The Federation | Michael Burnham | The Klingon Empire | The Mirror Universe | The Emerald Chain
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Captain Michael Burnham
"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."
Played by: Sonequa Martin-Green
The 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. She gains the rank of Captain at the end of season 3 and becomes the Discovery's commanding officer.
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Tropes Relating to Michael Burnham
- Action Girl: She's more of a Science Hero, 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.
- Aesop Amnesia: 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. 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 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.
- Alternate Self: She had a counterpart in the Mirror Universe, who looked up to Georgiou as a mother figure and betrayed her too.
- Anti-Hero: At least initially, she is fairly aggressive for a Starfleet officer.
- The Atoner:
- Subverted in "Context is for Kings", where Burnham tries to refuse a chance to redeem herself because she feels that what she has done cannot be atoned for. She only seeks the punishment she feels she deserves, until Lorca appeals to her 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.
- She's later subjected to a Deconstruction over this. Ever since she lost her parents, Burnham has taken it upon herself to carry massive burdens on her shoulders, be it the well being of Sarek's family, or the outbreak of the Klingon-Federation war. But it's this behavior that made Spock refuse to reconcile with her, as he sees her behavior as selfish.
- Berserk Button: After decades of trying to reconcile with Spock, she gets very displeased with his stubborn refusal to accept her apology and his calling out of her character flaws. At least until she realizes that he wasn't too far off the mark.
- Both Sides Have a Point: In "Scavengers", she disobeys orders and goes rogue to rescue Book, wanting to secure the information he has that could help solve the mystery of The Burn. Saru and Vance are understandably pissed at her, which she fully accepts, but she also points out that Starfleet has to solve what caused The Burn before it can ever rebuild. They both accept her reasoning, which is why she only gets slapped with a demotion from XO.
- Breaking Old Trends: She's the first Trek character since Sisko who starts out as a Commander rather than The Captain, but this changes soon as her mutiny gets her stripped of rank. She would spend the rest of Season 1 as a Specialist, until she's given a pardon and restored to her old rank. Like Sisko, she's given a promotion in Season 3.
- Broken Ace: She was noted as being an exceptional officer prior to her mutiny, as well as a skilled scientist and xenoanthropologist. But when she betrays the trust of her captain and mother figure, and said captain dies in a war Burnham blames herself for starting, she's convinced that she's Beyond Redemption and deserves to rot in jail for her actions.
- Calling the Old Man Out: She tells off Sarek in “Lethe” for making her believe that she failed him, when in reality he was angsting over his own choices. She later tells Tyler that while she’s still sad and angry, a burden has been lifted.
- The Captain: Season 3 ends with her in command of Discovery.
- The Cassandra: 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.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Saru gently calls her out on obsessing (when she in turn wants Book to cry or open up) over the deaths in “Kobayashi Maru”, she gives a tight smile and draws attention to his medal.
- Character Catchphrase: She gets her own "Make It So" in the form of "Let's Fly" after she gets the Captain's chair.
- Character Development: Having been raised by Vulcans after losing her own parents, Burnham's stubbornness and desire to save as many lives as possible results in a series of events that causes the death of her Captain, and blaming herself for the outbreak of a horrible war she feels makes her irredeemable. She slowly learns to open herself up, rebuild trust with those she hurt, accept her failings, and find her place amongst the stars. The savior complex is still a work-in-progress.
- Close to Home: She’s of the opinion that Ripper only attacked in self-defense and they shouldn’t judge it based on one incident of the past, obviously relating it to her own experience.
- Combat Pragmatist: When fighting Voq and gradually getting overpowered, Burnham goes for his eyes. She's also proven herself willing and able to shoot first when she feels it necessary.
- Commander Contrarian: Even though Captain Georgiou is her commanding officer and something of a mentor to her, she advocates tactics that are rather strident and aggressive in contrast to her captain's more cautious approach.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
- She is the first main protagonist of the franchise who is a Science Hero and is not in charge of a ship or a station until Season 3. Unlike previous protagonists who are born from Earth, Burnham is born from Vulcan who is adopted by Spock's family, subsequently becoming Spock's adoptive sister.
- She also is the opposite to the Voyager's captain Kathryn Janeway, being that both of them are stuck in another region of the universe after an incident. But Janeway and the Voyager crew are able to go back on Earth after being stranded in Delta Quadrant for seven years and are hailed as heroes after defeating the Borg, while Burnham and the Discovery crew are actually on the run and had to visit the 32nd Century after their encounter with Leland/Control and Section 31; and essentially they have to be un-personed forever in the books of Starfleet and the Federation because of the Control's actions.
- Control Freak: As a Captain, she struggles to accept that deaths will happen on her watch, and she’s not in charge of everything, the Federation is.
- Cool Big Sis: Despite Tilly initially fearing her, Burnham comes to develop this role with her by acting as her mentor.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Typically, a Star Trek lead protagonist would commit a serious violation of orders, but get a slap on the wrist at worst—ask Kirk, Picard, Sisko of how many regulations they broke, but their actions got overlooked because they wound up saving lives. Burnham is the first case of which no such mercy is given; for the act of mutiny against her Captain, she's stripped of rank and sentenced to life in prison (which makes it all the more ironic in hindsight considering her brother did the same thing a decade later and was let off the hook for it).
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Downplayed. 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.
- Determinator: Deconstructed in a similar way to Kirk, as she doesn’t believe in a no win scenario either, but it’s because she has faced so much loss that she needs every moment from then on to be a victory. She even says about the Kobayashi Maru that it’s a rigged test, and they don’t tell you that, so all you want to do is retake it.
- Detrimental Determination: Losing her parents caused Burnham to develop a savior complex, which has resulted in her bearing responsibilities for a lot that's happened in her life. When Spock was a child, she said some cruel things to him in order for him not to follow her while she ran way from Sarek's compound, as the family had been targeted by Vulcan Logic Extremists. As an adult, her steadfast belief she was saving lives by disobeying Georgiou's orders resulted in her starting a mutiny, which spiraled into an all-out conflict against the Klingons. And when she arrived in the 32nd century, only to learn Starfleet had been decimated by The Burn, she goes rogue to try and find evidence. None of these actions made her particularly popular with anyone in Starfleet, least of all Spock, who found such a complex selfish.
- Dramatic Irony: She utterly hates the Klingons, and the guy she's in love with is actually Klingon himself, although a Manchurian Agent.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: 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 doesn't make things any better.
- Expository Hairstyle Change:
- 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 Sci-Fi Bob Haircut 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 Time Skip, 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.
- Famed In-Story: 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 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.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: She was raised as a Vulcan, so naturally she has a talent for eyebrow raises when humans are being annoying.
- Fatal Flaw:
- 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".
- Fire-Forged Friends:
- She and Saru didn't exactly get along during their days on the Shenzou, but it soured into outright hostility on Saru's part after Burnham's mutiny. Things didn't go any smoother when both wound up on Discovery, but after a rough start, the two were able to start seeing eye to eye and become close friends and confidants.
- She literally crashed into Book when she arrived in the 32nd Century, and Book wasn't too pleased to have been shot down. In fact, he double-crossed her the moment he could during their first mission together. But in the end, the two became partners in the Courier Network, which turned into a Relationship Upgrade in "Scavengers".
- Played for Laughs regarding Grudge. Apparently she's gone from disliking Michael to just barley tolerating her.
- Foil: To Kirk, with trauma from childhood tying them to being Married to the Job to unhealthy degrees, refusing to believe in no win scenarios because any other choice is too much to deal with, having a special hatred of Klingons, and a tendency to quote Alice In Wonderland.
- Gagging on Your Words: She is genuinely sorry and hates herself for the mutiny, but still has Vulcan pride and finds it difficult to actually say the word sorry.
- Gender-Blender Name: 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.
- Good Is Not Nice: 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.
