I’ve seen the first episode. I loved the first part and hated the second half. By the way this might be the first Star Trek lead I absolutely hate, she belongs to jail, why is she a hero?
She was right.
She correctly assessed the situation and did everything she could to prevent the conflict.
If Kirk did this it would be typical Kirk stuff and we would all be patting him on the back for disrespecting the chain of command as usual.But Kirk is the captain, and TOS is incredibly cheesy, so over-the-top is expected. Plus, we have had enough time with Kirk and his crew to assess their personality. Meanwhile, this is the pilot episode of Discovery. We know very little about this crew; why they act the way they do; why they distrust and bicker with each other, et al.
The captain may have made a bad decision, but she’s the captain. It’s her call. It doesn’t matter if the first officer was right and ignoring her would get everyone killed. That’s not how a command structure works.
This is not TOS. In TOS, the characters are endearing. Plus, to have a mutiny now is like having “The Menagerie” two-parter be the actual TOS pilot, including the parts where Spock mutinied (not just “The Cage” bits). If that were the pilot, why do we know anything about Spock? Why would we care? Does Spock do this all the time? Is it normal on a starship for people to mutiny? Or it could be like if The Best of Both Worlds was the TNG pilot. Cmdr. Shelby went over Riker’s head, straight to the captain when Riker disagreed with her, and Riker called her on it. Is Riker always like this? Is Shelby? Is this normal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOnC0dgHNDA&t=1m28s <-- I mean seriously, imagine this episode is the TNG pilot. It would give a whole different vibe to the characters.
It’s too early in the Discovery characters’ development onscreen to have this drama because we don’t have a baseline for what is supposed to be normal for this crew in interacting with each other.
You asked why she was the protagonist. Kirk was a captain but he frequently disobeyed the chain of command and was the ‘hero’ of the piece. I think all of the main protagonists have adopted this mode.
I did not ask that. And because Kirk is the captain, it’s his ship. Plus, he respects and cares about his crew. There is no indication that Burnham has any respect for her crewmates, nor is it obvious why she is second in command of the ship. The show casts her as basically the captain’s pupil, which devalues her authority as first officer over the rest of the crew.
Also, Star Trek has always previously tried to weave some level of a morality tale into most of its stories, whereas Discovery is just a treknobabbled space drama.