Star Trek Discovery gets female lead, protagonist won’t be a captain

They'll be a 'Lieutenant Commander…but with caveats'

Star Trek Discovery executive producer Bryan Fuller has revealed that the new TV series’ lead will be a (likely African American) woman, but for the first time it won’t as straightforward as them being captain.

Asked about the latest leader’s rank, Fuller teased at a TCA panel: “Lieutenant Commander…but with caveats”.

This suggests the protagonist won’t be cemented as leader like with Janeway or Picard, and might be on some kind of trial basis or face leadership challenges from other Starfleet officers.

At Comic-Con, Fuller cited African American astronaut Mae Jamison and sole African American original Star Trek cast member Nichelle Nichols as influences for the series, so it’s quite likely a black actress will be cast in the lead role.

As for what the series will actually be about, he said: “There’s an incident in the history of Starfleet that had been talked about but never fully explored,” which will form the basis for season 1.

It apparently won’t centre on The Romulan war, the Kobayashi Maru scenario or Black Ops Section 31, though Fuller said the latter “might be some marble through the meat of our season.”

Star Trek Discovery will also feature an LGBT character, centre on “about seven” characters and be set neither on Earth nor a planet.

It is set to debut sometime in 2017.