Five Cast Members For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Announced

The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds went into production last month in Canada, and now we are getting our first look at who will be joining Captain Pike, Spock, and Number One onboard the USS Enterprise.

Strange New Worlds adds five

On Friday Paramount+, the streaming home for the new Star Trek Universe announced five new cast members for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Babs Olusanmokun (Black Mirror, Dune), Christina Chong (Tom and Jerry, Black Mirror), Celia Rose Gooding (Jagged Little Pill), Jess Bush (Skinford, Les Norton) and Melissa Navia (Dietland, Billions) are all on board as series regulars.

They join Anson Mount as Captain Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. Paramount+ has not yet revealed what roles the new actors are playing, but they did release a video featuring the full cast talking about starting production on the new show.

Goldsman directed pilot

Today’s announcement also included a new official synopsis for the series:

Star Trek: Strange New worlds is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series will feature fan favorites from season two of Star Trek: Discovery, Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. The series will follow Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.

It was also revealed today that the series premiere was written by executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman with the story by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Goldsman also directs the premiere episode. In a statement Goldsman said:

“In a career, there is never enough work that is pure joy. I feel that my friend Alex Kurtzman along with David Stapf at CBS Studios and Julie McNamara at Paramount+ have given me just that by letting me haunt the stock rooms of my favorite candy store and I am grateful. With a hell of a cast and undying love for the original series, we boldly go.”

The same statement quotes Goldsman’s co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers as well:

“I’m incredibly grateful to be working alongside Akiva and our brilliant, multi-faceted cast to help bring the adventures of the Starship Enterprise to new life. For someone who’s been dreaming of spaceships and alien worlds since I was little, this show is a dream come true.”

Ethan Peck as Spock, Anson Mount as Pike and Rebecca Romijn as Number One in season two of Star Trek: Discovery

New SNW cast

Paramount+ did not reveal any details about what roles the five new cast members will be playing, but we do know a bit about their acting experience. Babs Olusanmokun and Christina Chong have the most extensive credits and are listed first in the release, indicating they may have more prominent roles.

Babs Olusanmokun’s notable television credits include his roles in Netflix’s Black Mirror, Marvel’s The Defenders, HBO’s Emmy-winning miniseries The Night Of and History’s 2016 remake of the miniseries Roots. His film credits include the upcoming and highly anticipated Dune and Wrath of Man.

Babs Olusanmoku

Christina Chong can currently be seen in the live-action adaption of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Tom and Jerry and in The CW’s Bulletproof. Chong’s other television credits include Black Mirror, Doctor Who, the BBC’s Ill Behaviour, the ABC event mini-series Of Kings and Prophets, the hit BBC series Line of Duty, SYFY’s Dominion, Halo: Nightfall and Fox’s event mini-series 24: Live Another Day. Film credits include Christmas Eve, opposite Sir Patrick Stewart, and Johnny English: Reborn.

Christina Chong

Celia Rose Gooding starred as Frankie Healy in Jagged Little Pill, a musical inspired by Alanis Morissette’s award-winning album, until the Broadway shutdown in 2021, and received a 2020 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her work. Past theater roles also include Urinetown and Fame.

Celia Rose Gooding

Jess Bush starred as Helen in the indie feature Skinford and appeared in the recurring guest role of Kendall in the Channel 10 series Playing for Keeps. Bush also played the role of Bella in the Australian series Halifax – Retribution. In addition, Bush went on to guest star on the ABC series Les Norton opposite Rebel Wilson and David Wenham.

Jess Bush

Melissa Navia’s recent television credits include a recurring role on AMC’s critically acclaimed series Dietland and guest roles on Showtime’s Billions and Homeland. In March 2020, she made her Off-Broadway debut in the much-applauded Bundle of Sticks at INTAR Theatre.

Melissa Navia

The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds began production on its first season last month in Toronto, Canada. It is expected to be 10 episodes long. A release date has not been set, but it will likely debut on Paramount+ in 2022.

50% off Paramount+ deal

Today Paramount+ announced a new discount promotion. Sign up for an annual plan and for a limited time they will sweeten the deal with 50% off your first year. CLICK HERE and use promo code: YEAR. Offer expires on 03/31/2021 11:59 PM PT.


Find more news and analysis on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds at TrekMovie.com.

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This is very, very, very exciting! God, cast announcements are just so exciting to me for some reason. I can’t wait! Also cool that Christina Chong was Lorna Bucket on Doctor Who and now she’s on Star Trek. Very very very cool.

I’d love to see some of the big Who actors rock up. Capaldi as Robert April. Gomez as an antagonist. And probably the obvious one, Matt Smith as a Changeling.

Seriously, can you imagine Michelle Gomez as Osyraa? They could have drawn that out over seasons.

And I’d love to see some SpongeBob-Star Trek corporate synergy plus.

Mr. Krabs was in an Enterprise episode.

i wouldn’t rule it out, Paramount Plus is going to go promotionally crazy in the early years to come!

Pike should have a SpongeBob toy on his desk just like Mercer has got a Kermit doll… It would even fit his uniform and it’s better than fortune cookies :-)

The only other way I could imagine a SpongeBob tie-in would be a “Shore Leave” style simulation, with SpongeBob replacing the White Rabbit…

But a more “direct” crossover would be really strange. SpongeBob must be a fictional character within the Trek universe, such as Moriarty, Holmes or Cpt. Proton. They cannot meet him as a real creature! Pleaze…

Let the crossover happen. I’ve waited my whole life for this!

They already have three movies planned probably! That’s what Nick Meyer is pitching, SpongeBob Star Trek crossovers, the Enterprise crashes to Bikini Bottom. The potential is there….

Smith has already kind of been there, playing the humanoid form of Skynet in Terminator Genisys.

Capaldi was my pick for the Doctor, ironically enough.

I knew that her name was familiar, crossing the streams eh?

YESS!!! It`s a joy to see how Anson Mount glows like a child on Christmas Eve!!!
Excited to see which characters those people will play – I already am a big fan of the voices of Babs and Jess <3

This all nice I suppose but just throwing it out there:Jason Isaac’s, from his Twitter, was in Toronto in quarantine about the same time SNW was going into production.

Discovery Season 4 is also filming right now.

They had an amazing chance for Lorca to be in season 3 and basically set up the character to appear but clearly didn’t happen. I hope we do see him again either in Discovery again or SNW. SNW would make the most sense obviously knowing what we know. But as we also know this is Star Trek and they found a way to set him up to appear last season as said on DIS so he can probably show on it again too.

It was such a perfeft set-up to show him in Season 3 that his absence is VERY suspicious. Almost like they were saving him for an even better reveal …

one can only hope. I loved Jason Isaacs as Lorca!

Or maybe they just didn’t have the budget to cast him or Isaac’s diary didn’t sync with the production schedule. It was disappointing not to see him and it did feel like a missed opportunity but I don’t think his absence precludes him from appearing again. I personally felt as though the Section 31 show was a better fit for bringing him back but if it happens to be on SNW I’d be delighted.

Let’s hope that Issacs never comes without 100 miles of any Star Trek production ever again.

Really hoping they write some good story here. C’mon, Kurtzman and Goldman. Make this one shine, please.

Hear, hear! Please, please, PLEASE don’t marr this show with some of the poor decisions seen across Discovery and Picard ( clumsy Voq/Klingon storyline, The “burn”, Picard-Golem, Stamets suddenlly feeling parental to Adira within the space of a few episodes, random crewmember never seen before shown as an established Discovery crewmember in the finale, etc )…

Of all your examples, only the last one would qualify as a poor decision.

I don’t know why people complain about Stamets and Adira when the exact same thing happened with Seven and the Borg children. Four episodes and she’s shedding tears when they leave.

People complain about Star Trek because that’s the only thing that gives them joy.

You need to grow up and learn to accept that people are going to have differing opinions from your own, and it doesn’t make them wrong.

They have to be wrong because Star Trek is always right :-) Even if it contradicts itself! Vulcan has no moon but it has many. The Klingons have no devil but they have one. Warp 10 is impossible but it works! Klingons have no foreheads and no hair unless they have both…

I can live with many many contradictions, a lot better than I can tolerate differing opinions about Trek. I cannot even tolerate my own divergent opinions…

Actually it was 5 episodes.

Those are only a few. There are many many more. Including the Stammets resurrection, the use of the MU, how they handled section 31… Capped by the granddaddy of all bad decisions… The Lorca MU “twist”.

This one is the one that looks to have the most potential. But there is very good reason to have doubts. I mean, LDX had massive potential and then all we got was a joyless fangasm. All we can do is HOPE that the staff crossover from SH shows is kept to a minimum here. Goldsman isn’t the automatic show/movie wrecker many see him as. He’s waffled between garbage and “decent”. Let’s hope this leans towards the “decent” end.

Fingers crossed….

Too bad there isn’t any information on the roles they play.

But if this is the entire main crew of the Enterprise, we’re definitely up for some whining. I like the fact there are more women on the bridge than guys as it compensates for the oversaturation of male characters on most previous shows, but not everybody will be happy…
5 ladies, 3 men, including the Big Three… I’m fine with it, but not everybody will be. It’s a shame we have to defend these decisions… But in our day and age, it happened to be my first thought… though being totally fine with it…

If the writing is good, none of that will matter. But I hear you.

