Jason Isaacs says early Discovery haters were “non-Star Trek fans”

Jason Isaacs, Kenneth Mitchell and Jayne Brook at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019

Sonequa Martin-Green wasn’t the only Star Trek actor talking to RadioTimes.com last week, [ ahead of the UK and worldwide free-to-air premier of Star Trek: Discovery. ] Jason Isaacs, Discovery’s Lorca, also sat down with the magazine to talk about the new broadcast of season one.

But while Martin-Green spoke more to the content of the show, Radio Times made it sound like Isaacs was more focused on the fans. Specifically, on what he called “non-Star Trek fans”. He said, “Initially when we launched Star Trek there were a bunch of voices pretending to be Star Trek fans online, complaining that we were social justice warriors, and that is was all too right-on, the MeToo generation, that we had a young black woman lead. [...] And they were exposed very quickly as a bunch of non-Star Trek fans, racist right-wing lunatics - because the real fans took to them as soon as the show started running.”

Isaacs continued, “If they thought the makers of Star Trek were social justice warriors, they were absolutely right! Because that’s what it’s all about. They had a Russian on deck right at the heart of the Cold War. And they had the first interracial kiss!”

According to the Radio Times piece, Isaacs now hopes that a new raft of fans can find the series through UK broadcast TV. “Enjoy the ride,” he said, speaking to new viewers, “and don’t go online and spoil it for yourself!”

Star Trek: Discovery airs 8pm Sundays on E4 in the UK.