new star trek sulu actor

• George Takei

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IMDbPro Starmeter Top 5,000 2372

• Contact info
• 14 wins & 5 nominations

• Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
• 1966–1969 • 52 eps

• Koh (voice)

• AO the Wise (voice)

• Seki (voice)

• Hikaru Sulu (voice)

• Noggin (voice)

• Mr. Tengu (voice)

• Capt. Hikaru Sulu (voice)

• Grey Alien (voice)

• Mer-Man (voice)

• Ohga (voice)

• George Takei Washington
• Jon Gosselin

• Lt. Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu

• So-So (voice)

• Shinji Yokohama (voice)

• 10 episodes

Personal details

• George Takai
• 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• April 20 , 1937
• Los Angeles, California, USA
• Brad Takei September 14, 2008 - present
• Parents Takekuma Norman Takei
• Other works TV commercial for E*Trade.
• 1 Print Biography
• 1 Portrayal
• 13 Interviews
• 12 Articles
• 2 Pictorials
• 3 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia During World War II, Takei lived with his family in several government internment camps for people of Japanese ancestry. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the applicable Executive Order No. 9066, on February 19th 1942. In December 1944, President Roosevelt suspended Executive Order 9066. Incarcerees were released, often to resettlement facilities and temporary housing, and the camps were shut down by 1946. Ironically, George shares a birthday with Adolf Hitler ; he was born on Hitler's 48th birthday so he was still alive.
• Quotes [on William Shatner ]: He's just a wonderful actor who created a singular character. No one could have done Kirk the way Bill did. His energy and his determination, that's Bill. And that's also Captain Kirk.
• Trademarks Deep smooth voice
• Uncle George
• How old is George Takei?
• When was George Takei born?
• Where was George Takei born?

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George Takei

Is best known for his portrayal of mr. sulu in the acclaimed television and film series star trek..

He's an actor, social justice activist, social media mega-power, New York Times bestselling author, originated the role of Sam Kimura and Ojii-Chan in the Broadway musical Allegiance, and subject of To Be Takei: a documentary on his life and career.

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John Cho, Sulu of ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ Navigates a Beckoning Universe

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By Nicole Chung

• July 18, 2016

In “Star Trek Beyond,” the third film in the reimagined “Trek” universe, the helmsman Hikaru Sulu has a husband and a young daughter — but don’t expect the crew of the Enterprise to be as surprised as some fans were by the news that Sulu is gay.

“In the film, his family was portrayed really nonchalantly, which I liked,” said John Cho, 44, who has played Sulu since 2009. “He wasn’t coming out of the closet.”

Mr. Cho hopes the revelation of Sulu’s sexual orientation, while not a major focus of the movie, proves encouraging to young fans. He likens it to his own experience as a young Korean immigrant in Houston, watching “Star Trek” for the first time and homing in on the Asian character. “Seeing George Takei on television was very meaningful to me, and I hope there’s a similar effect for gay kids watching,” he said.

Previously best known for a title role in the “Harold and Kumar” movies, Mr. Cho has lately been seen gracing many popular movie posters — not just for “Star Trek” — thanks to a social media campaign started without his knowledge that imagines him as Captain America, James Bond and other well-known characters. Earlier this month, Mr. Cho, who was in London for work, spoke by phone about “Star Trek Beyond” (due in theaters on Friday, July 22), his surprise at the success of #StarringJohnCho , and why worrying about the challenging reality of being an Asian actor in Hollywood isn’t good for him as an artist. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

My condolences over the loss of your friend and “Trek” co-star Anton Yelchin.

Thank you. He was a special, special kid. We just loved him to pieces, and it’s been very difficult. He was so young. The cast has been together a lot, and we’ve found that as comforting as it can be, under the circumstances.

George Takei recently said he was glad there was a gay “Star Trek” character, but he didn’t think it should be Sulu. What did you think when you learned about the decision to write Sulu as gay?

It was my understanding that George Takei’s Sulu was heterosexual. We have an alternate timeline in our “Star Trek” universe, but it’s the same genetic Sulu. So I was concerned that people would think we were saying that sexual orientation was a choice and not predetermined. I was also concerned that since it was a bit of a homage to him, George would say, “I’m someone who has worked as a gay actor to craft a straight character, and now you’re seeing just my sexual orientation.”

The posture of the filmmakers was that this was normalized in the future and it was nothing, really. It was a big revelation yet handled in a way that communicated it wasn’t anything the crew didn’t already know about him.

You mentioned that Mr. Takei was one of few Asian actors you saw growing up. Did the lack of representation affect you?

I wish I was strong enough for it not to matter. It does, I have to admit. It still affects me, and not just as an actor. Movies may be as close to a document of our national culture as there is; they’re supposed to represent what we believe ourselves to be. So when you don’t see yourself at all — or see yourself erased — that hurts.

The #StarringJohnCho campaign is drawing attention to a lack of diversity onscreen. How did you feel when you saw it?

My first reaction was, are they clowning me? I quickly realized it was sincere, and it was kind of amazing. Maybe [it caught on], because the posters made it seem possible. Instead of talking about it or demanding it, it was like, listen, it could be like this. For a minute, people were talking about it in a very serious way.

You’ve talked about facing racism in your professional life, not taking roles that rely on stereotypes. You’ve had to think about these issues in a way white actors don’t.

You might hear something along the lines of “They’re not going Asian on this role, because there’s another Asian in the cast,” which is something you’d never hear if you were white. At this stage of my career, it’s more oblique. It can be harder to maneuver your way into the discussion for bigger roles.

I get tired of talking about this. I get tired of living with it. The more I have to think about this, the more it makes me feel more like a politician and less of an artist. In the long run, that’s not good for me or anyone else. I don’t like when an Asian-American actor says, “I’m entering this business to change Hollywood.” It feels like the wrong reason — I would prefer they entered the business for artistic reasons, because they need to do it. I used to get offered roles, and if I felt they were a stereotype, I would [ask] my Korean friends, “What do you think of this?” I would go through these exhausting mental hoops, arguing both sides in my head, picturing this imaginary Asian-American council judging the role. I spent so much energy on that. Now I’m older, and I’m thinking, that’s not healthy! It’s antithetical to the artistic impulse. Actors are supposed to be these runaways that get in a covered wagon filled with hats and tambourines and go from town to town making people smile. Though it’s logical and necessary to think and talk about all of this, it’s a bummer as an artist to have to do it all the time.

What are some roles you’d love to take on?

I’d love to do a Shakespearean role onscreen. There are some radical things I’d like to do. I’d like to be in a western. I’d like to be ultraviolent onscreen; it’s completely different from anything I’ve done. Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I’ve made a career out of not being Asian — a lot of my roles weren’t written as Asian — so there’s an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.

I’m also tuned in lately to my parents’ generation, thinking about their mortality and all the history that will go with them. I’ve wanted to do a project and record Korean-American kids interviewing their parents and grandparents, so we can preserve stories of the Korean diaspora. I guess it’s part of getting older and having kids, you think more about that kind of thing.

What are you working on next?

Right after this, I’m doing a small-budget movie about a Korean man visiting his father, who has fallen ill in Columbus, Ind. He meets a woman, and they’re both mourning their parents in different ways; there’s an interesting relationship. The announcement hasn’t been made, so I can’t talk about it in detail yet, but I’m also acting in and producing a drama in the cable space.

What do you like to do when you’re not acting?

It’s more like, what do my kids want me to be doing? [My wife, the actress Kerri Higuchi, and I] have two kids, 8 and 3. I have this fantasy of just being left alone for a week, so I can clean out the house and garage.

An earlier version of this article, using information from Mr. Cho, misidentified a role he once performed. It is Laertes, not Horatio.

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Simon Pegg Explains The Important Reason Sulu Is Gay In ‘Star Trek Beyond’

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It’s been quite a whirlwind 24 hours for “ Star Trek Beyond ” and everyone’s favorite helmsman, Hikaru Sulu. Yesterday, reports hit that the fan favorite character, played by John Cho in the current trilogy, would be revealed as openly gay in the upcoming “Star Trek Beyond.” It was a character decision that Cho was fully on board with, though in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the original Sulu,  George Takei , expressed how “unfortunate” the change was since it meddled with franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s original vision. Fortunately, actor and “Beyond” screenwriter Simon Pegg is here to put out any potential controversy that could erupt from the battle between the two Sulus.

READ MORE: ‘Star Trek Beyond’: George Takei Reacts To ‘Unfortunate’ News of Gay Character

In a statement released exclusively to The Guardian , Pegg “respectfully disagreed” with Takei and defended the decision to change Sulu’s sexual orientation in the upcoming sequel. The screenwriter and his team always wanted to include a gay character in the “Star Trek” universe (mainly because the show and movies have always been so progressive from the beginning), and they felt like using a pre-existing character to do so was a more respectful and impactful way of doing so than just introducing a brand new original gay character.

Pegg explains, “We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the ‘gay character’, rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism? Justin Lin, Doug Jung and I loved the idea of it being someone we already knew because the audience has a pre-existing opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice. Their sexual orientation is just one of many personal aspects, not the defining characteristic.”

By revealing such a beloved character is gay, the screenwriting team also wanted to show that “there had been an LGBT presence in the Trek Universe from the beginning” and prove that “a gay hero isn’t something new or strange.” Pegg stresses that the film does not suggest Sulu was ever in the closet, but simply that the role of his sexual orientation hasn’t come up story-wise until “Star Trek Beyond.”

As for Takei’s belief that turning Sulu gay changes Roddenberry’s original vision, Pegg responded, “I don’t believe Gene Roddenberry’s decision to make the prime timeline’s Enterprise crew straight was an artistic one, more a necessity of the time…The viewing audience weren’t open minded enough at the time and it must have forced Roddenberry to modulate his innovation.”

You can read Pegg’s entire statement here . Fans and moviegoers will get to see just how “Star Trek Beyond” handles the character beat when the movie opens in theaters July 22.

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The Surprising Controversy Behind The New Gay "Star Trek" Character

Out actor George Takei, who originally played Lt. Sulu, called the creative decision to make the character gay in Star Trek Beyond "really unfortunate," prompting strong responses from Beyond screenwriter and actor Simon Pegg and out actor Zachary Quinto.