If.

Scroll down. The whining about those poor, underrepresented straight white males has begun….

I am both unsurprised and annoyed about such whining. Because that whining pointedly ignores a key point about Trek.

Anyone who has a problem with there being more women than men isn’t a Trek fan. It’s that simple.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say the fandom isn’t theirs. I think they’ve just missed the point entirely.

Rios, don’t gatekeep. The balance doesn’t matter to most of us, but none of us get to dictate who is a real fan or not.

But some grasp the point better than others, which is what he’s getting at.

Many fans grasp the point just fine. They just don’t agree with it.

Kinda weird to watch a show about the power of diversity just to sit and rage at it.

Is it still “diversity” when nearly everyone at the table is the same race or gender?

I’m not gatekeeping. Star Trek is all about acceptance and diversity. It’s been that way since TOS, one of the great social-justice shows of the 1960s, and it continued in TAS, the films, TNG and so on, as well as the books and the comics. Those who complain about those things supposedly being “added” to the modern shows don’t know Star Trek well AT ALL. If they did, they’d realize how ridiculous their outlook is. Actual fans don’t complain about Star Trek becoming about social justice and diversity since actual fans know it was always about that.

Actually, you are gatekeeping. In the Urban Dictionary, it is defined as, “when someone takes it upon themselves to decide who does or does not have access or rights to a community or identity.” There is only one qualification for being a fan and that is because the qualification comes in the definition of the word “fan” itself. “Fan” is derived from the word “fanatic,” which is as Merriam-Webster describes it, “a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and devoted to some interest or activity.” That’s it, that’s all. A person is a Star Trek fan if they really like it, or some portion of it. And only they can know whether they like it or not. So, Rios, you don’t have the right, that is, the power, to determine whether any given person is a fan or not.

Gatekeeping should always happen when intolerance of diversity is being attempted.

So taking that statement to another topic… It’s OK to be racist sometimes as long as you are racist against a group YOU don’t like.

Got it.

I support this site’s anti-gatekeeping policy.

However, your way of invoking Merriam-Webster is, itself, a form of the same beast, and thoroughly undermines the point that you were trying to make. It is very difficult to see how “a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and devoted to …” STAR TREK could be ignorant of, or oblivious to, its obvious social justice origins and the pervasiveness of it in the product, itself. If this aspect of the art of STAR TREK truly turns the poster off as much as they profess, then it is difficult to see how said art leaves the commenter extremely enthusiastic about and devoted to STAR TREK as you insist your chosen arbiter, Merriam-Webster, requires?

Myself? I would have gone with the more authoritative, and less extreme, OED:

“fan
* n. a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular … art form…”

Under that definition, it is absurd for one fan to tell another that their interest or admiration isn’t “strong” enough.

It sounds like you are saying that you think keeping a reign on gatekeeping is a good thing. But some forms of gatekeeping (particularly when dealing with a subject or idea you agree with) are OK and should be allowed.

I would say that if one is to reign in gatekeeping then it is disingenuous to let some forms go and others not. Now it’s less about gatekeeping and more about not wanting opinions out there the one in charge personally disagrees with. Which is on the same level as book burning, IMHO. Cherry picking like that never leads to anything good.

No, I was just pointing out that Kriss Webb’s attempt to use MW to redefine fans as fanatics was logically inconsistent with the inclusive point he was trying to make. At no time, did I attempt to tell him or anyone they are not a fan or their “fan” qi wasn’t strong enough.

Well, Kriss Webb is correct in that “fan” does indeed come from the term “fanatic”. Over time the usage of the term has separated from “fanatic” in that fanatic is generally much more extreme than a mere “fan”. But much of that is subjective.

I did not specifically accuse you of essentially defining what a trek fan is. I was merely addressing what appeared to be an inconsistency in how you claimed you would apply the concept of “gatekeeping”.

Meriam-Webster is cool and all, but he clearly had a point about social justice and diversity you’re dancing around here.

Hey Rios, sorry for the late reply, but I live way in the Far East. I appreciate your reply and agree with everything you said. I personally believe (or would like to) that Trek is ultimately centrist and not on either extreme. It illustrates a world most of us wish for.

First thing that I noticed. And, I LOVE IT!

It’s NOT that simple, unfortunately. I think there’s plenty of evidence that people like the ones you mention absolutely are Trek fans.

Specifically, they’re Trek fans who have somehow managed to learn nothing from it. Or, if not nothing, then the wrong things.

So what you pick up from a form of art is the “right” way to look at it. And what someone else picks up from that same art is the “wrong” way to look at it.

I see…

I think this is what is called “gatekeeping”.

“If (this thing) then you are not a fan.”

As if any fan of a thing is the arbiter of what constitutes a fan of said thing.

Yeah, some folks can be a real drag.

There is actually a rumored casting list from Trek Central on Youtube that cited some of the roles. I actually posted it but it was erased, because I guess it was only rumors. But it did cite some specifics.

A black male character in his 40s would play the doctor.

A young woman would play a vet.

Another woman in her 20s or 30s would be the head of security.

A black woman in her 20s would be a linguistics officer.

Again, you have to take it all with a grain of salt for now, but I remember that Picard casting list everyone doubted that was floating around the internet and it ended up being 90% right. The only differences were the names and we didn’t have a full time EMH character, but that was probably changed for the Rios actor to play him and the others. And the names usually are just substitutes, so why I didn’t bother including them here.

Jess Bush has a bit of a look of Yeoman Colt from The Cage. I could see her playing the same character perhaps promoted to a more senior role.

I’m just disappointed that there isn’t anyone to play Dr. Boyce.

There isn’t anybody announced to play Boyce but that doesn’t mean he’s not there. I’m totally onboard with the need to diversify the cast both from a representation point of view and for the greater storytelling potential it affords but as I’ve said elsewhere in the thread it would still be nice to see some nods to the shows legacy. Boyce wasn’t in The Cage much but his role was memorable so I’m definitely in the camp that hopes to see him, I just don’t think it’s essential that he’s a main character. It’s pretty much standard operating procedure now for CBS to feed us news and casting information in drips and drabs so I’ve got no doubt that there’s big announcements yet to come and hopefully Boyce is one of them. Regardless of whether or not he’s still CMO in the shows timeline there’s still room for the character to make an appearance and the more episodic approach that they’re taking with SNW only makes it more likely that we’ll eventually see him in my opinion.

Me too. Was really hoping to see Bryce and Colt in there.

So does this possibly indicate that Celia Rose Gooding may be playing Ensign Uhura?

That’s what I’ve suggested as well further down the thread. Obviously age wise she matches up with the character description of a twenty something linguistic specialist and she’s an accomplished Broadway musical actress which might come in handy for playing a character who is known to enjoy singing.

Fingers crossed! ;)

Honestly I really hope not. I’d like to keep TOS characters to a minimum.

To me, the only TOS character I think makes sense to include would be a Lt. Scott on the engineering staff. My thinking is that is affinity for the Enterprise suggests being on that ship for quite some time. I think he was the oldest among them anyway.

@Thanks Tiger2! So maybe that black male doctor is M’Benga after all?

If the black woman is a young Uhura I’d really love that too.

Who is the “vet” and who is the head of security?

I don’t know why they need a vet aboard, maybe she is a exo-biologist of sorts, someone like Carol Marcus or Dr Dehner? Jess Bush??? But Yeoman Colt is also a good guess…

Head of security… Melissa Navia looks like a VERY strong woman to me. Interesting enough: Tasha Hernandez was the original cast sheet name Tasha Yar when Marina Sirtis auditioned for the role. Maybe Navia will play a security chief called Hernandez?

That’s what I thought, too: Macha Hernandez.

Sorry. You’re right. It was Macha Hernandez, not Tasha. But they definitely have a thing for bring old ideas finally to life. I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens here, too… The entire series is basically going back to a 1964 premise. Including an unrealized 1986 TNG character would perfectly fit for me as TNG had always been a TOS revival before becoming its own thing…

There still is an unrealized vulcan character from an unrealized 1977 Star Trek TV-series. ;-) Maybe they could bring him up too.

That would be Xon, he is mentioned and declared as being irrelevant in starfleet history by history buff Mariner in Lower Decks. So I guess Xon is burnt since Lower Decks is canon.

M’Benga would be nice to see, for sure.

However, given that McCoy would be named CMO under Kirk would then suggest that M’Benga was passed over for the job in favor of Kirk’s friend. Which I don’t think is a good look. So probably better to not use the character.

When you say “vet” do you mean that as “Veterinarian”? I sorta felt like the ships doctor pretty much had to be that too.
Or did you mean a “veteran” as in a “veteran of the space service”?

“5 ladies, 3 men, including the Big Three… I’m fine with it, but not everybody will be”

Jeepers, so why bring it up as a negative if you’re “totally fine with it?”

