A look at Discovery’s Captain Gabriel Lorca

As we near Star Trek: Discovery’s debut, we’re looking closer at each primary member of the crew. Let’s take full aim at Captain Gabriel Lorca.

Thanks to Thursday’s Star Trek: Discovery trailer released by CBS Entertainment, we have a somewhat fuller picture of both the show and Discovery’s Captain Gabriel Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs. For some time now we’ve known that he will be the edgiest of Star Trek’s lead captains, thanks to the following quote from Digital Spy in July:

"“[I’m] not allowed to say that my Captain will probably be the most f**ked up,” Isaacs said.“[But] he has a lot of rough edges.”"

The bar for this is not especially high. Star Trek’s captains have largely had fairly clean slates. Most of Captain James Kirk’s development and story occurred on screen. Captain Jean-Luc Picard got into a bar fight with a Nausican while a Starfleet cadet. Captain Benjamin Sisko may be the leader in this category, thanks to losing his wife Jennifer at the battle of Wolf 359 (ironically against Locutus, the Borg who resulted from Picard being assimilated), and Captain Kathryn Janeway took a seemingly clear conscience with her into the events of Voyager.

Notably absent from this list is Captain Jonathan Archer. This is due to the fact that I’m watching through Enterprise for the first time, so I can’t speak on his experience. Yet.

So, we know that Lorca will have the roughest edges in this bunch. Given that we also know that Roddenberry’s Box, the concept that main crew should not have conflicts with each other, this could lead to ship-side tension. With the exception of Sisko, we’ve never seen a truly tortured and tormented soul in the role of captain in this franchise, so the additional character exploration could be a welcome trip into a place Star Trek has infrequently journeyed.

Next: Discovery is set to arrive at the perfect time

In the trailer, we hear Lorca addressing his crew, saying, “The work we do is hard, and it’s not without sacrifice. We are a long way from home. But I know, it is a sacrifice worth making.” He also speaks with First Officer Michael Burnham, asking, “You know what we have to do?” Burnham responds, “We have to win.”

Star Trek Discovery will launch on September 24th.