Star Trek: Discovery brought the Trek action back to the small screen with new material for the first time in 12 years when it hit CBS All Access last year, and the series was enough of a hit for CBS' streaming service that it scored a second season. One veteran of the Star Trek franchise hasn't tuned in just yet for a very specific reason. Star Trek: The Next Generation actress Marina Sirtis, who played Deanna Troi on that show and several movies, revealed why she doesn't watch Discovery, saying this:
I have never watched it...I am going to explain why I don't watch Discovery, before they all hate me. We were on the best Star Trek show. If CBS thinks I am going to pay to watch Star Trek, they are demented. I will wait until I go to England and watch it on Netflix, which I pay for anyway.
Marina Sirtis' comments at the recent Rose City Comic Con (via TrekMovie.com) reveal that her loyalties are still to The Next Generation and she's not willing to shell out the money to watch Discovery on CBS All Access. That's not to say she has absolutely no interest in watching the new series, but she'd rather wait until she can watch it as part of her Netflix subscription, which she already pays for. Unlike the United States where Discovery is available only via a CBS All Access subscription, international viewers can watch the latest Trek series via Netflix.
Her comments do give the impression that Marina Sirtis is not looking to appear on Star Trek: Discovery, which may come as a disappointment to fans who learned that she visited the set of Discovery when fellow Next Generation actor Jonathan Frakes was directing the second episode of Season 2. That visit likely did not involve a cameo of some sort on the new series. In fact, Sirtis doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about the series on the whole, even if she's clearly still friendly with her fellow actors from The Next Generation.
The former Star Trek actress also commented on what The Next Generation did well that not all of the other Trek shows did, saying this:
I actually think that Star Trek got it right in our show and in the original show because the shows were about something. They weren't just entertainment...They were little morality plays and that is what Star Trek lost after we were done. And it ought to go back to that.
Tell us how you really feel, Marina Sirtis! She seems to have a strong opinion about the Trek series that were produced after The Next Generation, which were Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and of course Discovery. Another series is in the works with Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, and we recently got our first look behind the scenes at that currently untitled project. Perhaps Sirtis will change her tune about Discovery after she gets the chance to watch it on Netflix in England, and maybe Patrick Stewart's involvement in a new show will persuade her that the CBS All Access series are worth watching.
Star Trek: Discovery will premiere its second season in 2019. The good news is that there are plenty of options in the fall TV lineup to fill primetime until the Trek action returns to the small screen next year.
