First look at Discovery's Captain Lorca, and new details about Michael Burnham

Later this week Entertainment Weekly's latest issue will be running a feature on Star Trek: Discovery, and ahead of the print release they have been teasing new details from the series on their website. Today that included our first look at, and reveal of the full name of, Captain Gabriel Lorca, who they describe as "a steely Federation Starship Captain who’s considered a brilliant military tactician".

We also see here our first fuzzy out of focus look at the bridge of the USS Discovery!

Young Burnham, a child of Vulcan

Meanwhile yesterday we got some new information about the star of the series, Michael Burnham, shedding some light on her Vulcan connection: She is, as her ears suggest, fully human, but does have a close relationship with Sarek, and as a child was the first human to attend the Vulcan Learning Center, and later the Vulcan Science Academy.

Showrunner Aaron Harberts made an interesting comment on Burnham, which suggests to me she's some sort of parallel to Spock, struggling to find her humanity among her Vulcan upbringing:

We read a lot of people and they either went way too robotic or and chilly or way too emotional. What’s beautiful about Sonequa’s performance is she’s capable of playing two, three, four things at once. She’s got such a great command of her craft, she’s able to be aloof but warm; logical but able to surrender her emotional side to the audience.

Actress Sonequa Martin-Green also summarised her character:

I’m the first officer on the U.S.S. Shenzhou that is captained by Captain Philippa Georgiou, who is played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh. I have an inner war and it’s a journey of self discovery and finding out what it means to be alive, to be human, to be a Starfleet officer, what it means to be a hero.

Star Trek: Discovery is due to start this September, and it will be distributed almost everywhere in the world on Netflix, except for the US where is will be available on CBS All Access, and Canada where it will be on Bell Media channels and services. To keep track of all the latest details from the new show, visit my Star Trek: Discovery guide page.