Discovery is modelling itself after Prestige/Peak TV and, with that in mind, I've noticed some similarities and parallels between Captain Lorca and Don Draper. I wonder how much of an inspiration Don Draper was for crafting Lorca?
I don't know if you've seen Mad Men but in the first season, we find out that Don Draper the suave, mysterious, philandering 1960s New York ad-man and Creative Director of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency isn't who he says he is.
For anyone who already knows the details of Don's backstory, feel free to skip the next several paragraphs, until the next time I use bold.
He started off as a poor hick out in coal country whose real name is Dick Whitman. His birth-mother was a prostitute and his parents always reminded him he was a "whore child". His life wasn't that great (to put it mildly), he had no real future, and he joined the army to get away from it all. He was sent to Korea at the beginning of the Korean War.
Dick Whitman was out in the battle-field with a battalion of a grand total of two people: himself and his CO (the real Don Draper). Dick was scared piss-less. Literally. The Koreans attacked, throwing grenades, and they ran for cover in a ditch. After the attack let up, Dick took out a cigarette, threw down the cigarette, the urine caught fire, IIRC, worked its way to a grenade then the Real Don Draper was caught in the explosion and burned beyond recognition.
Dick Whitman, who already didn't want to be there, and was traumatized, swapped dog tags with the now burned, charred and unrecognizable Don Draper and everyone now thought he was Don Draper and that it was Dick Whitman who died.
Did I need to type all that out? No, but I like telling the story. So anyway... "Dick Whitman" is buried and his family thinks he's dead. Whereas "Don Draper" was near end of his tour of duty and was sent home to recover from his minor injuries.
So, with no more Korean War to worry about, being discharged from the service, and having severed all ties to his past, "Don Draper" (no quotations from here on out) was free to start a new life with a new identity from scratch and, over the next 10 years, worked his way up to being the New York Ad Man we know him to be in the series.
End of recapping Don Draper's Past. On with the show and the comparison to Discovery.
Don Draper has lied about who he is, he's masquerading as a dead man, and lied to work his way into a position of authority (how he got his job is a whole other story that I didn't recap). He also escaped -- no, deserted -- a war.
Captain Lorca is a Terran pretending to be a Human, he's masquerading as a dead man (possibly and very most likely), and by pretending to be someone else, effectively lied his way into a position of authority as Captain of Discovery.
By making it sound like he was the sole survivor of the Buran -- it's not an exact parallel -- but it also makes Lorca arguably look like a deserter. Similar to Don Draper deserting Korea.
Finally, Lorca tries to keep who he is a secret from Cornwell just like Don tries to keep who he is a secret from his wife, Betty. But both Cornwell and Betty know there's something going with their lovers and they can't really tell who their partners really are.
I don't know if you've seen Mad Men but in the first season, we find out that Don Draper the suave, mysterious, philandering 1960s New York ad-man and Creative Director of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency isn't who he says he is.
For anyone who already knows the details of Don's backstory, feel free to skip the next several paragraphs, until the next time I use bold.
He started off as a poor hick out in coal country whose real name is Dick Whitman. His birth-mother was a prostitute and his parents always reminded him he was a "whore child". His life wasn't that great (to put it mildly), he had no real future, and he joined the army to get away from it all. He was sent to Korea at the beginning of the Korean War.
Dick Whitman was out in the battle-field with a battalion of a grand total of two people: himself and his CO (the real Don Draper). Dick was scared piss-less. Literally. The Koreans attacked, throwing grenades, and they ran for cover in a ditch. After the attack let up, Dick took out a cigarette, threw down the cigarette, the urine caught fire, IIRC, worked its way to a grenade then the Real Don Draper was caught in the explosion and burned beyond recognition.
Dick Whitman, who already didn't want to be there, and was traumatized, swapped dog tags with the now burned, charred and unrecognizable Don Draper and everyone now thought he was Don Draper and that it was Dick Whitman who died.
Did I need to type all that out? No, but I like telling the story. So anyway... "Dick Whitman" is buried and his family thinks he's dead. Whereas "Don Draper" was near end of his tour of duty and was sent home to recover from his minor injuries.
So, with no more Korean War to worry about, being discharged from the service, and having severed all ties to his past, "Don Draper" (no quotations from here on out) was free to start a new life with a new identity from scratch and, over the next 10 years, worked his way up to being the New York Ad Man we know him to be in the series.
End of recapping Don Draper's Past. On with the show and the comparison to Discovery.
Don Draper has lied about who he is, he's masquerading as a dead man, and lied to work his way into a position of authority (how he got his job is a whole other story that I didn't recap). He also escaped -- no, deserted -- a war.
Captain Lorca is a Terran pretending to be a Human, he's masquerading as a dead man (possibly and very most likely), and by pretending to be someone else, effectively lied his way into a position of authority as Captain of Discovery.
By making it sound like he was the sole survivor of the Buran -- it's not an exact parallel -- but it also makes Lorca arguably look like a deserter. Similar to Don Draper deserting Korea.
Finally, Lorca tries to keep who he is a secret from Cornwell just like Don tries to keep who he is a secret from his wife, Betty. But both Cornwell and Betty know there's something going with their lovers and they can't really tell who their partners really are.
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