or to offer some answers - Ken Deep, Ridge

“There are a number of factors that have come together, but we're frankly living through a moment right now that's science fictional,” says Lisa Yaszek, Regents’ Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Yaszek cites the “revival of the space race,” funded in part by private billionaires, like Elon Musk, which classic sci-fi author Robert Heinlein long ago prophesied.

“And everyone's talking about AI, which is certainly not quite the way we thought it was going to look like,” she says. “But it's definitely making really science fictional changes right up to the way we do labor and the way we think about humans and how we represent ourselves in politics. So it's a very, very exciting moment — either that or terrifying. Or both.”

Ken Deep, a Ridge resident and sci-fi expert who has run “Doctor Who” conventions on Long Island since 2013 (and just published “The Companions of Doctor Who”), puts it this way: “I feel like we are living in a dystopian nightmare right now, and maybe we look to sci-fi to predict where we are going or to offer some answers. We all want to know that it doesn’t end here, that the future is bright, or at least that we make it through.

 “Or maybe,” he adds, “we are just looking for a fantastic escape.”

Ken Deep, a world-leading expert on Doctor Who holds his book The Companions of Doctor Who while standing with a replica Tardis built by and standing in his friend Steven Davis' yard in Baldwin on April 16, 2024. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost

Indeed, this golden age of sci-fi TV has been driven by lots of disparate elements — social, cultural, and of course commercial — while television just underwent a revolution (streaming), which continues to have a huge impact.

There are a lot of genuinely great sci-fi series on TV right now, and lots of questions, too. Here's a handy guide to some of those.

First things first: What exactly is “sci-fi” anyway? 

Experts like Yaszek insist that anything with a science-fictional hook qualifies, regardless of whether it's set in the past, present or future. That means the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which began on the big screen in 2008) is a type of sci-fi, and so are “The Handmaid's Tale” (2017) and “Stranger Things”' (2016). She argues that those are part of this “golden age,” too.

There are, in fact, at least two dozen sci-fi subgenres, and dozens of subgenres within those, including slipstream, which combines elements of speculative fiction with sci-fi elements (“Handmaid's”), or cosmic horror (“Stranger Things”). Many of these have become well-represented on TV in recent years, most notably animé.

But this TV boom is really about hard science fiction, or that most famous genre of them all, largely preoccupied with trips to the stars, or the application of awe-inspiring theory (quantum superposition) to wildly imaginative leaps (multiple universes). 

Which series got this sci-fi TV renaissance started? 

Doug Jones as Saru, Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham, Chelah Horsdal as Rillak and Hiro Kanagawa as Dr. Hirai of the Paramount+ original series "Star Trek: Discovery." Credit: Paramount+/Marni Grossman

 Two of them did. Launching in 2017 after a 12-year “Trek” break on TV, “Star Trek: Discovery” returned with that classic utopian “Trek” outlook that had been so much a part of the previous five scripted spinoffs, but with one critically important twist — the captain of the USS Discovery was a Black woman (with a male name, Michael Burnham), played by Sonequa Martin-Green. Diversity, and especially LGBTQ representation, has been a big part of this boom, and “Discovery” — which ends its five-year run next month — deserves a lot of the credit for that, says Yaszek and others. Since 1966 when the original “Trek” launched, there have been 12 “Trek” series, with five arriving after “Discovery.”

“The Expanse” deserves some credit, too. After Syfy canceled the much-beloved space opera in 2018, fans — aka “screaming firehawks” — collected 100,000 signatures for a petition that persuaded Prime Video to continue for three more seasons. (Incidentally, a letter-writing campaign also extended the original “Trek” by a season.)   

But why has 'Trek' resonated so much over a particularly divisive stretch in American culture and politics?

Stefanie Gangone, a "Star Trek" fan, with her vehicle resembling The Galileo from that show, in North Babylon, on, April 17, 2024. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost

One of Long Island's leading “Trek” experts (and a Trekkie) has a theory.

Stefanie Gangone, a children's librarian from North Babylon, stages an annual “Trek” convention at the Hyatt Regency in Hauppauge (Gangone says she expects a record 1,200 attendees at the next one, which will run May 31 through June 2).

These newest “Trek” series are “not only about hope, but also empathy for all humankind," Gangone says. "They have characters who are gay or nonbinary. PTSD, depression and social anxiety are also depicted in many episodes. Fans can relate [and] until the Vulcans come to visit us, we aren't going to give up on hope for a more peaceful planet. 'Star Trek' gives us that.”

As Georgia Tech's Yaszek explains, “All moments where we see booms in sci-fi TV coincide with key moments in the space race, or in the evolution of small screens and the stories that we can produce for them; and key moments when we are thinking about the value of various kinds of cultural diversity, especially in terms of feminism and civil rights.”

 After “Discovery” wraps May 30, a sixth “Star Trek” series will arrive later this year (“Starfleet Academy”) and a movie, "Star Trek: Section 31,” about the spy agency known as Section 31, starring Michelle Yeoh. They'll join “Picard,” “Short Treks,” “Lower Decks,” “Strange New Worlds” and “Prodigy” on Paramount+.

What are some of the other big series out there right now?

The first season of “3 Body Problem” — an adaptation of Liu Cixin's trilogy about an alien invasion of Earth — arrived last month to become the most streamed series on Netflix.

“Fallout” — based on the role-playing video game of the same name, and set in the aftermath of a nuclear war in the distant future — premiered April 12 on Prime and was also an instant hit.

Then, on May, 8, “Dark Matter” — a nine-part series drawn from Blake Crouch's 2016 bestseller about a physicist trapped between parallel universes — launches on Apple TV+.

All of this is part of a TV sci-fi wave that's not expected to crest for months. The longest-running sci-fi TV series of them all — a total of 40 seasons — the time-bending “Doctor Who,” comes to Disney+ on May 10, with a new “doctor” played by Rwandan-Scottish star Ncuti Gatwa, as the first Black actor to lead the series and the first to identify as queer.  

What else is coming up?

Mae (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm's "The Acolyte"on Disney+. Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Two new live-action “Star Wars” series are on deck, beginning with the “The Acolyte” (Disney+) on June 4, then “Skeleton Crew” later this year. (The former is a mystery-thriller with Carrie-Anne Moss and Amandla Stenberg, set in the last days of the High Republic; the latter about four kids lost in a galaxy.)

Warner Bros. Discovery is also about to build out the “Dune” universe with a TV series, “Dune: Prophecy” — set 10,000 years before the events of the hit movies, about the sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit, a secret order of female spies with superpowers. It will stream on Max most likely this fall. 

Series based on sci-fi classics “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Time Bandits,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy” are in production and should arrive by this time next year.

What has streaming got to do with this?

Lee Pace in "Foundation," streaming on Apple TV+. Credit: Apple TV+

The streaming revolution — and this golden age of sci-fi — really got underway in 2019 with the launch of Apple TV+ and HBO Max (now Max). The first “Star Wars” series, “The Mandalorian,” ' launched Nov. 12 on Disney+ that year and has since been followed by four others — all of them hits. “Andor,” in particular, was especially acclaimed

Apple quickly got into sci-fi and now has five ongoing series: “Invasion” (alien species on earth); “Silo” (dystopian underground community); “Constellation” (astronaut returns to earth, with problems); and “Foundation” (the long-aborning adaptation of the Asimov series, also critically acclaimed, going into a third season).

“Severance” (about workers stripped of their memories, with a second season now in production) and “For All Mankind” are especially big hits for the service, the latter an alt-history — about the U.S.-Soviet space race, which was recently renewed for a fifth season.

