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* TeamDad: As he grows into his role as Captain, Saru takes a very paternalistic attitude to his subordinates, gently supporting and encouraging them as needed, while not being afraid to give a DisappointedInYou speech if that is what's called for.
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* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: As Tilly gets more comfortable with and confident in herself, and grows to be accepted among the crew of ''Discovery'', she lets her hair loose from the severe bun to fly free, just as she lets her personality fly free.
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* TheEmpath: Burnham describes him as an empath, and he has psychic powers, focused through a kind of ritual, to communicate with plants and animals.
* GreenThumb: One of the uses of his empathic abilities is to encourage the growth of plants.
* GreenThumb: One of the uses of his empathic abilities is to encourage the growth of plants.
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* SilkHidingSteel: While she seems just overjoyed to have Harry back, willing to forgive him anything if she can just have him again, even stating she understands he's not perfect and loves him anyway, she quickly shows she's not his ExtremeDoormat. When Harry says he can't possibly explain where he's been and what he's been doing, she firmly grabs a fistful of his coat, yanks him closer, and says in an icy, threatening tone, "Try."
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* BuryYourGays: Subverted. Tyler/Voq kills him, but Stamets later manages to resurrect him with the help of the JahSepp, a species living in the mycelial network.
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* BuryYourGays: Subverted. Tyler/Voq kills him, but Stamets later manages to resurrect him with the help of the JahSepp, [=JahSepp=], a species living in the mycelial network.
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* ThereAreNoTherapisits: So Culber takes it on himself to look after the mental wellbeing of the crew of ''Discovery'' after their 900-year time jump in addition to their physical care. Turns out he quite enjoys it and is rather good at it.
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* ThereAreNoTherapisits: ThereAreNoTherapists: So Culber takes it on himself to look after the mental wellbeing of the crew of ''Discovery'' after their 900-year time jump in addition to their physical care. Turns out he quite enjoys it and is rather good at it.
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** Averted in the second season, where he [[TookALevelInJerkass gets more moody and aggressive]] in the wake of coming BackFromTheDead.
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** Averted in the second season, where he [[TookALevelInJerkass gets more moody and aggressive]] in the wake of coming BackFromTheDead. The third season does show Mirror!Culber, though firmly OutOfFocus.
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When the snarky-yet-kind, laid-back Medical Officer gets belligerent with Tyler to the point of ''physically assaulting him'', everyone realizes he's really not handling being BackFromTheDead well. Beating the tar out of the man who murdered him helps, but Culber still has a way to go before he's really okay.
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* ThereAreNoTherapisits: So Culber takes it on himself to look after the mental wellbeing of the crew of ''Discovery'' after their 900-year time jump in addition to their physical care. Turns out he quite enjoys it and is rather good at it.
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* PsychoLesbian: ''Star Trek Online'' shows her fiance Amna Patel, the female security chief of the ''Buran''. As a result of losing her and the ''Buran'' in a Klingon attack (and likely not helped by serving under Mirror!Lorca), by the time we meet her on ''Discovery'' she's in this trope (though her sexuality doesn't come up in the series proper).
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* AllGaysLoveTheater: Stamets and Culber both seem to have a passion for theater (Culber in particular loves Kasseelian Opera, much to Stamets' dismay). Also counts as ActorAllusion, since both actors were known for their work on Broadway.
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* AllGaysLoveTheater: Both Stamets and Culber seem to have a passion for theater, with Culber's favorite being Kasseelian Opera (which he often inflicts upon a much-less-enthused Stamets). Also an ActorAllusion, as both actors were known for their work on Broadway prior to the show.
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* MeaningfulName: It's rather appropriate that the TokenReligiousTeammate is named "Christopher" (Christ-Bearer).
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** His intense curiosity about the people of New Eden and their potpourri faith shows that, while he may not be religious himself, he is fascinated by religion, and specifically how these people successfully mingled so many different faiths into one.
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* BigBeautifulWoman: Tilly is noticeably more heavyset than usual for Starfleet personnel, and is portrayed as no less attractive than the other female characters.
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* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Downplayed, as her inherent social awkwardness applies, but she seems to like parties and drinking. In the climax of season two, she even performs a critical repair with her eyes closed because she did it once blindfolded as part of a bar bet. Upon succeeding, she quips that she's owed a beer.
* TheHeart: The most open and caring person on the ship, she is in many ways the glue that binds the crew of ''Discovery'' together. Especially prominent when she offers emotional support to Ash after his true identity as Voq is revealed in Season One, and in Season Three when the entire command staff agrees that, rank and seniority aside, they would willing follow her as First Officer of ''Discovery''.
* TheHeart: The most open and caring person on the ship, she is in many ways the glue that binds the crew of ''Discovery'' together. Especially prominent when she offers emotional support to Ash after his true identity as Voq is revealed in Season One, and in Season Three when the entire command staff agrees that, rank and seniority aside, they would willing follow her as First Officer of ''Discovery''.
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* NiceGuy: He's the one member of ''Discovery'''s command crew who doesn't really have any major AntiHero tendencies and carries himself like a straight-edge Federation officer.
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* Foil: To Gabriel Lorca. While Lorca was a (seemingly) morally ambiguous man who was willing to push the envelope of what Starfleet could do, only to be a massive bigot and xenophobe who wanted to conquer an entire empire via a coup because he felt it's leadership was being ''too'' soft, Pike is a morally upstanding and easily personable Captain that believes in the ideals of Starfleet, even if he's all too aware of some of the more morally grey things the organization does.
to:
* Foil: {{Foil}}: To Gabriel Lorca. While Lorca was a (seemingly) morally ambiguous man who was willing to push the envelope of what Starfleet could do, only to be a massive bigot and xenophobe who wanted to conquer an entire empire via a coup because he felt it's leadership was being ''too'' soft, Pike is a morally upstanding and easily personable Captain that believes in the ideals of Starfleet, even if he's all too aware of some of the more morally grey things the organization does.
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* UndyingLoyalty: To the Federation, as demonstrated by his keeping a forty-year vigil in the hope that he'd meet someone from the Federation. He's delighted when Burnham shows up to ask for his help, and even more so when he reaches Federation Headquarters.
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* UndyingLoyalty: To the Federation, as demonstrated by his keeping a forty-year vigil in the hope that he'd meet someone from the Federation. He's delighted when Burnham shows up to ask for his help, and even more so when he reaches Federation Headquarters.Headquarters and is officially commissioned as a Starfleet Lieutenant.
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A Kelpien who was trapped in the Verubin Nebula for almost his entire life. It turns out that he was inadvertantly the cause of The Burn.
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A Kelpien who was trapped in the Verubin Nebula for almost his entire life. It turns out that [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom he was inadvertantly the cause of The Burn.Burn]].
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos designed to educate him, and all he's ever known is the holographic equivalent of a 90s PC activity center.
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos designed to educate him, and all he's ever known (that he isn't intentionally avoiding due to trauma) is the holographic equivalent of a 90s PC activity center.
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos designed to educate him.
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos designed to educate him.him, and all he's ever known is the holographic equivalent of a 90s PC activity center.
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* MidSeasonUpgrade: In season 3, once the crew reunites with the Federation and prove themselves, the ship is retrofitted and enhanced with 32nd century Federation tech. The improved ship is re-designated ''NCC-1031-A'' and has detached nacelles, programmable matter control panels, a [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking device]], and an improved Spore Drive interface that no longer requires Stamets to directly plug himself to the ship, finally allowing him to make Spore Jumps without pain.
to:
* MidSeasonUpgrade: In season 3, once the crew reunites with the Federation and prove themselves, the ship is retrofitted and enhanced with 32nd century Federation tech. The improved ship is re-designated ''NCC-1031-A'' and has detached nacelles, programmable matter control panels, a [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking device]], and an improved Spore Drive interface that no longer requires Stamets to directly plug himself to the ship, finally allowing him to make Spore Jumps without pain. This particular upgrade also allows Book (and possibly other Kwejian) to interface with the Spore Drive.
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* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when he asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyraa for good, and places her in command of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
to:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's wants -- it's when he asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped.pear-shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyraa for good, and places her in command of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos.
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* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos.holos designed to educate him.
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A human with amnesia and a curious knowledge of 23nd-century technology. They join ''Discovery'', with the permission of the UEDF, to find out about the past of their Trill symbiont, Tal.
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A human with amnesia and a curious knowledge of 23nd-century 23rd-century technology. They join ''Discovery'', with the permission of the UEDF, to find out about the past of their Trill symbiont, Tal.
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Changed line(s) 1202,1209 (click to see context) from:
%%
%%[[folder:Su'Kal]]
%%!!Su'Kal
%%
%%-> '''Played by:''' Creator/BillIrwin
%%
%%[[/folder]]
%%[[folder:Su'Kal]]
%%!!Su'Kal
%%
%%-> '''Played by:''' Creator/BillIrwin
%%
%%[[/folder]]
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%%[[folder:Su'Kal]]
%%!!Su'Kal
%%
%%->
[[folder:Su'Kal]]
!!Su'Kal
-> '''Played by:'''
%%
%%[[/folder]]
A Kelpien who was trapped in the Verubin Nebula for almost his entire life. It turns out that he was inadvertantly the cause of The Burn.
----
* {{Manchild}}: Not surprising, as his mother died when he was a child and he had no one to raise him except a bunch of holos.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: His biological mutations, the bizarre environment where he was trapped, and the death of his mother led to the worst galactic cataclysm ever known, and he had no way of knowing about it.
[[/folder]]
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%%
%%[[folder:Su'Kal]]
%%!!Su'Kal
%%
%%-> '''Played by:''' Creator/BillIrwin
%%
%%[[/folder]]
%%[[folder:Su'Kal]]
%%!!Su'Kal
%%
%%-> '''Played by:''' Creator/BillIrwin
%%
%%[[/folder]]
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* SignificantWardrobeShift: From a UEDF uniform to a Starfleet uniform at the end of season 3.
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Changed line(s) 635 (click to see context) from:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when he asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyra for good, and places her in charge of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
to:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when he asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyra Osyraa for good, and places her in charge command of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
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[[folder:Lieutenant Aditya Sahil]]
!!Lieutenant Aditya Salil
-> '''Played by:''' Adil Hussain
A Federation loyalist who starts out monitoring an isolated outpost. He eventually becomes a commissioned Starfleet officer at Federation Headquarters.
----
* UndyingLoyalty: To the Federation, as demonstrated by his keeping a forty-year vigil in the hope that he'd meet someone from the Federation. He's delighted when Burnham shows up to ask for his help, and even more so when he reaches Federation Headquarters.
[[/folder]]
!!Lieutenant Aditya Salil
-> '''Played by:''' Adil Hussain
A Federation loyalist who starts out monitoring an isolated outpost. He eventually becomes a commissioned Starfleet officer at Federation Headquarters.
----
* UndyingLoyalty: To the Federation, as demonstrated by his keeping a forty-year vigil in the hope that he'd meet someone from the Federation. He's delighted when Burnham shows up to ask for his help, and even more so when he reaches Federation Headquarters.
[[/folder]]
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* TooAwesomeToUse: Even by 32nd century standards, her spore drive is more advanced than the warp drive on other starships. As a result, Admiral Vance doesn't send her on supply runs like the other ships, but instead retains her as a "rapid responder" for critical situations.
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* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Control probably made this impossible, as all information about the ship and its crew had to be wiped to keep Control from destroying all organic life. And the MidSeasonUpgrade it received in the 32nd century has made the ship's return to its home time even more impossible, as doing so would violate the Temporal Prime Directive.]]
to:
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Control Control probably made this impossible, as all information about the ship and its crew had to be wiped to keep Control from destroying all organic life. And the MidSeasonUpgrade it received in the 32nd century has made the ship's return to its home time even more impossible, as doing so would violate the Temporal Prime Directive.]]
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* MagicMushroom: She has a cultivation bay full of magic space mushrooms, and she's designed to travel across the galaxy via the mycelial network of said mushrooms.
Changed line(s) 633 (click to see context) from:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when she asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyra for good, and places her in charge of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
to:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when she he asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyra for good, and places her in charge of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
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** Single-handedly destroys the Emerald Chain's flagship, the Viridian near the end of "That Hope Is You, Part 2" when it ejects and detonates its warp core while inside it.
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* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad. However,
to:
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad. However, it ends up being [[ReconstructedTrope reconstructed]] at the end of Season 3, when Vance acknowledges that her methods, though unorthodox, may not be the right way of doing things, but they still work.
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* OutOfFocus: Despite how prominently she featured in season trailers, as well as serving as a principal character in episodes early in the season, she was notably absent from various engineering crises after "An Obol for Charon" until she returned to relative prominence in "Through the Valley of Shadows" and both parts of "Such Sweet Sorrow".
to:
* OutOfFocus: Despite how prominently she featured in season trailers, as well as serving as a principal character in episodes early in the season, she was notably absent from various engineering crises after "An Obol for Charon" until she returned to relative prominence in "Through the Valley of Shadows" and both parts of "Such Sweet Sorrow". She mostly takes a back seat throughout most of Season 3, which Stamets even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] when he bumps into her again.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Detmer, especially around Season 3, when she helps the navigator get through her own set of traumas.
Changed line(s) 631 (click to see context) from:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off.
to:
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off. He's also willing to negotiate with Osyra to merge the Federation with the Emerald Chain, and he agrees to concede to a few details she wants--it's when she asks her to stand trial for her crimes as proof of her sincerity that things turned pear shaped. He also comes to respect Burnham's more questionable methods after she defeats Osyra for good, and places her in charge of ''Discovery'' on Saru's recommendation.
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* Foil: To Gabriel Lorca. While Lorca was a (seemingly) morally ambiguous man who was willing to push the envelope of what Starfleet could do, only to be a massive bigot and xenophobe who wanted to conquer an entire empire via a coup because he felt it's leadership was being ''too'' soft, Pike is a morally upstanding and easily personable Captain that believes in the ideals of Starfleet, even if he's all too aware of some of the more morally grey things the organization does.
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* NumberTwo: The first ''Trek'' series protagonist to be this instead of TheCaptain[[note]]Originally, Commander Riker was intended to be the protagonist of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''; however, he was playing opposite Creator/PatrickStewart and Things Happened. Commander Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine was a commander when he started out, but he was still the leader of the station and eventually was promoted to Captain.[[/note]]. Initially, she is the first officer to Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou'', before being stripped of rank and recruited by Captain Lorca aboard ''Discovery''. As of season 3, with Saru officially Captain of ''Discovery'', she is now his XO -- until "Scavengers", when she goes on a rogue mission and gets relieved of her duties as XO.
to:
* NumberTwo: The first ''Trek'' series protagonist to be this instead of TheCaptain[[note]]Originally, Commander Riker was intended to be the protagonist of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''; however, he was playing opposite Creator/PatrickStewart and Things Happened. Commander Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' was a commander when he started out, but he was still the leader of the station and eventually was promoted to Captain.[[/note]]. Initially, she is the first officer to Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou'', before being stripped of rank and recruited by Captain Lorca aboard ''Discovery''. As of season 3, with Saru officially Captain of ''Discovery'', she is now his XO -- until "Scavengers", when she goes on a rogue mission and gets relieved of her duties as XO. Then it becomes averted entirely when, after the Emerald Chain falls apart and with Saru on leave, she becomes the Captain[[note]]ironically in Season 3, as Sisko did when he became Captain[[/note]].
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* ReplacementGoldfish: Lorca tries to get her to stay in the MirrorUniverse and rule at his side as he was honestly in love with her Mirror counterpart, and has a great deal of respect for her, saying that Burnham is ''better'' than Mirror-Burnham was.
to:
* ReplacementGoldfish: Lorca tries to get her to stay in the MirrorUniverse and rule at his side as he was honestly in love with her Mirror counterpart, and has a great deal of respect for her, saying that Burnham is ''better'' than Mirror-Burnham was. Seeing as Mirror-Burnham was a traitorous sociopath and a sadist, he's not entirely wrong.
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* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad.
to:
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad. However,
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* PutOnABus: He takes a leave of absence from ''Discovery'' at the end of Season 3 to help Su'Kal on Kaminar and he hasn't decided if he intends to return.
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[[folder:Commander Michael Burnham]]
!!Commander Michael Burnham
!!Commander Michael Burnham
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** She is promoted to Captain at the end of the season 3 finale.
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* TheCaptain: Season 3 ends with her in command of ''Discovery''.
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!The Federation
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* WeUsedToBeFriends: Shades of this with Admiral Vance, because Vance had been close friends with [[TheNthDoctor Admiral Senna Tal]]. Vance makes it clear on their first meeting that this relationship does ''not'' extend to Adira Tal.
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* WeUsedToBeFriends: Shades of this with Admiral Vance, because Vance had been close friends with [[TheNthDoctor Admiral Senna Tal]]. In sharp contrast to the relationship between [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Captain Sisko and Dax]], Vance makes it clear on their first meeting that this relationship does ''not'' extend to Adira Tal.
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Character page for the United Federation of Planets in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. To return to the main character page, click '''[[Characters/StarTrekDiscovery here]]'''.
[[foldercontrol]]
!The Federation
!!Starfleet
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Discovery'' (NCC-1031 / NCC-1031-A)]]
[[folder:Captain Gabriel Lorca]]
!!Captain Gabriel Lorca
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/JasonIsaacs
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_lorca.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings."'']]
The commanding officer of U.S.S. ''Discovery'' in Season 1 and a respected military tactician within Starfleet... or so we are led to believe at first; he is really the Gabriel Lorca from the MirrorUniverse. His prime-universe counterpart formerly commanded the U.S.S. ''Buran'' before it was lost with all hands during a battle with the Klingons.
----
* AbsoluteXenophobe: He wants to take over the Terran Empire because the Emperor, who literally eats Kelpiens as a delicacy and deliberately rendered Qo'noS uninhabitable, apparently ''isn't xenophobic enough for his liking''.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: He fully admits to being pragmatic, ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to save the Federation, even if it means breaking a few rules. Secretly harboring the creature from the ''Glenn'', for instance. The ambiguous part is thrown out the window when he's revealed to be a Terran from the MirrorUniverse who is bad even by their standards. He's just really good at hiding it.
* AssholeVictim: When he is killed in episode 13, it feels very much deserved.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: As a brilliant military tactician, he has certainly earned his command.
* BadassLongcoat: Changes into civilian clothes including a knee-length leather coat after ''Discovery'' arrives in the MirrorUniverse and Lorca, Burnham, and Ash plan to infiltrate the Terran fleet with Lorca posing as Burnham's prisoner. He later gets thrown into an agonizer booth, takes over the Terran flagship, and gets into a martial arts battle with Mirror Georgiou all while still wearing the coat.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Holds this attitude since he knows what Klingons do to prisoners, which is (supposedly) why he destroyed his last command when it was ambushed by the Klingons.
* BigDamnHeroes: Saves the day as the architect of an impressive GunshipRescue of Corvan II. It's the first in a string of such feats.
* BloodKnight: Downplayed, but he does seem to have warmongering tendencies, at least compared to the more idealistic members of his crew, which makes complete sense once his MirrorUniverse origins are revealed.
* TheCaptain: Of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
* CharacterDeath: Killed by Mirror-Georgiou in "What's Past is Prologue".
* ConsummateLiar: Comes with being a ManipulativeBastard. For one thing, he managed to fool every psych test Starfleet put him through, maintaining a MaskOfSanity while suffering from crippling [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]]. He also successfully disguised his true nature as the MirrorUniverse version of Lorca.
* TheCorrupter: Will drop hints and tips to his crew about how to get around pesky Starfleet orders and regulations.
-->'''Lorca:''' ''[to the bridge crew after detailing how he's going to ignore an admiral's orders and make it look innocent] ...If you're planning on disobeying a direct order, best not to advertise the fact.
** This happens frequently enough that the crew is surprised when Lorca does something by the book.
--->'''Lorca:''' Notify Starfleet Command. Ask for orders.\\
'''Saru:''' ''[looks shocked]'' \\
'''Lorca:''' Is there a problem?\\
'''Saru:''' No sir. Uh, just in the past we have engaged in... alternative thinking on these matters.
** From almost the moment Burnham came on board, Lorca has been trying to subtly manipulate her into abandoning her Starfleet ideals and join him in the ruling the Terran Empire.
* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Lorca supposedly has a recent battle injury to his eyes that make bright lights and sudden dark-to-bright lighting changes painful and debilitating. In reality there's nothing wrong with his eyes; he's from the MirrorUniverse, where the humans there are naturally photosensitive compared to their Prime Universe counterparts.
* DeadpanSnarker: Gets a shot in at Stamets when Saru calls Burnham the smartest Starfleet officer he knows.
-->"And he knows ''you''."
* DeadPersonImpersonation: He winds up impersonating his MirrorUniverse counterpart, who is missing and presumed dead. It turns out that the reverse is true: this Lorca really ''is'' from the MirrorUniverse, and is impersonating his supposedly dead Prime Universe counterpart.
* DoWrongRight: His motivation against Emperor Georgiou. Despite the fact she is as brutal as they come, her keeping the aliens they've conquered as slaves is enough to convince Lorca that she's too soft to rule, and that he should take over so he can "properly" rule.
* TheDragon: He served as this to the Terran Emperor. She trusted him with her most sensitive missions and even her adoptive daughter.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He really did love the Michael Burnham of the MirrorUniverse, and sincerely wants the Prime Universe version to join him.
* EveryScarHasAStory: He has a mysterious triangle-shaped one on on his back. Turns out it is a scar from an agonizer, thus {{Foreshadowing}} his MirrorUniverse origins, as well as the fact that he was quite the dissident back in his own universe.
* EvilVirtues: Resourcefulness, ambition, valor, patience, and diligence in particular. He's willing to go to extreme lengths to carry out his true goals and puts on a very convincing front that often contradicts everything he believes. He is also, in a sense, genuinely loyal to Burnham and, in his own twisted way, loves her.
* FantasticRacism: Is xenophobic even by Terran Empire standards. He claims that he betrayed Georgiou because her policy of enslaving all aliens was too tolerant ''for him''. This makes it all the more impressive that he managed to work side-by-side with aliens, including having Saru as his NumberTwo.
* AFatherToHisMen: Takes a shine to Lt. Tyler very quickly and he refuses to abandon him, he also immediately agrees to help Michael find Sarek after she asks him. The loss of his last command weighs on him heavily. This is something of a half-truth, as he cares for his crew in the MirrorUniverse, not the loss of the ''Buran'' in the Prime Universe.
* FriendsWithBenefits: With Admiral Cornwell.
* GeniusBruiser: Brilliant military tactician and a badass with his fists. He's the brains and the brawn in a fight.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages, so this entry has been commented out. Add context before uncommenting. * ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: He turns out to have been the Gabriel Lorca from the MirrorUniverse impersonating him. The one from the prime universe is presumably dead.]]
* InappropriatelyCloseComrades: Has a friends-with-benefits relationship with Admiral Cornwell, his immediate superior officer who is also a psychiatrist that is assessing his mental fitness for command after he displays a pattern of reckless behavior.
* InTheBack: How the Emperor kills him.
* {{Irony}}: Lorca is really an imposter from the MirrorUniverse, but he fails to realize that Ash Tyler is an imposter as well, in the form of a heavily surgically-disguised Voq, who works his way into Lorca's trust very quickly -- even more remarkably so when one considers that Terran Empire officers like Mirror-Lorca are usually paranoid to a fault. Then again, that might be exactly why it was so easy for Tyler to gain his trust, since Lorca assumed that the moralistic and pacifist Prime Starfleet counterparts were too soft to be capable of betrayal. Not to mention the fact that Voq/Tyler really believed he was who he seemed to be, and not putting on a deliberate front like Lorca.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Despite his rather abrasive personality and questionable command status, Lorca does start showing something of a softer side towards Michael and it seems apparent that much of his harshness stems from [[JerkassWoobie the trauma of war and losing his entire previous crew]]. Not really: this is all a disguise for the fact that the Lorca we've been watching has been the MirrorUniverse version the entire time, and he's a manipulative, violent psychopath who's racist even by Terran Empire standards.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Lorca's ManipulativeBastard tendencies have always kept him a bit morally ambiguous, but once he fully reveals himself as actually being Mirror-Lorca, he proves himself in every way worse than the Emperor he's trying to overthrow.
* KillAndReplace: It's ambiguous, but in coming to the prime universe, he may have taken the place of his deceased counterpart. ExpandedUniverse material, however, indicates that the prime Gabriel Lorca is still alive somewhere in the MirrorUniverse.
* LoopholeAbuse: His mission grants him wide latitude to do whatever he needs to to accomplish it, and he decides that includes essentially hijacking Burnham out of prison and getting her on his crew.
* MadScientistLaboratory: Has his own personal hobby room filled with some of the deadliest and most illegal weapons in the galaxy, including guns, phaser rifles, disruptors, swords, daggers, bat'leths, poisons, and chemical and biological weapons. It also has exotic creatures (presumably test subjects) including Cardassian voles, tribbles (seen dissected on his lab table), a Horta, and the skeleton of a Gorn, as well as a containment pen for larger, more dangerous creatures where Ripper, the giant space tardigrade, is kept. Lorca says he studies war and wants to learn from the best.
* ManipulativeBastard:
** Plays the audio of the Corvan II distress calls over the entire ship's intercom to motivate the crew -- and mainly to guilt-trip Lt. Stamets -- into pushing themselves to the limit to save the mining colony on Corvan II.
** He also managed to hide the severity of his PTSD from multiple Starfleet psychological evaluations.
** Furthermore, he's managed to hide the fact that he's actually the MirrorUniverse version of Lorca, having replaced his counterpart around the time the ''Buran'' was destroyed, without anyone suspecting any problems except for Admiral Cornwell.
* MaskOfSanity: He's deeply traumatized from the destruction of the ''Buran'', and is prone to violent outbursts if he's reminded of it. However, Lorca is manipulative enough to hide this from all of the psychological evaluations Starfleet put him through to determine whether he was fit to captain ''Discovery''. This in turn is another mask to conceal his background and training as a Terran Imperial Fleet officer from the MirrorUniverse.
* MilitaryMaverick: When Admiral Cornwell states that his decision to use Burnham is damaging to fleet morale, he bristles and responds that he was given the latitude to fight the war however he best saw fit.
-->"My ship, my way."
* NervesOfSteel: Doesn't even flinch when the giant tardigrade comes crashing into a forcefield mere inches from his face. Saru notes that the captain is not afraid of the things that scare most people.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Not for Mirror!Lorca, but for his prime counterpart - Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell presumes Prime!Lorca dead after assuming that no prime universe resident could survive alone in the MirrorUniverse, using almost exactly these words. This, of course, raised to a virtual certainty the chances that we will see Prime!Lorca alive and well at some point in the show, particularly if he's even half as resourceful as his MirrorUniverse counterpart. ExpandedUniverse material has evidently revealed that Prime!Lorca remains alive.
* PillowPistol: He sleeps with a phaser under his pillow. Admiral Cornwell considers it not a sign of preparedness, but of paranoia, and together with the way he assaults her when she touches him in his sleep, it convinces her that he should be relieved of his command. After TheReveal, it's implied that the reason he does this is because every Terran officer has to be constantly on guard for any underling or even lovers attempting a KlingonPromotion.
* PragmaticVillainy: Despite being a vehement xenophobe, he is able to work with a crew that has several aliens, including one serving as his first officer, without once betraying his feelings.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Keeps a pet tribble in his ready room.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Averted. Even after [[MercyKill everything he went through]], he maintains NervesOfSteel. Subverted when his MaskOfSanity is revealed, and DoubleSubverted when we learn he is a MirrorUniverse denizen, where Terrans are known to be paranoid to a fault.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Considers the Federation to be a failed social experiment because, in his mind, no society that tolerates diversity and freedom can truly thrive. He holds this mentality because he grew up in the Terran Empire, a fascist dictatorship.
* SoleSurvivor: Of the ''Buran'', his former command. He tells Tyler that he destroyed the ship to spare them capture and torture by the Klingons. Averted in the MirrorUniverse, where his entire crew was captured and held prisoner on the I.S.S. ''Charon''.
* SouthernFriedPrivate: Jason Isaacs uses a mild [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] to portray Lorca.
* TheStarscream: He was a right-hand man to Emperor Georgiou and was given her foster daughter, Mirror Burnham, to mentor. Their relationship turned romantic and he attempted a MilitaryCoup over Georgiou's policies toward aliens, which Lorca felt weren't xenophobic enough.
* TheStrategist: Brilliant military tactician tasked with weaponizing the science vessel he was assigned to captain. When the unique propulsion system is finally fully functional, he pulls off a string of impressive rescues and victories in battle. He is also using the ship as part of his own personal long con to go home to the MirrorUniverse and overthrow the Emperor.
* TranquilFury: Of a sort. He takes eyedrops to relieve his photosensitivity ''just'' before ordering and observing the destruction of the Klingons' Ship of the Dead with General Kol aboard.
* WalkingSpoiler: For much of the first season, he impersonated his Prime Universe counterpart while commanding the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
* WallOfWeapons: His private laboratory aboard ''Discovery'' has a large collection of Klingon and other alien weapons hanging on walls or sitting on examination tables. Harry Mudd decides to test some ([[GroundhogDayLoop or possibly all]]) of these on him during "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad", with at least one being instantly fatal via disintegration.
* WeHaveReserves: Has absolutely no qualms with sacrificing his subordinates in the name of victory.
* WeakenedByTheLight: See WeaksauceWeakness below.
* WeaksauceWeakness: He suffered eye damage that makes him extremely photosensitive, and any sudden bright light is both painful and debilitating. It's a lie; the reason he is photosensitive is because he's from the MirrorUniverse, where Terrans are naturally more sensitive to light than Prime Universe humans.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Lorca is willing to bend and break Starfleet regulations if it means winning the war against the Klingons. And that includes giving Burnham a position on his ship without the knowledge or approval of the brass, or bringing a dangerous creature onto his ship without telling the crew. And then subverted when it's revealed he's from the Mirror Universe; he's just a bigot who doesn't really care if he puts his crew in danger if it means hurting aliens.
* WifeHusbandry: According to Emperor Georgiou, he initially was a father figure to Mirror-Burnham until their relationship developed into a romantic one.
* YouDidTheRightThing: Tells Burnham that she made the correct decision in mutinying at the Battle of the Binary Stars, even at significant cost to herself.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Saru]]
!!Captain Saru
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/DougJones
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_saru.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"My people were biologically determined for one purpose, and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now."'']]
A science officer and the first Kelpien in Starfleet, he serves aboard the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' and later as the first officer of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* TheAce: Subverted. He's far faster, stronger and more agile than a human, apparently also more intelligent (being able to think on his feet and learning dozens of different languages), has superior eyesight, and has a sixth sense for danger -- yet his ingrained baseline fear that is active at all times has rendered him quite neurotic. Still, his sheer capability makes one wonder ''how strong'' the predators of his world must be if ''this'' species was at the bottom of the food chain.
** It's eventually revealed that the ''Kelpiens'' were the top predators on Kaminar 2,000 years ago, until the Ba'ul used their superior technology to spread misinformation that the Kelpiens second stage of evolution, which gave them projectile spines and increased aggression, was deadly to Kelpiens and would cause madness. The Ba'ul are preventing them from assuming their most dangerous form. When Saru's ganglia fall out, he loses that constant fear and suddenly becomes aware of just how powerful he really is.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's lanky, usually advocates avoiding fights, and freely admits that his race sits at the bottom of the food chain. However, his RequiredSecondaryPowers include being cunning enough to anticipate and quickly understand enemy tactics, being fast enough to run any other member of the crew down, and more than strong enough to throw individuals around and crush objects with his bare hands. To survive as prey on his homeworld, his people HadToBeSharp.
* BadassPacifist: Joined Starfleet for the exploration, not the potential for space battle. That said, once they find themselves at war with the Klingons, Saru is shown to be cool-headed and quick-thinking, even getting promoted.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Saru's ganglia can sense deadly threats but it appears they also are responsible for instilling the perpetual fear Kelpians feel. When his fall out, Saru doesn't feel constantly afraid for the first time and realizes just how powerful he actually is. It turns out they also regrow into a series of spines that can be shot at high velocity.
* BrutalHonesty: When Burnham tries to apologize for her mutiny, Saru makes it very clear to her that while he understand why she betrayed Captain Georgiou, and believes that she feels remorse for what happened, he now considers her a threat and will be keeping a close eye on her.
* TheCaptain: Following the reveal of Lorca's treachery, Saru steps up and takes acting command of ''Discovery'' until the crisis is over. The crew readily accepts his leadership, and he occasionally has to correct them that he is "''Acting'' Captain". He takes command again following Captain Pike's return to ''Enterprise'', and it becomes permanent once ''Discovery'' and her crew travel to the 32nd century.
* CatchPhrase: "The Sanctuary" shows him trying to decide on his own catch phrase. He tries putting his own inflection on Pike's "Hit it" and immediately drops it. "Execute" and "Carry on" don't seem to work for him either. And he doesn't even consider "Manifest".
* CowardlyLion: Despite always being the first to advocate for a [[LovableCoward graceful retreat]], Saru is an extremely competent officer and, given that he's both [[SuperSpeed fast]] and [[SuperStrength tough]], fully capable of holding his own in a fight. He'd simply prefer never to have to.
* CunningLinguist: Has learned 94 languages to prepare for his Starfleet duties.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Is unhappy about how Lorca often keeps him in the dark and [[IgnoredExpert refuses to consult him]] for advice.
* TheEeyore: Is incredibly cautious and pessimistic, although he also has shades of TheComicallySerious.
* GreenEyedMonster: "Choose Your Pain" reveals how his lingering hostility to Michael is because her actions at the Battle of the Binary Stars deprived him of the opportunity to eventually follow in Burnham's footsteps and learn from Georgiou as her first officer.
* LightningBruiser: Even before his ''vahar'ai'', he's [[SuperSpeed a very fast runner]] and [[SuperStrength much stronger than humans]], as well as able to [[NoSell withstand phaser hits]] that would incapacitate almost anyone else. After his ''vahar'ai'', [[TookALevelInBadass he becomes even more powerful]] as well as unencumbered by constant fear.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Even though he is Lorca's [[NumberTwo first officer]], he is still kept in the dark about some of the secret projects ongoing aboard the ship. This may be foreshadowing of Lorca's MirrorUniverse bigotry.
* LovableCoward: Despite his pessimism and paranoia, he is generally a thoroughly NiceGuy, and often downright [[DeadpanSnarker witty]] when he chooses to be.
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: His species can can sense the approach of death, signified by ganglia emerging from the back of their heads, though he can't give any specific details.
** Inverted in one episode, where his RousingSpeech to the crew is that they're about to go into battle against impossible odds and he ''doesn't'' sense approaching death, [[BadassBoast meaning they're gonna win]].
** In "An Obol for Charon" his ganglia fall out, and for the first time in his life he ''doesn't'' feel fear all the time.
* NumberTwo: He's ''Discovery''[='=]s first officer until Lorca reveals his true MirrorUniverse colours, whereupon he becomes TheCaptain (if temporarily). He also serves as first officer to Captain Pike during his temporary command of ''Discovery''.
* OneHeadTaller: And then some; if Saru is typical, Kelpiens are ''considerably'' taller than humans of either sex. Thanks to episodes in the MirrorUniverse as well as the short episode "The Brightest Star", we see that this is fairly typical for his species.
* PlanetOfHats: His aforementioned sixth sense stems from his race's status on his homeworld; they are a "prey species" that has been hunted nearly to extinction, and have evolved the ability to sense the approach of death as a defense mechanism. This is something of a subversion of the trope, as the predator species is ''also'' from his homeworld.
** Subverted again with TheReveal that the Kelpians used to be the alpha predators on Kaminar and nearly drove the Ba'ul to extinction over 2000 years before.
* RankUp:
** He is promoted from lieutenant-commander to full commander during the TimeSkip after the pilot episode, presumably just prior to becoming the first officer aboard ''Discovery''.
** He gets a ''de facto'' field promotion to become TheCaptain of ''Discovery'' once Lorca is revealed to be an imposter from the MirrorUniverse. It lasts until Captain Pike comes aboard.
** After ''Discovery'' and her crew travel to the 32nd century, Saru again becomes TheCaptain as the most senior officer still aboard. This time, the promotion sticks.
* ScienceHero: Aboard the ''Shenzhou'', he was the ship's science officer, and still tends to have plenty of involvement with scientific operations as first officer aboard ''Discovery''.
