OCTOBER 24, 2022 - The honors keep rolling in.  Last week, we reported here that Star Trek received the Outfest Legacy Vision Award for inclusion, with Star Trek: Discovery’s Wilson Cruz accepting on their behalf, and now Strange New Worlds has been honored with a Ruderman Seal of Authentic Representation for casting Bruce Horak, who is a legally blind actor, in the role of Hemmer, an alien known as an Aenar (a subspecies of the Andorians) who is the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise.

The Paramount+ Star Trek show is being recognized as part of “The latest group of studio productions to receive our Seal of Authentic Representation have once again proven that practicing inclusive casting and authentic representation is not only a principled, morally sound choice, but a significant contributing factor to a production’s actual success,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation in a statement.

The Boston-based Foundation was founded in the early 2000s with the dual missions of fostering inclusion for people with all manner of disabilities and strengthening the relationship between Jewish families in the US and the State of Israel.

Star Trek has had a strong presence in pushing away boundaries since the first episode in 1966 and continues even more so in today’s series. Star Trek fans have always felt inclusive and included in our larger family.  We’re not surprised that another award is coming, and we’re proud to be fans of the franchise.

For more details and other shows being awarded, see this article on Variety.com.