Sci-fi seems made for streaming, because, as Ken Deep explains, "There are no more constraints on running time or formula."

The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and the Child in "The Mandalorian" season two, on Disney+. Credit: Disney+

Why do showrunners like streaming so much? 

Joel Edgerton in "Dark Matter" on Apple TV+. Credit: Apple TV+/Sandy Morris

In a recent Zoom interview, “Dark Matter's” Crouch said that his serpentine story of a scientist (Joel Edgerton) morphing into identical copies of himself across multiple universes couldn't have possibly played as a movie.

“Originally when I was writing the novel, the first 140 pages leaked and we got a lot of interest in Hollywood for a movie, but I hadn't finished the book yet [and] when I finished the book, it had gotten a lot bigger than a 120-minute movie.”

He then spent years trying to write scripts that would work as one but they “just didn't have any heart to them and to have that, I needed someone to come along and say, 'Here, do nine 60-minute episodes. Just do the book. '

“We have a lot of characters playing multiple versions of themselves and to have the freedom to be able to tackle super-challenging subject matter and not have to reduce it to something that's bite-size was so freeing, and allowed me to really build out a world [over nine episodes]. I don't think it would have been possible to adapt this book back in the aughts because it needed that [streaming] platform to breathe and the resources to render that world, or worlds.” He adds, “I feel like streaming has opened the door to this current boom we're in.”

What about video game adaptations?

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in HBO's "The Last of Us." Credit: HBO/Liane Hentscher

There were countless TV series based on video games — almost all animé and few that have busted out to a broader audience. But that began to change on March 24, 2022, with the launch of Paramount +'s “Halo” (based on the game about a 26th century war between humanity and an alien race called the Covenant). It changed a whole lot more with HBO's January 2023 launch of “The Last of Us,” the post-apocalyptic-mutant-fungus game that had first arrived 10 years earlier.

That was a monster hit, and the race is now on. Gaming website TheGamer.com cites 22 series in development at Netflix, Paramount, Prime and Peacock. Most are part of the so-called “military sci-fi” genre, and include titles like “Tomb Raider,” “Mass Effect” and “God of War.”

So, why do showrunners love video games so much? 

Ella Purnell, Michael Emerson and Dale Dickey in Prime Video's Season 1 of “Fallout." Credit: Prime Video/Jojo Whilden

At last year's Comic-Con, Jonathan Nolan — who co-created Prime's “Fallout” with his wife, Lisa Joy — said he started playing the game in 2008 when he was working on “The Dark Knight.” “I was always drawn to adaptations where we have a little bit of room to create. There is, for example, no one 'Batman' canon, but dozens and hundreds of writers and artists who have worked on that character for over 80 years, so we were able to pick it up and tell our own story [in 'Dark Knight'].”

The same, he said, with “Fallout” — which is sci-fi alt-history where humans are forced into underground vaults following a nuclear holocaust. Streaming, he said, allowed “us to tell an original story in the 'Fallout' universe, free to create new characters that connected us to the rest of the 'Fallout' world.”

Does this sci-fi boom on TV reflect a deepening pessimism in the culture at large?

 Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, James Doohan in the original "Star Trek" (1966-69) Credit: Paramount/Everett Collection

This depends to an extent on whom you ask, and which shows they champion. There have been many mood shifts in sci-fi TV dating to the 1960s, but the classic standard-bearers like “Doctor Who” and especially “Star Trek” have almost always taken a sunnier, more optimistic outlook on the future — and on people.

Some observers, however, say their influence has waned as sci-fi TV has turned darker and more pessimistic. If “Trek”-influenced sci-fi was all about looking into the future for signs of hope, most series now are about looking to the future for signs of the apocalypse. 

Long Island “Doctor Who” expert Ken Deep says “science fiction typically will either be predictive or reflective.” But the current crop on TV, he suggests, seems to be both. Peel — the prolific author who admits that his lodestars remain “Doctor Who” and “Star Trek” — says: “It's harder to look to the future with optimism, to look for something bright on the horizon, but that's what we really need. We need something that inspires people to say, 'Yes! This is possible! There is a way [forward].' But I'm not sure a lot of people see their way out of it [and] that's what's reflected on TV.”

All doom and gloom? (Not entirely)

Cynthy Wu in "For All Mankind," streaming on Apple TV+. Credit: Apple TV+

Rowan J. Coleman, a 28-year-old sci-fi TV expert living in Scotland,  who launched his popular YouTube channel as a teenager in 2013, says by email: “I don't think modern sci-fi [on TV] has become cynical, just more pragmatic perhaps. I remember a trailer for 'The Expanse,' which had the line '500 Years in the Future We're Still at Each Other's Throats.' It was gritty but many of its stories were about people defying the odds and coming together to overcome a problem.”

 Apple's “For All Mankind,” is another example, he says: “That show deals with a lot of systemic problems and by no means is the world perfect, but it does show the world getting better and better with each new season.

“Science fiction may have stopped being blindly optimistic, but it hasn't stopped being optimistic.''

Verne Gay is Newsday's TV writer and critic. He has covered the media business for more than 30 years.

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Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 118 comments so far

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 – Debuted Thursday, April 25, 2024 Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco Directed by Jen McGowan

A solid episode with plenty of lore and character development gets weighed down with a bit too much exposition.

No, I didn’t kiss you in the past last week, what makes you say that?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Maybe we’re not so different.”

As the crew regroups following the time bug incident that lost them 6 hours, they try to trace the trail of their main rivals in the search for the Progenitor tech. Book takes this time to reflect on the choices he has made in life and how it isn’t too late for Moll; perhaps he can redeem the daughter of his mentor and namesake Cleveland Booker. Stamets and Tilly figure out the trail didn’t disappear into nowhere: Moll and L’ak went through a wormhole. The aperture isn’t big enough for the Disco, so the captain assigns herself to shuttle duty—over the objections of her new XO, who is still struggling a bit. After a little bonding over old Kellerun poetry, she leaves him with “I know you can lead this crew” and heads off with her ex. Returning to their old banter, including some teasing about what happened during her time tour last episode, Book and Michael head through the wormhole. Things get really choppy as they fly through exotic matter “deaf and blind,” losing comms with the Disco, and dodging debris. Skilled piloting and good ol’ Starfleet engineering saves them, but things aren’t so hot for Moll and L’ak, whose ship is spotted cut in half. Their only hope for survival is another relatively intact ship that looks familiar. A 24 th -century scientist hiding a clue in this pocket dimension on a shipwreck from another universe makes as much sense as anything.  It’s the ISS Enterprise—and that’s no typo. If the “Mirrors” title wasn’t clue enough, the ISS does it: Things are about to get Terran, again.

After docking, Michael and Book make their way through the mess of a ship to the bridge with more playful banter. The warp drive has been bricked and all shuttles and escape pods are gone, very out of character for ruthless Terrans. They track three quantum signatures in sickbay, but start with a trace in the transporter room, which looks more like a makeshift refugee camp. A chronicle reveals the crew mutinied after the Terran High Chancellor (aka Mirror Spock) was killed for making reforms. A certain Kelpien rebel leader (aka Mirror Action Saru) led refugees to the Prime Universe, where they abandoned ship. While Book expositions, Michael puts a piece of her badge (and its important Prime Universe quantum signature) in a locket she finds. Pay attention BTW, or you will be confused later. In sickbay, they find Moll and L’ak, Moll and L’ak, and Moll and L’ak—until they take out the holo-emitters so the four former couriers can face off for real. Book tries the “I knew your father” gambit and is immediately rebuffed by Moll’s serious daddy issues. The baddies figure they have the clue so they have all the leverage, but Michael uses that locket as a bluff, claiming she has the real clue. Still, no deal with the Federation is good enough because they need the Progenitor tech to get rid of an Erigah… a Breen blood bounty. That’s right, L’ak is Breen. Holy refrigeration helmet , Batman.

