Star Trek: Discovery is back for a fourth season, and fans couldn't be happier.
The science fiction series finds its crew facing an unknown threat and has fans on the edge of their seats. But, the series is telling new stories that are more important than anything they've ever told before.
"We're always looking for what else can we do and how else can we be representative of the world around us."
That was executive producer, Michelle Paradise, on her effort to push for more representation.
In addition to this season's debut of the first ever African American female captain in the Star Trek franchise, Discovery finds LGBTQ+ characters in the spotlight. Stamets and Culber, played by Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz, are the franchise's first gay married couple to be featured in a Star Trek show. We sat down with the duo to learn more about what this experience has been like.
"I feel like this is what we've been working towards our entire career. To tell a story that reflects our lives but also challenges television and this industry to look at the way that our community is depicted and how our stories are told." Cruz said. Rapp added: "This is such a brand new thing to Star Trek and, frankly, to most of television that these kinds of moments and scenes have never occurred on Star Trek and hardly ever occurred on television if at all."
Not only are is Discovery featuring a gay couple, but they are also telling the story of a crew member who identifies as non-binary.
Played by Blu del Barrio, Adira Tal is a non-binary crewmate on the Discovery. They had this to say about having their story told on the series:
"It was a big, big thing for me, career-wise and life-wise. So, I was very scared but having the responses from not only trans kids and trans adults but also like parents watching and being like this is something that I can watch with my kid who like just came out or is like experimenting and trying to figure out who they are like this is something that I can watch with them and like thank you for making this."
Star Trek: Discovery is streaming now on Paramount Plus.
