A cast member from the latest entry in the “Star Trek” franchise has revealed that she avoided watching anything from the series for a long time. According to Kerrice Brooks, who stars in “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” she was uninterested in “Star Trek” when growing up and actively went out of her way to purposely not watch any content related to the property as an act of rebellion.
Kerrice Brooks Discusses Why She Didn’t Watch ‘Star Trek’
As part of an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” to promote the new show with her fellow co-stars Holly Hunter, George Hawkins and Sandro Rosta, Brooks explained exactly why she chose not to watch any “Star Trek” until relatively recently.
In the interview, Brooks said that she “tried not to watch” the series because she wanted to be “like one of those punk rock kids.” Avoiding the series became something of an act of rebellion for the actress because her family enjoyed watching it.
“If my family liked it, then I wasn’t gonna like it. So it took me a long time to watch it,” she revealed. “Like, genuinely, it took me a long time to watch that.”
Brooks also felt like “Star Trek” may not have been representative in terms of the type of actors who usually appeared in the show.
The actress went on to say that she wasn’t certain that she would “see [people like her] represented on the screen” when watching any “Star Trek” project. That all changed with “Star Trek: Discovery,” with Brooks adding, “and then when I saw Sonequa [Martin-Green] in the Toni Braxton wig.”
Kerrice Brooks Talks About Her Character in the Show
In the same interview, Brooks also opened up about her character in “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” and what fans can expect from her as the series progresses.
The show is a follow-on to “Star Trek: Discovery,” set during the 32nd century, and charts the fortunes of a historic group of new Starfleet cadets as they begin their training as officers. Brooks portrays the hologram SAM, a Series Acclimation Mil that is programmed to feel and behave like a normal 17-year-old female.
“She is a hologram, she’s the first of her kind,” Brooks explained. “She’s at this school. She’s essentially created to kind of like be a spy for our home world, to let them know if it’s safe or not, and then report back to my people and say, ‘Stay away from him. He has allergies.'”
