No she wasn't. Detmer was never treated as anything more than what she was, a recurring character. Of all the bridge characters, she may have gotten the most dialogue, but her status was never anything other than the other bridge characters. That you mistook Detmer as a main cast member is on you, completely.
I never mistook Detmer for a main cast member. I was just saying why people could have been confused by her.
Basically, Trek has in the past had three classes of characters:
1. Main characters credited in the opening titles.
2. Guest characters who got some serious lines. In the later series (DS9 in particular) they often became recurring.
3. Uncredited, silent extras who often didn't even have their character's names mentioned in the script.
The DIS bridge characters are sort of midway between two and three. They are always around, mentioned by name, and occasionally get lines, but they have no story role. The closest analogue in a previous Trek series I can think of is Morn, but he was really a joke, not a character.
It's just weird to have the same character constantly floating about Burnham and never really have anything come of it. If there was someone different in all of the various scenes - like say if they hadn't shown her partying in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad - I woudln't really think about it. But she's always there, doing something (no matter how small) in every episode, which means you cannot help but wonder about her as a character.
The Vorik role was a "recurring guest star", that status cast can be given major support roles or even a storyline. The Ogawa character was a recurring character, just like the DSC bridge characters. I don't recall the Ogawa character ever getting more than rudimentary dialogue, just like the DSC bridge characters. If you do, please refresh my memory.
Lower Decks of course. IIRC Picard and Beverly gossiped about her relationship status when she was offscreen as well. Her pregnancy saved the crew in Genesis as well. She was treated as a character (albeit a secondary one), not a piece of medbay furniture.
Wait, weren't you the one complaining early on in season 1 that there weren't enough scenes where characters conversed one on one? Or were you the one complaining early in season 1 about there being too much group talk? Can't remember. Frankly, I think one on one conversations tend to be much more effective, dramatic, funny, etc.
No, not me.
I honestly didn't notice how dialogue was structured until late in the season, but once I did, I couldn't unsee it. It was particularly glaring in the second-to-last episode of the season, where essentially every single seen was a one-on-one conversation between two characters.
Obviously a lot of drama is going to involve these sort of one on one discussions. But in previous Treks there were always scenes with group dynamics. TOS's classic away missions tended to involve Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. In the later series interactions on the bridge, meeting rooms, and when dining were generally multi-character affairs. DIS used these scenes very sparingly - usually with something like Ash and Burnham in the mess hall and Tilly as the third wheel occasionally interjecting something goofy.
I remember scenes where Georgiou and Burnham talked, scenes where Burnham and Tilly talked, short scenes where Burnham talked to Landry, scenes where MU Georgiou talked to Burnham, .
The article I was linking to was saying - at least as of the end of Act 1 - that women seldom interacted on Discovery - basically never unless it was another women talking to Burnham. Which of course is understandable given it was the Micheal Burnham show to a large extent.
