Tig Notaro will be in “a lot” of Star Trek: Discovery’s 4th season.
Star Trek: Discovery fans will be happy to know that Tig Notaro will be in quite a considerable amount of the upcoming fourth season of the show. Notaro revealed earlier in the year that due to her career as a comic, and the current pandemic, that her travel to Toronto would be limited. This made many suspect she’d be limited in her appearances within the show’s fourth season.
That isn’t the case, according to Decider, who claimed that Notaro would be in the fourth season of the show “a lot”.
The show was shot at two distinct points in time, first in November of 2020 and then in May of 2021. Notaro apparently filmed most of her work for the fourth season in and after May of this year. Apparently, despite a tighter window, the executives maximized Notaro’s time and shot as much with her as possible, even if it wasn’t related to the current episode on hand. As the MetroWeekly reported;
"I really thought I’d end up just going in for an episode or two. But this turned into something. Alex [Kurtzman] said, ‘We’re going to use you as much as we can get you.’"
Wilson Cruz backs this up by telling Decider;
"She’s in it a lot. In the little time that we had, they really put her to work."
Tig Notaro’s ample shooting should be good news for Star Trek: Discovery fans
Notaro, who plays Jett Reno, has become one of the show’s more fun minor characters. Her dry wit and affable personality translate well to her character. Her back and forth banter with the characters, especially Anthony Rapp, has earned her a lot of praise, and for good reason.
Discovery’s inclusion of Notaro seems to be a bit of a break from the Star Trek casting convention, as she’s the first prominent stand-up comedian to ever get such a prominent role in a franchise show. While not confirmed, she was clearly brought on in season two of the show to help add levity to the proceedings and make the show’s tone a bit brighter.
Since the tone was a huge issue with Discovery’s first season, that seemed to be a good idea. Her inclusion seems unconventional but it works for the general vibe of the show. After all, the big addition to season three wasn’t a regular actor but director David Cronenberg. While an actor on occasion, Cronenberg is most known for his directing and producing and didn’t start acting on screen well into his directing career (and never in huge roles).
So Discovery is just “that show” with regards to the uniqueness of its casing.
It’s also kind of ironic that they shot as much with her as possible, probably shooting things out of order to include her. There’ll probably be scenes that look like it was all shot at once but in reality, just had Notaro’s work added months later. This is hugely ironic, as that’s essentially what she did in Army of the Dead. She shot all of her stuff either by herself onset or against a green screen due to her replacing Chris D’Elia in post-production.
Notaro has been a breath of fresh air for the series and her involvement has had a largely positive impact on the show. So it’s good that she’ll be in more of the show than before.