* SourSupporter: He dislikes Lorca for his warmongering tendencies, but he still serves him as a faithful first officer.
* SpikeShooter: When his ganglia fall out, they're replaced by flaps with teeth-like spikes that can be shot at high velocity. When demonstrated in the third season, they're not fast enough to go straight through a person, but they still hurt like hell. It's also not something he can do repeatedly, since they have to grow back each time.
* TheSpock: Generally behaves in a calm and logical manner. He isn't as emotionless as Spock's demeanor, though, he's just reserved -- he can crack dry jokes, he is troubled by his conflicted relationship with Burnham, etc.
* SuperSpeed: He can sprint up to 80 [[superscript:km]]∕[[subscript:h]] (faster than an ostrich, but slower than a cheetah).
* SuperStrength: He can crush Starfleet communicators bare-handed and overpower humans with ease.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The short episode "The Brightest Star" reveals that the Kelpien civilization on Kaminar is still at a pre-warp stage, and when Saru accepts then-Lieutenant Georgiou's offer to leave, Federation laws dictate that Saru can never return to his family. Averted after "The Sounds of Thunder", when ''Discovery'''s arrival to Kaminar ends up leading to the Kelpians being made aware of what is outside their planet, allowing Saru to return home whenever he wants.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Michael Burnham]]
!!Commander Michael Burnham
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/SonequaMartinGreen
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/header_dcs_cast_s3_5.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"All life is born from chaos. The world doesn't always adhere to logic. Sometimes down is up, and sometimes when you're lost, you're found."'']]
The [[TheHero lead protagonist]] of ''Star Trek: Discovery'', she was raised on Vulcan and was the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy. By the start of the series, she is the first officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', although she ends up being recruited by Captain Lorca aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'' after the events of the two-part pilot. She is eventually made a bridge science officer, and ship's science officer and Commander again.
----
* ActionGirl: She's more of a ScienceHero, but nonetheless she is trained in Vulcan martial arts, knows how to use a phaser, can fight a Klingon in melee combat, and regularly gets herself into (and out of) plenty of dangerous situations as the series' lead.
* AesopAmnesia: By Season 3 of the series, Burnham has successfully managed to reunite with ''Discovery'' in the 32nd Century, get promoted to the ship's first officer, and get some clues as to what caused The Burn that crippled the galaxy. Yet when ''Discovery'' gets a chilly reception when they reunite with Starfleet, she suggests going rogue and trying to help a civilization in danger to prove their worth, which Saru has to gently remind her that doing so would land them in more trouble with an already suspicious Federation, and disappointingly notes that she should have learned that by now. Such a tendency gets further [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in the following episode, as her disobeying orders again to save Book and gather further clues to The Burn's cause gets her chewed out by Admiral Vance and Saru, who removes her as First Officer because he can't trust her. The only reason she gets off so light for blatantly violating orders is because she saved a lot of lives and got more crucial intel. She does seem to learn her lesson proper by the eight episode of the season, as an incident with the Emerald Chain over Book's homeworld leads her to personally get Admiral Vance's authorization this time around.
* AntiHero: At least initially, she is fairly aggressive for a Starfleet officer.
* TheAtoner: Subverted in "Context is for Kings", where Burnham tries to refuse a chance to redeem herself because she feels that what she has done [[MoralEventHorizon cannot be atoned for]]. She only seeks the punishment she [[ItsAllMyFault feels she deserves]], until Lorca appeals to her [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome sense of wonder]] and duty. She does eventually redeem herself, ironically defeating Lorca's ulterior motives in the process. Not long afterwards, she recognizes that Starfleet Command is about to make the same mistake she did and exploits her own guilt and reputation as "the mutineer" to talk Admiral Cornwell out of blowing Qo'noS up.
* TheCassandra: In the pilot, she tries and fails to convince Captain Georgiou that they need to fire first or the Klingons will destroy them. It's unclear whether that would have worked, but Georgiou, her ship, and most of the fleet are wiped out in the aftermath.
* CombatPragmatist: When fighting Voq and gradually getting overpowered, Burnham goes [[EyeScream for his eyes]]. She's also proven herself willing and able to shoot first when she feels it necessary.
* CommanderContrarian: Even though Captain Georgiou is her commanding officer and something of a mentor to her, she advocates tactics that are rather [[AttackAttackAttack strident and aggressive]] in contrast to her captain's [[MartialPacifist more cautious]] approach.
* DefrostingIceQueen: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. When she comes on-board ''Discovery'', she is withdrawn from everyone except Saru, not wishing to make any sort of connection since she thinks she won't be staying. When she realises Lorca intends to keep her on, she opens up a bit, but it's still obvious she had a Vulcan upbringing.
** Come season 3, she is completely defrosted.
* DramaticIrony: She utterly hates the Klingons, and the guy she's in love with is actually Klingon himself, although a ManchurianAgent.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In the first episode, everyone dismisses her opinions about the Klingons' aggression because of her perceived prejudice against them -- and then trying to mutiny against her captain [[OutOfTheFryingPan doesn't make things any better]].
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange:
** As a young girl growing up with her biological parents, Burnham had long, curly hair.
** After her adoption by Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his wife Amanda Grayson, she had the SciFiBobHaircut typical of Vulcans, which she retained all the way through adolescence to her first meeting with Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou''.
** By the time she became the ''Shenzhou'''s first officer, she had grown out her bob slightly to a still short but straight-styled hair.
** After her Court-Martial and dismissal from Starfleet, she had a very unkempt afro as a prisoner.
** When she begins working aboard ''Discovery'', her curly afro is now styled.
** As of Season 3's TimeSkip, she wears her hair in long box braids after spending a year apart from the crew, marking the new territory the crew have found themselves in.
* FamedInStory: As a result of the actions resulting in her court martial, Burnham is widely known as the mutineer held responsible for starting the war with the Klingons and because she's apparently the ''first'' mutineer Starfleet ever had. In-universe, however, no one seems to care that T'Kuvma's Klingons were deliberately ''[[GenghisGambit trying]]'' to start a war (and for that matter fired first), and nothing Burnham could have done would have prevented that, even if killing T'Kuvma only made the situation worse by turning him into a martyr.
* FatalFlaw:
** Klingons. Having been orphaned by a Kingon attack on her home colony, she will do ''anything'' to stop them. In the pilot, she perpetrates a '''mutiny''' against her own captain because she feels she's right in how to deal with them, and is imprisoned because of it.
** Her ruthlessness is also a serious problem for her, leading to things like the aforementioned mutiny or abusing Saru's trust in "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry".
* GenderBlenderName: Her name is "Michael", which can be a feminine name depending on culture, although Tilly notes she's never heard of another female with it.
* GoodIsNotNice: Though she is the protagonist, she is rather hawkish and aggressive for a Starfleet officer, at least among those seen in ''Star Trek'' to date.
* GuileHero: Successfully cons Harry Mudd by manipulating his greed and his ego.
* HappilyAdopted: More or less, although [[ParentalSubstitute Sarek]] comments that she cannot learn Vulcan due to being "too human". He later laments that he never encouraged her enough -- though given his track record with Spock, that appears to be a habit with him, as Vulcans don't believe in excessive praise. She got along well with Sarek's human wife, Amanda. We learn in the second season that she even got along well with Spock, until she sabotaged their familial relationship in hopes of protecting Spock from the Logic Extremists.
* ItsAllMyFault: Has a tendency to take the blame for things that are out of her control. She blamed herself for her parents' deaths, as she'd asked them to delay a trip offworld, and the Klingon war (which admittedly she was blamed for by everyone else as well), and for the attacks on her adopted family by the extremist Vulcans. It gets severely deconstructed in Season 2, as Spock finds her actions to be selfish, and has refused to reconcile with her for years simply because of this attitude.
* LikeADaughterToMe: How Captain Georgiou thought of her, as the captain states in her pre-recorded will. Mirror Georgiou had the same relationship with Mirror Michael.
* MeaningfulName: With the revelation that she is the Red Angel, her name has another signification too, beside being a typical male name. "Michael" is one of God's Archangels.
-->'''Philippa:''' Lead me to my death, Angel Michael.
* MilitaryMaverick: Goes with being a CommanderContrarian. Uniquely for a Star Trek show, however this attitude has ''serious'' consequences as opposed to the light slap of the wrist it usually warrants (or approval from the brass) in previous incarnations. She's court-martialed and sent to prison for life as a result of her attempted mutiny.
* MoralityPet: To a whopping three people.
** To Ash Tyler (aka Voq), who basically pulls a HeelFaceTurn for her.
** To Gabriel Lorca, who is willing to kill pretty much everybody on his way to the Terran throne, except for her.
** To Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who is completely fine with being hunted down by Starfleet and the Klingons till the end of her days, but can't bring herself to kill Michael.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Does ''[[FantasticRacism not]]'' hold any positive opinions of the Klingons, due to [[YouKilledMyFather losing her parents]] in an attack on a Human[=/=]Vulcan outpost when she was a child.
* NoSocialSkills: Thanks to her Vulcan upbringing, she has trouble making friends and finds socializing to be quite puzzling.
* NumberTwo: The first ''Trek'' series protagonist to be this instead of TheCaptain[[note]]Originally, Commander Riker was intended to be the protagonist of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''; however, he was playing opposite Creator/PatrickStewart and Things Happened. Commander Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine was a commander when he started out, but he was still the leader of the station and eventually was promoted to Captain.[[/note]]. Initially, she is the first officer to Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou'', before being stripped of rank and recruited by Captain Lorca aboard ''Discovery''. As of season 3, with Saru officially Captain of ''Discovery'', she is now his XO -- until "Scavengers", when she goes on a rogue mission and gets relieved of her duties as XO.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: A xenoanthropologist by training, but she has taken on all kinds of assignments in her role as ''Discovery'''s Science Officer.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Her attempted mutiny, especially since it's the first time that it has ever (officially) happened in Starfleet history. She also generally doesn't correct anyone when they call her the instigator of the Federation-Klingon war: while factually incorrect (the Klingons fired first), it is only because Burnham's mutiny failed. She likely views herself as morally guilty as she would have been had her mutiny been successful. When the crew arrives in the future and is giving a frosty reception by Starfleet, Saru has to gently remind her of this incident when she suggests going rogue to prove themselves.
* ParentalSubstitute: Sarek and Amanda Grayson are this to her, after she was orphaned as a child in a Klingon attack.
* ProperlyParanoid: She's absolutely convinced the Klingons are not there for peaceful purposes when they come out of nearly a century of isolation -- and is proven right.
* RankUp:
** Initially inverted. For her actions aboard the ''Shenzhou'' in the pilot episode, she is court-martialed, stripped of her rank, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
** For her actions aboard ''Discovery'' in saving the ship and crew multiple times, not to mention the entire Federation, she's given a Presidential pardon, her record is expunged, and her rank reinstated.
** It's played straight, then averted in Season 3. She is made ''Discovery's'' first officer, but when she disobeys orders yet again, her punishment sees her lose the job to a very disappointed Saru.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Lorca tries to get her to stay in the MirrorUniverse and rule at his side as he was honestly in love with her Mirror counterpart, and has a great deal of respect for her, saying that Burnham is ''better'' than Mirror-Burnham was.
* RememberTheNewGuy: Michael is Spock's never-before-referred-to foster sister. Of course, Spock never mentioned his parents or [[Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier his half-brother Sybok]] until they showed up in the flesh, so it's not out of character. Similar to Sybok, a Vulcan that deviated wildly from Vulcan culture, Burnham's reputation as Starfleet's first mutineer would make him that much less likely to bring her up in conversation, not to mention that they did not have a positive relationship growing up together.
** The finale for Season 2 eventually reveals why she wasn't mentioned before: to bury the information about the Sphere data, the Red Angel suit, time travel, and the events of what happened, Spock convinces Starfleet to erase the records of ''Discovery'' and her crew, and to make it illegal to discuss them by the Starfleet personnel who did know. Since it was his idea, in order to, among other things, protect Michael if she made it to the future, he'd obviously be the most scrupulous in observing it.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: She ''is'' correct that the Klingons are going to attack, but it's mainly because her bias is guiding her thought process than any reasonable logic; best shown when she's trying to persuade her captain to give the Klingons a "Vulcan hello" to scare them off convinced it'll mean peace, when it reality the Klingons want a war with with Starfleet to bring back the glory of the Empire. And it doesn't matter to them who fires first.
* ScienceHero: Attended the Vulcan Science Academy and entered Starfleet to serve as a xenoanthropologist, before working her way up to a command position. After she is reinstated she accepts a position as ''Discovery'''s Science Officer.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad.
* TheSlowPath: She emerges from the wormhole in the 32nd century a full year ahead of ''Discovery'' and the rest of her crewmates, so she spends the year waiting and investigating The Burn until the ship arrives and crash-lands.
* SurvivorsGuilt: She has been carrying this ever since the attack where her parents died. This is one of the main elements behind her ItsAllMyFault attitude and penchant for doing the HeroicSacrifice play.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Evidently neither Sarek nor Amanda made the effort to find her one, even though specialists in childhood trauma exist ''now''--instead, Sarek inserts triggering video in her learning material and then chides her for being upset by it. This and later conversations imply that Vulcans don't have a very progressive attitude towards mental healthcare.
* TraumaButton: Being near Klingons brings back the memory of her parents getting killed in a Klingon attack.
* TraumaCongaLine: Season Two puts her through the wringer. She's been asked to perform a MercyKill on ''two'' crewmates (Saru wound up not needing it, but Airiam wasn't so lucky), her relationship with Amanda undergoes a severe strain, her relationship with ''Spock'' is a total disaster, and finally she learns that her parents were in Section 31, and Leland's bad intelligence work was what got them killed. On top of all that, she's made an {{Unperson}} after disappearing into the future, meaning nobody will ever publicly acknowledge that she even existed!
* UptightLovesWild: She falls in love with Cleveland Booker and becomes less uptight the longer she spends with him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Jett Reno]]
!!Commander Jett Reno
->'''Played by:''' Creator/TigNotaro
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jett_reno.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"I'm un-insultable, especially by a guy who thinks he can run a ship on mushrooms that I pick off my pizza."'']]
The former chief engineer aboard the U.S.S. ''Hiawatha'', who transfers to ''Discovery'' after her rescue early in the second season and remains aboard as the ship travels to the 32nd century.
----
* BadassInDistress: She encounters an away team from ''Discovery'' when her vessel is wrecked and left in a precarious position in the grip of a dark-matter asteroid headed for a pulsar.
* ButchLesbian: She is quite androgynous and has a tough, masculine personality. It's revealed at one point that she was married to a woman, who was killed during the Klingon War.
* CommandingCoolness: Her rank is commander, and she must have nerves of steel to have survived on the ''Hiawatha'' for months before rescue.
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Talks animatedly with her medically comatose crewmates, although it's unclear if she did this before being greeted by the unexpected rescue party.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: In "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2", she snaps at Saru to "get off my ass" -- then realizes what she did and hurriedly amends "Sir! [[NotHelpingYourCase Get off my ass]], ''sir!''" as the turbolift closes.
* TheEngineer: The chief engineer aboard the ''Hiawatha'', and stays around in the engineering department aboard ''Discovery''.
* GadgeteerGenius: Operates several flying drones to assist her and guide the ''Discovery'' crew, and keeps her crewmates and patients alive through ingenious means (both biological and mechanical).
* InterspeciesRomance: Her late wife was a Soyousian.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: In "Brother", she has been stuck aboard the ''Hiawatha'' since before the Klingon War ended, and doesn't learn that it's over until Burnham, Pike and Nhan arrive.
* TheLostLenore: Her wife died during the Klingon War, so she advises Culber not to lose what he has with Stamets.
* {{MacGyvering}}: Once again has to use engineering tools for a medical purpose when they need to put a cortical implant in Tilly while engineering is locked down. (Notably, she only held up the drill as a ''joke'' before realizing they don't have a way to get the appropriate medical device.)
* NervesOfSteel: Whatever danger occurs, Reno faces it head-on with maybe a deadpan remark to break the tension. This may be most notable with the time crystal -- Pike and Burnham were both left (quite understandably) gasping and horrified by the things they saw upon touching it, but Reno just [[NoSell blinks really hard]] through the visions and keeps working.
* OutOfFocus: Despite how prominently she featured in season trailers, as well as serving as a principal character in episodes early in the season, she was notably absent from various engineering crises after "An Obol for Charon" until she returned to relative prominence in "Through the Valley of Shadows" and both parts of "Such Sweet Sorrow".
* TheSnarkKnight: Upon being told that the ''Hiawatha'' and the asteroid it crashed on is headed for a pulsar, she [[SarcasmMode sarcastically]] reacts with relief after she "thought you said we were all going to die".
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Engages in this with Stamets when she's tasked to help him stabilize the spore drive during "An Obol For Charon". They manage to barely put their bickering aside when they need to free Tilly from "May" attaching herself to the ensign.
* TheyCallHimSword: Introduces herself as Jett, which is fairly apropos, being TheEngineer.
* UnbrokenVigil: Not that she had much choice. She spends ten months aboard the shipwrecked ''Hiawatha'' working to (successfully) keep the surviving patients alive.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Somewhat by default; by the time ''Discovery'' arrives, she's the only crew member still active aboard what's left of the ''Hiawatha''. Her crewmates are either dead or in varying states of medically-induced comas.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Ellen Landry]]
!!Commander Ellen Landry
-> '''Played by:''' Rekha Sharma
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ellen_landry.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Vulcans should stick to logic."'']]
The first chief security officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* ActionGirl: Comes with the territory of being the security officer.
* AllThereInTheManual: ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fleshes out her [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]], and explains [[StartOfDarkness how she came to be the way she is]] when we meet her in ''Discovery''. In a nutshell, her fiance died in a HeroicSacrifice moment while fighting the Klingons, and Landry is now eager for payback, resulting in the [[{{Jerkass}} joyless, harsh, borderline sociopathic]] Landry of the series.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: She is the chief security officer, and also holds a relatively high rank among the crew. As a Commander, she's second only to Lorca himself and tied in rank with First Officer Saru (though technically, she would be under Saru's command thanks to his position as First Officer, though whether that would be true in practice is never demonstrated).
* DeadStarWalking: Rekha Sharma has been in quite a few sci-fi series, but only lasts two episodes. And unfortunately, her character does not get [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 the benefit of Cylon resurrection]] in ''Star Trek'' (though her MirrorUniverse counterpart does make a cameo in "What's Past is Prologue").
* FantasticRacism: Makes several comments disparaging Burnham's Vulcan upbringing, and ''then'' there's how she disparages one [[UglyCute large-scale tardigrade]], which itself is quite possibly more intelligent (in its own way) than many of the crew ''and'' the main computer put together. This attitude ends up being a subtle [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowing flag]] pointing at Lorca's origins -- since of course ''this'' version of Lorca, being a [[EvilCounterpart Terran Empire officer]] in disguise, ''would'' be far more comfortable with her general belligerence and bigotry than most captains.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Her own FantasticRacism is an early mirror for Captain Lorca's own Terran Empire bigotry--as is her closeness to him for her mirror counterpart's also being an ally of his.
* {{Jerkass}}: Rather harsh towards most people, Burnham in particular, and she shares Captain Lorca's warlike attitudes to a large degree.
* MauveShirt: Is treated like one of the main cast, but she gets killed partway through her second episode. Her death goes completely unmentioned and apparently unmourned, apart from Lorca's one line about not letting it be in vain.
* SecretKeeper: Is aware of her captain's pet projects, and facilitates his work. It raises the question as to when, exactly, she first entered Lorca's confidence, and just how much she knew or didn't know about his true origins in the MirrorUniverse, though she is definitely not from the MirrorUniverse herself. ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' shows that she'd served with Lorca for quite awhile, and was his First Officer on the ''Buran''. Mirror!Lorca replacing him came around the same time as her StartOfDarkness (see AllThereInTheManual), and implies Mirror!Lorca recognizd and manipulated her loss and desire for revenge, so he could basically mold her into his [[TheDragon Dragon]].
* TooDumbToLive: She decides to let Ripper, the giant tardigrade, out of its containment field so she can cut off its claws to study, blithely ignoring Burnham's warnings that the sedative Landry used on Ripper might not work. And this is ''after'' Landry witnessed first-hand what the creature did to a squad of Klingons. Unsurprisingly, Ripper proceeds to maul Landry to death.
* VasquezAlwaysDies: She is notably more hardnosed, rough around the edges, and, not least, gun-toting than both Michael and Tilly, who are more level-headed, calmer, and science-focused. She only lasts a few episodes.
* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: She dubs the tardigrade "Ripper". Guess what it fatally does to her not too long afterwards?
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Nhan]]
!!Commander Nhan
->'''Played by:''' Rachael Ancheril
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cmdr_d_nhan.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"My job is to preserve as many lives as possible at any cost."'']]
A Barzan engineering officer from the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', who comes aboard ''Discovery'' with Captain Pike. She stays aboard as Chief of Security while the ''Enterprise'' is out of action.
----
* AchillesHeel: Yanking out her breathing implant incapacitates her.
* CustomUniform: She's the only female crewmember we see whose uniform includes a skirt. It's not explained, but given the uniform alterations we see in other series it's safe to assume that it's for cultural reasons.
* TheEngineer: Specifically noted as being an engineering officer prior to beaming aboard, and she remarks on the ingenuity of Reno's work aboard the ''Hiawatha''.
* HypercompetentSidekick: To Pike; he brings her aboard ''Discovery'' as an engineer, but she ends up serving as the security chief aboard the ship.
* IChooseToStay:
** Decides to stick with the ''Discovery'' crew in "Such Sweet Sorrow" and traveling into the future with them, instead of rejoining Pike aboard the ''Enterprise''.
** Does this again in "Die Trying" in season 3, when she volunteers to stay aboard a seed vault vessel and return to her home planet of Barzan in the 32nd century.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: As of the second episode of season three, Rachael Ancheril is a main cast member.
* ProperTightsWithASkirt: She wears opaque tights under her CustomUniform.
* PutOnABus: Returns to her home planet of Barzan after ''Discovery'' reunites with Starfleet in the 32nd century.
* RedShirt:
** Inverted in "Brother". Despite the fact that she's the only one on the away mission that wears red, she not only survives the experience but is the only person to make it without any problems whatsoever.
** Subverted in "Project Daedalus"; she gets disabled early in the fight against Control-infected Airiam, but manages to get at least some of her breathing implant back in place to struggle back on her feet and activate the airlock control at Airiam's request.
** Either played straight or subverted in "Such Sweet Sorrow, part 2". See UncertainDoom below.
* RubberForeheadAliens: She's a Barzan, the same species that would discover a natural wormhole to the Gamma and Delta Quadrants a century later in TNG's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E8ThePrice The Price]]".
* ShootTheDog: In "Project Daedalus", she flips the switch which blasts Airiam out of an airlock ([[HeroicSacrifice at Airiam's own request]]) while Michael is still futilely trying to save her.
* UncertainDoom: She's last seen lying unconscious after getting her head slammed repeatedly into a wall by Leland/Control. However, she is shown to be just fine by the second episode of Season 3.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant-Commander Paul Stamets]]
!!Lieutenant-Commander Paul Stamets
-> '''Played by:''' Anthony Rapp
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paul_stamets.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"At the quantum level, there is no difference between biology and physics."'']]
An astromycologist and science officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'', who by extension serves as the ship's chief engineer.
----
* AmbiguousSituation: In "Into the Forest I Go", Stamets's overuse of the spore drive causes his body to become non-responsive (and his eyes to turn an icy blue) after accidentally sending ''Discovery'' into the MirrorUniverse. Ultimately, he isn't dead, but he's left temporarily both blinded and delirious.
* BioAugmentation: Injected himself with an experimental tardigrade gene therapy method to allow himself to act as a WetwareCPU for the spore drive in Ripper's absence. The space-time side effects on his physiology grant him RippleEffectProofMemory, among other things, which he uses to great effect in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad". On the other hand, it leaves his mind open to being influenced by his EvilCounterpart in the MirrorUniverse through the mycelial network.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Getting to know him is a lot of work thanks to all those insufferable walls he throws up. Michael manages to defrost him with a mix of being damn good at her job and sharing his drive to figure out puzzles and mysteries.
* EndearinglyDorky: His outright awe (and naked jealousy) at Ripper being able to communicate in several ways with his beloved intergalactic mycelial network is definitely this. If he's not being sarcastic and snippy, he usually is instead geeking out enthusiastically over a science problem.
* TheEngineer: Mainly by title, as the "spore drive" that he helped develop is the revolutionary propulsion system at the heart of ''Discovery'', so he is assigned as the ship's chief engineer in addition to being a science officer.
* InsufferableGenius: His first words to Burnham are "Who are you?" and demanding to know who assigned her to him, as "I give the assignments around here!" He soon ends up as a DefrostingIceQueen.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Stamets is caustic, but he does care deeply about others and it's implied that he would be a more pleasant person if Starfleet wasn't trying to co-opt his life's work for war. He's the first person that rather openly tells Burnham that Lorca is a "war monger", when others like Saru tried to shy around the topic. And though he's initially impatient with Tilly, by the second season he considers her a friend and goes to great lengths to help her when "May" takes over.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: How most of his interactions with Dr. Culber go, especially since "Choose Your Pain" revealed they were already a couple before they were individually introduced on-screen.
** In Season 2 Episode 5, the introduction refers to Stamets as a widower, confirming that they were married.
* TheLostLenore: Culber becomes this for Stamets, prompting Stamets to make plans for leaving Starfleet after the Klingon War ends. Then Culber comes BackFromTheDead.
* MortonsFork: His own actions with the spore drive cause one that rivals the SwordOfDamocles. Either he confesses to his boyfriend, Dr. Culber, straining their relationship and putting Culber's career in jeopardy -- or he doesn't, and he's forced to continually lie to Culber to maintain the facade of normalcy. He ends up trying to TakeAThirdOption by co-opting Cadet Tilly to help him deal with the side effects, but this only puts ''her'' career in jeopardy as she tries to aid him as best she can while keeping Stamets' genetic self-modification a secret. This ends up falling apart when the genetic modifications, or at least the side effects, are discovered in "Into The Forest I Go". Stamets still agrees to make a series of micro-jumps to help expose the Klingon flagship's cloak, followed by one more to get ''Discovery'' back to a starbase -- which ends up TemptingFate one time too many, landing Stamets in a HeroicRROD and landing ''Discovery'' in the MirrorUniverse.
* TheNavigator: Essentially becomes this after using the tardigrade DNA to become a transgenic to be able to interface with the Spore Drive.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Necessary, given the way his "spore drive" links fungal mycelia with interstellar travel.
* ProfessorGuineaPig:
** He injects himself with tardigrade DNA to serve as a replacement for Ripper. It works, but leaves him with some side effects including growing dissociation with normal space-time -- not to mention violating the Federation's laws on eugenics and bioaugmentation.
** Depending on how canon you count it, the ''Discovery'' 2018 comics annual made him this even before the above happened: during research on the mycelial domain, Stamets apparently consumed some of the spores to get a better picture of what was going on with the fungus' network. We don't see much of his trip, but when his research partner finds him passed out the next morning, [[WhatTheHellHero he reads Stamets the Riot Act over being that reckless]].
* RankUp: Is promoted from lieutenant up a grade to lieutenant-commander at the end of the first season, in recognition of his actions during the Federation-Klingon War.
* ReluctantWarrior: At best, he barely tolerates the fact that he and his research have been dragged into a war. He would rather be back in his nice little laboratory than serving aboard a Starfleet vessel. It's not simply for his own comfort, though: he has deep-seated moral reservations about his research being used for military applications, when he was investigating it purely for the pursuit of knowledge and out of awe at the natural world.
* {{Retirony}}:
** After Kol's death, Stamets decides to leave Starfleet so he can find a cure for whatever the tardigrade DNA has been doing to him and so he can spend more time with Culber. However, Stamets decides to do one last jump to get ''Discovery'' back safely to Federation space and that one jump sends the ship to the MirrorUniverse and leaves Stamets catatonic.
** By the second season, Stamets is still so broken up over Culber's death that he plans to leave Starfleet for a position at the Vulcan Science Academy -- but the urgent mission to investigate the "red bursts" under Captain Pike causes those plans to be put on hold. Fortunately, in the process, he gets to help resurrect Culber.
* StraightGay: He's gay but not flamboyant. This makes him the first original character[[note]]Sulu was {{Retcon}}ned to be gay ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', but Stamets is the first character designed to be gay from his inception[[/note]] in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' who is explicitly gay.[[note]]Jadzia Dax from ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' is canonically bisexual, though given the unique peculiarities of Trill biology, it's not clear that terms like "sexual orientation" even apply to them.[[/note]]
* ScienceHero: Specializes in astromycology, or the study of fungi [[RecycledInSpace in space]].
* TheStoner: After the first time he jacks himself into the spore drive, he starts acting like one ''might'' expect of someone who's exposing himself to [[MushroomSamba magic mushrooms]].
* TimeDissonance: After his BioAugmentation, he has a little trouble keeping himself focused within space-time. Taken UpToEleven after his ill-fated final jump in "Into the Forest I Go", which leaves him catatonic in a HeroicRROD. After he recovers from his catatonia, he gains an immunity of sorts to time anomalies, because he doesn't get confused by the strangeness the way normal humans do.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: What motivates him to unravel the mysteries of the "mycelial network" that spans the cosmos.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Hugh Culber]]
!! Doctor (Lieutenant-Commander) Hugh Culber
-> '''Played by:''' Wilson Cruz
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hugh_culber_2256.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"One tends to worry when they're doomed to love a brilliant but reckless maniac who's willing to risk his life for glory."'']]
A senior medical officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* BackFromTheDead: When Stamets kissed Culber's corpse while trapped in the mycelial network, he inadvertantly pulled Culber's consciousness into the network. After Stamets discovers this, he convinces May to use her transport cocoon to fashion a new body for Culber to inhabit, effectively resurrecting him.
* BelligerentSexualTension: More subtle than most, but his snarking at Stamets is very clearly this. Subverted when it's made clear they are in fact a couple.
* BuryYourGays: Subverted. Tyler/Voq kills him, but Stamets later manages to resurrect him with the help of the JahSepp, a species living in the mycelial network.
* CameBackWrong: After receiving a brand-new body, he still remembers his old life, but doesn't feel the emotions attached to his memories. It leads to him becoming detached and angry, lashing out at Stamets, attempting to violently goad Tyler into "letting out" Voq, and finally telling Paul that his old self is gone. He gets over it, though.
* ChangedMyMindKid: Transfers from ''Discovery'' to the ''Enterprise'' shortly before the final battle of Season 2 to try to get over Stamets. When Stamets is badly injured, he is taken to ''Discovery'''s sickbay, where Culber treats his wounds. Culber explains that he realized that he still loves Stamets and couldn't let him go off into the far future alone.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Culber is the only character who doesn't compromise his morals over the course of the series. Stated by the producers as the reason why a Mirror!Culber didn't appear. They didn't want to tarnish that by having a having an evil version.
** Averted in the second season, where he [[TookALevelInJerkass gets more moody and aggressive]] in the wake of coming BackFromTheDead.
* TheLostLenore: To Stamets, which weighs heavily on Stamets even into the second season.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Until "Despite Yourself," Culber seems to be staffing sickbay all by himself; there are only a couple of other whiteshirts and even they rarely appear in the scenes he's in. Later on, Doctor Pollard becomes a recurring medical character after Culber's death. Yet in Season three Culber also acts as the crew's counselor.
* TheMedic: Aboard ''Discovery'', but not the Chief Medical Officer.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: His attempts to defend himself from May's people nearly cause their extinction.
* NeckSnap: Voq takes over from Tyler and breaks Culber's neck when Culber decides to relieve Tyler for duty until he can get to the bottom of whatever is wrong with Tyler's memories.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: After being a recurring actor in Season 1, Wilson Cruz becomes a regular and part of the main titles in Season 2 -- ironically, while his character was still believed to be dead.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: When Tilly apologizes for Stamets' condition, Culber says that it's not her fault, as she was put into an impossible situation by her superiors.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: In season 1 Hugh is nearly always dressed in his medical whites, possibly signifying his role as one of the most moral characters. After his resurrection in season 2, we see a shift to him wearing civilian clothing in all black, which matches up with his more troubled and depressed demeanour.
* StraightGay: He's in a relationship with Stamets.
* ThatManIsDead: After his resurrection in a new body seemingly severes the links between his memories and emotions attached to them, he feels this way about his "old self."
* TookALevelInJerkass: In the wake of his resurrection. By "If Memory Serves", he ends up engaging Tyler in a fistfight in ''Discovery'''s mess hall in a fit of pent-up rage over his death at the hands of Voq.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant-Commander Airiam]]
!!Lieutenant-Commander Airiam
->'''Played by:''' Sara Mitich (Season 1), Hannah Cheesman (Season 2)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/airiam_2257.jpg]]
The spore drive operations officer aboard ''Discovery'', and a cybernetically-augmented human crewmember.
----
* BitCharacter: Frequently visible, but not integral to any episode's plot until she is hacked by a hostile futuristic probe in "Light and Shadows" and starts sabotaging ''Discovery'''s mission going forward.
* CommandingCoolness: Between her stated rank, and being the most emotionless visible bridge officer aboard ''Discovery''.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Project Daedalus" provides her with a backstory and shows glimpses of her social life with her fellow crewmembers. It also features her [[ADeathInTheLimelight dying heroically]] to save Michael and the whole crew from being killed by Control, who had been taking over Airiam intermittently since "Light and Shadows."
* GrandTheftMe: Essentially what Control does to her during the second season.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: When Control tries to make her upload the sphere's AI data and kill Michael, Airiam tells Michael to open the nearby airlock to kill her because Control won't let Airiam herself stop it.
* MindControlEyes: After "Light and Shadows", RuleOfPerception allows the audience to see a pattern of three red dots in Airiam's eyes -- the same which was visible on her computer screen during the probe's attack on ''Discovery'''s databases, indicating that she has also been hacked.
* TheMole: She becomes one for a mysterious BigBad enemy from the future, after being hacked by a probe which was sent back in time.
* TheOtherDarrin: The role of Airiam switched from Sara Mitich to Hannah Cheesman between the first and second seasons.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Her eyes glow red after she has been taken over by Control.
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Done to her in "Project Daedalus" ([[HeroicSacrifice at her own request]]) to stop Control from forcing her to kill Burnham and upload ''Discovery'''s information from the Sphere.
* WeCanRebuildHim: She's a human who received significant cybernetic augmentation after being critically injured in a shuttle crash.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: We find out some elements of her backstory in "Project Daedalus", such as her augmentations being a result of heavy injuries sustained in a shuttle crash which killed her husband. Unfortunately, the same episode also sees her making a HeroicSacrifice to save her crew from the hostile AI which was controlling her actions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Keyla Detmer]]
!!Lieutenant Keyla Detmer
-> '''Played by:''' Emily Coutts
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/keyla_detmer_before.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Before the Battle of the Binary Stars'']]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/keyla_detmer_post_battle.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''After'']]
Formerly the helm officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' who, like Saru, was re-assigned to the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* AcePilot: Par for the course among federation helmsmen like Sulu and Paris. When Discovery screws up a jump and ends up in the gravity well of a star, she gets them out. She also mentions in "New Eden" that she got her pilot's license when she was twelve years old.
* BackFromTheDead: Badly injured during the Battle at the Binary Stars, Burnham apparently assumed she had died and was startled to encounter her serving on ''Discovery''.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Zig-zagged. The Battle of the Binary Stars left her with injuries requiring a cranial implant. The hair on the left side of her head is shaved off around it, leaving visible surgical scars where they put the implant in, and she's missing her left eyebrow. If you look closely, she also lost her left eye and needed it replaced with [[ElectronicEye a prosthetic]]; prior to the battle both of her eyes were green, but now her left eye is a [[UncannyValley mismatched, artificial-looking blue]]. That said, even with the implant, she is still attractive.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: She and an unknown male crewmember are busily making out during the party at the start of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" (and every subsequent time loop).
* HeroicBSOD:
** In "Such Sweet Sorrow", before her departure to the 32nd century alongside the rest of the crew, she records a letter to a close friend crediting them with helping her survive one of these in the wake of her earlier injury in the Klingon War.
** Her panic-inducing crash-landing of ''Discovery'' in "Far From Home" at the start of the third season builds up to one of these a couple of episodes later in "Forget Me Not".
