The Star Trek Discovery Fight One Guest Actor Took Too Far
One of the more divisive aspects of Star Trek: Discovery is that it had many fight scenes, especially in the first season. Classic Trek was full of over-the-top fights (usually involving William Shatner dispensing some doublehanded chops), but the new show’s emphasis on violence put more than a few fans’ noses out of joint. However, one of the show’s early actors loved the violence a little too much: Chris Obi played the Klingon leader T’Kuvma, and he was so excited to fight Michelle Yeoh that he kept yelling out, “I kicked Michelle Yeoh’s *ss” on set.
Creating A Martyr
To understand why this Star Trek: Discovery actor was so hyped up about this onscreen fight, you need to know a bit more about both this scene and Yeoh’s career. In “Battle at the Binary Stars,” things go off the rails for Starfleet when Shenzhou officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) accidentally starts a major conflict with the Klingons. The Klingon at the center of all this is a cult leader-like figure named T’Kuvma, and Burnham warns Captain Georgiou that killing such a figure would just turn him into a martyr.
Started A Deadly War
The two of them beam over to T’Kuvma’s ship, which is mostly an excuse for this Star Trek: Discovery episode to end with a big fight scene. None of it goes as planned for the two Starfleet officers, though: T’Kuvma kills Georgiou, causing Burnham to get emotional and kill the Klingon.
She ends up doing what she warned her captain about–killing T’Kuvma and making him a martyr–and is beamed back to the Discovery without the captain’s body, getting the blame for starting a war with the Klingons that would eventually claim the lives of a hundred million Federation citizens.
T’Kuvma’s Actor Got Carried Away
Now, with all that established in the context of Star Trek: Discovery, we can focus on the big fight between T’Kuvma and Georgiou. Typically, actors in such onscreen battles don’t take their characters’ actions personally and throw punches as dispassionately as they might fire a phaser. T’Kuvma actor Chris Obi was an exception to this rule: throughout filming his fight scene with Georgiou, he kept referencing her actor by loudly proclaiming, “I kicked Michelle Yeoh’s *ss.”
Michelle Yeoh Could Beat You Up
That may sound like an insult coming from this Star Trek: Discovery Klingon actor, but it was a tongue-in-cheek way of acknowledging how cool it was to fight this particular opponent onscreen. You see, Michelle Yeoh rose to fame for starring in a number of martial arts movies, including influential titles like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In addition to being a great actor, Yeoh amazed audiences because she often did her death-defying stunts in these films.
Excited To Be On Screen With A Legend
In other words, Obi knew that his Star Trek: Discovery opponent was one of the world’s most famous martial arts actors, and he was suitably excited to fight her character. He might have chosen a relatively vulgar way of expressing his sentiments, but the actor was ultimately trying to pay respect to his honorable opponent. Honestly, what else would you expect a good Klingon to do?
Unfortunately, for both T’Kuvma and Georgiou, the old Klingon proverb proved true: that was a good day to die.
