First Officer Michael Burnham is a unique figure in the world of Star Trek for a few reasons. Not only is she the main character on CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery, but she’s also the first Trek lead to not be the commander of his or her crew. Played by The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green, Burnham is also different in that she’s a human who was raised on Vulcan among its emotionless people. And she’s stationed on two different ships in Discovery -- the USS Discovery itself, but also the USS Shenzhou (time will tell how she transitions from one to the other).
All of which is to say, Michael Burnham is a distinctive take on the traditional Starfleet lead character. I sat down with Martin-Green recently to talk about Burnham, her past as Spock’s adopted sister, working for two very different captains, and more. The actress is fun -- she sang The Brady Bunch theme song to me at point -- and her enthusiasm for the new show is contagious. Read on for highlights from our chat below…
While we’ve heard much about how Spock’s dad Sarek becomes a mentor and surrogate father to Michael Burnham after an inciting tragedy leaves her orphaned as a child, how Spock’s mother Amanda figures into the situation has been less clear. But Martin-Green confirms that Amanda will be present on the show as well, and is an important part of Burnham’s upbringing.
“My parents were killed,” she explains. “And I was taken in to the Sarek and Amanda household as a result of it. [Amanda] affected me quite a bit, because here we’re talking about that person who’s taken out of the culture they were born in and placed into a different culture altogether. So [it’s] culture shock, to say the least. So what was interesting about my upbringing with the two of them was I was indoctrinated with the Vulcan way of life. I was on Vulcan, and I was raised to be that. And so there was always the fight to deny my humanity and take on the sort of Vulcan spirit. But while that was happening, here’s Amanda. Human Amanda. So here we have this household of this Vulcan patriarch, this human matriarch, this half-Vulcan/half-human boy, and this human girl.”
When Martin-Green puts it that way, I chime in that it’s like The Brady Bunch, which prompts her to start singing a Trekkian version of that famous theme song. It’s the story… “of a man named Sarek / who was busy raising two kids of his own!”
This disparity in how she was raised will certainly inform the adult Burnham’s decisions as a Starfleet officer onboard the USS Shenzhou and then the USS Discovery.
“You can imagine a human girl doing her best to become something she was not born to be, while being shielded, guided, comforted, emboldened by her human surrogate mother,” says the actress. “Inner conflict, to say the least.”
It remains to be seen how much of the show will depict Burnham’s early life on Vulcan, but it sounds as though it could be a recurring aspect of Discovery.
“There are flashbacks, yes,” Martin-Green says. “Yes, yes.”
So could that mean that we’ll see a young Spock in some of those scenes back on Burnham’s adopted planet, since presumably he’s living in the same house as Martin-Green’s character? The Discovery star isn’t ruling it out.
“There is certainly room for that,” is as much as I can get out of her. It’s an interesting question not only because of the potential of seeing a young Spock, but also because there’s never been an indication in Star Trek’s long history that the famed Vulcan had an adopted human sister. Martin-Green says that this is something that will be addressed as the show moves forward.
“I can be brutally honest and say I think it is quite genius the way that they have weaved me into that story,” she says. “And it is something that seems very normal when you see it. It makes so much sense. It’s not what you’d expect, but it does make sense. But then I’ll also quote our executive producer Alex Kurtzman, because he touched on it at San Diego Comic-Con. They said, how is this gonna happen? We’ve never heard of this woman before. And he said, I’ll just say to you that we’re working on it. Be patient with us, we get it, we’re working on it.”
As noted above, Star Trek: Discovery features at least two starships: the Shenzhou and the Discovery. We don’t yet know how the two ships will figure into the overall storyline of the first season, but we do know that Burnham is the First Officer on the Shenzhou initially before moving over to the Discovery. That means that the character will serve under two different captains as well -- Michelle Yeoh’s Captain Georgiou and Jason Isaacs’s Captain Lorca.
“I’ve been on the Shenzhou for seven years when you pick up with us,” says Martin-Green. “So I’ve certainly learned so much from her; Captain Georgiou was a tremendous woman, and a tremendous leader. … I was committed to her, and it definitely immediately took on this sort of identity of mentor-mentee. … And so I have sort of come under her wing, and learned a lot about what it means to be human, and what it means to be Starfleet, and what it means to be a leader. And so there’s definitely a mother-daughter essence there.”
Making the move to the Discovery under Captain Lorca will represent a “distinct shift” for Burnham, according to Martin-Green. Isaacs told me the mysterious Lorca is a “wartime” captain, which doesn’t sound all that warm and cuddly for starters…
“There’s a very interesting story here, where you see these two forms of leadership,” says the actress. “And I think that’s important for people to see. Because you see everything that comes from this female leadership, and then you see the male leadership. And to be able to see them simultaneously, I think, is very compelling. Because they make very different decisions. They have very different ways of leading their crew. And I think some of it is gender specific, but some of it isn’t.”
Not only is Commander Burnham the executive officer on the Discovery and the Shenzhou, but she’s also a xenoanthropologist. I’ll let the actress explain what that means and how the position might affect her feelings about the Klingons, who Starfleet is at war with on the show.
“As the resident xenoanthropologist on the Shenzhou, I am also considered what you would call a first contact specialist,” she says. “In that sense, it is my driving passion to understand cultures that are not of my own. And so that is how I approach everyone. It’s how I approach my job. It’s a big part of who I am -- that yearning to understand, and that yearning to accept. That relates to everyone. I think obviously I’m quite sympathetic to that; I’m quite sensitive to that. Because I have my own acculturation I went through.”
But since the Klingons are the major threat of the season and Starfleet is at war with them, it would seem logical (ahem) that some of Burnham’s fellow crewmates might be at odds with her take on the bumpy-headed threat.
“This is part of why we’re called Discovery, right?” laughs the actress. “Because the Klingons and how they relate to us -- this is all part of the discovery that is the heartbeat of our show. It’s discovering who we are through the discovery of others, really. And discovering others through discovering who we are. Right? It goes both ways. And so, honestly, you’re seeing all of us discover the moment, discover what it means, discover who they are versus who we are. You see all of that in the midst of this conflict.”
Martin-Green feels that this sense of “discovery” is what makes the show a worthy entry in the half-century old Star Trek franchise.
“That’s what I would say to Trekkies, and also people who are not familiar with Star Trek canon,” she says. “The Star Trek that you’ve come to know and love, that you grew up with, that means a lot to you -- we honor the canon. It very much is what you are familiar with in the best ways. But at the same time, now we have this new digital streaming platform, where we can tell long-form storytelling, where we can tell a hyper-serialized story that builds on itself. And I think that just provides a much more exhilarating journey for you as an audience member to go through. Because you’re able to jump onboard and grow and explore and change with these people. I think change is a hallmark of good storytelling, and there is so much change in our story. And I think that’s one of the things that makes it the most authentic. So you have this sci-fi fantasy story, but it’s rooted in reality. And it has all the heart that you can imagine it would.”
Star Trek: Discovery debuts on September 24 on CBS, CBS All Access and Netflix in most international territories.
Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottCollura.
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