Star Trek: Discovery has only had one season of television yet the starship has already had no less than three captains. But only Saru truly deserves the captain's chair.

It's not unusual for the captains of Star Trek to occasionally lose command of their vessels. For instance, in The Original Series, an insane Commodore Matt Decker assumed control of the Enterprise from James Kirk in the episode "The Doomsday Machine". In The Next Generation two-parter "Chain of Command", Captain Edward Jellico took command of the Enterprise-D when Jean-Luc Picard was captured by the Cardassians. Even Captain Benjamin Sisko stepped away from the top spot of Deep Space Nine at the height of the Dominion War, leaving the station in the hands of Colonel Kira Nerys. However, these were always temporary situations with the captains quickly resuming their authority.

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On Discovery, the privilege to sit in her captain's chair has turned into an increasingly bizarre game of musical chairs. When disgraced mutineer Michael Burnham first found herself on board the U.S.S. Discovery, her captain was Gabriel Lorca. Despite his ruthless behavior setting off fan theories that Lorca is really the enemy, he nevertheless proved to be an effective commander of the most advanced starship in the Federation. By the time the Discovery found itself trapped in the Mirror Universe in the second half of the season, however, everything was thrown asunder as Lorca revealed his true identity, only to be replaced by another outright fake as captain.

Never before in Star Trek history have two imposters from an alternate universe taken turns occupying the top seat of a Federation starship. This doesn't even include Cadet Sylvia Tilly posing as her Mirror counterpart, who is captain of the Mirror Discovery, or Admiral Katrina Cornwell assuming command of the vessel.

Here's how Discovery found itself in this captain's mess and why the answer to this dilemma is standing right there on the bridge all along...

This Page: Lorca Was Never The True Captain

Lorca Was Never The True Captain Of The Discovery

Gabriel Lorca boasted an impressive battle record against the enemy in the Klingon War. Under his watch, the Discovery perfected the revolutionary spore displacement hub drive invented by Lieutenant Paul Stamets. Gifted with the ability to instantaneously jump anywhere in the known universe, the Discovery became Starfleet's greatest weapon against the Klingons. Lorca masterminded multiple victories over the fearsome warrior race, including a decisive win on Pahvo where Discovery not only destroyed the Klingon Ship of the Dead but engineered a way for Starfleet to break through the Klingons' cloaking technology. Under any other circumstances, Lorca would have to be considered one of Starfleet's most legendary captains. Except for one thing: he is a complete and total fraud.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Killed Off Captain Lorca

The fact is the man posing as Captain Gabriel Lorca was an opportunistic psychopath from the Mirror Universe. A transporter accident on board the U.S.S. Buran switched the Prime Lorca with his opposite. After finding himself in command of a starship in the Prime Universe, Lorca soon destroyed the Buran and all of the souls aboard her, blaming it on the Klingons. (Jason Isaacs explained that the planned backstory was the Buran's computers discovered Lorca wasn't the real captain, so the Mirror avoided being exposed by self-destructing the ship.) A truly gifted deceiver, Lorca cheated through his Starfleet psych evaluations and, likely thanks to the leniency of an unwitting Admiral Cornwell (who had a past relationship with Prime Lorca), the doppelganger talked his way into the captain's chair of the U.S.S. Discovery by promising to be the man to win the Klingon War.

While Lorca's results are indeed impressive, he is nevertheless a fake who did not belong in the Prime universe, much less in command of Starfleet's most advanced ship. His demands and impatience for Stamets to perfect the spore drive was mainly so he could fulfill his real objective: to use the Discovery to return to the Mirror Universe and overthrow Emperor Georgiou. It's true Starfleet benefitted from his keen tactical mind despite his insubordination and the risks Lorca willingly took. His superiors also couldn't have guessed Lorca hailed from a parallel universe. Still, despite his notable successes, Lorca commanding the Discovery for as long as he did is a black eye to Starfleet. The man was an imposter and a disgrace. Incredibly, Admiral Cornwell's choice to replace Lorca is an even bigger disgrace.

Mirror Georgiou Is An Even More Insane Choice As Captain

Starfleet can beg off blame for being fooled by Lorca. After all, everyone was fooled by Lorca. But they - specifically Admiral Cornwell and Ambassador Sarek - are entirely to blame for what they did next: installing Emperor Phillipa Georgiou as Captain of the Discovery and pretending she is really the Prime Universe's Captain Georgiou back from the dead. Their rationale is simple and remarkably flawed: the Mirror Georgiou posing as her deceased double will command the Discovery on a secret mission to Qo'noS, the Klingon homeworld, in a bid to end the war. Whatever actually transpires, with the former despot of the Terran Empire calling the shots, disaster is surely imminent thanks to this utterly insane gamble.

