Before she started shooting Disney+’s The Acolyte, resulting in her becoming the first director to helm TV episodes in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, Hanelle M. Culpepper contributed to the latter property helming episodes of both Picard and Discovery. Both series, which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, played big roles in giving Star Trek a foothold in the small screen realm again. Culpepper discussed the big difference between working on Picard and Discovery while speaking with CinemaBlend, but I was especially jazzed about how she shouted out the Trill during the conversation.
Hanelle M. Culpepper directed three episodes each in Picard and Discovery, but it was the Patrick Stewart-led series where she left the bigger imprint. That’s because she directed the show’s first three episodes, and as a result played an integral role in establishing the look and tone of the series that would stick over its three-season run. She explained to me:
Well, Picard stands out in that it's just very different when you are coming to a show as a pilot director and really being a part of setting it all up versus coming into a show where everything's been established. And even though you add so much of yourself to your episode, the main cast has been picked, the main sets have been built and maybe there's some changes to be done. It doesn't make it any less exciting to be working in that universe.
Star Trek: Picard premiered back in 2020, 18 years after audiences thought they’d seen the last of the Next Generation crew in Star Trek: Nemesis. However, rather than this series serving as a mere revival of the Star Trek show that ran from 1987-1994, Picard instead teamed Jean Luc-Picard with a group of new characters, as well as Voyager’s Seven of Nine, for a grittier, more adult-oriented story. Viewers would get to see the Next Generation gang back together again in Season 3 (minus Wesley Crusher, who cameoed in the Season 2 finale and more recently appeared in Prodigy), but Picard was definitely meant to feel like its own thing rather than a direct continuation, and Culpepper helped make that happen.
As for Star Trek: Discovery, Hanelle M. Culpepper directed Season 1’s “Vaulting Ambition”, Season 2’s “The Red Angel” and Season 3’s “Forget Me Not”. It’s that last episode that gave her the opening to shout the Trill, the alien species that was introduced to this lore in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She said:
I was thrilled that I got to work on Star Trek: Discovery and I love the episodes that I did. I remember in the third one I did… if you look back at the original episode that dealt with the [Trill and their symbionts], looking up how they did that in the TV show and then incorporating that for that species that worship that being that lives inside of people as a host. So you get to do things like that, take from the canon and add to it or bring it into a new space. That was in an episode that I did. I wasn't the pilot director of that, obviously. But with Picard, everything you see has a little bit of my footprint on it.
Although a Trill doctor named Naáshala Kunamadéstifee appeared in Picard’s second episode, Discovery marked this humanoid species’ return to prominence in the Star Trek franchise since Deep Space Nine, which featured Jadzia Dax as a main character for its first six seasons, followed by Ezri Dax in the final season. After the Discovery crew traveled to the 32nd century, they met Adira Tai, the first human to be joined with a Trill symbiont, and their late boyfriend (at the time) was a Trill named Gray Tal. Discovery carved out time in a handful of other episodes to expand upon Trill culture, and Culpepper was thankful she was able to contribute to this aspect of the series.
Picard and Discovery are both over, but there various upcoming Star Trek TV shows to look forward to on Paramount+, including Strange New Worlds Season 3, the final season of Lower Decks and Starfleet Academy, as well as the Section 31 movie. Browse through the 2024 TV schedule to see what non-Trek shows are currently airing or will premiere soon.
