Captain Michael Burnham was a female Terran Imperial Starfleet officer who lived during the mid-23rd century. A figure of immense prestige, during her career she won the Valor, Master of Poisons, and 100 Kills medals. (DIS: "Despite Yourself")
She was known as the "Butcher of the Binary Stars" for executing thousands of Klingons with a single order. (DIS: "The Wolf Inside")
After her parents' death, Burnham was raised as a daughter by Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who she addressed as "Mother". Georgiou was keen on giving the best in everything to her daughter, however, she became jealous of Gabriel Lorca, when Burnham developed an interest in him as a father figure, and later as a love interest. (DIS: "Vaulting Ambition")
While in command of the ISS Shenzhou, Burnham was ordered to hunt down Lorca, who was attempting a coup against the emperor. Her shuttlecraft was destroyed during this operation, leaving her presumed dead and Lorca on the run afterwards. However, in reality, Burnham had turned on the Emperor and sided with Lorca, for which Georgiou issued a death penalty on her. (DIS: "Despite Yourself", "Vaulting Ambition")
The Michael Burnham of the prime universe posed as her, telling others in the Empire that she had faked her death in order to hunt down Lorca. With her apparent Gabriel Lorca posing as the Imperial Starfleet Lorca, she went to the ISS Shenzhou and assumed command from Danby Connor as part of a ruse to obtain intelligence that could help return the crew of the USS Discovery to their own reality. She subsequently killed Connor in self-defense when he attempted to assassinate her. (DIS: "Despite Yourself")
Burnham was in the habit of having her daily ablutions performed by a slave. (DIS: "The Wolf Inside")
In an alternate timeline created by Philippa Georgiou via the Guardian of Forever, Georgiou attempted to prevent Burnham's betrayal with Lorca and save her adopted daughter. After a failed assassination attempt by Paul Stamets, Burnham was arrested and claimed to deeply loathe her adopted mother for taking her in. Rather than execute Burnham, Georgiou arrested her in the hopes of bringing her daughter back to her side. Georgiou had Burnham tortured using an agony booth and visited her, expressing hope for what she could be based on Burnham's Prime universe counterpart and recollecting a fond childhood memory. Burnham subsequently swore allegiance to Georgiou who ordered her and Keyla Detmer to personally execute all of her co-conspirators followed by Detmer and then to hunt down Lorca. However, after Duggan was arrested, Burnhan turned on Georgiou and revealed that it had all been a trick. Georgiou urged her daughter to make a different choice and change like she herself had, but Burnham was convinced that the only way to rule was through an iron fist followed by death. As their forces battled it out, Georgiou and Burnham fought in one of the cells, ending with Georgiou and Burnham killing each other. (DIS: "Terra Firma, Part 1", "Terra Firma, Part 2")
After Georgiou was returned to 3189, the Guardian of Forever revealed that sending her back in time was a test and that while she had killed her daughter once again, she had at least tried to change things and had no choice in the end but to kill Burnham. However, while she had failed to save the mirror Burnham, Georgiou had tried for peace, and she had saved Saru who would go on to save many others. (DIS: "Terra Firma, Part 2")
In 3191, Burnham tried her mirror universe counterpart's codes after finding the ISS Enterprise in order to access the ship's systems. However, they didn't work, suggesting that mirror Burnham must've been dead before the ship crossed universes. (DIS: "Mirrors")
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
According to StarTrek.com, Burnham's shuttle was lost in the Cawdor system. [1](X)
Apocrypha[]
In the Star Trek: Discovery comic miniseries, Succession it was revealed that Burnham pretended to ally with Lorca, in order to stop his plans. However, she could not reveal her plans to Georgiou. Burnham then hid herself on Risa and waited for her moment to strike. She eventually took the mantle of Empress from Georgiou's cousin Alexander (β). However, Burnham was killed by Airiam (β) who then succeeded her as Empress.
External link[]
- Michael Burnham (mirror) at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works