Following yesterday’s report that Star Trek: Discovery writer/producer Nicholas Meyer said Michelle Yeoh had been cast in the new series, her casting has been confirmed by two additional sources, and Yeoh herself has commented. Deadline claims that she will play Captain Han Bo of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, a ship key to Discovery‘s first season.
Yeoh Reportedly Playing Han Bo, Captain of the U.S.S. Shenzhou
Deadline today has allegedly confirmed that Michelle Yeoh has been cast in a role as a Starfleet Captain in Star Trek: Discovery. Specifically, Deadline’s sources state that her character’s name will be Han Bo and she will captain the U.S.S. Shenzhou, a vessel that will “play a big role in Discovery’s first season.”
Variety has also confirmed the casting, but report no information regarding Yeoh’s role.
Asked about the casting rumors while appearing on the red carpet at the Singapore International Film Festival, Yeoh responded:
“Well, I think CBS will make their own announcement. But we all grew up with the Star Trek generation, so of course I’m a big fan.”
Lead Apparently Yet to Be Cast
Variety also reports that the show’s search for its lead, a female Lieutenant Commander, continues after three months of casting. Discovery‘s producers are reportedly not in the market for a big star for this role, but rather a younger (relative to Yeoh) fresh face. The show’s producers are apparently looking for an African-American or Latina actor. While Discovery has reportedly had a difficult time settling on the perfect person for the part, Variety notes that several names have been “floating around” for some time.
CBS is not confirming or commenting on any casting news at this point.
So we ignore the dialogue in Turnabout Intruder? If so, I’m OK with that.
Ooooh, good point. I’m also OK with ignoring or reinterpreting that line.
I, too, am okay with ignoring Dr. Lester’s line because we have already seen Captain Hernandez captain the Columbia and Starfleet is not likely to role-back equal rights and flat out bar a woman from commanding a ship.
I always took it to mean that there were no Constitution-class Ships (Starship Class) with women as captains. Then again, Dr. Lester was going mad, so she might not have known what she was saying. She was in love with Jim Kirk and she fixated on the thing that took him away from her.
Also, I found this on Memory Alpha. From the Background Information section of the “Turnabout Intruder” entry on MemoryAlpha:
Lester’s line, “Your world of starship captains doesn’t admit women”, was taken by some to mean that women could not yet become starship captains by this time. However, it might also mean that women are not allowed to intrude on the discipline and burden of command—an interpretation borne out by Lester’s regret over not being able to have “roamed the stars” with Kirk. Captain Erika Hernandez in ENT: “Home” showed that there were female captains in the pre-Federation era but there is no firm evidence either way of female captains existing in Lester’s lifetime. A female captain would appear 17 years later on the bridge of the USS Saratoga in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and of course Captain Kathryn Janeway would take command of the USS Voyager on Star Trek: Voyager, 102 years after this episode takes place. In addition, approximately 75 years after this episode takes place, a woman would captain the USS Enterprise itself (or rather, the USS Enterprise-C), Captain Rachel Garrett (TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise”).
I know everyone means well here and all the conversation is positive but this line of argument is EXACTLY why so many of us hate the idea of prequels. One little throw away line from nearly 50 years ago and its argued as if its something we should even consider now for this show. And I’ll say it again no one is saying we should but the fact people have to justify their reasoning for why we shouldn’t is the problem with prequels and Star Trek in general.
Its a throw away line said in one episode in the 60s. There were tons of throw away lines given that I hope no one feels they have to now be obligated to follow when making this show. But again if it was 1-200 years in the future all of it would be moot.
You hate prequels because you’re so inflexible as to ignore a “throw-away” line that can clearly be reinterpreted to mean anything in a different context? Clearly nobody feels obligated to address this single line of dialogue form TOS considering that they’ve evidently ignored it. I never have, nor never will understand those who’s emotional happiness can be upended by decisions made in a television show, especially when those decisions expand the opportunities for story telling, not to mention correcting obvious mistakes made in the past.
No I hate prequels for multiple reasons, this is just one example of many. ;)
And uh, as I made clear multiple times now, I don’t think people are suggesting anyone actually making the show would make big story decisions based around throw away lines from 50 year TV shows. And I doubt most people working on Discovery knows or cares about that line. My main point was about the fans themselves and the need to feel we have to justify any changes over it when in reality we shouldn’t.