It’s like saying in 1966, “Uhura is played by a black woman… I’m fine with it, but not everybody will be” – or Sisko in 1993, or Janeway in 1995, or etc. etc.

Jack, I’m ABSOLUTELY fine with it. and I did NOT bring up the casting choice as a negative. However, what I did was anticipating the gross reactions it’ll provoke yet again after all that DSC had been going through… I definitely dislike those opinions because I strongly feel in favor of diversity…

But you’re right… Bringing it up in the first place could contribute to that needless debate. It’s a paradox.

‘But you’re right… Bringing it up in the first place could contribute to that needless debate. It’s a paradox.’

I’m sure that wasn’t your intent Garth Lorca and I’ve seen far more provocative posts than your original comment but since you’ve raised the question I’ll add my two cents. I don’t think it is a paradox, there’s nothing wrong at all with celebrating diversity and it certainly should not be discouraged. Likewise if fans are promoting views that are counter to equality then in my opinion they should be challenged. What I don’t think is helpful is making incendiary comments.

Like I said I don’t think this was your intent so I’m not singling out your comment here, rather I’m talking about a common behaviour we see more and more in the comments section here and widely across the internet. Somebody will come into an article and instead of just highlighting a positive they’ll focus on the anticipated negative reaction of a subsection of the fans. When somebody is doing this consistently across a wide range of subjects it becomes clear that they’re more interested in fighting and virtue signalling than building bridges and finding common ground.

Just to reiterate I’m not directing these charges at you Garth, you’re a good poster, I’m commenting on a wider behaviour that I think does more harm than good. So continue to celebrate the diverse casting choices but instead of following it with a grenade highlight a positive of why this is a good thing. I’m not just talking about the big issues either because whether it’s political or just preemptively attacking fans for not liking a show or being a Kurtzman hater or whatever the end result is still the same – every topic turns into a fight and we have an environment that’s not very welcoming to new fans who visit the page to discuss trek as well inviting the types of negative comments that the instigators claim to detest.

The show that needs more diversity is Picard. RoboPicard should be recast as anyone from any other race but white and they should kill off and replace everyone except Worf and Geordie, would really improve the show.

I think it foolish to compensate for history. That never helps anything. It’s like an umpire making a mistake so the two innings later he decides to make another bad call the other way. As if that “makes up” for the bad one. Wrong. All it does is it means yet another bad call was made. Worse, the 2nd one was not a mistake but INTENTIONAL. The best way to deal with a mistake is not to make yet another mistake but rather work to never make that mistake again.

If the gender of the characters was tilted this way because they were the best actors they could get for the roles or some other professional or plot driven reason then fine. But if they were chosen specifically to “compensate” for other shows having more males than females in the cast, then they made a tremendous mistake. One that will probably lead to the show being terrible, to be honest. More often than not when that is the reason the end product isn’t very good.

But as Danpine said, IF the shows are well written and the plotting is taut and well thought out… None of it will matter.

Wonderful news, now we just need that release date. :)

Jeffrey Combs as Dr Phillip Boyce is missing !

That’s because it would be a bad casting decision.

I believe the black actor is playing the doctor IF the casting rumors are right:

https://youtu.be/WNPeTg39Ljk?t=360

Why not M’Benga?

Because it would be odd for M’Benga to have been demoted by the time the Kirk era rolled around, wouldn’t it?

It would be odd but it’s not impossible. A demotion may have many reasons, it might be a personal choice of his. A colleague of mine had already been vice headmaster at our school but he became ill and “demoted” himself to being part-timer and simple teacher again…

You’re not wrong, but I just don’t see this being a thing. Plus, hey, maybe there could be two doctors of African descent in this era of Star Trek instead of just one.

Plus, hey, maybe there could be two doctors of African descent in this era of Star Trek instead of just one.

Good point ;-)
I guess that’s the problem with prequels (or even sequels) that are set close to a previous show: People expect previously established characters to return which often makes the universe seem awfully small.

Well the doctor wouldn’t necessarily have to be the CMO, they could take a Culber approach again so it’s feasible it could be M’Benga but I don’t think it would be a good idea. In the case of Culber there’s a journey in that we all know the character is going to grow and become more by the end of the show. What’s the journey for M’Benga if we know that he’s just going to be playing second fiddle to McCoy? Obviously I realise a person is more than just their career but even so it just feels to me as though we’d be limiting the impact of this character. Also the actor is clearly too old to be playing the role. Are we seriously expected to believe that a man in his 40’s can play a significantly younger version of character that based on the original actor playing him we have to assume was under 30? There’s room for the M’Benga’s and Kyle’s of TOS to get some screen time but they don’t need to be main characters and yeah I guess I need to chastise myself as well for falling into that trap given that I’ve already fantasy cast one of the actresses as Uhura and another as Colt in this thread lol.

I thought the films established that, while not as extreme as the evolved Vulcans, 23rd century humans don’t age as fast as we primitives do?

Certainly TNG established this as we saw one hundred and thirty odd year old McCoy in Encounter at Farpoint and the character of Picard was deliberately aged significantly beyond Sir Patrick Stewart’s age specifically to make this point. However, even if we were to assume that M’Benga was older than the 27 year old actor that played him when the character debuted in season 2 of TOS I still think it stretches credibility to have 35+ year old play him in stories that precede his previous appearances by approximately a decade. If they want to include M’Benga then that would be great but why not cast a more age appropriate actor for that role and allow Babs Olusamokun to create a brand new character that we can welcome into the Star Trek mythos?

Why a demotion? It just could be he started off his career in Terran based medicine and something eventually happens with him and Spock on Pike’s ship that eventually leads him to become the Vulcan specialist he is on Kirk’s?

That’s a terrible idea.

Why? Because you can prove M’Benga was not raised and educated on Earth but is Michael’s other “Vulcan” step-brother?

Wow. Now THAT’S a terrible idea.

Exactly.

Not demoted. Just passed over for CMO in favor of the new Captain’s friend.

As I said above, not a good look.

My understanding was a CMO has to be a general practitioner. If M’Benga chose to be a Vulcan specialist, as he was presented to be, there’s no bad look to it. He took himself out of contention by the choice he made. Happens in medicine quite frequently.

I’m sure McCoy had his own specialty. Most do. That I suppose is reasonable but still… The optics don’t look good from the outside looking in.

Too young to be playing Boyce, though.

Boyce could just be retired. No reason any of the characters from the Cage have to be around.

Transfers happen. I’d rather they create new characters and give the writers and actors more room to be themselves.

The fact we never saw or even got references of the other characters from The Cage on Discovery was probably a sign none of them would be on the new show. It doesn’t mean they won’t pop up but I been saying since the Combs/Boyce idea that I wouldn’t be shocked the character was just never part of the show. He was in the episode for about ten minutes and already in his sixties. Maybe he just retired by the time they ran into Discovery.

I’d still like to see Boyce though, I think it would just be a nice nod to continuity. If the casting rumours are true and Babs Olusanmoku is playing the main doctor it doesn’t necessarily follow that he will be the CMO. We’ve seen them take this approach with Culber on Discovery and even Geordi and Worf started as junior officers on TNG.

Obviously we could still see Boyce. And this doesn’t have to be the entire main cast either. They don’t all have to be the main cast at all, so yeah, we may get some more casting news and surprises.

I don’t care either way, but even if Boyce is not there, I’m more then sure he will be referenced or even pop up if the character is not on the show permanently.

I agree, Boyce being being on the show will neither make or break the show. Pike, Spock and Number one are the only ones that were essential. I just think it would be a nice touch for the fans if Boyce got to hand off to the new Doc so to speak.

Also if that casting report that you’ve linked to is accurate then I think that Celia Rose Gooding will be playing Uhura. It’s not just that it states that there will be a black female linguistic officer in her 20’s but singing was a big part of Uhura’s character and this particular actress is best known for appearing in Broadway musicals.

Yeah, I think it is a good chance we will get a new Uhura too. Yes I know everyone wants to be cautious and a young black woman linguistics officer doesn’t mean it’s Uhura, but, you can’t ignore the idea of it either obviously. Again if the casting list is true.

But I was also convinced Adira would end up being Dax though when we learned a Trill was showing up on Discovery, so I won’t make too much noise on it yet. ;)

To me though, why not just do it? To be honest, I see SNW as an open door to include how many TOS characters they want just like Picard is basically an open door to include as many TNG era characters as it wants and why Seven is there now.

Neither HAVE to do it, but let’s just be real, it’s what fans wants anyway. It’s a big reason why so many even want a Pike show, because now we can see Spock meeting Bones for the first time or a young Scotty as a junior engineer joining the ship. You don’t have to go overboard but one more additional TOS character there with Spock would be great IMO. And they can flesh out his and Uhura’s relationship as TOS started out doing, but then dropped it for some reason.

Lol yeah we all ended up with egg on our faces over Dax although I still think we’ll eventually see that character again on Discovery. In terms of Kirk’s bridge crew appearing on SNW my one reservation is that Spock was so isolated in the Menagerie when he defied Starfleet’s orders to help Pike. If half the bridge crew served under him you’d have expected them to have rallied round and helped Spock help Pike even if they weren’t privy to everything that had happened on Talos IV. So I kind of think they shouldn’t go too overboard bringing in TOS characters but at the same time I’d be disappointed if we didn’t see any. The clues do seem really strong for Uhura though and I think of all the TOS characters she would perhaps be the most fitting as it would really allow her to shine in ways that would have been impossible in the 1960’s.

