More Discovery cast announced, plus music hints

CBS have revealed another trio of actors who will feature in Star Trek: Discovery. This latest batch are all members of Starfleet, and continue to paint a picture of a very diverse range of settings for this series, with a variety of positions being filled, and not one of them described as serving on the USS Discovery itself (in fact only one member of the cast has been so far!). Here's how CBS describe each:

Terry will play Admiral Anderson, a high-ranking official of Starfleet.

Terry Serpico has a long list of TV credits to his name, with long running roles in Army Wives and The Inspectors.

Maulik will play Dr. Nambue, the Chief Medical Officer of the Starship Shenzhou—the same ship helmed by Michelle Yeoh's character, Captain Georgiou.

Maulik Pancholy also has lots of TV work behind him, including regular parts in Weeds, 30 Rock, and Phineas and Ferb.

Sam will play Ensign Connor, a Junior Officer in Starfleet Academy assigned to the Starship Shenzhou.

Sam Vartholomeos seems to be a bit more a newcomer, but has appeared in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and The Following.

In-universe I find it fascinating that most of Starfleet characters so far announced are (initially at least?) assigned to the USS Shenzhou. Along with an admiral, an ambassador, a bunch of Klingon characters, and the Discovery itself, it appears this series is shaping up pleasingly different to any Trek that has come before.

From a real world point of view I'm somewhat troubled by the make-up of the cast so far announced: Of ten actors confirmed so far, just two are women, and white actors dominate. Of course we don't really know which of these are going to be regulars, or even how big their roles will be either way. The series lead Sonequa Martin-Green, while openly confirmed by those involved in the production hasn't actually been announced yet, but is of course a black woman - I do hope that her casting isn't just tokenistically trying to disguise yet another male dominated Star Trek cast though...

Meanwhile in other areas of production with might have our first hint of the music of Discovery, care of composer Charles-Henri Avelange, who tweeted the following video of a recording:

My first @StarTrek theme. Looking forward to 2017's opportunities! #StarTrekDiscovery #Orchestra #filmmaking #filmscoring pic.twitter.com/zBb8Y5oIyR

— CharlesHenriAvelange (@charlesavelange) January 5, 2017

He later elaborated that "This recording session was a showcase for CBS", which would certainly seem to hint at him trying out for work for the series. The full track he composed for said showcase, titled The Final Frontier, has also been posted on his website, and certainly sounds pretty Star Trek-y.

Star Trek: Discovery is due to start some time this year, it will be distributed almost everywhere in the world on Netflix, except for the US where is will be available on CBS All Access, and Canada where it will be on Bell Media channels and services. To keep track of all the latest details from the new show, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page.