BuzzFeed News Reporter

For the first time in the franchise's 50-year history, Star Trek is featuring a major openly LGBT character: John Cho's character Lt. Hikaru Sulu has a husband and young daughter in Star Trek Beyond , BuzzFeed News has confirmed.

"I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it," Cho told Australia's Herald Sun while in Sydney for Beyond 's world premiere on July 7.

"[It] is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one's personal orientations," he added.

The original actor who played Sulu, George Takei, famously came out in 2005. But in an interview on Thursday with The Hollywood Reporter , Takei said he thought the decision to make Sulu gay was "really unfortunate."

The actor — who has been with his husband Brad Takei (né Altman) for 29 years — explained that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who Takei said "was a strong supporter of LGBT equality," had conceived of Sulu as a heterosexual character. And despite the fact that Sulu never had a female romantic or sexual partner throughout the original TV series and Star Trek movies, Takei felt Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin and screenwriters Simon Pegg and Doug Jung should honor Roddenberry's choice, especially given the franchise's 50th anniversary.

Takei told THR that he actively lobbied Cho and Lin to not make Sulu gay after they had both privately informed him of the decision last year while Star Trek Beyond was in production.

Takei said he was left to believe that his wishes were heeded, especially after receiving a supportive email from Pegg. But he said an email from Cho last week made clear the filmmakers had moved forward with their plans.

"I’m delighted that there’s a gay character," Takei told THR . "Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

In a statement released on Friday, Pegg said he "respectfully disagreed" with Takei's concerns.

"I have huge love and respect for George Takei, his heart, courage and humour are an inspiration," said Pegg in the statement (which you can read in full at the bottom of this post). "However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him."

“He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now," Pegg continued. "We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the 'gay character,' rather than simply for who they are, and isn't that tokenism?"

According to Pegg, the filmmaking team wanted their LGBT character to be someone the audience already knew "as a human being," so that his sexuality would not be the character's "defining characteristic."

Pegg added that he believed Roddenberry would have "explored Sulu's sexuality with George" during the run of the original series from 1966 to 1969, had the culture at the time been "open minded enough" to accept it.

But Pegg also noted that, regardless of Roddenberry's intentions, Star Trek Beyond is part of an alternative timeline started by 2009's Star Trek directed by J.J. Abrams — pointing to the sci-fi conceit that the Sulu played by Takei could still be heterosexual. "Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline," said Pegg. "I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere."

And out actor Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the Star Trek reboot movies, told Australian outlet Pedestrian.tv that he was "disappointed by the fact that George was disappointed."

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"I think any member of the LGBT community that takes issue with the normalized and positive portrayal of members of our community in Hollywood and in mainstream blockbuster cinema... I get it that he's had his own personal journey and has his own personal relationship with this character, but, you know, as we established in the first Star Trek film in 2009, we've created an alternate universe," Quinto said, echoing Pegg's statement. "My hope is that eventually George can be strengthened by the enormously positive response from especially young people who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world, and should be."

Paramount had no comment. Representatives for Cho and Lin did not respond to a request from BuzzFeed News for a further comment.

Here is Pegg's full statement:

I have huge love and respect for George Takei, his heart, courage and humour are an inspiration. However, with regards to his thoughts on our Sulu, I must respectfully disagree with him. He's right, it is unfortunate, it's unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn't featured an LGBT character until now. We could have introduced a new gay character but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the 'gay character,' rather than simply for who they are and isn't that tokenism? Justin Lin, Doug Jung, and I loved the idea of it being someone we already knew because the audience have a pre-existing opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice. Their sexual orientation is just one of many personal aspects, not the defining characteristic. Also, the audience would infer that there has been an LGBT presence in the Trek Universe from the beginning (at least in the Kelvin timeline ), that a gay hero isn't something new or strange. It's also important to note that at no point do we suggest that our Sulu was ever closeted, why would he need to be? It's just hasn't come up before.  I don't believe Gene Roddenberry's decision to make the prime timeline's Enterprise crew straight was an artistic one, more a necessity of the time. Trek rightly gets a lot of love for featuring the first interracial kiss on US television but 'Plato's Stepchildren' was the lowest rated episode ever. The viewing audience weren't open minded enough at the time and it must have forced Roddenberry to modulate his innovation. His mantra was always 'infinite diversity in infinite combinations'. If he could have explored Sulu's sexuality with George, he no doubt would have. Roddenberry was a visionary and a pioneer but we choose our battles carefully.  Our Trek is an alternate timeline with alternate details. Whatever magic ingredient determines our sexuality was different for Sulu in our timeline. I like this idea because it suggests that in a hypothetical multiverse, across an infinite matrix of alternate realities, we are all LGBT somewhere. Whatever dimension we inhabit, we all just want to be loved by those we love*. I can't speak for every reality but that must surely true of this one. Live long and prosper.  Simon Pegg, July 2016 *and I ❤️ George Takei

This post has been updated with George Takei's interview with The Hollywood Reporter , and Simon Pegg's and Zachary Quinto's responses to that interview.

h/t Vulture

George Takei

Who Is George Takei?

George Takei overcame the racial barriers of his time to launch a successful acting career. He starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu during the three-year television run of Star Trek , and later reprised the role for six movies. Prominently involved with gay rights and Japanese American groups, Takei has become a highly popular social-media presence.

Early Years

George Hosato Takei was born on April 20, 1937, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of 5, he and his family were uprooted from their home and forced to live at Japanese internment camps in Arkansas and northern California. They returned to Los Angeles after World War II, and Takei enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study architecture.

Stage and Screen

While in college, Takei responded to a newspaper ad looking for Asian voiceover actors for the English version of the Japanese monster movie Rodan (1956). That led to more voiceover work, as well as small parts in television programs such as Perry Mason and the film Ice Palace (1960). Deciding to focus on acting full time, Takei transferred to the University of California Los Angeles, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in theater.

In 1966, Takei became one of the few Asian Americans to be featured prominently on TV when he starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the science-fiction series Star Trek. He returned after taking time off during the second season to film The Green Berets (1968), but his role as Sulu was temporarily shelved when Star Trek was canceled in 1969.

Takei continued to make regular TV appearances in the 1970s, on such programs as The Six Million Dollar Man and Hawaii Five-O , while providing the voice of Sulu for the Star Trek animated series. Momentum gathered for the making of the movie, and Takei reunited with the rest of his old castmates for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and five sequels over the next dozen years.

Takei was involved in a project close to his heart when he took on a starring role in Allegiance , a production about the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. The play premiered at San Diego's Old Globe Theater in September 2012.

Public Service and Private Revelations

Takei has remained a busy man away from show business. After narrowly losing his bid for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1973, he joined the board of directors for the Southern California Transit District from 1973 to 1984.

Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission for President Bill Clinton and was conferred with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2004. He is also chairman emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum's board of trustees and serves as chair of the council of governors of East West Players, a renowned Asian-American theater organization.

In 2005, Takei publicly announced his homosexuality to Frontiers magazine. He married his longtime partner, Brad Altman, in September 2008.

In recent years, Takei has earned a following from a new generation of fans with his funny, incisive posts on Facebook. His expansive social-media presence, along with the 2013 release of Star Trek Into Darkness , has helped keep this accomplished actor and activist in the public eye.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: George Takei
• Birth Year: 1937
• Birth date: April 20, 1937
• Birth State: California
• Birth City: Los Angeles
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Japanese American actor George Takei played Lieutenant Sulu in the original 'Star Trek' television series and movies and is a popular social-media presence.
• Writing and Publishing
• Astrological Sign: Taurus
• University of California at Berkeley
• Cultural Associations
• Asian American

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: George Takei Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/george-takei
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 30, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• Since I was a little boy, I was a ham. And there's a ham in everybody. Some of us are just better cured than others.

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Published Apr 20, 2019

The Unstoppable George Takei

In honor of Takei's 85th birthday, we're resharing one of our favorite interviews with the legend himself.

StarTrek.com

This interview originally ran on August 20, 2014. It's reposted today in honor of George Takei's 85th birthday.

George Takei is an actor, Star Trek legend, LGBT rights activist, Howard Stern announcer, author, voiceover artist, real estate mogul, Internet sensation, and so much more. Thanks in part to great TV roles and an acclaimed role in a Broadway-bound musical ( Allegiance , a musical about his experiences at a Japanese American internment camp during World War II), Takei has enjoyed a career and cultural renaissance over the past decade, making the timing perfect for the new documentary To Be Takei .

Producer-director Jennifer M. Kroot convinced the Trek actor and his husband, Brad Altman, to participate in the making of the film, which centers around Takei's life and career. Joining Takei on screen are his fellow surviving Star Trek co-stars: Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and the captain himself, William Shatner. To Be Takei , will open in theaters on August 22, 2014 and, that same day, be available on all VOD platforms, including iTunes and Amazon Instant Video .

When we met with Takei in New York City he was in good spirits, impeccably dressed, and as talkative as ever as we asked him about the documentary, his other current projects, and the upcoming 50th anniversary of Star Trek .

StarTrek.com: How and when were you approached to do To Be Takei , and what was your initial reaction to the idea?

George Takei: I think it was 2010, and [Brad and I] didn’t know Jennifer at all. We’d never heard of her. So we immediately did some homework on her past works. So many actors get vanity projects done about them, which make them look more glamorous, more intelligent and more charming, and we didn’t want that. We saw the idea of a documentary as being a vehicle to help us with our advocacy for LGBT equality, and also to demonstrate the normalcy of our relationship, as well as the craziness of my career.

We wanted to trust the documentarian, so we had many, many meetings and meals together with Jennifer, to get a feel for her, for why she wanted to do a documentary on us. And we found that we shared common values and common aspirations. She’s a strong supporter of LGBT equality. So we said, “We don’t want a vanity project. We will not censor you. We will not ask for final cut approval. You have carte blanche . We trust you, and please honor that trust.”

The reality is that you’ve been a public figure and in the public eye for decades, but what was it like to have cameras on you pretty much 24-7 — even in your car — for such an extended period of time?

GT: [It took] three years. I’m used to cameras, even in our private moments. And I walked into this knowing that’s what it was going to take.