But this has always been the problem with Trek fans and canon. I mean its SO bad the producers of the KT films felt they had to put their series in another universe just to get around it.
But I agree end of the day I just want good stories and why I don’t care if changes are made to previous canon just as long the story is worth it. I’m not saying it should just be ignored entirely just not fret over every tiny thing a lot of fans seem to do and yes where both Enterprise and the KT films ran into a few problems. I hope Discovery gets off more unscathed but yeah not holding my breath.
In their quest for money the writers/producers of Star Trek apparently cast aside Gene Roddenberrys “vision” of a better future for mankind in favor of tripe! He must be rolling over in his grave right now seeing how distorted his legacy is being portrayed!
@Ronald Er, what?
You forgot ‘First Officer / Science Officer’.
We can safely presume that Lester simply tried to play the “male oppression” card when Starfleet deemed her unfit to command due to her mental instability. There always was a place for women in the world of Starfleet captains… just not for this particular woman.
If she tried the same trick today, they’d likely make her an admiral just to avoid a discrimination lawsuit.
Me too, and besides, Starfleet already had Ericka Hernandez in command of the Columbia a hundred years earlier.
Uh you want to fill us in to the ‘dialogue’ from that episode? I think I seen it once thirty years ago lol.
But this is GREAT news. Everyone can now relax she is playing a Captain as more rational people assumed she would. And its interesting she will be on another starship entirely but yet have a recurring role so it will be interesting to see how this plot line shake out. We also know a Klingon Captain will be cast as well so maybe it might be some kind of multiple ship mission or stuck behind enemy lines.
Dr. Janice Lester: I hoped I wouldn’t see you again.
Captain James T. Kirk: I don’t blame you.
Dr. Janice Lester: The year we were together at Starfleet is the only time in my life I was alive.
Captain James T. Kirk: I never stopped you from going on with your space work.
Dr. Janice Lester: Your world of starship captains doesn’t admit women. It isn’t fair.
Captain James T. Kirk: No, it isn’t, and you punished and tortured me because of it.
It could also be understood as meaning Kirk’s PERSONAL world of starship captains doesn’t admit women, not the world of Starfleet. Kirk’s ship would always be his first love, so his world of starship captains wouldn’t have room for a woman; she would always be second-place, and Lester wanted Kirk’s full love and attention.
Great observation/comment!
That? Oh ok thanks but yeah that was the 60s and Enterprise retcon all of that anyway with the Captain of Columbia. No way would they try to attempt that today in 2016. I know we are Trek nerds but yeah lets not take every little line from a script and hold it up 50 years later like its set in stone but I know no one here is doing that.
I always did ignore it because the idea that humanity had advanced to get to the stars but not allow a woman to be a ships captain never made sense to me. I know it was a show in the 1960s but still.
Well remember in the original pilot they made a big deal about a woman being first officer as well. Yeah it WAS the 60s and while Roddenberry was certainly liberal and believed in diversity he was still part of that time like everyone else and probably the thought of women captains even centuries into the future was probably seen as a big deal. Today we just think more progressive about everything or certainly more so than back then.
Lester was a nut. It is easy to dismiss her assertion that Starfleet doesn’t promote women to Captain as simply that Starfleet didn’t promote her, because she was a nut, and she couldn’t accept that fact.
I agree!
I thought it was a prerequisite for being a true Trekkie that we all simply ignore Turnabout Intruder anyways?
screw that. Turnabout Intruder was the best original series episode. Shatner was robbed, beaten, bashed, and trampled out of an emmy award. The best. Well, A Piece of the Action, was pretty good too
For decades we overlooked that Kilingons didn’t have ridges in classic Trek. We should be able to overlook one sentence spoken by Janice Lester in one episode.
I think everybody is OK with that.
Why do fans insist on perpetuating that Myth- Kirks psychotic ex made the comments, not anyone else & they can be dismised as a figment f her paranoid obsession & kirk’s comments can be seen as just agreeing with her too save the stress of bringing up an old fight.
How irreverent.
Well, TVLIne is reporting that Michelle Yeoh IS playing the lead female.
TVLine isn’t the best source, especially when compared to Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter.
She is a superb actress; why is she not the main character on the Discovery?? Seems a waste of talent to not make her the lead (exception Number One ends up a white girl because she is supposed to be the same person from the Cage; doubt Hollywood can write anything that innovative).
