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Star Trek: Discovery: Sonequa Martin-Green on Burnham/Rayner Dynamic

Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green on Burnham's chemistry with Callum Keith Rennie's Rayner, revisiting a TNG story & more.

One of the emerging arcs of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery is how Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is moving on from her original first officer in Cmdr. Saru (Doug Jones), who accepted a position as an ambassador and to work more closely with his partner Ni'Var President T'Rinna (Tara Rosling) in ongoing efforts to help re-establish the Federation throughout the galaxy following The Burn. Filling in that void reluctantly is the former captain of the U.S.S. Antares, Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), whose more formal militaristic ways seem a little off-putting to the far looser U.S.S. Discovery. The two recent episodes, "Jinaal" and "Face the Strange," saw Rayner loosen his more strict ways while Burnham affirms his outsider status among the crew, offering a unique advantage in their quest to search for the mysterious Progenitor technology. Martin-Green spoke to TrekMovie.com to offer insight into season five's developments.

Star Trek: Sonequa Martin-Green on 'Discovery' Revisiting a 'Next Generation' Story

When it came to revisiting the Star Trek: The Next Generation season six episode "The Chase" as the basis for Discovery's final season, "Yeah. We always love being able to connect us back. And I remember when I was choosing the furniture for Burnham's quarters, and I wanted to make sure I got a stool for my Vulcan meditation because even though I had come out of that and had really gotten comfortable with my humanity, and we had jumped to the future away from Spock, and all of that good stuff, I wanted to keep that," Martin-Green said. "Anytime we could point to iterations that come before us, we would celebrate; it would be so exciting. I knew what it was because it was already encapsulated in the story itself. So we were able to connect to what it was before from just connecting to what it was right then because we just sort of picked it up from where they left it off."

Martin-Green, who also serves as an executive producer, broke down the process that allowed Rennie, Eve Harlow (Moll), and Elias Toufexis (L'ak) to join the cast. "Callum Keith Rennie is brilliant, right?" she said on their chemistry. "The casting for this show is just one of the reasons why we've been so successful. I could speak about all the people that have come and gone and left a mark on our show, that'll never be erased. Callum came into our family; we welcomed him with open arms, just like we welcomed Eve Harlow and Elias Toufexis, who play really huge roles in the final season. We hit the ground running, and I'm so grateful that you see that because chemistry is not something you can force. It's not something you can predict, either. You have no idea if you're going to have it or not. But he's such he's such a brilliant actor and I've had the blessing to work with so many brilliant actors on this show. So, as a producer, I actually was not a part of his casting. I have been a part of casting before I played a small part in the casting of David Ajala… I love him so much."

Regarding how Burnham was allowed to shine and play a mentor as a younger black woman to the older white man in Rennie's Rayner, "Oh, I loved that. That's something that we talked about, me and the other producers and Michelle Paradise, our showrunner, and Alex Kurtzman as well. We felt that we had reached a point where it was time for Burnham to be the mentor," she said. "Saru leaving and going off to fulfill his own destiny, his own purpose, had a lot to do with that because he was a sort of guide and a voice of reason in that way. And his exit marked the beginning of Burnham being ready to be someone else's guide, someone else's mentor. And being able to give Captain Rayner a second chance was huge. That's a big part of why Burnham is able to lead from the center out and why she's able to nurture people to be their best selves, because of everything that she's been through, because of the mistakes and the moral failures and the victories as well. And so I really loved that we've sort of flipped it on its head and earned it at the same time. We didn't just do it to do it; we earned it. And Burnham saw herself in Rayner even though he was this older white man, and he struggled to listen, but he was humbled through the experience as well, which could be a path that people could see moving forward."

For more, including how Martin-Green felt in revisiting her season one Burnham, the fight sequence between her present 32nd-century self version 23rd century counterpart, stunt work, reuniting with Hannah Cheesman if other cameos were considered for "Face the Strange," future, and more, make sure to check out the complete interview. New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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