Star Trek: Discovery executive producer Jenny Lumet recently discussed the racist hate mail directed toward the sci-fi series' stars Michelle Yeoh and Sonequa Martin-Green.
Lumet opened up about the racially-motivated backlash against Yeoh and Martin-Green during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "In the premiere of Discovery, we had Michelle Yeoh and Sonequa Martin-Green on a planet walking around," she said. "The hate mail! 'There are no Black people or Asian people in space!' Yeah, I know. It’s tricky. 'There’s the blue guy over there and a tentacle guy over there, but Michelle Yeoh? What the fuck is she doing there?' (laughs)"
Star Trek: Discovery's progressive approach to the long-running franchise has courted controversy since it premiered in 2017. Most recently, the show came under fire from conservative commentators for casting real-world politician and activist Stacey Abrams as the president of 32nd Century United Earth. Abrams later referenced Star Trek during her campaign for Governor of Georgia, likening herself to Star Trek: Voyager's Captain Kathryn Janeway.
Around the same time, franchise veteran George Takei took to Twitter to dismiss claims that Star Trek was never political. Reacting to a Fox News opinion piece titled "Star Trek writers take Starship Enterprise where it's never gone before -- woke politics", Takei tweeted "Who wants to tell him?" The actor's response also referenced the Vulcan philosophy of "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination" first established in Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
The ongoing debate around Star Trek: Discovery's politics doesn't appear to have slowed the series down. Paramount+ renewed the show for a fifth season in January 2022, along with new seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Strange New Worlds is a spinoff that charts the exploits of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise 10 years prior to the events of the original 1966 TV show.
By contrast, the animated series Lower Decks puts a comedic spin on the Star Trek mythos. Its protagonists are Ensigns Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), whose adventures take place well below the bridge of the USS Cerritos. Paramount+ released the first teaser trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks' upcoming third season in April 2022.
Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are available to stream on Paramount+.
Source: THR