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Why 'Star Trek: Discovery' May Give Us Our First Female Captain Since 'Voyager'

by Eleanor Tremeer,

It's a good time to be a Trekkie. While Beyond soars into cinemas, in a surprisingly good addition to the Trek franchise, we're all counting down the days until Star Trek's triumphant return to TV in early 2017. The new show, helmed by Bryan Fuller, was revealed at SDCC to be titled Star Trek: Discovery, and we don't know a huge amount about it yet, aside from the fact that it will definitely be set in the Prime Timeline.

Oh, and there's the teaser from SDCC, which introduced the eponymous starship — the USS Discovery.

Other than that, all we have are rumors, but those rumors are certainly intriguing — Discovery could be an anthology show, with the first season set between The Undiscovered Country and The Next Generation. (And if that's the case, this time setting would make Discovery a play on the popular movie's title, which is awesome).

As far as the captain goes, Bryan Fuller has already made it clear what he wants, and recent comments from the creative team might just suggest we'll be getting our first female captain since Janeway.

Claiming The Captain's Chair

Before we spiral into speculation, let's just put this into context: Back in 2013, Fuller told Den Of Geek that were he ever to take the helm of a Trek TV show, he wanted a woman of color as captain, and another as first officer. His choices were Angela Bassett and Rosario Dawson respectively, and naturally this interview resurfaced a few months ago when Fuller was named showrunner for the 2017 series.

Fuller at the Star Trek Convention in 2014 [Wired]

With both Bassett and Dawson busy pursuing other projects, it seemed unlikely that Fuller would get his picks for these roles. But hope is not lost for a female captain — Fuller commented to Collider that the casting process was both "color-blind" and "gender-blind". He also stressed thatDiscovery would be as progressive as past Trek, and considering there has so far been a ratio of four male captains to one female, having another male captain would, at this point, be a step back rather than a progression forward.

Of course, all this is conjecture, but SDCC gave us something a little more concrete. Executive producer Heather Kadin was asked what it was like to be a woman in production, and this was her response:

"As a female, you’ll see, when you start to hear more about the series, that that’s a big part of it."

Kadin and Fuller at SDCC [TrekMovie]

Considering Kadin was asked specifically what it was like to be a woman guiding a franchise, it's interesting that she revealed that this is a theme of the show itself. Put this together with Fuller's comments about wanting a female captain, and his hints about progressiveness inDiscovery and this all might be pointing towards a woman in the captain's chair.

Or it could all be a bunch of coincidences. Personally though, because of Trek's history of championing social issues, and the fact that we've only had one female captain leading a Trek show so far, it seems likely to me that Fuller will get his wish. Even if that captain isn't Angela Bassett.