How ‘Star Trek Discovery’ furthers representation and diversity in Season 5

The series continues to boldly go where no one has gone before.

The Star Trek franchise has a long and powerful history of breaking boundaries and showcasing inclusive and diverse characters and storylines. This is the same franchise that featured TV’s first biracial kiss and wasn’t afraid to put women and people of colour into positions of power, after all. However, since its 2017 debut, Star Trek Discovery has been pushing those conversations even further.

Not only is Discovery the first Star Trek series to feature a Black woman as the series lead, but it is also the first to feature LGBTQ+ characters. Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) have been romantically involved since the first episode, for example. And in Season 3 we met a trans character named Gray (Ian Alexander) and a nonbinary character named Adira (Blu del Barrio).

In a recent Q&A event with The Wrap, series stars Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala sat down alongside co-showrunner Michelle Paradise to chat about achieving some of these milestones, as well as to hint at what’s coming up in Season 5 (which debuts sometime in 2023). Read on to find out what we learned during that panel.

Each season the creatives want to improve on what has already been done

During the panel, Paradise specifically touched on how she and the other creatives wanted to build and expand upon what Gene Roddenberry first set out to do with Star Trek: The Original Series all those years ago. That began with the casting and continues to be a hot topic as they move forward with this story.

“It was very much part of the conversation, how can we have a wonderfully diverse cast right now and how can we continue to expand that,” she said. “We have it every episode, every season, where we’re always looking for ways to do that. It’s one of the things Star Trek is about and it’s one of the things that television can and should do,” she continued.

“It’s a powerful thing for people to be able to see themselves represented. It feels like a huge responsibility and a privilege that we take very seriously.”

The cast feels a responsibility to represent 

Martin-Green feels just as passionately as Paradise in terms of the responsibility that comes with being on a historic show like Star Trek Discovery. She reveals she faced some resistance from viewers when she was first cast as Michael Burnham, but she welcomes the opportunity to spark conversations and change conventional ways of thinking.

“We take that responsibility very seriously,” she added. “I certainly came across a lot of resistance in the beginning, people that didn’t like that there was going to be a Black woman leading Trek for the first time. It’s kind of a contradiction—this is the series that introduced the first biracial kiss,” she continued.

“It’s kind of nonsensical but at the same time I love that if it allows you or encourages you to confront yourself or if it brings something to light within you. And let’s hope that you open up and that you change. I know stories of people whose beliefs and perspectives have changed because of Trek and because of Discovery. What an honour to be a part of that.”

The show’s representation inspires the cast as well

Ajala, who plays Cleveland Booker, reveals joining the series in its third season was inspiring as it delivered hope for the future in terms of representation and equality.

“One thing I really love about Star Trek and Starfleet specifically is you have a group of individuals who are different, whose differences are celebrated,” he said. “They're encouraged to be innovative, encouraged to be the best versions of themselves, and are given a safe platform to fail, try again, and then succeed,” he continued.

“So far as I have breath in my body, that's what I'm going to endeavour to always do. You can't change the world, but you can change someone's world. And as long as I'm doing that, I feel more than enough.”

Martin-Green added how that kind of a future is what matters most to her. “Being able to present the possibility and the details… of this sort of utopian future is enough because that visualisation, hopefully, prayerfully, will lead to actualization,” she added.

Looking forward, this show is all about hope

Potential actualization has always driven Star Trek stories, revealed Paradise. In her mind, sci-fi in general is an opportunity to reflect the things that are happening today and to present the world that could be tomorrow.

“That’s one of the wonderful things about this iteration and the other iterations of Star Trek,” she said. “Looking at the optimism of what the world could be. Am I optimistic? I suppose that depends on the day and what’s happening in the world on that day. But I want to believe we have it in us to be the kind of people we see in the shows,” she continued.

“That as a species we have it in us to be as good as we can be… we just need to decide to get there and as David said, one person at a time.”

Star Trek Discovery returns for Season 5 in 2023 on CTV Sci-Fi Channel, CTV.ca/Sci-Fi and the CTV app on Android and iOS. You can also stream episodes on-demand on Crave and check out exclusive extras on CTV.ca and the CTV app.