Georgia politician, activist, gubernatorial candidate and life-long Star Trek fan Stacey Abrams made a surprise cameo in the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery. In the Season 4 finale “Coming Home” she appears as the President of United Earth.
For some hopefully not-too-spoiler-ish context, Discovery originally took place in the years immediately preceding the historic five year mission of Captain Kirk on the USS Enterprise, as seen in the original Star Trek television series. At the conclusion of Discovery’s second season, the ship makes a permanent time jump to the 34th century, 930 years in their future. The Federation is a remnant of it’s former self with many planets having withdrawn their membership, including Earth. Although the character of Earth’s president is mentioned several times, this is the first time we’ve seen her.
Co-showrunner Michelle Paradise pitched the idea of Abrams as the President knowing that Abrams was a great fan of the show. In fact Abrams had worked with several Star Trek actors in 2020 to help get the vote out for Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Rafael Warnock in the 2020 elections.
Paradise, cast member Sonequa Martin-Green (who plays the show’s lead, Captain Michael Burnham), and episode director Olatunde Osunsanmi appeared on the Paramount+ produced YouTube show Ready Room hosted by Wil Weaton shortly after the episode aired. All were unanimous in their praise for Abrams, who had flown up to Toronto for a couple of days last summer to film her scenes. Osunsanmi praised her natural talent. “It was wonderful. She has a little bit of an acting background I came to find out. She took direction very well. And she’s just a natural, she’s just a natural presence. She slipped into that role naturally, and there was just incredible chemistry between her and Sonequa.” Paradise recalled texting co-showrunner and producer Alex Kurtzman. “ ‘How do you feel about Stacy Abrams [for the role of President of United Earth]’ and I never got so many exclamation points back in response!” Martin-Green admits to gushing a bit saying “I freaked out! Just who she is, what she’s already done, she is already a legend!”
As a life-long fan of both Star Trek and democracy, I admit I was absolutely floored when I realized who I was seeing on my TV set. The cast and crew had done an amazing job of keeping her appearance under wraps. I heard not a whisper on the internet about her being on Discovery.
If you wish to contribute to Stacey Abrams’ campaign as she runs for governor of Georgia for a second time, here is her official website: staceyabrams.com