Star Trek: Discovery show runner Michelle Paradise on the AR wall and LGBTQ representation in season 4

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 09: Michelle Paradise speaks onstage during Paramount+ Brings Star Trek: Discovery Cast and Producer to New York Comic Con for Exclusive Panel during Day 3 of New York Comic Con 2021 at Jacob Javits Center on October 09, 2021 in New York City. Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images/Paramount+©2021 Paramount+. All Rights Reserved.

DECEMBER 5, 2021 - Season four of Star Trek: Discovery is well underway, and while the future is not paradise yet, even 930 years later, there is a Paradise behind the camera overseeing how that future develops.

Showrunner, head writer, and executive producer Michelle Paradise sat down with Forbes last week for a wide ranging conversation. The current season would look a lot different than it does, first of all, if it were not for the new Augmented Reality (AR) wall in use in the Toronto studio where production takes place. The 270-degree LED video wall replaces the green screen and allows the actors to see what their on-screen environment actually (well, virtually) looks like. 

“You see the A.R. wall in use in episodes one and three,” Paradise said. “That's the environment where in episode one, we're with Saru and Su’Kal on Kaminar and that watery world. In episode three, we're on the moon in that big, cavernous environment where you're up at the top and you look down and everything lights up. It's just the kind of technology that can give us so many different looks in such vast filmscapes, interior and exterior.”

Following questions about the uncertainty in season four, the new Federation president, and references back to Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Picard, Paradise reflected on the importance of LGBTQ representation in the show, which continues in season four. The show benefits from consultation with Nick Adams, the director of transgender representation for GLAAD, and Paradise herself is an out lesbian and says she has been out for 20 years.

She says, “It's important for people to see themselves. I think that's also one of the things about this season having Sonequa Martin-Green in the captain's chair. Like, that's massive. You cannot overstate the importance of anyone being able to see themselves or see who they can be.”

To read the entire interview with Michelle Paradise, which includes her reaction to the Netflix decision, her approach to writing, and more, as well as to see images from season four of Star Trek: Discovery and a video about the AR wall, head over to Forbes.com.