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People of the Earth, episode 3 of season 3 of Star Trek Discovery aired a few nights ago. It was another great episode beautifully shot just as the previous two episodes, supplying further information about the Burn as well as the universe of Star Trek in the 32nd century. We saw Michael reunited with the crew of Discovery after a year, not only apart from them but separated from everything and everyone she’d ever known.
It was a Michael Burnham we had never seen, a Michael Burnham who when offered the captain’s chair not only deferred but asked:
“has it ever been me?”
This question shocked some, caused others to wonder if some race bias were at work, some found it disappointing or even unfair but for me I cheered. You see this is a question I’ve been wanting Michael to ask since season 1 episode 6 in which we learn that Michael never dreamed to join Starfleet in the first place. Starfleet was guilt driven consolation prize granted by Sarek to make up for him keeping her out of the Vulcan Space Expedition --despite her being completely qualified--, so that instead his half-human son Spock would be allowed to join. The Vulcans, due to their own illogical prejudices, wanted only one of Sarek’s experiments.
The next scene finds Tilly at a make shift memorial of badges representing lost crew mates. Tilly is in a contemplative mood, considering all that she gave up in accompanying Michael to the 32nd century her family, friends, everyone she ever knew and loved, everything she ever knew and loved. We can imagine that Michael has gone through this but it is the next moment that is most telling for where Michael is and the discomfort she is telegraphing.
“I have this picture of you in my head with a dandelion, and you blow the seeds away .” Tilly says this somberly and then looks at Michael directly before asking the question on her mind. “You let us go didn’t you?”
She doesn’t let Michael answer, doesn’t even make Michael apologize, between the two friends forgiveness is truly instantaneous. What matters is they’re together and still friends. They embrace, talk about hair and cake, the touching movement moves on poignant and beautiful it has said everything that needs to be said.
Michael let them go.
So it was no true surprise then that when confronted with the idea of taking up the captaincy, or even being called commander Michael is hesitant, questioning whether or not that has ever been her. I didn’t take it to mean questioning whether or not Michael Burnham is captain material but whether or not it is something she ever truly wanted for herself.
In the first episode of season one we open with Commander Burnham and Captain Georgiou on a desert planet completing some stealth mission of mercy hoping not to violate the prime directive while saving a species. They have a short window in which to complete their mission. The atmosphere of the planet will soon make transporting out or landing a shuttle impossible for the next 75 years.
In this scene Captain Georgiou asks Michael what she would do if she were trapped here? Michael explains how she would befriend the natives and try to fit in, be part of the community. This makes sense for Michael as both a xenoanthropologist and an orphan fitting in is a way of life for her.
The scene positions Michael’s answer as wrong. Captain Georgiou has the right answer, escape. As the camera pans out we see Georgiou has not had them walking in purposeless circles their steps have written an unmistakable sign in the sand, one that signals the waiting crew watching from space to beam them up.
Season one had a rather schizophrenic relationship with its protagonist saying she was wrong on one hand while the narrative itself often backed her decisions and actions. The first season presented Michael as alien, perhaps an enemy, a round peg shoved into a square hole, her actions validated by villains from other universes with alien morals and views that were anathema to everything Starfleet stood.
Writing this, in fact, I find myself suddenly understanding why some die hard fans dislike Michael. I myself adore the character, but I can suddenly see why some would struggle with Michael Burnham, a fly in the ointment of what should otherwise be a smoothly running traditional Star Trek show. There is even an in-show reference to the idea of removing the agent that undermines Saru’s confidence as acting captain. This, of course, is impossible somehow he has to be confident in spite of Michael living rent free in his head.
Season three is challenging this notion. Michael may not fit in but she loves her crew and respects Starfleet principles, surely they can find a way to grow together.
Season three of Star Trek is asking questions of both its characters and its audience. What does Starfleet mean? Starfleet is about more than ships and warp drives right, but what is it? In a time where there are three and soon to be four Star Trek shows on television and none of them features a traditional captain or crew and fans fight bitterly over what Star Trek really is Discovery seems to have positioned that very question as the central theme of this season.
Admiral Piccard left Starfleet in protest and the galaxy kind of hates him for it, Starfleet tells him to fuck off when he asks for help. He travels with a crew of former Starfleet officers all of whom are outsiders finding place and purpose on the edges of things.
Discovery is taking this question one step further and hurling us into a 32nd century where Starfleet and The Federation no longer seem to exist as anything more than rumors or memories sustained by true believers, a term that leads one to wonder if these are thoughtful, enlightened individuals or terrifying unthinking fundamentalists ignorant of that which they seem to worship.
Does Michael want to be a captain in this Starfleet? Do you?
“I’m reflexively supportive and I’m so angry about it!”