I agree with that of course. That’s why I don’t think most should show up. And of course they can still appear on the show just not be on the ship itself. So there are many ways you can introduce them at least. But I think 1 or 2 actually serving on the ship would be fine.

As far as the Mangerie and how Spock reacted, I agree, but I always think how odd it is only Spock seem to have feelings about it (no pun intended ;)) and literally no one else on the entire ship of 400 people. That never made any sense either. Are we to believe out of the entire ship, Spock was the only holdover from Pike’s crew? And took place a year after Kirk showed up? And as you said no one rallied behind Spock or believed in what he was doing? So I don’t think about that too much. I just rewatched those episodes two weeks ago and it did seem odd knowing what we know today.

And we know ships don’t really have complete crew change overs every time a new captain shows up. In fact, we rarely seen anyone leave when a new captain takes over, but most of those were temporary.

I know what you mean Tiger2, I love watching the old episodes but there are aspects that clearly have dated and do feel jarring that you either have to out and ignore (like some of the archaic sexist dialogue of TOS) or invent your own head canon to reconcile. I agree there are lots of different ways you could bring in legacy characters without them necessarily being on the ship. That being said your suggestion that many of the crew would have carried over between Captains is valid.

Ultimately this has not been addressed in canon so I concede that the writers have a hell of a lot of freedom here and I’m a great believer that creatives should not be restricted by fanon! So yeah if they do decide to go that route and bring in lots of TOS characters I’ll still still be onboard for the ride and so long as they’re cast and written well I’ll probably love it too.

I still think it would be wise to hold back some TOS characters though. Not so much from a canon or story point of view but now that the TV and movie side are all under the same roof again it’s entirely possible that we’ll see one or more of the TV shows evolve into a movie franchise so it could be wise to leave a spot or two on the bridge (like say Kirk) free to be occupied by a more recognisable movie star.

I have said this before about TOS, but it has felt really dated to me in the last decade or so. Out of all the old shows, TOS-ENT, this is oddly the only one I have real trouble watching regularly now, which I still do, just nowhere on the level of the others. Oddly I’m watching the entire show from the beginning as I mentioned somewhere else here and I’m am enjoying it for sure. There are are some episodes I haven’t watched in over a decade easily and the really good ones are still great. TOS will always have a special place in my heart, but it just feels sooooo dated now and so many goofy things in the writing and production the other shows could never get away with. It’s why it’s no longer in my top 3 shows (but still in my top 5).

But yes, I obviously love the characters to death and really want to see them pop up in other shows and movies. But you also know I’m not begging for a TOS reboot show either. SNW is a nice compromise to maybe see them again (at least Spock) and see a new angle of them at the same time. And it just doesn’t feel so forced like it would have on Discovery because we know eventually they will show up on the ship. But I agree with you, it’s not necessary either. I don’t think we need to even see anyone the first few seasons. We can see some of them farther down the line after the new crew is more developed. The irony in that sentence is I was sort of against Spock and Pike showing up so soon in DIS because I thought those characters should just be on their own for awhile. Well, to give them credit, now DIscovery is REALLY on its own lol. So it worked out. ;)

But I do really really hope Uhura is there at least! ;)

‘The irony in that sentence is I was sort of against Spock and Pike showing up so soon in DIS because I thought those characters should just be on their own for awhile.’

And the other irony is that I was very much pro bringing in Spock and Pike, in fact I was probably one of about 3 people on the planet (that wasn’t part of the production) who thought making Burnham Sarek’s ward was actually a decent idea! I’m clearly the type of person that fan service was invented for so whilst I say it’s not necessary to introduce too many TOS characters I’m unlikely to object much if/when they do show up.

I get what you’re saying about TOS and I think you’re right. I mean don’t get me wrong the original was obviously a progressive show but it’s clear that Roddenberry and the rest of the writers had to compromise and make concessions to the studio in order to get certain things on screen and this is painfully obvious in some of the dialogue that ended up in the final product. It’s clear that the writers on TNG and to varying degrees all of the Berman era Trek had to make similar compromises but apart from a few obvious exceptions (Code of Honour!!) the dialogue isn’t so jarring and still holds up well.

Where I think the TNG era shows did fail is that they didn’t really push on any boundaries. The TNG shows were very successful in espousing values that still resonate greatly with liberally minded people like ourselves but they were still a little conservative in terms of actual onscreen representation. It’s a travesty really that it took until 2017 for a franchise known for promoting equality to introduce characters that represented the LGBT community.

Like I say the Berman shows really do still resonate for me but I do believe that maybe a little bit of a lack of courage in the 80’s and particularly the 90’s to increase representation answers a big question that’s been popping up elsewhere in this thread ie how can somebody be a fan of Trek and still be opposed to the new shows being more inclusive? There’s no real cognitive dissonance here, it’s just that the Berman era series (with maybe the exception of DS9) we’re just really accessible. At their core they have a very appealing message but the conservative approach to onscreen representation makes it very easy to ignore.

My head canon (and I think I’ve mentioned this before) is that Kirk was able to pick his command crew. I like to think that he and McCoy knew each other already and he selected him to be his CMO. I suspected that Scotty was already there, perhaps the #2 in the engine room by then and perhaps the previous chief retired or moved on and Scott was the best choice. The others perhaps were there already or he brought one or two over with him like Sulu or Uhura. But that is how I saw it. Although we know that Rand was assigned and he had no say in it. Per a line from the first season…. LOL

No, no. She would not be the most fitting. This actress is being presented as if she is playing a main character. If it is Uhura then that just doesn’t make sense. If any of the Kirk crew show up they would HAVE to be minions of some kind.

Scotty makes the most sense as I have already explained in two other posts. And he still wouldn’t be a main character. Only a recurring one.

I’m not sure where your evaluation is coming from? It is quite a rare thing be able to predict from one pilot, such as THE CAGE, which characters will or will not rise from the narrative to come to become series regulars or the settings in which they will be spotlighted.

It’s a big ship with a more modern, dare we say “bigger”, production. What would be gained by trying to confine its tales’ ship settings to the limitations of the 1960’s original series?

Not really sure what you are getting at here. I was merely claiming that the most reasonable TOS member to appear on SNW would be Scotty. And I gave my reasons for that a couple of times already. I also gave the reasons supporting why having Uhura or any of the other TOS bridge crew as regulars on SNW was not a good idea. None of which had anything to do with the size of the production of what characters we saw in “The Cage”.

I did already reply to you ML31 but for some reason the comment never got approved. Anyway, I agree with you that they should show some restraint in bringing in TOS characters but I disagree that Scotty is the only one that makes sense. As far as I’m aware there’s nothing preventing the majority of character from serving on the ship with the exception of Kirk and Chekov. Like I sayI don’t think they should overdo it but if they were to include one of the main TOS characters then they people pretty much have a free hand in terms of which to include. The reason I bring up Uhura is because there’s some evidence to suggest this is a possibility and my rationale for saying she’s the most fitting is that she got so little to do in TOS – she basically just answered the phone!

Ah.

My rationale had less to do with how much the characters were used on TOS and more like reasoning out their potential past. I would find it a little sad if after 10 years Uhura is still sitting in the same station opening hailing frequencies. But that does not preclude the possibility any other (apart from Chekov of course) character serving with Pike. I just think it more likely if there are they are far lower in the food chain at that time and it would seem unlikely for any of them to be a regular character on the show.

I agree with what you’re saying although there’s an argument for that already happening in the movies! Of course if the character descriptions that Tiger2 linked to are accurate then then if it is Uhura she probably isn’t sitting in that chair yet as it only states that she’s a linguistic officer. Obviously by the time of TOS she’s a department head but I suspect that this role will be a more junior position and that she’ll have an arc similar to the JJ movies but played out over a longer period in which her skills as a linguist regularly see her taking on prominent roles in missions before eventually becoming the head of communications.

I can of course see them making her Uhura. But I honestly don’t like that idea. The officers on Kirk’s bridge would be 10 or so years younger than they were on TOS. And it makes sense that one maybe two of them were there from the Pike days. But too many I think would be a mistake. And to me, too many means more than one. And that one character should be a background character. If she is playing Uhura I would find it a little sad that after 10+ years she is STILL sitting there opening hailing frequencies.

I still think the idea of Lt. Scott is the best choice. A subordinate. It ties with his love for the Enterprise. He’s the oldest of the Kirk characters. And he doesn’t need to be a main character.

With a ship that can hold 400 crew, how do you argue that only a mere handful could possibly crossover? On Kirk’s ship, it seemed pretty clear the vast majority were recruited by him, and it was the exception when regulations straddled him with crew members he felt he could do without.

But it would be quite a thing to promote the concept that Kirk found the vast majority of Pike’s crew wanting in building his crew’s roster.

I get the feeling you are not understanding.