For Brad, it was not so easy. He liked to know when filming was beginning, and when it was finished. There’s a bit they kept in the movie, where we went out for a walk from our house. Brad didn’t want our front door shown because there are fans who drive around looking for people’s houses. He went hysterical, [saying] “No! Turn off the cameras!” I said, “It’s all right, it’s all right.” So, Brad was very uncomfortable with it. In retrospect, I kind of wish we could have asked her to excise certain parts.

How pleased were you that Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig participated. And, how shocked were you that your frequent sparring partner, William Shatner, participated too?

GT: We wanted everybody. The Star Trek family is a family, even if we squabble. I was very happy to have Leonard, Nichelle and Walter. Bill [Shatner], he demurred [at first]. Then Bill found something that he needed from me. He was doing that one-man show that he traveled the country with, and he wanted to use a clip of me from the [Comedy Central] roast. So I told Jennifer, “We have some bargaining chips.”

She’d approached him [initially] and was turned down. She came back to us and said, “Is there any way you can persuade him?” We said, “No, no, there isn’t.” Then when he came to me to sign a release for that roast footage, I said to Jennifer, “You want to dicker with him?” So we used that release as the commodity. [Bill] said, “No more than 10 minutes.” Then how he used that 10 minutes was silly, [saying] “I don’t know the man.”

Well, why did he make such a big fuss about not being invited to our wedding if he really doesn’t know me? It’s crazy, his carryings-on. Then we found out two months later why he made that big fuss. His talk show, Raw Nerve , was coming out and he wanted publicity. Just announcing that you have a new show won’t get you that kind of publicity, unless you have a little whoo-ha .

What’s the latest on your musical, Allegiance ? It had such a great run at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Will the production eventually reach Broadway?

GT: We have been waiting for a year and a half now for a theater vacancy. We at first thought it was this unusual circumstance of every theater in New York City being booked up. So we got in line with other producers and patiently waited. But then, what we’re discovering is that these old, grizzled veteran producers, who have brought a lot of box office successes to the Shuberts or the Nederlanders, can sail in from left field and say, “Hey, old buddy, I’ve got another one here… When Bridges of Madison County closes, we’d like to take over.” It’s the Broadway Old Boys’ club and we think that’s awfully unfair, but that’s the way it is.

So you’re still on that line, waiting your turn?

GT: We are, but we also have a strategy. We are going to try to partner with one of the grizzled, old-time producers. So we hope to be on Broadway later this year or early next year. But we will be on Broadway.

What’s your relationship with Sulu and Star Trek these days? Is he still a part of your daily life? Is Star Trek still a part of your day-to-day existence?

GT: Sulu is a part of my life and Star Trek is a part of my life, but they’re a bit removed just because of the passage of time. Did you see the movie Boyhood ? Time does things. And, as I say in the documentary, “I’m a different guy.” I look different. I sound different. I think differently. But I’m proud of Sulu and I’m proud of my association with Star Trek . It’s just two years until we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek , the golden anniversary. To be associated with that kind of extraordinary phenomenon, with such an unusual, landmark production is something to be very proud of.

During the window between Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness Zachary Quinto revealed that he was gay. How proud were you, and how did you feel about him being able to do so so early in his own relationship to Star Trek ?

GT: I applaud him for doing so, and I also envy him that society has changed enough that an actor can come out and still be embraced and still work. At the height of my career as Sulu, I would probably never have returned in the [ Star Trek ] feature films if I had done that. Society was different then. They weren’t ready for it. Hollywood wasn’t ready for it. Now, it’s a measure of our society that people like Zachary or Neil Patrick Harris can be who they are, fully, and still have not only a viable career, but ascendant, growing careers. Zachary was brilliant in Angels in America and also in The Glass Menagerie .  His performance in The Glass Menagerie — that was the best Tom Wingfield that I’ve ever seen. And Zachary is going to be doing a lot more important work in the years to come.

You mentioned the upcoming 50th anniversary of Star Trek . You, in the past, have marveled about the franchise’s 25th anniversary, the 30th, the 35th, etc. But, really, 50 is a magic number, wouldn’t you agree?

GT: It’s remarkable. What other show can make that kind of claim? It’s especially remarkable because we were practically 'cellar dwellers' as a TV show. First of all, for it to come back as a feature film a decade after cancellation was unheard of. Then, for it to become a series of feature films, followed by a series of spin-off shows… it’s unprecedented. It’s a singular phenomenon, Star Trek . To be a part of that, I think, is something we all hold with pride.

What else are you working on these days?

GT: I still do a lot of voiceovers, for commercials and for animated shows. The days are blurring, but while we’ve been doing publicity for To Be Takei , I’ve also carved out time to do some voiceover work for a new Nickelodeon animated series. I voice a sea creature, and my name is Major Bummer [laughs] . Major Bummer is a big fish — a big fish that lords it over the other little fish, the mollies.

Some shows are done with the cast together, but this is me solo in a booth, recording my dialogue.  So, right now, my time is being spent promoting To Be Takei , doing the voiceovers, and trying to make sure that we get Allegiance to Broadway in the very near future. Hopefully the next time we talk it will be about Allegiance opening on Broadway!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Be sure to follow Takei at his official site , on Facebook and on Twitter at @GeorgeTakei .

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• April 26, 2024 | Michael Dorn Wanted Armin Shimerman To Play The Ferengi That Worf Killed In Star Trek Picard
• April 26, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Gets To Know The Breen In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 505, “Mirrors”
• April 25, 2024 | Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images
• April 25, 2024 | Jonathan Frakes Sees Opportunities With Streaming Star Trek Movies, Weighs In On “Filler Episodes”
• April 25, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 110 comments so far

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 – Debuted Thursday, April 25, 2024 Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco Directed by Jen McGowan

A solid episode with plenty of lore and character development gets weighed down with a bit too much exposition.

No, I didn’t kiss you in the past last week, what makes you say that?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Maybe we’re not so different.”

As the crew regroups following the time bug incident that lost them 6 hours, they try to trace the trail of their main rivals in the search for the Progenitor tech. Book takes this time to reflect on the choices he has made in life and how it isn’t too late for Moll; perhaps he can redeem the daughter of his mentor and namesake Cleveland Booker. Stamets and Tilly figure out the trail didn’t disappear into nowhere: Moll and L’ak went through a wormhole. The aperture isn’t big enough for the Disco, so the captain assigns herself to shuttle duty—over the objections of her new XO, who is still struggling a bit. After a little bonding over old Kellerun poetry, she leaves him with “I know you can lead this crew” and heads off with her ex. Returning to their old banter, including some teasing about what happened during her time tour last episode, Book and Michael head through the wormhole. Things get really choppy as they fly through exotic matter “deaf and blind,” losing comms with the Disco, and dodging debris. Skilled piloting and good ol’ Starfleet engineering saves them, but things aren’t so hot for Moll and L’ak, whose ship is spotted cut in half. Their only hope for survival is another relatively intact ship that looks familiar. A 24 th -century scientist hiding a clue in this pocket dimension on a shipwreck from another universe makes as much sense as anything.  It’s the ISS Enterprise—and that’s no typo. If the “Mirrors” title wasn’t clue enough, the ISS does it: Things are about to get Terran, again.

After docking, Michael and Book make their way through the mess of a ship to the bridge with more playful banter. The warp drive has been bricked and all shuttles and escape pods are gone, very out of character for ruthless Terrans. They track three quantum signatures in sickbay, but start with a trace in the transporter room, which looks more like a makeshift refugee camp. A chronicle reveals the crew mutinied after the Terran High Chancellor (aka Mirror Spock) was killed for making reforms. A certain Kelpien rebel leader (aka Mirror Action Saru) led refugees to the Prime Universe, where they abandoned ship. While Book expositions, Michael puts a piece of her badge (and its important Prime Universe quantum signature) in a locket she finds. Pay attention BTW, or you will be confused later. In sickbay, they find Moll and L’ak, Moll and L’ak, and Moll and L’ak—until they take out the holo-emitters so the four former couriers can face off for real. Book tries the “I knew your father” gambit and is immediately rebuffed by Moll’s serious daddy issues. The baddies figure they have the clue so they have all the leverage, but Michael uses that locket as a bluff, claiming she has the real clue. Still, no deal with the Federation is good enough because they need the Progenitor tech to get rid of an Erigah… a Breen blood bounty. That’s right, L’ak is Breen. Holy refrigeration helmet , Batman.

Mirror McCoy was a bit of an evil pack rat.

“You both still have choices .”

Cut to a series of Burn-era flashbacks when Moll was delivering dilithium to the Breen Imperium. The “bucket heads”  are not amused by the wisecracking courier who gets into a fight with one of them, but she turns the tables, revealing she knows he’s a disgraced member of the royal family—and she even knows his name. It’s L’ak, of course. He is intrigued by her plan to skim more latinum, getting payback for being humiliated for this cargo duty demotion. Soon enough, this unlikely pair is hooking up between cargo containers and he even takes off his helmet to show her his face, as well as his “other face.” It turns out the Breen have two: the one we have been seeing with L’ak and a glowing eyed translucent one.  Later, the star-crossed romance is threatened when Moll is drawn to the lure of even more latinum by delivering to the Emerald Chain. Before they can sort out if he should join her, Uncle A-hole shows up, not happy about his nephew’s little interspecies exchange program. He’s also not cool with L’ak using that old face and not the “evolved” glowy face. L’ak is given one chance at redemption: Kill Moll. He picks door number 2, killing some guards but sparing Primarch Ruhn, who declares the Erigah. L’ak knows this means they will never stop hunting him, but Moll is all-in on being a fugitive, so they escape together. Ah, true love.

Back on Mirror Enterprise, the standoff devolves into another quick firefight as the Breen/Human duo chooses not to take the offered off-ramp before going too far down the bad guy road. Moll and Book end up outside force fields that pop up around sickbay, so she reluctantly agrees to a ceasefire. The current Cleveland Booker tries again to connect, but Moll only has bad memories of a brutal childhood of abandonment after her Cleveland left her on her own at age 14. L’ak is all she has. L’ak feels the same about Moll, telling Michael that he would die before being separated, but seems open to the idea of them sharing a cell in the Federation pen. On the bridge, Book pivots to use his relationship with Michael to connect, but Moll’s need to get back to L’ak means no waiting for computer hacking, so she starts yanking out wires. The resulting short does lower the forcefield, but now the ship is out of control. Their shuttle is flung off with the jolt and there’s only eight minutes until the Big E is squished in the little wormhole. Book takes his final shot, handing over his phaser and telling Moll she is the only family he has left. She finally relents and they head to sickbay, where Michael and L’ak have resumed fighting. The captain gets the upper hand and ends up with the clue L’ak was holding and the Breen is left with a knife in his side, but impressed by the locket bluff. Moll arrives and is super pissed, so the Disco duo makes a quick exit before things escalate into yet another phaser fight. This former courier couple’s double date is over.