Well at least she won’t be playing a Yeohman.
A female yeoman? Preposterous!
For all the complaining that Kirk and Pike did about female yeomans, did we ever see a male yeoman?
I see what you did there! :-)
Captain Han Bo of the U.S.S. Shenzhou?
Captain Jean Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Fleur-de-Lis!
Ummm..so they cast a Chinese actress to play a Chinese captain of a ship with a Chinese name? A bit on the nose, no?
I agree.
I was going to make a comment like that but decided I was wrong. We didn’t complain that they cast American Scott Bakula to play American Jonathan Archer as Captain of a ship with an American name.
Well for starters the ship was Enterprise. So it wouldnt have mattered. As someone else pointed out, it would be like Picard being the captain of a french ship.
Creatively it seems like a stretch. I dont have an issue with it at all, just seems almost….trying too hard.
Yes, trying to hard to impress Chinese audiences… maybe? They could’ve at least given the ship a Japanese or Indian or Pakistani name with a Chinese captain. In my opinion, Star Trek is more interesting when it’s mixing cultures, like having a Klingon raised by Russians. Russians? Why not.
Enterprise is an “American” name? I think you’ll find that word is a part of the English language (or French, if you count the original L’Enterprise), not American, and there have been ships of other navies with that name (there is even an H.M.S. Enterprise operating now, although she’s only a small survey vessel).
The name “Enterprise” is by far most closely associated with the United States Navy, due to the most-decorated ship of the Second World War and the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Michelle Yeoh has been cast in order to satisfy global markets.
Hollywood was once described as “when art meets commerce”.
Too bad art left town twenty years ago.
How about hiring the best talent, not the commercially viable solution.
F*ck, get it right for once!
Michelle Yeoh is extremely talented.
Precisely. So yeah, maybe they chose the name “Shenzhou” and an Asian actress to cater to Asian markets—they probably did—, but if that means we get an awesome actress like Yeoh in a major role, who’s also a wonderful person to have in the Star Trek family, I’m all for it. Great casting.
Agreed. When I first read ‘Michelle Yeoh cast as Trek lead’ I simply said YESSSSS!!! I have liked her even before Crouching Tiger. Global markets and demographics and political correctness had nothing to do with with my excitement.
IE, “We need more white people.”
Sorry the world isn’t just made of one group. Everyone who has worked on Star Trek for the last 50 years understand this.
Nonsense, Harry.
I’ve been lobbying here for Yeoh in Trek for years. Trek has always shown a future where an international crew is working together. The majority of the planet isn’t white or American. That’s not political correctness, that’s just a fact, sir. So why shouldn’t a few cast members on Trek reflect that.
I actually wanted Jean Yoon to play the Captain. I mean, look at this: https://youtu.be/SpfCkkKP9eE
Then again, Jean Yoon was cast as a lead in Kim’s Convenience, so there’s a scheduling conflict.
Now for the African-American lead, but I wouldn’t know whom to pick.
This is a decision most likely made to appeal to China as an emerging market for Star Trek. Not so much the actress herself, but the name of the ship as well (“Shenzhou” refers to China’s current manned spaceflight program). As the head of a diverse team under her command, it’s pure Star Trek in any case. CBS cannot ignore the potential win of finally dissolving the franchise’s lack of brand recognition outside of North America, some European, and other, markets. Without it, we might as well get used to reruns and books, because I am sure Paramount and JJ Abrams will look closely at how well Discovery trends outside of its core markets before moving on the new film.
you’re probably right. Reading this, first, I was like ‘i don’t think i like it’ Then i was like, ‘maybe i can deal with it’. by the 3rd or 4th sentence, I was like, ‘oh man, a starship crew of all (or mostly)asians’ this could be cool and quite different. that was before the cynical part of me began to think about it.
It never made sense to me, within the universe, for so many Starfleet ships to be named after 20th-century U.S. military vessels (one country on one planet).
