It’s been a long time coming, but Star Trek: Discovery season 4 has finally made Michael Burnham its new captain.
In the new issue of sister publication SFX Magazine, Sonequa Martin-Green describes her feelings now she’s an actual Star Trek captain, stripes and all: "It feels very humbling. But it also feels very emboldening," she says.
Not least of all because it was earned. Martin-Green points to the show’s slow burn approach – pun not intended – to elevating Michael Burnham to the most iconic of Star Trek roles, joining the likes of Kirk and Picard across the bridge of time and space.
"I’m grateful for it because you feel like you earned this position with Burnham," she says. "You feel like you were able to learn and grow and make mistakes and mature from them with her."
Martin-Green also adds that there was some trepidation about sitting in the captain’s chair for the first time. "I did a thing where I did not sit in the chair until it was time, until we shot that scene," she reveals. "Olatunde Osunsanmi, one of our executive producers, also directed that episode. We both talked at length about what a big deal it was, and how nervous we were to actually shoot that scene."
As for the moment itself? "It felt very different," Martin-Green teases. Michael Burnham may be a person out of time – but she feels right at home in the captain’s chair.