Uh, can you go back to the other face now?

“Maybe we can shape our own futures too.”

As Moll tries to patch up her boyfriend, Michael and Book work through the problem on the bridge, deciding that the tractor beam as their only hope. Over on the Disco, they detect an oscillating pattern, 3-4-1-4, which means something to Rayner. He now wants the nerds to figure out how to open the wormhole aperture big enough for a ship, offering kegs of Kellerun booze for the best idea. Adira sparks a team effort and Rayner rallies around the crowdsourced solution involving a hexagon of photon torpedoes. “We are only going to get one shot at this. I trust you will all make it count, red alert.” That’s the stuff. With what may be the last seconds of her life, Michael lets Book know she shared a “happy” moment with his past self during the whole time bug incident. Discovery fires the torpedoes and the crew is surprised to see the ISS Enterprise emerge at the last minute from the permanently collapsing wormhole. Everyone releases their tension as the captain informs her crew they saved her… but why is the Enterprise about to fire? A warp pod is launched! It’s Moll and L’ak. Before you can say “plot armor,” they escape to another episode. The captain returns to the Disco to tell Rayner she’s impressed with how he handled the crew during her time away, and he tells her how impressed he was with her subtle “3-4-1-4” message using the Kellerun “Ballad of Krull.” Alien poetry FTW!

In the background of the episode, Tilly has been noticing that Dr. Culber seems out of sorts. Everyone else leans on him, so she offers to be a friendly ear. As things wrap, Hugh takes her up on her offer over drinks at Red’s, admitting that ever since he was possessed by a Trill a few episodes back, he has been feeling a bit off, and he’s beening having some trouble coming to grips with the quest they are on with questions “so big and impossible to grasp.” He is not sure his matter-of-fact husband will understand what Tilly points out is a sort of spiritual awakening. This thread is left unresolved, unlike Adira’s mini-crisis of confidence: They were losing their science mojo due to guilt over the time bug, but got it back through Rayner’s tough love and being the one to come up with the hexagon of torpedoes solution. Things wrap up with Michael and Book looking over their prize, the latest piece of the map and a mysterious vial of liquid hidden inside, ready to set up the next episode once Stamets unlocks its secret. Burnham is starting to see a pattern with these clues and how the scientists who left them were trying to teach lessons along the way to the successful questers. The clue hidden in the ISS Enterprise came from Dr. Cho, a former Terran junior officer who later became a Starfleet Admiral. This happy ending for her and the others from Saru’s band of Mirror refugees fills them with hope as they can’t wait to find out what they will learn when they put the map together. There are just 2 more map pieces and 5 more episodes to go.

I think I have a thing for being possessed—no judgment.

Love stories

This halfway point episode is a bit of a mixed bag. Strong performances were a highlight, bringing extra life to welcome character development for both heroes and villains. But valiant attempts to expand upon franchise lore got weighed down in overly complicated exposition. And for an episode with a strong (and yes, often repeated) theme about choices, some of the directorial choices just didn’t work, potentially leaving some audience members confused or requiring a second viewing to follow the narrative. On the other hand, the episode carried on the season’s reflection on Discovery’s own lore and the evolution of its characters. David Ajala stands out as the episode MVP as he shows Book’s struggle to navigate the emotional complexities of his own choices and those of Moll while desperately trying to forge a new family connection. While some of the action scenes in this episode felt a bit perfunctory, the show is still getting better (for the most part) in finding moments for those character sidebars to talk about their emotional journeys and relationships. That was especially important in this episode, which took a closer look at how the events of the season are impacting some of the key romantic pairings of Book and Michael, Paul and Hugh, and Moll and L’ak.

Eve Harlow—and especially Elias Toufexis—stepped up to add layers and nuance to Moll and L’ak, with Discovery finally embracing how fleshing out adversaries and their motivations goes a long way towards making your plot hold together. The nicely drawn-out reflection of their love story with the rekindling one between Michael and Book adds another layer to the more obvious meaning behind the episode title “Mirrors.” Moll’s single-minded anger and L’ak’s desire for safety now all make sense, as does their unshakable bond. The episode also did a good job weaving in a handful of substories, including Rayner’s growing connection with the crew, with a nice sprinkling of Kellerun lore-building — adding some color to his character. Callum Keith Rennie continues to be a stand-out addition for the season, although Doug Jones is sorely missed, presumably not appearing in two episodes in a row for some scheduling reasons. Culber’s spiritual journey also gets just enough time, as it and these other substories all feel like they are heading somewhere without distracting or spinning their wheels, something that often weighed down mid-season Discovery episodes in past seasons.

Okay, let’s just agree we both have daddy issues.

Under the mask

The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise, but also nicely teased through the previous episodes. Fans of Deep Space Nine should relish finally getting some answers about this enigmatic race and finally having a first look under those helmets. “Mirrors” picked up on many elements from DS9, including the Breen language, refrigeration suits, neural truncheons, and the position of Thot , while adding lots to the lore, including some worldbuilding behind this new Breen Imperium and its “faction wars.”

Setting the Breen up as what appears to be the real big bads for the season involved a lot of data dump exposition here, surely keeping the editors of Memory Alpha busy for the next week. The notion that Breen have two forms with their signature suits and helmets allowing them to hold the more “evolved” form and face makes sense. If one were to get nitpicky, the Breen aren’t supposed to bleed, but perhaps that was a function of his suit; fill in your own headcanon. L’ak’s desire to hold the other, less evolved form making him a pariah in Breen society has echoes of allegorical episodes such as TNG’s “The Outcast.” That being said, the nuances are still not entirely clear, and fans who like the lore shouldn’t have to rewatch scenes to pick up the details. It feels like some details were cut, perhaps because this episode was already trying to cram in too much exposition with the Breen, Kelleruns (they boil cakes?), and the Mirror Universe.

Like the previous time travel adventure, this was a mid-season bottle show, this time using the conveniently located Strange New Worlds sets. Bringing back the ISS Enterprise was clever and fun, with the twist of how this time the Mirror Universe came to us. If you follow closely, “Mirrors” did a nice job of filling in some lore gaps and tying together the MU storylines from the first visit in “Mirror, Mirror” to follow-ups in Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Discovery . There is now a nice throughline from Emperor Georgiou saving Mirror Saru through to Mirror Spock, killed for the reforms he instituted after being inspired by Kirk. However, the redress of the Enterprise sets was not very inspired, with only a smattering of Terran wall sconces and some repainting, instead of demonstrating the brutality of the Empire with elements like agony booths. But what was even more missed was the promise of any character crossovers. There was a lot of talk about Mirror characters like Spock, Saru, Dr. Cho, and others, but we don’t get to see any, one of the many examples of how this episode broke the golden rule to show not tell. There were plenty of opportunities for a flashback or holo recording. Burnham longingly gazing at her brother’s science station is no substitute for Ethan Peck with a goatee.

We’re back!

Final thoughts

“Mirrors” is a decent episode, but it could have been much better with a few tweaks here and there. While not falling into the pointless plate-spinning trap of past mid-season Disco outings, it still dragged a bit for something so jam-packed with lore and revelations. Still, it provided a nice hour of entertainment, and possibly more with rewatches to catch up on the little details. The episode also continues the season’s welcome trend of weaving in the show’s own past, which makes it work better as a final season, even if they didn’t know that when they crafted it. Season 5 hits the halfway mark, and it’s still the best season yet, and hopefully the second half of the season will nail the landing.

Wait, we’re in this episode too? Anyone remember their lines?

• Like the previous episode, “Mirrors” began with a warning for flashing images.
• The episode is dedicated “to the loving memory of our friend Allan ‘Red’ Marceta ,” the lead set dresser who died in a motorcycle accident in 2022.  Presumably the USS Discovery bar “Red’s” was named in his honor.
• This is the first episode where Book’s personal log starts it off.
• Stardate: 866280.9
• Booker examined wanted notices for Moll from the Federation, Orion/Emerald Chain (who have a new logo), and the Andorian Empire.
• Tilly was able to reveal the wormhole by compensating for the “Lorentzian Coefficient,” referencing the real Lorentz Factor used in special relativity equations.
• A new ensign on the Discovery keeps a Cardassian vole as a pet.
• The ISS Enterprise was built at Tartarus Base, possibly referencing Tartarus Prime , from the TOS novel The Rings of Time .
• Moll refers to Breens as “bucketheads” (just as Reno did to Emerald Chain Regulators last episode). This could be a nod to the use of “ bucketheads ” in Star Wars as a derogatory term for stormtroopers.
• Moll’s mother died on Callor V in a mine for Rubindium , a substance first mentioned in TOS “Patterns of Force.”
• Linus can play the piano.
• Breen Primarchs may be a nod to the genetically engineered Primarchs from Warhammer 40,000 .
• How does Book know that Pike’s catchphrase is “Hit it”?
• This is the third (of five) season 5 episodes in which Oyin Oladejo and Emily Coutts do not appear, but their characters, Detmer and Owosekun, are mentioned when they get the honor of escorting the ISS Enterprise back to Starfleet HQ.
• Even though we didn’t see it warp away, presumably the missing intermix chamber was replaced, otherwise Owo and Detmer’s trip is going to take a very long time.
• Tilly says her long day makes her feel like she has been through a Gormangander’s digestive tract.

Remember when Mudd hid inside a Gormagander? Gross.

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

The fifth and final season of  Discovery debuted with two episodes on Thursday, April 4 exclusively on Paramount+  in the U.S., the UK, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Austria.  Discovery  will also premiere on April 4 on Paramount+ in Canada and will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. The rest of the 10-episode final season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays. Season 5 debuts on SkyShowtime in select European countries on April 5.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

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waste of ISS Enterprise

While I enjoyed the episode overall, the ISS Enterprise was a huge letdown and not even worth being an easter egg with what little they did with it. They should have just made it a generic constitution class ship from the mirror universe.

