'Star Trek: Discovery': Sonequa Martin-Green on Season 1 Challenges

When Star Trek: Discovery debuted on CBS All Access, some fans were skeptical of the series, which is a prequel set 10 years before the original Star Trek. Now star Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Commander Michael Burnham, is looking back on how far the show came in its first season.

Martin-Green admits to Deadline that Star Trek: Discovery may have had an uphill climb in proving itself to longtime Star Trek fans.

"We had a lot of confines," Martin-Green says. "First, you know, the canon is our central nervous system. We were also proposing to establish our own identity. We wanted to get into the hyper-serialized storytelling space, which is quite different than any other iteration. There's certainly been serialization in Voyager, there was serialization in Deep Space Nine, but never before has that been essential; the foundation. We are going to tell this story as a novel in chapters. Already, it's such a new space, and it's one that we have defined, and reached for, and pressed into. Because we have canon, we have this sort of outline and we have to find ways to jump off of it and find ways for people to feel that this is familiar, yet unfamiliar in the most exciting way. I do think that there were certain points that we explored in Season One that made people question the spirit of Star Trek and our show, but it's only because we were servicing serialization."

What Martin-Green is referencing is likely how so many Starfleet ideals seemed compromised early in the season, during the start and the height of the Federation-Klingon War. Later, it was revealed that Captain Gabriel Lorca had been replaced by his mirror universe doppelganger, who had been subtly supplanting Starfleet ethics with Terran Empire ruthlessness. Eventually, Lorca's deception was revealed and the Discovery crew rededicated itself to Starfleet ideals, reaching a climax of conscious with First Officer Saru's "We are Starfleet." speech.

Martin-Green feels like, in the end, the season was successful and won over more fans as it continued.

"It means a lot because it was quite an arduous journey, Season One," Martin-Green says. "We've been met with such fierce love and support. At the same time, we've been met with quite a bit of vitriol, because people are innately uncomfortable with change.

"From the very beginning, from the moment we announced what our show was going to be and who was going to be telling the story, there were lots of people who were rubbed the wrong way by that. There was a conversation that was being had for a long while at the beginning about how that response was completely antithetical to the legacy of Star Trek itself. There was a period where we were dealing with that.

"What I think I learned, or at least it was reaffirmed for me, is that people are comfortable with innovation to a point. It's hard for them to grab ahold of diversity and change, and what they consider to be 'other'."

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the United States, through CraveTV in Canada, and through Netflix in other international markets. Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto.