The U.S.S. Discovery (NCC-1031) didn’t appear until the third episode but has since become the most important starship in Starfleet. Formerly a science vessel, the Discovery was re-commissioned as a warship, which doesn’t sit well with its crew of starry-eyed explorers. Nevertheless, the Discovery is now Starfleet’s greatest weapon against the Klingons because of the unique technology on board.
Discovery is commanded by Captain Gabriel Lorca, a controversial figure to say the least. Lorca suffers from a painful sensitivity to light, an injury he sustained when he lost his previous command, the U.S.S. Buran, at the start of the war. Now at the helm of the Discovery, Lorca has been granted an unusual amount of power in how he chooses to fight the war. Among his many questionable decisions is commissioning Michael Burnham to serve on his ship.
A hard-driving wartime captain, Lorca collects an arsenal of the most dangerous weapons in the universe, which he studies looking for an edge against the Klingons. Admiral Cornwell, his old friend, discovered Lorca is actually unfit for duty. Lorca lied during his psyche exams after the Buran was lost, a secret he continues to hide from his crew and the rest of Starfleet as he desperately does anything he needs to do to stay in Discovery’s captain’s chair.
As Lorca described Discovery’s spore displacement drive, they’re “inventing a new way to fly.” Invented by Lieutenant Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), the spore displacement drive allows the Discovery to travel in the mycelial network, a superhighway that connects the entire universe. When the spore drive is functioning properly, Discovery enters ‘Black Alert’ and can instantaneously jump to any point in the known universe and back again. This experimental technology is incredibly dangerous, however (and is cited by many fans as an example of technology Starfleet shouldn’t have in this era). An accident with an identical spore drive destroyed Discovery’s sister ship, the U.S.S. Glenn.
On board the Glenn was a giant Tardigrade monster, which was later named Ripper by the late Commander Landry (Rekha Sharma), who died trying to attack it. Lorca had the alien beast beamed onto his ship to study as a weapon. Burnham soon discovered the Tardigrade is actually the missing component of the spore drive; when it is plugged into the drive, the Tardigrade served as the ship’s navigator. Unfortunately, the Tardigrade was slowly dying from the constant exposure to the spore drive. After extracting DNA from the Tardigrade, Burnham, Tilly and Stamets released it back into space. In turn, they found a replacement for the spore drive: Paul Stamets himself.
WILL THE REAL PAUL STAMETS PLEASE STAND UP
By fusing the Tardigrade’s DNA with his own (a eugenics experiment which is illegal in the Federation), Stamets was able to interface with the mycelial network in the alien’s place and successfully serve as the Discovery’s new navigator. There were side effects, however. Stamets was rude, ill-tempered and single-minded in his pursuit of science. After exposure to the mycelial network, Stamets came out changed: he became warm, friendly and happy-go-lucky. His crew mates noticed the difference but couldn’t complain about this improvement to Stamets’ personality. Stamets even received implants in his arms from his partner, Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), to better allow him to interface with then spore drive. Stamets eventually reverted back to his tempermental self and confessed the problems he is having to Tilly.
There is also the shocking mirror incident at the conclusion of the fifth episode; the day after he first connected to the spore drive and survived, the mirror image of Stamets was shown to move independently from Stamets himself. This fuels speculation that Stamets has somehow entered or been replaced by his counterpart from the Mirror Universe, which Discovery will visit later this season.
In Discovery‘s fifth episode, Captain Lorca was captured and imprisoned in a Klingon Bird of Prey. His cell mates were the intergalactic criminal Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Rainn Wilson) and Lieutenant Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif). Formerly of the U.S.S. Yaeger, Tyler had been a P.O.W. for seven months after the Battle of the Binary Stars. He claims he only survived because the Klingon captain L’Rell had taken a sexual liking to him. Tyler helped Lorca escape confinement and together they made it back to the Discovery. After checking Tyler’s backstory to his satisfaction, Lorca made Tyler Discovery’s new Chief of Security, replacing the late Captain Landry.
Despite behaving in a heroic manner, such as piloting Burnham’s shuttle on their successful mission to rescue Sarek, Tyler is the subject of one of Discovery‘s biggest fan theories: that Tyler is actually the surgically-altered Klingon Voq and is acting as a spy aboard the Discovery. This is certainly a possibility, as much of Tyler’s backstory and revelations about himself could be interpreted both ways, but it could also be a misdirect. However, Voq also had access to the Shenzhou’s computer files during his exile and could have accumulated enough information to pass as a human Starfleet Officer.
Complicating matters is the burgeoning romantic relationship between Tyler and Burnham.
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