It felt like it was nothing more than a budget saver. Use existing sets from the other show. Which is weird because one of the arguments in favor of mini seasons is it allows more money to be spent.

That’s exactly what it felt like. Along with the missing, yet again, Detmer and Owosekun.

There must have been some deep budget cuts for the season.

Detmer and Owosekun were replaced by other characters so I don’t think they are missing for budget reasons. It’s more likely that the actresses were unavailable.

I get the budget issues considering what’s going on with the studio. But the end result was it showed that there isn’t much difference at all in the 900 years between the SNW Enterprise and the aesthetic of Star Trek Discovery. They both look as if they were set in the exact same era.

And there really shouldn’t be much. Discovery is from the same era, as the Enterprise. While the ship gets a technological upgrade, why would it get an interior design makeover?

Since it was deemed important (Stamets certainly makes since) that the crew stay on the Discovery, I would certainly think that psychologically having its design aesthetics stay similar to what it was would help give the crew a little bit of their past to hold on to, versus having all physical interactions be with a timeline that they aren’t native to.

Now where we should see it is in native places in this time. And we have seen some differences in design from standard Starfleet settings, versus Starfleet settings on this time (I actually wish we got more).

I did wish for a little more of self reflection from Burnham’s point of view as the ISS Enterprise should of course remind her of Spock (the Enterprise tie in), but also Georgiou (the ISS tie in). We get a small brief nod to Spock, but nothing to Georgiou (and while I still question the use of the character, there is no question that Burnham did have a connection with her, even if its primarily transference from her former Captain, not the mirror Universe Empress.

That’s always been my issue with Discovery.

Agreed. The last two episodes just felt very budgeted and basically bottle episodes. And this just felt like a twofer, a way to use an existing set and add a little fan service but that’s all it was. I thought the Enterprise itself was going to be a viral part of not just the episode but the story overall.

Instead it was just a backdrop. And yeah it’s obvious they cut the budget for this season but all the live action shows have felt this way starting with Picard season 3 and SNW season 2. That all felt pretty bare a lot of the times. I guess this was all during Paramount+ belt tightening and probably not a shock why the show was cancelled.

And maybe the I.S.S. Enterprise should have been the refit or maybe the Phase II Enterprise? That would have been a lot of fun but combine a lack of vision with a reduced budget and this is what you get.

Looking back on “In a Mirror: Darkly”, season 4 of Enterprise was dealing with a reduced budget but managed to recreate sets from TOS, introduced a few new set pieces and did a lot of great effects work.

This was a missed opportunity.

Which was added by stretching that story over two episodes, so that they had the budget to recreate the sets they used. Having half the episode count, doesn’t really help avail yourself to planning out a two parter for a way to save costs.

If Picard could pull off recreating the bridge of the Enterprise D for three days of shooting with barely half the budget of Discovery season 5, they could have done something equally as fun for Discovery on the cheap without actually having to building anything new and using the Enterprise as a crutch. They could have come across Deep Space Station K-7, where the exterior would have been immediately familiar and with interiors served by redressed sets from virtually anything available from Discovery or SNW.

I thought Discovery is basically the PII Enterprise?

The Phase II Enterprise looks like a slickly modified version of the Enterprise from TOS, falling squarely between the Enterprise from TOS and the refit. The “Star Trek: Phase II” fan series did a great job bringing it to screen.

No, Discovery resembles the Enterprise concept for the Planet of the Titans movie.

I don’t get that. I never assumed that the Enterprise (or its mIrror Universe history) was going to feature in significant manner (certainly the producers and promotional department didn’t make a significant deal about it). Perhaps it’s the time difference. But I literally assumed it would be as significant as the Defiant going in and out of phase like TOS “Tholian Web” the time difference. And that was primarily set dressing. That’s not a bad thing. I mean Tholian Web is considered one of the better third season episodes.

And the only reason I assumed it was the Enterprise versus another Connie, is simple to give Burnham a moment to reflect on Spock. Now I do freely admit that I wish this was a slightly larger moment. But I never expected it to be anything but a small moment. Roughly my preconceived notion would be something like Spock’s Mind Meld scene with La’an in SNW where she is able to get a peak into Spock thinking about his sister and the emotion that comes with it. It’s a very brief scene, but I thought SNW did a good job in conveying the emotional aspect, especially from a half Vulcan/ Half Human.

Ok fair enough. This is probably more my hang up and to be fair since they never really promoted the the Enterprise being back then clearly they weren’t trying to make it that big of a deal.

But same time a lot of people do feel there could’ve been more done. The main problem is it just feels like a ridiculous stretch this ship itself is even there. It’s a ship from 900 years ago from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE that conveniently happens to be the ship that gives them their next clue. I know it’s Star Trek so whatever lol. But when you go through the effort to present it I think it would’ve nice to build a bigger story around it. It could’ve just been any ship.

When you feel like the Mirror Universe has been nothing but a let down after the initial TOS episode, It’s really not a surprise. There’s really nowhere to go with it, but I did find that the fulfilling of the promise that Prime Kirk spoke to Mirror Spock about from the original TOS episode quite satisfying. The ship’s inhabitants embraced the benevolence of the prime universe, and I thought that was great.

I felt the idea that the MU people just easily adapted was pretty ridiculous. But then, they admitted SNW was an alternate timeline. It’s not a stretch that alternate extends to all the Secret Hideout productions.

I’m not sure I would feel the same about Picard given it depicts the Prime events of ST:2009. The others tho yeah I think of it that way too. Although The Chase does make that harder to swallow about DISCO

I liked the MU in DS9. It was fun to revisit and a great reminder of the Prime Directive. But… after that it got tiresome.

It was pretty benign there, but the problem with it, is finding it plausible. It was a fun idea in the 1960’s, and it had a good message. After that, it an indulgence. The notion that that the same people would even exist in the same fundamental places, and that the same ships would exist with virtually the same crew just seems like too much of a stretch even for modern Star Trek.

That’s my only complaint about this episode. Seeing the tantalus field show up would have been really cool. When Michael talked about how she was sure that Mirror Spock was a savage just like the other Terrans, I was sure that we would see a recording or something of Ethan Peck in a goatee to prove her wrong. Or flashbacks with Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley as their mirror counterparts would have also been cool.

All the stuff with the Breen and Mol and Lak was really cool though.

“ waste of ISS Enterprise” should be the official episode description.

waste of series

They ate Mirror Saru in season one…

Was that Saru or another Kelpian? It’s been a while since I watched Season 1, but I recall Mirror Saru saving Burnham from Tyler just as Voq’s personality re-emerged. I know Mirror Georgiou served Burnham some Kelpian, I just didn’t remember it being Mirror Saru.

Mirror Saru saved Michael from Tyler in The Wolf Inside, which was the episode that preceded the one in which they ate the food made from a Kelpien (Vaulting Ambition).

Looking at Memory Alpha now, it says that the chosen Kelpien ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVQSipQlJR8 ) was played by someone other than Doug Jones, but they look so much alike that I thought for sure she had chosen Mirror Saru.

As per Memory Alpha, we never saw him again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Nope, that was another Kelpien.

“They ate Mirror Saru in season one…”

They didn’t.

Wasn’t Mirror Saru established as having survived in Season 3 (can’t remember the episode name).

A s per Memory Alpha, we never saw Mirror Saru again after The Wolf Inside until season three, but that was in the alternate timeline Carl sent Georgiu to, so it wasn’t the same Mirror Saru.

Loved this episode. I liked seeing the I.S.S Enterprise though i would of loved to of seen maybe a video log of Mirror Spock.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

I enjoyed seeing Book/Burnham trying to get through to Moll/L’ak and i hope they can eventually get through to them. With this season about connections and 2nd chances i can see Book and Burnham talking both of them down before they do something that they can’t come back from.

The shot of the I.S.S Enterprise coming out of the ‘wormhole’ is probably one of my favorite CGI scene in all of Trek.

I’m glad they didn’t. I think the conceit of using the I.S.S. Enterprise was not much more than a budgetary decision to be able to use the sets. Could have made it a different constitution class, but then they don’t get to tell the story of the crew’s transformation into our society. Just don’t think about it too much.. because that universe is just pushing out its own doppelgängers into our universe.. which seems problematic. lol.

As a big fan of DS9 I’m glad we finally get to see what a breen looks like and the 32nd century breen outfits look great.

Any kind of big reveal was bound to be disappointing, I suppose. Still, the idea that they were just another latex alien was a letdown. I had always hoped that the Breen were gaseous or plasma creatures.

Ethan Peck with a goatee would have been EPIC

“This is the way.” 😉

But seriously that was a pretty good episode. I’d like to see a 31st century restored Terran empire that never went through “the burn.”

“ The reveal that L’ak is a Breen was a surprise ”

It really wasn’t, though. That was many viewers’ guess since the beginning of the season, and it’s been a common discussion on many websites. The surprise would have been if he HADN’T been a Breen.

I am on a lot of other sites and I haven’t heard anyone thinking he was Breen. And I don’t believe anyone voiced that in Trekmovie either.

LOL. It’s been a common theory.

Obviously not THAT common. LOL

I’ve seen the theory mentioned in the comments here on TrekMovie.

Yes, quite common from what I’ve been reading. I just commented on this very site a couple weeks back that I liked the idea, when somebody else theorized it (forget who it was)!

I guess it’s just where you go for these discussions but yeah the first YouTube review of episode one I saw theorized Lak was a Breen in the first scene he was in when he took off his helmet. And this was obviously before the species was mentioned on the show.

So yeah some people caught on the first episode the way others theorized Tyler was Voq the first time he showed up. Others needed more convincing.

I never saw it but I certainly don’t read the majority of comments. And almost never watch video reviews. Now Voq, was something I remember seeing in many places. Though in fairness, the amount of conjecture done about any Trek series for its Pilot and early couple episodes has been in my experience far more than what you see for most regular episodes. So that shouldn’t;t surprise me.

It was a surprise to me.

The Breen being so ordinary looking was a bit of a surprise.

