My absolute favorite character of Discovery is by far Paul Stamets. From being directly affected by the warp-drive-jump thing (sorry its late and can't remember its name), to having to save the day from Mudd, to giving arguably the biggest sacrifice in the destruction of the ship of the dead?! The character is definitely the best for me and I greatly look forward to seeing his character again in the future.
Stamets, the brain. Saru, the athlete. Ash, the basket case. Tilly, the princess. Burnham, the criminal. Sincerely, The Breakfast Club.
Lorca - being badass who can be good at times. Michael - pulling off the human vulcan thing. Ash - the good guy with something questionable.
Burnham Tyler Stamets Those three in the Mudd episode were awesome, I'll cry if we lose Tyler or Stamets, neither of them is safe imo. I like Tilly a lot too. Lorca and Saru ... meh. I still consider Lorca to be a villain, he blew up his old ship and killed his crew to spare them being captured by the klingons from the safety of a shuttle. Wow, thanks captain. Why didn't he blow himself up? Why didn't he strangle Tyler and then commmit suicide when they were captured by the klingons? Apparently death is not an option when it involves him. Saru is just too alien for me, he's weird.
For me, it's Saru, Tilly, and Stamets. I love weird. Personally, Saru is my favorite. I mean, I have a soft spot the size of Jupiter for that character type, but everyone else seems all combative and dark and gritty, and a quiet, struggling-to-fit-in alien seems is a welcome difference. At first, I found Tilly annoying, but she grew on me, but on the other hand, I immediately took a shining to Stamets.
Of the options in the poll: Burnham Stamets Saru Though Georgiou was my absolute favourite... I instantly liked her. I had to expand my exclusive group of favourite starship captains first time in (about) thirty years.
Lorca Stamets Tyler I'm struggling in general with truly liking the characters on Discovery. However, there's no denying Isaacs' screen presence and dark charisma, and he is at least intriguing as a character. Stamets I do quite like as well as he has a challenging and interesting role. I was not a fan of Ash Tyler until 'Despite Yourself'. Suddenly I just warmed to him and this struggle, which if played right could become one of the most interesting conflicts in the show and he could be a genuinely sympathetic character, which isn't really the case for someone like Burnham who just ... yeah, doesn't do it for me at all.
Lorca is an interesting character played by a very good actor. I don’t think he’s evil or necessarily from the Mirror Universe; he’s about shades of gray and the ends justify the means, etc. His PTSD and his punishing himself for the loss of his ship makes me less likely to think he’s Mirror Lorca. He reminds me a bit of the actor’s Malfoy character from Harry Potter, very Slytherin. I like Stamets as a character and I appreciate his relationship with the doctor. Burnham doesn’t appeal to me, for whatever reason, though I do like her backstory and the idea of her as a character.
I'm interested in this comment. What do you think the reasons for her not appealing to you are? I only ask because I have a similar reaction and I have noticed a lot of people having a similar reaction and I want to figure out why Burnham is just not a good character. Because in theory there could be a character with a mutineer past, the notorious first officer in Starfleet to rebel, and maybe someone who was responsible for igniting a war...and they could be a fascinating character. I'm not sure those things negate her being interesting. But I feel that the way they have pulled it off is just awkward, clumsy and makes it impossible to really invest in the character. For example, there was just not enough justification for why she did what she did, it never made sense and it was never justified on a plot or character level enough to really be 'with' her in it.. Furthermore I don't think there is any need or interest in her being raised on Vulcan. They don't seem to know what to do with that and all it is doing is making Sonequa Martin-Green have to act stiff and bland all the time. It is so difficult for actors to play Vulcans, I get it - it's a special skill that very few beyond obviously Leonard Nimoy have been able to do with success. I don't think Burnham's Vulcan side is working, frankly, because it is being handled clumsily and Sonequa Martin-Green maybe doesn't know what to do with it as an actor. I hope to come to like Burnham over time because I am very worried seeing how much everyone primarily just seems to enjoy Lorca in this thread (and elsewhere) - and what if they really do kill him off and we are stuck with a character few like as the protagonist...
Stamets needs to get out of his present state ("present" as of the current episode Despite Yourself). I like the character a lot when "Stamets is being Stamets", but he's quite boring in his present altered state.