Starfleet Academy's Gina Yashere Had No Idea She Was Auditioning For A Star Trek Show [Exclusive]

The new series "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" features a recurring character named Lura Thok, played by British comedian Gina Yashere, who has caused a lot of fun speculative debate among Trekkies. Lura Thok is half Klingon and half Jem'Hadar, you see. Everyone knows Klingons, but Jem'Hadar are more familiar to fans of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," who will tell you that the Jem'Hadar were a species of genetically engineered soldiers who fought for the wicked empire known as the Dominion. The Jem'Hadar were bred to be sterile, all of them were male, and they were all born pre-addicted to a potent narcotic called Ketracel-white. 

Lura Thok, because of her gender and her mixed-species lineage, is proof that the Jem'Hadar eventually found a way to re-write their genetic code enough to reproduce and also be born female. The details of the Jem'Hadar's backstory haven't yet been explained on "Starfleet Academy," but then, it takes place over 800 years after the end of the Dominion War on "Deep Space Nine," so it's reasonable to assume that the Jem'Hadar made multiple scientific breakthroughs over the centuries. 

Lura Thok heads the Academy's war school (!), and is responsible for combat training and keeping cadets in line. She is rough-hewn, possess a temper, and speaks demonstrably. She's a fun character. But not only did Yashere not know that she was auditioning for Lura Thok when she went in for "Starfleet Academy," she didn't even realize she was auditioning for a "Trek" show at all. /Film's own Jacob Hall recently spoke with Yashere, and she revealed that her audition pages had all references to "Star Trek" deliberately removed. She played the part right from a character perspective, and was startled to eventually learn it was a Klingon/Jem'Hadar she was to be playing.

Like many "Trek" actors before her, Gina Yashere was not a Trekkie prior to auditioning. Perhaps not being a Trekkie helped her find a purer version of the character; she didn't imitate any other actors' performances. Yashere just saw a military type, and leaned into it: 

"I knew nothing about Jem'Hadar or Klingon. The first audition that I did for the show, I didn't even know it was 'Star Trek' because they took out every reference in the script, and it had a codename. So I just saw a drill sergeant screaming at a bunch of kids, and I played it that way. And then later on I found out that it was 'Star Trek,' but by then they'd kind of fallen in love with how I played it, which got me the part originally anyway." 

It wasn't until after she landed the part that Yashere started to do her "Star Trek" homework. Luckily, she had a family member that was a Trekkie, so she grilled him about the details. And if you're a Trekkie, you know that there are a lot of details. Luckily, the more Yashere learned, the more she realized her militant performance was appropriate, adding:

"My younger brother is a massive Trekkie. So he gave me the full history of Klingons and Jem'Hadar, and I was like, 'Well, I don't think I was too far off. They're very strong, warrior species.' So I kept that element of her and brought it, but softened it up because she's now teaching kids and she can't actually kill them. So I softened her up a little bit, but I think it works pretty well." 

It does, indeed. "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" is currently streaming on Paramount+.