Mirror McCoy was a bit of an evil pack rat.

“You both still have choices .”

Cut to a series of Burn-era flashbacks when Moll was delivering dilithium to the Breen Imperium. The “bucket heads”  are not amused by the wisecracking courier who gets into a fight with one of them, but she turns the tables, revealing she knows he’s a disgraced member of the royal family—and she even knows his name. It’s L’ak, of course. He is intrigued by her plan to skim more latinum, getting payback for being humiliated for this cargo duty demotion. Soon enough, this unlikely pair is hooking up between cargo containers and he even takes off his helmet to show her his face, as well as his “other face.” It turns out the Breen have two: the one we have been seeing with L’ak and a glowing eyed translucent one.  Later, the star-crossed romance is threatened when Moll is drawn to the lure of even more latinum by delivering to the Emerald Chain. Before they can sort out if he should join her, Uncle A-hole shows up, not happy about his nephew’s little interspecies exchange program. He’s also not cool with L’ak using that old face and not the “evolved” glowy face. L’ak is given one chance at redemption: Kill Moll. He picks door number 2, killing some guards but sparing Primarch Ruhn, who declares the Erigah. L’ak knows this means they will never stop hunting him, but Moll is all-in on being a fugitive, so they escape together. Ah, true love.

Back on Mirror Enterprise, the standoff devolves into another quick firefight as the Breen/Human duo chooses not to take the offered off-ramp before going too far down the bad guy road. Moll and Book end up outside force fields that pop up around sickbay, so she reluctantly agrees to a ceasefire. The current Cleveland Booker tries again to connect, but Moll only has bad memories of a brutal childhood of abandonment after her Cleveland left her on her own at age 14. L’ak is all she has. L’ak feels the same about Moll, telling Michael that he would die before being separated, but seems open to the idea of them sharing a cell in the Federation pen. On the bridge, Book pivots to use his relationship with Michael to connect, but Moll’s need to get back to L’ak means no waiting for computer hacking, so she starts yanking out wires. The resulting short does lower the forcefield, but now the ship is out of control. Their shuttle is flung off with the jolt and there’s only eight minutes until the Big E is squished in the little wormhole. Book takes his final shot, handing over his phaser and telling Moll she is the only family he has left. She finally relents and they head to sickbay, where Michael and L’ak have resumed fighting. The captain gets the upper hand and ends up with the clue L’ak was holding and the Breen is left with a knife in his side, but impressed by the locket bluff. Moll arrives and is super pissed, so the Disco duo makes a quick exit before things escalate into yet another phaser fight. This former courier couple’s double date is over.

Uh, can you go back to the other face now?

“Maybe we can shape our own futures too.”

As Moll tries to patch up her boyfriend, Michael and Book work through the problem on the bridge, deciding that the tractor beam as their only hope. Over on the Disco, they detect an oscillating pattern, 3-4-1-4, which means something to Rayner. He now wants the nerds to figure out how to open the wormhole aperture big enough for a ship, offering kegs of Kellerun booze for the best idea. Adira sparks a team effort and Rayner rallies around the crowdsourced solution involving a hexagon of photon torpedoes. “We are only going to get one shot at this. I trust you will all make it count, red alert.” That’s the stuff. With what may be the last seconds of her life, Michael lets Book know she shared a “happy” moment with his past self during the whole time bug incident. Discovery fires the torpedoes and the crew is surprised to see the ISS Enterprise emerge at the last minute from the permanently collapsing wormhole. Everyone releases their tension as the captain informs her crew they saved her… but why is the Enterprise about to fire? A warp pod is launched! It’s Moll and L’ak. Before you can say “plot armor,” they escape to another episode. The captain returns to the Disco to tell Rayner she’s impressed with how he handled the crew during her time away, and he tells her how impressed he was with her subtle “3-4-1-4” message using the Kellerun “Ballad of Krull.” Alien poetry FTW!

In the background of the episode, Tilly has been noticing that Dr. Culber seems out of sorts. Everyone else leans on him, so she offers to be a friendly ear. As things wrap, Hugh takes her up on her offer over drinks at Red’s, admitting that ever since he was possessed by a Trill a few episodes back, he has been feeling a bit off, and he’s beening having some trouble coming to grips with the quest they are on with questions “so big and impossible to grasp.” He is not sure his matter-of-fact husband will understand what Tilly points out is a sort of spiritual awakening. This thread is left unresolved, unlike Adira’s mini-crisis of confidence: They were losing their science mojo due to guilt over the time bug, but got it back through Rayner’s tough love and being the one to come up with the hexagon of torpedoes solution. Things wrap up with Michael and Book looking over their prize, the latest piece of the map and a mysterious vial of liquid hidden inside, ready to set up the next episode once Stamets unlocks its secret. Burnham is starting to see a pattern with these clues and how the scientists who left them were trying to teach lessons along the way to the successful questers. The clue hidden in the ISS Enterprise came from Dr. Cho, a former Terran junior officer who later became a Starfleet Admiral. This happy ending for her and the others from Saru’s band of Mirror refugees fills them with hope as they can’t wait to find out what they will learn when they put the map together. There are just 2 more map pieces and 5 more episodes to go.

I think I have a thing for being possessed—no judgment.

Love stories

This halfway point episode is a bit of a mixed bag. Strong performances were a highlight, bringing extra life to welcome character development for both heroes and villains. But valiant attempts to expand upon franchise lore got weighed down in overly complicated exposition. And for an episode with a strong (and yes, often repeated) theme about choices, some of the directorial choices just didn’t work, potentially leaving some audience members confused or requiring a second viewing to follow the narrative. On the other hand, the episode carried on the season’s reflection on Discovery’s own lore and the evolution of its characters. David Ajala stands out as the episode MVP as he shows Book’s struggle to navigate the emotional complexities of his own choices and those of Moll while desperately trying to forge a new family connection. While some of the action scenes in this episode felt a bit perfunctory, the show is still getting better (for the most part) in finding moments for those character sidebars to talk about their emotional journeys and relationships. That was especially important in this episode, which took a closer look at how the events of the season are impacting some of the key romantic pairings of Book and Michael, Paul and Hugh, and Moll and L’ak.

Eve Harlow—and especially Elias Toufexis—stepped up to add layers and nuance to Moll and L’ak, with Discovery finally embracing how fleshing out adversaries and their motivations goes a long way towards making your plot hold together. The nicely drawn-out reflection of their love story with the rekindling one between Michael and Book adds another layer to the more obvious meaning behind the episode title “Mirrors.” Moll’s single-minded anger and L’ak’s desire for safety now all make sense, as does their unshakable bond. The episode also did a good job weaving in a handful of substories, including Rayner’s growing connection with the crew, with a nice sprinkling of Kellerun lore-building — adding some color to his character. Callum Keith Rennie continues to be a stand-out addition for the season, although Doug Jones is sorely missed, presumably not appearing in two episodes in a row for some scheduling reasons. Culber’s spiritual journey also gets just enough time, as it and these other substories all feel like they are heading somewhere without distracting or spinning their wheels, something that often weighed down mid-season Discovery episodes in past seasons.