At this point, 10 years before TOS, should Uhura (for exampe) be on the ship it does not make sense that she would be a main character on this show. It makes more sense that she would be a young fresh faced kid most likely on her first assigned ship. It would be unlikely she would be a member of the bridge crew so soon and even more unlikely that if she was then 10 years later she would still be at the exact same station. Sure, she could be a part of the crew but to be a main character is a bit of an unbelievable stretch. At best an Uhura or Sulu or Scotty would be a recurring character. And I’m assuming this cast are part of the main cast so it seems unlikely to me that she is playing Uhura. If she is then I don’t think this production team really thought this situation through very well.

Curious if it will be as dumb and boring as Discovery with a pile of PC undertones.

Yeah you can buzz off :)
Star Trek has been PC since the 60s.

Warning for trolling

Time for the original USS Enterprise to fly once more. Looking forward to the roles these series regulars will play.

Agreed. Wonder how many of them will be playing non-humans.

It looks like they’re going for too many characters again. In a 26 episode season you could handle 7-9 (if DS9 more, with strong supporting characters) In the current 13 or so episode format 5-6 is enough. They already had Pike, Number One, and Spock. Colt, Boyce, and Tyler would’ve been enough. Maybe rotate them out on a seasonal basis

I’m about focus and depth. I’d rather a few well drawn characters than many shallow ones.

If it’s going to be a 10-episode season then they might follow a similar pattern as TOS:

The ‘big three’ will feature prominently in every episode, with the others getting to share the spotlight in select episodes… just like Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov etc.

That way, whenever they are being featured prominently in an episode, each of the characters will get a good bit of development time….

….rather than them trying to squeeze them all into every episode, but in a limited/reduced capacity.

Over the course of (hopefully many) seasons, I’m hoping that we will get to know all of these characters (those who survive!) really well, and consider them all to be well-developed.

I guess time will tell…

10 episodes just doesn’t feel like it is enough. At all. If you are telling a long story arc then those 10 may be just fine. But if you are going for episodic with a couple of two parters thrown in it feels cut short.

But then, to be fair, every short season series that is more episodic than season long story feels that way to me as well. This is particularly true with comedies. I’m just not a fan of short season shows. It still feels very lazy.

Obviously don’t know for certain that it will be 10 episodes (was just going from what the article says) but that seems like a good estimate, based on the recent show lengths. Might get a couple of additional episodes, but that’s likely to be it.

I do see your point, in relation to an episodic format. The series will likely feel like it’s just getting going when it will suddenly disappear from our screens for around 10-12 months (possibly longer).

Still, it is what it is, and I’d much rather have 10 than none ;)

Hopefully there’ll be plenty of good stories during the run, and some good character development that they can then build on in S2.

I would say you are not wrong. :)

But another thing is that to me if you are going with a short season then there is absolutely no reason to wait 12 or more months before the next season is available. There were a couple of shows I watched a number of years ago that were gone so long I literally not only forgot how the previous season ended but completely forgot about the show until it appeared on my DVR!

Yes. That was the beauty of the 26-episode seasons. They would be on air for half a year, and whenever a season finished it would never be more than 6 months from the next one starting up.

I don’t really know much about the production process, but would guess the best part of 5/6 months for filming and then at least a couple more for full editing etc. Then there’s scheduling and promotion to consider….I guess CBS could probably get something out in about 10 months if they were really determined to.

That said, I don’t mind waiting for a show I really enjoy. Especially if those last few months are the difference in delivering a great show (rather than just a good one). Though I agree, ideally that wait should not exceed 12 months.

Hopefully, with enough other shows in production, there will be sufficient to keep us going during SNW’s off-season. And hopefully SNW will be memorable enough that we remember how S1 finished :)

Once again Star Trek completely ignores the existence of South Asians.

Considering India will soon be the most populous country in the entire world its just bloody ridiculous.

We definitely need Indian, Pakistani, and similar Asians, but let’s not forget to give Christina Chong her credit as a half-Chinese South-East Asian in the show. China is currently the most populous nation. With the current rise in South-East Asian racism, it’s good to have representation.

All true. But it doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. I dunno how many of you have seen Hari Kondabolu’s fun documentary The Problem with Apu, but it’s like, besides white actors doing brownface for ‘comical accent reasons’ (lookin’ at you, Fisher Stevens and Peter Sellers), most Indians in Western pop culture end up playing either Arab terrorists, or emasculated comic relief. Like dudes, get some spicy snacks and watch some classic Amitabh Bachchan films from the 70s and 80s.

I agree. Just about every character we’ve had so far who has been hinted may be if Indian descent has been, well, not.

Agreed. The whole point of Roddenberry’s casting was, supposedly, to represent the world.

We got an SE Asian actor in a distress call in Trek VI – and that’s mostly been it (was there a TNG engineer, briefly?).

It would also be nice to see an indigenous character played by an indigenous actor.

(inhales) khaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn! (cough)

But srsly. I mean, Noonien Soong was in theory of Indian descent, but I suppose intermixed over generations so just the name remained. I have friends who look as Irish as anything but whose family names are Indian and Japanese, so that’s always a possibility.

The cameo from famous Indian tennis star Vijay Amritraj as the captain of the Saratoga in Star Trek IV. (You’d also remember him as Vijay from 1983’s Bond film, Octopussy.)

And we had Disposable Engineer Mr. Singh in S1 of TNG, killed by an energy cloud in ‘Lonely Among Us’.

We did have Susan Diol (half-Indian) as Carmen Davila – who wasn’t established as being of any particular ethnicity, but that could be construed as a Portuguese name, which are common of Indians from the former Portuguese colony of Goa on India’s west coast.

And one (non-speaking) Indian woman among the abductees in Voyager’s “The 37s”.

Wasn’t there a South Asian woman manning the helm in one episode of TOS?

Yes, Lt. Radha in That Which Survives played by actress Naomi Pollack.

Likewise, I’m sure they will go heavy on an American crew. I get that it’s a U.S. franchise, but it does really well internationally. Americans only represent 4% of the world’s population, yet nearly all of the human crew on Discovery was American for some reason. I’d love to see more Asian representation too.

“The Menagerie” has long been my favorite episode(s) of TOS. It will be very fascinating indeed to explore the “Captain Pike” years, and Anson Mount has already proven that he is just the actor for the job! Not to mention that interesting ensemble cast…

I’m SO excited for this one! I watch Discovery and Picard, and I like them okay, but my heart belongs to TOS. I just hope they don’t mess up Spock!

Did you like how Spock was handled in Discovery season 2 and the Short Treks that he was in? Presumably he will be portrayed the same way in the series as the same actor and creative people are handling him.

In those shows, they were trying to move him from the smiling Spock we saw in “The Cage” to the Spock we saw in TOS, so he was portrayed differently then than I hope he will be now.

Will definitely be interesting to see how the character of Spock develops over the course of the season, and the series as a whole.

With only 10 episodes will there even be time for that?

Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I do expect Spock to get quite a lot of the 7+ hrs worth of screen time that S1 is likely to consist of (assuming 45 mins per episode).

Plenty of time to at least start a good character arc, which additional seasons can then build on.

I’m rewatching the entire franchise for its 55th anniversary and literally now rewatching all of TOS and currently on season 1. I haven’t rewatched TOS in its entirety in over 20 years now. So it’s amazing how much he does smile on that show. At least the first dozen episodes or so, you see him give a little grin at least. But it looks like after those it is basically the Spock everyone knows.

But it will give Peck plenty of room to see Spock just be a bit more emotional. I wouldn’t have a problem with that….just as long as he’s not crying every time like Quinto’s Spock. ;)

Yup, I would advise viewers to be prepared to see Spock as someone still experimenting with his emotions. Someone who still yells out commands like “check the circuit” and “she’ll blow soon!!”, uses sarcasm to talk to Bailey, gets creepy with Yeoman Rand about the imposter and smiles at the Captain when he says, “Ah yes, one of your earth emotions”. I don’t expect him to be getting pleasure from singing plants, but not far from it. Also remember, Spock did have some sort of pre-TOS relationship with Leila the scientist! In other words, Spock is not going to be the rigid and emotionless first officer from TOS S2 and S3 – I hope that doesn’t bother anyone. I also think Ethan Peck is excited to play him with some emotion and a character he can make his own and someone who will eventually evolve into Nimoy’s Spock..

Question… Are you watching the in production order or by airdate? Airdate is a bit of a missmash I think.

But that was part of the problem. The saw one tiny bit, from a pilot episode that was never meant to be seen by anyone that was only seen because of a budgetary issue, of a character who’s characteristics had yet to be formed, by an actor who did it because he said that is what the director told him to do.

It was something that should have been treated as such and not dealt with like it was some sort of deep character thing that had to be dealt with. If they do that why not deal with Spock being unware of the emotion of irritation as we saw in the 2nd pilot? Yes Spock had growth but latching onto that meaningless smile in The Cage was not a good hill to die on.

There was a report on the new characters being cast – now we have to figure who’s who. I think Babs Olusanmoku is playing the current CMO of the Enterprise.

