Star Trek: Discovery warps back to television screens on April 4, and we had the opportunity to speak to the show’s cast and creative team ahead of the show’s fifth and final season of adventures.
 
Along with a group of other outlets, TrekCore spoke with series stars Wilson Cruz (Hugh Culber), Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), and Blu del Barrio (Adira Tal) about the state of the USS Discovery crew, new cast member Callum Keith Rennie, and more.
 

Q: How are things aboard the starship Discovery at the start of Season 5?

WILSON CRUZ: A few months have passed when we meet our heroes at the start of Season 5, and when you look around, I feel like everyone is at a much more stable place — in terms of how they feel about themselves, and their place on the ship, and in the new future. We’ve definitely gotten the kinks out of being 900 years away from everything and everyone we love.

When the season’s mystery finds us, we are well-suited and well-prepared to take on this task. For Hugh, that means he continues to ask existential, big life questions — and as a man of science, it’s always more comfortable when there’s a “Yes” or a “No” answer to these question. So his journey this season is really about finding grace in the unknown, and in the questions that are incapable of being answered.

MARY WISEMAN: Tilly is trying to figure out how to get through to her students at Starfleet Academy, who have become isolated from grown up during The Burn.

BLU DEL BARRIO: Adira is in a much more confident state with their position on the ship, more than we’ve ever seen them. They’re taking on more responsibilities, they’re being given more to do… and being pushed in a bit more, in a way they wanted to be pushed.

On the side, though, they’re dealing with some personal issues, some emotional stuff; Adira does a lot of self-reflection at the start of the season.

Q: Mary, can you talk about Tilly’s journey and how she’s grown over the series?

WISEMAN: When I first encountered the character, Tilly was a very achievement-driven girl who didn’t have a lot of social graces, but knew that she needed to achieve. There was this big reversal for her as time went on, where she realized she was somebody who cares most about relationships and the community she builds — and wanting to be a captain, wanting to achieve all of these things… that was a relic of the person that she used to be.

After losing so much, leaving the past behind, and going to go to the future, she had a chance to kind of change her mind and reevaluate what would make her happy. That’s led her to become a teacher at Starfleet Academy, and she gets enormous value from being someone who can be present and available for young people who are still developing.

That, for me, is the chart to her arc and I found it very satisfying to play.

Q: How does Callum Keith Rennie’s character, Captain Rayner, fit into the Discovery story?

WISEMAN: I think Rayner brings some much-needed grumpiness and curmudgeon-liness. A lot of us are, like, these starry-eyed optimists, and it’s nice to just have an old battleaxe on the ship! [Laugh]

That creates really fun dynamics between that character and the rest of the crew who are used to working together and run like a clock. Now there’s this person who is highly competent, but has a very different conversation style and problem-solving approach.

Callum is a great actor and really fun to work with — he’s a great new guy to bring into the fold, and I think people will really enjoy his character and the dynamic it brings out of everyone.

CRUZ: He’s so much fun to work with. Aside from the funky ears he brought to set every day, what was fun to watch was how his character has to fit themselves into a new power structure aboard Discovery. The way Burnham runs that ship is unlike the way most ships are run — it’s a ‘soft power,’ that’s the best way to describe it.

How does someone who has an aggressive, combative style of leadership fit themselves into a power structure in which there’s less power coming from above, but there’s more of a center-out structure? It was fun to watch Rayner navigate that.

Q: Wilson, what did you learn from playing Hugh Culber over these five seasons?

CRUZ: What I was reminded of, playing Hugh, is that at any given moment, on any given day, we can decide that we want do something differently; that we deserve more from our lives. If things aren’t working the way that you think they’re supposed to, you can decide that you want something different, and change it. Second chances are real, and you can give them to yourself.

As an actor, I feel like this was the first time – ever, really – of seeing a character throughout five seasons. I was on ‘one hit wonders’ before Discovery. It was really gratifying to see him grow and change from season to season.

I knew where I wanted him to end up when it was all over, and despite the fact that we didn’t know this was going to be our last season, I’m so gratified that who I envisioned him to be at the end of the series really shows up here at the end of Season 5.

This interview has been edited for clarity.