Well, one of their forms are. It explains the frozen wasteland/tropical paradise. Their “evovled” form needs cryo suits, their “normal form” doesn’t

Was a surprise to me. Then again, I don’t run around the internet and over analyze the show.

This season started out so well. What happened? It’s falling apart.

I hate to a agree. But its once again a long slow burn (pardon the bun) that I fear is going to lead to another whimper of a conclusion. I feel like the season could have been a movie instead. Where is Chapel?!

Wrong show. Chapel is on SNW. The ending was rewritten and new scenes were shot to make it a series finale. They had already started shooting when they got the word that it was ending after season 5.

presumably on Her show, SNW?

“pardon the bun” …🍔⁉️

What’d that poor bun do for it to be in need of a pardon? 😋

This is what happens in every single season of Discovery. Two lovers who want to destroy the galaxy so they can get to paradise was the plot of season four, and now they are recycling the exact same plot for this season.

Did you watch the show. In no seasons has two lovers wanted to destroy the galaxy….Period. L’ak and Moll want to pay off their bounty. Nothing about what they are doing is about wanting to destroy the galaxy.

Outside of the destruction caused by the aliens referred to as 10-C, did any character want to destroy the galaxy let alone a couple. The only couple we had, was one person wanting peaceful means of communication to prevent destruction, while the other wanted to use force to ensure the destruction doesn’t occur. In no case does that equal people wanting to destroy a galaxy.

I can understand not liking the show, but to have such a misconstrued concept of the plot of the seasons shows a shocking lack of basic understanding of what the plot and motivations of the characters are.

I mean the show has plenty that one can find legitimate issues with. Thats not one of them.

They want to pay their bounty by giving a weapon of potential mass destruction to the Breen, thus destroying the galaxy, as seen in the time jumps last episode. They want to do that so they can escape to the Gamma Quadrant while the Breen take apart the Alpha Quadrant.

Last season the scientist wanted to let the 10-C species bulldoze the Alpha Quadrant so he could get across the galactic barrier to meet his lover in paradise, without caring what happened to trillions of other lives.

It is the same basic plot point. Your analysis is incorrect, Wood.

I think you’re overreacting a little. As always.

This episode was disappointing and fell flat. The return of the ISS Enterprise from the mirror universe was of no interest. I had hoped to possibility see a video log from Kirk, Spock, or another familiar character. Why not explore other Constitution Class Starships like the ISS Lexington, Hood, or Potemkin? Enterprise, Enterprise, Enterprise. (Sigh)

Maybe cause the enterprise is the trek ship pretty much everyone knows even if they are a new trek fan or a casual trek fan or not even a trek fan it is so engrained and intertwined with the name Star Trek that is why they chose to make it the iss enterprise instead of one of the others you mentioned

Because exploring a random ship isn’t the plot of the episode. It’s basically set dressing. Having it be the Enterprise versus a different Connie, gives it a tie to the lead character and part of her family she left behind. That it sorry wise. Another ship wouldn’t have any emotion aspect to the characters. Now production wise its to save a ton of money, as creating a random ship with multiple settings to take use of takes money (if your trying to give it the same level of production that you see for the primary ship). Now of course they could have just created a redress of an existing set to be random alien ship of the week. Those usually aren’t done to the same level of using the existing bridge set of another show. So it serves a small story purpose (ie a setting), it serves a small character purpose *reflection for Burnham, and it serves a production purpose (having high quality set pieces without having to build or do a serious redress and thus saving some money).

Seems rather obvious, to me.

I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. I assume that the actors are absent because Paramount wanted to pay them less, and that’s poor treatment for characters who have been around since practically the beginning of the series.

“ I’m annoyed by what they seem to be doing with Owosekun and Detmer this season. ”

…as opposed to the previous four seasons, when all they did was sit in chairs and look meaningfully at each other?

Which is all Sulu and Chekov do in the average TOS episode. So yes, it’s aggravating for them to be replaced by other actors who are doing the same thing.

I doubt they are paid exorbitantly as recurring guests. It could be similar to what happened in season 4 and Bryce Ronnie Rowe Jr’s absences – he had another gig.

I have a theory that before it was decided that Disco would be cancelled, they were going to replace some of the characters. I think Owosekun and Detmer were going to be replaced, and also that Rayner would become captain and Burnham would go away to do something else. But then that didn’t work out, and so to us it just makes no sense why those two main characters are suddenly missing.

You might be right — I hadn’t considered that revamps due to cancellation might be involved.

Well… It is what it is . This was easily the worst episode of the 5. Tropes galore and really bad plot contrivances.

It feels like the reshoots for when they got the cancelation news are getting dropped in throughout the season. A lot of scenes appear grossly out of place. It feels like they just aren’t even trying anymore to be honest. As flawed as the show has been one thing that never came across among the other problems was a lack of trying.

I am loving the addition of Rayner and the professional Starfleet officer energy he is bringing to the ship. I also liked when he told Burnham the mission was too dangerous for the captain to go on. He is turning out to be a nice counterbalance to the unusual way Discovery has been run as a Starfleet ship after season 2.

I hope he doesn’t get killed off.

Sorry but this was another big fat ‘meh’ for me. This was very very disappointing. Nothing of consequence happened. We learn Mol and Lak backstory basically and it is cool we learn that Lak is a Breen which has been the leading theory since he showed up but it just felt sooo bare overall. Like another Discovery infamous spinning wheel episode where they do the bare minimum to move the plot along but just through a lot of action scenes and inconsequential dialogue to feel like we were getting any real development.

And the biggest elephant in the room (or dimensional wormhole) was the ISS Enterprise. Such a let down. It almost felt like a gimmick or just shoehorned fan service. There was no real reason it needed to be there other than HEY THE ENTERPRISE IS BACK!

Again one of the problems with this show, no real development just there for another connection. Think about what they did with In a Mirror Darkly on Enterprise. They brought in the Defiant as obvious fan service from TOS but the ship had a very vital part to the story. It helped changed the dynamics of the MU. It wasn’t there just for show like this was. And Anthony made a great point the redress felt like a joke. It just felt like an excuse to use the set but little else.

Here it was nothing more than just a backdrop and a really forced one at that. And the whole Saru thing just felt very contrived.

I did like all the Breen stuff though and hopefully they will be the big bad the rest of the season. I still think they should’ve used the Breen as the main villain for SNW instead of the Gorn but I digress.

But yeah this is probably the weakest one for me which is disappointing since last week is my favorite so far. I’m getting a little nervous now. It’s usually the second half of the season this show begins to falls apart but still open minded. Still enjoying it overall but please don’t end up a tedious bore like last season felt once it got to its mid season.

You have one last chance Discovery, make it count!

I never considered the Breen in SNW before, but that’s a cool idea. Yeah, I would’ve liked that much more than the Gorn.

For me it was literally the first Gorn episode I thought the Breen would’ve been a better idea. You get the same type of stories and it doesn’t feel like it’s breaking any canon like the Gorn obviously does. I ranted enough about it but nothing about their appearance on SNW feels remotely canon anymore.

But the Breen could’ve been a great substitute if they wanted a known species not named Klingons and zero canon issues.

Agreed. I always enjoyed the mysterious quality of the Breen. Seems ripe for exploration.

This season is largely working for me. Not as good as last week, but the chase is enjoyable. I have a little trouble buying that Mol and L’ak fell in love so fast. I would have liked to have seen that handled better.. but the slow burn of the plot works because of what they do to sustain individual episodes. Only episode I thought was kind of wasteful was the one on Trill.

That is a big part of the problem, yes. The characters have little chemistry.

The flashbacks took [place over an extended period of time, it wasnt THAT fast

They both felt like outcasts in their family/society, fusing them together like lightning. I had no problem with that as it gave me a Bonnie & Clyde-vibe which is historical.

It’s fine, but the romance piece just isn’t clicking for me.

Tarka was a similar situation last season with the reveal of his motivation not really moving me, but I’m also not the biggest fan of waiting several episodes to fill in a lot of backstory in a flashback. It’s not easy to pull off, and Discovery hasn’t really perfected it.

It’s a wonder I stuck with Lost as long as I did, now that I think about it.

“ it’s still the best season yet ”

Well, it was for the first two episodes, but the three since then have been a downward spiral. Seasons one and two were much better than this week’s episode and last week’s.

I’ve enjoyed it all except for the Trill episode. I think it’s been fun with a faster pace.. which has helped with a lot of issues that haven’t gone away. Raynor has been a very welcome addition to the cast.

Overall, very entertaining!

For complaints: any other constitution ship would be cool – but I also feel like we don’t know what happens next – there could be some Prime Mirror Universe people out there. & the “hit it!” joke felt like Dad was in the writer’s room.

Otherwise, I the pairings felt very TOS. Rayner is a little bit Serious Scotty when performing a captain’s role. And he took pride in rescuing her – which is feels good.

For me, this season has been 5/5.

Personal Log. Stardate: Today.

Week 4 of not-watching Discovery continues without incident. Opinions gleaned from critics on the latest episode seem to confirm that ‘mid-season malaise’ has been reached right on schedule.

Based on the collective opinion of commentators, there have been a grand total of one episode out of five that qualifies as “actually good”.

In conclusion, it appears the decision to not-watch until the penultimate episode has been vindicated. The plot points I am privy to following the one episode I watched are:

– There is a chase (or ‘The Chase 2.0’) for the Holy Grail / the technological marvel Salmone Jens left behind.

– The Cylon is now the First Officer.

– The Trill and the Robot are no longer together.

All in all, I remain confident that the recap at the beginning of the penultimate episode should be sufficient to fill in all the key points required.

Again, my thanks go out to the resolute souls who manage to endure what I could not.

these threads are for people to talk about the episodes they have seen. CLOSED.

Am I wrong or did the DS9 episode Through the Looking Glass make a reference to the Mirror Spock being on Romulus? Also given all the DS9 cross overs with the Mirror Universe you would think Burnham would have known something more about her brother’s counterpart.

Spock was not mentioned in Through the Looking Glass. We know between Crossover and the new dedication plaque of the ISS Enterprise that he reformed the Terran Empire and was killed for it. Burnham has clearly boned up on a lot of info since coming to this century, but easy to assume the future history of the mirror universe wasn’t part of that. Also, that info could have been lost or been classified.

