Star Trek has
always embraced the conceit that the lead character of the series would have an unrealistically profound impact on the course of events in interstellar history.
I mean, somehow the same dude who discovered how to make Federation starships reliable travel through time,
also was present at the Klingon occupation of Organia that led to the imposed peace treaty,
also happened to uncover a Klingon Intelligence operative who had infiltrated the highest levels of the Federation government while simultaneously discovering that agent had poisoned a vital grain shipment,
and also was the first captain to make contact with and defeat the Romulans in combat in over a century,
and stole the Romulan cloaking device,
and made first contact with a semi-major interstellar state in the Gorn Hegemony,
and was vital to the admission of Coridan to the Federation while uncovering an Orion spy within the Andorian delegation to the Babel Conference,
and saved Earth from V'Ger,
and prevented the Genesis Device from falling into both the hands of a terrorist
and the hands of the Klingon Empire,
and saved Earth (again!) from a probe,
and saved the Federation President from assassination while ensuring that a peace treaty that would change the face of local space was signed,
and he found God at the center of the galaxy?
Somehow the same dude who made first contact with the Q
also made first contact with the Ferengi and
also made first contact with the Borg,
and was so impressive to the Q that he became the Federation's main point of contact with the Q,
and was so impressive the Borg decided to target him specifically for assimilation into their speaker,
and he uncovered a major alien parasite infiltration of the Federation,
and he was so impressive that the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire appointed him to install the next Chancellor,
and he came up with the plan that proved the Romulans were supplying the House of Duras during the Klingon Civil War,
and he teamed up with Spock to stop a Romulan invasion of Vulcan,
and he was so impressive that he was able to lend Sarek his mental discipline to get through a negotiation session,
and he saved Earth from aliens meddling in its past (twice), one of whom were the Borg (again!),
and he was the only guy who was able to tell the fleet where to fire on the Borg cube to destroy it in Earth orbit,
and he stopped the Federation from violating the Prime Directive,
and he teamed up with Kirk,
and he was so impressive that he was targeted for cloning and replacement by the Romulans,
and his clone grew up to become obsessed with him?
Somehow the dude appointed to command what everyone thought would be a backwater starbase in orbit of a shithole planet was the guy who discovered the only stable wormhole in the galaxy,
and the first linear entity to make contact with the Wormhole Aliens,
and he became the Bajoran equivalent of the Messiah,
and he made first contact with the Dominion,
and he saved the Detapa Council from the Klingon invasion,
and he led the war against the Klingons,
and he personally tricked the Romulans into entering the war,
and he defeated two different reactionary nationalist movements on Bajor,
and he personally got exposed Dominion infiltration of the highest levels of the Klingon government,
and he personally got the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire -- the one installed by the
other unrealistically accomplished dude -- to re-sign onto the Khitomer Accords (the peace treaty that was saved by that
first unrealistically accomplished dude),
and he personally defeated a military coup against the Federation President,
and he led the Federation and its allies to victory against the Dominion,
and he defeated the Bajoran equivalent of Satan and was ascended into the Bajoran equivalent of Heaven like the Prophet Muhammed in Islam or Jesus after the Resurrection?
Archer basically founded the Federation single-handedly. Janeway basically defeated the entire Borg by herself (with some help
from herself). I could go on.
I mean, seriously, the idea that the series lead would have a major impact on interstellar history is just a standard conceit of the
Star Trek franchise. And by the standards of the prior series leads, Burnham's accomplishments are still pretty tame -- all she's really done so far is end a war she accidentally started and kept a ship out of reach of a malevolent A.I.
I look forward to her re-founding the Federation, defeating all the Borg everywhere by herself (possibly with help
from herself), personally installing a foreign leader, making first contact with the most important interstellar powers in the galaxy, saving the Federation government from foreign infiltration and assassination, safeguarding peace conferences that change the shape of the galaxy, finding Space God, defeating Space Satan, and then ascending into Space Heaven.
