Yes, it would be a bad thing. Mary Wiseman is one of the best performers on the show and she has not only served consistently as the emotional center of the crew as well as a convenient audience surrogate, she's been effortlessly able to portray a kind of comic relief that no one was able to in her absence and I'm surely not the only one who actively felt the empty space she left behind. Her talents would be wasted on what would effectively be a just bunch of cameos and reaction shots that could be shot over a day the same way Tig Notaro's scenes were this year. And despite how much they tried to force Adira to become "the Tilly" in her stead, they were, no offense to Blu del Barrio, a really lousy replacement, because they showed only the awkwardness but none of the energy or the bubbly charm, and couldn't even properly utilize or sometimes even remember the fact they have a freaking Trill symbiont in their abdominal cavity.
And why would Tilly even need to "grow as a person" while absent for a whole season? Hasn't she grown enough already? She spent the entire third season becoming more confident under Saru's wings, then her whole arc in Season 4 was the logical conclusion of her growing up and finally finding her place. The only reason I can imagine her being absent for a whole season to get some off-screen character development would be if she was so unlikable or written into a corner to a degree that she needed to be retooled completely, which I'm definitely not seeing in her. And even if we so sorely needed to discard one of the main characters of the show to allow the Joe Careys and Ayalas and Michael Eddingtons and Broiks of this cast "enough time to be fleshed out", why must it be Tilly specifically?
Mainly because, based on the events of S4, Tilly currently is on a path where she does not serve on a starship. Having her go back to Discovery right away in S5 feels like a step backwards for her and suggests her new career choice isn’t what she wants to do after all.
But since having Tilly off the show is considered a bad decision, I don’t see how it would hurt to see her in action at Federation HQ, since it means she interacts with Vance, Willa, Rillak, Kovich, & Dr. Hirai, and whatever new faces she meets there. I just want her career advancement in S4 to matter.
Hmm, there's an idea, we know Saru was offered a command of his own earlier in the season, which he turned down so he could assist with the DMA mission. Maybe in season 5 have him commanding his own ship and have the rest of the main and supporting cast split between Disco and this new ship. If anything, this could help with the aforementioned need for 32nd century worldbuilding, showing what life is like on a 32nd century Starfleet ship. And having the focus be on two ships could be different from the Star Trek normal to be new and innovative.
It would help to see members of the crew move on to new assignments, including Saru getting his own command. It’s been seen a handful of times over the franchise.
- Kirk to Chief of Starfleet Operations
- Spock to Starfleet Academy
- Chekov to the Reliant
- Scotty & Sulu to Excelsior
- Beverly Crusher to Starfleet Medical (x2)
- O’Brien & Worf to DS9
- Janeway to Starfleet Command
- Trip with Columbia (albeit briefly)
In addition, one of the Short Treks, ”Ask Not”, suggest that Starfleet is content assigning spouses on separate ships and could be explored more through Stamets and Culber. The writers will try to be dramatic and split certain friendships up if they are on separate ships (i.e Owo & Detmer& the entire middle decks gang), and staff Saru’s ship with mostly Kelpians to build upon their development and membership with the Federation.
There’s also a matter as to where these ships get assigned, so that they don’t run into each other; that was what the Berman era was hoping to avoid with the Ent-D, DS9 and Voyager. Saru’s ship might stay close to Federation space so he can stay close to T’Rina, while Discovery visits somewhere remote and far from Federation territory (Deep Space 253?).
