Best new Star Trek characters of the Paramount+ era
By Marc Kick
Ensign Sylvia Tilly is one of Star Trek: Discovery’s brightest stars
In the Star Trek Universe, a lot of the characters are all perfect. I mean sure, they have their own quirks and characteristics that they need to overcome from time to time, but many do not have true character flaws. Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Reginald Barclay is a prime example of a character with flaws, who isn’t living the “perfect Starfleet life”. He’s socially awkward, which explains his attraction to the holodecks: he’s too unsure of himself and constantly doubts himself when dealing with other living people.
Ensign Tilly is another of these “imperfect people” in the Star Trek Universe who I tend to gravitate to. I love seeing others who don’t necessarily conform to your typical Starfleet recruits. The reason I love these types of characters so much is that I like to see them overcome their stigmas & become the superstar you know that they have in them!
Tilly is first introduced to us as a bunkmate for Michael Burnham upon her arrival on the USS Discovery. She’s somewhat socially awkward and an Ensign who is naive and unsure of herself in her surroundings onboard the ship. Oh yeah, she’s also terrified of Michael because of Michael’s history of being the first and only Starfleet mutineer after incapacitating her captain and taking command of the USS Shenzhou.
With the help of Doctor Culber, Tilly eventually does overcome a number of her personal roadblocks and decides a different career path would suit her better as a teacher at the newly re-opened Starfleet Academy in the 32nd century and found herself staying back with Admiral Vance to coordinate the evacuation of Earth when debris from the DMA began hitting the planet. Luckily, the crew of the USS Discovery were able to find a way to communicate with Species 10-C before Earth was destroyed.
I’ve been quite critical in the past of Star Trek: Discovery because of how the crew of the ship are portrayed. Many of the bridge crew are mostly nameless crewmembers who follow out the Captain’s orders. I mean sure, they actually do have names, but that fact is largely inconsequential. Sylvia Tilly though, is one character that the writers of Discovery did a great job with.