Tag Archives: Bryan Fuller

New Star Trek TV Series Lead Will Be Female, And At Least One Crew Member Will Be Gay

After almost a decade off the air, the world of Star Trek returns with a brand new series in 2017. CBS recently announced this revival of the beloved franchise, timing it nicely with the 50th anniversary of the original show. This new Star Trek will air on CBS Access, CBS’s new streaming subscription channel.

Despite the series’ groundbreaking origins, many are surprised to find out that Star Trek has never featured any (explicitly) LGBT characters.

But Bryan Fuller – the showrunner of the new Star Trek TV series – has revealed things are about to change.

Firstly the show’s lead character will be female. He also added that Star Trek: Discovery will focus on a female Lieutenant Commander, rather than the Discovery’s captain and that many of the crew will be aliens.

Fuller, who previously created the TV series Hannibal, added that at least one crew member will be gay.

At a press conference, Fuller said that not focusing on the Captain would give Star Trek: Discovery “a different perspective” to previous Trek series. He said the show would see the ship’s crew try to be friendly towards alien races, commenting:

For our new lead to understand something that is truly alien, she first has to understand herself”

Star Trek: Disocvery, which begins screening in the US in January 2017, is set 10 years before the original TV series featuring Captain James T Kirk.

Fuller, whose early TV career included writing episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, said he was pleased that US TV had become more liberal, making it easier to feature a gay crew member.

Fuller said he’d wanted to include a lesbian kiss in his TV series Waterfalls in 2004, but had been prevented by its network, Fox. Fuller added:

Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then.”