Star Trek: Discovery Review - 6 Ups And 5 Downs From Season 1
5. Three Cheers For Stamets
Paul Stamets is a character that deserves his own mention as being richly developed and immensely well-handled. In more ways than one, he keeps the wheels of Discovery turning.
Over the course of the first season, Stamets has risen from Discovery’s cranky chief engineer to the most valuable player in terms of the story and the show itself. He’s not only the central component in the vessel’s key spore drive transportation system, but a bonafide hero and trusted confidante to the crew.
It was his noble sacrifice that saved the doomed Ripper the Tardigrade from being harvested to oblivion by the use of the spore drive in taking its place as the connection to the drive. Henceforth, whenever the crew opted to use the spore drive, Stamets put his own life at risk in the name of science.
He even took one for the team in agreeing to help the crew take hundreds of spore jumps, increasing in discomfort each time, as a means of defeating the Klingon Ship of the Dead. What's more, he was a key figure in getting the Discovery the hell out of the mirror universe.
If he keeps this up, Stamets has a bright future in the pantheon of great Trek characters.