Star Trek novelist Kirsten Beyer and director Nicholas Meyer (Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country), both writers on the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery, appeared together for a moderated Q&A at the Star Trek: Mission New York convention. And while they weren’t able to speak too much about Discovery specifics, some of their silences spoke volumes. Sometimes a non-answer can say quite a lot.
An audience member asked the duo whether there’d be a Muslim crewmember aboard the titular ship, USS Discovery NCC-1031, in light of Star Trek’s previous commitment to humanizing geopolitical or ideological outsiders, such as with Pavel Andreievich Chekov, who appeared on Star Trek during the height of America’s Cold War with Russia.
Beyer and Meyer looked at each other. There was a long silence and moderator Jordan Hoffman tried to provide them with an out, should they not want to answer. Meyer said she was just thinking of the most judicious way to answer (a paraphrase, I didn’t catch her exact response).
It looked for all the world like two people caught dead to rights, trapped into finding an evasion from a simple reveal: Star Trek: Discovery will have a Muslim crewmember in its cast.
Of course, the actual content of the answer provides no such reveal. “The spirit of inclusion is not just related to sexual orientation,” Beyer said, alluding to showrunner Bryan Fuller’s previous reveal that there would be a gay crewmember aboard the Discovery.
So while proof is lacking, it now seems likely Star Trek: Discovery will have a Muslim crewmember. Like Uhura in the original Star Trek, representation of racial, political and religious minorities (in the United States) can be an important reminder of the more equitable, hopeful future ahead and a catalyst for young viewers unused to having role models on mainstream shows. In America’s current climate of Islamophobia, xenophobia and racism, a Muslim crewmember aboard a starship would signal Star Trek’s ongoing commitment to humanism and empathy.
Still, I’m crossing my fingers and praying to the flying spaghetti monster for an atheist muslim, who maintains the culture of religiosity but not the content. Despite some Biblical references sprinkled throughout, actual religious belief has been largely consigned to alien species on Star Trek. Humans seem to be atheist, nearly universally. Let the Bajorans have their old-timey religion, we’ve left it behind.
At times Trek has even been explicitly anti-religion, such as in the Prime Directive crisis faced by Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Who Watches the Watchers.”
“Millennia ago they abandoned their belief in the supernatural,” Picard says. “Now you’re asking me to sabotage that achievement? To send them back into the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No.”