I hope that they show a live-action Arex in this series, either as a semi-regular or a guest appearance.

Was thinking the same!

This would be over a decade before he joined the Enterprise crew. I wouldn’t expect to see him.

That cast looks diverse, but I still think it’s a missed opportunity. It still looks representative of countries that have been depicted before (obviously some may be playing non-humans). Why not Maori, Native Australian, Indonesian, Kazakh, Mongolian, South American, for example?

One of the actors is Columbian-American, I believe. Perhaps that will be reflected in the character.

Colombians are already American.

Tezna, I’m Canadian and while I see myself as North American or from the Americas, I don’t see myself as American.

Our cousins south of the 49th parallel have put to much into that identity for it ever to be a comfortable fit.

But perhaps those in Latin America might feel differently.

“Latin Americans” have, in the past, and continue to feel offended in the present to the United States, johnny-come-latelies, usurping the designation solely for themselves. To the point, that they have some very unintentionally funny debates on what to call us. Last I heard they circled around what roughly translates to “United Statians.”

Any word on Mr. Jeffrey Combs ( Weyoum [DS9] and Shran [ENT] ) as Dr. Phillip Boyce? Thank you for your time. Have a great weekend, everyone. Stay safe and stay healthy.

I’m ready for this.

Certainly not the cast that was on Pike’s Enterprise when we saw it. Also, again as with all new Star Trek almost all women, which again is very inconsistent with the Pike Enterprise we saw. I really hope they get this right.

I don’t really want to start a thing, but Star Trek as a franchise has revised its take on the role of women in Star Fleet to keep up with the times.

The cast we saw on The Cage was years before when we saw them on Discovery. Some may have gotten transferred, killed, retired etc. It was one episode from literally over 50 years ago, they shouldn’t be held to those characters when they can come up with something more interesting and diverse today.

Not to mention that The Cage female officers on the bridge in an era where the network wasn’t ready for it.

Onwards…

Yeah that line Pike gives in the pilot about not feeling too comfortable about having a female on the bridge just feels so antiquated now and that was supposed to be centuries into the future lol. But it was probably there to mirror how others felt about it at the time.

I get that Trek, in the 60’s, that the responsibility that would have come with Bridge status had to be implied, which is why those horrendous lines exist. Superior breeding stock, never getting used to women on the bridge (which implies women in authority was something for….the distant future). What I don’t get is the incessant pining for that kind of objectified representation now. It’s not going to happen, just stop complaining about it.

Yeah it was a TV show still made in the 60s, it is what it is given the time.

I don’t get people’s hang ups with having more women characters today though….on any show. Don’t they literally represent half of the planet today??? And white people are not the dominant race on the globe either.

Yes I am a minority so I guess I see it differently but I’m also a guy and don’t have a single issue with just seeing more women characters. It has never once phased me on any show, especially Star Trek. I still remember how shocked I was reading people had issues with having a woman captain on Voyager and that was 25 years ago now. What’s more shocking 25 years later people still seem to have an issue with it. Just so odd to me.

I believe, even back then, women outnumber men. I believe it’s currenly 51% to our measely 49%. I think acturarians attribute the difference to near universal willingness of the world’s nations to only send males into potentially deadly combat/conflict.

True but that % doesn’t mean that every job, every interest, every endeavor humans do is going to end up being in that ratio. Men just tend to naturally gravitate towards certain things than women. This is NOT an absolute of course. The key is equality of opportunity but that equality of opportunity never leads to equality of outcome.

One thing a person learns from casino gambling, is the house always manipulates the outcome so that it can continue to make a profit. There’s no viable capitalistic business model if the players are given a true equal opportunity to best the house.

If the recent bank bailouts, GAMESTOP stockmarket freeze, etc. prove anything about capitalism, it is if there is no equal opportunity for the 1% who amassed most of the world’s wealth under the old unequal rules to lose, equal opportunity is just an illusion to quell the rabble lest they resort to methods that genuinely cause this wealthy elite to lose commensurate with how they and their ancestors amassed and held onto their wealth in the first place.

I think I see your point but it feels a bit extreme and conspiracy-ish. Also kinda off topic.

Given that Number One was a woman on the bridge, I consider it a miracle that they settled on “women” and not “girls on the bridge.”

Sadly, there is still a percentage of the population who pines for the way things were decades ago. Women were quite honestly 2nd class citizens for most of the 20th century. Terms like “barefoot and pregnant” and “crazy women driver” were heard all the time. As a male I am embarrassed to say, even though they are a small minority, I think there are still maybe millions of men here in North America who would like to see a return to a patriarchal society where women play a primarily subserviant role to men. For the most part, Star Trek has always tried to be forward thinking on many levels including gender politics, and I expect them to continue to be just that.

totally agree.

Have you ever worked somewhere where the employees didn’t have an exact 50/50 gender split?

As others have pointed out, The Cage was a single episode set several years earlier where we saw roughly 20 crewmembers out of 400. It’ll be fine.

I work with a bunch of engineers. There is one female in my group. But we do have 3 Caucasians, two Vietnamese, two Latinos, one Indian, two Filipinos, one Chinese. No, the gender imbalance is certainly NOT intentional. It’s just the way things have come out. There was a time 5 years ago where there was ONE Caucasian in our group. Just sayin’.

So much back story is unestablished. They could easily work the original characters in as they please.

Definitely want to see Spock meet Bones for the first time.

Saw that in Trek 09. Urban and Quinto did a great job with it.

Yeah, but we’re talking about the prime universe.

Oh man, they have a chance to show McCoy and his wife/daughter!!!

I’m so happy to see that all of the new cast members are women and/or POC!

Yeah, the biggest irony of The Cage at the time, given Star Trek being famous for its diversity later, is that everyone was white. It’s no way that would fly today nor should it. And it’s nice to see more women characters as well.

Now it doesn’t mean they will all be main characters. I remember they announced all these characters for Discovery before it started like Detmer and Commander Landry and they ended up being more background characters or literally killed off after a few episodes, so I won’t over think it too much now.

But I like the makeup so far at least!

Tiger2, I was taking this more like the main cast announcement for Picard.

I think we’ll see all of them, and since this isn’t a serial, we can’t assume any are the seasonal guest star or seasonal big bad.

Sure it could be. I just mean until they tell us who they are actually playing it’s hard to say.

But I would say Discovery is probably the outlier too since it was really the first show where they were killing off main cast members left and right lol. Even by the end of first season, 3 main characters were killed off: Gerogiou, Culber and Lorca. Yes one showed up again as their MU counterpart and Culber, um, yeah, but it really is the first and still only show where no one felt safe outside of Burnham.

To put it in perspective, TNG ran for 15 years when you count the films and only 2 main characters died, Tasha Yar and Data…15 years apart at that. .).

True but even then BOTH of them were “brought back to life” so to speak.

I think an argument could be made that Jose’ Tyler, with his Brazilian mother, was a crewmember of color? But with the cutting for the 2-part episode, doubtful any of that made it on screen – and I’m not sure any of it made it in any of the various edits of THE CAGE, itself. There may have been a glimpse when the Talosians downloaded the ship’s database, but that’s just speculation on my part

A white Brazlian as a POC? How is that? And since, as I understand, POC is mainly a political term for people who see themselves discriminated against, should such a term cease to exist in Star Trek’s utopian future?

Because your are making the common mistake of believing that white supremacy is/was rational and in that, mistakenly believed rationality solely about the color of one’s pelt. It’s not.

Codified in the segregated states’ laws of the US’ is the one 32ndth rule where if you have any “non-white” ancestor within 32 generations back, then you are a person of color. And, of course, being irrationally inconsistent, the converse of having a “white” ancestor within 32 generations doesn’t make Tyler, white, so he doesn’t get to drink from the ‘whites only’ fountain.

In this, people of color were routinely denied access to “whites only” facilities. When the losing CSA fled to Brazil to attempt to reestablish itself there, it brought many of these established and nascent racist concepts with them.

Re: POC is mainly a political term

According to the OED, “person of color” was first recorded at the end of the 18th century and is not a political term. It’s initial usage was a reference to people of mixed African ancestry with pale skin tone. It has expanded to encompass all those considered non-white, i.e. not of European parentage.

José Tyler was just another alien spy but we haven’t found out yet. Tylers always are surgically altered alien spies. It’s what they do…Ash was a Klingon, Janel was a Krill… I’m sure José wasn’t Brazilian… He is a POC, but they failed to recreate the right shades…

Re:…failed to recreate the right shades…

Is that something akin to Khan bronzing or bleaching his skin tone to hide his true origins/identity?

Very nice. We all have our own triggers for joy. My happiness doesn’t rise or fall based on casting decisions for a TV show. It comes from my family, friends, and accomplishments.

It looks like TM erased my post. I’m not sure why when all it showed was a rumored casting list which literally paralleled the cast we have now citing one black male and the rest all women characters. Obviously it could still be wrong, but there is now some merit to it at least.

Anyway, it also listed what some of the roles and cited the doctor, head security officer, a vet and a linguistics officer (and was stated to be played by a young black woman). So we’ll see!