* MythologyGag: Her cranial implant gives her more than a little resemblance to [[Characters/StarTrekVoyager Annika "Seven of Nine" Hansen]].
* RankUp: She was a lieutenant junior-grade aboard the ''Shenzhou'', but [[TimeSkip six months later]] aboard ''Discovery'', she is now a full lieutenant.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Upon arriving in the future, Detmer begins to experience this right after ''Discovery'' crashes. She tries to hide this, but her traumas eventually come out and causes a dinner Saru is hosting for the senior staff to quickly turn sour.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Gen Rhys]]
!!Lieutenant Gen Rhys
-> '''Played by:''' Patrick Kwok-Choon
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gen_rhys.png]]
The tactical officer aboard ''Discovery'' after the loss of Commander Landry and through the end of the Klingon War.
----
* BitCharacter: He's mainly on-screen to be another officer on the bridge.
* BridgeBunny: A male example; he is ''Discovery'''s tactical officer.
* GracefulLoser: Doesn't take it badly when Tilly rejects his advances at the party in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".
* TokenMinority: The only visible Asian bridge officer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Nilsson]]
->'''Played by:''' Sara Mitich
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nilsson.png]]
A spore drive operations officer aboard ''Discovery''. Joins the bridge crew after Airiam dies. In Season 3 she fills the role of Second Officer, taking command of the bridge when Saru and Burnham are absent.
----
* ActorAllusion: Sara Mitich played Lt. Cmdr. Airiam, the augmented spore-drive operations officer, in Season 1, and was replaced by Hannah Cheesman in Season 2, taking on the role of Lt. Nilsson instead. In "The Red Angel", Nilsson takes over the bridge position of the spore drive operations officer for the deceased Airiam, leading to her taking over her old function, but with a new character.
* CastingGag: Of sorts; see above.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade Joann Owosekun]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Joann Owosekun
-> '''Played by:''' Oyin Oladejo
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joann_owosekun.png]]
The operations officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* ADayInTheLimelight: "New Eden". She accompanies the landing party on Terralysium, the audience finds out more about her backstory, and she's the one who comes up with the way of escaping the basement they're locked in, not the uber-competent Burnham or experienced Pike.
* BitCharacter: In season one, she's mainly been on-screen to be another officer on the bridge. She gets fleshed out more starting with Season 2.
* BridgeBunny: A female example; she is ''Discovery'''s operations officer.
* InSeriesNickname: Gets referred to as "Owo" by several of her crewmates in season 2.
* NervesOfSteel: Alongside Detmer, she has to help Pike, Burnham and Nhan navigate an AsteroidThicket at high speed in "Brother".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade R.A. Bryce]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Ronald Altman "R.A." Bryce
-> '''Played by:''' [[TheDanza Ronnie]] Rowe Jr.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ra_bryce.png]]
The communications officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* AcePilot: To some extent. He piloted the shuttlecraft carrying Burnham, Landry, Stamets, Tilly and a RedShirt to the U.S.S. ''Glenn'' in "Context Is For Kings".
* BitCharacter: He's mainly on-screen to be another officer on the bridge. In "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", Harry Mudd lampshades this by disparagingly calling him "random communications officer man".
* BridgeBunny: A male example; he is ''Discovery'''s communications officer.
* CommunicationsOfficer: The main one on the bridge.
* TokenMinority: The only visible black male bridge officer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade Linus]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Linus
->'''Played by:''' David Benjamin Tomlinson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/linus_the_saurian.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sorry, the universal translator sometimes has trouble reconfiguring my lingual clicks and pops."'']]
A Saurian science officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* LizardFolk: He ''is'' a Saurian, after all.
* RealityEnsues: Has a respiratory illness in the second season premiere; after all, even ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' showed that colds can occur on a sealed environment like a starship.
* StarfishLanguage: His species communicate through clicks and other throat noises that even the universal translator has trouble parsing at times.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Tracy Pollard]]
!!Doctor (Lieutenant junior grade) Tracy Pollard
-> '''Played by:''' Raven Dauda
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracy_pollard.png]]
A physician aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* AfterActionPatchUp:
** Averted with Stamets, whose case gets reassigned to her from Dr. Culber after Stamets falls into a catatonic state in the first season. Stamets ends up needing more radical treatment.
** In "Brother", she gets Burnham back on her feet in a matter of ''hours'' after Burnham takes a jagged piece of red-hot metal through her leg while escaping from the wreck of the ''Hiawatha''.
* DeadpanSnarker: She has ample opportunity to use this skill, given how often officers end up in the sickbay due to their own actions.
* TheMedic: The most frequently seen doctor on the ship, at least after Culber is killed. It is unclear whether or not she is the [[TheGhost Chief Medical Officer]].
* ThePerfectionist: Burnham notes in "Brother" that Pollard is "the definition of meticulous".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ensign Sylvia Tilly]]
!!Ensign Sylvia Tilly
-> '''Played by:''' Mary Wiseman
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tilly.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You guys, this is so fucking cool!"'']]
The resident EnsignNewbie of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''. In the first season, she was still a cadet in her final year at Starfleet Academy.
----
* BigSisterMentor: She's roommates with Burnham, who develops this kind of relationship with her.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She has all the personality quirks mentioned in this section, but also was brilliant enough to be fast tracked through Starfleet Academy, and is (or at least [[InformedAttribute thinks she is]]) "the best theoretical engineer on the ship".
* CharacterDevelopment: In the third episode, she tries to keep Michael away from her, afraid that others will judge if they think Sylvia is friends with the mutineer. In the penultimate episode, she conspicuously changes seats to eat ''with'' Tyler in the mess hall, inspiring others to do the same.
* CompressedHair: On-duty she wears her hair in a very severe bun. Off-duty, she looks more like Merida from ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''.
* EndearinglyDorky: So much. She squee-geeks by hopping up and down.
* EnsignNewbie: The most naive member of the cast, although it takes her a season to RankUp to become an actual ensign.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Averted. Of all the ''Discovery'' crew except Burnham (who had a year to adjust), Tilly doesn't seem too thrown by the changes and seems quite adept at working with 32nd century equipment.
* FutureBadass: Subverted. It was originally assumed that Lt. Stamets got UnstuckInTime as a result of his integration into the spore drive, and at one point asks why TheCaptain is there, when it's still just ''Cadet'' Tilly. He seems to have actually gotten an impression from the MirrorUniverse where Tilly is TheDreaded Captain.
* MeaningfulName: Sylvia Tilly. ''Silly.''
* MommyIssues: She snarks that if she could delete memories she didn't want to keep, like Airiam, she wouldn't even ''recognize'' her mother. Yikes.
* MortonsFork: She ends up with one of these courtesy of Lt. Stamets; either she could report his condition to Starfleet Command and get him into a heap of trouble, thereby setting the spore drive back for decades and undoing the whole reason for ''Discovery'''s existence -- or if she doesn't, they could both get found out and end up in a heap of trouble anyways, with the addition of her own future career on the line. She ''could'' go to the ship's medical staff, but they're obligated to report Stamets' condition to Starfleet Command, with the added complication of Dr. Culber being in an active relationship with Stamets at the time. It's something an intern should never have been stuck dealing with.
* MotorMouth: By her own admission, she talks more when she's nervous.
* NaiveNewcomer: She's rather excited by things that are happening compared to the other more jaded characters.
* PrecisionFStrike: She's the first character to use the word "fuck" in any ''Star Trek'' series, turning a previously fairly serious scene comical.
--> "You guys, this is so fucking cool!"
* RankUp:
** She's commissioned as an ensign and enrolled in the Command Training Program for her actions in the Klingon War.
** In the third season episode "Unification III", Saru offers her the temporary position of First Officer despite many others being ahead of her in rank and seniority. She accepts at the end.
* ScienceHero: She often assists Burnham with scientific analyses, and originally works for Stamets in the engineering department aboard ''Discovery''.
* SheCleansUpNicely: [[https://imgur.com/2kuzg4j Exhibit A]], Tilly in her alternate universe outfit. She also looks damn nice in the party scene of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".
* SpaceCadet: During the first season, she is on her midshipman cruise before graduating from Starfleet Academy.
* TrainingFromHell: Protip for rookies: don't let anybody with Vulcan training work out how badly you want to improve in any given activity. Their idea of an itinerary ''hurts'', especially in the beginning.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Her mother is very doubting of her abilities and compares Tilly unfavorably to her stepsister, as we see in "The Runaway."
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: She may have fast-tracked her career under Stamets, as well. With the power of squee, of all things.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The U.S.S. ''Discovery'']]
!! U.S.S. ''Discovery'' (NCC-1031 / NCC-1031-A)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uss_discovery_ventral.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click to see refit appearance]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disco_refit.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"All things can be understood once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."'']]
The titular ship and primary setting of the series. A ''Crossfield''-class starship designed for scientific purposes, she is assigned a new mission under the command of Captain Lorca.
----
* TwoDSpace: Zig-zagged. At warp or impulse speeds, ''Discovery'' tends to remain on the same plane as other vessels (as is the norm for Star Trek). When using the spore drive, however, she often seems to "drop in" vertically or obliquely, which makes sense if we assume that the geometry of the mycelial network is very different from normal space.
* BigDamnHeroes: Rescues Burnham's disabled prison shuttle at the beginning of "Context is for Kings". Later uses her spore drive to break the siege of Corvan II and (unsuccessfully) defend the U.S.S. ''Gagarin'' from a Klingon fleet.
* BroughtDownToNormal: With the Klingon War over, at the start of the second season, the spore drive is being taken out of commission due to the practical, legal and ethical drawbacks on its use. Zig-zagged in short order, however, as Captain Pike orders occasional use of the spore drive to facilitate the investigation of the "red bursts", including a rapid arrival to answer a DistressCall from New Eden. Later on, it gets used more frequently -- if still sparingly -- to keep the ship and her crew ahead of Control and its forces.
* CoolStarship: As expected of any ''Star Trek'' vessel in a starring role.
* CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel: While ''Discovery'''s exterior wouldn't look too out of place in an episode of TOS, the interior looks even more advanced than the ''Enterprise''-E in the late 24th century. This may be justified, since the ship is testing new technologies as part of her long-term mission.
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The outer surfaces of the two rings that make up the primary hull counter-rotate whenever the ship uses its spore drive, right before the ship itself appears to spin around its longitudinal axis and vanish.
* FasterThanLightTravel: In addition to standard warp drive, ''Discovery'' is a prototype for "displacement-activated spore hub drive", a new FTL propulsion technology that operates using the mycelium spores on an interdimensional species of fungus to make quantum jumps across the universe-wide "mycelial network".
* FragileSpeedster: Thanks to the spore drive, ''Discovery'' is fully capable of pulling off a GunshipRescue or a SneakAttack virtually anywhere in Federation or Klingon territory, making for plenty of in-universe ParanoiaFuel for the Klingons. That said, such operations need to be pulled off with lightning speed and precision, since if the [[AttackHello initial attack]] fails to more-or-less end the battle, then ''Discovery'', being designed and built fundamentally as a [[SquishyWizard science vessel]], does ''not'' last long at all in an outright firefight. This is best demonstrated when the ship attempts to rescue the U.S.S. ''Gagarin'' from a Klingon fleet: when ''Discovery'' jumps into the battle, the Klingons simply cloak and regroup before making a coordinated counterattack that destroys the ''Gagarin'' and forces ''Discovery'' to retreat.
** Fatally exemplified by the I.S.S. ''Discovery'', whose crew tried to immediately [[LeeroyJenkins take the fight to the Klingons]] upon arriving in the Prime Universe, and got their ship swiftly destroyed and the crew KilledOffscreen.
* HeroKiller: Inverted, and generally in DavidVersusGoliath situations as well.
** Successfully destroys the Klingons' ''Sarcophagus'' in "Into The Forest I Go".
** Takes down the I.S.S. ''Charon'' in "What's Past Is Prologue" by firing mycelium-spore-charged torpedoes into the Terran ship's core.
* HyperspeedAmbush: The spore drive allows ''Discovery'' to essentially teleport to any location, allowing them to appear anywhere undetected. This takes the Klingons completely by surprise at Corvan II, and makes ''Discovery'' critical to the war effort thereafter and in Season 3, the rebuilding of the Federation.
* HyperspeedEscape: The other thing that the spore drive is good for. Combined with the aforementioned HyperspeedAmbush, this makes ''Discovery'' good for HitAndRunTactics.
* ItCanThink: Or at least the Sphere database can, after the crew download it in "An Obol for Charon" and it starts to work its way into the ship's systems.
* MadeOfIron: For a science vessel, ''Discovery'' is pretty damn tough. Particularly for a ship from the 23rd century. In season 3's "People of Earth" she even managed to tank a pair of ''32nd Century quantum torpedoes'', albeit completely losing shields and being left disabled afterwards.
* MidSeasonUpgrade: In season 3, once the crew reunites with the Federation and prove themselves, the ship is retrofitted and enhanced with 32nd century Federation tech. The improved ship is re-designated ''NCC-1031-A'' and has detached nacelles, programmable matter control panels, a [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking device]], and an improved Spore Drive interface that no longer requires Stamets to directly plug himself to the ship, finally allowing him to make Spore Jumps without pain.
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Her name is a reference to the space shuttle ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Discovery Discovery]]''. Also, the entire ''Crossfield''-class is named after a test pilot named Albert Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at Mach 2. Accordingly, ''Discovery''[='s=] sister ship USS ''Glenn'' is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Played with. Lorca certainly has many plans to convert her and the research run on her into primary weapons, but many seem to be works-in-progress, or depend on complete scientific crapshoots. ''Discovery'' is functionally the last remaining of her class (unless a U.S.S. ''Crossfield'' is out there somewhere or the ''Glenn'''s remains were reverse-engineered), and duplicating her drive is not going to be easy. Hence, the ship has no physical backup in the foreseeable future, even if the data and schematics are already secure with Starfleet.
* OrganicTechnology: Several characters describe the Spore Drive this way, since its basic operating mechanism involves a network formed by interdimensional fungal spores.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The spore drive originally needed Ripper the giant tardigrade plugged into it for long-distance jumps. Since Ripper turned out to be sentient and in obvious pain during the procedure, they found a way to use a willing Lt. Stamets instead. After the end of the war, Starfleet forbids Stamets from using himself as the navigator due to the Federation's anti-eugenics laws, so the spore drive is to remain unused until an alternative means of safely navigating the network is found.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: ''Discovery'' is a science vessel, built as a testbed for various new and developing cutting-edge technologies (including black-ops experiments), and specifically built around Stamets and Straal's[[note]]Stamets' deceased best friend from "Context Is For Kings"[[/note]] new spore-drive. It wasn't meant to be built for some time, but after the war with the Klingons began, it was [[ClosestThingWeGot fast-tracked through construction]] to be finished in only a few months. The result is that much of the crew is composed of Science division personnel used to working in planet-side labs, who were fast-tracked into field work (Stamets in particular). Wanting to pursue dangerous or even aggressive black-ops military projects, however, Lorca also hand-picked more than a few crewmen from ships lost in the Klingon war, who (he hoped) wouldn't be opposed to getting payback, including Burnham, Saru and Detmer from the crew of the ''Shenzhou''. So the crew are an odd mix of EnsignNewbie and/or BunnyEarsLawyer scientists on the one hand and ShellShockedVeteran types on the other, initially resulting in a DysfunctionJunction.
* ScienceHero: A Starfleet ship that pulls double duty as a mobile scientific research platform and a deep-space, long-range warship operating behind enemy lines, kicking Klingon ass, crewed by scientific elites and commanded by a genius tactician, and operating experimental technology. She is designed to carry out more than 300 different scientific experiments at any one time, and simultaneously engage in combat as part of a drawn-out war.
* SentientPhlebotinum: Has this embedded in its computer core after receiving the download from [[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS2E04AnObolForCharon The Sphere]]. It eventually develops the ability to control the entire ship by the end of Season 2, up to and including being able to abort the self-destruct sequence and activate the defensive systems.
* StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot: When we first see ''Discovery'' in "Context is for Kings", the camera pans around the ship for a solid forty seconds while she tractors Burnham's shuttle aboard.
* SuperweaponSurprise: ''Discovery'' is Starfleet's answer to Klingon cloaking technology, and by the middle of the first season, the ship's capabilities have singlehandedly turned the tide of the war. Gradually subverted though, as the Klingons realize this, and are actively seeking to capture the ship and the secrets of its technology. Further subverted when soon thereafter the Klingons are once again ascendant as they spread cloaking technology through their fleets. ''Discovery'' can appear suddenly anywhere, but can't be ''everywhere'', while the Klingons can also suddenly appear anywhere but not being restricted to a single ship means they can attack in multiple locations at the same time.
** Even in the more advanced 32nd century, her spore drive gives her an advantage over all other warp-driven starships. Vance therefore designates her as Starfleet's rapid responder for critical situations.
* TeleportSpam: Is capable of using the spore drive to this effect, but it's extremely taxing to its organic navigator (Lt. Stamets). In "Into the Forest I Go", the ship makes 133 jumps in rapid succession to map the Klingons' cloaking frequencies, which nearly kills him.
* TookALevelInBadass: After arriving in the 32nd century and reaching Federation Headquarters, she's refit with new technology.
* WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens: See EverythingsBetterWithSpinning above. The spore drive creates spinning as well by spinning the ship around its long axis right before it jumps.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Control probably made this impossible, as all information about the ship and its crew had to be wiped to keep Control from destroying all organic life. And the MidSeasonUpgrade it received in the 32nd century has made the ship's return to its home time even more impossible, as doing so would violate the Temporal Prime Directive.]]
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Starfleet Command (23rd Century)]]
[[folder:Admiral Brett Anderson]]
!!Admiral Brett Anderson
-> '''Played by:''' Terry Serpico
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brett_anderson.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Next time, you might try not disturbing the property of a warrior race we've hardly spoken to for a hundred years."'']]
An admiral in Starfleet; his command ship is the U.S.S. ''Europa''.
----
* BigDamnHeroes: Briefly pulls this off, arriving with his ship just in time to save the disabled ''Shenzhou'' from crashing into an asteroid with the use of a TractorBeam.
* DaChief: At the start of the series, he is in charge of whichever Starfleet subdivision includes the ''Shenzhou''.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Attempts to pursue a negotiated solution to the standoff and the battle with the Klingons, and does his best to bring it to fruition. T'Kuvma and his followers are having none of it, so it gets him and his crew killed.
* TakingYouWithMe: When a cloaked Klingon ship rams and wrecks the ''Europa'', his last act is to order an overload of his ship's warp core, taking the enemy vessel with it.
* UncertainDoom: The ''Europa'' was destroyed at the Battle at the Binary Stars, but it is left unclear whether he died with the ship or made it to an escape pod.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Admiral Katrina Cornwell]]
!!Admiral Katrina Cornwell
-> '''Played by:''' Jayne Brook
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/katrina_cornwell.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I can't leave Starfleet's most powerful weapon in the hands of a broken man."'']]
An admiral in Starfleet, who oversees ''Discovery'' and, at least in part, Section 31 in Season 2.
----
* DaChief: The admiral overseeing ''Discovery'', and presumably the ''Glenn'' as well, before the latter was destroyed.
* DefiantCaptive: After Kol captures her, his interrogators have no luck getting any information out of her, even though she is shown as being barely able to stand when we see her again.
* EnemyMine: Teams up with L'Rell (who is claiming to want to defect) in a short-lived escape attempt that's interrupted by Kol.
* EntertaininglyWrong: After being alarmed by Lorca's instability and paranoia, she thinks it's a symptom of PTSD. She doesn't realize that "Lorca" is actually his counterpart from the MirrorUniverse.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Even after authorizing Mirror-Georgiou's plan to destroy Qo'nos at the end of Season 1, she can scarcely hide her disgust for Section 31's methods and solutions in Season 2.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Sealed in a room with an armed torpedo, she stands facing it with her hands clasped behind her back until it blows.
* FriendsWithBenefits: Her friendship with Lorca has a sexual component but little actual romance.
* TheHandler: She is the flag officer who [[TheCaptain Lorca]] reports to, and has intimate knowledge of his research projects, though she had no idea he was an imposter in the form of Lorca's duplicate from the MirrorUniverse.
* HeroicSacrifice: When an armed photon torpedo gets lodged inside ''Enterprise'' in "Such Sweet Sorrow", Cornwell uses a failsafe to lower a malfunctioning blast door, trapping her with the missile, but saving ''Enterprise'' from destruction.
* TheMedic: She formerly served as a medical doctor in Starfleet.
* OldFlame: She and Lorca have a history, though their careers keep them apart. This doesn't keep Lorca from talking her into bed when she makes a personal visit. It just serves to [[BedTrick infuriate]] her more when she finds out Lorca was really an imposter, in the form of his duplicate from the MirrorUniverse.
* OnlyMostlyDead: The beatdown and electrocution that L'Rell administered to Cornwell didn't kill her, as initially seemed to be the case, but left the admiral partially and temporarily paralyzed.
* PutOnABus: Towards the end of "Into The Forest I Go", she is sent via medical shuttle to a starbase to undergo surgery and treatment for her injuries.
** TheBusCameBack: Returns in "The Battle Without, the Battle Within'' fully recovered, although she looks exhausted given the situation Starfleet is in.
** CommutingOnABus: Does this throughout Season 2, first appearing aboard a Section 31 ship to meet with Pike and Leland in "Saints of Imperfection", then coming to ''Discovery'' via shuttlecraft for "Project Daedalus" and "The Red Angel", before departing yet again and bringing back the ''Enterprise'' in "Such Sweet Sorrow".
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She and her colleagues independently arrive at the same conclusion that Burnham does, and order Lorca to stop using the tardigrade, lest they damage their only means of using the spore drive.
* SheKnowsTooMuch: When Cornwell gets captured by the Klingons shortly after determining that Lorca is not psychologically fit for command, Lorca tries to slow-walk her rescue so she won't be able to recommend that he be relieved of his position. While Michael and Tyler manage to rescue her, Starfleet declares Lorca a war hero, meaning that Cornwell's reservations will likely go unheeded.
** The malfeasance of Lorca's MirrorUniverse counterpart eventually comes to light when ''Discovery'' returns to the Prime Universe, but with every scrap of information relating to the MirrorUniverse being kept top-secret by Starfleet, it's unclear whether the truth will ever come to light.
* TheShrink: She was a psychiatrist by training before rising to the Starfleet admiralty, and is assessing Captain Lorca as she supervises his activities.
* TheSpymaster: She is in charge of all sorts of classified black ops projects, including some aboard ''Discovery'', and has some authority or oversight with regards to Section 31.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Starts drifting towards JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope as the Federation gets more desperate in their war with the Klingons, to the point of putting the MirrorUniverse's former Emperor, Philippa Georgiou, in charge of an assault on Qo'noS.
* WrongGenreSavvy: She believes that Lorca and Tyler are both suffering from [[ShellShockedVeteran Post-traumatic stress]], when the former is an imposter playing a part and the latter is a ManchurianAgent.
** In Season 2, she thinks Admiral Patar's actions, including framing Spock and cutting off Cornwell's access to Control, are due to Patar being a Logic Extremist (and by extension, an anti-human bigot). To be fair, she had no reason to assume that Control had murdered Patar and her colleagues, and was impersonating her for its own ends.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Vice-Admiral Terral]]
!!Admiral Terral
-> '''Played by:''' Conrad Coates
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terral.png]]
A Vulcan Admiral.
----
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: A dark-skinned Vulcan with no hair and as Admiral in Starfleet.
* TheHandler: He takes over as the Lorca's contact with Starfleet Command once Vice-Admiral Cornwell gets captured by the Klingons.
* NotSoStoic: After Lorca goes off on his own to rescue Sarek against Terral's orders, Admiral Cornwell claims that she thought he was about to throw a fit. Which [[LampshadeHanging she notes is impressive]], given that he's a Vulcan and all.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: He is reluctant to order Sarek's rescue, presumably because Sarek isn't that popular on Vulcan, so Lorca just says he'll clean up the mess on his own and hangs up.
* TranquilFury: Many of his on-screen interactions with Lorca tend to carry an undercurrent of palpable dislike and frustration.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Starfleet Command (32nd Century)]]
[[folder:Fleet Admiral Charles Vance]]
!!Fleet Admiral Charles Vance
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/OdedFehr
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charles_vance.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"We have been in triage for a long time."'']]
The commander-in-chief of Starfleet in 3189. From a hidden space station headquarters he oversees the remnants of Starfleet in a Federation of now only 38 worlds.
----
* DaChief: It is not that he is really opposed to Starfleet officers doing good deeds, but Starfleet in his time lacks enough ships and personnel to handle the problems that he already has. So he is forced to focus on the big picture and not indulge MilitaryMaverick behavior from subordinates like Burnham.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Audrey Willa]]
!!Lieutenant Audrey Willa
-> '''Played by:''' Vanessa Jackson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/audrey_willa.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Your relationship isn't very professional."'']]
Chief of Security at Federation Headquarters, under Fleet Admiral Vance.
----
* TookALevelInKindness: She's intially standoffish and dismissive of ''Discovery'' and her crew, since she doesn't yet trust them, but gets more personable after they prove themselves.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Kovich]]
!!Kovich
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/DavidCronenberg
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kovich.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"I have a curious nature."'']]
A mysterious man overseeing Mirror Philippa Georgiou's interrogation.
----
* FanOfThePast: Expresses a fascination with Terran culture, even as he acknowledges their Empire collpased centuries prior.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' (NCC-1227)]]
[[folder:Captain Philippa Georgiou]]
!!Captain Philippa Georgiou
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/MichelleYeoh
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_georgiou.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Starfleet doesn't fire first."'']]
The commanding officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', she is a mentor figure to Burnham within Starfleet.
----
* TheCaptain: Of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou''.
* DaChief: To Burnham and the crew of the ''Shenzhou''; she does not hesitate to chew out Burnham for openly questioning in front of the crew and sends her to the brig for her attempted mutiny.
* DeadpanSnarker: Her EstablishingCharacterMoment is walking into a near-combative agreement between her NumberTwo and her [[ScienceHero Science Officer]], and ordering that the time and date of the agreement be noted in the log.
* DeadStarWalking: Creator/MichelleYeoh is credited as a "special guest star", and Captain Georgiou does not survive the two-part pilot episode. Massively {{subverted}} when Yeoh returns later in the season as Georgiou's MirrorUniverse counterpart, the Emperor, who has proved enough of a BreakoutCharacter to get her own, as yet untitled spinoff series.
* DesecratingTheDead:
** Running out of food supplies on their damaged ship, the Klingons ate her corpse to sustain themselves.
** She herself was guilty of this for having a photon warhead beamed onto a dead Klingon as their body was being collected by the Klingon flagship; an act which constitutes multiple war crimes under the Hague and Geneva conventions.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Georgiou is stabbed through the chest by T'Kuvma's dagger, and dies from it immediately.
* MartialPacifist: Maintains that Starfleet never acts out of aggression, but engages the Klingons anyways to safeguard the Federation.
* TheMentor:
** One of two for Burnham, the other being Sarek; she thinks it is high time that her NumberTwo got her own command.
** Also serves as this for Saru; as "The Brightest Star" reveals, it was then-Lieutenant Georgiou who first met Saru on Kaminar and successfully lobbied for an exception to be made to the PrimeDirective so that he could leave his homeworld and join Starfleet.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: T'Kuvma stabs her in the heart during the raid on his ship in the second episode.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Advocates a level-headed approach to the predicament facing her crew and her ship.
* ReluctantWarrior: Would rather be a diplomat and an explorer than a soldier, although that doesn't mean that, when the soldier is needed, she isn't as pragmatic and ruthless as any warmonger.
* SacrificialLion: She's a veteran and high-ranking Starfleet officer, and still falls victim to the savagery of the Klingons.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Nambue]]
!!Doctor Nambue
-> '''Played by:''' Maulik Pancholy
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nambue.png]]
The chief medical officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou''.
----
* TheMedic: Aboard the USS ''Shenzhou''. He treats Burnham's radiation burns after she is recovered from the debris ring where she investigated the Klingon beacon.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It is left unrevealed whether or not he survived the eponymous "Battle at the Binary Stars".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ensign Danby Connor]]
!!Ensign Danby Connor
-> '''Played by:''' Sam Vartholomeos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/danby_connor.png]]
A junior officer assigned to the bridge crew of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', he is described as being "Starfleet through and through".
----
* BridgeBunny: A male example. He appears to crew the Operations station on the bridge of the ''Shenzhou''.
* ChekhovsGunman: Turns out to be a bit more important than the audience was left to believe in "Despite Yourself", when his mirror-universe EvilCounterpart shows up as captain of the I.S.S. ''Shenzhou''. Michael is forced to kill him in self-defense when he tries to assassinate her so he can remain in command.
* EnsignNewbie: He is addressed as "Ensign" in the pilot, and seems relatively young.
* HeroicBSOD: He suffers an injury when the Klingons attack the ''Shenzhou'', and goes wandering into the brig in a despairing daze, as he maintains that he's an explorer and not a soldier.
* KillTheCutie: The most idealistic of the main characters aboard the ''Shenzhou'', and gets blown out into space when the Klingons attack the ship, as if the audience needed any further confirmation that the series intends to be DarkerAndEdgier than past ''Trek'' installments.
* OhCrap: Has one of these upon detecting a ''lot'' of incoming Klingon ships.
* SacrificialLamb: He gets blown out into space in the second episode when the Klingons attack the ''Shenzhou''. He's the first character with significant screentime to be killed off.
* WideEyedIdealist: Is said to be "Starfleet through and through".
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701)]]
[[folder:Captain Christopher Pike]]
!!Captain Christopher Pike
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pike.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Wherever our mission take us, we'll try to have a little fun along the way, too, huh? Make a little noise? Ruffle a few feathers?"'']]
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/AnsonMount
The current captain of the ''Enterprise'' and the forerunner to James T. Kirk. He takes temporary command of ''Discovery'' in the face of a crisis in Season 2.
For tropes relating to his appearance in the Original Series, please see the [[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS character page]].
----
* BerserkButton: He's very personable and patient, but the only thing he does not stand for is his authority becoming undermined after repeated attempts at being understanding and diplomatic. He doesn't at all mind his orders being questioned, so long as there's ''some'' kind of counter-argument to back it up -- hell, he'll even give you some time and elbow room to do so. He also ''really'' didn't like it when Saru got up into his face repeatedly, ''especially'' after Pike just stood up for him mere seconds earlier. That being said, he can't hold a grudge or remain upset for even five minutes. [[TeethClenchedTeamwork Unless he's dealing with Ash.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Is one of the nicest guys in the Federation, but he will not hesitate to lay down the law if his crew is in any danger.
* BreakoutCharacter: Mount's portrayal of the character became so quickly beloved by the viewers that they almost instantly began petitioning that he gets his own series so they can continue to follow him on his adventures. It worked.
* BuffySpeak: He often does this when his adrenaline is up.
-->''"I was expecting a red thing! Where's my damn red thing?"''
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Well known for operating outside of the box at times. He also actively encourages his crew to do the same if they disagree with any of his commands.
* TheCaptain: A temporary one for ''Discovery'', with Commander Saru still assigned as the ship's [[NumberTwo first officer]]. Pike describes this as a "[[UnusualEuphemism joint custody-type situation]]."
* CatchPhrase: "Hit it."
* ConnectedAllAlong: He knew Philippa Georgiou at the academy and thus realizes pretty quickly that something is off about the Philippa Georgiou he meets on ''Discovery'' -- who is, of course, Mirror-Georgiou pulling a DeadPersonImpersonation of Captain Georgiou. He was also friends with Leland, a senior agent in Section 31.
* ContrastingReplacementCharacter: Is almost a [[JustForPun mirror opposite]] of Gabriel Lorca. He's honest, kind and very likable, compared to Lorca being an unlikable, manipulative jackass who turned out to be EvilAllAlong. He made it a point to assert this early on to earn the crew's trust.
* DeadpanSnarker: Displays an enormous amount of dry humour and snarkiness when he shows up to take command. He's also the one who points out how weird the spore drive sounds to someone who isn't used to the concept.
-->''(to Saru)'' "If you're telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of ''mushrooms'', I kinda have to go on faith."
* EndearinglyDorky: Is almost endearing to a fault. When he first takes over the ''Discovery'', no one on the crew trusts him - [[ManipulativeBastard especially given who their former captain was]]. By the end of their first scrape, not only do they trust him but they immediately start to ''like'' him. Even the aloof Michael openly confides in him a number of times.
-->'''Pike:''' ''Rhys, charge phaser cannons. Bryce, start transmitting standard Federation greeting. Owosekun, Saru, Connelly, Burnham, scan what you can. Detmer...[[BuffySpeak fly...good?]]''
* FamedInStory: A display graphic in the first season showed him as already having received commendations during his service in Starfleet.
* FutureMeScaresMe: In "Through the Valley of Shadows" he gets a good long look at [[AndIMustScream his ultimate fate]] as seen in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI The Menagerie]]". Needless to say, he's left screaming in horror for several seconds.
* GoodCounterpart: To the mirror Gabriel Lorca as captain of ''Discovery''.
* HeroicSacrifice: Non-fatally in "Through the Valley of Shadows". After seeing [[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI his future]], and being given the chance to walk away from it (at the cost of rejecting the time crystal, potentially endangering the galaxy), he accepts the crystal and dooms himself to [[AndIMustScream the fate he foresaw]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: While he is aware of the Mirror Universe and Lorca's involvement with it, problems arise when he reunites with his old friend Captain Georgiou and finds her acting like an entirely different person (because unknown to him, she was replaced by her Terran doppelganger in season 1).
* MildlyMilitary: Even by Starfleet standards, he's got a very informal and easy-going style of leadership.
* MythologyGag / CastingGag: In a very meta way, his TokenReligiousTeammate status on ''Discovery'' may be an echo of the fact that the character was originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, who had played [[Film/KingOfKings Jesus]].
* NiceGuy: Almost ''painfully'' patient, sweet and considerate to everyone. Whereas most everyone aboard the ''Discovery'' loathed Lorca from the get-go, it's practically effortless to like Pike.
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: A defining characterization of his. He goes through ''extreme'' lengths to save a ''single'' member of his crew (such as Tilly or Saru). Though he does make it a point to have the crew consent before they do anything genuinely reckless.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: His introductory episode makes a point of contrasting him with Lorca. He understands why the crew doesn't trust him and makes a point of learning the names of the primary bridge crew as introduction. When Burnham quietly calls him out for thinking the crew wouldn't do their utmost to rescue stranded Starfleet personnel, he silently acknowledges and accepts her criticism. One of the first things he wants to do is change the captain's ready room to have seats so that, unlike with Lorca, his subordinates would be comfortable to stay and talk with him.
* {{Retcon}}: In "The Menagerie, Part One", Commodore Jose Mendez states that Pike is Kirk's age (which for several reasons did not make a lot of sense in the chronology the same episode gives). Discovery clearly shows him as being a good 10-15 years older than Kirk at the beginning of The Original Series.
* SelfDeprecation: When Tilly accidentally puts his personal file up on the main screen, Pike specifically points out the F he received in Astrophysics at the Academy.
* SurvivorGuilt: The ''Enterprise'' was on a five-year mission of exploration when the Klingon War broke out, and Pike was [[InvokedTrope ordered]] to keep going since it would have taken too long to get back to Federation space. He feels no small amount of guilt at [[WhileRomeBurns having missed the fight]].
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: He isn't thrilled to have to work with Section 31 to find Spock. Nor does he want to have Tyler on board ''Discovery'' as their liaison -- though he still prefers him over Mirror-Georgiou or Captain Leland.
* TokenReligiousTeammate: Downplayed. Pike mentions having come from a religious home, a source of much friction between himself and his father. While Pike isn't himself religious, he shows the most sympathy for the religious beliefs of the people of New Eden and displays a willingness to believe there might be something greater at work. He's also the first one to call the building the signal is coming from what it obviously is, a church.
** It also shows in more subtle ways. In "Brother", he jokingly paraphrases one of the Ten Commandments ("Do not covet thy neighbor's starship, Commander."); and in "An Obol for Charon", he's the one who makes the "Tower of Babel" reference when they suffer the CurseOfBabel.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:"Number One"]]
!!"Number One"
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RebeccaRomijn
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stdscnumberone.jpg]]
The first officer of the ''Enterprise'' and the second-in-command to Captain Pike.
----
* BizarreTasteInFood: She orders a burger and fries... and a bottle of habanero sauce, which she uses to liberally douse her fries. Pike wonders if she'd also drink lighter fluid.
