jason isaacs star trek: discovery

It’s no secret that ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is intentionally creating a very different on-screen vibe than its televised predecessors.  The show has a much darker tone and features characters that are greatly flawed and, in some cases, downright unlikable.

Its components of the show like this, then, that lead fans online to speculate about the potential involvement of Section 31, the “black ops” division of Starfleet that was first featured heavily in ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.’  The shadowy organization makes a lot of sense for Lorca to be involved in, given the apparent clandestine nature of his experiments on the Discovery.

The question was posed to ‘Discovery’ co-creator and Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman at the recent New York Comic-Con, and his answer was… not definitive:

“Section 31, obviously if you saw the black badges – I’ve seen a lot online about whether or not Section 31 is involved in the show. You’ll have to wait and see. I can’t tell you too much about that.”

Kurtzman was given a follow-up question about the amount of leeway that Lorca seems to be given by Starfleet, and his response seems to indicate that Lorca may be working under his own guidelines more than most starship captains:

“Yes, you absolutely will find out why Lorca’s been given that latitude, and you’ll also come to understand how much he’s taken himself.”

For his part, Jason Isaacs had plenty to say about portraying Lorca on-screen and how his character and its idiosyncrasies seem fairly specific to a show like ‘Discovery:’

“Lorca is a war-time captain on a science ship. The stories will reflect that and present an ethical minefield. ‘Is Lorca right? Is Lorca wrong.’ Hopefully, someone somewhere agrees with Lorca. If I saw anything like [Star Trek: The Original Series] I would have run in the opposite direction. It’s wartime, it’s a time of uncertainty. He’s a wartime captain. What I love about this story was this wasn’t something we had seen before. He’s trying to stop everything from being destroyed.”

With new episodes of ‘Discovery’ airing every Sunday night on streaming-only service CBS All Access, the answers to these questions will likely start to be revealed to viewers as time goes on.