Okay, let’s just agree we both have daddy issues.

Under the mask

The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise, but also nicely teased through the previous episodes. Fans of Deep Space Nine should relish finally getting some answers about this enigmatic race and finally having a first look under those helmets. “Mirrors” picked up on many elements from DS9, including the Breen language, refrigeration suits, neural truncheons, and the position of Thot , while adding lots to the lore, including some worldbuilding behind this new Breen Imperium and its “faction wars.”

Setting the Breen up as what appears to be the real big bads for the season involved a lot of data dump exposition here, surely keeping the editors of Memory Alpha busy for the next week. The notion that Breen have two forms with their signature suits and helmets allowing them to hold the more “evolved” form and face makes sense. If one were to get nitpicky, the Breen aren’t supposed to bleed, but perhaps that was a function of his suit; fill in your own headcanon. L’ak’s desire to hold the other, less evolved form making him a pariah in Breen society has echoes of allegorical episodes such as TNG’s “The Outcast.” That being said, the nuances are still not entirely clear, and fans who like the lore shouldn’t have to rewatch scenes to pick up the details. It feels like some details were cut, perhaps because this episode was already trying to cram in too much exposition with the Breen, Kelleruns (they boil cakes?), and the Mirror Universe.

Like the previous time travel adventure, this was a mid-season bottle show, this time using the conveniently located Strange New Worlds sets. Bringing back the ISS Enterprise was clever and fun, with the twist of how this time the Mirror Universe came to us. If you follow closely, “Mirrors” did a nice job of filling in some lore gaps and tying together the MU storylines from the first visit in “Mirror, Mirror” to follow-ups in Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Discovery . There is now a nice throughline from Emperor Georgiou saving Mirror Saru through to Mirror Spock, killed for the reforms he instituted after being inspired by Kirk. However, the redress of the Enterprise sets was not very inspired, with only a smattering of Terran wall sconces and some repainting, instead of demonstrating the brutality of the Empire with elements like agony booths. But what was even more missed was the promise of any character crossovers. There was a lot of talk about Mirror characters like Spock, Saru, Dr. Cho, and others, but we don’t get to see any, one of the many examples of how this episode broke the golden rule to show not tell. There were plenty of opportunities for a flashback or holo recording. Burnham longingly gazing at her brother’s science station is no substitute for Ethan Peck with a goatee.

We’re back!

Final thoughts

“Mirrors” is a decent episode, but it could have been much better with a few tweaks here and there. While not falling into the pointless plate-spinning trap of past mid-season Disco outings, it still dragged a bit for something so jam-packed with lore and revelations. Still, it provided a nice hour of entertainment, and possibly more with rewatches to catch up on the little details. The episode also continues the season’s welcome trend of weaving in the show’s own past, which makes it work better as a final season, even if they didn’t know that when they crafted it. Season 5 hits the halfway mark, and it’s still the best season yet, and hopefully the second half of the season will nail the landing.

Wait, we’re in this episode too? Anyone remember their lines?

• Like the previous episode, “Mirrors” began with a warning for flashing images.
• The episode is dedicated “to the loving memory of our friend Allan ‘Red’ Marceta ,” the lead set dresser who died in a motorcycle accident in 2022.  Presumably the USS Discovery bar “Red’s” was named in his honor.
• This is the first episode where Book’s personal log starts it off.
• Stardate: 866280.9
• Booker examined wanted notices for Moll from the Federation, Orion/Emerald Chain (who have a new logo), and the Andorian Empire.
• Tilly was able to reveal the wormhole by compensating for the “Lorentzian Coefficient,” referencing the real Lorentz Factor used in special relativity equations.
• A new ensign on the Discovery keeps a Cardassian vole as a pet.
• The ISS Enterprise was built at Tartarus Base, possibly referencing Tartarus Prime , from the TOS novel The Rings of Time .
• Moll refers to Breens as “bucketheads” (just as Reno did to Emerald Chain Regulators last episode). This could be a nod to the use of “ bucketheads ” in Star Wars as a derogatory term for stormtroopers.
• Moll’s mother died on Callor V in a mine for Rubindium , a substance first mentioned in TOS “Patterns of Force.”
• Linus can play the piano.
• Breen Primarchs may be a nod to the genetically engineered Primarchs from Warhammer 40,000 .
• How does Book know that Pike’s catchphrase is “Hit it”?
• This is the third (of five) season 5 episodes in which Oyin Oladejo and Emily Coutts do not appear, but their characters, Detmer and Owosekun, are mentioned when they get the honor of escorting the ISS Enterprise back to Starfleet HQ.
• Even though we didn’t see it warp away, presumably the missing intermix chamber was replaced, otherwise Owo and Detmer’s trip is going to take a very long time.
• Tilly says her long day makes her feel like she has been through a Gormangander’s digestive tract.

Remember when Mudd hid inside a Gormagander? Gross.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery  will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

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

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waste of ISS Enterprise

While I enjoyed the episode overall, the ISS Enterprise was a huge letdown and not even worth being an easter egg with what little they did with it. They should have just made it a generic constitution class ship from the mirror universe.

It felt like it was nothing more than a budget saver. Use existing sets from the other show. Which is weird because one of the arguments in favor of mini seasons is it allows more money to be spent.

That’s exactly what it felt like. Along with the missing, yet again, Detmer and Owosekun.

There must have been some deep budget cuts for the season.

Detmer and Owosekun were replaced by other characters so I don’t think they are missing for budget reasons. It’s more likely that the actresses were unavailable.

I get the budget issues considering what’s going on with the studio. But the end result was it showed that there isn’t much difference at all in the 900 years between the SNW Enterprise and the aesthetic of Star Trek Discovery. They both look as if they were set in the exact same era.

And there really shouldn’t be much. Discovery is from the same era, as the Enterprise. While the ship gets a technological upgrade, why would it get an interior design makeover?

Since it was deemed important (Stamets certainly makes since) that the crew stay on the Discovery, I would certainly think that psychologically having its design aesthetics stay similar to what it was would help give the crew a little bit of their past to hold on to, versus having all physical interactions be with a timeline that they aren’t native to.

Now where we should see it is in native places in this time. And we have seen some differences in design from standard Starfleet settings, versus Starfleet settings on this time (I actually wish we got more).

I did wish for a little more of self reflection from Burnham’s point of view as the ISS Enterprise should of course remind her of Spock (the Enterprise tie in), but also Georgiou (the ISS tie in). We get a small brief nod to Spock, but nothing to Georgiou (and while I still question the use of the character, there is no question that Burnham did have a connection with her, even if its primarily transference from her former Captain, not the mirror Universe Empress.

It’s not just the ship. It’s everything. Everything else looks like it matches the ship’s aesthetic. As if 900 year old retro is the current fad in design.

That’s always been my issue with Discovery.

To me that is part of the downfall of going so very far into the future. What aesthetic you make should be radically different. Not just shinier.

This is a VERY common trope in Trek, historically. Using redressed older sets, even ones from distant eras, to save money. It’s just downright foolish to think that a big budget series with fewer episodes to get better production value would simply have no limits at all. Discovery is one of the most expensive-looking sci-fi shows out there for a reason: a lot of money is being spent. On sets, effects, and even the cast. Oded Feherer, Callum Kieth Rennie, Michelle Yeoh, Jason Isaacs, Sonequa, David Cronenberg, Tig Notaro, and plenty of others during its run — its cast is broad and extremely strong, with well-known, talented actors, not to mention some of the best TV directors, set decorators, costumers, etc in the business.

