'Star Trek: Discovery': Michelle Yeoh Explains Burnham and Mirror Georgiou's Relationship

Star Trek: Discovery opened with a focus on the relationship between Captain Phillipa Georgiou and [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Star Trek: Discovery opened with a focus on the relationship between Captain Phillipa Georgiou and her first officer, Commander Michael Burnham. The show's second season will feature a mirror image of that relationship.

Michelle Yeoh plays Captain Georgiou and her mirror universe counterpart, the former emperor of the Terran Empire. With the prime Georgiou dead, Burnham brought mirror Georgiou from the mirror universe into the prime timeline. Speaking to IGN, Yeoh says the relationship between the two of them is complicated.

"It's always going to be complex between the two of them," Yeoh said. "Michael is going around with so much guilt from Season 1, after the death of her beloved mentor [and] that mother-daughter relationship. And so when she saw the emperor, she can't help to feel that that's still the same Philippa Georgiou. And when she found how hard and ruthless she was, I think, in Michael, she wants to bring that humanity back. That's Michael Burnham, right? And for Philippa Georgiou, she has a soft spot for Michael Burnham. So we'll see, in the coming season, how that plays out. Who is going to bring who? Am I gonna bring her to the darker side, or is Michael…"

"I think it's almost like a full circle," Yeoh continued. "When it started, the journey in Season 1, it was Philippa Georgiou trying to bring some humanity, you know, like, loosen up, kid! You don't have to be so uptight, right? You can have fun! And now it's almost like Burnham doing the same thing for her, like, you don't have to be mean all the time, you know? No one is trying to kill you here all the time, right? So it is interesting. But then, Michael's biggest fear is, she's joined one of the most scary … I mean, of all the places, Section 31, where they do things [outside] of the principles of Starfleet. They will do whatever it takes. They will kill, as long as they feel that they need to do that to protect Starfleet. So it's nervous times for Burnham, because she doesn't know which way Emperor Georgiou is going to go."

What do you think of Georgiou and Burnham's relationship? Let us know in the comments!

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the U.S., through CraveTV in Canada and through Netflix in other international markets.

Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto and will premiere on CBS All Access on January 17, 2019.

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