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Let's talk about the elephant in the room, this series violates Roddenberry's vision big time

JUDGE: It is our ruling that the defendant, Commander Michael Burnham, be stripped of rank and hereby sentenced to imprisonment for life.

She ain't doing that.
 
Deferred sentence due to extraneous circumstances. Starfleet is funny that way.
Starfleet extended Lorca discretion to fight the war in any way he needed to if that is the excuse for extraneous circumstances. If that means letting Michael not serve the sentence of her court-martial handed to her by a judge then she has as I said above, gotten away with it.
 
I have no doubt that Burnham's record will be expunged by the time the show ends, thus allowing Spock to claim there is "no record" of a mutiny aboard a starship in "The Tholian Web" (TOS).

-MMoM:D
 
Starfleet extended Lorca discretion to fight the war in any way he needed to if that is the excuse for extraneous circumstances. If that means letting Michael not serve the sentence of her court-martial handed to her by a judge then she has as I said above, gotten away with it.
Who is to say she won't serve it out afterwards?
 
Does anyone really think she'll serve any more time? Nah. She's going to have a papered over record, probably her own starship and Captaincy and eclipse anything Spock has ever done. Her life re-set is going to be epic.
 
She shouldn't have been convicted in the first place, and only was because she pleaded guilty and eschewed any defense. There were clearly mitigating circumstances that made her less than fully competent or responsible for her actions. She was in severe traumatic emotional distress, had suffered a concussion and radiation poisoning. Not in her right mind, despite all her protestations to the contrary.
 
Starfleet extended Lorca discretion to fight the war in any way he needed to if that is the excuse for extraneous circumstances. If that means letting Michael not serve the sentence of her court-martial handed to her by a judge then she has as I said above, gotten away with it.
As of this moment in the story, she has "gotten away" with nothing. She has had her sentence suspended for an indeterminate amount of time, owing to exigencies beyond her control, and has been given ZERO indication the sentence will be permanently suspended. From the character's point of view, it is merely delayed. Moreover, even if prison is indefinitely suspended, a status of "specialist", outside command track, is hardly "getting away" with zero punishment. Your speculation of complete exoneration, along with fast-track promotion to captain might (emphasis on "might") happen--but nothing so far gives us (character or viewer) any reason to consider such an outcome likely.
 
Her sentence was imprisonment, not going on away missions to planets and going into hand to hand (laugh) combat with Klingons. Sleeping in a nice cosy bed and having a relationship with the hot new guy/Klingon on board.

Come on. She has gotten away with the terms of her sentence.
 
I have no doubt that Burnham's record will be expunged by the time the show ends, thus allowing Spock to claim there is "no record" of a mutiny aboard a starship in "The Tholian Web" (TOS).
Ahhh, the "Well technically it doesn't violate canon if you put this particular interpretation on words and events".

That's absolutely the best kind of sticking to canon that there is. :)


And yeah. Its utterly obvious that the writer's darling is not going to wind up back in jail where she belongs.

If I had to guess (and I don't but I'm gonna do it anyway), she will have to mutiny again. And this time the inquiry will approve her actions and commend her for being super awesome. And very likely she will either be formally cleared of all previous charges for whatever reason, or at the very least somebody will give her a "you really weren't to blame, you were just trying to do the right thing" speech.

She will be left with the audience being assured that she never did anything wrong, and all is well with the universe when she's in charge and everybody admires her.
 
Her sentence was imprisonment, not going on away missions to planets and going into hand to hand (laugh) combat with Klingons. Sleeping in a nice cosy bed and having a relationship with the hot new guy/Klingon on board.

Come on. She has gotten away with the terms of her sentence.
What part of "sentence suspended" isn't clear? Apparently she has to be tortured in order to have her sentence carried out? :shrug:
 
Her sentence was imprisonment, not going on away missions to planets and going into hand to hand (laugh) combat with Klingons. Sleeping in a nice cosy bed and having a relationship with the hot new guy/Klingon on board.

Come on. She has gotten away with the terms of her sentence.

Her sentence was absurdly harsh given the circumstances.

And this is how she "got away" with it:

LORCA: I have something on deck that requires every trained mind available. You're gonna help us out.
BURNHAM: No.
LORCA: Excuse me?
BURNHAM: No thank you. Respectfully, I owe a debt for my crime, and it'd be best...I'd prefer to serve my time without getting involved.
LORCA: [chuckles] You think I care what your preferences are?

What's she supposed to do? Mutiny again? Kill herself?

-MMoM:D
 
Her sentence was absurdly harsh given the circumstances.

And this is how she "got away" with it:

LORCA: I have something on deck that requires every trained mind available. You're gonna help us out.
BURNHAM: No.
LORCA: Excuse me?
BURNHAM: No thank you. Respectfully, I owe a debt for my crime, and it'd be best...I'd prefer to serve my time without getting involved.
LORCA: [chuckles] You think I care what your preferences are?

What's she supposed to do? Mutiny again? Kill herself?

-MMoM:D
It's rather stunning that Lorca actually has the authority to do that. And equally stunning that, as I recall, he has that authority because his superiors have ordered him to do anything he deems necessary to further the war effort.

Which is an order that would never, ever be given in real life by any sane person.
 
Deferred doesn't mean she won't serve it. Just that a larger issue took precedence. This has been done in Star Trek before.
So what if it has been done in Star Trek before, it is the plot aspect not the writers tool kit that is the basis of the comment that Michael has gotten away with something. She would still have gotten away with something if every character in every Star Trek also had. I found the same reference Mighty Monkey did regards Lorca and also where he says he was given discretion to use whatever means to fight the war. Even the intro pieces of later episodes referenced Lorca extending her an invitation to join the crew. The reference to official deferment I might have to ask you for that. Beyond that she has it pretty cushy.
 
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