For Mary Wiseman, joining the cast of Star Trek: Discovery meant boldly going on a journey beyond the bounds of her comfort zone. For one thing, she’d always thought that Star Trek wasn’t meant for people like her — progressive, queer, and female. “Star Trek always kind of felt like something outside of me,” she says. “I think mainly because I had an uncle who was a pretty conservative guy, and he was the guy in my life who loved Star Trek. So, it was always kind of ‘over there, for men’…with maybe a more conservative ideology.”
When the role of theoretical engineer Sylvia Tilly (formerly an ensign, now a lieutenant) presented itself and Wiseman took a closer look at the franchise, however, she was shocked — albeit pleasantly — at how wrong she’d been about who Star Trek is for and