Governor of Georgia? Stacey Abrams is now President of Earth.
The Democratic activist and failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate played that role in season four’s last episode of “Star Trek: Discovery.”
According to an account at Salon, the season’s story arc is about the galactic United Federation of Planets coming back together after a catastrophic fracture.
In the final episode, Earth asks to rejoin and the secessionist planet is represented at the Starfleet starbase by its “president” — Ms. Abrams.
Executive producer Michelle Paradise told IndieWire that she and fellow executive producer Alex Kurtzman type-cast Ms. Abrams as president of Earth.
“We got into season four and got halfway through breaking it, we realized: We need a person to represent Earth,” Ms. Paradise said. “And then the question became: who should that person be? I don’t remember where the idea came from, honestly. But I texted Alex to say, ’What do you think of Stacey Abrams?’ Immediately, [he sent] exclamation points.”
The two then pitched the idea to Ms. Abrams, who is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (and thus can legally have lines) and an open fan of “Star Trek” and its latest iteration.
“We got on Zoom with her, and we pitched her where we were for the season and who this character was and what this character would represent. And asked if she would be a part of this with us. Honestly, I can’t think of anyone better to represent the president of Earth in all of that,” Ms. Paradise told IndieWire.
Ms. Abrams is running for governor of Georgia again later this year, but Ms. Paradise said she hopes Ms. Abrams can be president of Earth next season — schedule permitting.
“Oh my gosh, I would love that,” she said. “I mean, I have no idea. She’s certainly busy doing other things.”
The episode is currently available on Paramount Plus.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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