Starfleet Academy’s Gina Yashere Had No Concept She Was Auditioning For A Star Trek Present [Exclusive]

The brand new sequence “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” contains a recurring character named Lura Thok, performed by British comic Gina Yashere, who has induced loads of enjoyable speculative debate amongst Trekkies. Lura Thok is half Klingon and half Jem’Hadar, you see. Everybody is aware of Klingons, however Jem’Hadar are extra acquainted to followers of “Star Trek: Deep Area 9,” who will let you know that the Jem’Hadar have been a species of genetically engineered troopers who fought for the depraved empire often known as the Dominion. The Jem’Hadar have been bred to be sterile, all of them have been male, they usually have been all born pre-addicted to a potent narcotic referred to as Ketracel-white. 

Lura Thok, due to her gender and her mixed-species lineage, is proof that the Jem’Hadar finally discovered a option to re-write their genetic code sufficient to breed and likewise be born feminine. The small print of the Jem’Hadar’s backstory have not but been defined on “Starfleet Academy,” however then, it takes place over 800 years after the top of the Dominion Conflict on “Deep Area 9,” so it is cheap to imagine that the Jem’Hadar made a number of scientific breakthroughs over the centuries. 

Lura Thok heads the Academy’s warfare faculty (!), and is chargeable for fight coaching and preserving cadets in line. She is rough-hewn, possess a mood, and speaks demonstrably. She’s a enjoyable character. However not solely did Yashere not know that she was auditioning for Lura Thok when she went in for “Starfleet Academy,” she did not even notice she was auditioning for a “Trek” present in any respect. /Movie’s personal Jacob Corridor not too long ago spoke with Yashere, and he or she revealed that her audition pages had all references to “Star Trek” intentionally eliminated. She performed the half proper from a personality perspective, and was startled to finally study it was a Klingon/Jem’Hadar she was to be enjoying.

Like many “Trek” actors earlier than her, Gina Yashere was not a Trekkie previous to auditioning. Maybe not being a Trekkie helped her discover a purer model of the character; she did not imitate some other actors’ performances. Yashere simply noticed a navy kind, and leaned into it: 

“I knew nothing about Jem’Hadar or Klingon. The primary audition that I did for the present, I did not even realize it was ‘Star Trek’ as a result of they took out each reference within the script, and it had a codename. So I simply noticed a drill sergeant screaming at a bunch of children, and I performed it that approach. After which in a while I came upon that it was ‘Star Trek,’ however by then they’d form of fallen in love with how I performed it, which bought me the half initially anyway.” 

It wasn’t till after she landed the half that Yashere began to do her “Star Trek” homework. Fortunately, she had a member of the family that was a Trekkie, so she grilled him in regards to the particulars. And in the event you’re a Trekkie, you already know that there are a lot of particulars. Fortunately, the extra Yashere discovered, the extra she realized her militant efficiency was acceptable, including:

“My youthful brother is a large Trekkie. So he gave me the total historical past of Klingons and Jem’Hadar, and I used to be like, ‘Properly, I do not assume I used to be too far off. They’re very robust, warrior species.’ So I stored that factor of her and introduced it, however softened it up as a result of she’s now instructing youngsters and she will’t really kill them. So I softened her up somewhat bit, however I feel it really works fairly nicely.” 

It does, certainly. “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” is presently streaming on Paramount+.