TREK gets a female transporter chief!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

J.J. Abrams who has been extremely respectful to the original STAR TREK series so far (which was my main worry when he was announced as the new guy in charge but once I realised he was a fan too, I changed the status from 'red' to 'yellow' alert) has gone ahead and created his first brand new character for the crew of the Enterprise. At least that we know of anyway.

Variety report that Marlene Forte has been cast as a so far un-named transporter chief in Paramount's big budget sci-fi gamble. All previous known transporter chiefs in the original series were played by men, the most famous being Lt. Kyle as pictured below. He would usually crop up in the Shatner version of the Enterprise.

Forte is 40 years old and despite some cameo roles in t.v. shows over the years, she's never had that breakout performance or indeed been in any big movies. She has starred in single episodes of Lost, CSI, ER and The West Wing, with her film career including roles in ADRIFT IN MANHATTEN (DTV) and REAL WOMAN HAVE CURVES. Changing the transporter chief from a man to a woman seems to to be the only diversion from the original canon of the crew from the original series so far, though her role is likely to be very small. STAR TREK opens on Christmas Day!