CBS has a major casting announcement for its upcoming series “Star Trek: Discovery.” Jason Isaacs will play the captain of the starship Uss Discovery, Captain Lorca.
Isaacs is most famous as Lucius Malfoy, the evil wizard “death eater” who is among those who threatens Harry Potter and his friends in the long-running film series. Before that, he played a British cavalry officer who is the main antagonist of Mel Gibson’s character in “The Patriot.” Isaacs has been in a variety of TV shows such as “Awake” and “The OA” as well as the upcoming “Hotel Mumbai.”
“Star Trek Discovery” is set some years before the events of Classic Trek and focuses on one of the officers of the Discovery, Lt.
Commander Rainsford played by Sonequa Martin-Green, best known for playing Sasha in “The Walking Dead.” Other cast members include Michelle Yeoh, as Captain Georgio of the USS Shenzhou and James Frain as Sarak, the father of Mr. Spock.
The original “Star Trek” is one of the longest run, most beloved franchises in history. The series, featuring the space adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise, struggled in the ratings during its original run and was unceremoniously canceled after three seasons, ironically the year of the first Apollo moon landing. “Star Trek” became a cult classic, spawning its own fandom and, eventually, movies and spinoff TV shows almost without number, spanning the universe created by the original show in its past and future and even an alternate timeline.
“Star Trek Discovery” will be the latest TV series of the franchise. It will feature the adventures of the USS Discovery as she explores those brave new worlds and contacts alien civilization, some familiar to fans of the franchise, others brand new. The debut of the show has been delayed twice. Currently, the plan is to air the pilot episode on the regular CBS network sometime in the late summer or early fall of 2017. The rest of season one will drop on the CBS All Access network for which the viewer will need to pay a subscription.