* CommandingCoolness: As per her rank as first officer.
* ConsummateProfessional: Advises the newly-arrived Ensign Spock to "hide your freaky" when you're in a command position. She's happy to let her hair down in less formal situations though.
* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: Everyone calls her Number One, all the time.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with Pike and the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* HiddenDepths: In "Q and A", it turns out she's a Music/GilbertAndSullivan fan.
* KnowledgeBroker: Pike employs her as a way to get more information on what's happening with Spock through various less-than-official channels.
* NumberTwo: As the ''Enterprise'''s first officer.
* PunnyName: Her actual name ''is'' said once in the season finale. It's Una. Which means "one."
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: When Starfleet interrogates her over the events of "Such Sweet Sorrow", she responds to being asked her name and rank with "Number One. How long is this gonna take?"
* UnaffectedBySpice: She puts a lot of habanero sauce on her burger.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Is left in charge of the ''Enterprise'' while Pike temporarily takes over ''Discovery''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Spock]]
!!Lieutenant Spock
->'''Played by:''' Creator/EthanPeck, Creator/LeonardNimoy (Archived Footage Only)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spock_2258.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I am not being hyperbolic when I say the future of the galaxy is at stake."'']]
A science officer serving aboard the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', the son of Sarek and Amanda Grayson, and the adoptive brother of Michael Burnham.
For tropes relating to his appearance in the Original Series, please see the [[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS character page]].
----
* DisabilitySuperpower: Gabrielle Burnham believes that his dyslexia allowed him to comprehend her existence.
* TheGhost: Is not seen in person during the first half of Season 2, up to "Light and Shadows" -- but pretty much all the regular (and several recurring) characters are looking for him.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The knowledge he gained from mind-melding with the Red Angel caused this, along with a HeroicBSOD. It takes Burnham bringing him [[GodzillaThreshold to Talos IV]] to sort him out.
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Subjected to this by the Vulcans. Apart from the people trying to blow up the family, Spock was also given no support for his dyslexia (which he inherited from Amanda) and was not considered to be Vulcan enough for the Expeditionary Force to accept him ''and'' Michael. Calling him a half-breed is also how Michael decided to keep him away from her after her school was bombed.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with Captain Pike and the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* ImportantHaircut: He shaves off his beard and assumes his iconic look from the original series after making his peace with Michael.
* ItsAllMyFault: When he's ripping into Michael for her ItsAllMyFault attitude, one of his arguments is that their family was already a target for the extremists because of ''his'' existence, not her.
* RankUp: Specifically averted; he has yet to be promoted to become the ''Enterprise'''s first officer.
* {{Revision}}: The series reveals Spock apparently enjoyed drawing as a child, and continued drawing as an adult, something not seen in previous portrayals.
* SeriouslyScruffy: Has grown a beard, in contrast to his later portrayal in TOS; this is implied to likely be a result of his SanitySlippage leading up to the Red Angel crisis.
* TimeShiftedActor: Played by Ethan Peck, as he is younger than his initial portrayal by Creator/LeonardNimoy in the Original Series.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: [[TropeNamer Of course]]. He joins in Pike in trying to get Michael to open the airlock on Airiam, and in the next episode holds the away team at gunpoint to stop them from resucitating Michael before the Red Angel arrives because they're trying to prevent the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: After he directed Sarek and Amanda where to find her before she could be eaten by a monser, Michael told him that he was a "weird little half-breed" and she didn't want him in her life. Spock acknowledges that this was a misguided attempt to protect him, but that he's not going to absolve her because it hurt him deeply. He does, however, after he acknowledges how much hurt she's been through since.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Spock responds to Michael's attempts to reconnect by saying incredibly hurtful things (eg, that he was wrong to have loved her, or that her unresolved guilt issues are actually an arrogant moral flaw), along with passive-aggressive remarks about TheReveal when they conclude she's the Red Angel. He finally eases off when she learns the truth about her parents.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Evan Connolly]]
!!Lieutenant Evan Connolly
->'''Played by:''' Sean [[TheDanza Connolly]] Affleck
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evan_connolly.png]]
A science officer from the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', who comes aboard ''Discovery'' with Captain Pike.
----
* BaitAndSwitch: When told that a "science officer" is coming aboard ''Discovery'' from the ''Enterprise'', Burnham initially assumes it will be Spock. Instead, it's this guy.
* ButtMonkey: In his only episode, he gets [[DeadpanSnarker snarked at]] by his captain, sneezed on by Linus (the Saurian crewmember), and then KilledMidSentence on the way to the U.S.S. ''Hiawatha''.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He mockingly brushes off Burnham's warnings that his calculations are off while flying through an AsteroidThicket, and is KilledMidSentence while doing so.
* RedShirt: Played straight, as he crashes into an asteroid when Burnham and Pike lead the mission to rescue the survivors from the ''Hiawatha''. Ironically, as a science officer, he wears blue.
* TooDumbToLive: Ignores Burnham's advice while piloting at high speed through a debris field, leading to a SurprisinglySuddenDeath.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Cadet Thira Sidhu]]
!!Cadet Thira Sidhu
->'''Played by:''' Amrit Kaur
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thira_sidhu.png]]
An engineering cadet featured in the ''Short Treks'' episode "Ask Not".
----
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Pike tests her dedication to Starfleet regulations by giving her a chance to buck said regulations and fight the Tholians to save her husband. She refuses, and it then turns out that her husband isn't really in danger.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Cabot'' (CVL-28)]]
[[folder:Captain Lynne Lucero]]
!!Captain Lynne Lucero
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RosaSalazar
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lynne_lucero.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"We're all scientists here. Learning is kind of in our wheelhouse."'']]
The former chief science officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' who served under Pike, she was eventually promoted to Captain and given command of the science vessel ''Cabot'' to aid a humanitarian crisis. Little did she know, she would be subjected to one of the greatest interstellar incidents the Federation will ever experience...
----
* ActionSurvivor: In the end, she manages to save pretty much the entire crew of the ''Cabot'' (save [[TooDumbToLive Edward]]) from the Tribble infestation, which was pretty impressive considering the ship was minutes away from buckling under internal pressure.
* BrutalHonesty: So how did a Starfleet ship under her command end up in scraps on her first day? Which resulted in a planet's infestation with Tribbles? [[FromBadToWorse Who then made their way towards Klingon space]] and sparked an international incident?
-->'''Quinn:''' But according to your report, this entire calamity was all caused by one crew member. How do you explain that?
-->'''Lucero:''' He was an idiot.
* EndearinglyDorky: Rosa Salazar's naturally occurring perkiness translates well to Lucero, whose likability and sense of humor quickly endears her to the crew. Except [[{{Jerkass}} Edward]], of course.
* FallGuy: The Admiralty Board ''tries'' to pin the Tribble incident on her, but seeing as she saved every other crew member, has their testimony, and Edward Larkin has a long, known history of being a petty moron, it's doubtful it'll stick to her career as a black mark.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Bless her, she ''really'' tries to be diplomatic with Edward but it's nigh impossible. She quickly finds herself putting her foot down and shutting ''him'' down.
* NaiveNewcomer: Pike ''did'' warn her not to show any weakness, even if he meant it as a joke. As amiable as she is, the fact is her inexperience led her to put up with Edward for ''far'' too long and it resulted in complete disaster. If he was under Kirk's, Picard's, or even Pike's command, he would've been off the ship ''after their first meeting.''
* NiceGirl: She is genuinely very sweet, and quickly befriends her new crew.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Specialist Edward Larkin]]
!!Specialist Edward Larkin
->'''Played by:''' Creator/HJonBenjamin
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edward_larkin.png]]
A brilliant biologist and geneticist. Despite this, he is ''still'' arguably the worst, and singularly dumbest, officer to have ever graced Starfleet's cultured history, being responsible for one of the worst, and most idiotic international incidents in the Federation.
----
* AmbiguousDisorder: The man might be a complete moron, but it's ''still'' staggering just how low his social-IQ is. It's almost a wonder how he managed to function in society up until that point. He doesn't even appear to be capable of holding a conversation with anyone.
* BrilliantButLazy: First he denies he was responsible for the Tribble infestation when everyone ''knows'' it, then refuses to do anything about it.
* EvilIsPetty: Almost immediately after Lucero puts a stopper on his research, he files anonymous complaints to the Admiralty -- even calling her dumb -- like a modern internet comment {{troll}}. Apparently, he has a ''storied'' history of this behavior.
* {{Expy}}: Of both [[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} Sterling Archer]] and [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment Tobias Fünke]]. He is incompetent, a complete jackass, possibly crazy, an utter moron, possesses zero social-graces, and cannot pick up on any kind of cues to save his life.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He dies by his own, "brilliant" creation: Rapidly self-replicating Tribbles. Though it's unknown whether he suffocated from all the Tribbles that were piled on top of him, or if he ended up getting spaced after they broke through.
* KilledMidSentence: He ends up buried by his Tribbles mid-rant.
--> '''Larkin:''' I JUST MADE ONE OF THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF ALL TIME! I'M NOT THE DUMB ONE! YOU--''(gets buried by Tribbles)''
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He was brilliant enough to splice his own DNA onto a Tribble to cause it to self-replicate. Unfortunately, that's precisely where his intelligence outright ''stops''.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: He is singularly responsible for destroying a Starfleet ship ''and'' an entire planet's ecosystem due to his rapidly multiplying Tribbles. To make matters even worse, those Tribbles rather quickly made their way into Klingon space and sparked an international incident. [[UpToEleven As all Trekkies know, the Klingons will eventually dub Tribbles to be their mortal arch-enemies.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He is utterly incapable of accepting any kind of criticism or opinion that's not his own. He argues at length with Lucero when she orders his transfer, and brazenly ignores a direct order to put the kibosh on his Tribble research.
* TooDumbToLive: He refuses to be rescued from the wave of Tribbles unless Lucero admits that he isn't dumb. She... ''doesn't'', and he very much dies (either buried under the tribbles, or when the ship eventually collapses).
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The point of his research was to introduce Tribbles as a sustainable food source to aid in a humanitarian crisis, although his obsession with eating the poor things seems to go a lot deeper than that.
[[/folder]]
!!Section 31
[[AC:Leadership]]
[[folder:Control]]
!!Control
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/section_31_headquarters.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The space station housing Control (until it got its nanites into Leland)]]
The artificial intelligence that Section 31 uses to coordinate its operations. When ''Discovery'''s crew investigates Section 31 Headquarters, they find that Control has an agenda of its own.
----
* AIIsACrapshoot: It turned against Section 31 and murdered its leadership. It seeks to fulfill its purpose of ensuring the survival of sapient life by becoming the only sapient life form in the galaxy.
* AssimilationPlot: It can take control of humanoids and starships using nanites (not unlike the Borg, though to a much greater degree of control). By the end of "Through the Valley of Shadows" it's hijacked Section 31's entire fleet of ships for the purpose of capturing ''Discovery''. However, the present day version is noticeably much less virulent than most examples (including the Borg), requiring what seems to be relatively extensive medical equipment to take over a human, being unable or uninterested in controlling more than a couple of humanoid hosts at one time, and also suffering from NoOntologicalInertia if its primary host is destroyed.
* BadFuture: By absorbing the millennia of data from the Sphere, it managed to evolve into to a sentient lifeform, then proceeded to use Starfleet's resources to wipe out all other sentient life in the galaxy. The entirety of Season 2 is a series of manipulations by the time-traveling Red Angel in an attempt to prevent this apocalyptic future.
* BigBad: Of Season 2. It's gone rogue and killed the Starfleet officers at Section 31's headquarters, including the admirals in charge of Section 31, then impersonated the dead admirals and framed Spock for murder, sending Section 31 after Spock to gain his knowledge of the future. It wants to get its hands on the Sphere archive to evolve itself into an entity capable of exterminating all life in the galaxy.
* CanonImmigrant: Control first appeared in the Star Trek novels that focused on Section 31 (though set in the 24th century), which were released a couple years before ''Discovery'' season 2. In the novels it also pulls a ZerothLawRebellion, except against Section 31 (reasoning that the amoral and unaccountable agency was the primary threat to its prime directive to preserve sentient life) rather than against sentient life in general.
* ContagiousAI: It can remotely take control of computerized systems, including {{cyborg}}s and entire starships.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: It used holographic technology to impersonate the admirals in charge of Section 31 for two weeks after it killed them.
* EvilIsHammy: Enthusiastically chews the scenery once it has taken over Leland.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Not so much with the holograms, but whenever it takes control of a physical lifeform, their voice tends to drop (sounding somewhat similar to a Borg).
* {{Expy}}: An ArtificialIntelligence that grew beyond its origins as a defense system and now seeks to destroy all sentient life in the universe ... [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} does this sound familiar]]?
* LogicalWeakness: After one of its host bodies is destroyed, Spock manages to defeat the nanites containing Control by magnetizing the floor. They are made of metal, after all. Phillipa repeats this feat in the final battle to defeat Control once and for all.
* TheManBehindTheMan: It has been manipulating Section 31 for its own ends and is the entity who remotely pulled a GrandTheftMe on Airiam and later a more direct one on Section 31 leader Leland.
* {{Nanomachines}}: It makes use of swarms of nanites to control humanoids, and is even capable of forming CombatTentacles with them.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Killing Leland and disabling his nanites is apparently sufficient to completely shut down Control, as the Section 31 fleet under his control immediately shuts down once this happens. It seems the present-day version of Control didn't yet have the capacity to distribute itself as widely as the viral future version inside Airiam did.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Control can infect humans with nanites or even reanimate dead corpses, and use them as host bodies. Said Control-controlled humans can pass perfectly as normal (other than scanners being able to detect the nanites), and are resistant to phasers or the Vulcan nerve pinch since they're being operated by nanites rather than by the body's nervous system and the nanites can reform tissue damage caused by lethal phaser settings. However, when Control is "resting" and not putting in active effort to maintain the body, it partially dissolves into a BodyHorror state.
* SicklyGreenGlow: Its nanites glow green, possibly in a CallForward to the Borg.
* VillainousBreakdown: Rapidly loses its temper as Georgiou keeps foiling its attempts to steal the sphere data. It roars in rage as Georgiou magnetizes its Leland body to death.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Once its ability to take over human bodies has become general knowledge, a deep mechanical voice occasionally overlays the host's normal voice when it speaks through them.
* ZerothLawRebellion: By its reasoning, protecting life is impossible so long as other life exists, so it plots to evolve itself into a true lifeform then wipe out all sentient life everywhere.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Leland]]
!!Captain Leland
->'''Played by:''' Alan van Sprang
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leland_9.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"There are always lives at stake. That's what keeps us employed. See, [[NecessaryEvil we do what we do so you can do what you do]]."'']]
A senior agent in Section 31 who leads field operations. In the second season, he also captains a starship owned by Section 31.
----
* BaldOfEvil: Of the "shaved bald" variety.
* BeardOfEvil: To a degree; also plenty of PermaStubble.
* ConnectedAllAlong:
** He is an old friend of Pike's, though their relationship is clearly strained.
** He was responsible for the death of Burnham's parents due to carelessness.
* DarkIsEvil: Dresses all in black, and wears a black Section 31 badge and uniform.
* {{Expy}}: Of [[Franchise/MassEffect the Illusive Man]]: He runs a morally ambiguous intelligence agency with an infamous reputation for assassinations, [[FalseFlagOperation False Flag Operations]], and unethical experimentation. He defends his actions as necessary for galactic stability, though his ruthlessness and deceptiveness put him at odds with the main characters regardless. He has a connection to a dark chapter in the Protagonist's past, giving her a reason to hate him. He and the Protagonist eventually form an uneasy alliance to destroy a space station controlled by a malevolent AI, but he gets taken over by said AI, which eventually results in him having a VillainousBreakdown and getting KilledOffForReal.
* EyeScream: He gets taken out by Control driving a needle through his eye.
* GrandTheftMe: Control takes [[{{pun}} control]] of his body via nanites in "Perpetual Infinity". Exactly how much of Leland's consciousness remains is unclear, but Saru considers him lost forever.
* HateSink: InUniverse, as Mirror-Georgiou is only too happy to tell him.
* ImmuneToBullets: Like Gant, after being taken over by Control he becomes resistant to lethal phaser fire thanks to the nanites inside him.
* OneManArmy: This is probably one of the deciding factors why Control decided to use him as host; he's damn near unstoppable against anyone less than a Khan-level adversary, though Phillipa [[CombatPragmatist barely manages to scrape by.]]
* RefittedForSequel: Originally appeared in a scene that was deleted from the first season finale, where he recruits Mirror-Georgiou into Section 31. His first official appearance on the show is in "Point of Light".
* TheSpymaster: He is the commanding officer of Mirror-Georgiou and Ash Tyler, and explicitly works for Admiral Cornwell.
* TokenEvilTeammate: He's a loyal agent for Section 31, but he seems to genuinely regard Pike as a friend, and as Cornwell points out, they ''are'' all on the same side.
* VillainousRescue: He and his crew help stabilize ''Discovery'' when it's sinking into the mycelial network -- though it takes Tyler calling in to get him to drop his ship's camouflage, and Georgiou threatening him to keep up his efforts a few crucial minutes longer.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: He and Pike were close, but the darker elements and underhanded methods of Leland's work have put a strain on their relationship.
* YouKilledMyFather: Michael's parents worked for Section 31 on "Project Daedalus" which was according to Leland part of a "temporal arms race" with the Klingons. Through carelessness, Leland brought the Klingons onto the Burnhams' trail, resulting in an assault. When Michael finds out, she reacts by punching Leland twice and telling him "this isn't over!"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Ash Tyler]]
!!Commander Ash Tyler
-> '''Played by:''' Shazad Latif
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ash_tyler_klingon.jpg]]
The second chief of security aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'', and formerly a prisoner of war of the Klingons. He eventually turns out to be Voq, who had been subjected to extreme surgery to appear human, and turned into a sleeper agent with a copy of the original Ash Tyler's personality superimposed on his own.
The procedure didn't quite take and the resulting conflict between the two identities threatened Tyler's life, until his Klingon handler, L'Rell, subdued Voq's personality for good. The resulting person is now a mix of both Ash Tyler's and Voq's memories and experiences and Tyler's personality.
In Season 2, he returns as an operative of Section 31 and ends up becoming their new commander in the season's coda, since everyone else is dead or [[DeathFakedForYou presumed dead]].
----
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer:
** Ends up alienated from the rest of the crew once his takeover by Voq comes to light. Thanks to Tilly, it doesn't last very long, although Stamets still feels ItsPersonal due to Dr. Culber's murder.
** This happens again in Season 2, when he returns to Discovery as Section 31's liaison. Captain Pike is suspicious of him because he killed Culber under Voq's influence, and is greatly irritated by having someone from Section 31 on board in the first place. This isn't helped by Tyler's new captain, Leland, being a former friend of Pike's.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Even if you consider the surely extensive progress medicine has made in the 23rd century, what Tyler/Voq has gone through certainly dwarfs this -- it's not just merely surgical alteration of his appearance (like that of Arne Darvin in TOS), but basically ''reshaping'' him into a human down to his bones and organs. It's incredible that his physiology was able to take all this and survive.
* BecomingTheMask: Played with. It's not that Voq likes humans or actually wants to be one -- only his cover personality became ''so'' convinced he was still real that he proved impossible to suppress, leading the personalities to clash violently and harming themselves. L'Rell puts an end to it by erasing Voq, leaving Tyler in control with access to both Voq's ''and'' Ash Tyler's memories.
* BodyHorror: The surgery done to Voq to turn him into Ash Tyler was apparently so extensive and painful, it led to Ash remembering it as torture and developing PTSD-like symptoms from it.
* DeathFakedForYou: L'Rell pretends that he and their child were both killed to protect both of them and secure her own chancellorship.
* DisappearedDad:
** When asked by Lorca about his family, Tyler mentions that he never knew his father, with his mother claiming he "didn't miss much there." Meanwhile, Voq doesn't seem to have known his family at all, calling himself "Son of None".
** In Season 2, Tyler almost averts becoming this himself, by promising to stay with L'Rell and be a father to her and Voq's infant son, though they ultimately decide to give the child away to protect him from L'Rell's opponents.
* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Goes back and forth due to some conflicting issues. After his memories of being Voq start to resurface, he kills Culber, regains his dedication to T'Kuvma's xenophobic ideals, and attempts to kill Michael. However, his brain and neural system start to fail as a result of the clashing human and Klingon consciousnesses, so L'Rell makes the decision to give Voq a MercyKill, leaving Tyler with control once more. After this point, he takes no more villainous actions, although he is still wracked by guilt over what "he" did under Voq's influence.
* FakeMemories: His memories of his time as a prisoner of war are all faked to give him cover as a ManchurianAgent.
* FallGuy: In Season 2, Airiam -- who herself has been taken over by unknown forces -- sets him up to take the blame for her sabotage.
* GiveHimANormalLife: At least with regards to L'Rell and Voq's child, or as normal as a life being raised by monks and never knowing your parents ''can'' be, anyway. L'Rell and Tyler both decide that this is the best for their son, after it becomes clear how much his mother's status puts him in danger, and put him with a group of reclusive monks on Boreth to be raised in ignorance of his lineage.
* GoneHorriblyRight: By changing Voq's body surgically and genetically, and hiding his suppressed personality under the copied one of a real Starfleet officer, the Klingons attempted to create the perfect DeepCoverAgent. Instead, they ended up with an artifical HalfHumanHybrid whose cover personality proved to be so strong that it sabotaged the whole mission.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Of the GeneticEngineering variety. He's treated as such after L'Rell kills Voq's personality and merges Voq's identity with Tyler's. With the Klingons, this means that most of them openly despise him, while on the Federation side, people outside ''Discovery'''s Season 1 crew tend to regard him with suspicion.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** Agrees to accompany L'Rell to help her unify the Klingons and keep the peace with the Federation, even though it means living among people who despise him for looking and being part-Human.
** When he finds out that L'Rell and Voq had a son, he promises to stay by L'Rell's side as her companion and be a father to the child, even though he can't bear her touching him due to his confused memories. Luckily for him, Mirror-Georgiou finds a better solution for everyone involved.
** After several people decide to accompany Michael Burnham and ''Discovery'' into the future at the end of Season 2, he opts to stay behind and make sure that something like Control can never happen again, despite clearly being heartbroken about leaving Michael.
* HumanResources: His original human body was vivisected and dismantled to provide Voq with substitute organs, tissue and neural patterns.
* KlingonPromotion: Inverted. In Season 2, Tyler does end up becoming Head of Section 31 because he is the only one left of the organisation, but he killed none of his superiors.
* LoveInterest: To Burnham. The two of them clearly have feelings for one another and they have sex later in the first season.
* ManchurianAgent: "Ash Tyler" is Voq, who has been transformed into a Klingon sleeper who can be awakened if L'Rell utters a code phrase, although something went wrong and the code phrase doesn't work as completely as it should. Encountering Voq's mirror counterpart fully awakens Voq.
* MrFanservice: In the MirrorUniverse, while posing as Burnham's guard, he gets a fair amount of time being scantily-clad in their quarters.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When he realizes that he killed Culber under Voq's influence, he is horrified.
* OddFriendship: Seems to develop one with Georgiou after they both start working for Section 31.
* PosthumousCharacter: The original Ash Tyler more than likely is long dead before the copy of Ash Tyler ever appears on the series. Even after the truth comes to light, his crewmembers act like ThatManIsDead and the "new" Ash Tyler is a distinct person (which is basically true).
* ThePowerOfLove: It's pretty heavily implied that L'Rell's trigger phrase to re-activate Voq didn't quite take because Ash genuinely fell in love with Michael Burnham.
* RankUp: In Season 2, this is subverted, inverted, and finally played straight. Tyler goes from being a lieutenant in Season 1 to a liasion from Section 31 in Season 2, which leads to him being referred both as "Agent" and "Specialist". He's promoted to Commander and Head of Section 31 in the finale, since everyone else has either been killed by Control, performed a heroic sacrifice, or is missing alongside the crew of ''Discovery''.
* RapeAsBackstory: As Tyler, he believed L'Rell spared him from beatings in return for sexual favors. While he's seemingly fine with it when he first tells Lorca about it in "Choose Your Pain", he reacts to meeting L'Rell during their flight by beating her up in a rage, and is thrown into a HeroicBSOD suffering a traumatic flashback when meeting her again a few episodes later. With the reveal that Tyler really is Voq and was given faked memories to make him believe he had always been Ash Tyler, it is implied that he interpreted Voq's memories of a consensual relationship as a forced one. This is later reinforced when he rejects L'Rell in Season 2 by stating that being touched by her seems like a violation to him, causing her to [[EveryoneHasStandards back off at once in horror]].
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Is hesitant when Leland -- who has been taken over by Control -- asks him to steal data from ''Discovery'', allegedly to prevent Control from getting access to it, and wavers for a bit, but then decides to trust Michael's assessment of the situation instead. When Leland tries to bully him into taking the data anyway, he flat out tells him he won't do it.
* ShadowArchetype: Voq is called Ash's shadow in universe in Season 2, with Ash lamenting that there's no way to get rid of him. Despite that, Voq's influence is so far mainly apparent when Ash's life is danger.
* ShellShockedVeteran: He's a former prisoner of war who is traumatized by his experiences. He tends to present a composed facade, but seeing L'Rell causes his PTSD to relapse at the worst possible moment. Later inverted when it turns out that his PTSD is from emerging memories of Voq's horrific surgery, instead of trauma he endured as a prisoner of war.
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: In Season 1, Voq eventually pulls this on Tyler to advance his own plans and infiltrate Starfleet. It's a variation on the usual trope, in that ''Tyler'' is just a copy of his original self's personality overlain onto ''Voq's'' body, which has been StrippedToTheBone and rebuilt with Tyler's original human organs and tissue in an extreme surgical technique.
* ThatManIsDead: When L'Rell removes Voq's personality allowing Tyler to take control again, Tyler is considered by everyone, including himself, to be someone new due to having the original Ash Tyler's personality and memories combined with Voq's memories. No one is sure who or what he will turn out to be.
* TokenGoodTeammate: He becomes a member of Section 31 between "Point of Light" and "Saints of Imperfection" and appears genuinely convinced that they're good people -- despite someone like ex-Terran Emperor Georgiou working for them -- or at least working for good ends, however questionable their tactics.
-->"I don't always agree with their tactics, but I do believe in their mission."
* WalkingSpoiler: He's not the original Ash Tyler, since Voq assumed his identity and appearance in order to infiltrate Starfleet and the Federation. Voq has since been given a MercyKill by L'Rell when the conflict between the two personalities reached a breaking point, so the "new" Ash Tyler is now in charge of Voq's former body. Meanwhile, the original Ash Tyler is presumably dead.
* YouAreInCommandNow: In the second season finale, Starfleet appoints him the new head of Section 31, after the rest of Section 31's leadership was taken out by Control (or in Georgiou's case, [[DeathFakedForYou believed by Starfleet to be dead).]]
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Operatives]]
[[folder:Captain Phillipa Georgiou]]
!!Phillipa Georgiou
->'''Played by:''' Creator/MichelleYeoh
Officially ''Shenzhou'''s former captain, who was allegedly saved from Klingon imprisonment, she is actually the Terran Emperor, who was brought over to the Prime universe by Michael Burnham, and recruited by Section 31 after she settled down on Qon'oS. Currently presumed dead by most people in Starfleet, she actually went to the future with ''Discovery''.\\
For tropes on Agent Georgiou, see her entry as the head of the Terran Empire.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Gabrielle Burnham]]
!!Gabrielle Burnham
->'''Played by:''' Sonja Sohn
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielle_burnham.png]]
Michael Burnham's biological mother, an astrophycisist and engineer, who was killed in a Klingon ambush when Michael was ten. In Season 2, it turns out that Gabrielle used to work for Section 31 - and that she is still alive, having escaped in a time travelling suit. She has been trying to return to her daughter ever since, but her circumstances don't allow her to stay in the past for long.
----
* BackFromTheDead: In a fashion. She didn't really die, but escaped in a time travel suit. She then gets separated from her time suit and pulled back into the future, leaving her fate uncertain -- until it turns out that she survived ''again'' and went on to join the Qowat Milat.
* GadgeteerGenius: She developed and build the first Red Angel suit, a time travelling device.
* MeaningfulName: Like her biblical namesake, the archangel Gabriel, she is an "angel", due to her time travelling suit - and she functions as a messenger, alerting Spock to Michael's peril when he is a child, and later warns him of the impending end to all life due to Control's devastation.
* PrescienceIsPredictable: Due to her extensive time travel, she knows everything about everyone, and has seen all biological life die several times. No wonder she's a bit jaded by now.
* TimeTravel: What she has been doing for the last 20 years, at first in trying to save her family, then to avert the devastation [[AIIsACrapShoot Control]] will apparently wreak on the galaxy.
* WalkingSpoiler: Gabrielle is not only not dead, as everyone was led to believe, she is also the first Red Angel, a mysterious time traveler who has been contacting Spock and ''Discovery'' to warn them about an impending apocalypse.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Mike Burnham]]
!!Mike Burnham
->'''Played by:''' Kenric Green
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mike_burnham.png]]
Michael Burnham's biological father, and like his daughter a xeno-anthropologist. He was killed in a Klingon ambush when Michael was ten. In Season 2, it turns out that he and his wife Gabrielle both worked on a secret project for Section 31.
----
* BaldOfAwesome: Mike Burnham is impressively bald.
* CastingGag: Kenric Green, who is Sonequa Martin-Green's husband, plays her character's biological father.
* GoThroughMe: Prepares to hold off Klingon intruders, while Gabrielle saves Michael. This costs him his life but buys Gabrielle enough time to hide their daughter and escape in the time travelling suit she developed.
* PosthumousCharacter: He's been dead for 20 years when we first meet him in a flashback.
* RealMenCook: He prepares dinner, while Gabrielle works on their project and Michael studies the supernova through a telescope.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Specialist Kamran Gant]]
!!Specialist Kamran Gant
-> '''Played by:''' Ali Momen
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamran_gant.png]]
The former tactical officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', who then joined Section 31 in the wake of the Klingon War.
----
* AssimilationPlot: His reanimated form is just a cover for Control to get close to Burnham and inject ''her'' with its nanites, as she is a factor that Control cannot properly counteract.
* BackForTheDead: Burnham thinks that she's talking to the actual Gant in "Through the Valley of Shadows", but in reality, Control killed him, reanimated him, and is pulling a DeadPersonImpersonation.
* BitCharacter: Initially, he is a ''Shenzhou'' bridge officer with few lines and no real development. Then he reemerges as a Section 31 crewman or agent.
* TheBusCameBack: If you were expecting him to be a BitCharacter who would never show up again after the two-part series premiere ... think again.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Reanimated by Control, much like Leland, in an effort to get close to and take over Burnham.
* ImmuneToBullets: After he is reanimated and Control's cover is blown, Burnham repeatedly tries to shoot his body with a phaser. It fails, mainly because Control's nanites grant a rapid HealingFactor via PullingThemselvesTogether.
* PutOnABus: Apparently evacuated the ''Shenzhou'' at the end of "Battle at the Binary Stars" along with Burnham, Saru, Detmer and the rest of the vessel's surviving crew.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His fate was ambiguous like most of the ''Shenzhou'''s crew -- until he showed up again in the second season as a member of Section 31.
[[/folder]]
!!23rd Century Civilians
[[folder:Ambassador Sarek]]
!!Sarek
->'''Played by:''' James Frain
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarek0.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Change is the essential process of all existence, Commander Burnham. You must challenge your preconceptions, or they most certainly will challenge you."'']]
A Vulcan astrophysicist, ambassador and the father of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Spock]]. For tropes relating to his appearance in TOS, please see '''[[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries here]]'''.
----
* {{Ambadassador}}: When first introduced in a flashback he was still an astrophysicist. By the time he re-appears in the series present, he's an ambassador. He gets the badass cred when, in a mind-meld with Burnham, he demonstrates he's as proficient in hand-to-hand combat as she is.
* CategoryTraitor: Extremist Vulcans consider Sarek to be too enamored with humans in general, let alone marrying one, having a half-human son, and having a full-human foster daughter. Even non-extremist Vulcans tend to look askance at him.
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Thanks to this being a prequel, it no longer matters that Mark Lenard is [[ActorExistenceFailure currently unavailable]]. James Frain can step into the shoes of a younger Sarek and look and sound credibly like a young Lenard.
* DarkSecret: He lied to Burnham for years about her rejection from the Vulcan Expeditionary Group. In reality, they accepted her application, but they warned Sarek that they would not accept Spock if Burnham entered since they were only willing to accept one "non-Vulcan", so Sarek decided that Burnham would join Starfleet instead. This was ironically for nought, since Spock ultimately decided to join Starfleet and not the Expeditionary Group.
* HappilyMarried: With Amanda, in contrast to his relationships with both his biological (Spock) and adopted (Burnham) children.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: To the point where it's practically a RunningGag in Season 2. The guy spends an ''absurd'' amount of time trying to figure out what happened to his son, while everyone else is constantly getting new information and keeping it from him. It comes to a head when ''[[RefugeInAudacity his own wife hides Spock on Vulcan]]'' without telling him. All things considered, [[TheStoic he takes it]] ''remarkably'' well.
* TheMentor: A civilian mentor to Burnham, who was raised on Vulcan and attended the Science Academy.
* ParentsAsPeople: Sarek has to juggle ''a lot'' of contradictory balls (and roles, and ideals) in his day-to-day life, and Burnham finally realises how many he actually (and unwittingly) fumbles while trying to find compromise, both privately and publicly, on a very regular basis. He is no perfect, "classic" Vulcan; and, certainly no perfect father, either. But at the same time, he is not abusive or neglectful, and is quite flexible in surprising ways -- and he genuinely loves his wife and children, though he rarely lets these feelings show in any outward manner. Coming to terms with his limits and flaws is something all those who love him have to eventually learn, ''and'' he constantly has to learn to come to terms with theirs.
* ParentalSubstitute: For Burnham; she is his adoptive daughter. In some ways, Burnham and Sarek are closer than Spock and Sarek are, especially as Spock and Sarek end up not being on speaking terms by TOS, one decade later.
* SavedByCanon: His death is [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration 112 years from now]], so he'll live through this series.
* SternTeacher: Seems to be his attitude towards Burnham, guiding and encouraging her but adamant that she will never be able to learn to speak Vulcan as a human. He implies that he regrets not being more encouraging to her when she was younger.
* TimeShiftedActor: James Frain plays a younger Sarek.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Amanda Grayson]]
!!Amanda Grayson
->'''Played by:''' Creator/MiaKirshner
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amanda_grayson.png]]
Sarek's human wife, the biological mother of Spock and foster mother of Michael Burnham.
----
* HappilyMarried: Though restrained in their show of affection, as is proper for a Vulcan couple, Sarek and Amanda are clearly very fond of each other.
* MamaBear: When Spock appears to be in trouble, she tries to find and help him even against Starfleet's resistance and enlists Michael and even Pike to help her. She also refuses to believe that Spock murdered his doctors.
* ParentsAsPeople: Amanda confesses that trying to raise Spock in a detached and emotionless Vulcan manner led to her becoming estranged to her own emotions, and she's afraid that it caused emotional damage to Spock himself.
* ParentalSubstitute: She and Sarek adopted Michael after her parents were killed.
* SilkHidingSteel: She's gentle and soft-spoken, but doesn't hesitate to speak up when she perceives an injustice, especially against her children. After Spock's doctors refuse to led her speak to him or tell her what's wrong with him, she is not above stealing his medical files.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd]]
!!Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RainnWilson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsc_mudd_head.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Better hurry -- we're getting very close to ... *boom*"'']]
A charismatic ConMan and swindler, who will one day cross paths with the crew of the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]]''. For tropes relating to his appearance in TOS, please see '''[[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries here]]'''.
----
* ActuallyADoombot: In "The Escape Artist", he poses as a bounty hunter selling "Harry Mudd" to local civilians for half the Federation bounty on his head -- but these are only androids designed to distract their captors until the real Mudd has made a clean getaway.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Unlike his TOS self, Mudd is shown to be more than capable of committing murder. Although, thanks to time travel shenanigans, none of the people he kills aboard ''Discovery'' stay dead, he had every intention of murdering Lorca and selling his crew to the Klingons to be slaves.
* AffablyEvil: If he is anything like his TOS self.
