Star Trek: 10 Best Background Characters On Discovery

Everyone in the Trekkie fandom can spends days arguing who their favorite main bridge cast-member is in Discovery. The biased opinion of the person writing this is that Saru is best boy. However, Discovery doesn't get its cast magic just from the people hogging all the spotlight. Half the wonder and efficacy of Star Trek is making the ship feel lived in and vibrant, in its diversity and cast of characters.

Ergo, there are some fantastic background characters in Discovery that don't get nearly enough credit for the work their awesome butts do. Let's take a moment to honor them and hope they get some more screen time in season 3.

10 Jett Reno

Unlike a lot of the background characters on this list, Jett has had quite a few big character moments. She has her professional banter with Stamets but also has opened up about the loss of her wife.

She's a hilariously funny character than fans adore. While Stamets is a great engineer, a more classic, grumpy Starfleet chief is a breath of fresh air among the other science-heavy, theorist characters. Whether it's a well-timed swear or her blunt honesty, Jett Reno was a great addition in season 2 and Discovery made a great choice by keeping her around.

9 Joann Owosekun

Much like Geordi and Data in the day, Joann and Keyla are the navigation dream team, and a friendship dynamic duo, that everyone wishes they could be. The downside of that, though, is that since Discovery's format is so different, fans don't get to see much of them together.

The only plus side is that even in her small moments with her friends, Joann is a fantastic character. She clearly is an intelligent, dedicated young woman who loves her friends and the ship she's on. As Discovery heads into season 3, she definitely deserves some more screen-time and character growth.

8 Amanda Grayson

Considering she's been a side character throughout several generations of Star Trek stories, Amanda Grayson deserves credit in any and all forms. In Discovery, she does a great job of showing her sincere devotion to her children and the fact she will even defy her husband and the entirety of Starfleet to protect them.

Where Michael, Sarek, and Spock can struggle with their emotions, Amanda embraces them. The love she feels for her family is inspiring from her kind face-touches to her infamous love of Alice in Wonderland.

7 Nhan

Coming from the Enterprise, Nhan was a high-level security officer there. Her breathing apparatus can cause her serious risk in a fight, but she never backs down from beating up a bad guy and protecting her ship. During her time on the Discovery, she really finds a place for herself among the ship of misfits and finds a unique respect and feeling of unity that the Enterprise clearly didn't give her.

Though sometimes watching her fight is nerve-wracking (see aforementioned dangerous breathing apparatus), she's a beautiful, competent, interesting character. Fans definitely won't be able to wait to see how she grows in season 3.

6 Tracy Pollard

When Dr. Culber was brutally offed by Ash Tyler, there was a hole in med-bay that needed to be filled. Enter Tracy Pollard, a serious Starfleet doctor dedicated to healing everyone on the ship. She seems wiser and dryer than Hugh, which leads to a lot more clinical seriousness and more sarcastic humor. However, even though Culber's loss was sudden and heartbreaking, she stepped up into the role and did a great job.

In any crisis situation, she always kept her cool, and she never let her patients back-talk her. The Discovery needed a firm hand like hers to make sure its crew took all their ailments seriously. She hasn't had any character development, but she is a much needed side character.

5 Osnullus

While Trekkies adore their favorite franchise and all their favorite aliens in them, Star Trek has always been infamous for having some pretty basic alien designs. Since the show is a serialized TV program, they can only commit to so much makeup before each episode. Luckily, between CGI and a bigger budget, Discovery really knocks those old assumptions out of the park. Sure, most every character is still humanoid, but there have been some bold and creative new designs put on side characters.

One great example is Osnullus, a bridge officer with a huge cranium, multiple eyes, and a wildly unique look. Sure, they haven't had much screen time, but they add such rich diversity to the characters on screen and it's awesome.

4 Keyla

Star Trek has always been an unsung hero for people with disabilities or abnormalities. Instead of pretending the universe is perfect and they don't exist, the show always has the future adapt to them. For example, Geordi's visor to let him see in his own, unique way.

Discovery's shining star (when it comes to disability representation) is Keyla. Keyla was a helmsman when the Klingon War started, and in the first battle, lost her left eye. Instead of dooming her, Starfleet got her a new optical replacement. Not only does it give her a cool futuristic look, but also it augments her vision so she's just as good of a pilot (if not better) than before. Instead of having some conflict about her changed vision, everyone on the ship just accepts her for the great pilot she is.

3 Jira Narwani

This is a character that has gotten fans buzzing. She only showed up in the pilot, and she wasn't even named or credited on screen, but her design dazzled them. Much like Airiam, Jira looks to be a cyborg-like character with a lot of robotic components to her. However, unlike Airiam, whose entire body seems wired to a system, Jira just had this huge robotic head atop a normal body.

Now, that can sound disjointed, but with how cool the head is? It's absolutely amazing to see on screen. Though fans haven't seen her since the USS Shenzhou, all it took is one look for her to excite Trekkies everywhere.

2 Gen Rhys

While many of these great background characters fleshed out the cast in Season 2, Gen Rhys has always been there since the beginning. He worked under officer Landry before her unfortunate demise, and then was appointed chief tactical officer after than.

Fans don't see him too much on his own, he's often in the background or in people's memories. But the few times he does show up, he shines. He has quite the charismatic smile, used to do combat training with Airiam, and generally seems like a great guy. Given time, he could become the suave, promoted Harry Kim that Harry Kim wished he was.

1 Linus

From a very biased writer, the coolest background character of Discovery, that hasn't gotten nearly enough screen time, is Linus. Star Trek has had a lot of amazing and unique aliens, but Discovery has really upped the game on original creatures and futuristic characters. The few lines of dialogue that Linus has had are all golden.

While what fans have seen is fantastic, the real magic behind Linus is what people haven't. He's such an intriguing character to look at, fans can't help but wonder what else there is to know about him. Hopefully, season 3 (and beyond) will have more Linus because that awesome guy deserves it.

Source: screenrant.com