I consulted an expert: Matt Mitovich, a respected veteran TV industry and entertainment reporter, known for breaking news…The answer came in the most recent edition [of his column]:
“You can rest assured that Wiseman will appear on Starfleet Academy, as a guest star in one episode.”
Yeah, that’s my feeling as well. Checking her IMDB, it seems she’s been working on a series called The Residence that I hadn’t heard of until now. Maybe they just had a better offer for her?
There’s really any number of benign possibilities. It’s just…odd.
I haven’t seen “The Residence”, but I think I heard it was decent.
She was one of the ensemble in The Residence and it worked well for he.
That show had to reshoot the episodes that had been done before the WGA strike because the second on the call sheet unfortunately died during the strike. Not sure if that impacted Wiseman’s availability.
But in terms of her role in Starfleet Academy, it’s clear that the backdoor pilot in season four was viewed as a largely a failure.
The show had been in development hell for some time, but the lead creators changed once again after that episode and it’s writers were dropped from the project.
Neither Wiseman nor Blu del Barrio were strong enough to carry or be compelling in a weak pilot. It looks like they bore some of the weight of senior executive disapprobation.