* BeardOfEvil: Sports a somewhat scruffy one, in contrast to his mustache in TOS.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: After acquiring a time travel device, he creates a time loop and manages to murder Lorca and destroy ''Discovery'' well over 50 times before being stopped.
* CardboardPrison: Whatever control Stella Grimes and her father promise to exercise on him apparently didn't last long, if "The Escape Artist" is any indication.
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Much like with Sarek, Harry Mudd lives on with a new actor in the role.
* DeadpanSnarker: Always has a wisecrack ready, ''especially'' in the episode where he gets ''Discovery'' caught in a time loop. Probably helps that he had, quite literally, all the time in the world to think of them.
* DirtyCoward: And pretty unapologetic about it.
* EvilIsPetty: He wanted Lorca dead for leaving him behind on that Klingon prison, fine. Repeating it over 50 times ForTheEvulz? That's a whole 'nother story.
* {{Irony}}: Mudd got into financial trouble as a result of wanting to impress his future wife Stella so she'd marry him ... in a decade or so he's probably going to admit he ''really'' [[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd regrets that decision]].
** [[TheReveal It's later revealed]] that Mudd never actually loved her, he just wanted to get his hands on her dowry. And once his father-in-law gets him under his control and forces Mudd to stay with her, he ''already'' regrets the decision.
* ItsPersonal: He swears revenge on Lorca for leaving him on the Klingon prison ship as retaliation for selling out to the Klingons.
* JerkassHasAPoint: He points out that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niHg1Y_GRpE a lot of people get caught up in the 'crossfire']] between Starfleet and other cultures, and he for one is sick of it.
* LesCollaborateurs: Uses his horrible little pet insect to spy on his fellow prisoners and pass the info on to his Klingon jailers.
* MayDecemberRomance: ''Maybe'', depending on how actor ages are interpreted, as Rainn Wilson is 51 and Katherine Barrell, who plays Stella, is 27. The characters' original actors in [=TOS=], however, were only three years apart.
* MesACrowd: Pulls this with his android duplicates in "The Escape Artist", in a CallForward to his appearances in TOS.
* RightHandCat: Has a pet bug/scorpion thing called [[FluffyTheTerrible Stewart]].
* SavedByCanon: He has to live to become Kirk's occasional problem in TOS.
* SmugSnake: The trailers seem to play up this aspect of him, which was always present, but makes him seem a bit darker and more obviously evil. He's seen cheekily reminding the officers that they don't have much time left until an explosion, and when Burnham exclaims to him "You're mad!" his response is a [[EvilGrin smirking]] "I'm ''Mudd!''"
* TimeShiftedActor: As the series is a prequel, Rainn plays a younger Mudd.
* TheTrickster: As per usual.
* TookALevelInKindness: He will in the future, at least if his TOS self is any indication.
* VillainBall: Had he kept his mouth shut about Stella ''and'' simply been content with killing Lorca once, he would have gotten away with his revenge plot.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Stella Grimes]]
!!Stella Grimes
-> '''Played by:''' Katherine Barrell
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stella_grimes.png]]
The daughter of Barron Grimes, she is Harry Mudd's bride-to-be and his wife by the time he crosses paths with the crew of the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]]''.
----
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Considering that she ''knows'' what sort of person Harry is, loves him anyway, and doesn't seem interested in trying to change him, it's safe to assume this trope is in play.
* DaddysGirl: Her father adores her, and he is willing to do anything to make her happy.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Defied. When Harry (desperately trying to explain why he ditched her) claims he left to work on his (many, many) character flaws, Stella assures him that she's well aware he isn't perfect, always has been, and is fine with that.
* InformedFlaw: During his run-ins with Kirk and company, Harry always made Stella out to be a shrewish harridan, as exemplified by [[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd the android replicas he made of her]]. However, when she appears in the flesh she is an attractive, amiable and very understanding young woman.
* MayDecemberRomance: By all appearances she is considerably younger than Harry.
* StatuesqueStunner: She is 5ft 9in (175 cm) tall and extremely attractive.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Stella is considerably more attractive than Harry.
* WartsAndAll: She knows Harry's a conniving lowlife. She doesn't care; she wants him anyway, and has no illusions about being able to change him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Baron Grimes]]
!!Baron Grimes
-> '''Played by:''' Peter [=MacNeill=]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barron_grimes.png]]
A wealthy individual and Stella’s father.
----
* ArmsDealer: One of the quadrant’s preeminent weapons dealers, and he has made a fortune from the Federation-Klingon War.
* DebtDetester: He doesn't want to remain in debt to the crew of ''Discovery'' for helping him find Mudd and immediately asks how he can repay them. Tyler's answer is simple -- keep Mudd on a tight leash.
* TheDreaded: Harry is absolutely terrified of him.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Certainly seems to be, at least in his limited screen time.
* NoNameGiven: At least in regards to his first name, whereas "Baron" is his title.
* ObnoxiousInLaws: He absolutely detests Harry, but he makes damn certain that Harry marries his daughter, because Stella loves Harry ... for some reason.
* SharpDressedMan: Grimes dresses in an impeccable suit complete with a stylish cape.
[[/folder]]
!!32nd Century Civilians
[[folder:Cleveland Booker]]
!!Cleveland "Book" Booker
-> '''Played by:''' David Ajala
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleveland_booker.png]]
A civilian courier living in the 3180s who Burnham encounters upon her arrival from the 23rd century.
----
* CrashIntoHello: How Burnham encounters him; she collides with his ship as the Red Angel suit tumbles out of control after exiting the time-travel wormhole.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Book appears human, but also displays telepathic abilities which allow him to commune with plants and animals.
* KindheartedCatLover: He has a big fluffy Maine Coon cat named Grudge.
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Plays this line with The Emperor, in regards to Michael. The Emperor does not believe him. [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Neither does anybody else]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Grudge]]
!!Grudge
-> '''Played by:''' Leeu and Durban
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grudge_the_cat.png]]
Cleveland Booker's cat and constant companion.
----
* MegaNeko: Booker describes her as being unusually large for her species. In reality, she is a normally-sized Maine Coon cat, which is still one of the largest domestic cat breeds.
* PocketDial: PlayedForLaughs when she manages to accidentally hail ''Discovery'' from Book's ship in "Scavengers".
* TeamPet: For Booker, and soon Burnham after she joins them in their travels.
[[/folder]]
!!United Earth Defense Force
[[folder:Inspector Adira Tal]]
!!Inspector Adira Tal
-> '''Played by:''' Blu del Barrio
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adira_tal.png]]
A human with amnesia and a curious knowledge of 23nd-century technology. They join ''Discovery'', with the permission of the UEDF, to find out about the past of their Trill symbiont, Tal.
----
* ComingOutStory: In "Sanctuary" Adira tells Paul that they are non-binary, preferring "they/them" pronouns. Paul accepts this immediately, and is seen calling Adira by these with Hugh later.
* TheNthDoctor: The seventh host of the Tal symbiont, after Kasha, Jovar, Madela, Cara, Senna, and their deceased lover Gray.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Before Adira, their Trill symbiont was joined with six other hosts, three of which were Starfleet officers.
* {{Transgender}}: They come out as non-binary in "The Sanctuary", correcting Stamets when he refers to them as "she." Previously they had only told Gray about this.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Because Gray died in their arms, their memories of their lover are repressed, as is their connection to the Trill symbiont.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Shades of this with Admiral Vance, because Vance had been close friends with [[TheNthDoctor Admiral Senna Tal]]. Vance makes it clear on their first meeting that this relationship does ''not'' extend to Adira Tal.
[[/folder]]
[[foldercontrol]]
!The Federation
!!Starfleet
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Discovery'' (NCC-1031 / NCC-1031-A)]]
[[folder:Captain Gabriel Lorca]]
!!Captain Gabriel Lorca
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/JasonIsaacs
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_lorca.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Universal law is for lackeys. Context is for kings."'']]
The commanding officer of U.S.S. ''Discovery'' in Season 1 and a respected military tactician within Starfleet... or so we are led to believe at first; he is really the Gabriel Lorca from the MirrorUniverse. His prime-universe counterpart formerly commanded the U.S.S. ''Buran'' before it was lost with all hands during a battle with the Klingons.
----
* AbsoluteXenophobe: He wants to take over the Terran Empire because the Emperor, who literally eats Kelpiens as a delicacy and deliberately rendered Qo'noS uninhabitable, apparently ''isn't xenophobic enough for his liking''.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: He fully admits to being pragmatic, ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to save the Federation, even if it means breaking a few rules. Secretly harboring the creature from the ''Glenn'', for instance. The ambiguous part is thrown out the window when he's revealed to be a Terran from the MirrorUniverse who is bad even by their standards. He's just really good at hiding it.
* AssholeVictim: When he is killed in episode 13, it feels very much deserved.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: As a brilliant military tactician, he has certainly earned his command.
* BadassLongcoat: Changes into civilian clothes including a knee-length leather coat after ''Discovery'' arrives in the MirrorUniverse and Lorca, Burnham, and Ash plan to infiltrate the Terran fleet with Lorca posing as Burnham's prisoner. He later gets thrown into an agonizer booth, takes over the Terran flagship, and gets into a martial arts battle with Mirror Georgiou all while still wearing the coat.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Holds this attitude since he knows what Klingons do to prisoners, which is (supposedly) why he destroyed his last command when it was ambushed by the Klingons.
* BigDamnHeroes: Saves the day as the architect of an impressive GunshipRescue of Corvan II. It's the first in a string of such feats.
* BloodKnight: Downplayed, but he does seem to have warmongering tendencies, at least compared to the more idealistic members of his crew, which makes complete sense once his MirrorUniverse origins are revealed.
* TheCaptain: Of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
* CharacterDeath: Killed by Mirror-Georgiou in "What's Past is Prologue".
* ConsummateLiar: Comes with being a ManipulativeBastard. For one thing, he managed to fool every psych test Starfleet put him through, maintaining a MaskOfSanity while suffering from crippling [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]]. He also successfully disguised his true nature as the MirrorUniverse version of Lorca.
* TheCorrupter: Will drop hints and tips to his crew about how to get around pesky Starfleet orders and regulations.
-->'''Lorca:''' ''[to the bridge crew after detailing how he's going to ignore an admiral's orders and make it look innocent] ...If you're planning on disobeying a direct order, best not to advertise the fact.
** This happens frequently enough that the crew is surprised when Lorca does something by the book.
--->'''Lorca:''' Notify Starfleet Command. Ask for orders.\\
'''Saru:''' ''[looks shocked]'' \\
'''Lorca:''' Is there a problem?\\
'''Saru:''' No sir. Uh, just in the past we have engaged in... alternative thinking on these matters.
** From almost the moment Burnham came on board, Lorca has been trying to subtly manipulate her into abandoning her Starfleet ideals and join him in the ruling the Terran Empire.
* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Lorca supposedly has a recent battle injury to his eyes that make bright lights and sudden dark-to-bright lighting changes painful and debilitating. In reality there's nothing wrong with his eyes; he's from the MirrorUniverse, where the humans there are naturally photosensitive compared to their Prime Universe counterparts.
* DeadpanSnarker: Gets a shot in at Stamets when Saru calls Burnham the smartest Starfleet officer he knows.
-->"And he knows ''you''."
* DeadPersonImpersonation: He winds up impersonating his MirrorUniverse counterpart, who is missing and presumed dead. It turns out that the reverse is true: this Lorca really ''is'' from the MirrorUniverse, and is impersonating his supposedly dead Prime Universe counterpart.
* DoWrongRight: His motivation against Emperor Georgiou. Despite the fact she is as brutal as they come, her keeping the aliens they've conquered as slaves is enough to convince Lorca that she's too soft to rule, and that he should take over so he can "properly" rule.
* TheDragon: He served as this to the Terran Emperor. She trusted him with her most sensitive missions and even her adoptive daughter.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He really did love the Michael Burnham of the MirrorUniverse, and sincerely wants the Prime Universe version to join him.
* EveryScarHasAStory: He has a mysterious triangle-shaped one on on his back. Turns out it is a scar from an agonizer, thus {{Foreshadowing}} his MirrorUniverse origins, as well as the fact that he was quite the dissident back in his own universe.
* EvilVirtues: Resourcefulness, ambition, valor, patience, and diligence in particular. He's willing to go to extreme lengths to carry out his true goals and puts on a very convincing front that often contradicts everything he believes. He is also, in a sense, genuinely loyal to Burnham and, in his own twisted way, loves her.
* FantasticRacism: Is xenophobic even by Terran Empire standards. He claims that he betrayed Georgiou because her policy of enslaving all aliens was too tolerant ''for him''. This makes it all the more impressive that he managed to work side-by-side with aliens, including having Saru as his NumberTwo.
* AFatherToHisMen: Takes a shine to Lt. Tyler very quickly and he refuses to abandon him, he also immediately agrees to help Michael find Sarek after she asks him. The loss of his last command weighs on him heavily. This is something of a half-truth, as he cares for his crew in the MirrorUniverse, not the loss of the ''Buran'' in the Prime Universe.
* FriendsWithBenefits: With Admiral Cornwell.
* GeniusBruiser: Brilliant military tactician and a badass with his fists. He's the brains and the brawn in a fight.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages, so this entry has been commented out. Add context before uncommenting. * ImpersonationExclusiveCharacter: He turns out to have been the Gabriel Lorca from the MirrorUniverse impersonating him. The one from the prime universe is presumably dead.]]
* InappropriatelyCloseComrades: Has a friends-with-benefits relationship with Admiral Cornwell, his immediate superior officer who is also a psychiatrist that is assessing his mental fitness for command after he displays a pattern of reckless behavior.
* InTheBack: How the Emperor kills him.
* {{Irony}}: Lorca is really an imposter from the MirrorUniverse, but he fails to realize that Ash Tyler is an imposter as well, in the form of a heavily surgically-disguised Voq, who works his way into Lorca's trust very quickly -- even more remarkably so when one considers that Terran Empire officers like Mirror-Lorca are usually paranoid to a fault. Then again, that might be exactly why it was so easy for Tyler to gain his trust, since Lorca assumed that the moralistic and pacifist Prime Starfleet counterparts were too soft to be capable of betrayal. Not to mention the fact that Voq/Tyler really believed he was who he seemed to be, and not putting on a deliberate front like Lorca.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Despite his rather abrasive personality and questionable command status, Lorca does start showing something of a softer side towards Michael and it seems apparent that much of his harshness stems from [[JerkassWoobie the trauma of war and losing his entire previous crew]]. Not really: this is all a disguise for the fact that the Lorca we've been watching has been the MirrorUniverse version the entire time, and he's a manipulative, violent psychopath who's racist even by Terran Empire standards.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Lorca's ManipulativeBastard tendencies have always kept him a bit morally ambiguous, but once he fully reveals himself as actually being Mirror-Lorca, he proves himself in every way worse than the Emperor he's trying to overthrow.
* KillAndReplace: It's ambiguous, but in coming to the prime universe, he may have taken the place of his deceased counterpart. ExpandedUniverse material, however, indicates that the prime Gabriel Lorca is still alive somewhere in the MirrorUniverse.
* LoopholeAbuse: His mission grants him wide latitude to do whatever he needs to to accomplish it, and he decides that includes essentially hijacking Burnham out of prison and getting her on his crew.
* MadScientistLaboratory: Has his own personal hobby room filled with some of the deadliest and most illegal weapons in the galaxy, including guns, phaser rifles, disruptors, swords, daggers, bat'leths, poisons, and chemical and biological weapons. It also has exotic creatures (presumably test subjects) including Cardassian voles, tribbles (seen dissected on his lab table), a Horta, and the skeleton of a Gorn, as well as a containment pen for larger, more dangerous creatures where Ripper, the giant space tardigrade, is kept. Lorca says he studies war and wants to learn from the best.
* ManipulativeBastard:
** Plays the audio of the Corvan II distress calls over the entire ship's intercom to motivate the crew -- and mainly to guilt-trip Lt. Stamets -- into pushing themselves to the limit to save the mining colony on Corvan II.
** He also managed to hide the severity of his PTSD from multiple Starfleet psychological evaluations.
** Furthermore, he's managed to hide the fact that he's actually the MirrorUniverse version of Lorca, having replaced his counterpart around the time the ''Buran'' was destroyed, without anyone suspecting any problems except for Admiral Cornwell.
* MaskOfSanity: He's deeply traumatized from the destruction of the ''Buran'', and is prone to violent outbursts if he's reminded of it. However, Lorca is manipulative enough to hide this from all of the psychological evaluations Starfleet put him through to determine whether he was fit to captain ''Discovery''. This in turn is another mask to conceal his background and training as a Terran Imperial Fleet officer from the MirrorUniverse.
* MilitaryMaverick: When Admiral Cornwell states that his decision to use Burnham is damaging to fleet morale, he bristles and responds that he was given the latitude to fight the war however he best saw fit.
-->"My ship, my way."
* NervesOfSteel: Doesn't even flinch when the giant tardigrade comes crashing into a forcefield mere inches from his face. Saru notes that the captain is not afraid of the things that scare most people.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Not for Mirror!Lorca, but for his prime counterpart - Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell presumes Prime!Lorca dead after assuming that no prime universe resident could survive alone in the MirrorUniverse, using almost exactly these words. This, of course, raised to a virtual certainty the chances that we will see Prime!Lorca alive and well at some point in the show, particularly if he's even half as resourceful as his MirrorUniverse counterpart. ExpandedUniverse material has evidently revealed that Prime!Lorca remains alive.
* PillowPistol: He sleeps with a phaser under his pillow. Admiral Cornwell considers it not a sign of preparedness, but of paranoia, and together with the way he assaults her when she touches him in his sleep, it convinces her that he should be relieved of his command. After TheReveal, it's implied that the reason he does this is because every Terran officer has to be constantly on guard for any underling or even lovers attempting a KlingonPromotion.
* PragmaticVillainy: Despite being a vehement xenophobe, he is able to work with a crew that has several aliens, including one serving as his first officer, without once betraying his feelings.
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Keeps a pet tribble in his ready room.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Averted. Even after [[MercyKill everything he went through]], he maintains NervesOfSteel. Subverted when his MaskOfSanity is revealed, and DoubleSubverted when we learn he is a MirrorUniverse denizen, where Terrans are known to be paranoid to a fault.
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Considers the Federation to be a failed social experiment because, in his mind, no society that tolerates diversity and freedom can truly thrive. He holds this mentality because he grew up in the Terran Empire, a fascist dictatorship.
* SoleSurvivor: Of the ''Buran'', his former command. He tells Tyler that he destroyed the ship to spare them capture and torture by the Klingons. Averted in the MirrorUniverse, where his entire crew was captured and held prisoner on the I.S.S. ''Charon''.
* SouthernFriedPrivate: Jason Isaacs uses a mild [[DeepSouth Southern accent]] to portray Lorca.
* TheStarscream: He was a right-hand man to Emperor Georgiou and was given her foster daughter, Mirror Burnham, to mentor. Their relationship turned romantic and he attempted a MilitaryCoup over Georgiou's policies toward aliens, which Lorca felt weren't xenophobic enough.
* TheStrategist: Brilliant military tactician tasked with weaponizing the science vessel he was assigned to captain. When the unique propulsion system is finally fully functional, he pulls off a string of impressive rescues and victories in battle. He is also using the ship as part of his own personal long con to go home to the MirrorUniverse and overthrow the Emperor.
* TranquilFury: Of a sort. He takes eyedrops to relieve his photosensitivity ''just'' before ordering and observing the destruction of the Klingons' Ship of the Dead with General Kol aboard.
* WalkingSpoiler: For much of the first season, he impersonated his Prime Universe counterpart while commanding the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
* WallOfWeapons: His private laboratory aboard ''Discovery'' has a large collection of Klingon and other alien weapons hanging on walls or sitting on examination tables. Harry Mudd decides to test some ([[GroundhogDayLoop or possibly all]]) of these on him during "Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad", with at least one being instantly fatal via disintegration.
* WeHaveReserves: Has absolutely no qualms with sacrificing his subordinates in the name of victory.
* WeakenedByTheLight: See WeaksauceWeakness below.
* WeaksauceWeakness: He suffered eye damage that makes him extremely photosensitive, and any sudden bright light is both painful and debilitating. It's a lie; the reason he is photosensitive is because he's from the MirrorUniverse, where Terrans are naturally more sensitive to light than Prime Universe humans.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Lorca is willing to bend and break Starfleet regulations if it means winning the war against the Klingons. And that includes giving Burnham a position on his ship without the knowledge or approval of the brass, or bringing a dangerous creature onto his ship without telling the crew. And then subverted when it's revealed he's from the Mirror Universe; he's just a bigot who doesn't really care if he puts his crew in danger if it means hurting aliens.
* WifeHusbandry: According to Emperor Georgiou, he initially was a father figure to Mirror-Burnham until their relationship developed into a romantic one.
* YouDidTheRightThing: Tells Burnham that she made the correct decision in mutinying at the Battle of the Binary Stars, even at significant cost to herself.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Saru]]
!!Captain Saru
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/DougJones
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_saru.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"My people were biologically determined for one purpose, and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now."'']]
A science officer and the first Kelpien in Starfleet, he serves aboard the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' and later as the first officer of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* TheAce: Subverted. He's far faster, stronger and more agile than a human, apparently also more intelligent (being able to think on his feet and learning dozens of different languages), has superior eyesight, and has a sixth sense for danger -- yet his ingrained baseline fear that is active at all times has rendered him quite neurotic. Still, his sheer capability makes one wonder ''how strong'' the predators of his world must be if ''this'' species was at the bottom of the food chain.
** It's eventually revealed that the ''Kelpiens'' were the top predators on Kaminar 2,000 years ago, until the Ba'ul used their superior technology to spread misinformation that the Kelpiens second stage of evolution, which gave them projectile spines and increased aggression, was deadly to Kelpiens and would cause madness. The Ba'ul are preventing them from assuming their most dangerous form. When Saru's ganglia fall out, he loses that constant fear and suddenly becomes aware of just how powerful he really is.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's lanky, usually advocates avoiding fights, and freely admits that his race sits at the bottom of the food chain. However, his RequiredSecondaryPowers include being cunning enough to anticipate and quickly understand enemy tactics, being fast enough to run any other member of the crew down, and more than strong enough to throw individuals around and crush objects with his bare hands. To survive as prey on his homeworld, his people HadToBeSharp.
* BadassPacifist: Joined Starfleet for the exploration, not the potential for space battle. That said, once they find themselves at war with the Klingons, Saru is shown to be cool-headed and quick-thinking, even getting promoted.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Saru's ganglia can sense deadly threats but it appears they also are responsible for instilling the perpetual fear Kelpians feel. When his fall out, Saru doesn't feel constantly afraid for the first time and realizes just how powerful he actually is. It turns out they also regrow into a series of spines that can be shot at high velocity.
* BrutalHonesty: When Burnham tries to apologize for her mutiny, Saru makes it very clear to her that while he understand why she betrayed Captain Georgiou, and believes that she feels remorse for what happened, he now considers her a threat and will be keeping a close eye on her.
* TheCaptain: Following the reveal of Lorca's treachery, Saru steps up and takes acting command of ''Discovery'' until the crisis is over. The crew readily accepts his leadership, and he occasionally has to correct them that he is "''Acting'' Captain". He takes command again following Captain Pike's return to ''Enterprise'', and it becomes permanent once ''Discovery'' and her crew travel to the 32nd century.
* CatchPhrase: "The Sanctuary" shows him trying to decide on his own catch phrase. He tries putting his own inflection on Pike's "Hit it" and immediately drops it. "Execute" and "Carry on" don't seem to work for him either. And he doesn't even consider "Manifest".
* CowardlyLion: Despite always being the first to advocate for a [[LovableCoward graceful retreat]], Saru is an extremely competent officer and, given that he's both [[SuperSpeed fast]] and [[SuperStrength tough]], fully capable of holding his own in a fight. He'd simply prefer never to have to.
* CunningLinguist: Has learned 94 languages to prepare for his Starfleet duties.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Is unhappy about how Lorca often keeps him in the dark and [[IgnoredExpert refuses to consult him]] for advice.
* TheEeyore: Is incredibly cautious and pessimistic, although he also has shades of TheComicallySerious.
* GreenEyedMonster: "Choose Your Pain" reveals how his lingering hostility to Michael is because her actions at the Battle of the Binary Stars deprived him of the opportunity to eventually follow in Burnham's footsteps and learn from Georgiou as her first officer.
* LightningBruiser: Even before his ''vahar'ai'', he's [[SuperSpeed a very fast runner]] and [[SuperStrength much stronger than humans]], as well as able to [[NoSell withstand phaser hits]] that would incapacitate almost anyone else. After his ''vahar'ai'', [[TookALevelInBadass he becomes even more powerful]] as well as unencumbered by constant fear.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Even though he is Lorca's [[NumberTwo first officer]], he is still kept in the dark about some of the secret projects ongoing aboard the ship. This may be foreshadowing of Lorca's MirrorUniverse bigotry.
* LovableCoward: Despite his pessimism and paranoia, he is generally a thoroughly NiceGuy, and often downright [[DeadpanSnarker witty]] when he chooses to be.
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: His species can can sense the approach of death, signified by ganglia emerging from the back of their heads, though he can't give any specific details.
** Inverted in one episode, where his RousingSpeech to the crew is that they're about to go into battle against impossible odds and he ''doesn't'' sense approaching death, [[BadassBoast meaning they're gonna win]].
** In "An Obol for Charon" his ganglia fall out, and for the first time in his life he ''doesn't'' feel fear all the time.
* NumberTwo: He's ''Discovery''[='=]s first officer until Lorca reveals his true MirrorUniverse colours, whereupon he becomes TheCaptain (if temporarily). He also serves as first officer to Captain Pike during his temporary command of ''Discovery''.
* OneHeadTaller: And then some; if Saru is typical, Kelpiens are ''considerably'' taller than humans of either sex. Thanks to episodes in the MirrorUniverse as well as the short episode "The Brightest Star", we see that this is fairly typical for his species.
* PlanetOfHats: His aforementioned sixth sense stems from his race's status on his homeworld; they are a "prey species" that has been hunted nearly to extinction, and have evolved the ability to sense the approach of death as a defense mechanism. This is something of a subversion of the trope, as the predator species is ''also'' from his homeworld.
** Subverted again with TheReveal that the Kelpians used to be the alpha predators on Kaminar and nearly drove the Ba'ul to extinction over 2000 years before.
* RankUp:
** He is promoted from lieutenant-commander to full commander during the TimeSkip after the pilot episode, presumably just prior to becoming the first officer aboard ''Discovery''.
** He gets a ''de facto'' field promotion to become TheCaptain of ''Discovery'' once Lorca is revealed to be an imposter from the MirrorUniverse. It lasts until Captain Pike comes aboard.
** After ''Discovery'' and her crew travel to the 32nd century, Saru again becomes TheCaptain as the most senior officer still aboard. This time, the promotion sticks.
* ScienceHero: Aboard the ''Shenzhou'', he was the ship's science officer, and still tends to have plenty of involvement with scientific operations as first officer aboard ''Discovery''.
* SourSupporter: He dislikes Lorca for his warmongering tendencies, but he still serves him as a faithful first officer.
* SpikeShooter: When his ganglia fall out, they're replaced by flaps with teeth-like spikes that can be shot at high velocity. When demonstrated in the third season, they're not fast enough to go straight through a person, but they still hurt like hell. It's also not something he can do repeatedly, since they have to grow back each time.
* TheSpock: Generally behaves in a calm and logical manner. He isn't as emotionless as Spock's demeanor, though, he's just reserved -- he can crack dry jokes, he is troubled by his conflicted relationship with Burnham, etc.
* SuperSpeed: He can sprint up to 80 [[superscript:km]]∕[[subscript:h]] (faster than an ostrich, but slower than a cheetah).
* SuperStrength: He can crush Starfleet communicators bare-handed and overpower humans with ease.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The short episode "The Brightest Star" reveals that the Kelpien civilization on Kaminar is still at a pre-warp stage, and when Saru accepts then-Lieutenant Georgiou's offer to leave, Federation laws dictate that Saru can never return to his family. Averted after "The Sounds of Thunder", when ''Discovery'''s arrival to Kaminar ends up leading to the Kelpians being made aware of what is outside their planet, allowing Saru to return home whenever he wants.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Michael Burnham]]
!!Commander Michael Burnham
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/SonequaMartinGreen
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/header_dcs_cast_s3_5.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"All life is born from chaos. The world doesn't always adhere to logic. Sometimes down is up, and sometimes when you're lost, you're found."'']]
The [[TheHero lead protagonist]] of ''Star Trek: Discovery'', she was raised on Vulcan and was the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy. By the start of the series, she is the first officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', although she ends up being recruited by Captain Lorca aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'' after the events of the two-part pilot. She is eventually made a bridge science officer, and ship's science officer and Commander again.
----
* ActionGirl: She's more of a ScienceHero, but nonetheless she is trained in Vulcan martial arts, knows how to use a phaser, can fight a Klingon in melee combat, and regularly gets herself into (and out of) plenty of dangerous situations as the series' lead.
* AesopAmnesia: By Season 3 of the series, Burnham has successfully managed to reunite with ''Discovery'' in the 32nd Century, get promoted to the ship's first officer, and get some clues as to what caused The Burn that crippled the galaxy. Yet when ''Discovery'' gets a chilly reception when they reunite with Starfleet, she suggests going rogue and trying to help a civilization in danger to prove their worth, which Saru has to gently remind her that doing so would land them in more trouble with an already suspicious Federation, and disappointingly notes that she should have learned that by now. Such a tendency gets further [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in the following episode, as her disobeying orders again to save Book and gather further clues to The Burn's cause gets her chewed out by Admiral Vance and Saru, who removes her as First Officer because he can't trust her. The only reason she gets off so light for blatantly violating orders is because she saved a lot of lives and got more crucial intel. She does seem to learn her lesson proper by the eight episode of the season, as an incident with the Emerald Chain over Book's homeworld leads her to personally get Admiral Vance's authorization this time around.
* AntiHero: At least initially, she is fairly aggressive for a Starfleet officer.
* TheAtoner: Subverted in "Context is for Kings", where Burnham tries to refuse a chance to redeem herself because she feels that what she has done [[MoralEventHorizon cannot be atoned for]]. She only seeks the punishment she [[ItsAllMyFault feels she deserves]], until Lorca appeals to her [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome sense of wonder]] and duty. She does eventually redeem herself, ironically defeating Lorca's ulterior motives in the process. Not long afterwards, she recognizes that Starfleet Command is about to make the same mistake she did and exploits her own guilt and reputation as "the mutineer" to talk Admiral Cornwell out of blowing Qo'noS up.
* TheCassandra: In the pilot, she tries and fails to convince Captain Georgiou that they need to fire first or the Klingons will destroy them. It's unclear whether that would have worked, but Georgiou, her ship, and most of the fleet are wiped out in the aftermath.
* CombatPragmatist: When fighting Voq and gradually getting overpowered, Burnham goes [[EyeScream for his eyes]]. She's also proven herself willing and able to shoot first when she feels it necessary.
* CommanderContrarian: Even though Captain Georgiou is her commanding officer and something of a mentor to her, she advocates tactics that are rather [[AttackAttackAttack strident and aggressive]] in contrast to her captain's [[MartialPacifist more cautious]] approach.
* DefrostingIceQueen: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. When she comes on-board ''Discovery'', she is withdrawn from everyone except Saru, not wishing to make any sort of connection since she thinks she won't be staying. When she realises Lorca intends to keep her on, she opens up a bit, but it's still obvious she had a Vulcan upbringing.
** Come season 3, she is completely defrosted.
* DramaticIrony: She utterly hates the Klingons, and the guy she's in love with is actually Klingon himself, although a ManchurianAgent.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: In the first episode, everyone dismisses her opinions about the Klingons' aggression because of her perceived prejudice against them -- and then trying to mutiny against her captain [[OutOfTheFryingPan doesn't make things any better]].
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange:
** As a young girl growing up with her biological parents, Burnham had long, curly hair.
** After her adoption by Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his wife Amanda Grayson, she had the SciFiBobHaircut typical of Vulcans, which she retained all the way through adolescence to her first meeting with Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou''.
** By the time she became the ''Shenzhou'''s first officer, she had grown out her bob slightly to a still short but straight-styled hair.
** After her Court-Martial and dismissal from Starfleet, she had a very unkempt afro as a prisoner.
** When she begins working aboard ''Discovery'', her curly afro is now styled.
** As of Season 3's TimeSkip, she wears her hair in long box braids after spending a year apart from the crew, marking the new territory the crew have found themselves in.
* FamedInStory: As a result of the actions resulting in her court martial, Burnham is widely known as the mutineer held responsible for starting the war with the Klingons and because she's apparently the ''first'' mutineer Starfleet ever had. In-universe, however, no one seems to care that T'Kuvma's Klingons were deliberately ''[[GenghisGambit trying]]'' to start a war (and for that matter fired first), and nothing Burnham could have done would have prevented that, even if killing T'Kuvma only made the situation worse by turning him into a martyr.
* FatalFlaw:
** Klingons. Having been orphaned by a Kingon attack on her home colony, she will do ''anything'' to stop them. In the pilot, she perpetrates a '''mutiny''' against her own captain because she feels she's right in how to deal with them, and is imprisoned because of it.
** Her ruthlessness is also a serious problem for her, leading to things like the aforementioned mutiny or abusing Saru's trust in "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry".
* GenderBlenderName: Her name is "Michael", which can be a feminine name depending on culture, although Tilly notes she's never heard of another female with it.
* GoodIsNotNice: Though she is the protagonist, she is rather hawkish and aggressive for a Starfleet officer, at least among those seen in ''Star Trek'' to date.
* GuileHero: Successfully cons Harry Mudd by manipulating his greed and his ego.
* HappilyAdopted: More or less, although [[ParentalSubstitute Sarek]] comments that she cannot learn Vulcan due to being "too human". He later laments that he never encouraged her enough -- though given his track record with Spock, that appears to be a habit with him, as Vulcans don't believe in excessive praise. She got along well with Sarek's human wife, Amanda. We learn in the second season that she even got along well with Spock, until she sabotaged their familial relationship in hopes of protecting Spock from the Logic Extremists.
* ItsAllMyFault: Has a tendency to take the blame for things that are out of her control. She blamed herself for her parents' deaths, as she'd asked them to delay a trip offworld, and the Klingon war (which admittedly she was blamed for by everyone else as well), and for the attacks on her adopted family by the extremist Vulcans. It gets severely deconstructed in Season 2, as Spock finds her actions to be selfish, and has refused to reconcile with her for years simply because of this attitude.
* LikeADaughterToMe: How Captain Georgiou thought of her, as the captain states in her pre-recorded will. Mirror Georgiou had the same relationship with Mirror Michael.
* MeaningfulName: With the revelation that she is the Red Angel, her name has another signification too, beside being a typical male name. "Michael" is one of God's Archangels.
-->'''Philippa:''' Lead me to my death, Angel Michael.
* MilitaryMaverick: Goes with being a CommanderContrarian. Uniquely for a Star Trek show, however this attitude has ''serious'' consequences as opposed to the light slap of the wrist it usually warrants (or approval from the brass) in previous incarnations. She's court-martialed and sent to prison for life as a result of her attempted mutiny.
* MoralityPet: To a whopping three people.
** To Ash Tyler (aka Voq), who basically pulls a HeelFaceTurn for her.
** To Gabriel Lorca, who is willing to kill pretty much everybody on his way to the Terran throne, except for her.
** To Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who is completely fine with being hunted down by Starfleet and the Klingons till the end of her days, but can't bring herself to kill Michael.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Does ''[[FantasticRacism not]]'' hold any positive opinions of the Klingons, due to [[YouKilledMyFather losing her parents]] in an attack on a Human[=/=]Vulcan outpost when she was a child.
* NoSocialSkills: Thanks to her Vulcan upbringing, she has trouble making friends and finds socializing to be quite puzzling.
