Star Trek Discovery Star Introduces Character

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) spoke about her First Officer Michael Burnham, essentially giving an introduction to the character. While a recent trailer seemed to hint she was Vulcan (or half Vulcan) that theory never made sense as Spock has long been established (both in TOS-vere and the 1st Kelvin-verse movie) to be the first Vulcan/half Vulcan to graduate from Starfleet Academy.

Instead the character is "the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center as a child and then the Vulcan Science Academy as a young women." In earth terms that is like someone graduating from high school at 12 and Yale at 16 so it implies right away that the character is incredibly smart. From her schooling she developed a close relationship with Sarek (James Frain) and Spock's father.

“I’m the first officer on the U.S.S. Shenzhou that is captained by Captain Philippa Georgiou, who is played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh,” she says. “I have an inner war and it’s a journey of self discovery and finding out what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a Starfleet officer, what it means to be a hero.”

“I have the Vulcan conflict in my life from Sarek and Amanda so there’s always going to be that inner conflict with me. But I think it’s relatable because we all have some kind of inner conflict going on — who we are versus who we present ourselves to be. There’s a lot to be discovered.”