WARNING: This article contains spoilers for this week's episode of Star Trek: Discovery, "Lethe," and potentially for the series as a whole.


With its sixth episode, "Lethe," Star Trek: Discovery cemented its themes of duality and betrayal with more revelations about Michael Burnam's Vulcan upbringing and her relationship with her adoptive father Sarek, and with Captain Lorca's deceptions. However, if a seemingly outlandish -- and undeniably intriguing -- fan theory turns out to be true, the series is prepared to take those elements to a new level.

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Emerging, as is so often the case, on Reddit, the theory centers on the Klingon Voq (played by Javid Iqbal), an outcast who takes up the call of the messianic radical T'Kuvma to unite the Empire and repel the Federation, and Starfleet Lt. Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif), a prisoner of war who escapes Klingon custody with Captain Lorca (Jason Isaacs), and becomes the new security chief of Discovery.

Fans were immediately suspicious of Tyler, who allegedly survived months of imprisonment following capture during the Battle of the Binary Stars, long enough to form an alliance with fellow POW Lorca and orchestrate a breathtaking prison break in which the lieutenant exacted revenge against L'Rell (Mary Chieffo), the Klingon captain who (it's implied) routinely sexually abused him. Although there are no signs that Tyler underwent any sort of debriefing or counseling upon arriving on Discovery, he clearly met with the approval of Lorca, who delved into the lieutenant's past and found no red flags.

That may be because most of the clues to Tyler's duplicity lie outside the story, and point to the very real possibility that Javid Iqbal -- the actor credited as playing the albino Klingon fanatic Voq -- doesn't actually exist. Because, so the theory goes, Latif plays both Voq and Ash Tyler.

Voq on Star Trek: Discovery

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It admittedly sounds far-fetched, but the evidence is compelling, beginning with Iqbal's page on IMDb.com, which lists Star Trek: Discovery as his only credit and features only images of him in full Voq makeup. As The Daily Dot notes, Iqbal has no social-media presence, and is the only member of the show's central cast not to participate in the promotional tour ahead of the premiere.

That brings us back to Latif, who was originally cast in December as Klingon commanding officer Kol before being announced in April to be instead playing Lt. Tyler. Of course, there are numerous explanations as to why that decision might've been made -- anything from an allergy to prosthetics to the whims of the producers -- but none is as intriguing as a story change that requires secrecy. What's more, Latif has been listed in Discovery's credits from the very beginning, although his character wasn't introduced until Episode 5, "Choose Your Pain" (those credits do change, most noticeably with the inclusion of guest stars like Michelle Yeoh, James Frain and Rainn Wilson).

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If all of that weren't convincing enough, Yahoo! Movies posed the "Voq as Tyler" theory directly to Latif, who masterfully side-stepped the question: "I rarely read a lot of stuff online, but the publicists have been letting me know. It’s fun that there’s a lot of interest — that’s always a good thing. A lot of the theories are crazy. Some people have some stuff right, and some are way off. But it’s just good to see people interested.” When asked whether he's ever actually met Iqbal, who's credited as playing Voq, Latif was interrupted by a CBS publicist, who cheerfully shepherded the actor to his next interview.

But how might all of this intrigue play out on Star Trek: Discovery? Does Voq masquerading as a Starfleet officer make any sense?

A tribble reacts to a Klingon spy in "The Trouble With Tribbles"

Star Trek has a long history of characters disguising themselves as other races, most frequently Federation officers undergoing cosmetic surgery to pass as Romulans. However, we've also seen a Cardassian being altered to look like a Bajoran, and, perhaps most relevantly, a Klingon spy posing as a human Federation official in The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" to sabotage colonization efforts by poisoning a grain supply. Likewise, the Klingon augment virus, introduced by the franchise to explain away the dramatic change in the physical appearance of Klingons between TOS and the feature films, provides canonical evidence for the Empire's experimentation using DNA from genetically modified human embryos, left over from the Eugenic Wars on Earth that produced Khan Noonien Singh & Co.