Now, sure I think it’s fair to be let down by a budget-saving measure, particularly because of how much money IS being spent, so I get the logic here, but it’s sorely misplaced. The fact is, Trek has done this for decades, and often not nearly as well. Let it go — just try to enjoy the show and not worry about that kind of thing. But that’s the thing I struggle with, with you on this board: you seem to be looking for reasons NOT to like this show because you find more enjoyment in watching and hating it than anything else. Go watch a show you actually like, it’s been five years and it’s ending now. It’s time to let it go, my good friend.

Agreed. The last two episodes just felt very budgeted and basically bottle episodes. And this just felt like a twofer, a way to use an existing set and add a little fan service but that’s all it was. I thought the Enterprise itself was going to be a viral part of not just the episode but the story overall.

Instead it was just a backdrop. And yeah it’s obvious they cut the budget for this season but all the live action shows have felt this way starting with Picard season 3 and SNW season 2. That all felt pretty bare a lot of the times. I guess this was all during Paramount+ belt tightening and probably not a shock why the show was cancelled.

And maybe the I.S.S. Enterprise should have been the refit or maybe the Phase II Enterprise? That would have been a lot of fun but combine a lack of vision with a reduced budget and this is what you get.

Looking back on “In a Mirror: Darkly”, season 4 of Enterprise was dealing with a reduced budget but managed to recreate sets from TOS, introduced a few new set pieces and did a lot of great effects work.

This was a missed opportunity.

Which was added by stretching that story over two episodes, so that they had the budget to recreate the sets they used. Having half the episode count, doesn’t really help avail yourself to planning out a two parter for a way to save costs.

If Picard could pull off recreating the bridge of the Enterprise D for three days of shooting with barely half the budget of Discovery season 5, they could have done something equally as fun for Discovery on the cheap without actually having to building anything new and using the Enterprise as a crutch. They could have come across Deep Space Station K-7, where the exterior would have been immediately familiar and with interiors served by redressed sets from virtually anything available from Discovery or SNW.

I thought Discovery is basically the PII Enterprise?

The Phase II Enterprise looks like a slickly modified version of the Enterprise from TOS, falling squarely between the Enterprise from TOS and the refit. The “Star Trek: Phase II” fan series did a great job bringing it to screen.

No, Discovery resembles the Enterprise concept for the Planet of the Titans movie.

I don’t get that. I never assumed that the Enterprise (or its mIrror Universe history) was going to feature in significant manner (certainly the producers and promotional department didn’t make a significant deal about it). Perhaps it’s the time difference. But I literally assumed it would be as significant as the Defiant going in and out of phase like TOS “Tholian Web” the time difference. And that was primarily set dressing. That’s not a bad thing. I mean Tholian Web is considered one of the better third season episodes.

And the only reason I assumed it was the Enterprise versus another Connie, is simple to give Burnham a moment to reflect on Spock. Now I do freely admit that I wish this was a slightly larger moment. But I never expected it to be anything but a small moment. Roughly my preconceived notion would be something like Spock’s Mind Meld scene with La’an in SNW where she is able to get a peak into Spock thinking about his sister and the emotion that comes with it. It’s a very brief scene, but I thought SNW did a good job in conveying the emotional aspect, especially from a half Vulcan/ Half Human.

Ok fair enough. This is probably more my hang up and to be fair since they never really promoted the the Enterprise being back then clearly they weren’t trying to make it that big of a deal.

But same time a lot of people do feel there could’ve been more done. The main problem is it just feels like a ridiculous stretch this ship itself is even there. It’s a ship from 900 years ago from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE that conveniently happens to be the ship that gives them their next clue. I know it’s Star Trek so whatever lol. But when you go through the effort to present it I think it would’ve nice to build a bigger story around it. It could’ve just been any ship.

Exactly! The ship could have been any ship. The fact that with such an enormous universe(s) they would happen to find the next clue on a Mirror Universe ship and the ISS Enterprise no less–it’s such “Small Universe Syndrome”.

When you feel like the Mirror Universe has been nothing but a let down after the initial TOS episode, It’s really not a surprise. There’s really nowhere to go with it, but I did find that the fulfilling of the promise that Prime Kirk spoke to Mirror Spock about from the original TOS episode quite satisfying. The ship’s inhabitants embraced the benevolence of the prime universe, and I thought that was great.

I felt the idea that the MU people just easily adapted was pretty ridiculous. But then, they admitted SNW was an alternate timeline. It’s not a stretch that alternate extends to all the Secret Hideout productions.

I’m not sure I would feel the same about Picard given it depicts the Prime events of ST:2009. The others tho yeah I think of it that way too. Although The Chase does make that harder to swallow about DISCO

I liked the MU in DS9. It was fun to revisit and a great reminder of the Prime Directive. But… after that it got tiresome.

It was pretty benign there, but the problem with it, is finding it plausible. It was a fun idea in the 1960’s, and it had a good message. After that, it an indulgence. The notion that that the same people would even exist in the same fundamental places, and that the same ships would exist with virtually the same crew just seems like too much of a stretch even for modern Star Trek.

That’s my only complaint about this episode. Seeing the tantalus field show up would have been really cool. When Michael talked about how she was sure that Mirror Spock was a savage just like the other Terrans, I was sure that we would see a recording or something of Ethan Peck in a goatee to prove her wrong. Or flashbacks with Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley as their mirror counterparts would have also been cool.

All the stuff with the Breen and Mol and Lak was really cool though.

“ waste of ISS Enterprise” should be the official episode description.

waste of series

They ate Mirror Saru in season one…

Was that Saru or another Kelpian? It’s been a while since I watched Season 1, but I recall Mirror Saru saving Burnham from Tyler just as Voq’s personality re-emerged. I know Mirror Georgiou served Burnham some Kelpian, I just didn’t remember it being Mirror Saru.

Mirror Saru saved Michael from Tyler in The Wolf Inside, which was the episode that preceded the one in which they ate the food made from a Kelpien (Vaulting Ambition).

Looking at Memory Alpha now, it says that the chosen Kelpien ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQSipQlJR8 ) was played by someone other than Doug Jones, but they look so much alike that I thought for sure she had chosen Mirror Saru.

As per Memory Alpha, we never saw him again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Nope, that was another Kelpien.

“They ate Mirror Saru in season one…”

They didn’t.

Wasn’t Mirror Saru established as having survived in Season 3 (can’t remember the episode name).

A s per Memory Alpha, we never saw Mirror Saru again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Loved this episode. I liked seeing the I.S.S Enterprise though i would of loved to of seen maybe a video log of Mirror Spock.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

I enjoyed seeing Book/Burnham trying to get through to Moll/L’ak and i hope they can eventually get through to them. With this season about connections and 2nd chances i can see Book and Burnham talking both of them down before they do something that they can’t come back from.

The shot of the I.S.S Enterprise coming out of the ‘wormhole’ is probably one of my favorite CGI scene in all of Trek.

I’m glad they didn’t. I think the conceit of using the I.S.S. Enterprise was not much more than a budgetary decision to be able to use the sets. Could have made it a different constitution class, but then they don’t get to tell the story of the crew’s transformation into our society. Just don’t think about it too much.. because that universe is just pushing out its own doppelgängers into our universe.. which seems problematic. lol.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

Any kind of big reveal was bound to be disappointing, I suppose. Still, the idea that they were just another latex alien was a letdown. I had always hoped that the Breen were gaseous or plasma creatures.

