Star Trek Discovery Season 3: Everything You Need To Know

At the center of Star Trek: Discovery is Commander Michael Burnham, the ship’s science officer and unlucky nexus of intergalactic events for some reason.

Michael was orphaned as a girl when blood-thirsty warriors known as Klingons killed her parents. She was adopted by the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, Sarek, and his human wife Amanda, and taken to the planet Vulcan. There Michael was raised to embrace logic above emotion, alongside her half-Vulcan, half-human adopted little brother, Spock. Yes that Spock.

While Michael formed an early bond with Spock, she came to believe her presence in the household put her new family at risk of attack from a faction of anti-human terrorists, so she intentionally distanced herself from Spock. Despite the rift she created, Michael stuck around Vulcan and attended the Vulcan Science Academy, which led to her service in Starfleet and her posting aboard the Starfleet vessel, USS Shenzhou.

Aboard the Shenzhou, Michael served alongside then Lieutenant Commander Saru, forging a close, if somewhat antagonistic working relationship. Michael also grew close to Shenzhou's commanding officer, Captain Philippa Georgiou, coming to look at the seasoned Starfleet officer as a mother figure.