Star Trek: Discovery's Two Ships Explained

Star Trek: Discovery screenshot — (Image credit: CBS)

Star Trek: Discovery tells a story of two Federation ships — the U.S.S. Shenzou, and the titular U.S.S. Discovery. Now, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg have revealed how the ships relate to each other — and to the larger plot.

The connection between the ships all comes down to main character Sonequa Martin-Green's First Officer Michael Burnham, according to Harberts.

"Burnham [has] spent a lot of time on Vulcan, but she's human," Harberts told Entertainment Weekly. "Sarek [Spock's father, played by James Frain] plays an important role in her life, which has been completely planned until she makes a very difficult choice that sends her life on a very different path. When we meet her, she's the First Officer on the Starship Shenzhou [captained by Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh]. And Burnham's choice that we're alluding to is most difficult choice you can make — it affects her, affects Starfleet, affects the Federation, it affects the entire universe. That choice leads her to a different ship, the Discovery [helmed by Captain Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs] and there we begin what Gretchen and I call our 'second pilot.'"

George Marston is Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. George has also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)