Cornwell's Specific Duties?

[fireproof78]

I still don't understand how she ever went from ships' counsellor (which Culber deseprately needs right now, where's Disco's?) to admiral with command over starships. There are several important steps missing

Yes, because no one has ever switched tracks or become a command officer from another division before...oh wait...

 

[DaveyNY]

I'm thinking at this point that it may actually be Admiral Cornwall in the Red Angel Suit.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Specific Duties Include:

1. Having sex with Lorca
2. Getting captured by Klingons
3. Making friends with/yelling with L'Rell
4. Vaporizing bowls of fortune cookies
5. Name-dropping Archer
6. Contemplating genocide
7. Rewarding and recognizing officers who oppose genocide
8. Hanging with 31

At least three of those items make me want that job.

 

[Hythlodeus]

At least three of those items make me want that job.

I bet a lot of imaginary money on 2, 4 and 8

 

[F. King Daniel]

Who said she was a ship's counsellor?

Pretty sure she referred to it when speaking to Lorca in season one?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd still take even odds that she ends up being Lethe.

Why do people keep saying that? Just because they kind of vaguely look alike?

Besides, Lethe's too young to be Cornwell anyway.

 

[Lord Garth]

Why do people keep saying that? Just because they kind of vaguely look alike?

Besides, Lethe's too young to be Cornwell anyway.

I know. It's going on two showrunners ago now.

Cornwell is DSC's recurring Admiral, just like Naheyev and Ross on TNG and DS9. Maybe Lethe in "Dagger Of the Mind" was Cornwell's daughter, maybe, but that's the extent of it. Admiral Cornwell would be in her 60s in TOS. Lethe there looked like she was in her 30s.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I bet a lot of imaginary money on 2, 4 and 8

More like 3, 4 and 5.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

I just figure every admiral that we see that isn't specifically an Admiral Whats-their-Faces of [insert specific, special division of Starfleet] is just a sector admiral, a divisional manager if you will. Discovery could just be one of the ships under her command in her region of space and the other admirals we see are her peers from neighboring regions.

 

[Blue Squadron]

It’s probably worth keeping in mind that Trek has generally been pretty vague about the specific roles and duties of guest Starfleet characters, especially flag officers.

More often than not, they serve a dramatic purpose for the storyline of a given episode, nothing more.

Occasionally a particular character or performance resonates and the role is felt worthy of reviving in another episode — although, in doing so, the characters are not always used consistently.

Ross might have been an exception as that particular part of DS9’s run was all about the war and it made sense for Sisko’s commanding admiral to become a more fixed recurring character.

Admiral Toddman of Starfleet Security in DS9 is another example of a more “specific” admiral role, albeit in a one-off appearance — this serves a dramatic purpose in the story of the episode and, to emphasise this, he is (uniquely) even given a specific mustard coloured Services division uniform to clearly identify his association with Lt Cdr Eddington, rather than Sisko.

If I recall correctly, Katrina Cornwell wasn’t originally intended to become quite such a recurring character but it turned into one of those resonance moments — and the writers decided to keep bringing her back.

I’m quite glad they did as I like the character and I like Jayne Brook’s portrayal of her.

Yes, she clearly has had some background in psychology and trauma counselling — but, as others have pointed out, this may have been many years or even decades ago by the time of Discovery seasons 1 and 2.

If she had the right potential and skill-set, there is no reason to assume that she couldn’t have chosen to move on from that. It would certainly seem consistent with a very “Starfleet” egalitarian and meritocratic approach. For all we know, she has been a command officer with vast leadership experience for twenty years by the time we first meet her.

Whatever her specific assigned roles might have been, it’s also not unreasonable to suggest that her initial responsibilities prior to the Klingon war may have been different during the war and may have reverted or may be different again after the war.