Ethan Peck with a goatee would have been EPIC

“This is the way.” 😉

But seriously that was a pretty good episode. I’d like to see a 31st century restored Terran empire that never went through “the burn.”

“ The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise ”

It really wasn’t, though. That was many viewers’ guess since the beginning of the season, and it’s been a common discussion on many websites. The surprise would have been if he HADN’T been a Breen.

I am on a lot of other sites and I haven’t heard anyone thinking he was Breen. And I don’t believe anyone voiced that in Trekmovie either.

LOL. It’s been a common theory.

Obviously not THAT common. LOL

I’ve seen the theory mentioned in the comments here on TrekMovie.

Yes, quite common from what I’ve been reading. I just commented on this very site a couple weeks back that I liked the idea, when somebody else theorized it (forget who it was)!

I guess it’s just where you go for these discussions but yeah the first YouTube review of episode one I saw theorized Lak was a Breen in the first scene he was in when he took off his helmet. And this was obviously before the species was mentioned on the show.

So yeah some people caught on the first episode the way others theorized Tyler was Voq the first time he showed up. Others needed more convincing.

I never saw it but I certainly don’t read the majority of comments. And almost never watch video reviews. Now Voq, was something I remember seeing in many places. Though in fairness, the amount of conjecture done about any Trek series for its Pilot and early couple episodes has been in my experience far more than what you see for most regular episodes. So that shouldn’t;t surprise me.

It was a surprise to me.

The Breen being so ordinary looking was a bit of a surprise.

Well, one of their forms are. It explains the frozen wasteland/tropical paradise. Their “evovled” form needs cryo suits, their “normal form” doesn’t

Was a surprise to me. Then again, I don’t run around the internet and over analyze the show.

This season started out so well. What happened? It’s falling apart.

I hate to a agree. But its once again a long slow burn (pardon the bun) that I fear is going to lead to another whimper of a conclusion. I feel like the season could have been a movie instead. Where is Chapel?!

Wrong show. Chapel is on SNW. The ending was rewritten and new scenes were shot to make it a series finale. They had already started shooting when they got the word that it was ending after season 5.

presumably on Her show, SNW?

“pardon the bun” …🍔⁉️

What’d that poor bun do for it to be in need of a pardon? 😋

This is what happens in every single season of Discovery. Two lovers who want to destroy the galaxy so they can get to paradise was the plot of season four, and now they are recycling the exact same plot for this season.

Did you watch the show. In no seasons has two lovers wanted to destroy the galaxy….Period. L’ak and Moll want to pay off their bounty. Nothing about what they are doing is about wanting to destroy the galaxy.

Outside of the destruction caused by the aliens referred to as 10-C, did any character want to destroy the galaxy let alone a couple. The only couple we had, was one person wanting peaceful means of communication to prevent destruction, while the other wanted to use force to ensure the destruction doesn’t occur. In no case does that equal people wanting to destroy a galaxy.

I can understand not liking the show, but to have such a misconstrued concept of the plot of the seasons shows a shocking lack of basic understanding of what the plot and motivations of the characters are.

I mean the show has plenty that one can find legitimate issues with. Thats not one of them.

They want to pay their bounty by giving a weapon of potential mass destruction to the Breen, thus destroying the galaxy, as seen in the time jumps last episode. They want to do that so they can escape to the Gamma Quadrant while the Breen take apart the Alpha Quadrant.

Last season the scientist wanted to let the 10-C species bulldoze the Alpha Quadrant so he could get across the galactic barrier to meet his lover in paradise, without caring what happened to trillions of other lives.

It is the same basic plot point. Your analysis is incorrect, Wood.

I think you’re overreacting a little. As always.

This episode was disappointing and fell flat. The return of the ISS Enterprise from the mirror universe was of no interest. I had hoped to possibility see a video log from Kirk, Spock, or another familiar character. Why not explore other Constitution Class Starships like the ISS Lexington, Hood, or Potemkin? Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise. (Sigh)

Maybe cause the enterprise is the trek ship pretty much everyone knows even if they are a new trek fan or a casual trek fan or not even a trek fan it is so engrained and intertwined with the name Star Trek that is why they chose to make it the iss enterprise instead of one of the others you mentioned

Because exploring a random ship isn’t the plot of the episode. It’s basically set dressing. Having it be the Enterprise versus a different Connie, gives it a tie to the lead character and part of her family she left behind. That it sorry wise. Another ship wouldn’t have any emotion aspect to the characters. Now production wise its to save a ton of money, as creating a random ship with multiple settings to take use of takes money (if your trying to give it the same level of production that you see for the primary ship). Now of course they could have just created a redress of an existing set to be random alien ship of the week. Those usually aren’t done to the same level of using the existing bridge set of another show. So it serves a small story purpose (ie a setting), it serves a small character purpose *reflection for Burnham, and it serves a production purpose (having high quality set pieces without having to build or do a serious redress and thus saving some money).

Seems rather obvious, to me.

I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. I assume that the actors are absent because Paramount wanted to pay them less, and that’s poor treatment for characters who have been around since practically the beginning of the series.

“ I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. ”

…as opposed to the previous four seasons, when all they did was sit in chairs and look meaningfully at each other?

Which is all Sulu and Chekov do in the average TOS episode. So yes, it’s aggravating for them to be replaced by other actors who are doing the same thing.

I doubt they are paid exorbitantly as recurring guests. It could be similar to what happened in season 4 and Bryce Ronnie Rowe Jr’s absences – he had another gig.

I have a theory that before it was decided that Disco would be cancelled, they were going to replace some of the characters. I think Owosekun and Detmer were going to be replaced, and also that Rayner would become captain and Burnham would go away to do something else. But then that didn’t work out, and so to us it just makes no sense why those two main characters are suddenly missing.

You might be right — I hadn’t considered that revamps due to cancellation might be involved.

Well… It is what it is . This was easily the worst episode of the 5. Tropes galore and really bad plot contrivances.

It feels like the reshoots for when they got the cancelation news are getting dropped in throughout the season. A lot of scenes appear grossly out of place. It feels like they just aren’t even trying anymore to be honest. As flawed as the show has been one thing that never came across among the other problems was a lack of trying.

I am loving the addition of Rayner and the professional Starfleet officer energy he is bringing to the ship. I also liked when he told Burnham the mission was too dangerous for the captain to go on. He is turning out to be a nice counterbalance to the unusual way Discovery has been run as a Starfleet ship after season 2.

I hope he doesn’t get killed off.

Sorry but this was another big fat ‘meh’ for me. This was very very disappointing. Nothing of consequence happened. We learn Mol and Lak backstory basically and it is cool we learn that Lak is a Breen which has been the leading theory since he showed up but it just felt sooo bare overall. Like another Discovery infamous spinning wheel episode where they do the bare minimum to move the plot along but just through a lot of action scenes and inconsequential dialogue to feel like we were getting any real development.

And the biggest elephant in the room (or dimensional wormhole) was the ISS Enterprise. Such a let down. It almost felt like a gimmick or just shoehorned fan service. There was no real reason it needed to be there other than HEY THE ENTERPRISE IS BACK!

Again one of the problems with this show, no real development just there for another connection. Think about what they did with In a Mirror Darkly on Enterprise. They brought in the Defiant as obvious fan service from TOS but the ship had a very vital part to the story. It helped changed the dynamics of the MU. It wasn’t there just for show like this was. And Anthony made a great point the redress felt like a joke. It just felt like an excuse to use the set but little else.

