News Martin-Green On Burnham’s Ambition

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A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

Michael Burnham might not have a rank at the moment in Star Trek: Discovery, but don’t assume that situation will last forever,...

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[Kor]

She is going to have to have her record expunged if she is going to be an officer again instead of being locked away for the rest of her extremely long future-human lifespan.

Kor

 

[Farscape One]

Interesting how they mention this is the series not to have a captain as the lead. Sisko was a commander until the season 3 finale when he finally got promoted.

If they mean that the lead was not in charge, then yes, that is accurate.

To me, and maybe I am looking at it the wrong way because of my love of DS9, it seems that DS9 always gets forgotten in things.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Yeah I think you are looking at it the wrong way. Sisko may not have had the rank of Captain at the outset of DS9 but he was still the commanding officer of the Station and the lead character.

 

[waxon]

They say that Burnham is the lead but I don't see how this show is substanitally different to the other trek's where the Captain or CO was the lead.

 

[XCV330]

Maybe she'll be finally let into Vulcan Expeditionary Group and veg out as a captain there.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The first series with a non-Captain in the lead was TOS's "The Cage", because Pike was clearly a lieutenant.

 

[Fateor]

She is going to have to have her record expunged if she is going to be an officer again instead of being locked away for the rest of her extremely long future-human lifespan.

More then just that, she's also going to have to memory edit most of Starfleet so they forgot about her mutiny.

Cause without that nobody is going to realistically want to serve with or under her.

 

[Nerys Myk]

More then just that, she's also going to have to memory edit most of Starfleet so they forgot about her mutiny.

Cause without that nobody is going to realistically want to serve with or under her.

Nah, it's the people who are serving over her who have to be worried.

 

[Vger23]

They say that Burnham is the lead but I don't see how this show is substanitally different to the other trek's where the Captain or CO was the lead.

Because the character who gets the focus and development isn't in the position to be driving command decisions.

 

[gblews]

The first series with a non-Captain in the lead was TOS's "The Cage", because Pike was clearly a lieutenant.

That was an episode, not a series.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The first series with a non-Captain in the lead was TOS's "The Cage", because Pike was clearly a lieutenant.

Someone forgot to tell Spock:

SPOCK: It can't be the screen then. Definitely something out there, Captain, headed this way.

And Tyler

TYLER: It's coming at the speed of light, collision course. The meteorite beam has not deflected it, Captain.

And PIke

PIKE: Captain Christopher Pike, United Space Ship Enterprise.

And Number One

NUMBER ONE: Captain.

And Colt

COLT: Captain.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Someone forgot to tell Spock:

And Tyler

And PIke

And Number One

And Colt

My tongue was firmly in my cheek. I do not propose that Pike was a Lieutenant (Discovery may have disproved that anyway), but acknowledge that some on this site have made that sort of argument.

 

[Nerys Myk]

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[Tim Thomason]

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This is why they retired the Enterprise-A after only 7 years.

 

[cultcross]

They say that Burnham is the lead but I don't see how this show is substanitally different to the other trek's where the Captain or CO was the lead.

Firstly, and most importantly, the lead character doesn't get to make all the decisions, which means that there is quite a different kind of pressure on them. They have agency, but it is limited by their rank and position. Previous shows had to introduce the Admiral on the viewer to push our lead into something they wouldn't choose themselves, because they were in command. Here our lead is a rankless science specialist, so the dynamic is changed considerably.
Other big differences that are apparent - fewer bridge scenes, fewer conference room/let's discuss the problem scenes, more lower decks stuff spent in the mess hall or in quarters or engineering. There's clearly a whole ship running around our characters (one day someone will clip all the people called to the ready room over the intercom) but if it doesn't concern our leads, we don't hear about it. We don't have the old structure of fitting characters into roles in the ship's roster. The characters slot into the plot, instead of into the command hierarchy. If there's a role that we don't need in the story, they're just a background extra or off screen entirely. This prevents the 'Deanna Troi syndrome' where characters are created with a defined role but no idea what the writers are actually going to do with that role.

 

[DamarsKanar]

It really is difficult to imagine how Burnham could ever have command, unless things do take a seriously radical turn and people forget/she becomes captain in a secret black ops kind of way. I don't know but I feel like it would be a major stretch from where we are now to imagine how she would be trusted by Starfleet.

 

[ALF]

Someone forgot to tell Spock:

And Tyler

And PIke

And Number One

And Colt

Isn't Trek adoptive of the old naval tradition of calling anyone in the command chair - even an ensign - a "captain"?

I am still hoping Discovery ends up doing some time jumping between seasons and taking us much farther into the timeline than where we are now. But who knows. I could see Burnham becoming an "acting captain" before season one even ends.

 

[Tenacity]

Nah, it's the people who are serving over her who have to be worried.

it a possble new series, burnham will be first officer under. captain picard

in the opening two hour episode, burnham mutinys, and picard surrenders