Emperor Georgiou was unwillingly transported on board the Discovery by Michael Burnham. When our heroes escaped the alternate reality, they were shocked to learn they had arrived nine months after they vanished. Now, the Federation is in dire straits. The Klingons are handily winning the war and carving up Federation territory, even occupying Starfleet's mighty Starbases. Clearly, Starfleet's nobler instincts aren't doing the job at wartime, and desperate times do call for desperate measures. But the solution Cornwell and Sarek struck upon defies all logic. They turned to Emperor Georgiou, admittedly an expert in the eradication of Klingons in the Mirror Universe, for advice. However, it's one thing to seek counsel from a deposed despot when you're desperate, but it's a bridge too far to install that despot on your starship's bridge and lie to your crew about who she really is. Simply put, this plan is madness.

Related: How Can The Klingons Be Defeated?

While the Mirror "Captain Georgiou" can only be a temporary stop-gap measure in this gambit to end the Klingon War, it's disgraceful to violate the memory of the deceased Phillipa Georgiou by pretending the imposter is her. Furthermore, by placing a second Mirror doppelganger in the captain's chair, which was just vacated by a previous Mirror doppelganger, Admiral Cornwell proved she deserves to be court-martialed, even if her plan leads to Starfleet winning the war. (Cornwell's mental capacity is indeed questionable after enduring torture at the hands of the Klingons, fueling speculation that Cornwell could be Lethe.) At the end of the day, what Discovery needs is a commanding officer who is truly worthy and qualified,. That very officer has been serving on the starship since the beginning.

Saru Deserves To Be Captain of The Discovery

First Officer Saru has already twice served as Acting Captain of the Discovery with distinction. When Captain Lorca was imprisoned by the Klingons in episode 5 "Choose Your Pain", Saru assumed command and successfully staged a rescue. Saru then capably led Discovery's crew through most of their adventure in the Mirror Universe (though "Captain Sylvia Tilly" posed as the ship's top officer whenever they were forced to deceive other ships they encountered). With Lorca and Burnham both away from the Discovery, Saru kept the ship running under extremely arduous conditions while also dealing with the murder of Dr. Hugh Culber, the incapacitation of Lt. Stamets, and the revelation that Lt. Ash Tyler and the Klingon Voq are the same person. This was an extraordinary series of circumstances for any captain to face, much less an Acting Captain. Yet Saru performed admirably beyond all expectations, only to have Admiral Cornwell assume command and then install "Captain Georgiou" in the captain's chair.

Unfortunately, Saru is used to being slighted. While serving as Science Officer aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou, Saru watched with envy as Michael Burnham undermined him, soaking up the wisdom of Captain Georgiou as her protege before betraying her. The towering Kelpien's actions during the Battle at the Binary Stars earned him the spot as Discovery's Number One, yet when Lorca took the liberty of bringing Burnham on board, she was once more favored over him. Saru doubted himself to the point where he activated a program to monitor his performance as Acting Captain, intended to measure him against the greatest leaders of Starfleet's past, when he led the mission to rescue Lorca. In the end, despite making difficult demands of his crew, he was satisfied with how he ably managed the crisis. Though he is a being who has admitted he has never known a day of his life without fear, Saru conquers his fears and earns his rank every day. Given his past performances, he has proven himself worthy to be Discovery's true captain. In a way, as the highest ranking Starfleet officer who isn't a Mirror duplicate, Saru always was her captain. It needs to become official.

Though Burnham is the lead POV character and Lorca was the ship's commander, it would be a neat trick if season one turned out to be a stealth story about how Saru eventually earned the rank of Captain of the Discovery instead of the series creating a new character to command the ship in season 2. Captain Saru would also fulfill Star Trek's lofty mission of presenting equality among races by having the Kelpien join the pantheon of captains that includes William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, and Chris Pine. There's never been a purely alien captain of a Star Trek series; not even the half-Vulcan Spock nor the android Data achieved that distinction. For his part, Saru is one of most compelling characters on Discovery and he is masterfully portrayed by Doug Jones as complex, flawed, but inherently noble. With Captain Saru, Discovery would break through that final frontier of having an alien captain of a series and take Star Trek where it hasn't gone before.

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Here's hoping that by the time Discovery launches season 2 that Saru, the only officer aboard who truly deserves to command her, takes his rightful seat as her captain.

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Star Trek: Discovery's season 1 finale streams Sunday, February 11th @ 8:30 pm on CBS All-Access, on Space Channel in Canada, and worldwide on Netflix.