Maybe the rumor is going to be an upcoming announcement. :P

“Less flash, more substance”

Trek in recent years has been marred by being overly visual effects heavy, with a lackluster story. Please for the love of Christ, reverse this for Strange New Worlds. Also would love it if they could do some retro-retcons to the interior of the ship, to bring it closer in line with TOS. Not necessarily made of cardboard, but updated like they did with the bridge. Please no more “Discovery recolored corridors” or CGI Engineering. And lose the rollercoaster turbo “shafts”.

Don’t care who these actors are or what they’ve done, if they can tell a good story, and keep the visual effects less “effects heavy”. Also wouldn’t hurt them one bit to brighten up the scenes in space a bit. I want to be able to see the ships.

The reason why the corridors on Enterprise looked like “Discovery recolored corridors” was that they very likely were slightly redressed corridor sets from Discovery.
Strange New Worlds is shot in a completely different studio now so it’s unlikely they will continue to use Discovery sets for Enterprise. Still, it’s possible that they will build the new corridor sets to look like what was established on Discovery season 2.
I’m not sure if going with a CGI Engineering would be a good idea from a budget perspective. At least if they plan to show Engineering regularly. I don’t think we’ve seen Main Engineering on Discovery after three full seasons, but then again we also haven’t seen a Chief Engineer on that ship (unless it’s supposed to be Tig Notaro’s character). If Strange New Worlds is about going returning to more classic Trek they may also bring back the Chief Engineer as a series regular which would suggest that we would also spend more time in Engineering.

The bridge was well done, and I’d love to see other familiar locations from the original shows retconned as well. 100% with you on the turbolifts. God I hate how they turned it into a vast interior rollercoaster. The Motion Picture sets were beautiful for their time, so something along that theme would be refreshing to see.

Couldn’t agree more, Mike.

Technically, Discovery (and Picard for that matter) was well made. Where those shows failed was in character, writing and plotting.

And would very much like to see the Enterprise evoke the feel of The Cage version. And before people jump all over this, like you I’m not talking about an EXACT duplicate. Just something that is good looking for modern TV yet still evokes the look and feel of the original. It can be done. Their uniform update accomplished this. Do the same with the set design.

And if only one thing then please for the love of god, no more tubolift roller coasters!

I have some mixed feelings. Bit of a glass half-full feeling.

There are a couple of the bridge crew that we saw in the Discovery S2 finale that I’d like to see back. Perhaps they will still appear as secondary cast.

I agree that even more diversity (South Asians, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, non-Anglo Europeans) would strengthen the franchise generally.

At least they have the East Asian guy on Discovery who gets to say 9 words per season; but they do let him chuckle and grin periodically.

Yes. I would like to see them as well. They all looked great for this show, hope they also add them to SNW.

Would it still strengthen the franchise if the product was terrible? What if there was no diversity but the product was great? Wouldn’t that actually strengthen the franchise more? Not because of the lack of diversity of course but by the quality of the final product. (yes, of course the best situation would be to have a great product with a good diverse mix. Just trying to make a point here)

I mean, Discovery has diversity coming out of its ears. Yet that show doesn’t strengthen the franchise one bit. In fact, many think the show is so very bad it hurts the franchise. Therefore I think it safe to conclude that diversity alone doesn’t strengthen the franchise one tiny bit.

They say that the best Star Trek episodes are both written and directed by Akiva Goldsman. Set phasers to fun.

LOL!

I see what you did there ;-).

So, Vice Admiral Nakamura is really Akiva Goldsman?

I look forward to three seasons of trying to learn their characters’ names. ;-)

LOL!

Yes. If after three seasons few know the names of the secondary characters then SNW would have been Discovery-ed.

Looks great!!!! I do think then need Boyce and Colt though but suppose can have them sign off with new transfers. Maybe have Boyce die first episode, have Pike have to come to terms. Surprised they don’t want Jose Tyler. Love the thought of a young cadet/ensign Uhura.
For more diversity add an Indian Chief Engineer!
My worry – that they take the frontier of TOS and have Pike phone home to Starfleet command to get the answers in 2 seconds that he can go play holodeck. This is Wagon Train to the Stars and Horatio Hornblower in space not TNG.

“My worry – that they take the frontier of TOS and have Pike phone home to Starfleet command to get the answers in 2 seconds that he can go play holodeck.”

Dude they did that in the Kelvin movies lol….and remember who help write those. ;)

And the irony is that in TNG we actually saw the Enterprise take a day to get a message from Starfleet from Klingon or Romulan territory. But yet in the Kelvin movies, an entire century before, Kirk is talking to Scotty from the neutral zone to a bar in San Francisco like they were talking to each other in different cities.

In other words….don’t hold your breath. ;)

The speed of communication in JJ anything is flat out brain-numbing. It’s like these people don’t appreciate tension!

Clearly they did all of that for time since the entire movie only took place in a few days and had to (no pun intended ;)) speed along the plot. But it just made things feel really small in the process.

“Dude they did that in the Kelvin movies lol….and remember who help write those. ;)”

You are right and that’s totally my worry.
I get asked why I repeat the obvious again and again… because it’s unfortunately obvious it is not obvious to those making these films.

It was like Enterprise – Concept – A prequel that you can do SpaceX in space (before SpaceX was even cool). We can have more drama. No radioing home for help. No phasers on stun. No transporters. First contacts gone wrong. Privative ships that can leave us stranded. Klingons trying to kill us, Romulans trying to conquer us, Vulcan’s think we are illogical, Andorians think we are emotional pushovers.
Implementation 1 hour in: Transporters, phasers on stun, phone home, warp to the Klingon homeworld is like a holiday trip, peace with Klingons, first contact has everyone loving us.
WTF?!?!?!

Watch Balance of Terror – see how Kirk single handedly has to make the call to violate the neutral zone both potentially starting and/or stopping a galactic war with either choice he makes and no Starfleet Command to make the choice for him… that’s drama. That’s Wagon Train to the Stars.

Then they make a TNG lite and wonder why they lost their audience. DS9 is good, let’s make Voyager. TNG lite, everyone stops watching. O Enterprise looks good then we all watch, then they turn it into TNG lite and we stop watching. Then ST:2009, people watch again. Then they make it TNG and everyone stops. Pike comes along, everyone loves it , then they make TNG again again and lose the audience. STOP IT.

Send all those TNG writers to the comedy series where they belong. Get some new writers who get TOS. Preferably under a Nick Meyer or whoever wrote Firefly that will go Tony Soprano on “Wagon Train to the Stars. Horatio Hornblower in space. SpaceX in space. Final frontier. FRONTIER OK!?!?!?”

No matter how many times you moan about it, TNG is a very beloved show and still highly watched today by both old and new fans. Get over it! It’s been over 30 years.

No one stop watching because they make ‘TNG again’. Not everyone cares about the same thing as you do. I never cared and I been watching Star Trek probably longer than you have. ;)

Trust me, I think I, like a lot of the audience, is over it.
Thus the excitement over SNW

And TNG is still very very popular today but it’s been off the air for over 25 years now. SNW is actually new. And guess what you can like more than one show at a time. Most fans do, at least the hardcore ones like myself.

Or if you want to keep the TNG connection… Have the computer solve their problems. LOL!

I wonder if they kept the Engineering Cadet played Amrit Kaur from the short trek Ask Not

I’ll be disappointed if they didn’t.

It depends whether they will have regular background characters as on Discovery or if they are going for a TOS/TNG background player of the week thing.

In terms of the way the tax credits scoring system works, they get points for Canadians acting, and higher up the call sheet. So, we may see some regulars.

However, Canadians in behind the scenes leadership roles also count, and with COVID even more of the directors are likely to be Canadian this season (or Americans already working in Canada for other series).

Almost makes me want to renew by CBS All Access Paramount + subscription.

But I think I will wait until the end of S1 and binge it so I don’t waste my $$$.

Casting looks great!
But Goldsman and Kurtzman, um, I could be optimistic but isn’t that the definition of insanity?

And as much as I would like to see Jesse Plemmons as Jose Tyler and John Glover as Bones Boyce, I think that ship has sailed. It is good to see the diversity and many more female roles.

(And as tempted as I am to say “THE WOMEN!”, I won’t.)
>;>}

Why Jesse Plemmons for a Latino character?

Latino name, sort of; Latino character, no. Not from the evidence presented in “The Cage,” at least.

I am going based on resemblance. Jesse Plemmons somewhat resembles Peter Duryea, the actor who played Jose Tyler. Jose Tyler was blond haired with a Boston astronomer father and Brazilian mother.

Mr Peck, you’re absolutely wrong…705? On a scale from 1 to 10, this would be a 1701 :-)

The real question is, what are they going to make the Klingons look like? The classic TOS look, or something more Discovery style? Very excited about the cast, and I’m sure there is much more to come with casting announcements.

Based on what we saw in TOS, TMP, Enterprise and Discovery, it could conceivably be all of the above and more!

Always have a Brit in the cast of a ‘trek’ show

As a Brit I have to admit that I like that!

Voy let the side down in that regard

The real question is: what will be their jobs?