- Guile Hero: Successfully cons Harry Mudd by manipulating his greed and his ego.
- Happily Adopted: More or less, although 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.
- Hypocrite: Sympathetically done, but once Book’s home planet is destroyed she tries to get him to open up, while he and others remind her that she has the same self-destructive Thousand-Yard Stare PTSD deal.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Spock calls her out on having a narcissistic Guilt Complex, acting like she’s so important that everything is her fault. Georgiou also kindly but pointedly mentions she’s too confident for her own good on their first meeting.
- Insufferable Genius: Saru complains that she often used to undermine his opinions, feeling she knew better. For extra points, while she’s manipulating him in the fourth episode, she borrows “fascinating” from Spock.
- It's All My Fault: 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 adoptive 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.
- Lack of Empathy:
- She’s a good person with a lot of feelings, but lacking on the whole empathy thing. When Lorca kicks Stamets by playing the Distress Call to the whole ship, she just rolls her eyes at the attempt at guilting.
- The beginning of “Kobayashi Maru” has her and Book dig themselves deeper with the Alshain, and she asks him to do “his empathy thing”.
- Like a Daughter to Me: How Captain Georgiou thought of her, as the captain states in her pre-recorded will. Mirror Georgiou had the same relationship with Mirror Michael.
- Martyr Without a Cause: Sonequa Martin Green
has talked about how having a complicated relationship with death is true for all Trek captains. - Meaningful Name: With the revelation that she is the second 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.
- The Men First: Proves to be this kind of Captain in “Kobayashi Maru”, risking her own life because she has the experience instead of delegating. When a few people still die, she looks broken.
- Military Maverick: Goes with being a Commander Contrarian. 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.
- Morality Pet: To a whopping three people.
- To Ash Tyler (aka Voq), who basically pulls a Heel–Face Turn 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.
- Nerd Action Hero: Shares in the great Starfleet Captain tradition of knowing and willing to fight dirty, and being a sweet dork (when she relaxes at least).
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Does not hold any positive opinions of the Klingons, due to losing her parents in an attack on a Human/Vulcan outpost when she was a child.
- No Social Skills: Thanks to her Vulcan upbringing, she has trouble making friends and finds socializing to be quite puzzling.
- Number Two: The first Trek series protagonist to be this instead of The Captainnote . 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 Captainnote .
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: A xenoanthropologist by training, but she has taken on all kinds of assignments in her role as Discovery's Science Officer.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: 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.
- One-Steve Limit: With DS9 character Michael Eddington, both of whom betrayed their respective captains for what they believed to be noble reasons.
- Parental Substitute: Sarek and Amanda Grayson are this to her, after she was orphaned as a child in a Klingon attack.
- Pragmatic Hero: She’s more in line with the soldiering Trek leads than the diplomats. Her line to Saru in “Choose Your Pain” sums it up, the more you keep hurting someone, the less helpful they become, that not being her only concern, but her main one.
- Properly Paranoid: 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.
- Rank Up:
- 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.
- She is promoted to Captain at the end of the season 3 finale.
- Replacement Goldfish: Lorca tries to get her to stay in the Mirror Universe 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.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Michael is Spock's never-before-referred-to foster sister. Of course, Spock never mentioned his parents or 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.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: 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.
- Samaritan Syndrome: After her mutiny, she plans to serve her time and never get involved again. Obviously things don’t work out that way, and Lorca preys on her innate need to help (and be right).
- The Scapegoat: Because of her mutiny at the Binary Stars, everyone in Starfleet holds her responsible for the Klingon War, even though T'Kuvma was itching for a fight regardless of whether or not her plan to launch a "Vulcan Hello" would have succeeded. She agrees with their assessment of her character at first, but both Pike and Spock point out to her that she's not responsible, no matter how much she blames herself.
- Science Hero: 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.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Michael has a tendency to ignore orders that feel like Red Tape. She want to do the right thing and she wants to do it NOW.
