RTÉ's 'The Yank' Is the 'Star Trek' Crossover We Needed
Fans of 1990s 'Star Trek' will squeal over RTE's latest entry into the "American star moves to Ireland to solve crimes" genre.
Alicia Silverstone, what hath thou wrought? The success of Acorn TV's Irish Blood in the summer of 2025 has already inspired Brooke Shields to move to New England and start solving crimes in You're Killing Me. Now we've got two more 1990s-era stars about to team up to solve crimes after one of them transfers from New York to Ireland. The new series, The Yank, isn't yet officially coming to a U.S. distributor, but there's no way the just-announced RTÉ series isn't finding a home over here.
The new series stars Kate Mulgrew, who every Star Trek fan knows as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first woman to headline a series with Star Trek: Voyager, and recently reprised the role in Star Trek: Prodigy. (If you aren't a Star Trek fan, you probably still know her from her stunning turn as Red in Orange Is the New Black.)
She'll play a hardboiled NYC detective, Nora Savage, who heads across the pond to Ireland after a traumatic incident forces her into semi-retirement, believing her days of mystery solving are behind her. As is the case in all these cozy crime series, mystery-solving has other ideas.
As Detective Savage is technically on holiday, she'll need a local investigator to team up with, and it just so happens that Colm Meaney, he of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who famously transferred to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to kick off the spinoff, is right there. Like Mulgrew, Meaney has stayed booked and busy since his days in space, and non-Trek viewers will know him from AMC's Hell on Wheels and Gangs of London.
Here's the show's logline:
The series is set on the west coast of Ireland and sees seasoned NYPD detective Nora Savage take a career break following a traumatic event, and move to her family home. Expecting a change of pace, Nora is unexpectedly pulled into a murder investigation involving a female climate activist. As the investigation builds to a tense and savage climax, it pushes Nora and the squad into a thrilling hunt for the killer.
Alongside Mulgrew and Meaney, the cast will also include another Trek alum, Cillian O'Sullivan from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The rest of the main roster includes John Connors (The Gentlemen), India Mullen (Normal People), and Jack Rowan (Noughts + Crosses).
Writer Eithne Verling conceived of and wrote The Yank specifically for Mulgrew; it is her first television drama script. Directing duo Joe Lawler and Christine Molloy (Kin) will helm all episodes. David Crean and Dermot Horan executive produce for RTÉm alongside Kate McColgan for Screen Ireland.
The Yank is currently in pre-production and is expected to film in Ireland in 2026. We'll let you know once it has an American distributor.
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