Here it was nothing more than just a backdrop and a really forced one at that. And the whole Saru thing just felt very contrived.

I did like all the Breen stuff though and hopefully they will be the big bad the rest of the season. I still think they should’ve used the Breen as the main villain for SNW instead of the Gorn but I digress.

But yeah this is probably the weakest one for me which is disappointing since last week is my favorite so far. I’m getting a little nervous now. It’s usually the second half of the season this show begins to falls apart but still open minded. Still enjoying it overall but please don’t end up a tedious bore like last season felt once it got to its mid season.

You have one last chance Discovery, make it count!

I never considered the Breen in SNW before, but that’s a cool idea. Yeah, I would’ve liked that much more than the Gorn.

For me it was literally the first Gorn episode I thought the Breen would’ve been a better idea. You get the same type of stories and it doesn’t feel like it’s breaking any canon like the Gorn obviously does. I ranted enough about it but nothing about their appearance on SNW feels remotely canon anymore.

But the Breen could’ve been a great substitute if they wanted a known species not named Klingons and zero canon issues.

Agreed. I always enjoyed the mysterious quality of the Breen. Seems ripe for exploration.

This season is largely working for me. Not as good as last week, but the chase is enjoyable. I have a little trouble buying that Mol and L’ak fell in love so fast. I would have liked to have seen that handled better.. but the slow burn of the plot works because of what they do to sustain individual episodes. Only episode I thought was kind of wasteful was the one on Trill.

That is a big part of the problem, yes. The characters have little chemistry.

The flashbacks took [place over an extended period of time, it wasnt THAT fast

They both felt like outcasts in their family/society, fusing them together like lightning. I had no problem with that as it gave me a Bonnie & Clyde-vibe which is historical.

It’s fine, but the romance piece just isn’t clicking for me.

Tarka was a similar situation last season with the reveal of his motivation not really moving me, but I’m also not the biggest fan of waiting several episodes to fill in a lot of backstory in a flashback. It’s not easy to pull off, and Discovery hasn’t really perfected it.

It’s a wonder I stuck with Lost as long as I did, now that I think about it.

“ it’s still the best season yet ”

Well, it was for the first two episodes, but the three since then have been a downward spiral. Seasons one and two were much better than this week’s episode and last week’s.

I’ve enjoyed it all except for the Trill episode. I think it’s been fun with a faster pace.. which has helped with a lot of issues that haven’t gone away. Raynor has been a very welcome addition to the cast.

Overall, very entertaining!

For complaints: any other constitution ship would be cool – but I also feel like we don’t know what happens next – there could be some Prime Mirror Universe people out there. & the “hit it!” joke felt like Dad was in the writer’s room.

Otherwise, I the pairings felt very TOS. Rayner is a little bit Serious Scotty when performing a captain’s role. And he took pride in rescuing her – which is feels good.

For me, this season has been 5/5.

Personal Log. Stardate: Today.

Week 4 of not-watching Discovery continues without incident. Opinions gleaned from critics on the latest episode seem to confirm that ‘mid-season malaise’ has been reached right on schedule.

Based on the collective opinion of commentators, there have been a grand total of one episode out of five that qualifies as “actually good”.

In conclusion, it appears the decision to not-watch until the penultimate episode has been vindicated. The plot points I am privy to following the one episode I watched are:

– There is a chase (or ‘The Chase 2.0’) for the Holy Grail / the technological marvel Salmone Jens left behind.

– The Cylon is now the First Officer.

– The Trill and the Robot are no longer together.

All in all, I remain confident that the recap at the beginning of the penultimate episode should be sufficient to fill in all the key points required.

Again, my thanks go out to the resolute souls who manage to endure what I could not.

these threads are for people to talk about the episodes they have seen. CLOSED.

Am I wrong or did the DS9 episode Through the Looking Glass make a reference to the Mirror Spock being on Romulus? Also given all the DS9 cross overs with the Mirror Universe you would think Burnham would have known something more about her brother’s counterpart.

Spock was not mentioned in Through the Looking Glass. We know between Crossover and the new dedication plaque of the ISS Enterprise that he reformed the Terran Empire and was killed for it. Burnham has clearly boned up on a lot of info since coming to this century, but easy to assume the future history of the mirror universe wasn’t part of that. Also, that info could have been lost or been classified.

Wow! The Breen. From CGI to burn victim.

Does anybody think the Commander Rainer is gonna become the Commandant of Starfleet Academy?

Everything involving Book is incredibly tedious. They brought back the ISS Enterprise as a way to resurrect the OG Enterprise in continuity. Perhaps it ends up as the Enterprise Q or whatever, if Saru is in command then ok. Burnham insisting on going on the away mission is diametrically opposed to how TNG dealt with this – e.g., when Riker as captain insisted on boarding the Borg cube in Best of Both Worlds, and his senior officers reminded him his place was on the bridge. I guess everyone got much dumber in the 32nd century, but “dumber” is Discovery’s whole concept.

This post missed an important Easter egg towards the end: Morn was at the bar “Red’s” just like he did on Quark’s on DS9.

We don’t call out or find every little egg, but when the bar was introduced last season we noted the Lurian (Morn’s species), who has been there ever since. We don’t usually do repeated easter egg bits for each episode

Yay! Good seeing the Breen again and their evolved design in the 32nd Century is great.

Boo! Pretty much everything else except Rayner who is the best character in the show.

Imagine they used the Star Trek: Tour set in Trekonderoga for the ISS Enterprise? What a cool surprise that would have been. But nope, we got the generic canon-breaking Discoprise. Not surprised.

I swear if they make the new Enterprise in the 3190s a refitted Constitution, I will facepalm. Just a stupid idea, when you have far superior tech and designs in the future time period. Please don’t, Disco-writers. Bad enough they did it with the Ent-G (one of my few criticisms of the great PIC S3).

here are 6 points for a reply to each of your issues with snw and dsc as a whole and this episode in particular

1.there is already a constitution class in the 32nd century it’s design was also used pre burn in the late 31st century so i dought they would refit iss enterprise like they did with the discovery plus they did say the ship was being taken to a federation storage facility

2.as for why they used the snw sets and cg assets well two reasons for one location/budget convenience as snw is shot in toronto at the same studio as dsc is and two they have said from the start they visually updated the 23rd century to fit visually better between ent era and tmp era mainly star trek 5/6

3.and there is nothing canon breaking about any of the new shows as they give explanations that tie back to enteprise and first contact since enterprise tied into that movie for the reasons of in unverse changes to the prime timeline universe and that is time travel to fix the past either on it’s own or part of the temporal cold war

4.and the temporal Cold War which later turned into the temporal wars is the reason the discovery was refited and givin the -A at the end of the registry is to hide the fact the ship and crew time traveled and broke the law agaisnt any form of time travel that was put into place after the temporal wars and a smaller part to protect starfleets butt

5.and if you have to don’t look at seasons 1 and 2 of dsc and snw as prequels to tos but as sequels to ent and then veiw ent as a sequal to first contact as i hear it makes it easier for some tos fans to enjoy these trek shows

6.or use the in universe reasons for the changes mentioned above in point 3 to be able to enjoy watching new trek shows mentioned above in point 5

Would it have been too much if Dr. Cho was instead Marlena Moreau? Just saying. Kind of like Dax in Jinaal… I feel like they are making all of these deep cuts, why not make them count a bit more to the overall lore, instead of just throwing the ISS Enterprise in with no good reason. Making these deep cuts actually count towards the overall lore might make the obvious (potential) budget cuts, set reuses, etc. be a bit more forgiving. Giving loved characters some finality that affect the course of this in our face galactic scale quest… might make it hit harder? Maybe I’m wrong, I’m sure someone here will think so lol

Overall the episode was okay. I do understand using the ISS Enterprise since this is supposed to be the final season of Discovery it was a nostalgia play and kind of wrap up the history of that ship in regards to the series. But overall it just seems kind of mashed together. Have to see how it ties in with the rest of the season.

