Female Starfleet Captains and why Michael Burnham’s the worst
By Marc Kick
Michael Burnham has not benefitted from any of these key components that the Star Trek writers have employed in writing for other the previous three female Captains I’ve listed.
As we’ve witnessed in the first 4 seasons, Michael Burnham was orphaned at an early age and raised by Sarek & Amanda Grayson, Spock’s parents on Vulcan. She was raised on Vulcan and attended the Vulcan Science Academy. She is assigned to the Shenzhou as a favor to her adoptive father, Ambassador Sarek and taken under the wing of the Captain, Philippa Georgiou, who becomes almost a surrogate mother figure to her.
Before being charged with mutiny onboard the Shenzhou, (when she became the first & only officer ever convicted of mutiny in Starfleet history) Michael had reached the rank of Commander as First Officer to Captain Georgiou…another Starfleet Captain (and especially her mirror universe counterpart) who was written far better than Michael Burnham.
Following her imprisonment, her transport shuttle is rescued by the USS Discovery and Burnham is given a field commission rank of Ensign after making herself useful to Captain Gabriel Lorca. She’s quickly skyrocketed back up the ranks to Commander in such a manner that would make Harry Kim consider committing mutiny if it could just promise him a single extra rank pip.