Star Trek: 10 Things We Now Know About Agent Daniels (aka Kovich)
From prequel Enterprise to far-future sequel Discovery, Kovich has bookended Star Trek
It is surely the most unique of televisual experiences, befitting someone so out of the regular flow of time, that a character's last or latest appearance should more than double their actual number of appearances — from eight to eighteen episodes — and all that in just one sentence fragment. It was a doubling that saw jaws drop across lands and time zones, and quite honestly, as we pick our own jaws up off the floor, we're still processing the fact that Kovich is Daniels, and Daniels is Kovich.
The at first unassuming NX-01 crewman with an untidy bunkmate, who had switched shifts with Taylor in Cold Front, turned out to have quite the array of non-Starfleet issue gadgetry, and a lot more knowledge about this whole 'Temporal Cold War' thing than Captain Archer had reason to expect. "Some kind of time traveller," although not in the H.G. Wells way, Daniels was, of course, a Temporal Agent from hundreds of years in the future. Despite his appearance in those eight episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, Daniels always remained a rather mysterious character. Once he was out of the 22nd century Starfleet garb, however, he did do a lot for twinkly timey-wimey 31st century fashion!
As code name Kovich, the character also kept up the chic, always elegantly suited and tied. Kovich, even before the Daniels reveal, was equally cryptic — vastly knowledgeable, but giving nothing away until the very end. We still don't know what Kovich(/Daniels)'s exact role, or roles/jobs titles, was in the Federation of the 32nd century, at once Terran debriefer and consultant for the Academy. In any case, he wasn't Starfleet, but he was definitely one of the Federation's higher-ups!
Here, we will use both 'Daniels' and 'Kovich' interchangeably where appropriate. And remember, time is the fire in which we learn!
N.B. At Daniels'/Kovich's request, this article was published tomorrow, but you will be able to read it yesterday.
10. Under The Microscope
"There's no time like the present," as the folks in the Temporal Mechanics Department like to say, so let's get to this one right away. By the shaking of hands in Life, Itself, we discovered that Doctor Kovich had, in fact, been "Agent Daniels, USS Enterprise and other places" all along. For two characters, now one, so scrutinised, it was equally apt that behind Kovich/Daniels in that scene in the series finale of Star Trek: Discovery was a microscope, and one which itself was worthy of scrutiny.
From his first appearance in Die Trying, Kovich had been studied in the most microscopic of detail for any clues as to his 'true' identity. As Daniels, he had already sparked curiosity about his person, about his role in the time travel conflict, and about the 31st century. As for Kovich, any theory was fair in love after the Temporal Wars — Lanthanite, 'Future Guy,' Supervisor, Voyager's EMH, Preserver, Section 31, android, take your pick. Very few got the exact space-time coordinates for 'Temporal Agent' and 'Daniels,' however.
No microscope is truly ordinary, but the one on Kovich's shelf was especially exceptional. Its last known proprietor was a certain Captain Janeway, and she had inherited the by then about 600-year-old piece from her grandfather. How the object came to be in Kovich's possession is not necessarily a matter of time travel, but perhaps simply one of antiquarianism.
Then again, Kovich might well have been eminently familiar with the OG Voyager, perhaps via his fellow time travellers of the Temporal Integrity Commission aboard the USS Relativity. Amongst an array of other collectibles in Kovich's office, two other objects were of note, here: a visor and a baseball. The former of those might suggest that Kovich's "USS Enterprise" was (at least) the 'D,' and the latter more than just hints, of course, at a synchronicity with Sisko.