There really aren’t that many starships named for US military ships, about as many are named for famous British ships. NCC-1701’s sisterships had names from many countries, including Hood, Potemkin, Defiant, and Excalibur. NCC-1701D’s known-named sisterships were Yamato (Japan) and Odyssey (ambiguous, possibly for the US Apollo 13?), Venture, and Galaxy, which aren’t typically associated with US vessels. Voyager was (presumably) named for the NASA explorer, Earth’s first probe to Uranus and Neptune. Her only named sistership was Bellerophon (British) seen on DS9. DS9’s Runabouts were named for Earth’s rivers, including Yangtze Kiang, Ganges, Mekong, and Orinoco. Other prominent starships are the Yorktown, Lexington, Excelsior, Stargazer, Melbourne, Prometheus, and Reliant, so only some are famous US warships. DS9’s Defiant’s known-named sisterships were Valiant and Sao Paolo.
Its a bit ironic everyone here is talking about how this is suppose to be an appeal to China and yet China is a country that doesn’t even allow Netflix into their country. What I mean is we don’t even know yet if Discovery will even air in China yet since we know outside of North America (or the U.S. and Canada mostly) everyone else will see this on Netflix.
Now it doesn’t mean they can’t do a separate deal with China, more than likely they will, but so far there hasn’t been any in place yet from what I know.
They STILL haven’t cast the lead? UNBELIEVABLE? First they were shooting in September, then November… and now? Expect another delay!
Patrick Stewart has been casted only a few weeks before the began shooting TNG. It is not unusual that the casting is the last step of the pre-production process.
This is a TV production, not a movie production. They could start filming immediately after casting has finished if scripts and sets are ready to go. Episodes typically only film for about a week so its all quick and fast. A movie production, thats different, filming typically going on for several months sometimes.
Cautiously optimism is what Im feeling right now.
Scott Bakula was the first announced cast member of Enterprise, in May 2001 (Enterprise debuted in September, so that was four months later and we are still six months or so from Discovery’s debut.)
Kate Mulgrew was the last cast member chosen for Voyager, AFTER filming started! (Original star Genevieve Bujold quit after a day or two.)
Yeah it is odd they haven’t cast the lead yet KNOWING they were originally suppose to shoot in November (which was originally October). I mean whats the hold up? They could just trying to get a specific actor for the role but how hard is it to cast this role?
But I’m glad this news has at least set some of our fears aside this show was in a lot of trouble after the four month delay and then Fuller leaving. It could still be in trouble lol but I think with this announcement things are at least moving although its clear they won’t be shooting in November as the Variety article suggested. And TV productions go down for the Christmas holiday so unless they start shooting in the next few weeks more than likely it will be January earliest they will shoot the pilot.
Would be great if she was the much anticipated lead role. What I read about needing a black female as the lead sounds like absurd political correctness to me. Here’s hoping common sense will prevail over pc. (I know, I know…)
What is PC about it? There are more non-white humans than white humans on earth. The biggest portion of the world population is Asian. And the difference is rising. By 2050 the west will be tiny, tiny minority on this planet.
Thus statistics suggest that by the 23rd century most of the human Starfleet personal should be non-white since in the 23rd century differences in educational and wealth are eliminated, therefore Starfleet should represent the earth population with max. 10% whites.
PC would be to ignore statistics and make most of the 23rd century crew white just because most of the 21st century audience happens to be white.
Who do you think achieved space travel and invented all of the technology that made it possible? So the largest population should be the ones in space? Yeah that makes a lot of sense – why weren’t Asians and Africans in space first? Why didn’t they invent the technology? Your logic is flawed. Statistically, white men would be the most likely to be in space, even 300 years from now.
This isn’t science fiction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK8xHq6dfAo
Star Trek been far left since TNG so this isn’t shocking. I don’t speak of casting an asian but casting women as Captains and Admirals.
I thought the show was about a ship called, um, “Discovery.” This is all kind of transparent, isn’t it?
Well, Babylon 5 did feature in Crusade fairly frequently with Tracy Scoggins having a credit in the opening titles despite only being in a small few episodes.
Werent there rumours of some sort of small fleet as the plot of the first season with the Discovery being just one of the ships?
Let’s hope the design of the Shenzhou is better than the Discovery (shouldn’t be too difficult).
Constitution-class, NCC-1708 or NCC-1788 or even NCC-888 or NCC-1888 to push it (as 8 is a lucky number in many Asian cultures, including Chinese), perhaps? Or, would that be too much “unimaginative” fanservice?
One number 8 should be enough.
There are probably hundreds or even thousands of variations with just one number 8, so that would be interesting, which number they will pick.
I mean, the Chinese are not stupid and will notice when their viewership is being appeased too much. I hope.
