Michael Burnham’s long road from convicted prisoner to starship captain is one of the things that separates her from other Star Trek protagonists. Until Star Trek: Discovery, the lead in every show was either a captain in their own right or the senior Federation officer onboard. Burnham started out on that arc, then took a hard right turn when held accountable for starting the Klingon-Federation War. She was convicted of mutiny after a go-for-broke gamble blew up in her face. However, it was an unjust accusation.

Her redemption is part of what makes Discovery different from its predecessors by taking her road to the captain chair as a work in progress rather than a given before the series begins. It also left Burnham the victim of a fundamental injustice that wasn’t erased until her pardon at the beginning of Season 2. The specifics of the incident profoundly affected her, leaving her with an immense desire to atone, but the circumstances were complex.

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Burnham fights a Klingon

Burnham’s problems with the chain of command began with Discovery's premiere, “The Vulcan Hello.” As the USS Shenzhou's first officer, she was present during a tense early Starfleet encounter with the Klingons. Believing an attack to be imminent, she overrode her captain’s orders -- disabling the Prime universe’s Captain Georgiou with a Vulcan nerve pinch -- and took command of the ship, intending to fire on the Klingons. Georgiou recovered before the order could be carried out and threw Burnham in the brig.

Her position got worse in the next episode: Season 1, Episode 2, “The Battle of the Binary Stars." Negotiations with the Klingons fell apart, and a Starfleet fleet was badly damaged in the ensuing conflict, so Georgiou and Burnham beamed over to the Klingon flagship to capture its commander. Georgiou was killed, and war with the Klingons began. Burnham was held accountable for the entire affair, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison.

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The fact that she pleaded guilty to the charges and offered no defense for her actions made her look all the more guilty to the Federation. Furthermore, she was the first Starfleet officer ever convicted of mutiny, leaving her persona non grata among the Discovery crew for some time thereafter. Even former friends like Keyla Detmer wanted nothing to do with her.

Star Trek Discovery Burnham in Prison Garb

And yet, none of it was her fault, at least with the full picture in mind. The encounter began when she was attacked by a Klingon while investigating a signal from a damaged relay. The Klingons were already moving toward war with the Federation and considered the warrior Burnham killed to be the first casualty in that conflict. Her keenness to attack the Klingons didn't come from her parents’ deaths at their hands, but because she believed an aggressive stance would save lives and foster more respect from the Klingons.

That doesn’t excuse her behavior -- which includes defying orders and assaulting her commanding officer with the nerve pinch. Still, neither does it make her accountable for a war the Klingons started and actions taken in the name of protecting her ship. Her guilty pleas and lack of legal defense came as much from guilt over Georgiou’s death as from the war itself. However, the moral burden she took on was never entirely hers to bear. As such, her rise to captain became all the more impressive for the unjust position she found herself in when she first arrived onboard.

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