Hot Press Meets Jason Isaacs, the Star of Star Trek: Discovery

Phasers have been set to “controversial” throughout the debut season of Star Trek: Discovery, which can now be viewed in full on Netflix. This is a darker, moodier Star Trek – perfect for the age of Trump, and an era of deepening ambivalence about the centrality to our lives of technology.

Raising the stakes even further, the series arrives at a time when Star Trek’s cultural stock has never been higher. Starting with 2009’s movie reboot, Star Trek – overseen by the Lost creative team of JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof – the franchise has been on a solid upward curve for nearly a decade.

That initial cinematic reintroduction was followed up by a brace of blockbuster sequels in the shape of Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond, before CBS All Access opted to revive the series in late 2015.

Originally, the showrunner was set to be Bryan Fuller, a fascinating choice given his work on critical smash crime-thriller Hannibal. However, the proverbial creative differences resulted in Fuller’s departure – though he is still given a co-creator credit – and the show, titled Star Trek: Discovery, ended up under the creative guidance of showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Roberts.
With news that Trek was to be given a grimmer “prestige TV” gloss, many diehards were getting their sonic-screwdrivers in a twist. From “classic” ’60s Trek to The Next Generation via Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the entire point of Star Trek, after all, is its optimism about mankind’s trajectory. But those who have stayed the course with the new series have been thrilled, especially in the second half of the 15-episode season, which has piled twist upon twist.

No, this wasn’t the Trek of Leonard Nimoy’s quizzically raised eyebrow, or of Patrick Stewart in that slight-too-tight jumpsuit saying “make it so”. Yet by the end, it had arguably earned the right to stand toe-to-toe with its glorious forbears.

Every Federation vessel needs a memorable captain – and the Discovery certainly had that in the mercurial Gabriel Lorca, as winningly portrayed by Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs. But how did it feel to follow in the hallowed steps of Kirk, Picard, Sisko et al?

“I couldn’t give a monkeys,” he tells Hot Press. “I try very hard to push all of that stuff out of my mind. If I’d even thought about Bill Shatner, I couldn’t have gone to work.”
As it happens, he has a William Shatner anecdote. Shortly after he’d been announced as captain of the Discovery, Isaacs was misquoted as saying hardcore Trek fans would watch the new show regardless – and that the hard work would be drawing in everyone else.

Out in the Twitter-sphere, Shatner made his displeasure known. There followed a salty back and forth between the two.
“He was doing a lot of trolling of me,” laughs Isaacs. “I was misquoted and it went viral. We enjoyed some aggressive banter. Then I met him and he had no idea who I was… I’m not sure if he’s the charming guy I met in the flesh or this person I got to know online.”
Star Trek was certainly an acting challenge for Isaacs. Coming from a theatre background, and even after Harry Potter, it is slightly ridiculous to find yourself on a mocked-up spaceship bridge wearing a jumpsuit without pockets.

“It would be easy to camp it up,” notes the actor. “You put on this outrageous costume. It’s like you are being strangled by the waist. There’s nowhere to put your hands – there are no pockets in space. There’s a great deal of green screen. The most important thing is that you’re emotionally present.”
Lorca is no 21st century Kirk. It becomes clear early on that he has an unpleasant side and, later in the season, his adventures take him to some dark places.

Nor is he the hero – that honour falls to former Walking Dead actress Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays science officer Michael Burnham (Fuller, the aforementioned original showrunner, has a thing for giving female characters male names).

A mercurial captain, ambivalent plots, a move away from the episodic storytelling of yore – put it all together and it’s no surprise that some old school Trek fans were less than thrilled.
Having a hardcore fanbase peeping over your shoulder is an experience with which Isaacs is familiar from the Potter-verse (he played Lucius Malfoy). Discovery was a rather different experience.

“Everything we filmed in Harry Potter was adored by all the fans,” he says. “They trusted the various directors right from the beginning. With this, there is a huge fanbase that was very sceptical and very protective of this thing that can dominate their social lives and defines a lot of people. They are right to be protective.

“I missed the days they all hate it,” he continues, smiling. “Now it seems there are mostly loving it. There are still some people who like to make a loud noise. A lot of them have three followers and two of them are dogs. Their opinions are welcome and they’re clearly watching it.
“They’re going, ‘This is disgraceful – I’m never watching another episode… I’m going to give it one more week’.”

Star Trek: Discovery season one can be watched in full on Netflix