Berniewood Hogan
IT'S BERNIE SANDERS WITH A STEEL CHAIR!
How Sonequa Martin-Green became the first black female lead of Star Trek: My casting says the sky is the limit for all of us
Star Trek pioneered diversity long before diversity was a hot-button issue. When the series first launched 51 years ago, its original crew featured black, asian and, yes, women - not merely as eye candy - among its cast.
But an all-new reboot, Star Trek: Discovery, goes boldly where no Trek has gone before by placing two women of colour in command of a starship: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Michelle Yeoh and Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green.
Trekkies have always been a passionate crowd, although even Star Trek: Discovery’s genial show runner Aaron Harberts was caught off guard by the intensity of the internet trolls and haters. “It’s our job to reflect the world we live in; a world where more than half the population are women. Quite frankly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” argues Harberts when The Independent meets with him and his cast.
If Yeoh, 55, brushes off the pressure - after all the Malaysian martial arts dynamo has quietly been shattering glass ceilings for the past four decades - then much of the burden falls to Sonequa Martin-Green, 32, taking centre stage as Trek’s first black female lead.
“My casting says that the sky is the limit for all of us. I think what we’re seeing now in our media is this push to diminish and to devalue and to make people feel that the sky is not the limit for them, that they are meant for the ground,” says Martin-Green, a force of energy so bubbly and exuberant, its hard to imagine she was chosen to play a human raised as a Vulcan. Not only chosen, but actively waited on; production halted until her Walking Deadcontract ran out.
“So having me as the first black lead of a Star Trek, just blasts that into a million pieces. I am eternally grateful that the diverse casting of our show means that we are now a part of the conversation and hopefully a part of making the world a better place, as cliché as this sounds. Because I really believe it and think its vital for us all right now,” she says the spectre of Trump lurking unspoken.
Not that she views her casting as a triumph for women alone. “I think it sends a message to any minority group that’s been disenfranchised. We all benefit when we can see a picture of ourselves in a position of leadership and I think that goes not just for women and people in minority groups - but for everyone to see that this is possible. I think that it will help people see the beauty of women in power and also the beauty of minorities in power, and to incite change.”
It should be noted that Martin-Green is the first black female captain, but not the first female captain, that honour falling to Kate Mulgrew who made franchise history in 1995 when she was anointed as Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.
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“I believe this is the first time that it’s a serialized telling of a tale and an exploration of just one character [Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham] along the path of discovering what it means to be human and finding her individuality,” says Harberts. “Those stories have been well told in the movie spin-offs, but were impossible to do on TV where each episode was closed-ended.”
...
“We don’t want to make a big deal about it. Its just treated as perfectly normal - which it should be,” says Harberts.
...
Jason Isaacs, who plays Discovery’s war-mongering Captain Gabriel Lorca, is likewise a Trek fan from a different era, admiring Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the big screen versions of the late 1990s.
Unsurprisingly, the new cast all geeked out when Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker alongside Stewart in the early film versions, recently guest-directed an episode.
...
Certainly Star Trek: Discovery presents a darker narrative. “It‘s grittier and raw in a way that the other iterations have not been. I think that’s one of the ways we’re going boldly where no-one has gone before,” she winks.
Star Trek pioneered diversity long before diversity was a hot-button issue. When the series first launched 51 years ago, its original crew featured black, asian and, yes, women - not merely as eye candy - among its cast.
But an all-new reboot, Star Trek: Discovery, goes boldly where no Trek has gone before by placing two women of colour in command of a starship: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Michelle Yeoh and Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green.
Trekkies have always been a passionate crowd, although even Star Trek: Discovery’s genial show runner Aaron Harberts was caught off guard by the intensity of the internet trolls and haters. “It’s our job to reflect the world we live in; a world where more than half the population are women. Quite frankly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” argues Harberts when The Independent meets with him and his cast.
If Yeoh, 55, brushes off the pressure - after all the Malaysian martial arts dynamo has quietly been shattering glass ceilings for the past four decades - then much of the burden falls to Sonequa Martin-Green, 32, taking centre stage as Trek’s first black female lead.
“My casting says that the sky is the limit for all of us. I think what we’re seeing now in our media is this push to diminish and to devalue and to make people feel that the sky is not the limit for them, that they are meant for the ground,” says Martin-Green, a force of energy so bubbly and exuberant, its hard to imagine she was chosen to play a human raised as a Vulcan. Not only chosen, but actively waited on; production halted until her Walking Deadcontract ran out.
“So having me as the first black lead of a Star Trek, just blasts that into a million pieces. I am eternally grateful that the diverse casting of our show means that we are now a part of the conversation and hopefully a part of making the world a better place, as cliché as this sounds. Because I really believe it and think its vital for us all right now,” she says the spectre of Trump lurking unspoken.
Not that she views her casting as a triumph for women alone. “I think it sends a message to any minority group that’s been disenfranchised. We all benefit when we can see a picture of ourselves in a position of leadership and I think that goes not just for women and people in minority groups - but for everyone to see that this is possible. I think that it will help people see the beauty of women in power and also the beauty of minorities in power, and to incite change.”
It should be noted that Martin-Green is the first black female captain, but not the first female captain, that honour falling to Kate Mulgrew who made franchise history in 1995 when she was anointed as Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.
...
“I believe this is the first time that it’s a serialized telling of a tale and an exploration of just one character [Martin-Green’s Michael Burnham] along the path of discovering what it means to be human and finding her individuality,” says Harberts. “Those stories have been well told in the movie spin-offs, but were impossible to do on TV where each episode was closed-ended.”
...
“We don’t want to make a big deal about it. Its just treated as perfectly normal - which it should be,” says Harberts.
...
Jason Isaacs, who plays Discovery’s war-mongering Captain Gabriel Lorca, is likewise a Trek fan from a different era, admiring Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the big screen versions of the late 1990s.
Unsurprisingly, the new cast all geeked out when Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker alongside Stewart in the early film versions, recently guest-directed an episode.
...
Certainly Star Trek: Discovery presents a darker narrative. “It‘s grittier and raw in a way that the other iterations have not been. I think that’s one of the ways we’re going boldly where no-one has gone before,” she winks.