- Burnham ignores Starfleet's policy of Diplomacy First, attacking her commanding officer when Captain Georgiou refuses to preemptively fire on the Klingons. Burnham firmly believes and vocally argues that this is necessary to save the lives of everyone aboard the Shenzhou and countless lives of Federation citizens because it would show that the United Federation of Planets is not a soft, easy target. This breach in protocol led to Michael being charge with mutiny, stripped of rank, and imprisoned on a full life sentence.
- Despite having already been severely punished for mutiny, Michael stands up to Admiral Cromwell when she discovers that the Admiral is conspiring with Emperor Georgiou to plant a bomb on Quo'onos, the Klingon homeworld. Although the Klingons have devastated the Federation in their ongoing war, blowing up their planet in retaliation goes against the Federation's ideals. Michael leads the Discovery bridge crew in refusing to comply with a direct order. Instead, they pursue a more diplomatic approach, helping L'Rell gain control as High Chancellor. L'Rell then signs an armistice with the Federation, cooling the conflict. For her leadership, Michael has her previously stripped command rank restored.
- When Spock is accused of murder, Michael initially turns him over to Section 31, Starfleet's Intelligence Agency for interrogation and treatment. However, when she is informed that they might hurt Spock, she breaks him out and they head for Talos IV, a planet that is off-limits to Starfleet officers on pain of death. The Talosians help repair Spock's fried psyche.
- When Discovery lands in the the 32nd century, they are ordered to stand down while Starfleet investigates their claim of being from the past. But when Michael's friend Book goes missing, she leaves on an unauthorized mission to find him, resulting in a chain of events that nearly kicks off a war with the Emerald Chain. This results in her being demoted from First Officer for failure to comply with direct orders. However, recovering Book helps Michael recover the black boxes that eventually help resolve the issue of the Burn, allowing the Federation to make huge strides in recovering from the catastrophic damage. Admiral Vance acknowledges that her methods, though unorthodox, may not be the right way of doing things, but they still work.
- The Slow Path: 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.
- Socially Awkward Hero: All she’s faced in the first half of season one alone, and she’s most terrified of having to mingle at a party.
- Straw Vulcan: Being a human ward on Vulcan, flashbacks have her try to be as cold and logical to overcompensate, to the point where Sarek has to tell her to stop.
- Survivor's Guilt: She has been carrying this ever since the attack where her parents died. This is one of the main elements behind her It's All My Fault attitude and penchant for doing the Heroic Sacrifice play.
- There Are No Therapists: 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.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Her default mode after trauma (whether it’s something happening to her or her own actions) is staring off sadly and stoically into space.
- Token Human: Not the only human, as Amanda is there, but Sarek used her as an example of humanity’s potential, and it nearly got her assassinated. As she was already a child with deep trauma, this gives her even more issues as an adult, feeling like she has to be perfect.
- Trauma Button:
- Being near Klingons brings back the memory of her parents getting killed in a Klingon attack.
- She struggles seeing her graduation day replaying over and over in Sarek’s brain, and how he considers her a failure, until Tyler makes her realise Sarek is just lashing out over his own perceived failures.
- Trauma Conga Line: Season Two puts her through the wringer. She's been asked to perform a Mercy Kill 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!
- Uptight Loves Wild: She falls in love with Cleveland Booker and becomes less uptight the longer she spends with him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Much like her brother, she feels like she’s a disappointment to her father, and getting approval is a rare feat.
- Waif-Fu: Is a skinny woman, and raised to be as Vulcan and logical as possible, but turns out to be a dirty fighter, KO-ing three prisoners at once in her third episode.
- When She Smiles: She doesn’t have cause to do it often, what with the Trauma Conga Line that is her life, but when she does, other characters are glad to see it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The amount she’s called out for her shit, by others and her own Guilt Complex, hits double digits. Even nice, nervous Saru tells her she’s not that different from Lorca.
- Workaholic: She complains to Tilly in “Choose Your Pain” that she hates not working, and thus having to actually process how she feels.