Wow! The Breen. From CGI to burn victim.

Does anybody think the Commander Rainer is gonna become the Commandant of Starfleet Academy?

Everything involving Book is incredibly tedious. They brought back the ISS Enterprise as a way to resurrect the OG Enterprise in continuity. Perhaps it ends up as the Enterprise Q or whatever, if Saru is in command then ok. Burnham insisting on going on the away mission is diametrically opposed to how TNG dealt with this – e.g., when Riker as captain insisted on boarding the Borg cube in Best of Both Worlds, and his senior officers reminded him his place was on the bridge. I guess everyone got much dumber in the 32nd century, but “dumber” is Discovery’s whole concept.

This post missed an important Easter egg towards the end: Morn was at the bar “Red’s” just like he did on Quark’s on DS9.

We don’t call out or find every little egg, but when the bar was introduced last season we noted the Lurian (Morn’s species), who has been there ever since. We don’t usually do repeated easter egg bits for each episode

Yay! Good seeing the Breen again and their evolved design in the 32nd Century is great.

Boo! Pretty much everything else except Rayner who is the best character in the show.

Imagine they used the Star Trek: Tour set in Trekonderoga for the ISS Enterprise? What a cool surprise that would have been. But nope, we got the generic canon-breaking Discoprise. Not surprised.

I swear if they make the new Enterprise in the 3190s a refitted Constitution, I will facepalm. Just a stupid idea, when you have far superior tech and designs in the future time period. Please don’t, Disco-writers. Bad enough they did it with the Ent-G (one of my few criticisms of the great PIC S3).

Would it have been too much if Dr. Cho was instead Marlena Moreau? Just saying. Kind of like Dax in Jinaal… I feel like they are making all of these deep cuts, why not make them count a bit more to the overall lore, instead of just throwing the ISS Enterprise in with no good reason. Making these deep cuts actually count towards the overall lore might make the obvious (potential) budget cuts, set reuses, etc. be a bit more forgiving. Giving loved characters some finality that affect the course of this in our face galactic scale quest… might make it hit harder? Maybe I’m wrong, I’m sure someone here will think so lol

Overall the episode was okay. I do understand using the ISS Enterprise since this is supposed to be the final season of Discovery it was a nostalgia play and kind of wrap up the history of that ship in regards to the series. But overall it just seems kind of mashed together. Have to see how it ties in with the rest of the season.

I would say this episode along with the one before it were definitely the weakest of the season. They started out with a bang on the first few, and while I know that they tend to slow down in the middle of the season before ramping up the action for the final few, this episode dragged. There were also a few things with the Breen and the Enterprise that seemed a bit confusing:

– The Breen have 2 faces…great! Awesome twist to the species and fantastic to finally be able to see them after all the mystery around them in DS9. If the second face is supposed to be the more evolved one though, why do they need the masks and the suits? Can the more evolved face not breathe in a standard atmosphere? When L’ak and his uncle opened up their masks, they seemed fine, so there’s still quite a bit we don’t know about why they use that whole setup, especially when they’re around their own people

– Does the more evolved form extend past the face?

ISS Enterprise

– The stardate on the commemorative plaque is 32336.6. Popping that number into a couple of online stardate calculators puts that around mid-2355, which would be a few years before the prime universe Enterprise-D was commissioned in 2363. They mentioned that Dr. Cho came back to the Enterprise to hide the clue, so the assumption is that she also placed the plaque there at the same time. The timing doesn’t quite add up though because The Chase took place in 2369. Nobody would have known about The Progenitors or their technology before that, so they were at least 14 years off with the plaque

– If this Enterprise has been caught in extradimensional space since at least 2355, that means it’s been there for over 800 years by the time it’s discovered. How does it still have power?

– It’s been discussed by the Disco production team that the Discovery-era Enterprise was designed so that it could eventually be refit into the TOS Enterprise. The ISS Enterprise was contemporary with Kirk’s version and was seen on screen in TOS in that configuration. Why is the version in this episode the Discovery one? I know the real-world explanation is that it was easier to just re-use that model to align with the sets, but we saw a TOS-era Constitution class USS New Jersey at the Fleet Museum in Picard, so they had that model available to use. Just a bit sloppy

– How did Stamets immediately know that the ship exiting the wormhole was the ISS Enterprise and not a different prime Constitution class ship?

Photon Torpedo

– The solution to hold the wormhole open for the Enterprise to escape was to remove the payload from the torpedoes and replace them with antimatter. Photon torpedoes are matter/antimatter weapons, so this is a little confusing. Are they taking out the matter and just loading them with more antimatter?

I don’t know that it’s been there for 855 years.. not sure if it’s kind of like the Nexus or the black hole in Trek 09, where time does things differently. My guess is, that’s how the people on board were able to integrate into society. Their doppelgängers were long deceased.

Here’s the other thing… if the idea of revolution started with Mirror Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise more or less went along with him.. this is a way of explaining how they didn’t spread the idea to teh rest of the Empire.. they were lost in space and didn’t have much, if any, influence off of their own ship.

But they did spread the idea enough to weaken the empire to the point where it could be conquered.

Yeah I was wondering that also. It’s possible since it was extradimensional space that it didn’t put them in exactly the same time that they left. Also odd that they said Dr. Cho went BACK to the Enterprise to hide the clue. That’s a pretty risky trip unless the wormhole was more stable back in the 24th century.

It is strongly implied, if not explicitly stated, that the wormhole’s instability was caused by the Burn. So, it had to be more stable in the 24th century.

I feel like I’m seeing the same episode over and over, what a waste this series is became.

Great episode! This season has really been fantastic so far. The writing has been consistent, the acting of the principals is fantastic, and the pacing has been great.

I really loved the scenes with Rayner in command. That worked so well!

Loved getting the backstory about Moll and L’ak – it really did add layers to their characters and their story. And the reveal that L’ak was a Breen! I never saw that coming! Was great to know more about the most underdeveloped and mysterious alien race in Trek history.

Seeing the ISS Entreprise was a treat! I am guessing it was lost quite some time after mirror Spock took over from mirror Kirk. Nice Easter Egg… better than having some unknown ship in there.

Looking forward to the remaining episodes.

Did anyone else see “Morn” (or one of his species) sitting at the bar in Red’s?

Yes, I did catch that. It was a fun detail.

Seriously, an episode doesn’t go by without at least one eye roll over the touchy feely huggy share my feeling vibe that is shoe-horned into worst places. I wonder what this series would be like if Bryan Fuller had stayed on…

It would had been .. a Star Trek show, not this happy sad feeling sharing at all costs every single time somebody speaks.

I have a question because I’m really confused:

So discovery originally was set less than a decade before ToS. (And then they ended up far in the future)

The ISS enterprise is a reference to the ToS episode about the mirror universe. So that means the ISS enterprise is a contemporary with ToS and the USS enterprise, which means Dr Cho (who was expressly stated to be Terran) was about back in Kirk’s day.

However the progenitor technology and science in general was only discovered in TNG under Picard and i think it was expressly stated that the scientists that hid this research were originally asked to research it after the discovery by Picard in the first place.

TNG is set in the 24th century but ToS is set in the 23rd century – theirs about a hundred years between them.

So I’m trying to understand the timeline here because at the moment, from what I understand, it’s a human from the 23rd century somehow became a scientist on a study in the late 24th century and then stole the research and helped hide it with her 4 pals.

I thought for sure the Real Captain Lorca would be found in the transporters.

What a waste of an episode… filler and feelings…. Rinse and repeat

What an empty, disappointing episode. Discovery feels smaller and smaller every season.

George Takei Coming to Campus as a Montgomery Fellow

The Star Trek actor-turned-activist will be visiting in early May.

A Q&A With Film Critic and Theorist Vinzenz Hediger

Actor, activist, social media celebrity, and writer George Takei will be on campus from May 2 to 4 as a Montgomery Fellow.

Takei, who first gained fame portraying Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series, will visit with writing and theater students and meet with student members of the Asian American Pacific Islander and LGBTQ communities.

He will also appear as a guest speaker at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Dartmouth Asian Pacific American Alumni Association and receive an award from the Dartmouth Film Society. 

On May 2 at 4:30 pm, Takei will give a talk at the Hanover Inn entitled, From Internment to Stardom . The talk is free and open to the public. 

“It is a great privilege for me to welcome my fellow Angeleno to Hanover, and I have every expectation that George Takei will inspire our students and alumni today the way Sulu inspired me when I watched Star Trek in the late 1960s and the way George inspires me now with his fierce advocacy for justice on this planet,” says Steve Swayne , the Jacob H. Strauss 1922 Professor of Music and director of the Montgomery Fellows Program . 

The Montgomery Fellows program brings luminaries to campus for a variety of activities benefiting students and faculty, housing the fellows at Montgomery House on Occom Pond.

George Takei is someone who has blazed a trail in terms of uplifting voices and stories. He has dedicated his life to social justice.

After Star Trek , which aired from 1966 to 1969, Takei appeared in television shows, commercials, as a voiceover actor, in feature films, on stage, and in reality television, including as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice , and became increasingly known as a writer and activist.

He is the author of six books, including a 1994 autobiography, a 2019 graphic novel about his Japanese American family’s experiences in internment camps during World War II, and a just-published book for kids aged six to nine entitled My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story . Takei was just 4 when his family was taken from their Los Angeles home by U.S. authorities; they wound up detained in an internment camp in Arkansas for four years.

Takei became involved in California politics in the 1970s, serving as an alternate delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention. He ran unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles City Council and was appointed to the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

After coming out as gay in 2005, Takei became a passionate activist for the rights of LGBTQ Americans, fighting for marriage equality and using his large social media following to advocate—often in humorous and viral posts and tweets— for change and for the civil rights of marginalized people. He and his husband, Brad Altman, married in 2008.

While on campus, Takei will also be speaking at the 25th anniversary of DAPAAA in a fireside chat on May 4, says reunion co-chair Belinda Chiu ’98. Chiu says that she was thrilled to help bring Takei to campus through the Montgomery Fellows Program to coincide with the 25th anniversary reunion, which will feature a robust roster of lectures, discussion, and social and networking events.

