Star Trek Star Defends Controversial New Character After Backlash
There is a huge backlash going on over Star Trek: Starfleet Academy introducing a new character, but one star isn’t letting it rest. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has introduced the first new generation of Starfleet cadets in over a century. The main basis of the series is watching these cadets train to become officers and come of age. There are also several returning stars, including Robert Picardo as the Doctor, Mary Wiseman as Sylvia, and Tig Notaro as Jett Reno. Among the new characters is one that has polarized fans and caused a severe backlash, with Gina Yashere playing Starfleet instructor Lura Thok, who is a Jem’Hadar.
However, this Jem’Hadar is a female and is also half Klingon, which has many fans angry that the show is breaking lore. Yashere’s character is the first female Jem’Hadar depicted on-screen, and fans are not being quiet about their anger at the decision. However, when Gina Yashere spoke with Robert Picardo, she didn’t hold back on her thoughts about the controversy.
Yashere posted the video response on Instagram, and she had a lot to say. In the caption, she wrote, “Who watched @startrek #starfleetacademy yesterday? I think the entire cast is a damn good mix! We #woke as hell over here! So #woke. Incredible woke. Woker than woke. Wokey woke woke. A cacophony of woke.”
In the video, she went even further. Yashere spoke about how Star Trek altered lore with the change, and she and Picardo explained how ridiculous that statement is. “I had no idea of the history when I got the role because I wasn’t a Trekkie,” Yashere said in the video. She said her brother, who is a Trekkie, explained the history and how there are no Jem’Hadar women because they weren’t meant to procreate. She then saw the online discussion. “Half of them are like, ‘This is impossible. There are no female Jem’Hadar and she’s not addicted to White. What is happening?’ And then some people were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re intrigued to see how this happened. We’re excited.’ The arguments between the two camps. So, it’s definitely going to be iconic one way ot the other.”
Image Courtesy of Paramount
The best part of the discussion came when Robert Picardo made a very good point that no one else was talking about. “A reminder to Star Trek fans. If you can genetically engineer the Jem’Hadar in the 21st century, you can change them in the intervening 800 years in the 32nd century. You can genetically modify them. It’s not a big deal.”
From the sound of it, the Jem’Hadar were able to produce female individuals by hybridizing with other species, such as the Klingons. Many Klingons often looked down on this, often calling any hybrid derogatory as a mongrel, which was a description put on Spock at one time. By the 32nd century in Star Trek mythology, many beings in the world are hybrids. This also isn’t anything new, as Spock was half-human, half-Vulcan, B’Elanna Torres was half-human, half-Klingon, and Alexander was the son of Worf and K’Ehleyr. It is not new, but Star Trek fans seem unwilling to accept this latest change on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
