Star Trek: Discovery - Saru Earns His Stripes as Captain
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 2, "Far From Home," now streaming on CBS All Access.
Since Star Trek: Discovery began, the Captain's chair of the U.S.S. Discovery has been a bit of a revolving door. In Season 1, the crew followed the commands of Captain Lorca, while in Season 2 Christopher Pike took over. But at the end of last season, Pike returned at the helm of his own ship, the Enterprise, leaving the Discovery's chair vacant. Saru was then named interim captain for the crew's final mission against Control before they time-traveled to the future. Now, in the latest episode of the series, "Far From Home," Saru performs admirably against a deadly threat and earns his stripes as Discovery's new captain.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowAt the start of "Far From Home," the Discovery crashes on a planet called The Colony a year after Michael Burnham arrived in the future. As acting captain, it's up to Saru to make sure the Discovery is properly fixed and that everyone aboard survives. Throughout the episode, Saru has multiple duties to perform, and he barely has time to get accustomed to what's going on. His feet are held up to the fire, as the crew works to fix the ship as fast as possible if they have any hope of surviving and finding Michael. There's definitely a bit of a learning curve, but Saru proves how capable of a captain he is by prioritizing the ship's repairs, appointing the right people to the right tasks and reining in Georgiou when he needs to. He even takes the lead for an away mission to establish first contact on The Colony.
During this mission, the Kelpien continues to show how great of a captain he is by revealing that he brought an unnerved Tilly along with him because he wants her at his side to make a good first impression. Through this, he helps her gain her confidence back. Saru continues to put the safety of his crew first when he is threatened by a local courier and his gang. What's more, Saru is even willing to get his hands dirty, as evidenced by him using his ganglia as a lethal attack. And in addition to all that, despite all the pressure he is under in a future he doesn't fully understand yet, Saru continues to uphold Starfleet's ideals to the letter, inspiring a local Coridanite to believe in the Federation once more, even after the catastrophic events of The Burn.
He may just be interim captain for the moment, but Saru has shown that he deserves the chair on a permanent basis. And it's only a matter of time before the rest of his crew recognizes his worthiness.
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