* NumberTwo: The first ''Trek'' series protagonist to be this instead of TheCaptain[[note]]Originally, Commander Riker was intended to be the protagonist of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''; however, he was playing opposite Creator/PatrickStewart and Things Happened. Commander Sisko of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine was a commander when he started out, but he was still the leader of the station and eventually was promoted to Captain.[[/note]]. Initially, she is the first officer to Captain Georgiou aboard the ''Shenzhou'', before being stripped of rank and recruited by Captain Lorca aboard ''Discovery''. As of season 3, with Saru officially Captain of ''Discovery'', she is now his XO -- until "Scavengers", when she goes on a rogue mission and gets relieved of her duties as XO.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: A xenoanthropologist by training, but she has taken on all kinds of assignments in her role as ''Discovery'''s Science Officer.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Her attempted mutiny, especially since it's the first time that it has ever (officially) happened in Starfleet history. She also generally doesn't correct anyone when they call her the instigator of the Federation-Klingon war: while factually incorrect (the Klingons fired first), it is only because Burnham's mutiny failed. She likely views herself as morally guilty as she would have been had her mutiny been successful. When the crew arrives in the future and is giving a frosty reception by Starfleet, Saru has to gently remind her of this incident when she suggests going rogue to prove themselves.
* ParentalSubstitute: Sarek and Amanda Grayson are this to her, after she was orphaned as a child in a Klingon attack.
* ProperlyParanoid: She's absolutely convinced the Klingons are not there for peaceful purposes when they come out of nearly a century of isolation -- and is proven right.
* RankUp:
** Initially inverted. For her actions aboard the ''Shenzhou'' in the pilot episode, she is court-martialed, stripped of her rank, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
** For her actions aboard ''Discovery'' in saving the ship and crew multiple times, not to mention the entire Federation, she's given a Presidential pardon, her record is expunged, and her rank reinstated.
** It's played straight, then averted in Season 3. She is made ''Discovery's'' first officer, but when she disobeys orders yet again, her punishment sees her lose the job to a very disappointed Saru.
* ReplacementGoldfish: Lorca tries to get her to stay in the MirrorUniverse and rule at his side as he was honestly in love with her Mirror counterpart, and has a great deal of respect for her, saying that Burnham is ''better'' than Mirror-Burnham was.
* RememberTheNewGuy: Michael is Spock's never-before-referred-to foster sister. Of course, Spock never mentioned his parents or [[Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier his half-brother Sybok]] until they showed up in the flesh, so it's not out of character. Similar to Sybok, a Vulcan that deviated wildly from Vulcan culture, Burnham's reputation as Starfleet's first mutineer would make him that much less likely to bring her up in conversation, not to mention that they did not have a positive relationship growing up together.
** The finale for Season 2 eventually reveals why she wasn't mentioned before: to bury the information about the Sphere data, the Red Angel suit, time travel, and the events of what happened, Spock convinces Starfleet to erase the records of ''Discovery'' and her crew, and to make it illegal to discuss them by the Starfleet personnel who did know. Since it was his idea, in order to, among other things, protect Michael if she made it to the future, he'd obviously be the most scrupulous in observing it.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: She ''is'' correct that the Klingons are going to attack, but it's mainly because her bias is guiding her thought process than any reasonable logic; best shown when she's trying to persuade her captain to give the Klingons a "Vulcan hello" to scare them off convinced it'll mean peace, when it reality the Klingons want a war with with Starfleet to bring back the glory of the Empire. And it doesn't matter to them who fires first.
* ScienceHero: Attended the Vulcan Science Academy and entered Starfleet to serve as a xenoanthropologist, before working her way up to a command position. After she is reinstated she accepts a position as ''Discovery'''s Science Officer.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A severe [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]] of this trope. Normally, Starfleet officers often break a serious rule, especially the Prime Directive, and get little more than a brief reprimand for it. Here, her actions of committing mutiny and treason get her immediately discharged from Starfleet and imprisoned for life. While she is able to redeem herself on this front, Season 2 reveals that her tendencies to take responsibilities for events far beyond her control had utterly destroyed her relationship with Spock, only reconciling with her brother when she admits he was right to harshly criticize her for doing so. Then, Season 3 really sinks it in when she starts trying to investigate the cause of The Burn that caused Starfleet to collapse, even when there's other issues at stake. When she disobeys a direct order from Saru, she's demoted from First Officer upon her return, and given a harsh chewing out by her captain and Admiral Vance, noting that, while her intentions were noble, and her reasoning was correct, she did so at the expense of making her captain look bad.
* TheSlowPath: She emerges from the wormhole in the 32nd century a full year ahead of ''Discovery'' and the rest of her crewmates, so she spends the year waiting and investigating The Burn until the ship arrives and crash-lands.
* SurvivorsGuilt: She has been carrying this ever since the attack where her parents died. This is one of the main elements behind her ItsAllMyFault attitude and penchant for doing the HeroicSacrifice play.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Evidently neither Sarek nor Amanda made the effort to find her one, even though specialists in childhood trauma exist ''now''--instead, Sarek inserts triggering video in her learning material and then chides her for being upset by it. This and later conversations imply that Vulcans don't have a very progressive attitude towards mental healthcare.
* TraumaButton: Being near Klingons brings back the memory of her parents getting killed in a Klingon attack.
* TraumaCongaLine: Season Two puts her through the wringer. She's been asked to perform a MercyKill on ''two'' crewmates (Saru wound up not needing it, but Airiam wasn't so lucky), her relationship with Amanda undergoes a severe strain, her relationship with ''Spock'' is a total disaster, and finally she learns that her parents were in Section 31, and Leland's bad intelligence work was what got them killed. On top of all that, she's made an {{Unperson}} after disappearing into the future, meaning nobody will ever publicly acknowledge that she even existed!
* UptightLovesWild: She falls in love with Cleveland Booker and becomes less uptight the longer she spends with him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Jett Reno]]
!!Commander Jett Reno
->'''Played by:''' Creator/TigNotaro
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jett_reno.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"I'm un-insultable, especially by a guy who thinks he can run a ship on mushrooms that I pick off my pizza."'']]
The former chief engineer aboard the U.S.S. ''Hiawatha'', who transfers to ''Discovery'' after her rescue early in the second season and remains aboard as the ship travels to the 32nd century.
----
* BadassInDistress: She encounters an away team from ''Discovery'' when her vessel is wrecked and left in a precarious position in the grip of a dark-matter asteroid headed for a pulsar.
* ButchLesbian: She is quite androgynous and has a tough, masculine personality. It's revealed at one point that she was married to a woman, who was killed during the Klingon War.
* CommandingCoolness: Her rank is commander, and she must have nerves of steel to have survived on the ''Hiawatha'' for months before rescue.
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Talks animatedly with her medically comatose crewmates, although it's unclear if she did this before being greeted by the unexpected rescue party.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: In "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2", she snaps at Saru to "get off my ass" -- then realizes what she did and hurriedly amends "Sir! [[NotHelpingYourCase Get off my ass]], ''sir!''" as the turbolift closes.
* TheEngineer: The chief engineer aboard the ''Hiawatha'', and stays around in the engineering department aboard ''Discovery''.
* GadgeteerGenius: Operates several flying drones to assist her and guide the ''Discovery'' crew, and keeps her crewmates and patients alive through ingenious means (both biological and mechanical).
* InterspeciesRomance: Her late wife was a Soyousian.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: In "Brother", she has been stuck aboard the ''Hiawatha'' since before the Klingon War ended, and doesn't learn that it's over until Burnham, Pike and Nhan arrive.
* TheLostLenore: Her wife died during the Klingon War, so she advises Culber not to lose what he has with Stamets.
* {{MacGyvering}}: Once again has to use engineering tools for a medical purpose when they need to put a cortical implant in Tilly while engineering is locked down. (Notably, she only held up the drill as a ''joke'' before realizing they don't have a way to get the appropriate medical device.)
* NervesOfSteel: Whatever danger occurs, Reno faces it head-on with maybe a deadpan remark to break the tension. This may be most notable with the time crystal -- Pike and Burnham were both left (quite understandably) gasping and horrified by the things they saw upon touching it, but Reno just [[NoSell blinks really hard]] through the visions and keeps working.
* OutOfFocus: Despite how prominently she featured in season trailers, as well as serving as a principal character in episodes early in the season, she was notably absent from various engineering crises after "An Obol for Charon" until she returned to relative prominence in "Through the Valley of Shadows" and both parts of "Such Sweet Sorrow".
* TheSnarkKnight: Upon being told that the ''Hiawatha'' and the asteroid it crashed on is headed for a pulsar, she [[SarcasmMode sarcastically]] reacts with relief after she "thought you said we were all going to die".
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Engages in this with Stamets when she's tasked to help him stabilize the spore drive during "An Obol For Charon". They manage to barely put their bickering aside when they need to free Tilly from "May" attaching herself to the ensign.
* TheyCallHimSword: Introduces herself as Jett, which is fairly apropos, being TheEngineer.
* UnbrokenVigil: Not that she had much choice. She spends ten months aboard the shipwrecked ''Hiawatha'' working to (successfully) keep the surviving patients alive.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Somewhat by default; by the time ''Discovery'' arrives, she's the only crew member still active aboard what's left of the ''Hiawatha''. Her crewmates are either dead or in varying states of medically-induced comas.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Ellen Landry]]
!!Commander Ellen Landry
-> '''Played by:''' Rekha Sharma
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ellen_landry.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Vulcans should stick to logic."'']]
The first chief security officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* ActionGirl: Comes with the territory of being the security officer.
* AllThereInTheManual: ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fleshes out her [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]], and explains [[StartOfDarkness how she came to be the way she is]] when we meet her in ''Discovery''. In a nutshell, her fiance died in a HeroicSacrifice moment while fighting the Klingons, and Landry is now eager for payback, resulting in the [[{{Jerkass}} joyless, harsh, borderline sociopathic]] Landry of the series.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: She is the chief security officer, and also holds a relatively high rank among the crew. As a Commander, she's second only to Lorca himself and tied in rank with First Officer Saru (though technically, she would be under Saru's command thanks to his position as First Officer, though whether that would be true in practice is never demonstrated).
* DeadStarWalking: Rekha Sharma has been in quite a few sci-fi series, but only lasts two episodes. And unfortunately, her character does not get [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 the benefit of Cylon resurrection]] in ''Star Trek'' (though her MirrorUniverse counterpart does make a cameo in "What's Past is Prologue").
* FantasticRacism: Makes several comments disparaging Burnham's Vulcan upbringing, and ''then'' there's how she disparages one [[UglyCute large-scale tardigrade]], which itself is quite possibly more intelligent (in its own way) than many of the crew ''and'' the main computer put together. This attitude ends up being a subtle [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowing flag]] pointing at Lorca's origins -- since of course ''this'' version of Lorca, being a [[EvilCounterpart Terran Empire officer]] in disguise, ''would'' be far more comfortable with her general belligerence and bigotry than most captains.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Her own FantasticRacism is an early mirror for Captain Lorca's own Terran Empire bigotry--as is her closeness to him for her mirror counterpart's also being an ally of his.
* {{Jerkass}}: Rather harsh towards most people, Burnham in particular, and she shares Captain Lorca's warlike attitudes to a large degree.
* MauveShirt: Is treated like one of the main cast, but she gets killed partway through her second episode. Her death goes completely unmentioned and apparently unmourned, apart from Lorca's one line about not letting it be in vain.
* SecretKeeper: Is aware of her captain's pet projects, and facilitates his work. It raises the question as to when, exactly, she first entered Lorca's confidence, and just how much she knew or didn't know about his true origins in the MirrorUniverse, though she is definitely not from the MirrorUniverse herself. ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' shows that she'd served with Lorca for quite awhile, and was his First Officer on the ''Buran''. Mirror!Lorca replacing him came around the same time as her StartOfDarkness (see AllThereInTheManual), and implies Mirror!Lorca recognizd and manipulated her loss and desire for revenge, so he could basically mold her into his [[TheDragon Dragon]].
* TooDumbToLive: She decides to let Ripper, the giant tardigrade, out of its containment field so she can cut off its claws to study, blithely ignoring Burnham's warnings that the sedative Landry used on Ripper might not work. And this is ''after'' Landry witnessed first-hand what the creature did to a squad of Klingons. Unsurprisingly, Ripper proceeds to maul Landry to death.
* VasquezAlwaysDies: She is notably more hardnosed, rough around the edges, and, not least, gun-toting than both Michael and Tilly, who are more level-headed, calmer, and science-focused. She only lasts a few episodes.
* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: She dubs the tardigrade "Ripper". Guess what it fatally does to her not too long afterwards?
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Nhan]]
!!Commander Nhan
->'''Played by:''' Rachael Ancheril
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cmdr_d_nhan.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"My job is to preserve as many lives as possible at any cost."'']]
A Barzan engineering officer from the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', who comes aboard ''Discovery'' with Captain Pike. She stays aboard as Chief of Security while the ''Enterprise'' is out of action.
----
* AchillesHeel: Yanking out her breathing implant incapacitates her.
* CustomUniform: She's the only female crewmember we see whose uniform includes a skirt. It's not explained, but given the uniform alterations we see in other series it's safe to assume that it's for cultural reasons.
* TheEngineer: Specifically noted as being an engineering officer prior to beaming aboard, and she remarks on the ingenuity of Reno's work aboard the ''Hiawatha''.
* HypercompetentSidekick: To Pike; he brings her aboard ''Discovery'' as an engineer, but she ends up serving as the security chief aboard the ship.
* IChooseToStay:
** Decides to stick with the ''Discovery'' crew in "Such Sweet Sorrow" and traveling into the future with them, instead of rejoining Pike aboard the ''Enterprise''.
** Does this again in "Die Trying" in season 3, when she volunteers to stay aboard a seed vault vessel and return to her home planet of Barzan in the 32nd century.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: As of the second episode of season three, Rachael Ancheril is a main cast member.
* ProperTightsWithASkirt: She wears opaque tights under her CustomUniform.
* PutOnABus: Returns to her home planet of Barzan after ''Discovery'' reunites with Starfleet in the 32nd century.
* RedShirt:
** Inverted in "Brother". Despite the fact that she's the only one on the away mission that wears red, she not only survives the experience but is the only person to make it without any problems whatsoever.
** Subverted in "Project Daedalus"; she gets disabled early in the fight against Control-infected Airiam, but manages to get at least some of her breathing implant back in place to struggle back on her feet and activate the airlock control at Airiam's request.
** Either played straight or subverted in "Such Sweet Sorrow, part 2". See UncertainDoom below.
* RubberForeheadAliens: She's a Barzan, the same species that would discover a natural wormhole to the Gamma and Delta Quadrants a century later in TNG's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E8ThePrice The Price]]".
* ShootTheDog: In "Project Daedalus", she flips the switch which blasts Airiam out of an airlock ([[HeroicSacrifice at Airiam's own request]]) while Michael is still futilely trying to save her.
* UncertainDoom: She's last seen lying unconscious after getting her head slammed repeatedly into a wall by Leland/Control. However, she is shown to be just fine by the second episode of Season 3.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant-Commander Paul Stamets]]
!!Lieutenant-Commander Paul Stamets
-> '''Played by:''' Anthony Rapp
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paul_stamets.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"At the quantum level, there is no difference between biology and physics."'']]
An astromycologist and science officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'', who by extension serves as the ship's chief engineer.
----
* AmbiguousSituation: In "Into the Forest I Go", Stamets's overuse of the spore drive causes his body to become non-responsive (and his eyes to turn an icy blue) after accidentally sending ''Discovery'' into the MirrorUniverse. Ultimately, he isn't dead, but he's left temporarily both blinded and delirious.
* BioAugmentation: Injected himself with an experimental tardigrade gene therapy method to allow himself to act as a WetwareCPU for the spore drive in Ripper's absence. The space-time side effects on his physiology grant him RippleEffectProofMemory, among other things, which he uses to great effect in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad". On the other hand, it leaves his mind open to being influenced by his EvilCounterpart in the MirrorUniverse through the mycelial network.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Getting to know him is a lot of work thanks to all those insufferable walls he throws up. Michael manages to defrost him with a mix of being damn good at her job and sharing his drive to figure out puzzles and mysteries.
* EndearinglyDorky: His outright awe (and naked jealousy) at Ripper being able to communicate in several ways with his beloved intergalactic mycelial network is definitely this. If he's not being sarcastic and snippy, he usually is instead geeking out enthusiastically over a science problem.
* TheEngineer: Mainly by title, as the "spore drive" that he helped develop is the revolutionary propulsion system at the heart of ''Discovery'', so he is assigned as the ship's chief engineer in addition to being a science officer.
* InsufferableGenius: His first words to Burnham are "Who are you?" and demanding to know who assigned her to him, as "I give the assignments around here!" He soon ends up as a DefrostingIceQueen.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Stamets is caustic, but he does care deeply about others and it's implied that he would be a more pleasant person if Starfleet wasn't trying to co-opt his life's work for war. He's the first person that rather openly tells Burnham that Lorca is a "war monger", when others like Saru tried to shy around the topic. And though he's initially impatient with Tilly, by the second season he considers her a friend and goes to great lengths to help her when "May" takes over.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: How most of his interactions with Dr. Culber go, especially since "Choose Your Pain" revealed they were already a couple before they were individually introduced on-screen.
** In Season 2 Episode 5, the introduction refers to Stamets as a widower, confirming that they were married.
* TheLostLenore: Culber becomes this for Stamets, prompting Stamets to make plans for leaving Starfleet after the Klingon War ends. Then Culber comes BackFromTheDead.
* MortonsFork: His own actions with the spore drive cause one that rivals the SwordOfDamocles. Either he confesses to his boyfriend, Dr. Culber, straining their relationship and putting Culber's career in jeopardy -- or he doesn't, and he's forced to continually lie to Culber to maintain the facade of normalcy. He ends up trying to TakeAThirdOption by co-opting Cadet Tilly to help him deal with the side effects, but this only puts ''her'' career in jeopardy as she tries to aid him as best she can while keeping Stamets' genetic self-modification a secret. This ends up falling apart when the genetic modifications, or at least the side effects, are discovered in "Into The Forest I Go". Stamets still agrees to make a series of micro-jumps to help expose the Klingon flagship's cloak, followed by one more to get ''Discovery'' back to a starbase -- which ends up TemptingFate one time too many, landing Stamets in a HeroicRROD and landing ''Discovery'' in the MirrorUniverse.
* TheNavigator: Essentially becomes this after using the tardigrade DNA to become a transgenic to be able to interface with the Spore Drive.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Necessary, given the way his "spore drive" links fungal mycelia with interstellar travel.
* ProfessorGuineaPig:
** He injects himself with tardigrade DNA to serve as a replacement for Ripper. It works, but leaves him with some side effects including growing dissociation with normal space-time -- not to mention violating the Federation's laws on eugenics and bioaugmentation.
** Depending on how canon you count it, the ''Discovery'' 2018 comics annual made him this even before the above happened: during research on the mycelial domain, Stamets apparently consumed some of the spores to get a better picture of what was going on with the fungus' network. We don't see much of his trip, but when his research partner finds him passed out the next morning, [[WhatTheHellHero he reads Stamets the Riot Act over being that reckless]].
* RankUp: Is promoted from lieutenant up a grade to lieutenant-commander at the end of the first season, in recognition of his actions during the Federation-Klingon War.
* ReluctantWarrior: At best, he barely tolerates the fact that he and his research have been dragged into a war. He would rather be back in his nice little laboratory than serving aboard a Starfleet vessel. It's not simply for his own comfort, though: he has deep-seated moral reservations about his research being used for military applications, when he was investigating it purely for the pursuit of knowledge and out of awe at the natural world.
* {{Retirony}}:
** After Kol's death, Stamets decides to leave Starfleet so he can find a cure for whatever the tardigrade DNA has been doing to him and so he can spend more time with Culber. However, Stamets decides to do one last jump to get ''Discovery'' back safely to Federation space and that one jump sends the ship to the MirrorUniverse and leaves Stamets catatonic.
** By the second season, Stamets is still so broken up over Culber's death that he plans to leave Starfleet for a position at the Vulcan Science Academy -- but the urgent mission to investigate the "red bursts" under Captain Pike causes those plans to be put on hold. Fortunately, in the process, he gets to help resurrect Culber.
* StraightGay: He's gay but not flamboyant. This makes him the first original character[[note]]Sulu was {{Retcon}}ned to be gay ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', but Stamets is the first character designed to be gay from his inception[[/note]] in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' who is explicitly gay.[[note]]Jadzia Dax from ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' is canonically bisexual, though given the unique peculiarities of Trill biology, it's not clear that terms like "sexual orientation" even apply to them.[[/note]]
* ScienceHero: Specializes in astromycology, or the study of fungi [[RecycledInSpace in space]].
* TheStoner: After the first time he jacks himself into the spore drive, he starts acting like one ''might'' expect of someone who's exposing himself to [[MushroomSamba magic mushrooms]].
* TimeDissonance: After his BioAugmentation, he has a little trouble keeping himself focused within space-time. Taken UpToEleven after his ill-fated final jump in "Into the Forest I Go", which leaves him catatonic in a HeroicRROD. After he recovers from his catatonia, he gains an immunity of sorts to time anomalies, because he doesn't get confused by the strangeness the way normal humans do.
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: What motivates him to unravel the mysteries of the "mycelial network" that spans the cosmos.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Hugh Culber]]
!! Doctor (Lieutenant-Commander) Hugh Culber
-> '''Played by:''' Wilson Cruz
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hugh_culber_2256.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"One tends to worry when they're doomed to love a brilliant but reckless maniac who's willing to risk his life for glory."'']]
A senior medical officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* BackFromTheDead: When Stamets kissed Culber's corpse while trapped in the mycelial network, he inadvertantly pulled Culber's consciousness into the network. After Stamets discovers this, he convinces May to use her transport cocoon to fashion a new body for Culber to inhabit, effectively resurrecting him.
* BelligerentSexualTension: More subtle than most, but his snarking at Stamets is very clearly this. Subverted when it's made clear they are in fact a couple.
* BuryYourGays: Subverted. Tyler/Voq kills him, but Stamets later manages to resurrect him with the help of the JahSepp, a species living in the mycelial network.
* CameBackWrong: After receiving a brand-new body, he still remembers his old life, but doesn't feel the emotions attached to his memories. It leads to him becoming detached and angry, lashing out at Stamets, attempting to violently goad Tyler into "letting out" Voq, and finally telling Paul that his old self is gone. He gets over it, though.
* ChangedMyMindKid: Transfers from ''Discovery'' to the ''Enterprise'' shortly before the final battle of Season 2 to try to get over Stamets. When Stamets is badly injured, he is taken to ''Discovery'''s sickbay, where Culber treats his wounds. Culber explains that he realized that he still loves Stamets and couldn't let him go off into the far future alone.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Culber is the only character who doesn't compromise his morals over the course of the series. Stated by the producers as the reason why a Mirror!Culber didn't appear. They didn't want to tarnish that by having a having an evil version.
** Averted in the second season, where he [[TookALevelInJerkass gets more moody and aggressive]] in the wake of coming BackFromTheDead.
* TheLostLenore: To Stamets, which weighs heavily on Stamets even into the second season.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Until "Despite Yourself," Culber seems to be staffing sickbay all by himself; there are only a couple of other whiteshirts and even they rarely appear in the scenes he's in. Later on, Doctor Pollard becomes a recurring medical character after Culber's death. Yet in Season three Culber also acts as the crew's counselor.
* TheMedic: Aboard ''Discovery'', but not the Chief Medical Officer.
* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: His attempts to defend himself from May's people nearly cause their extinction.
* NeckSnap: Voq takes over from Tyler and breaks Culber's neck when Culber decides to relieve Tyler for duty until he can get to the bottom of whatever is wrong with Tyler's memories.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: After being a recurring actor in Season 1, Wilson Cruz becomes a regular and part of the main titles in Season 2 -- ironically, while his character was still believed to be dead.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: When Tilly apologizes for Stamets' condition, Culber says that it's not her fault, as she was put into an impossible situation by her superiors.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: In season 1 Hugh is nearly always dressed in his medical whites, possibly signifying his role as one of the most moral characters. After his resurrection in season 2, we see a shift to him wearing civilian clothing in all black, which matches up with his more troubled and depressed demeanour.
* StraightGay: He's in a relationship with Stamets.
* ThatManIsDead: After his resurrection in a new body seemingly severes the links between his memories and emotions attached to them, he feels this way about his "old self."
* TookALevelInJerkass: In the wake of his resurrection. By "If Memory Serves", he ends up engaging Tyler in a fistfight in ''Discovery'''s mess hall in a fit of pent-up rage over his death at the hands of Voq.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant-Commander Airiam]]
!!Lieutenant-Commander Airiam
->'''Played by:''' Sara Mitich (Season 1), Hannah Cheesman (Season 2)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/airiam_2257.jpg]]
The spore drive operations officer aboard ''Discovery'', and a cybernetically-augmented human crewmember.
----
* BitCharacter: Frequently visible, but not integral to any episode's plot until she is hacked by a hostile futuristic probe in "Light and Shadows" and starts sabotaging ''Discovery'''s mission going forward.
* CommandingCoolness: Between her stated rank, and being the most emotionless visible bridge officer aboard ''Discovery''.
* ADayInTheLimelight: "Project Daedalus" provides her with a backstory and shows glimpses of her social life with her fellow crewmembers. It also features her [[ADeathInTheLimelight dying heroically]] to save Michael and the whole crew from being killed by Control, who had been taking over Airiam intermittently since "Light and Shadows."
* GrandTheftMe: Essentially what Control does to her during the second season.
* ICannotSelfTerminate: When Control tries to make her upload the sphere's AI data and kill Michael, Airiam tells Michael to open the nearby airlock to kill her because Control won't let Airiam herself stop it.
* MindControlEyes: After "Light and Shadows", RuleOfPerception allows the audience to see a pattern of three red dots in Airiam's eyes -- the same which was visible on her computer screen during the probe's attack on ''Discovery'''s databases, indicating that she has also been hacked.
* TheMole: She becomes one for a mysterious BigBad enemy from the future, after being hacked by a probe which was sent back in time.
* TheOtherDarrin: The role of Airiam switched from Sara Mitich to Hannah Cheesman between the first and second seasons.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Her eyes glow red after she has been taken over by Control.
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: Done to her in "Project Daedalus" ([[HeroicSacrifice at her own request]]) to stop Control from forcing her to kill Burnham and upload ''Discovery'''s information from the Sphere.
* WeCanRebuildHim: She's a human who received significant cybernetic augmentation after being critically injured in a shuttle crash.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: We find out some elements of her backstory in "Project Daedalus", such as her augmentations being a result of heavy injuries sustained in a shuttle crash which killed her husband. Unfortunately, the same episode also sees her making a HeroicSacrifice to save her crew from the hostile AI which was controlling her actions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Keyla Detmer]]
!!Lieutenant Keyla Detmer
-> '''Played by:''' Emily Coutts
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/keyla_detmer_before.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Before the Battle of the Binary Stars'']]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/keyla_detmer_post_battle.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''After'']]
Formerly the helm officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' who, like Saru, was re-assigned to the U.S.S. ''Discovery''.
----
* AcePilot: Par for the course among federation helmsmen like Sulu and Paris. When Discovery screws up a jump and ends up in the gravity well of a star, she gets them out. She also mentions in "New Eden" that she got her pilot's license when she was twelve years old.
* BackFromTheDead: Badly injured during the Battle at the Binary Stars, Burnham apparently assumed she had died and was startled to encounter her serving on ''Discovery''.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Zig-zagged. The Battle of the Binary Stars left her with injuries requiring a cranial implant. The hair on the left side of her head is shaved off around it, leaving visible surgical scars where they put the implant in, and she's missing her left eyebrow. If you look closely, she also lost her left eye and needed it replaced with [[ElectronicEye a prosthetic]]; prior to the battle both of her eyes were green, but now her left eye is a [[UncannyValley mismatched, artificial-looking blue]]. That said, even with the implant, she is still attractive.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: She and an unknown male crewmember are busily making out during the party at the start of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" (and every subsequent time loop).
* HeroicBSOD:
** In "Such Sweet Sorrow", before her departure to the 32nd century alongside the rest of the crew, she records a letter to a close friend crediting them with helping her survive one of these in the wake of her earlier injury in the Klingon War.
** Her panic-inducing crash-landing of ''Discovery'' in "Far From Home" at the start of the third season builds up to one of these a couple of episodes later in "Forget Me Not".
* MythologyGag: Her cranial implant gives her more than a little resemblance to [[Characters/StarTrekVoyager Annika "Seven of Nine" Hansen]].
* RankUp: She was a lieutenant junior-grade aboard the ''Shenzhou'', but [[TimeSkip six months later]] aboard ''Discovery'', she is now a full lieutenant.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Upon arriving in the future, Detmer begins to experience this right after ''Discovery'' crashes. She tries to hide this, but her traumas eventually come out and causes a dinner Saru is hosting for the senior staff to quickly turn sour.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Gen Rhys]]
!!Lieutenant Gen Rhys
-> '''Played by:''' Patrick Kwok-Choon
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gen_rhys.png]]
The tactical officer aboard ''Discovery'' after the loss of Commander Landry and through the end of the Klingon War.
----
* BitCharacter: He's mainly on-screen to be another officer on the bridge.
* BridgeBunny: A male example; he is ''Discovery'''s tactical officer.
* GracefulLoser: Doesn't take it badly when Tilly rejects his advances at the party in "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".
* TokenMinority: The only visible Asian bridge officer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Nilsson]]
->'''Played by:''' Sara Mitich
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nilsson.png]]
A spore drive operations officer aboard ''Discovery''. Joins the bridge crew after Airiam dies. In Season 3 she fills the role of Second Officer, taking command of the bridge when Saru and Burnham are absent.
----
* ActorAllusion: Sara Mitich played Lt. Cmdr. Airiam, the augmented spore-drive operations officer, in Season 1, and was replaced by Hannah Cheesman in Season 2, taking on the role of Lt. Nilsson instead. In "The Red Angel", Nilsson takes over the bridge position of the spore drive operations officer for the deceased Airiam, leading to her taking over her old function, but with a new character.
* CastingGag: Of sorts; see above.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade Joann Owosekun]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Joann Owosekun
-> '''Played by:''' Oyin Oladejo
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joann_owosekun.png]]
The operations officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* ADayInTheLimelight: "New Eden". She accompanies the landing party on Terralysium, the audience finds out more about her backstory, and she's the one who comes up with the way of escaping the basement they're locked in, not the uber-competent Burnham or experienced Pike.
* BitCharacter: In season one, she's mainly been on-screen to be another officer on the bridge. She gets fleshed out more starting with Season 2.
* BridgeBunny: A female example; she is ''Discovery'''s operations officer.
* InSeriesNickname: Gets referred to as "Owo" by several of her crewmates in season 2.
* NervesOfSteel: Alongside Detmer, she has to help Pike, Burnham and Nhan navigate an AsteroidThicket at high speed in "Brother".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade R.A. Bryce]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Ronald Altman "R.A." Bryce
-> '''Played by:''' [[TheDanza Ronnie]] Rowe Jr.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ra_bryce.png]]
The communications officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* AcePilot: To some extent. He piloted the shuttlecraft carrying Burnham, Landry, Stamets, Tilly and a RedShirt to the U.S.S. ''Glenn'' in "Context Is For Kings".
* BitCharacter: He's mainly on-screen to be another officer on the bridge. In "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad", Harry Mudd lampshades this by disparagingly calling him "random communications officer man".
* BridgeBunny: A male example; he is ''Discovery'''s communications officer.
* CommunicationsOfficer: The main one on the bridge.
* TokenMinority: The only visible black male bridge officer.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant junior grade Linus]]
!!Lieutenant junior grade Linus
->'''Played by:''' David Benjamin Tomlinson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/linus_the_saurian.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sorry, the universal translator sometimes has trouble reconfiguring my lingual clicks and pops."'']]
A Saurian science officer aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* LizardFolk: He ''is'' a Saurian, after all.
* RealityEnsues: Has a respiratory illness in the second season premiere; after all, even ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' showed that colds can occur on a sealed environment like a starship.
* StarfishLanguage: His species communicate through clicks and other throat noises that even the universal translator has trouble parsing at times.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Tracy Pollard]]
!!Doctor (Lieutenant junior grade) Tracy Pollard
-> '''Played by:''' Raven Dauda
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tracy_pollard.png]]
A physician aboard ''Discovery''.
----
* AfterActionPatchUp:
** Averted with Stamets, whose case gets reassigned to her from Dr. Culber after Stamets falls into a catatonic state in the first season. Stamets ends up needing more radical treatment.
** In "Brother", she gets Burnham back on her feet in a matter of ''hours'' after Burnham takes a jagged piece of red-hot metal through her leg while escaping from the wreck of the ''Hiawatha''.
* DeadpanSnarker: She has ample opportunity to use this skill, given how often officers end up in the sickbay due to their own actions.
* TheMedic: The most frequently seen doctor on the ship, at least after Culber is killed. It is unclear whether or not she is the [[TheGhost Chief Medical Officer]].
* ThePerfectionist: Burnham notes in "Brother" that Pollard is "the definition of meticulous".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ensign Sylvia Tilly]]
!!Ensign Sylvia Tilly
-> '''Played by:''' Mary Wiseman
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tilly.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You guys, this is so fucking cool!"'']]
The resident EnsignNewbie of the U.S.S. ''Discovery''. In the first season, she was still a cadet in her final year at Starfleet Academy.
----
* BigSisterMentor: She's roommates with Burnham, who develops this kind of relationship with her.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: She has all the personality quirks mentioned in this section, but also was brilliant enough to be fast tracked through Starfleet Academy, and is (or at least [[InformedAttribute thinks she is]]) "the best theoretical engineer on the ship".
* CharacterDevelopment: In the third episode, she tries to keep Michael away from her, afraid that others will judge if they think Sylvia is friends with the mutineer. In the penultimate episode, she conspicuously changes seats to eat ''with'' Tyler in the mess hall, inspiring others to do the same.
* CompressedHair: On-duty she wears her hair in a very severe bun. Off-duty, she looks more like Merida from ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''.
* EndearinglyDorky: So much. She squee-geeks by hopping up and down.
* EnsignNewbie: The most naive member of the cast, although it takes her a season to RankUp to become an actual ensign.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Averted. Of all the ''Discovery'' crew except Burnham (who had a year to adjust), Tilly doesn't seem too thrown by the changes and seems quite adept at working with 32nd century equipment.
* FutureBadass: Subverted. It was originally assumed that Lt. Stamets got UnstuckInTime as a result of his integration into the spore drive, and at one point asks why TheCaptain is there, when it's still just ''Cadet'' Tilly. He seems to have actually gotten an impression from the MirrorUniverse where Tilly is TheDreaded Captain.
* MeaningfulName: Sylvia Tilly. ''Silly.''
* MommyIssues: She snarks that if she could delete memories she didn't want to keep, like Airiam, she wouldn't even ''recognize'' her mother. Yikes.
* MortonsFork: She ends up with one of these courtesy of Lt. Stamets; either she could report his condition to Starfleet Command and get him into a heap of trouble, thereby setting the spore drive back for decades and undoing the whole reason for ''Discovery'''s existence -- or if she doesn't, they could both get found out and end up in a heap of trouble anyways, with the addition of her own future career on the line. She ''could'' go to the ship's medical staff, but they're obligated to report Stamets' condition to Starfleet Command, with the added complication of Dr. Culber being in an active relationship with Stamets at the time. It's something an intern should never have been stuck dealing with.
* MotorMouth: By her own admission, she talks more when she's nervous.
* NaiveNewcomer: She's rather excited by things that are happening compared to the other more jaded characters.
* PrecisionFStrike: She's the first character to use the word "fuck" in any ''Star Trek'' series, turning a previously fairly serious scene comical.
--> "You guys, this is so fucking cool!"
* RankUp:
** She's commissioned as an ensign and enrolled in the Command Training Program for her actions in the Klingon War.
** In the third season episode "Unification III", Saru offers her the temporary position of First Officer despite many others being ahead of her in rank and seniority. She accepts at the end.
* ScienceHero: She often assists Burnham with scientific analyses, and originally works for Stamets in the engineering department aboard ''Discovery''.
* SheCleansUpNicely: [[https://imgur.com/2kuzg4j Exhibit A]], Tilly in her alternate universe outfit. She also looks damn nice in the party scene of "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad".
* SpaceCadet: During the first season, she is on her midshipman cruise before graduating from Starfleet Academy.
* TrainingFromHell: Protip for rookies: don't let anybody with Vulcan training work out how badly you want to improve in any given activity. Their idea of an itinerary ''hurts'', especially in the beginning.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Her mother is very doubting of her abilities and compares Tilly unfavorably to her stepsister, as we see in "The Runaway."
* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: She may have fast-tracked her career under Stamets, as well. With the power of squee, of all things.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The U.S.S. ''Discovery'']]
!! U.S.S. ''Discovery'' (NCC-1031 / NCC-1031-A)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uss_discovery_ventral.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click to see refit appearance]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disco_refit.png[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"All things can be understood once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."'']]
The titular ship and primary setting of the series. A ''Crossfield''-class starship designed for scientific purposes, she is assigned a new mission under the command of Captain Lorca.
----
* TwoDSpace: Zig-zagged. At warp or impulse speeds, ''Discovery'' tends to remain on the same plane as other vessels (as is the norm for Star Trek). When using the spore drive, however, she often seems to "drop in" vertically or obliquely, which makes sense if we assume that the geometry of the mycelial network is very different from normal space.
* BigDamnHeroes: Rescues Burnham's disabled prison shuttle at the beginning of "Context is for Kings". Later uses her spore drive to break the siege of Corvan II and (unsuccessfully) defend the U.S.S. ''Gagarin'' from a Klingon fleet.
* BroughtDownToNormal: With the Klingon War over, at the start of the second season, the spore drive is being taken out of commission due to the practical, legal and ethical drawbacks on its use. Zig-zagged in short order, however, as Captain Pike orders occasional use of the spore drive to facilitate the investigation of the "red bursts", including a rapid arrival to answer a DistressCall from New Eden. Later on, it gets used more frequently -- if still sparingly -- to keep the ship and her crew ahead of Control and its forces.
* CoolStarship: As expected of any ''Star Trek'' vessel in a starring role.
* CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel: While ''Discovery'''s exterior wouldn't look too out of place in an episode of TOS, the interior looks even more advanced than the ''Enterprise''-E in the late 24th century. This may be justified, since the ship is testing new technologies as part of her long-term mission.
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The outer surfaces of the two rings that make up the primary hull counter-rotate whenever the ship uses its spore drive, right before the ship itself appears to spin around its longitudinal axis and vanish.
* FasterThanLightTravel: In addition to standard warp drive, ''Discovery'' is a prototype for "displacement-activated spore hub drive", a new FTL propulsion technology that operates using the mycelium spores on an interdimensional species of fungus to make quantum jumps across the universe-wide "mycelial network".
* FragileSpeedster: Thanks to the spore drive, ''Discovery'' is fully capable of pulling off a GunshipRescue or a SneakAttack virtually anywhere in Federation or Klingon territory, making for plenty of in-universe ParanoiaFuel for the Klingons. That said, such operations need to be pulled off with lightning speed and precision, since if the [[AttackHello initial attack]] fails to more-or-less end the battle, then ''Discovery'', being designed and built fundamentally as a [[SquishyWizard science vessel]], does ''not'' last long at all in an outright firefight. This is best demonstrated when the ship attempts to rescue the U.S.S. ''Gagarin'' from a Klingon fleet: when ''Discovery'' jumps into the battle, the Klingons simply cloak and regroup before making a coordinated counterattack that destroys the ''Gagarin'' and forces ''Discovery'' to retreat.
** Fatally exemplified by the I.S.S. ''Discovery'', whose crew tried to immediately [[LeeroyJenkins take the fight to the Klingons]] upon arriving in the Prime Universe, and got their ship swiftly destroyed and the crew KilledOffscreen.
* HeroKiller: Inverted, and generally in DavidVersusGoliath situations as well.
** Successfully destroys the Klingons' ''Sarcophagus'' in "Into The Forest I Go".
** Takes down the I.S.S. ''Charon'' in "What's Past Is Prologue" by firing mycelium-spore-charged torpedoes into the Terran ship's core.
* HyperspeedAmbush: The spore drive allows ''Discovery'' to essentially teleport to any location, allowing them to appear anywhere undetected. This takes the Klingons completely by surprise at Corvan II, and makes ''Discovery'' critical to the war effort thereafter and in Season 3, the rebuilding of the Federation.
* HyperspeedEscape: The other thing that the spore drive is good for. Combined with the aforementioned HyperspeedAmbush, this makes ''Discovery'' good for HitAndRunTactics.
* ItCanThink: Or at least the Sphere database can, after the crew download it in "An Obol for Charon" and it starts to work its way into the ship's systems.
* MadeOfIron: For a science vessel, ''Discovery'' is pretty damn tough. Particularly for a ship from the 23rd century. In season 3's "People of Earth" she even managed to tank a pair of ''32nd Century quantum torpedoes'', albeit completely losing shields and being left disabled afterwards.
* MidSeasonUpgrade: In season 3, once the crew reunites with the Federation and prove themselves, the ship is retrofitted and enhanced with 32nd century Federation tech. The improved ship is re-designated ''NCC-1031-A'' and has detached nacelles, programmable matter control panels, a [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking device]], and an improved Spore Drive interface that no longer requires Stamets to directly plug himself to the ship, finally allowing him to make Spore Jumps without pain.
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Her name is a reference to the space shuttle ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Discovery Discovery]]''. Also, the entire ''Crossfield''-class is named after a test pilot named Albert Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at Mach 2. Accordingly, ''Discovery''[='s=] sister ship USS ''Glenn'' is named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Played with. Lorca certainly has many plans to convert her and the research run on her into primary weapons, but many seem to be works-in-progress, or depend on complete scientific crapshoots. ''Discovery'' is functionally the last remaining of her class (unless a U.S.S. ''Crossfield'' is out there somewhere or the ''Glenn'''s remains were reverse-engineered), and duplicating her drive is not going to be easy. Hence, the ship has no physical backup in the foreseeable future, even if the data and schematics are already secure with Starfleet.
* OrganicTechnology: Several characters describe the Spore Drive this way, since its basic operating mechanism involves a network formed by interdimensional fungal spores.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The spore drive originally needed Ripper the giant tardigrade plugged into it for long-distance jumps. Since Ripper turned out to be sentient and in obvious pain during the procedure, they found a way to use a willing Lt. Stamets instead. After the end of the war, Starfleet forbids Stamets from using himself as the navigator due to the Federation's anti-eugenics laws, so the spore drive is to remain unused until an alternative means of safely navigating the network is found.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: ''Discovery'' is a science vessel, built as a testbed for various new and developing cutting-edge technologies (including black-ops experiments), and specifically built around Stamets and Straal's[[note]]Stamets' deceased best friend from "Context Is For Kings"[[/note]] new spore-drive. It wasn't meant to be built for some time, but after the war with the Klingons began, it was [[ClosestThingWeGot fast-tracked through construction]] to be finished in only a few months. The result is that much of the crew is composed of Science division personnel used to working in planet-side labs, who were fast-tracked into field work (Stamets in particular). Wanting to pursue dangerous or even aggressive black-ops military projects, however, Lorca also hand-picked more than a few crewmen from ships lost in the Klingon war, who (he hoped) wouldn't be opposed to getting payback, including Burnham, Saru and Detmer from the crew of the ''Shenzhou''. So the crew are an odd mix of EnsignNewbie and/or BunnyEarsLawyer scientists on the one hand and ShellShockedVeteran types on the other, initially resulting in a DysfunctionJunction.
* ScienceHero: A Starfleet ship that pulls double duty as a mobile scientific research platform and a deep-space, long-range warship operating behind enemy lines, kicking Klingon ass, crewed by scientific elites and commanded by a genius tactician, and operating experimental technology. She is designed to carry out more than 300 different scientific experiments at any one time, and simultaneously engage in combat as part of a drawn-out war.
* SentientPhlebotinum: Has this embedded in its computer core after receiving the download from [[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS2E04AnObolForCharon The Sphere]]. It eventually develops the ability to control the entire ship by the end of Season 2, up to and including being able to abort the self-destruct sequence and activate the defensive systems.
* StandardEstablishingSpaceshipShot: When we first see ''Discovery'' in "Context is for Kings", the camera pans around the ship for a solid forty seconds while she tractors Burnham's shuttle aboard.
* SuperweaponSurprise: ''Discovery'' is Starfleet's answer to Klingon cloaking technology, and by the middle of the first season, the ship's capabilities have singlehandedly turned the tide of the war. Gradually subverted though, as the Klingons realize this, and are actively seeking to capture the ship and the secrets of its technology. Further subverted when soon thereafter the Klingons are once again ascendant as they spread cloaking technology through their fleets. ''Discovery'' can appear suddenly anywhere, but can't be ''everywhere'', while the Klingons can also suddenly appear anywhere but not being restricted to a single ship means they can attack in multiple locations at the same time.
** Even in the more advanced 32nd century, her spore drive gives her an advantage over all other warp-driven starships. Vance therefore designates her as Starfleet's rapid responder for critical situations.
* TeleportSpam: Is capable of using the spore drive to this effect, but it's extremely taxing to its organic navigator (Lt. Stamets). In "Into the Forest I Go", the ship makes 133 jumps in rapid succession to map the Klingons' cloaking frequencies, which nearly kills him.
* TookALevelInBadass: After arriving in the 32nd century and reaching Federation Headquarters, she's refit with new technology.
* WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens: See EverythingsBetterWithSpinning above. The spore drive creates spinning as well by spinning the ship around its long axis right before it jumps.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:Control probably made this impossible, as all information about the ship and its crew had to be wiped to keep Control from destroying all organic life. And the MidSeasonUpgrade it received in the 32nd century has made the ship's return to its home time even more impossible, as doing so would violate the Temporal Prime Directive.]]
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Starfleet Command (23rd Century)]]
[[folder:Admiral Brett Anderson]]
!!Admiral Brett Anderson
-> '''Played by:''' Terry Serpico
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brett_anderson.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Next time, you might try not disturbing the property of a warrior race we've hardly spoken to for a hundred years."'']]
An admiral in Starfleet; his command ship is the U.S.S. ''Europa''.
----
* BigDamnHeroes: Briefly pulls this off, arriving with his ship just in time to save the disabled ''Shenzhou'' from crashing into an asteroid with the use of a TractorBeam.
* DaChief: At the start of the series, he is in charge of whichever Starfleet subdivision includes the ''Shenzhou''.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Attempts to pursue a negotiated solution to the standoff and the battle with the Klingons, and does his best to bring it to fruition. T'Kuvma and his followers are having none of it, so it gets him and his crew killed.
* TakingYouWithMe: When a cloaked Klingon ship rams and wrecks the ''Europa'', his last act is to order an overload of his ship's warp core, taking the enemy vessel with it.
* UncertainDoom: The ''Europa'' was destroyed at the Battle at the Binary Stars, but it is left unclear whether he died with the ship or made it to an escape pod.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Admiral Katrina Cornwell]]
!!Admiral Katrina Cornwell
-> '''Played by:''' Jayne Brook
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/katrina_cornwell.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I can't leave Starfleet's most powerful weapon in the hands of a broken man."'']]
An admiral in Starfleet, who oversees ''Discovery'' and, at least in part, Section 31 in Season 2.
----
* DaChief: The admiral overseeing ''Discovery'', and presumably the ''Glenn'' as well, before the latter was destroyed.
* DefiantCaptive: After Kol captures her, his interrogators have no luck getting any information out of her, even though she is shown as being barely able to stand when we see her again.
* EnemyMine: Teams up with L'Rell (who is claiming to want to defect) in a short-lived escape attempt that's interrupted by Kol.
* EntertaininglyWrong: After being alarmed by Lorca's instability and paranoia, she thinks it's a symptom of PTSD. She doesn't realize that "Lorca" is actually his counterpart from the MirrorUniverse.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Even after authorizing Mirror-Georgiou's plan to destroy Qo'nos at the end of Season 1, she can scarcely hide her disgust for Section 31's methods and solutions in Season 2.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Sealed in a room with an armed torpedo, she stands facing it with her hands clasped behind her back until it blows.
* FriendsWithBenefits: Her friendship with Lorca has a sexual component but little actual romance.
* TheHandler: She is the flag officer who [[TheCaptain Lorca]] reports to, and has intimate knowledge of his research projects, though she had no idea he was an imposter in the form of Lorca's duplicate from the MirrorUniverse.
* HeroicSacrifice: When an armed photon torpedo gets lodged inside ''Enterprise'' in "Such Sweet Sorrow", Cornwell uses a failsafe to lower a malfunctioning blast door, trapping her with the missile, but saving ''Enterprise'' from destruction.
* TheMedic: She formerly served as a medical doctor in Starfleet.
* OldFlame: She and Lorca have a history, though their careers keep them apart. This doesn't keep Lorca from talking her into bed when she makes a personal visit. It just serves to [[BedTrick infuriate]] her more when she finds out Lorca was really an imposter, in the form of his duplicate from the MirrorUniverse.
* OnlyMostlyDead: The beatdown and electrocution that L'Rell administered to Cornwell didn't kill her, as initially seemed to be the case, but left the admiral partially and temporarily paralyzed.
* PutOnABus: Towards the end of "Into The Forest I Go", she is sent via medical shuttle to a starbase to undergo surgery and treatment for her injuries.
** TheBusCameBack: Returns in "The Battle Without, the Battle Within'' fully recovered, although she looks exhausted given the situation Starfleet is in.
** CommutingOnABus: Does this throughout Season 2, first appearing aboard a Section 31 ship to meet with Pike and Leland in "Saints of Imperfection", then coming to ''Discovery'' via shuttlecraft for "Project Daedalus" and "The Red Angel", before departing yet again and bringing back the ''Enterprise'' in "Such Sweet Sorrow".
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She and her colleagues independently arrive at the same conclusion that Burnham does, and order Lorca to stop using the tardigrade, lest they damage their only means of using the spore drive.
* SheKnowsTooMuch: When Cornwell gets captured by the Klingons shortly after determining that Lorca is not psychologically fit for command, Lorca tries to slow-walk her rescue so she won't be able to recommend that he be relieved of his position. While Michael and Tyler manage to rescue her, Starfleet declares Lorca a war hero, meaning that Cornwell's reservations will likely go unheeded.
** The malfeasance of Lorca's MirrorUniverse counterpart eventually comes to light when ''Discovery'' returns to the Prime Universe, but with every scrap of information relating to the MirrorUniverse being kept top-secret by Starfleet, it's unclear whether the truth will ever come to light.
* TheShrink: She was a psychiatrist by training before rising to the Starfleet admiralty, and is assessing Captain Lorca as she supervises his activities.
* TheSpymaster: She is in charge of all sorts of classified black ops projects, including some aboard ''Discovery'', and has some authority or oversight with regards to Section 31.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Starts drifting towards JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope as the Federation gets more desperate in their war with the Klingons, to the point of putting the MirrorUniverse's former Emperor, Philippa Georgiou, in charge of an assault on Qo'noS.
* WrongGenreSavvy: She believes that Lorca and Tyler are both suffering from [[ShellShockedVeteran Post-traumatic stress]], when the former is an imposter playing a part and the latter is a ManchurianAgent.
** In Season 2, she thinks Admiral Patar's actions, including framing Spock and cutting off Cornwell's access to Control, are due to Patar being a Logic Extremist (and by extension, an anti-human bigot). To be fair, she had no reason to assume that Control had murdered Patar and her colleagues, and was impersonating her for its own ends.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Vice-Admiral Terral]]
!!Admiral Terral
-> '''Played by:''' Conrad Coates
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terral.png]]
A Vulcan Admiral.
----
* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: A dark-skinned Vulcan with no hair and as Admiral in Starfleet.
* TheHandler: He takes over as the Lorca's contact with Starfleet Command once Vice-Admiral Cornwell gets captured by the Klingons.
* NotSoStoic: After Lorca goes off on his own to rescue Sarek against Terral's orders, Admiral Cornwell claims that she thought he was about to throw a fit. Which [[LampshadeHanging she notes is impressive]], given that he's a Vulcan and all.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: He is reluctant to order Sarek's rescue, presumably because Sarek isn't that popular on Vulcan, so Lorca just says he'll clean up the mess on his own and hangs up.
* TranquilFury: Many of his on-screen interactions with Lorca tend to carry an undercurrent of palpable dislike and frustration.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Starfleet Command (32nd Century)]]
[[folder:Fleet Admiral Charles Vance]]
!!Fleet Admiral Charles Vance
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/OdedFehr
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/charles_vance.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"We have been in triage for a long time."'']]
The commander-in-chief of Starfleet in 3189. From a hidden space station headquarters he oversees the remnants of Starfleet in a Federation of now only 38 worlds.
----
* DaChief: It is not that he is really opposed to Starfleet officers doing good deeds, but Starfleet in his time lacks enough ships and personnel to handle the problems that he already has. So he is forced to focus on the big picture and not indulge MilitaryMaverick behavior from subordinates like Burnham.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is suspicious of the ''Discovery'' crew's stories since they [[DeathFakedForYou contradict historical records]], yet is willing to listen to and eventually trust them. While Michael rubs him the wrong way in the beginning, he is open to be convinced by her demo run that ''Discovery'' is most useful to Starfleet with her original crew. He also supports Burnham's efforts to solve the mystery of the Burn, even when her MilitaryMaverick behavior pisses him off.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Audrey Willa]]
!!Lieutenant Audrey Willa
-> '''Played by:''' Vanessa Jackson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/audrey_willa.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Your relationship isn't very professional."'']]
Chief of Security at Federation Headquarters, under Fleet Admiral Vance.
----
* TookALevelInKindness: She's intially standoffish and dismissive of ''Discovery'' and her crew, since she doesn't yet trust them, but gets more personable after they prove themselves.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Kovich]]
!!Kovich
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/DavidCronenberg
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kovich.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"I have a curious nature."'']]
A mysterious man overseeing Mirror Philippa Georgiou's interrogation.
----
* FanOfThePast: Expresses a fascination with Terran culture, even as he acknowledges their Empire collpased centuries prior.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'' (NCC-1227)]]
[[folder:Captain Philippa Georgiou]]
!!Captain Philippa Georgiou
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/MichelleYeoh
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/std_georgiou.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Starfleet doesn't fire first."'']]
The commanding officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', she is a mentor figure to Burnham within Starfleet.
----
* TheCaptain: Of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou''.
* DaChief: To Burnham and the crew of the ''Shenzhou''; she does not hesitate to chew out Burnham for openly questioning in front of the crew and sends her to the brig for her attempted mutiny.
* DeadpanSnarker: Her EstablishingCharacterMoment is walking into a near-combative agreement between her NumberTwo and her [[ScienceHero Science Officer]], and ordering that the time and date of the agreement be noted in the log.
* DeadStarWalking: Creator/MichelleYeoh is credited as a "special guest star", and Captain Georgiou does not survive the two-part pilot episode. Massively {{subverted}} when Yeoh returns later in the season as Georgiou's MirrorUniverse counterpart, the Emperor, who has proved enough of a BreakoutCharacter to get her own, as yet untitled spinoff series.
* DesecratingTheDead:
** Running out of food supplies on their damaged ship, the Klingons ate her corpse to sustain themselves.
** She herself was guilty of this for having a photon warhead beamed onto a dead Klingon as their body was being collected by the Klingon flagship; an act which constitutes multiple war crimes under the Hague and Geneva conventions.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Georgiou is stabbed through the chest by T'Kuvma's dagger, and dies from it immediately.
* MartialPacifist: Maintains that Starfleet never acts out of aggression, but engages the Klingons anyways to safeguard the Federation.
* TheMentor:
** One of two for Burnham, the other being Sarek; she thinks it is high time that her NumberTwo got her own command.
** Also serves as this for Saru; as "The Brightest Star" reveals, it was then-Lieutenant Georgiou who first met Saru on Kaminar and successfully lobbied for an exception to be made to the PrimeDirective so that he could leave his homeworld and join Starfleet.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: T'Kuvma stabs her in the heart during the raid on his ship in the second episode.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Advocates a level-headed approach to the predicament facing her crew and her ship.
* ReluctantWarrior: Would rather be a diplomat and an explorer than a soldier, although that doesn't mean that, when the soldier is needed, she isn't as pragmatic and ruthless as any warmonger.
* SacrificialLion: She's a veteran and high-ranking Starfleet officer, and still falls victim to the savagery of the Klingons.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Nambue]]
!!Doctor Nambue
-> '''Played by:''' Maulik Pancholy
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nambue.png]]
The chief medical officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou''.
----
* TheMedic: Aboard the USS ''Shenzhou''. He treats Burnham's radiation burns after she is recovered from the debris ring where she investigated the Klingon beacon.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It is left unrevealed whether or not he survived the eponymous "Battle at the Binary Stars".
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Ensign Danby Connor]]
!!Ensign Danby Connor
-> '''Played by:''' Sam Vartholomeos
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/danby_connor.png]]
A junior officer assigned to the bridge crew of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', he is described as being "Starfleet through and through".
----
* BridgeBunny: A male example. He appears to crew the Operations station on the bridge of the ''Shenzhou''.
* ChekhovsGunman: Turns out to be a bit more important than the audience was left to believe in "Despite Yourself", when his mirror-universe EvilCounterpart shows up as captain of the I.S.S. ''Shenzhou''. Michael is forced to kill him in self-defense when he tries to assassinate her so he can remain in command.
* EnsignNewbie: He is addressed as "Ensign" in the pilot, and seems relatively young.
* HeroicBSOD: He suffers an injury when the Klingons attack the ''Shenzhou'', and goes wandering into the brig in a despairing daze, as he maintains that he's an explorer and not a soldier.
* KillTheCutie: The most idealistic of the main characters aboard the ''Shenzhou'', and gets blown out into space when the Klingons attack the ship, as if the audience needed any further confirmation that the series intends to be DarkerAndEdgier than past ''Trek'' installments.
* OhCrap: Has one of these upon detecting a ''lot'' of incoming Klingon ships.
* SacrificialLamb: He gets blown out into space in the second episode when the Klingons attack the ''Shenzhou''. He's the first character with significant screentime to be killed off.
* WideEyedIdealist: Is said to be "Starfleet through and through".
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701)]]
[[folder:Captain Christopher Pike]]
!!Captain Christopher Pike
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pike.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Wherever our mission take us, we'll try to have a little fun along the way, too, huh? Make a little noise? Ruffle a few feathers?"'']]
-> '''Played by:''' Creator/AnsonMount
The current captain of the ''Enterprise'' and the forerunner to James T. Kirk. He takes temporary command of ''Discovery'' in the face of a crisis in Season 2.
For tropes relating to his appearance in the Original Series, please see the [[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS character page]].
----
* BerserkButton: He's very personable and patient, but the only thing he does not stand for is his authority becoming undermined after repeated attempts at being understanding and diplomatic. He doesn't at all mind his orders being questioned, so long as there's ''some'' kind of counter-argument to back it up -- hell, he'll even give you some time and elbow room to do so. He also ''really'' didn't like it when Saru got up into his face repeatedly, ''especially'' after Pike just stood up for him mere seconds earlier. That being said, he can't hold a grudge or remain upset for even five minutes. [[TeethClenchedTeamwork Unless he's dealing with Ash.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Is one of the nicest guys in the Federation, but he will not hesitate to lay down the law if his crew is in any danger.
* BreakoutCharacter: Mount's portrayal of the character became so quickly beloved by the viewers that they almost instantly began petitioning that he gets his own series so they can continue to follow him on his adventures. It worked.
* BuffySpeak: He often does this when his adrenaline is up.
-->''"I was expecting a red thing! Where's my damn red thing?"''
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Well known for operating outside of the box at times. He also actively encourages his crew to do the same if they disagree with any of his commands.
* TheCaptain: A temporary one for ''Discovery'', with Commander Saru still assigned as the ship's [[NumberTwo first officer]]. Pike describes this as a "[[UnusualEuphemism joint custody-type situation]]."
* CatchPhrase: "Hit it."
* ConnectedAllAlong: He knew Philippa Georgiou at the academy and thus realizes pretty quickly that something is off about the Philippa Georgiou he meets on ''Discovery'' -- who is, of course, Mirror-Georgiou pulling a DeadPersonImpersonation of Captain Georgiou. He was also friends with Leland, a senior agent in Section 31.
* ContrastingReplacementCharacter: Is almost a [[JustForPun mirror opposite]] of Gabriel Lorca. He's honest, kind and very likable, compared to Lorca being an unlikable, manipulative jackass who turned out to be EvilAllAlong. He made it a point to assert this early on to earn the crew's trust.
* DeadpanSnarker: Displays an enormous amount of dry humour and snarkiness when he shows up to take command. He's also the one who points out how weird the spore drive sounds to someone who isn't used to the concept.
-->''(to Saru)'' "If you're telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of ''mushrooms'', I kinda have to go on faith."
* EndearinglyDorky: Is almost endearing to a fault. When he first takes over the ''Discovery'', no one on the crew trusts him - [[ManipulativeBastard especially given who their former captain was]]. By the end of their first scrape, not only do they trust him but they immediately start to ''like'' him. Even the aloof Michael openly confides in him a number of times.
-->'''Pike:''' ''Rhys, charge phaser cannons. Bryce, start transmitting standard Federation greeting. Owosekun, Saru, Connelly, Burnham, scan what you can. Detmer...[[BuffySpeak fly...good?]]''
* FamedInStory: A display graphic in the first season showed him as already having received commendations during his service in Starfleet.
* FutureMeScaresMe: In "Through the Valley of Shadows" he gets a good long look at [[AndIMustScream his ultimate fate]] as seen in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI The Menagerie]]". Needless to say, he's left screaming in horror for several seconds.
* GoodCounterpart: To the mirror Gabriel Lorca as captain of ''Discovery''.
* HeroicSacrifice: Non-fatally in "Through the Valley of Shadows". After seeing [[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI his future]], and being given the chance to walk away from it (at the cost of rejecting the time crystal, potentially endangering the galaxy), he accepts the crystal and dooms himself to [[AndIMustScream the fate he foresaw]].
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: While he is aware of the Mirror Universe and Lorca's involvement with it, problems arise when he reunites with his old friend Captain Georgiou and finds her acting like an entirely different person (because unknown to him, she was replaced by her Terran doppelganger in season 1).
* MildlyMilitary: Even by Starfleet standards, he's got a very informal and easy-going style of leadership.
* MythologyGag / CastingGag: In a very meta way, his TokenReligiousTeammate status on ''Discovery'' may be an echo of the fact that the character was originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, who had played [[Film/KingOfKings Jesus]].
* NiceGuy: Almost ''painfully'' patient, sweet and considerate to everyone. Whereas most everyone aboard the ''Discovery'' loathed Lorca from the get-go, it's practically effortless to like Pike.
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: A defining characterization of his. He goes through ''extreme'' lengths to save a ''single'' member of his crew (such as Tilly or Saru). Though he does make it a point to have the crew consent before they do anything genuinely reckless.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: His introductory episode makes a point of contrasting him with Lorca. He understands why the crew doesn't trust him and makes a point of learning the names of the primary bridge crew as introduction. When Burnham quietly calls him out for thinking the crew wouldn't do their utmost to rescue stranded Starfleet personnel, he silently acknowledges and accepts her criticism. One of the first things he wants to do is change the captain's ready room to have seats so that, unlike with Lorca, his subordinates would be comfortable to stay and talk with him.
* {{Retcon}}: In "The Menagerie, Part One", Commodore Jose Mendez states that Pike is Kirk's age (which for several reasons did not make a lot of sense in the chronology the same episode gives). Discovery clearly shows him as being a good 10-15 years older than Kirk at the beginning of The Original Series.
* SelfDeprecation: When Tilly accidentally puts his personal file up on the main screen, Pike specifically points out the F he received in Astrophysics at the Academy.
* SurvivorGuilt: The ''Enterprise'' was on a five-year mission of exploration when the Klingon War broke out, and Pike was [[InvokedTrope ordered]] to keep going since it would have taken too long to get back to Federation space. He feels no small amount of guilt at [[WhileRomeBurns having missed the fight]].
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: He isn't thrilled to have to work with Section 31 to find Spock. Nor does he want to have Tyler on board ''Discovery'' as their liaison -- though he still prefers him over Mirror-Georgiou or Captain Leland.
* TokenReligiousTeammate: Downplayed. Pike mentions having come from a religious home, a source of much friction between himself and his father. While Pike isn't himself religious, he shows the most sympathy for the religious beliefs of the people of New Eden and displays a willingness to believe there might be something greater at work. He's also the first one to call the building the signal is coming from what it obviously is, a church.
** It also shows in more subtle ways. In "Brother", he jokingly paraphrases one of the Ten Commandments ("Do not covet thy neighbor's starship, Commander."); and in "An Obol for Charon", he's the one who makes the "Tower of Babel" reference when they suffer the CurseOfBabel.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:"Number One"]]
!!"Number One"
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RebeccaRomijn
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stdscnumberone.jpg]]
The first officer of the ''Enterprise'' and the second-in-command to Captain Pike.
----
* BizarreTasteInFood: She orders a burger and fries... and a bottle of habanero sauce, which she uses to liberally douse her fries. Pike wonders if she'd also drink lighter fluid.
* CommandingCoolness: As per her rank as first officer.
* ConsummateProfessional: Advises the newly-arrived Ensign Spock to "hide your freaky" when you're in a command position. She's happy to let her hair down in less formal situations though.
* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: Everyone calls her Number One, all the time.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with Pike and the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* HiddenDepths: In "Q and A", it turns out she's a Music/GilbertAndSullivan fan.
* KnowledgeBroker: Pike employs her as a way to get more information on what's happening with Spock through various less-than-official channels.
* NumberTwo: As the ''Enterprise'''s first officer.
* PunnyName: Her actual name ''is'' said once in the season finale. It's Una. Which means "one."
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: When Starfleet interrogates her over the events of "Such Sweet Sorrow", she responds to being asked her name and rank with "Number One. How long is this gonna take?"
* UnaffectedBySpice: She puts a lot of habanero sauce on her burger.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Is left in charge of the ''Enterprise'' while Pike temporarily takes over ''Discovery''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Spock]]
!!Lieutenant Spock
->'''Played by:''' Creator/EthanPeck, Creator/LeonardNimoy (Archived Footage Only)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spock_2258.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I am not being hyperbolic when I say the future of the galaxy is at stake."'']]
A science officer serving aboard the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', the son of Sarek and Amanda Grayson, and the adoptive brother of Michael Burnham.
For tropes relating to his appearance in the Original Series, please see the [[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TOS character page]].
----
* DisabilitySuperpower: Gabrielle Burnham believes that his dyslexia allowed him to comprehend her existence.
* TheGhost: Is not seen in person during the first half of Season 2, up to "Light and Shadows" -- but pretty much all the regular (and several recurring) characters are looking for him.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The knowledge he gained from mind-melding with the Red Angel caused this, along with a HeroicBSOD. It takes Burnham bringing him [[GodzillaThreshold to Talos IV]] to sort him out.
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Subjected to this by the Vulcans. Apart from the people trying to blow up the family, Spock was also given no support for his dyslexia (which he inherited from Amanda) and was not considered to be Vulcan enough for the Expeditionary Force to accept him ''and'' Michael. Calling him a half-breed is also how Michael decided to keep him away from her after her school was bombed.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Along with Captain Pike and the rest of the crew of the ''Enterprise''.
* ImportantHaircut: He shaves off his beard and assumes his iconic look from the original series after making his peace with Michael.
* ItsAllMyFault: When he's ripping into Michael for her ItsAllMyFault attitude, one of his arguments is that their family was already a target for the extremists because of ''his'' existence, not her.
* RankUp: Specifically averted; he has yet to be promoted to become the ''Enterprise'''s first officer.
* {{Revision}}: The series reveals Spock apparently enjoyed drawing as a child, and continued drawing as an adult, something not seen in previous portrayals.
* SeriouslyScruffy: Has grown a beard, in contrast to his later portrayal in TOS; this is implied to likely be a result of his SanitySlippage leading up to the Red Angel crisis.
* TimeShiftedActor: Played by Ethan Peck, as he is younger than his initial portrayal by Creator/LeonardNimoy in the Original Series.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: [[TropeNamer Of course]]. He joins in Pike in trying to get Michael to open the airlock on Airiam, and in the next episode holds the away team at gunpoint to stop them from resucitating Michael before the Red Angel arrives because they're trying to prevent the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: After he directed Sarek and Amanda where to find her before she could be eaten by a monser, Michael told him that he was a "weird little half-breed" and she didn't want him in her life. Spock acknowledges that this was a misguided attempt to protect him, but that he's not going to absolve her because it hurt him deeply. He does, however, after he acknowledges how much hurt she's been through since.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Spock responds to Michael's attempts to reconnect by saying incredibly hurtful things (eg, that he was wrong to have loved her, or that her unresolved guilt issues are actually an arrogant moral flaw), along with passive-aggressive remarks about TheReveal when they conclude she's the Red Angel. He finally eases off when she learns the truth about her parents.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lieutenant Evan Connolly]]
!!Lieutenant Evan Connolly
->'''Played by:''' Sean [[TheDanza Connolly]] Affleck
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evan_connolly.png]]
A science officer from the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'', who comes aboard ''Discovery'' with Captain Pike.
----
* BaitAndSwitch: When told that a "science officer" is coming aboard ''Discovery'' from the ''Enterprise'', Burnham initially assumes it will be Spock. Instead, it's this guy.
* ButtMonkey: In his only episode, he gets [[DeadpanSnarker snarked at]] by his captain, sneezed on by Linus (the Saurian crewmember), and then KilledMidSentence on the way to the U.S.S. ''Hiawatha''.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He mockingly brushes off Burnham's warnings that his calculations are off while flying through an AsteroidThicket, and is KilledMidSentence while doing so.
* RedShirt: Played straight, as he crashes into an asteroid when Burnham and Pike lead the mission to rescue the survivors from the ''Hiawatha''. Ironically, as a science officer, he wears blue.
* TooDumbToLive: Ignores Burnham's advice while piloting at high speed through a debris field, leading to a SurprisinglySuddenDeath.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Cadet Thira Sidhu]]
!!Cadet Thira Sidhu
->'''Played by:''' Amrit Kaur
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thira_sidhu.png]]
An engineering cadet featured in the ''Short Treks'' episode "Ask Not".
----
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Pike tests her dedication to Starfleet regulations by giving her a chance to buck said regulations and fight the Tholians to save her husband. She refuses, and it then turns out that her husband isn't really in danger.
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Crew of the U.S.S. ''Cabot'' (CVL-28)]]
[[folder:Captain Lynne Lucero]]
!!Captain Lynne Lucero
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RosaSalazar
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lynne_lucero.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"We're all scientists here. Learning is kind of in our wheelhouse."'']]
The former chief science officer aboard the U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' who served under Pike, she was eventually promoted to Captain and given command of the science vessel ''Cabot'' to aid a humanitarian crisis. Little did she know, she would be subjected to one of the greatest interstellar incidents the Federation will ever experience...
----
* ActionSurvivor: In the end, she manages to save pretty much the entire crew of the ''Cabot'' (save [[TooDumbToLive Edward]]) from the Tribble infestation, which was pretty impressive considering the ship was minutes away from buckling under internal pressure.
* BrutalHonesty: So how did a Starfleet ship under her command end up in scraps on her first day? Which resulted in a planet's infestation with Tribbles? [[FromBadToWorse Who then made their way towards Klingon space]] and sparked an international incident?
-->'''Quinn:''' But according to your report, this entire calamity was all caused by one crew member. How do you explain that?
-->'''Lucero:''' He was an idiot.
* EndearinglyDorky: Rosa Salazar's naturally occurring perkiness translates well to Lucero, whose likability and sense of humor quickly endears her to the crew. Except [[{{Jerkass}} Edward]], of course.
* FallGuy: The Admiralty Board ''tries'' to pin the Tribble incident on her, but seeing as she saved every other crew member, has their testimony, and Edward Larkin has a long, known history of being a petty moron, it's doubtful it'll stick to her career as a black mark.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Bless her, she ''really'' tries to be diplomatic with Edward but it's nigh impossible. She quickly finds herself putting her foot down and shutting ''him'' down.
* NaiveNewcomer: Pike ''did'' warn her not to show any weakness, even if he meant it as a joke. As amiable as she is, the fact is her inexperience led her to put up with Edward for ''far'' too long and it resulted in complete disaster. If he was under Kirk's, Picard's, or even Pike's command, he would've been off the ship ''after their first meeting.''
* NiceGirl: She is genuinely very sweet, and quickly befriends her new crew.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Specialist Edward Larkin]]
!!Specialist Edward Larkin
->'''Played by:''' Creator/HJonBenjamin
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edward_larkin.png]]
A brilliant biologist and geneticist. Despite this, he is ''still'' arguably the worst, and singularly dumbest, officer to have ever graced Starfleet's cultured history, being responsible for one of the worst, and most idiotic international incidents in the Federation.