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By the time of Discovery, set a decade before the events of TOS, the augment virus had existed for a century. Its outbreak, as depicted in Star Trek: Enterprise, triggered fears that the infected and their descendants, who lost their ridges, would become outcasts due to their more human appearance. That anxiety meshes with the radical Klingons introduced on Discovery who view the United Federation of Planets as an existential threat to their identity. "Remain Klingon!" became the mantra for Voq, L'Rell and the late T'Kuvma, in response to Federation encroachment.

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After playing a key role in the early episodes of Discovery, first as T'Kuvma's unlikely disciple and then as his even more unlikely successor, Voq was betrayed Kol (now played by Kenneth Mitchell), what remains of House T'Kuvma and, or so it initially appeared, his ally L'Rell, and left adrift on the USS Shenzou amid the debris of the Battle of the Binary Stars. But in the final scenes of Episode 4, as Voq watches his stolen sarcophagus ship warp away, L'Rell transports about the Shenzou to deliver a message, explaining she only renounced him and sided with Kol to save his life. She tells Voq the he must win the war against the Federation to prove to the 24 Klingon houses that he is "the true Torchbearer," the figure who will reunite the Empire. A member of both the House of T'Kuvma and the House of Mo'Kai, known to be spies and deceivers, L'Rell provides Voq with a small vessel to take him to the Matriarchs of Mo'Kai, who, she says, "will expose you to things you never knew possible." "But it comes at a cost," she cautions.

L'Rell on Star Trek: Discovery

"What must I sacrifice?" Voq asks, to which L'Rell replies, "Everything."

For someone like Voq, who clings to the old ways and who was willing to allow himself and his crew to starve to death rather than commit "blasphemy" by using equipment from the Shenzou to repair their disabled ship, everything certainly would be those defining traits that make him Klingon. If anyone has access to the augment virus, and to any other technology necessary to complete the physical transition from Klingon to something passably human, it's the House of Mo'Kai. However, would Voq be willing to make a sacrifice so great that it could lead to Klingon victory and at last unite the 24 houses but leave him dead or cast out of the Empire -- an otherworldly Moses barred from entering the Promised Land? Yes.

L'Rell is almost as devoted to their cause, using her connections and powers of persuasion to catapult herself from the second-in-command to a marooned outcast to the captain of her own ship in a matter of weeks. Not so coincidentally, it's the very vessel on which captured Starfleet officer Ash Tyler and Gabriel Lorca were imprisoned, and on which they bonded before their escape, which led to Ash Tyler being offered a prime position on USS Discovery, the Federation's formerly "secret" weapon in the war against the Klingons.

Lorca and Tyler on Star Trek: Discovery

The major hiccup in this elaborate theory is in the very human behavior of Ash Tyler, from lying about his number of "kills" in a combat simulation so as not to outshine Captain Lorca to his undeniable chemistry with Burnham, to whom he offers both friendship and advice about her relationship with adoptive father Sarek. While the House of Mo'Kai may have been able to alter Voq's appearance, so he could pass for the real Ash Tyler (after all, Starfleet records confirm he exists), and drill into him details of his past, it's difficult to imagine how the Klingon could learn to convincingly mimic Terran language, interactions and emotions within a matter of weeks. The Matriachs are doubtlessly resourceful, so perhaps that ability is also with their means.

If that is indeed Voq's plot -- and, come on, won't it be disappointing if, after all of this, it's not? -- it could all be unraveled not by sophisticated Starfleet technology or a slip-up by the Klingon, but rather what appeared to be little more than an Easter egg in Discovery's third episode: the trilling tribble on Lorca's desk. As established in the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles," and reaffirmed throughout the franchise, the furry little creatures shriek in the presence of Klingons. It's what gave away the identity of Klingon spy Arne Darvin in that original episode, and it could come into play again in Discovery.

But that's merely one of the trouble with tribbles.


Airing Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Jason Isaacs, Anthony Rapp, Shazad Latif, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz, Mary Chieffo and James Frain.