The show-runners of the highly anticipated new CBS Star Trek series have said their Klingons will symbolize Trump supporters in modern America.
Released on September 24th, Star Trek: Discovery will continue the show’s time-honored practice of mirroring the contemporary world in a futuristic setting.
The story, set 10-years before William Shatner’s Captain Kirk, will focus on the fractious early relations between the United Federation of Planets and the aggressive Klingon Empire.
However, the new update could prove controversial, with fans of the 1960s show remembering the Klingons and Federation fight as an allegory for the Cold War clash of civilizations between the Soviet Union and freedom loving United States.
But the producers of the new Jason Isaacs fronted series have said that Klingons as Trump voters will now represent part of the current culture war within the United States, with ‘isolation’ and ‘racial purity’ as big themes.
The highly-anticipated new Star Trek: Discovery show, that will air on CBS, aims to tackle the very controversial Trump-era political divide as the Klingons are depicted as Trump supporters
The sci-fi series always takes on real world issues and now they are taking on the current political divide in the U.S. to turn it into a serialized story. Pictured here, President Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton
The show, which is created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, is set in 2256 where the Federation and Klingons are in a Cold War-style standoff.
‘The allegory is that we really started working on the show in earnest around the time the election was happening,’ showrunner Aaron Harberts said.
‘The Klingons are going to help us really look at certain sides of ourselves and our country. Isolationism is a big theme. Racial purity is a big theme. The Klingons are not the enemy, but they do have a different view on things.
‘It raises big questions: Should we let people in? Do we want to change? There’s also the question of just because you reach your hand out to someone, do they have to take it?
Sonequa Martin-Green (R) is set to play Michael Burnham, a Starfleet officer (L)
Michael Burnham’s (Sonequa Martin-Greens’s character) carefully planned career is upended when she makes a decision with far-reaching consequences
‘Sometimes, they don’t want to take it. It’s been interesting to see how the times have become more of a mirror than we even thought they were going to be.’
These sorts of topics have been explored in previous series, however this one in particular shows the enemies are in an internal war: ‘The thing about the war is it takes Starfleet and the Federation and forces them to examine their ideas and ethical rules of conflict and conduct,’ Harberts revealed.
‘It provides a backdrop to how we want to be as a society and that analysis and self-reflection is new for Trek. They’ve done it in certain episodes in the past, but this is a true journey for the institution in itself.’
Jason Isaacs (L) will play Captain Gabriel Lorca (R)
Gretchen J. Berg, another showrunner said: ‘In times of stress and conflict it can bring out the best of us and the worst of us.’
‘But but ultimately brings out the best in our Starfleet officers,’ he said.
Berg also said that President Trump’s relations with North Korea will be a focal point: ‘North Korea is in our thoughts as we finish the series,’ he admitted.
‘What began as a commentary on our own divided nation – in terms of Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters – has blown out to North Korea and how we’re right on the brink.’
The executive producers and cast of the highly anticipated and somewhat controversial series are pictured here at the Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in LA
The show begins to tell the war story between two opposing forces – the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, pictured here a Klingon from the new CBS show
‘[The U.S. is] actually right at the place where Starfleet finds itself in episode one and we couldn’t have anticipated that happening. But how do you end conflict when both sides have such strong opinions?’
Sonequa Martin-Green is set to play Michael Burnham, a Starfleet officer, while Jason Isaacs, from Harry Potter, will play Captain Gabriel Lorca.
The series debuts on CBS September 24 and will then move to the CBS All Access streaming service.