As a final thought regarding the medal ceremony at the end of S1, it’s all too common for writers on TV shoes to use established characters in such roles rather than include new characters, with whom the audience are not familiar and who don’t have established relationships with either the regular characters or the viewers. It may make little sense in-universe if you consider it in depth but it helps the more casual viewer recognise the character and their general position and it also saves the need for further casting...!!

 

[Tuskin38]

Tonight’s episode

Spoiler

So it seems like she isn’t directly connected to S31

 

[Timo]

Pretty sure she referred to it when speaking to Lorca in season one?

Not exactly. The only real reference to Cornwell's past is when Lorca says "Are we in session? I didn't know you were practicing again." in the pillow talk scene of "Lethe".

There's nothing to connect Cornwell the psychiatrist with Cornwell the Starfleet officer in the dialogue yet. Not unless today's episode adds something.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tim Thomason]

For some reason, I thought it was bought up in Season 1 that Cornwell never held a starship command before, but I couldn't find it mentioned in the relevant scenes when she briefly took over Discovery, so it was either something from BTS or more likely some fanon assumption I picked up here.

 

[Timo]

In any case, Cornwell is shaping up as the gravest threat to UFP security so far. When S31 and an advanced AI try to take over, Cornwell's reaction is to commandeer a starship and blast her way in so that she can be in control!

Perhaps the sole mechanism by which Cornwell's psychologist/psychiatrist past affects her Starfleet career is that it gives her the skills needed to manipulate her way to the very top?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DaveyNY]

She didn't even know that Control was controlling her, till they found the dead folks at the station.

Control had been feeding her lies for at least two weeks, probably longer.

 

[DEWLine]

So: Special Operations Command as Cornwell's turf within the admiralty, then?

 

[Timo]

I'd argue the opposite.

Cornwell: "The admirals who run Section 31 haven't responded to me in weeks. Their threat assessment system, Control, isn't accepting my data input codes anymore."
Pike: "Any idea who programmed it to shut you out?"
Cornwell: "Admiral Patar. She's a logic extremist. Frankly, I find her fanaticism worrying. Once the signals appeared, she started lobbying Starfleet to turn its decision-making entirely over to Control. Control is a great resource. Every Starfleet admiral feeds data into it.
We consider its recommendations."

A separate bunch of Admirals runs Section 31. Their rank pins don't put them beneath Cornwell; if anything, Patar appears to be a full four-laurel Admiral and thus outranks Cornwell. So these may be expected to respond to Cornwell, but they can't be expected to answer to her in the hierarchical sense.

The bunch seems a bit much for merely holding the S31 leash. Might be S31 is one of their chattel as part of the greater SF Intel community. But Cornwell is not one of the bunch.

That Cornwell is a user of Control services, and now shut out, merely puts her level with "every Starfleet admiral". That she knows a thing or two about S31, its forward operating base and so forth doesn't yet make her more an insider than the rest, either.

So far, Cornwell has done very special things indeed. But utilizing the unique Discovery for unique missions is an artifact of the Discovery, not of Cornwell. If the only way to conduct the Klingon war is via the Discovery, then an admiral in general charge would use that asset, not just an admiral in specific charge of shady stuff. The one independently shady thing she did was help Sarek negotiate with the enemy in "Lethe", but that was only because she happened to be there...

Vice Admiral rank would qualify Cornwell for "sector command" in TNG era terms - the three laurels would match those of, say, Ross. Or Nakamura, or Rollman, or any of the bosses directly associated with a specific starbase. Then again, Vice Admiral is fine for "theater command", too, as with Haden who seemed to be the go-to man for Romulan affairs, or Nechayev who dabbled in everything relating to the Maquis and the Cardassians.

But Cornwell could still be special ops if need be, keeping good company with Vice Admiral Cornell West from STVI:TUC...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

I still don't understand how she ever went from ships' counsellor (which Culber deseprately needs right now, where's Disco's?) to admiral with command over starships. There are several important steps missing

DSC isn't your daddy's Trek, dude. No silly counselors allowed here. Discovery goes hard and keeps it on and on.