Lorca is a coward and murderer, how come he's a Starfleet Captain still??

[Refuge]

I never really had the benefit of watching Enterprise which is pre-Discovery. So is one to believe that Discovery, set ten years before Kirk etc. represents a time in Federation history where you can kill your whole crew and you get another shipload of suckers to fly around with? Where you can be charged for mutiny and end up back in uniform essentially making deal breaking decisions concerning secret technology?

These are not small incidents, with questionable sacrfice being made. A whole crew. A whole.. war. That's big time.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'll wait until I get the whole story before I call Lorca a coward. Though with the information we have it doesn't look good.
Tom Paris was charged with and convicted of treason and got back in because he was needed. So it's possible

 

[Greg Cox]

Lorca was getting results. During a war, that counts.

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

And we don't know the specific details of how that ship went down by his hand. Any number of reasons could have be vindicating in the court martial, if not by his soul.

 

[Cyrus]

Starfleet is trying to win a freaking war against a deadly enemy. They obviously view Lorca as someone that can help them do that. What was the DS9 episode title, translated from latin: In times of war ........

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Lorca destroyed the ship to prevent his crew from falling into the hands of the Klingons. In his view it was better than the fate that awaits them. In fairness, starfleet captains have been threatening to blow up their ships and crews since TOS. The issue is that the Captain usually goes down with the ship. We're never given a explanation as to how Lorca escaped or where he was when the Buran was destroyed. If he was on the ship and ordered the self destruct, surely more of the crew would have had a chance to abandon ship. It doesn't make sense. There's more to the story than what we've been told. I'll wait for the rest of the story before passing judgement.

 

[ichab]

Lorca destroyed the ship to prevent his crew from falling into the hands of the Klingons. In his view it was better than the fate that awaits them. In fairness, starfleet captains have been threatening to blow up their ships and crews since TOS. The issue is that the Captain usually goes down with the ship. We're never given a explanation as to how Lorca escaped or where he was when the Buran was destroyed. If he was on the ship and ordered the self destruct, surely more of the crew would have had a chance to abandon ship. It doesn't make sense. There's more to the story than what we've been told. I'll wait for the rest of the story before passing judgement.

This. If we've learned one thing so far after five episodes it's that not everything is as it appears. This is certainly the least predictable Trek show I've seen in awhile

 

[Refuge]

The bitter irony is that this reveal was made when Lorca was facing the very threat he apparently spared his crew from - Klingon torture. How come he didn't off himself like he chose to do for others? Spare himself the pain and any fighting chance for life? Different rule for him..

 

[Phily B]

We'll find out in future episodes.

 

[marsh8472]

Captain Tracey, Captain Ransom, Captain Maxwell, unfortunately these things happen.

 

[Refuge]

With Lorca this is not just what happened at least as we know so far, and of which he did not deny. If the end moment was that it just happened.. examples Tracey and Ransom, then the accountability for that was one had psychiatric care and the other died. I'm more questioning the chain that has Lorca remaining a Starfleet Captain. That's absurd.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wait and see.

 

[bookworm8571]

Lorca probably saved his crew from a fate worse than death by blowing them up. Torture probably would have been the least of it. It also prevented the Klingons from getting valuable tactical information from the crew and the ship.

It isn’t clear why he escaped or how. I doubt he did it because of cowardice. Based on what we’ve seen of him, this is a guy who is deliberately punishing himself by not having the eyes fixed. His eyes were damaged in that explosion; it reminds him every moment of the choice he made. He chose his own pain.

This is a captain who makes the hard choices even when it could cost him.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I fully believe Lorca didn't tell Starfleet what he did.

 

[Refuge]

Lorca probably saved his crew from a fate worse than death by blowing them up. Torture probably would have been the least of it. It also prevented the Klingons from getting valuable tactical information from the crew and the ship.

A fate worse than death? How come he didn't kill himself when he had to choose his pain? Least he got to choose. What about the big secrets he was keeping as a Captain and regards the spore tech? Perhaps Suru should've blown up Lorca instead of trying to save him? Probably would have got a sweet promotion out of it..

 

[marsh8472]

Maybe he's still not telling the whole truth about why he killed his former crew. We only have his word to go on.

 

[JWPlatt]

Lorca is a coward and murderer, how come he's a Starfleet Captain still??

Because he's on the fast track to the traditional Starfleet Admiral.

 

[Longinus]

With Lorca this is not just what happened at least as we know so far, and of which he did not deny. If the end moment was that it just happened.. examples Tracey and Ransom, then the accountability for that was one had psychiatric care and the other died. I'm more questioning the chain that has Lorca remaining a Starfleet Captain. That's absurd.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. His justification is utterly absurd, he himself escapes Klingon captivity in the same episode in which he talks about this massacre. And it is completely surreal he would be allowed to be a captain after that, and I really don't want to watch Star Trek where the Federation allows that.

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

Perhaps what Lorca said was true...from a certain point of view.

 

[bookworm8571]

A fate worse than death? How come he didn't kill himself when he had to choose his pain? Least he got to choose. What about the big secrets he was keeping as a Captain and regards the spore tech? Perhaps Suru should've blown up Lorca instead of trying to save him? Probably would have got a sweet promotion out of it..

This was a Kobiyashi Mari scenario, based on the way it was described. There wasn’t going to be a rescue or escape forthcoming for the people on his ship. I don’t think this is going to be a show that always has a miraculous escape or rescue in the nick of time. In war, people die. Lorca is the captain in the shadows who gets his hands dirty so other captains can be on the list of the brave and glorious.

I assume Lorca saw escape from the prison ship as still a viable possibility. It wasn’t a Kobiyashi Maru.