Sounds more like a recurring character, not one of the leads
Yes,Star Trek was supposed to be about
The future,and how we
Evolve,and achieve
Wondrous things,become
Better human beings,do
Away with racism,etc.!
That was Roddenberry’s
Vision!
I hope we don’t loose
That vision!
THAT IS STAR TREK!!!
If you keep going in this direction the next Star Trek series will be set in “our past” and since we all know that can’t happen then this will be the last Sta Trek show ever! What happened to the future? That is what STAR TREK is supposed to be all about anyways? How much better mankind can become, not hashing over all the troubles we currently are experiencing! This newest group of Star Trek writers/producers/creators seem to have forgotten that Gene Roddenberry had a vision of a future possible existence from humans, not just churning out stories to make money! He is rolling over in his grave right now seeing how his “vision” has been corrupted!
Did Gene tell you that himself or are you just crapping out nonsense?
Well, we could have a movie/series about the Eugenics War. That took place in the 1990s as I recall, which is already our past. And before anyone says we can’t retcon that, it might be a good idea to read Greg Cox’s “The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh”
@Captain Dunsel…
RETCON: History was radically changed when Captain Braxton crashed in 1996, allowing Starling to create an advanced computer industry that wasn’t supposed to happen. (VOY: FUTURE’S END) That’s why the Voyager crew saw no signs of war in 1996 Los Angeles. Khan ended up happening much later, explaining DS9’s assertion that 200, not 300 years had passed since the Eugenics Wars. (DS9: DOCTOR BASHIR, I PRESUME) This change in history also explains why Khan turned into a pasty white British guy instead of a beefy Latino. (STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS)
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! :-)
“crashed in 1996” should read “crashed in 1969”.
Is it possible the Klingon Captain could be a female?
Remember that TNG episode “Parallels?” In it every possible reality based on individual decisions could happen. So, as I see it, anytime there’s a “break” in the Trek universe continuity in any given episode or series, it just means we’re seeing one of those millions upon millions of timelines. Problem solved. Writers, go for it!
She was referring to Kirk’s heart. They are married to the job,the ship is their Love.
Hmm… was hoping that she was the main character given her talent. Any chance the U.S.S. Shenzhou is the main ship?
USS Shenzhou aka 联邦星舰“神州”号 the same name of real Chinese spacecrafts, Han Bo probably is 韩波, but not sure, is there any of you can confirm?
Gotta appeal to the Chinese, eh? STD is going to be garbage.
Star Trek: Pander
So…unless its an all white cast then its pandering? You realize you’re a racist right?
What part of my statement represented an ethnicity as being superior or inferior to another? Learn what the term racist means before making knee jerk remarks. Hollywood does nothing but pander now. That’s modern marketing strategy. Things are always presented now with in black and white terms (no pun intended) rather than the shades of gray that would be inherent to a long-since-diversified culture, a la Star Trek.
I agree with your overall point, that *in theory* the world of Star Trek ought to be more like Firefly – seeing a wider range of planets, income levels, religions, casual mixing of languages and cultures – rather than the rather sterile ‘Planet Marin County / Starship Hyatt Regency’ of TNG that always exoticised the people of the Planet of the Week. It should be treated as no big deal.
That said, Trek’s strength has always been in two areas: Groundbreaking representation, and in allegories to present-day culture and politics.
Diversity and representation matter. Even today, it’s hard to watch TV and find people that represent you, if you’re a minority.
Even though East Asian people, all 1.6 billion at present estimate, make up about 21% of Earth’s population, you’d be hard-pressed to see any of them represented in Western media. Precious few are leads of their own series — most are sidekicks or secondary characters to white leads, or exotic ‘others’. Half the time they don’t even get to have Asian names! (Looking at you, Watson.)
I can think of exactly five South Asian characters on current shows, of which exactly one is the star/lead (Priyanka Chopra on Quantico – and her character is mixed), one is a villain-of-the-season-arc (Parminder Nagra, guesting on Agents of SHIELD), and the rest are mostly IT nerd stereotypes.
At present, exactly *two* current North American shows are about Asian families, and both are sitcoms.
Sure, Sulu was great, but he wasn’t really a lead; we never got a ‘Sulu episode’ or even a Sulu B-story. That said, merely having him there was great, for the late 1960s.