I would say this episode along with the one before it were definitely the weakest of the season. They started out with a bang on the first few, and while I know that they tend to slow down in the middle of the season before ramping up the action for the final few, this episode dragged. There were also a few things with the Breen and the Enterprise that seemed a bit confusing:

– The Breen have 2 faces…great! Awesome twist to the species and fantastic to finally be able to see them after all the mystery around them in DS9. If the second face is supposed to be the more evolved one though, why do they need the masks and the suits? Can the more evolved face not breathe in a standard atmosphere? When L’ak and his uncle opened up their masks, they seemed fine, so there’s still quite a bit we don’t know about why they use that whole setup, especially when they’re around their own people

– Does the more evolved form extend past the face?

ISS Enterprise

– The stardate on the commemorative plaque is 32336.6. Popping that number into a couple of online stardate calculators puts that around mid-2355, which would be a few years before the prime universe Enterprise-D was commissioned in 2363. They mentioned that Dr. Cho came back to the Enterprise to hide the clue, so the assumption is that she also placed the plaque there at the same time. The timing doesn’t quite add up though because The Chase took place in 2369. Nobody would have known about The Progenitors or their technology before that, so they were at least 14 years off with the plaque

– If this Enterprise has been caught in extradimensional space since at least 2355, that means it’s been there for over 800 years by the time it’s discovered. How does it still have power?

– It’s been discussed by the Disco production team that the Discovery-era Enterprise was designed so that it could eventually be refit into the TOS Enterprise. The ISS Enterprise was contemporary with Kirk’s version and was seen on screen in TOS in that configuration. Why is the version in this episode the Discovery one? I know the real-world explanation is that it was easier to just re-use that model to align with the sets, but we saw a TOS-era Constitution class USS New Jersey at the Fleet Museum in Picard, so they had that model available to use. Just a bit sloppy

– How did Stamets immediately know that the ship exiting the wormhole was the ISS Enterprise and not a different prime Constitution class ship?

Photon Torpedo

– The solution to hold the wormhole open for the Enterprise to escape was to remove the payload from the torpedoes and replace them with antimatter. Photon torpedoes are matter/antimatter weapons, so this is a little confusing. Are they taking out the matter and just loading them with more antimatter?

I don’t know that it’s been there for 855 years.. not sure if it’s kind of like the Nexus or the black hole in Trek 09, where time does things differently. My guess is, that’s how the people on board were able to integrate into society. Their doppelgängers were long deceased.

Here’s the other thing… if the idea of revolution started with Mirror Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise more or less went along with him.. this is a way of explaining how they didn’t spread the idea to teh rest of the Empire.. they were lost in space and didn’t have much, if any, influence off of their own ship.

But they did spread the idea enough to weaken the empire to the point where it could be conquered.

Yeah I was wondering that also. It’s possible since it was extradimensional space that it didn’t put them in exactly the same time that they left. Also odd that they said Dr. Cho went BACK to the Enterprise to hide the clue. That’s a pretty risky trip unless the wormhole was more stable back in the 24th century.

It is strongly implied, if not explicitly stated, that the wormhole’s instability was caused by the Burn. So, it had to be more stable in the 24th century.

they never said that the ship would be refited into the tos version as they said those 60’s sets and ship model design would not look good or belivable as from our future with modern filming cameras they said from the start they visually updated the mid 23rd century to fit better visually between ent era designs and tmp era designs mainly using Star Trek 5/6 as the basis for the tmp era side of the designs

as for the new jersey that was just a pandering memberberry easter egg for the fans that hate the visual updates and even blass has said he objected to using the 60’s design for the ship and pointed out that it should have used the snw model for it and that it was all on terry who was more interested in filling episodes with those easter eggs and memberberries like all the stuff on daystrom station and for having data come back instead of having a brand new soong type android that was exactly as alton soong designed it to be a amalgamation of data lore lal and himself

I feel like I’m seeing the same episode over and over, what a waste this series is became.

Great episode! This season has really been fantastic so far. The writing has been consistent, the acting of the principals is fantastic, and the pacing has been great.

I really loved the scenes with Rayner in command. That worked so well!

Loved getting the backstory about Moll and L’ak – it really did add layers to their characters and their story. And the reveal that L’ak was a Breen! I never saw that coming! Was great to know more about the most underdeveloped and mysterious alien race in Trek history.

Seeing the ISS Entreprise was a treat! I am guessing it was lost quite some time after mirror Spock took over from mirror Kirk. Nice Easter Egg… better than having some unknown ship in there.

Looking forward to the remaining episodes.

Did anyone else see “Morn” (or one of his species) sitting at the bar in Red’s?

Yes, I did catch that. It was a fun detail.

Seriously, an episode doesn’t go by without at least one eye roll over the touchy feely huggy share my feeling vibe that is shoe-horned into worst places. I wonder what this series would be like if Bryan Fuller had stayed on…

It would had been .. a Star Trek show, not this happy sad feeling sharing at all costs every single time somebody speaks.

I have a question because I’m really confused:

So discovery originally was set less than a decade before ToS. (And then they ended up far in the future)

The ISS enterprise is a reference to the ToS episode about the mirror universe. So that means the ISS enterprise is a contemporary with ToS and the USS enterprise, which means Dr Cho (who was expressly stated to be Terran) was about back in Kirk’s day.

However the progenitor technology and science in general was only discovered in TNG under Picard and i think it was expressly stated that the scientists that hid this research were originally asked to research it after the discovery by Picard in the first place.

TNG is set in the 24th century but ToS is set in the 23rd century – theirs about a hundred years between them.

So I’m trying to understand the timeline here because at the moment, from what I understand, it’s a human from the 23rd century somehow became a scientist on a study in the late 24th century and then stole the research and helped hide it with her 4 pals.

No the iss enterprise entered that anomaly in the mid 24th century sometime after 2355 going by the stardate on that plaque and the ship got unstuck in time via the anomaly and the refugees and survivors of mirror Saru’s revolt ended up in the late 31st century prime verse timeline sometime prior to the burn happening and then doctor Cho who was one of those survivors returned later to the ship to hide the clue there before leaving again and never returning and wiping all references to the ship from records so that it would not easily be found

I thought for sure the Real Captain Lorca would be found in the transporters.

What a waste of an episode… filler and feelings…. Rinse and repeat

What an empty, disappointing episode. Discovery feels smaller and smaller every season.

the basic idea of the episode was already good. and it would have been really great to connect the MU and the 32nd century. in the end, however, the solution and especially the writing was weak. there could have been so much more …

what really annoys me is how owo and bryce are said goodbye with a side sentence, “so long …” and so on. the way DISCO treats secondary characters is really sad at times. there should have been much more space for a bridge member like owo … sad. again and again we are given hints of interesting background stories, but then nothing else happens. that’s really lousy. compare that to the way supporting characters in earlier series were built up into really multi-faceted carriers of stories …!!