Star Trek: Discovery: We Now Know What Happened To Michael Burnham’s Parents

Star Trek: Discovery turned the heads of many Star Trek fans when it was revealed that lead character Michael Burnham is Spock’s adopted sister. Now we know a bit more about how that relationship came to be.

We have also learned why Burnham, played by The Walking Dead alum Sonequa Martin-Green, may harbor some animosity towards Klingons. James Frain, the actor who plays Burnham’s adoptive father Sarek, described a scene from Star Trek: Discovery to SFX magazine.

“…we see Sarek as a younger man, and we discover that he has been made responsible for Michael’s upbringing – her parents were killed while being hosted at the Vulcan Academy when there was a Klingon attack. So we feel responsible for her, take her in, and I raise her in my family as a Vulcan.”

The fact that Klingons were responsible for the death of Burnham’s parents may explain why she seems so eager to preemptively strike the Klingons who appear in the Star Trek: Discovery‘s first trailer, as well as why she may have helped start a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire according to a line from Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) in the show’s Comic-Con trailer.

Thanks to these unfortunate circumstances, Michael Burnham became the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center as a student. Being born a human but brought up in Vulcan culture will be at the core of her identity crisis in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Since leaving the Vulcan Learning Center, Burnham has spent seven years serving aboard the USS Shenzhou. It seems that Lorca’s invitation for her to help finish the war with the Klingons that she helped start will lead her into service as First Officer onboard the USS Discovery.

Set 10 years prior to the five-year mission of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Discovery follows the adventures of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new lifeforms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself. The series will feature a new ship, new characters, and new missions while embracing the same ideology and hope for the future that inspired a generation of dreamers and doers.

via Trek Movie