Today, having a Chinese woman captain is great representation, both for underrepresented Asian American audiences at home, and for a huge Asian audience overseas. Played by a global superstar like Michelle Yeoh? That’s quite a ‘get’ for Trek, to be honest.
And while you might call it pandering, I see savvy marketing. Trek isn’t just a North American phenomenon anymore – at least, it’s trying to expand its base, following Marvel’s example.
Star Trek Beyond was co-financed by Alibaba, the ‘Amazon of Chinese wholesale B2B’, and Huahua Media, which invested and did Mainland China promotion (http://variety.com/2016/film/asia/huahua-star-trek-china-investment-role-1201849929/) – in that article they mention attaching the film to a local celebrity talk show couple who have 120 MILLION followers on the Sina Weibo network. I can’t imagine any western host with as much impact – maybe Ellen? Maybe Oprah?
You forgot Ming-Na in Agents of SHIELD. With sitcoms, do you also have Kim’s Convenience in mind as one of the two? There’s Sense8; starring Doona Bae, Tina Desai, Anupam Kher, Naveen Andrews. Sense8 is as diverse as any tv show can get.
I forgot to mention The Expanse, starring Florence Faivre in the first season. Favire is French-Thai. One recurring Asian actor is François Chau, and Jean Yoon was a guest in at least two episodes.
Thanks for mentioning Ming-Na, and yes, Kim’s Convenience was one of the two sitcoms (the other being Fresh Off The Boat). I was thinking about broadcast network TV vs cable / premium or streaming shows, mostly. That said, out of hundreds of shows on the weekly schedule, my point stands that there’s not a *lot* of diverse leads that have mainstream visibility.
@Peter S. Alec: Hollywood has been pandering since its inception. Nothing new here, except we’ve noticed, that the white Caucasian male is not the one being pandered to.
@Mardus
Its amazing how people act like white men is suddenly being phased out of Hollywood. Will you stop sounding this silly. When TFA premiered people were literally whining how none of the leads were white men while IGNORING the fact the great majority of actors in the film were still white men. Get over it do you guys have to be the lead in EVERYTHING???
And Star Trek, for all its talk of diversity its still mostly white people on the show at the end of the day. Discovery will have plenty of white people but yet if not more than half are white to you you will probably moan about it.
@Peter – do you need a cookie? Get over yourself. You should learn the definition of racism actually, before you post such nonsense.
@peter So, what are you arguing against? A Chinese captain?
It’s been “Star Trek: Pander” since Seven-of-Nine’s and T’Pol’s skin-tight suits.
Star Trek: Pandas!
I mean c’mon! In the future the species has probably repopulated and they’ve got their own planet now.
What? Have you guys *seen* Star Trek?
Gene Roddenberry mentioned in past interviews that he had respect for Asian people . he married his wife Mrs majel Berre Roddenberry in a Japanese style wedding .
Gene Roddenberry mentioned in past interviews he had respect for Asian people . he married majel Berre Roddenberry in a Japanize wedding style .
i dont even care for the idea of this show being befor tos….its time for somthing new not old worn out stuff,,,,,
Some non-english names, seems like they want to go a bit more cosmopolitan. I like that and it’s fiiting for a united earth resp a united federation of planets.
So the Star Trek which I love is all about unity amongst humans and other species within the federation….and on this fansite y’all are complaining about the fact that the leadrole is being played by an Asian lady?? Common people wake-up we all are living on the same rock and I am sure that excluding someone because of her/his origin is not allowed by the prime directive…There are many days I wish we all were Vulcans so we could use logic before anything else….I can not wait untill this new show starts and I am sure she will do great as most of her other stuff is!! Next to that I would really like it if the studio brings back some of the people from Enterprise…Maybe Shrans son or T’Pol daughter I enjoyed those characters nd although T’Pol didn’t liked herself in the way she played The Vulcan I actually think she did a wonderfull job
Even as someone who thinks political correctness has gotten a little ideologically overzealous in the past few years & is becoming a bit of a parody of itself, I find this a little inappropriate… Surely, giving the Chinese actress the roll of the captain of a ship with a Chinese name is leaning quite heavily on the door of racial profiling…
She is a superb actress; why is she not the main character on the Discovery?? Seems a waste of talent to not make her the lead (exception Number One ends up a white girl because she is supposed to be the same person from the Cage; doubt Hollywood can write anything that innovative).