“This is really a momentous milestone,” says Chiu about the 25th anniversary. “There is still a lack of representation for many within the AANHPI community, and George Takei is someone who has blazed a trail in terms of uplifting voices and stories. He has dedicated his life to social justice, particularly for the AANHPI and LGBTQ communities, and brings an awareness of history and hope to new generations. He lives the work.”

During his visit to Hanover, Takei will be receiving the Dartmouth Film Award. Started in 1979, the award has been presented to actors and filmmakers who have made significant contributions in the world of motion pictures, from Robert Redford and Mira Nair to Meryl Streep and Werner Herzog.

Johanna Evans ’10 , head of film and media for the Hopkins Center for the Arts , says that the society will present the award to Takei “for the effortless authenticity he brings to characters who defy stereotypes, for boundless creativity in a variety of art forms, and for consistently leveraging his platform to galvanize a new generation of activists.” 

“In all of his performances, Takei brings gravity and dignity to his characters, without losing the ability to round out their humanity with joy and humor,” Evans says.

  Sarah Taylor can be reached at [email protected] .

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George Takei: making Sulu gay in new Star Trek is 'really unfortunate'

Actor who played the character in TV series calls retrofitted sexuality – intended as a tribute to his LGBT activism – ‘a twisting of Gene Roddenberry’s creation’

George Takei, the actor who played helmsman Sulu in the original Star Trek TV series, has expressed scepticism about the decision to make Sulu openly gay in the new movie Star Trek Beyond .

The move, announced by new Sulu actor John Cho on Thursday, was intended by writer Simon Pegg as a doff of the cap to Takei’s pioneering work for gay rights.

In response, however, Takei told that Hollywood Reporter that, far from being touched, he had urged Pegg and his team to rethink the decision, fearing that the sudden move did not honour the character as he was originally created, and sent a dubious message about whether people can suddenly change sexuality.

“I’m delighted that there’s a gay character,” said Takei. “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s creation, into which he put so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”

Takei said that he had expressed his concerns immediately on hearing of the plot development, which involves the revelation that, as well as a daughter, Sulu has a same-sex partner.

The actor reportedly encouraged the film-makers to be “imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted”.

Takei said he then appealed to the director, Justin Lin, citing the fact the film comes out 50 years after Gene Roddenberry first created the Star Trek world, and appealing to them to “honour him and create a new character”.

But although Takei was “left feeling that that was going to happen”, he then received an email from Pegg which explained that the development was meant in tribute, which Takei took to mean his concerns had not been listened to.

“And I thought to myself: ‘How wonderful! It’s a fan letter from Simon Pegg. Justin had talked to him!’ … I was kind of confused. He thinks I’m a great guy? Wonderful. But what was the point of that letter? I interpreted that as my words having been heard.”

The Guardian has contacted Pegg, Lin and Cho for comment.

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Anton Yelchin, new Star Trek's Chekov, dies in freak accident

The 27-year-old, who played Chekov in the Star Trek reboot films, dies after being pinned by his own car.

• Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.

Anton Yelchin, aka Star Trek's Pavel Chekov, arrives on the red carpet at the LA premiere of "Star Trek" in 2009. The actor died on Sunday.

Anton Yelchin, the actor known for playing Chekov in the recent series of Star Trek reboot films, died in a freak accident in Los Angeles early Sunday morning.

Left to right: Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as Kirk, John Cho as Sulu.

Yelchin, 27, was killed when his

Friends found Yelchin after he failed to show up for a scheduled rehearsal, Houser said.

The Russian-born actor played Pavel Chekov in 2009's " Star Trek " and 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness," as well as in " Star Trek Beyond ," due out later this year.

Yelchin's Star Trek colleagues took to Twitter on Sunday to express their sorrow, including actors John Cho and Zachary Quinto, who play Sulu and Spock, respectively, "Star Trek Beyond" director Justin Lin and "Star Trek" and "Star Trek Into Darkness" director J.J. Abrams (by way of his production company, Bad Robot):

Update, 12:23 p.m. PT: Adds information from the LAPD; adds Cho's tweet. 12:42: Adds tweets from Lin and Quinto. 1:30: Adds Bad Robot tweet of J.J. Abrams' note.

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Historic Timeline: Star Trek’s LGBTQ History

Published by Erica Leff on April 17, 2024 April 17, 2024

Star Trek’s LGBTQ History

I chose to make a timeline regarding one of my favorite things,  Star Trek . It has a messy but increasingly positive history with LGBTQ issues. I would break  Star Trek ‘s LGBTQ history into 3 “eras”:

• The Original Series Era (1966-1987), where there’s no real depictions onscreen of LGBTQ issues, although fans in the late ’60s started writing Kirk/Spock fan fiction because of the characters’ relationship subtext. This is the start of the “slashfic” subgenre of fan fiction, depicting male/male relationships.
• The Reboot Era (1987-2016), where the shows  The Next Generation ,  Deep Space Nine ,  Voyager , and  Enterprise  are released, as well as the TOS reboot movies Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). During this time,  Star Trek occasionally touched on issues of gender and sexuality and were usually slightly ahead of the times on these issues. There is a lot of gay subtext in this era, as well as the controversial first female/female kiss in 1995.
• The Second Reboot Era (2016-present), starting with Star Trek Beyond , the third reboot movie, where this version of Hikaru Sulu is revealed to be gay. After this, we get the shows  Discovery ,  Picard ,  Lower Decks ,  Prodigy , and  Strange New Worlds . Here we get explicitly LGBTQ characters and stories.

It should be noted that for decades, actors playing  Star Trek  captains and other characters voiced their desire for more representation. Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer on  Enterprise , said “I haven’t heard anything coming down the pipeline, but I would be in favor of it. … It would be wonderful … if it was not such a huge issue, but was just there” (Starr, 2002). Fifteen years later, LGBTQ characters became a regular part of the  Star Trek  universe. While  Star Trek  is known for always having been a progressive franchise, the lack of true LGBTQ representation until after  the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States is troubling.

Initially, when making this timeline, I simply found photos of the most important scenes. I realized that images on Imgur don’t upload very well into TimelineJS, so I decided to find videos on YouTube, which also made more sense, since a video can tell more of a story than a still image. I included the Original Series Era to make it visually clear where the eras begin and end, despite not including any points in time from that era. The timeline’s large gaps speak volumes about how afraid  Star Trek  and its owner, Paramount, were about including LGBTQ representation. I had a little trouble getting my timeline to work because I misunderstood the “publish to web” step. I thought I had to click out of window and copy the URL from the published version, not the spreadsheet itself. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, it worked perfectly.

Starr, M. (2002, January 17). Starr report.  New York Post .

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Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery season 5 reveals fate of mirror universe saru.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 contained some big reveals and connections to the Mirror Universe, including the fate of Mirror Saru.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 - "Mirrors"

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 provided closure to the show's Mirror Universe storyline, including the fate of Mirror Saru
• Mirror Universe Saru played a crucial role in the Terran resistance and helped commandeer the ISS Enterprise to safety in the Prime Universe.
• Mirror Saru's positive actions contrast with the usual evil versions of Star Trek's other Mirror Universe counterparts.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 revealed the fate of Mirror Universe Saru (Doug Jones). Written by Johanna Lee and Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan, Discovery season 5, episode 5 , "Mirrors" saw Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) confront Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) when all four became stranded on the Terran ISS Enterprise while searching for the next clue to the Progenitor's technology. Discovery didn't actually return to the Mirror Universe in "Mirrors," but setting the episode on the Terran Enterprise in a pocket of interdimensional space was the next best thing.

Given how closely Discovery season 1 was tied to the Mirror Universe, it seems only fitting that the show's final season should reference it in some way. "Mirrors" provided that reference in spades, with the appearance of the Enterprise and the story of how it crossed over into the Prime timeline. Along the way, Discovery revealed what happened to some major players in the Terran Empire, including the fate of Mirror Saru , who was surprisingly instrumental in the episode despite not appearing.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Mirror universe saru in star trek: discovery explained, saru played some interesting roles in the mirror universe.

Although Mirror Saru's role was minimal in Discovery seasons 1 and 3, "Mirrors" revealed that he went on to play an integral role in the Terran resistance and was instrumental in getting the ISS Enterprise and its complement of Terran refugees to safety . Mirror Saru first appeared on Discovery in season 1, episode 11, "The Wolf Inside" where the Prime Universe Michael Burnham met him as her Imperial Slave. Although Saru had no name when they met, Michael decided to call him after his Prime counterpart, and he later saved her life when she was attacked by Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) after his Voq personality manifested.

Unlike many Mirror and Prime Universe counterparts, Mirror Saru was a good person and not simply an evil version of his Prime self.

Mirror Saru played a larger role in the Discovery season 3 two-parter "Terra Firma," where he became the servant of Emperor Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) who had crossed back to the Mirror Universe via the Guardian of Forever (Paul Guilfoyle). Georgiou took Saru into her confidence, saving his life by telling him the truth about Vahar'ai, which demonstrated how much she had changed thanks to her time in the Prime Universe. It wasn't made clear if Georgiou's experiences due to the Guardian had altered the timeline , but Discovery season 5's reveals about Mirror Saru seem to suggest that they did.

What Happened To Mirror Universe Saru In Star Trek: Discovery

"mirrors" revealed that saru survived after his early season appearances.

Thanks to Michael and Book's adventure on the ISS Enterprise, Discovery revealed that Mirror Saru became a rebel leader in the Terran Empire after the High Chancellor, Spock, was executed for trying to enact reforms. A plaque on the Enterprise found by Book during "Mirrors" discussed how a Kelpian former slave-turned-rebel helped the Enterprise crew and a group of refugees commandeer the ship and get to safety in the Prime Universe while he stayed behind to continue his work as a rebellion leader. Although the Kelpian wasn't named on the plaque, Michael and Book inferred that it was Mirror Saru.

Given where Discovery left Mirror Saru's storyline, it isn't surprising to learn that he became a prominent rebellion member . This ties in with what the Guardian of Forever told Georgiou after her experiences in "Terra Firma;" that her saving Saru would allow him to go on to save others, having a positive effect on the timeline. "Mirrors" finally showed that effect, and helped Star Trek: Discovery close some other chapters on Star Trek 's Mirror Universe . Including a reference to Mirror Saru was a smart move for the episode as well, given Prime Saru's reduced role in season 5.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

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Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.