If all my other guesses are correct (black doctor, possibly M’Benga – black communications officer, possibly Uhura – Navia as chief of security, possibly Macha Hernandez – Jess Bush as “vet”, possibly exobiologist Carol Marcus), Christina Chong could helm the engineering department… But if Chong is the vet, Jess Bush may be head of engineering…

Alice Eve was British, Bibi Besch European… so Jess Bush could be Carol Marcus… and Chong would be Chief Engineer… She may even play an alien. Apart from Spock there is none aboard yet, so her not appearing in the cast sheet may indicate that…

I also think it would be a good idea to include Carol Marcus for casual moviegoers. It’s a character viewers of the KT trilogy are already familiar with. She looks a lot like a young Bibi Besch and like Alice Eve she is British.

Chong on the other hand – if Navia is the security chief – may be the one role not yet revealed. There is a spot for another alien as most Star Trek shows (not counting TOS) had at least two alien characters. She could play an Andorian or Orion or some completely new species.

Maybe there will be no main cast chief engineer first, like on TNG S1 or DSC, because a young Scotty may take that position later on.

Who knows… but it’s exciting to speculate…

Celia Gooding isn’t just black, she has got Nichelle Nichols’ voice!

Isn’t Jess Bush Australian?

M’Benga would be brilliant!!!! Also having Carol Marcus on board.

Bibi Besch was Austrian that means Christoph Waltz could play Alexander Marcus :P

Wish there was a Canadian in the main cast.

TOS had two.

Yeah, but none of them played a Canadian :-)

That’s another discussion Garth Lorca. That is, too many characters are supposedly from the United States when it doesn’t exist as a separate country after WW3. If there is world government, why are some Federation ships not only mostly human, but mostly American?

It’s nice to have Alison Pill in Picard, but it’s also nice to see Canadians getting main cast roles and while working in Canada.

Especially as Toronto is recognized by the UN as one of the most diverse major cities in the world. More than half the population is BIPOC, and the pool of actors is diverse too.

Other series, including the Expanse, have cast diverse Canadian actors in major roles to great success, without their having already been prominent in American productions. In fact, the diverse talent pool is viewed as one of the selling points for working in Toronto by other production companies. Seems to be a blind spot for Secret Hideout.

It doesn’t exist in Star Trek? I never got that. Kirk was still born in Iowa. Janeway is from Indiana. Riker is from Alaska. Even though a world organization was implied there was no reason to think that Britain, the USA, Japan, etc wouldn’t still exist.

My fingers are crossed for Amrit Kaur, liked her a lot in Short Treks

I am very surprised to see that Samora Smallwood was not announced as part of the series regular cast. She played the Enterprise’s navigator, Lt. Amin and was briefly seen in one of the Short Treks w/ Spock and Number One trapped in the turbolift. That’s too bad. She’s a terrific actress.

Maybe she will return but in a role similar to the bridge crew on Discovery. Even though they’ve been in almost every episode they are not listed as series regulars in the opening credits.

Is it just me or have they really done a terrific job on the VOICE casting?

I’ve always been impressed with Ethan Peck’s Spock voice (so much more accurate than Quinto)…

Given that my guesses are right, the other cast members sound also spot-on…

Celia Gooding … Nichelle Nichols.

Jess Bush … Bibi Besch

Rebecca Romjin… Majel Barret (she sounds so familiar as “she” has been the computer vpoice for decades

Melissa Navia… Denise Crosby (she’s not playing Tasha, but maybe doing her job)

All of them SOUND so familiar…

In addition: I’m having an even crazier theory who the black doctor could be. I’ve previously routed for M’Benga… but what if Clark Terrell had been a doctor before becoming captain of the Reliant? He was an old friend of Bones…

Yeah, Babs Olusanmoku does look nothing like M’Benga at all but there is more than just a tiny little resemblence to Paul Winfield…

Doctor Terrell, I love the sound of that. According to the original TWOK script, he was an old friend of Bones. Maybe they met during their medical studies. There are some off-canon appearances indicating a different background as a helmsman but if novels and comics were canon, Data would be still alive and well in B-4s body. So it is totally possible Terrell had been a doctor…

I hope SNW adds something new. Many of the preceding series found their own niche as they were tonally different: TOS – the Age of Sail and exploration; TNG – diplomacy and compromise; DS9 – war; VOY – being lost; ENT – hope and building a new world. A good place to start may be the reason for the Constitution Class project. SNW should not, IMHO, retread the ground of TOS.

What if every one of them is playing an alien character?

And?

As a thought exercise, I’ve put myself in the shoes of Abrams, Kurtzman and even the infamous Braga/Berman duo. And it’s surprisingly easy to be tempted to spite certain fans. It’s like they do the minimum amount of research, and do the exact opposite of what’s expected. Some say they seem to be fully aware of what they’re doing though, and that’s pretty insidious.

It’s just a pattern I keep noticing. Whenever there’s a large shake-up in the Trek continuity, I somehow find myself exploring and kinda defending the other side, playing Devil’s advocate. Does that make me less of a *fan*? Did I finally sell out or am I finally reaching my breaking point? Fandom noise can really test your patience, maybe it’s no longer fun for me. And personally, some aspects of the senior fanbois have become a bit of a chore. Double checking the most obscure sources, constantly looking over your shoulder, enraged purists up in arms. Canon this, research that, committing the occasional Trekkie rights violation, verifying data like a madman. It can really get to your creative psyche. Tread carefully indeed… 

Every fandom of an aging genre franchise is divided these days because everyone has his or her own headcanon, expectations, tastes, favourites and dislikes. There is no way they would ever be able to please everyone or even a majority of fans.

There is a pattern I keep noticing though. Whenever there is a new show or movje series, it instantly becomes the most hated one, redeeming its predecessors. People used to hate VOY and ENT and the entire late B&B era.
Now after the KT movies, DSC and PIC, those old shows are more popular than ever, Berman has been a loyal allumni for decades still celebrating with his TNG family and Braga co-produces The Orville, purist Trekkies’ most beloved show.

Same with the “infamous” PT trilogy of Star Wars. It used to be loathed by millions, now it is fully acknowledged classic SW, with the ST taking the blame for being so bad…

But there is one thing we can be absolutely certain about: come the next Trek show and PIC will be redeemed… I hope SNW will break that vicious circle just like The Mandalorian did for SW… provisionally…

Deviate even slightly from the formula or what is comfortable and the fans won’t like it, do what they expect and be damned for not being original enough. Its almost like people want the same meal served up over and over, or the same television show recycled, or same movie remade.

Seeing that shot of the bridge just makes me wish again that they would update their design style to something more believable instead of the “accent light in your face everywhere you look” aesthetic. It is perfectly fine to have big sections of plain wall on the bridge without a static light embedded in it. I just can’t believe that style would ever be a thing in a real and functional environment, no matter how futuristic it should be.

JMS said the same thing about touch screens and even flat screens in the mid 90s when he created Babylon 5 with traditional tube screens… It didn’t even take a decade to prove him wrong.

Too many women. Male trek fans will be frightened.

Nope, I’m scared of real women but I’ve always been fond of my Trek ladies. They are a perfect compensation for what’s lacking in real life and now there is plenty… :-)

nice cast! But with the same people at the helm that did DSC I do not have my hopes high, sadly. I had hoped for a new fresh start with new writers and new ideas.

I know nothing about Jess Bush. But, just based on the picture, I’m hoping she’s playing Yeoman Colt. Actually, for that matter, I’m just hoping in this series that -anybody- is playing Yeoman Colt. (And it would be kinda cool to quickly to cast Laurel Goodwin as a guest star early on!)

I hope Jess Bush plays Carol Marcus. She’s got that vibe. In the cast sheet, they are talking about a “vet”… I can hardly imagine an animal doctor aboard… but a xeno-/exobiologist specializing on “something you can transplant”… On the other hand, she’s a molecular biologist later on in her life and doesn’t really like Starfleet in this timeline… I don’t know. I’m not sure but I think she’s her… My guts tell me that they want her on that show because she’s already a thing with casual moviegoers who saw that character in STID…

Nice. But I’m more interested in the characters than the actors.

I’m waiting for the inevitable recasting of Shatner’s Captain Kirk for the Discovery universe. Or Discovery timeline or however you want to phrase it.

Prime Timeline

Sad it looks like a 10 episode season (which I guess is pretty standard for CBSAA/Paramount+. I was hoping they’d give it 13 like they have for the majority of Star Trek Discovery’s season runs to date.

As far as I remember Anson Mount voiced some reservations after season 2 of Discovery about how long it took to shoot the show. So he may have lobbied for a shorter season for Strange New Worlds. Also, with COVID still going strong even getting those 10 episodes into the can will be difficult, I guess.

Seems pretty underwhelming.

Will they be treated as though as they are essentially extras, like the Discovery supporting cast?

And why don’t they have more Asians in the cast? Hoshi, aside from 2009 Sulu, is the most recent prominent Asian character.

The name may not tell it but Georgiou was a pretty prominent Asian character on Discovery. The actor playing Gen Rhys on Discovery has Sino-Mauritian roots.