Jason Isaacs Defended Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green From “Racist” Online Hate: “She Was A Great Number One”

Published Nov 11, 2026, 8:01 PM EST

John Orquiola is a TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

Sign in to your ScreenRant account

Jason Isaacs hails Star Trek: Discovery's Sonequa Martin-Green as "a great Number One," and recalls defending her from "racist" online hate.

Star Trek: Discovery premiered in September 2017 and ran for 5 seasons on Paramount+. As the first new Star Trek series in 12 years, and a visual and tonal reboot of the franchise, Discovery had high expectations and was immediately controversial with longtime Trekkers for its creative decisions and aesthetics.

Disco was also the first Star Trek show to center on a Black female lead character who wasn't the captain (at first). Instead, Jason Isaacs played Captain Gabriel Lorca, who, along with Michelle Yeoh, were Star Trek: Discovery's marquee names in season 1, although the series was about Martin-Green's heroine, Michael Burnham.

• 

• 

Jason Isaacs was a guest on Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner's podcast, Dropping Names... And Other Things. Isaacs and Frakes became friends on Star Trek: Discovery, which Frakes directed 8 episodes of. Jason, who was active on Twitter at the time, recalls fending off online accusations of Disco being "woke," and telling Sonequa's "racist" haters to "f*** off." Read Isaacs' quote below:

Jason Isaacs: “There was such a lot of racist backlash about Sonequa before we started, online. And I started just telling people to f*** off, all these haters can f*** off. Because I knew they weren’t Star Trek fans. The criticism was ‘how woke can you get? How progressive can you get?’ And you go, ‘No, you can’t get any more woke or any more progressive than Star Trek.’ That’s its purpose. That’s why it was set up, you morons. You’re showing your true colors."

Frakes and Isaacs then reminisced about the “spectacular” Sunday BBQs Jason threw for Star Trek: Discovery's cast in Toronto, and praised Martin-Green as "the mother hen of the group." Read their conversation below:

Jason Isaacs: “Really, it was Sonequa. It was my house. Sonequa was really the mother hen of the group. She did an odd thing, though. Many Sundays we would gather, and she would want to play Mafia… Which is bizarre because it was an acting game for people who don’t do our job. I always thought it was very strange [that] people wanted to play an acting game.

And the other thing that was weird was I barbequed every week, and week by week, there was more and more meat left. And it’s because no one had told me that Sonequa was getting everybody to watch What The Health?, which was this Netflix documentary that turned them all vegetarian, but they were too sensitive to tell me. So eventually, I was just cooking joints of meat that was just left untouched…. She was a great Number One.”

Jonathan Frakes: “She was a wonderful Number One. And she secretly loved how relentlessly playful we were. ‘Cause I don’t think she came from a playful set over at The Walking Dead.”

Jason Isaacs: “Not by the end, but quite soon, she was running around high-fiving, fist-bumping between takes.”

Watch Jason Isaacs' full interview on Dropping Names... And Other Things:

Isaacs refers to Martin-Green as "Number One" as in "number one on the call sheet." As the series lead, Sonequa's job was to set the tone on set and off for the other actors. In Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Martin-Green became a producer and took responsibility for the cast by setting a welcoming and professional example. By all accounts, Sonequa was beloved as a leader who took care of her fellow actors' needs and maintained a positive working environment.

Jason Isaacs was only part of Star Trek: Discovery's first season, as Captain Lorca was revealed to be a villain from the Mirror Universe. Discovery never shook the online hate it garnered, yet the series was a success that lasted for five seasons (and originally planned for seven). Disco propped up the nascent CBS All-Access streaming service, which rebranded as Paramount+, and it spawned multiple Star Trek series executive produced by Alex Kurtzman.

Interestingly, before discussing Sonequa, Isaacs touched upon something that many detractors feel: that Star Trek: Discovery isn't (or shouldn't be) part of Star Trek's Prime Universe canon. Jason began by telling Frakes, “Which is why, before I started my series, which frankly doesn’t belong in the canon of yours, but whatever, let’s pretend we belong in the same club..." However, Isaacs and Frakes didn't elaborate on Jason's feelings about Discovery's place in Star Trek canon.

Star Trek is now owned by Skydance, and every series that began with Star Trek: Discovery is now canceled or about to premiere their final seasons in 2027. Skydance reportedly plans an unspecified new direction for the Star Trek franchise. Whatever new versions of Star Trek are created in the coming years, perhaps Star Trek: Discovery's haters will come to look more favorably on Sonequa Martin-Green's series in hindsight.

Star Trek: Discovery is streaming on Paramount+

• 

  Sonequa Martin-Green

  Michael Burnham

• 

  Doug Jones

  Saru