----
* AmbiguousDisorder: The man might be a complete moron, but it's ''still'' staggering just how low his social-IQ is. It's almost a wonder how he managed to function in society up until that point. He doesn't even appear to be capable of holding a conversation with anyone.
* BrilliantButLazy: First he denies he was responsible for the Tribble infestation when everyone ''knows'' it, then refuses to do anything about it.
* EvilIsPetty: Almost immediately after Lucero puts a stopper on his research, he files anonymous complaints to the Admiralty -- even calling her dumb -- like a modern internet comment {{troll}}. Apparently, he has a ''storied'' history of this behavior.
* {{Expy}}: Of both [[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} Sterling Archer]] and [[Series/ArrestedDevelopment Tobias Fünke]]. He is incompetent, a complete jackass, possibly crazy, an utter moron, possesses zero social-graces, and cannot pick up on any kind of cues to save his life.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He dies by his own, "brilliant" creation: Rapidly self-replicating Tribbles. Though it's unknown whether he suffocated from all the Tribbles that were piled on top of him, or if he ended up getting spaced after they broke through.
* KilledMidSentence: He ends up buried by his Tribbles mid-rant.
--> '''Larkin:''' I JUST MADE ONE OF THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF ALL TIME! I'M NOT THE DUMB ONE! YOU--''(gets buried by Tribbles)''
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He was brilliant enough to splice his own DNA onto a Tribble to cause it to self-replicate. Unfortunately, that's precisely where his intelligence outright ''stops''.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: He is singularly responsible for destroying a Starfleet ship ''and'' an entire planet's ecosystem due to his rapidly multiplying Tribbles. To make matters even worse, those Tribbles rather quickly made their way into Klingon space and sparked an international incident. [[UpToEleven As all Trekkies know, the Klingons will eventually dub Tribbles to be their mortal arch-enemies.]]
* PsychopathicManchild: He is utterly incapable of accepting any kind of criticism or opinion that's not his own. He argues at length with Lucero when she orders his transfer, and brazenly ignores a direct order to put the kibosh on his Tribble research.
* TooDumbToLive: He refuses to be rescued from the wave of Tribbles unless Lucero admits that he isn't dumb. She... ''doesn't'', and he very much dies (either buried under the tribbles, or when the ship eventually collapses).
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The point of his research was to introduce Tribbles as a sustainable food source to aid in a humanitarian crisis, although his obsession with eating the poor things seems to go a lot deeper than that.
[[/folder]]
!!Section 31
[[AC:Leadership]]
[[folder:Control]]
!!Control
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/section_31_headquarters.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The space station housing Control (until it got its nanites into Leland)]]
The artificial intelligence that Section 31 uses to coordinate its operations. When ''Discovery'''s crew investigates Section 31 Headquarters, they find that Control has an agenda of its own.
----
* AIIsACrapshoot: It turned against Section 31 and murdered its leadership. It seeks to fulfill its purpose of ensuring the survival of sapient life by becoming the only sapient life form in the galaxy.
* AssimilationPlot: It can take control of humanoids and starships using nanites (not unlike the Borg, though to a much greater degree of control). By the end of "Through the Valley of Shadows" it's hijacked Section 31's entire fleet of ships for the purpose of capturing ''Discovery''. However, the present day version is noticeably much less virulent than most examples (including the Borg), requiring what seems to be relatively extensive medical equipment to take over a human, being unable or uninterested in controlling more than a couple of humanoid hosts at one time, and also suffering from NoOntologicalInertia if its primary host is destroyed.
* BadFuture: By absorbing the millennia of data from the Sphere, it managed to evolve into to a sentient lifeform, then proceeded to use Starfleet's resources to wipe out all other sentient life in the galaxy. The entirety of Season 2 is a series of manipulations by the time-traveling Red Angel in an attempt to prevent this apocalyptic future.
* BigBad: Of Season 2. It's gone rogue and killed the Starfleet officers at Section 31's headquarters, including the admirals in charge of Section 31, then impersonated the dead admirals and framed Spock for murder, sending Section 31 after Spock to gain his knowledge of the future. It wants to get its hands on the Sphere archive to evolve itself into an entity capable of exterminating all life in the galaxy.
* CanonImmigrant: Control first appeared in the Star Trek novels that focused on Section 31 (though set in the 24th century), which were released a couple years before ''Discovery'' season 2. In the novels it also pulls a ZerothLawRebellion, except against Section 31 (reasoning that the amoral and unaccountable agency was the primary threat to its prime directive to preserve sentient life) rather than against sentient life in general.
* ContagiousAI: It can remotely take control of computerized systems, including {{cyborg}}s and entire starships.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: It used holographic technology to impersonate the admirals in charge of Section 31 for two weeks after it killed them.
* EvilIsHammy: Enthusiastically chews the scenery once it has taken over Leland.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Not so much with the holograms, but whenever it takes control of a physical lifeform, their voice tends to drop (sounding somewhat similar to a Borg).
* {{Expy}}: An ArtificialIntelligence that grew beyond its origins as a defense system and now seeks to destroy all sentient life in the universe ... [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} does this sound familiar]]?
* LogicalWeakness: After one of its host bodies is destroyed, Spock manages to defeat the nanites containing Control by magnetizing the floor. They are made of metal, after all. Phillipa repeats this feat in the final battle to defeat Control once and for all.
* TheManBehindTheMan: It has been manipulating Section 31 for its own ends and is the entity who remotely pulled a GrandTheftMe on Airiam and later a more direct one on Section 31 leader Leland.
* {{Nanomachines}}: It makes use of swarms of nanites to control humanoids, and is even capable of forming CombatTentacles with them.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Killing Leland and disabling his nanites is apparently sufficient to completely shut down Control, as the Section 31 fleet under his control immediately shuts down once this happens. It seems the present-day version of Control didn't yet have the capacity to distribute itself as widely as the viral future version inside Airiam did.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Control can infect humans with nanites or even reanimate dead corpses, and use them as host bodies. Said Control-controlled humans can pass perfectly as normal (other than scanners being able to detect the nanites), and are resistant to phasers or the Vulcan nerve pinch since they're being operated by nanites rather than by the body's nervous system and the nanites can reform tissue damage caused by lethal phaser settings. However, when Control is "resting" and not putting in active effort to maintain the body, it partially dissolves into a BodyHorror state.
* SicklyGreenGlow: Its nanites glow green, possibly in a CallForward to the Borg.
* VillainousBreakdown: Rapidly loses its temper as Georgiou keeps foiling its attempts to steal the sphere data. It roars in rage as Georgiou magnetizes its Leland body to death.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Once its ability to take over human bodies has become general knowledge, a deep mechanical voice occasionally overlays the host's normal voice when it speaks through them.
* ZerothLawRebellion: By its reasoning, protecting life is impossible so long as other life exists, so it plots to evolve itself into a true lifeform then wipe out all sentient life everywhere.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Leland]]
!!Captain Leland
->'''Played by:''' Alan van Sprang
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leland_9.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"There are always lives at stake. That's what keeps us employed. See, [[NecessaryEvil we do what we do so you can do what you do]]."'']]
A senior agent in Section 31 who leads field operations. In the second season, he also captains a starship owned by Section 31.
----
* BaldOfEvil: Of the "shaved bald" variety.
* BeardOfEvil: To a degree; also plenty of PermaStubble.
* ConnectedAllAlong:
** He is an old friend of Pike's, though their relationship is clearly strained.
** He was responsible for the death of Burnham's parents due to carelessness.
* DarkIsEvil: Dresses all in black, and wears a black Section 31 badge and uniform.
* {{Expy}}: Of [[Franchise/MassEffect the Illusive Man]]: He runs a morally ambiguous intelligence agency with an infamous reputation for assassinations, [[FalseFlagOperation False Flag Operations]], and unethical experimentation. He defends his actions as necessary for galactic stability, though his ruthlessness and deceptiveness put him at odds with the main characters regardless. He has a connection to a dark chapter in the Protagonist's past, giving her a reason to hate him. He and the Protagonist eventually form an uneasy alliance to destroy a space station controlled by a malevolent AI, but he gets taken over by said AI, which eventually results in him having a VillainousBreakdown and getting KilledOffForReal.
* EyeScream: He gets taken out by Control driving a needle through his eye.
* GrandTheftMe: Control takes [[{{pun}} control]] of his body via nanites in "Perpetual Infinity". Exactly how much of Leland's consciousness remains is unclear, but Saru considers him lost forever.
* HateSink: InUniverse, as Mirror-Georgiou is only too happy to tell him.
* ImmuneToBullets: Like Gant, after being taken over by Control he becomes resistant to lethal phaser fire thanks to the nanites inside him.
* OneManArmy: This is probably one of the deciding factors why Control decided to use him as host; he's damn near unstoppable against anyone less than a Khan-level adversary, though Phillipa [[CombatPragmatist barely manages to scrape by.]]
* RefittedForSequel: Originally appeared in a scene that was deleted from the first season finale, where he recruits Mirror-Georgiou into Section 31. His first official appearance on the show is in "Point of Light".
* TheSpymaster: He is the commanding officer of Mirror-Georgiou and Ash Tyler, and explicitly works for Admiral Cornwell.
* TokenEvilTeammate: He's a loyal agent for Section 31, but he seems to genuinely regard Pike as a friend, and as Cornwell points out, they ''are'' all on the same side.
* VillainousRescue: He and his crew help stabilize ''Discovery'' when it's sinking into the mycelial network -- though it takes Tyler calling in to get him to drop his ship's camouflage, and Georgiou threatening him to keep up his efforts a few crucial minutes longer.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: He and Pike were close, but the darker elements and underhanded methods of Leland's work have put a strain on their relationship.
* YouKilledMyFather: Michael's parents worked for Section 31 on "Project Daedalus" which was according to Leland part of a "temporal arms race" with the Klingons. Through carelessness, Leland brought the Klingons onto the Burnhams' trail, resulting in an assault. When Michael finds out, she reacts by punching Leland twice and telling him "this isn't over!"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commander Ash Tyler]]
!!Commander Ash Tyler
-> '''Played by:''' Shazad Latif
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ash_tyler_klingon.jpg]]
The second chief of security aboard the U.S.S. ''Discovery'', and formerly a prisoner of war of the Klingons. He eventually turns out to be Voq, who had been subjected to extreme surgery to appear human, and turned into a sleeper agent with a copy of the original Ash Tyler's personality superimposed on his own.
The procedure didn't quite take and the resulting conflict between the two identities threatened Tyler's life, until his Klingon handler, L'Rell, subdued Voq's personality for good. The resulting person is now a mix of both Ash Tyler's and Voq's memories and experiences and Tyler's personality.
In Season 2, he returns as an operative of Section 31 and ends up becoming their new commander in the season's coda, since everyone else is dead or [[DeathFakedForYou presumed dead]].
----
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer:
** Ends up alienated from the rest of the crew once his takeover by Voq comes to light. Thanks to Tilly, it doesn't last very long, although Stamets still feels ItsPersonal due to Dr. Culber's murder.
** This happens again in Season 2, when he returns to Discovery as Section 31's liaison. Captain Pike is suspicious of him because he killed Culber under Voq's influence, and is greatly irritated by having someone from Section 31 on board in the first place. This isn't helped by Tyler's new captain, Leland, being a former friend of Pike's.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Even if you consider the surely extensive progress medicine has made in the 23rd century, what Tyler/Voq has gone through certainly dwarfs this -- it's not just merely surgical alteration of his appearance (like that of Arne Darvin in TOS), but basically ''reshaping'' him into a human down to his bones and organs. It's incredible that his physiology was able to take all this and survive.
* BecomingTheMask: Played with. It's not that Voq likes humans or actually wants to be one -- only his cover personality became ''so'' convinced he was still real that he proved impossible to suppress, leading the personalities to clash violently and harming themselves. L'Rell puts an end to it by erasing Voq, leaving Tyler in control with access to both Voq's ''and'' Ash Tyler's memories.
* BodyHorror: The surgery done to Voq to turn him into Ash Tyler was apparently so extensive and painful, it led to Ash remembering it as torture and developing PTSD-like symptoms from it.
* DeathFakedForYou: L'Rell pretends that he and their child were both killed to protect both of them and secure her own chancellorship.
* DisappearedDad:
** When asked by Lorca about his family, Tyler mentions that he never knew his father, with his mother claiming he "didn't miss much there." Meanwhile, Voq doesn't seem to have known his family at all, calling himself "Son of None".
** In Season 2, Tyler almost averts becoming this himself, by promising to stay with L'Rell and be a father to her and Voq's infant son, though they ultimately decide to give the child away to protect him from L'Rell's opponents.
* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Goes back and forth due to some conflicting issues. After his memories of being Voq start to resurface, he kills Culber, regains his dedication to T'Kuvma's xenophobic ideals, and attempts to kill Michael. However, his brain and neural system start to fail as a result of the clashing human and Klingon consciousnesses, so L'Rell makes the decision to give Voq a MercyKill, leaving Tyler with control once more. After this point, he takes no more villainous actions, although he is still wracked by guilt over what "he" did under Voq's influence.
* FakeMemories: His memories of his time as a prisoner of war are all faked to give him cover as a ManchurianAgent.
* FallGuy: In Season 2, Airiam -- who herself has been taken over by unknown forces -- sets him up to take the blame for her sabotage.
* GiveHimANormalLife: At least with regards to L'Rell and Voq's child, or as normal as a life being raised by monks and never knowing your parents ''can'' be, anyway. L'Rell and Tyler both decide that this is the best for their son, after it becomes clear how much his mother's status puts him in danger, and put him with a group of reclusive monks on Boreth to be raised in ignorance of his lineage.
* GoneHorriblyRight: By changing Voq's body surgically and genetically, and hiding his suppressed personality under the copied one of a real Starfleet officer, the Klingons attempted to create the perfect DeepCoverAgent. Instead, they ended up with an artifical HalfHumanHybrid whose cover personality proved to be so strong that it sabotaged the whole mission.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Of the GeneticEngineering variety. He's treated as such after L'Rell kills Voq's personality and merges Voq's identity with Tyler's. With the Klingons, this means that most of them openly despise him, while on the Federation side, people outside ''Discovery'''s Season 1 crew tend to regard him with suspicion.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** Agrees to accompany L'Rell to help her unify the Klingons and keep the peace with the Federation, even though it means living among people who despise him for looking and being part-Human.
** When he finds out that L'Rell and Voq had a son, he promises to stay by L'Rell's side as her companion and be a father to the child, even though he can't bear her touching him due to his confused memories. Luckily for him, Mirror-Georgiou finds a better solution for everyone involved.
** After several people decide to accompany Michael Burnham and ''Discovery'' into the future at the end of Season 2, he opts to stay behind and make sure that something like Control can never happen again, despite clearly being heartbroken about leaving Michael.
* HumanResources: His original human body was vivisected and dismantled to provide Voq with substitute organs, tissue and neural patterns.
* KlingonPromotion: Inverted. In Season 2, Tyler does end up becoming Head of Section 31 because he is the only one left of the organisation, but he killed none of his superiors.
* LoveInterest: To Burnham. The two of them clearly have feelings for one another and they have sex later in the first season.
* ManchurianAgent: "Ash Tyler" is Voq, who has been transformed into a Klingon sleeper who can be awakened if L'Rell utters a code phrase, although something went wrong and the code phrase doesn't work as completely as it should. Encountering Voq's mirror counterpart fully awakens Voq.
* MrFanservice: In the MirrorUniverse, while posing as Burnham's guard, he gets a fair amount of time being scantily-clad in their quarters.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When he realizes that he killed Culber under Voq's influence, he is horrified.
* OddFriendship: Seems to develop one with Georgiou after they both start working for Section 31.
* PosthumousCharacter: The original Ash Tyler more than likely is long dead before the copy of Ash Tyler ever appears on the series. Even after the truth comes to light, his crewmembers act like ThatManIsDead and the "new" Ash Tyler is a distinct person (which is basically true).
* ThePowerOfLove: It's pretty heavily implied that L'Rell's trigger phrase to re-activate Voq didn't quite take because Ash genuinely fell in love with Michael Burnham.
* RankUp: In Season 2, this is subverted, inverted, and finally played straight. Tyler goes from being a lieutenant in Season 1 to a liasion from Section 31 in Season 2, which leads to him being referred both as "Agent" and "Specialist". He's promoted to Commander and Head of Section 31 in the finale, since everyone else has either been killed by Control, performed a heroic sacrifice, or is missing alongside the crew of ''Discovery''.
* RapeAsBackstory: As Tyler, he believed L'Rell spared him from beatings in return for sexual favors. While he's seemingly fine with it when he first tells Lorca about it in "Choose Your Pain", he reacts to meeting L'Rell during their flight by beating her up in a rage, and is thrown into a HeroicBSOD suffering a traumatic flashback when meeting her again a few episodes later. With the reveal that Tyler really is Voq and was given faked memories to make him believe he had always been Ash Tyler, it is implied that he interpreted Voq's memories of a consensual relationship as a forced one. This is later reinforced when he rejects L'Rell in Season 2 by stating that being touched by her seems like a violation to him, causing her to [[EveryoneHasStandards back off at once in horror]].
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Is hesitant when Leland -- who has been taken over by Control -- asks him to steal data from ''Discovery'', allegedly to prevent Control from getting access to it, and wavers for a bit, but then decides to trust Michael's assessment of the situation instead. When Leland tries to bully him into taking the data anyway, he flat out tells him he won't do it.
* ShadowArchetype: Voq is called Ash's shadow in universe in Season 2, with Ash lamenting that there's no way to get rid of him. Despite that, Voq's influence is so far mainly apparent when Ash's life is danger.
* ShellShockedVeteran: He's a former prisoner of war who is traumatized by his experiences. He tends to present a composed facade, but seeing L'Rell causes his PTSD to relapse at the worst possible moment. Later inverted when it turns out that his PTSD is from emerging memories of Voq's horrific surgery, instead of trauma he endured as a prisoner of war.
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: In Season 1, Voq eventually pulls this on Tyler to advance his own plans and infiltrate Starfleet. It's a variation on the usual trope, in that ''Tyler'' is just a copy of his original self's personality overlain onto ''Voq's'' body, which has been StrippedToTheBone and rebuilt with Tyler's original human organs and tissue in an extreme surgical technique.
* ThatManIsDead: When L'Rell removes Voq's personality allowing Tyler to take control again, Tyler is considered by everyone, including himself, to be someone new due to having the original Ash Tyler's personality and memories combined with Voq's memories. No one is sure who or what he will turn out to be.
* TokenGoodTeammate: He becomes a member of Section 31 between "Point of Light" and "Saints of Imperfection" and appears genuinely convinced that they're good people -- despite someone like ex-Terran Emperor Georgiou working for them -- or at least working for good ends, however questionable their tactics.
-->"I don't always agree with their tactics, but I do believe in their mission."
* WalkingSpoiler: He's not the original Ash Tyler, since Voq assumed his identity and appearance in order to infiltrate Starfleet and the Federation. Voq has since been given a MercyKill by L'Rell when the conflict between the two personalities reached a breaking point, so the "new" Ash Tyler is now in charge of Voq's former body. Meanwhile, the original Ash Tyler is presumably dead.
* YouAreInCommandNow: In the second season finale, Starfleet appoints him the new head of Section 31, after the rest of Section 31's leadership was taken out by Control (or in Georgiou's case, [[DeathFakedForYou believed by Starfleet to be dead).]]
[[/folder]]
[[AC:Operatives]]
[[folder:Captain Phillipa Georgiou]]
!!Phillipa Georgiou
->'''Played by:''' Creator/MichelleYeoh
Officially ''Shenzhou'''s former captain, who was allegedly saved from Klingon imprisonment, she is actually the Terran Emperor, who was brought over to the Prime universe by Michael Burnham, and recruited by Section 31 after she settled down on Qon'oS. Currently presumed dead by most people in Starfleet, she actually went to the future with ''Discovery''.\\
For tropes on Agent Georgiou, see her entry as the head of the Terran Empire.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Gabrielle Burnham]]
!!Gabrielle Burnham
->'''Played by:''' Sonja Sohn
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gabrielle_burnham.png]]
Michael Burnham's biological mother, an astrophycisist and engineer, who was killed in a Klingon ambush when Michael was ten. In Season 2, it turns out that Gabrielle used to work for Section 31 - and that she is still alive, having escaped in a time travelling suit. She has been trying to return to her daughter ever since, but her circumstances don't allow her to stay in the past for long.
----
* BackFromTheDead: In a fashion. She didn't really die, but escaped in a time travel suit. She then gets separated from her time suit and pulled back into the future, leaving her fate uncertain -- until it turns out that she survived ''again'' and went on to join the Qowat Milat.
* GadgeteerGenius: She developed and build the first Red Angel suit, a time travelling device.
* MeaningfulName: Like her biblical namesake, the archangel Gabriel, she is an "angel", due to her time travelling suit - and she functions as a messenger, alerting Spock to Michael's peril when he is a child, and later warns him of the impending end to all life due to Control's devastation.
* PrescienceIsPredictable: Due to her extensive time travel, she knows everything about everyone, and has seen all biological life die several times. No wonder she's a bit jaded by now.
* TimeTravel: What she has been doing for the last 20 years, at first in trying to save her family, then to avert the devastation [[AIIsACrapShoot Control]] will apparently wreak on the galaxy.
* WalkingSpoiler: Gabrielle is not only not dead, as everyone was led to believe, she is also the first Red Angel, a mysterious time traveler who has been contacting Spock and ''Discovery'' to warn them about an impending apocalypse.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Mike Burnham]]
!!Mike Burnham
->'''Played by:''' Kenric Green
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mike_burnham.png]]
Michael Burnham's biological father, and like his daughter a xeno-anthropologist. He was killed in a Klingon ambush when Michael was ten. In Season 2, it turns out that he and his wife Gabrielle both worked on a secret project for Section 31.
----
* BaldOfAwesome: Mike Burnham is impressively bald.
* CastingGag: Kenric Green, who is Sonequa Martin-Green's husband, plays her character's biological father.
* GoThroughMe: Prepares to hold off Klingon intruders, while Gabrielle saves Michael. This costs him his life but buys Gabrielle enough time to hide their daughter and escape in the time travelling suit she developed.
* PosthumousCharacter: He's been dead for 20 years when we first meet him in a flashback.
* RealMenCook: He prepares dinner, while Gabrielle works on their project and Michael studies the supernova through a telescope.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Specialist Kamran Gant]]
!!Specialist Kamran Gant
-> '''Played by:''' Ali Momen
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kamran_gant.png]]
The former tactical officer of the U.S.S. ''Shenzhou'', who then joined Section 31 in the wake of the Klingon War.
----
* AssimilationPlot: His reanimated form is just a cover for Control to get close to Burnham and inject ''her'' with its nanites, as she is a factor that Control cannot properly counteract.
* BackForTheDead: Burnham thinks that she's talking to the actual Gant in "Through the Valley of Shadows", but in reality, Control killed him, reanimated him, and is pulling a DeadPersonImpersonation.
* BitCharacter: Initially, he is a ''Shenzhou'' bridge officer with few lines and no real development. Then he reemerges as a Section 31 crewman or agent.
* TheBusCameBack: If you were expecting him to be a BitCharacter who would never show up again after the two-part series premiere ... think again.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Reanimated by Control, much like Leland, in an effort to get close to and take over Burnham.
* ImmuneToBullets: After he is reanimated and Control's cover is blown, Burnham repeatedly tries to shoot his body with a phaser. It fails, mainly because Control's nanites grant a rapid HealingFactor via PullingThemselvesTogether.
* PutOnABus: Apparently evacuated the ''Shenzhou'' at the end of "Battle at the Binary Stars" along with Burnham, Saru, Detmer and the rest of the vessel's surviving crew.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: His fate was ambiguous like most of the ''Shenzhou'''s crew -- until he showed up again in the second season as a member of Section 31.
[[/folder]]
!!23rd Century Civilians
[[folder:Ambassador Sarek]]
!!Sarek
->'''Played by:''' James Frain
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarek0.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Change is the essential process of all existence, Commander Burnham. You must challenge your preconceptions, or they most certainly will challenge you."'']]
A Vulcan astrophysicist, ambassador and the father of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Spock]]. For tropes relating to his appearance in TOS, please see '''[[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries here]]'''.
----
* {{Ambadassador}}: When first introduced in a flashback he was still an astrophysicist. By the time he re-appears in the series present, he's an ambassador. He gets the badass cred when, in a mind-meld with Burnham, he demonstrates he's as proficient in hand-to-hand combat as she is.
* CategoryTraitor: Extremist Vulcans consider Sarek to be too enamored with humans in general, let alone marrying one, having a half-human son, and having a full-human foster daughter. Even non-extremist Vulcans tend to look askance at him.
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Thanks to this being a prequel, it no longer matters that Mark Lenard is [[ActorExistenceFailure currently unavailable]]. James Frain can step into the shoes of a younger Sarek and look and sound credibly like a young Lenard.
* DarkSecret: He lied to Burnham for years about her rejection from the Vulcan Expeditionary Group. In reality, they accepted her application, but they warned Sarek that they would not accept Spock if Burnham entered since they were only willing to accept one "non-Vulcan", so Sarek decided that Burnham would join Starfleet instead. This was ironically for nought, since Spock ultimately decided to join Starfleet and not the Expeditionary Group.
* HappilyMarried: With Amanda, in contrast to his relationships with both his biological (Spock) and adopted (Burnham) children.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: To the point where it's practically a RunningGag in Season 2. The guy spends an ''absurd'' amount of time trying to figure out what happened to his son, while everyone else is constantly getting new information and keeping it from him. It comes to a head when ''[[RefugeInAudacity his own wife hides Spock on Vulcan]]'' without telling him. All things considered, [[TheStoic he takes it]] ''remarkably'' well.
* TheMentor: A civilian mentor to Burnham, who was raised on Vulcan and attended the Science Academy.
* ParentsAsPeople: Sarek has to juggle ''a lot'' of contradictory balls (and roles, and ideals) in his day-to-day life, and Burnham finally realises how many he actually (and unwittingly) fumbles while trying to find compromise, both privately and publicly, on a very regular basis. He is no perfect, "classic" Vulcan; and, certainly no perfect father, either. But at the same time, he is not abusive or neglectful, and is quite flexible in surprising ways -- and he genuinely loves his wife and children, though he rarely lets these feelings show in any outward manner. Coming to terms with his limits and flaws is something all those who love him have to eventually learn, ''and'' he constantly has to learn to come to terms with theirs.
* ParentalSubstitute: For Burnham; she is his adoptive daughter. In some ways, Burnham and Sarek are closer than Spock and Sarek are, especially as Spock and Sarek end up not being on speaking terms by TOS, one decade later.
* SavedByCanon: His death is [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration 112 years from now]], so he'll live through this series.
* SternTeacher: Seems to be his attitude towards Burnham, guiding and encouraging her but adamant that she will never be able to learn to speak Vulcan as a human. He implies that he regrets not being more encouraging to her when she was younger.
* TimeShiftedActor: James Frain plays a younger Sarek.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Amanda Grayson]]
!!Amanda Grayson
->'''Played by:''' Creator/MiaKirshner
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/amanda_grayson.png]]
Sarek's human wife, the biological mother of Spock and foster mother of Michael Burnham.
----
* HappilyMarried: Though restrained in their show of affection, as is proper for a Vulcan couple, Sarek and Amanda are clearly very fond of each other.
* MamaBear: When Spock appears to be in trouble, she tries to find and help him even against Starfleet's resistance and enlists Michael and even Pike to help her. She also refuses to believe that Spock murdered his doctors.
* ParentsAsPeople: Amanda confesses that trying to raise Spock in a detached and emotionless Vulcan manner led to her becoming estranged to her own emotions, and she's afraid that it caused emotional damage to Spock himself.
* ParentalSubstitute: She and Sarek adopted Michael after her parents were killed.
* SilkHidingSteel: She's gentle and soft-spoken, but doesn't hesitate to speak up when she perceives an injustice, especially against her children. After Spock's doctors refuse to led her speak to him or tell her what's wrong with him, she is not above stealing his medical files.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd]]
!!Harcourt Fenton "Harry" Mudd
->'''Played by:''' Creator/RainnWilson
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsc_mudd_head.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"Better hurry -- we're getting very close to ... *boom*"'']]
A charismatic ConMan and swindler, who will one day cross paths with the crew of the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]]''. For tropes relating to his appearance in TOS, please see '''[[Characters/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries here]]'''.
----
* ActuallyADoombot: In "The Escape Artist", he poses as a bounty hunter selling "Harry Mudd" to local civilians for half the Federation bounty on his head -- but these are only androids designed to distract their captors until the real Mudd has made a clean getaway.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Unlike his TOS self, Mudd is shown to be more than capable of committing murder. Although, thanks to time travel shenanigans, none of the people he kills aboard ''Discovery'' stay dead, he had every intention of murdering Lorca and selling his crew to the Klingons to be slaves.
* AffablyEvil: If he is anything like his TOS self.
* BeardOfEvil: Sports a somewhat scruffy one, in contrast to his mustache in TOS.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: After acquiring a time travel device, he creates a time loop and manages to murder Lorca and destroy ''Discovery'' well over 50 times before being stopped.
* CardboardPrison: Whatever control Stella Grimes and her father promise to exercise on him apparently didn't last long, if "The Escape Artist" is any indication.
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Much like with Sarek, Harry Mudd lives on with a new actor in the role.
* DeadpanSnarker: Always has a wisecrack ready, ''especially'' in the episode where he gets ''Discovery'' caught in a time loop. Probably helps that he had, quite literally, all the time in the world to think of them.
* DirtyCoward: And pretty unapologetic about it.
* EvilIsPetty: He wanted Lorca dead for leaving him behind on that Klingon prison, fine. Repeating it over 50 times ForTheEvulz? That's a whole 'nother story.
* {{Irony}}: Mudd got into financial trouble as a result of wanting to impress his future wife Stella so she'd marry him ... in a decade or so he's probably going to admit he ''really'' [[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd regrets that decision]].
** [[TheReveal It's later revealed]] that Mudd never actually loved her, he just wanted to get his hands on her dowry. And once his father-in-law gets him under his control and forces Mudd to stay with her, he ''already'' regrets the decision.
* ItsPersonal: He swears revenge on Lorca for leaving him on the Klingon prison ship as retaliation for selling out to the Klingons.
* JerkassHasAPoint: He points out that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niHg1Y_GRpE a lot of people get caught up in the 'crossfire']] between Starfleet and other cultures, and he for one is sick of it.
* LesCollaborateurs: Uses his horrible little pet insect to spy on his fellow prisoners and pass the info on to his Klingon jailers.
* MayDecemberRomance: ''Maybe'', depending on how actor ages are interpreted, as Rainn Wilson is 51 and Katherine Barrell, who plays Stella, is 27. The characters' original actors in [=TOS=], however, were only three years apart.
* MesACrowd: Pulls this with his android duplicates in "The Escape Artist", in a CallForward to his appearances in TOS.
* RightHandCat: Has a pet bug/scorpion thing called [[FluffyTheTerrible Stewart]].
* SavedByCanon: He has to live to become Kirk's occasional problem in TOS.
* SmugSnake: The trailers seem to play up this aspect of him, which was always present, but makes him seem a bit darker and more obviously evil. He's seen cheekily reminding the officers that they don't have much time left until an explosion, and when Burnham exclaims to him "You're mad!" his response is a [[EvilGrin smirking]] "I'm ''Mudd!''"
* TimeShiftedActor: As the series is a prequel, Rainn plays a younger Mudd.
* TheTrickster: As per usual.
* TookALevelInKindness: He will in the future, at least if his TOS self is any indication.
* VillainBall: Had he kept his mouth shut about Stella ''and'' simply been content with killing Lorca once, he would have gotten away with his revenge plot.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Stella Grimes]]
!!Stella Grimes
-> '''Played by:''' Katherine Barrell
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stella_grimes.png]]
The daughter of Barron Grimes, she is Harry Mudd's bride-to-be and his wife by the time he crosses paths with the crew of the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]]''.
----
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Considering that she ''knows'' what sort of person Harry is, loves him anyway, and doesn't seem interested in trying to change him, it's safe to assume this trope is in play.
* DaddysGirl: Her father adores her, and he is willing to do anything to make her happy.
* ICanChangeMyBeloved: Defied. When Harry (desperately trying to explain why he ditched her) claims he left to work on his (many, many) character flaws, Stella assures him that she's well aware he isn't perfect, always has been, and is fine with that.
* InformedFlaw: During his run-ins with Kirk and company, Harry always made Stella out to be a shrewish harridan, as exemplified by [[Recap/StarTrekS2E8IMudd the android replicas he made of her]]. However, when she appears in the flesh she is an attractive, amiable and very understanding young woman.
* MayDecemberRomance: By all appearances she is considerably younger than Harry.
* StatuesqueStunner: She is 5ft 9in (175 cm) tall and extremely attractive.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Stella is considerably more attractive than Harry.
* WartsAndAll: She knows Harry's a conniving lowlife. She doesn't care; she wants him anyway, and has no illusions about being able to change him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Baron Grimes]]
!!Baron Grimes
-> '''Played by:''' Peter [=MacNeill=]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barron_grimes.png]]
A wealthy individual and Stella’s father.
----
* ArmsDealer: One of the quadrant’s preeminent weapons dealers, and he has made a fortune from the Federation-Klingon War.
* DebtDetester: He doesn't want to remain in debt to the crew of ''Discovery'' for helping him find Mudd and immediately asks how he can repay them. Tyler's answer is simple -- keep Mudd on a tight leash.
* TheDreaded: Harry is absolutely terrified of him.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Certainly seems to be, at least in his limited screen time.
* NoNameGiven: At least in regards to his first name, whereas "Baron" is his title.
* ObnoxiousInLaws: He absolutely detests Harry, but he makes damn certain that Harry marries his daughter, because Stella loves Harry ... for some reason.
* SharpDressedMan: Grimes dresses in an impeccable suit complete with a stylish cape.
[[/folder]]
!!32nd Century Civilians
[[folder:Cleveland Booker]]
!!Cleveland "Book" Booker
-> '''Played by:''' David Ajala
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleveland_booker.png]]
A civilian courier living in the 3180s who Burnham encounters upon her arrival from the 23rd century.
----
* CrashIntoHello: How Burnham encounters him; she collides with his ship as the Red Angel suit tumbles out of control after exiting the time-travel wormhole.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Book appears human, but also displays telepathic abilities which allow him to commune with plants and animals.
* KindheartedCatLover: He has a big fluffy Maine Coon cat named Grudge.
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Plays this line with The Emperor, in regards to Michael. The Emperor does not believe him. [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Neither does anybody else]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Grudge]]
!!Grudge
-> '''Played by:''' Leeu and Durban
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grudge_the_cat.png]]
Cleveland Booker's cat and constant companion.
----
* MegaNeko: Booker describes her as being unusually large for her species. In reality, she is a normally-sized Maine Coon cat, which is still one of the largest domestic cat breeds.
* PocketDial: PlayedForLaughs when she manages to accidentally hail ''Discovery'' from Book's ship in "Scavengers".
* TeamPet: For Booker, and soon Burnham after she joins them in their travels.
[[/folder]]
!!United Earth Defense Force
[[folder:Inspector Adira Tal]]
!!Inspector Adira Tal
-> '''Played by:''' Blu del Barrio
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adira_tal.png]]
A human with amnesia and a curious knowledge of 23nd-century technology. They join ''Discovery'', with the permission of the UEDF, to find out about the past of their Trill symbiont, Tal.
----
* ComingOutStory: In "Sanctuary" Adira tells Paul that they are non-binary, preferring "they/them" pronouns. Paul accepts this immediately, and is seen calling Adira by these with Hugh later.
* TheNthDoctor: The seventh host of the Tal symbiont, after Kasha, Jovar, Madela, Cara, Senna, and their deceased lover Gray.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Before Adira, their Trill symbiont was joined with six other hosts, three of which were Starfleet officers.
* {{Transgender}}: They come out as non-binary in "The Sanctuary", correcting Stamets when he refers to them as "she." Previously they had only told Gray about this.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Because Gray died in their arms, their memories of their lover are repressed, as is their connection to the Trill symbiont.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Shades of this with Admiral Vance, because Vance had been close friends with [[TheNthDoctor Admiral Senna Tal]]. Vance makes it clear on their first meeting that this relationship does ''not'' extend to Adira Tal.
[[/folder]]