In season one a romance bloomed between Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler. Ash Tyler entered Michael Burnham’s life in a desperate and needy place and while I found them initially cute the relationship soured for me early on and I often found myself wondering what exactly Ash Tyler brought to Michael’s life, how, if at all did this relationship serve her?
Often female characters on television shows are put into relationships as caretakers just as women are forced into the role of caretaker IRL. We see Michael take on this role with Ash whom she asks:
“What about my tether?”
Ash, who when he feels more whole and complete walks away from her at the end season one when he no longer seems to need her so much. This is also her role with her foster brother Spock. She has to rescue from control, and get him to the Iconians to help get him out of the dissociative state he’s found himself in. When Spock finally no longer needs her they are suddenly and irrevocably separated by the mission at hand but not before Spock admits that he needs her and that he feels lost without her. Michael reassures him that he’ll find someone else, alluding to his future relationship with Captain Kirk.
I’m trying to save your lives!
Even her munity was about caring for others rather than rebellion or grabbing power for herself. Don’t get it twisted, what are we here for other than to take care of by those around us, there is nothing wrong with needing or being needed. A human alone is pretty much garbage, we’re only good in groups but over two seasons of Star Trek it’s truly unclear whether the care and support Michael Burnham has given to others has given her back very much at all.
So while it may feel a bit jarring for Michael to be questioning whether or not she should be captain it’s not really surprising to me that Michael Burnham after a year of freedom finds herself reluctant to take on the care or support of anyone else.
Even if it’s 88 people she loves or a terrifically hot guy who takes of his shirt every time he’s in an episode that she so clearly has the hots for. To me this is where Michael Burnham’s arc has always been headed and desperately needs to go.
Given all of this then it raises an important question why agree to be first officer to Saru.
The Lower Decks Affect
Let’s take a moment to consider another Black woman in Starfleet, Ensign Beckett Mariner, pictured above as Vindicta. Ensign Becket Mariner is the daughter of a Starfleet captain and admiral, she’s considered by some to be Starfleet royalty. She knows everything there is to know about Starfleet and is friends with some well known highly placed Starfleet officers.
She’s also rude, disrespectful, dissmissive and regularly flouts authority. She breaks minor rules and certainly doesn’t believe in universal law, in her mind it really is for lackeys, context is for kings and she can be one from the Lower Decks.
She’s rebellious and something of a misanthrope within the Starfleet organization. Yet throughout the series when push comes to shove Mariner is who you want on your team. She knows how to get things done and rebels with a cause, that cause is usually cutting through Starfleet red tape to help people when it matters, often the little guy like getting equipment for farmers on newly opened worlds or figuring the key to saving the entire crew of an energy devouring crystal alien.
When my sister and I sat down to watch the first episode of this season of Discovery she lamented that Michael wasn’t more like Mariner and praised Emperor Georgiou for her no nonsense style. I tend to find the former emperor insufferable though I did enjoy her in People of the Earth. Lil’ Sis hasn’t watch People of the Earth but I suspect she’ll be equally delighted to find Michael asking these questions and willing to color outside the lines.
And while I am very much a supporter of working within our institutions in 2020 it should be evident that they can be corrupt, can crumble and be hampered by endless bureaucracy.
To bring up another favorite show of mine, the Good Place, just how many committees did the people in the good place form while millions of people were suffering needlessly. The discernment to know when to take urgent action to save others is crucial, bureaucracies and institutions can alienate us from that as well as our own humanity if we are not careful.
So with all of that one must ask why both Michael Burnham and Becket Mariner remain in Starfleet? Why Michael agreed to be Saru’s first officer and Mariner just can’t bring herself to quit.
Ever since her parents were killed Michael’s life, her destiny, her fate has been in the hands of others, decision after decision was made for her and often these decisions were not in her best interest. An emotional 12 year-old human girl was adopted to Vulcan when she would have been grieving her parents and in desperate need of emotional support. She was adopted not because Sarek believed he could provide the best home for her but because Sarek believed his half-human son needed a human companion. Later when her needs came into conflict with Spock she was sent Starfleet to be again amongst humans, she was no longer needed.
Then of course she is in prison, she is freed from prison by Lorca who needs her to get on board the ISS Charon and maybe loves her in his own selfish way, but it’s still about his needs. Sure he’ll offer her a throne but did he ever stop to ask if that was what she wanted and when she wasn’t having decisions made for her she was taking care of everyone else.
Living a year as a free agent, adpating to a new life makes her old life perhaps feel like a pair of shoes too small. They may be beautiful, they may be beloved but they don’t fit, maybe they even hurt. So why not throw them away? Why is Michael still in Starfleet?
Because she loves it of course and as Saru has said perhaps we can grow together. Walking away from that which we love has never been easy and nor should it be.