@Cmd.Bremmon… Hollywood is youth-obsessed. There is zero chance the star of this show will be anyone over 40. Even over 30 is unlikely.
That’s the real writing crime – starships captained by kids that should still be cutting their teeth. I think it’s no surprise that an aged Admiral Kirk in ST2 out dramas basically every Trek character that comes afterwards. Imagine if you had an even better actress like Yeoh in the centre seat (or even a passed up first officer that has to take the conn in a pinch.
is it unrealistic to think there are chinese ships crewed by chinese in starfleet? could explain why ships like enterprise and voyager are all crewed by americans save for your token vulcan or betazed. i would hope a united earth would respect diversity of the human species and not draconianly force everyone to speak english and adopt anglo-saxon/anglo-sphere culture. in austria-hungary, a true multi ethnic state, there were ships in its navy that had hungarian names and solely were crewed by hungarians. their army had regiments made solely of one ethnicity out of its various ethnic groups croat, german, czech, hungarian, ukrainian, polish etc.
The idea of chinese ships with chinese crews smacks a little of (unintentional) segregation, which is highly unlikely in the Starfleet we know of. Unless of course, we’re talking about a pre-Starfleet UESPA; which if true, could suggest that the Yeoh character’s involvement may take place in an earlier period than the one suggested-perhaps in flashback.
On the other hand, her crew could be multinational after all and people here could be barking up the wrong tree simply because, as someone else suggested, Shenzhou is ‘too on the nose’.
In Deep Space Nine, a USS T’Kumbra was manned only by Vulcans, as were USS Intrepid and USS Hera.
It should be noted, that Vulcans have different comfort levels regarding gravity, air pressure, and temperature; so it would be only logical to have an all-Vulcan crew on a ship where its environment would be specifically adapted to Vulcan requirements.
Well considering demographics it is more likely by the 23rd century to have a chinese namef ship with a chinese Captain than an American named ship with an white Captain.
There is nothing to suggest the entire crew is Chinese is there?
They could create an in-universe reason for this, for example, if this Captain was involved in the development of the ship and they gave her the command and the name to honour her or her past in some way. Perhaps she joined Starfleet because of past family who worked on the Chinese space program.
Well if we extrapolate things a little, The Federation and Starfleet were heavily influenced by the United States. We have to assume the One World Government that turned into the Federation came about as a US-centric thing or at least an English-speaking thing which isnt that much of a stretch really.
Enterprise crews had different ethnicities present though most were seemingly American born.
I have no issue with this casting and I find the Chinese ship more amusing than upsetting. Just a bit too obvious, creatively. Unless there is an in-Universe reason for the coincidence of a Chinese Captain and a Chinese-named ship…
TUP
Re: I find the Chinese ship more amusing than upsetting
Well, given that in THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME there was an all Vulcan crewed Starfleet ship, that might make this forgivable, but that ship was called INTREPID and not given some Vulcan designation.
Um Alex…the reason those vessels on Star Trek were crewed by Americans (although they weren’t all Americans) is because, wait for it, they were American TV shows. You want to know what… British shows have predominantly British casts. Funny that.
..ironic, I read recently discovery had been canceled. hmmmm
Well you read wrong lol. There was never any real news about the show being cancelled, just delayed.
Easy out on this one: The Star Trek: TNG episode “Parallels” established that every decision an individual makes has its own universe to play out the consequences. So the Trek universe (with ALL its inhabitants) can give us trillions upon trillions of story variations, individual scenes, and settings to play with–all based on an intriguing scientific theory. A win-win for writers and fans. So we can say that “Turnabout Intruder,” and its dated role for women, took place in one universe (along with any other episodes any one of us might not care for) and the rest of the Trek universe is in another. Continuity and endless variety! The only thing we need to demand now is good writing.
The last thing Star Trek needs is to have multiple universes happening. No one cares about the KT. There is only one Prime Timeline and Discovery takes place within it. Much easier to accept Lester was nuts than to create some goofy theory about multiple universes.
What?
CBS is still going to try and make this?
They will find out soon enough how futile this flop in the making will be.
The self anointed phanziods will shoot it down before the first episode airs and certainly wont be willing to part with their hard earned cash to watch it online.
Oh well it’ll be good to keep the chatter on going here.
I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t make it.