‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Who’s Who on Discovery’s Crew

• TOS: James T. Kirk
• TNG: Jean-Luc Picard
• DIS: Gabriel Lorca (deceased), Christopher Pike (active)

Of all the positions in Star Trek, this is the one that’s always easiest to identify. Which character is top-billed and gets all the action? That’s the captain, like Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). Leave it to Discovery to complicate matters, though, because “top-billed” and “gets all the action” actually describes Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green, who is not the captain! Initially, the USS Discovery was captained by Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) until he was outed as an evil citizen of the Mirror Universe at the end of Season 1. Then Saru (Doug Jones) took over as acting captain until the arrival of Captain Pike (Anson Mount) in Season 2.

• TOS: Spock
• TNG: William Riker
• DIS: Saru

It’s the first officer’s job to make sure that the crew carries out all of the commanding officer’s orders, and he also takes an active role in leading away teams while the captain remains on ship. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) pulled double duty as the first officer and the science officer. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) was Picard’s number one. Saru started out as the chief science officer of the USS Shenzhou and became the first officer of Discovery, a role he still fulfills today.

• TOS: Montgomery Scott
• TNG: Geordi La Forge
• DIS: Jett Reno

It’s the chief engineering officer’s job to make sure the ship runs smoothly, and you usually see them away from the main bridge and down in the bowels of the vessel. This is what Scotty (James Doohan) did on the first series, and it’s the role Geordi (LeVar Burton) took on in Next Gen after spending the first season as the helmsman. As for who acts as the chief engineer on Discovery, well, that’s confusing. You’d think that job would fall to Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), but his job is more specific than that (more on him later). There is an engineer on board Discovery as of Season 2, though, and that’s Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), survivor of the USS Hiawatha disaster and new (although rarely seen) addition to the Discovery crew.

• TOS: Spock
• TNG: Data
• DIS: Michael Burnham

On a vessel tasked with exploring the far reaches of space, you need someone with a science background on board to help make sense of new alien worlds and species. Spock fulfilled that role while serving as Kirk’s number one. By the time of Next Generation, science officers had become less common on Starfleet vessels. Still, science officer duties sometimes fell to Data (Brent Spiner). On Discovery, Michael Burnham–you know, the show’s lead character–is actually the science officer. There’s also another science officer on board: the scene-stealing Linus!

• TOS: Leonard McCoy
• TNG: Beverly Crusher, Katherine Pulaski
• DIS: Hugh Culber, Tracy Pollard

This job really needs no further explanation past the title, does it? These people keep the rest of the crew alive. That’s what Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) did in the original series and it’s what Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) did a generation later (there’s also Pulaski, but Trek fans don’t like talking about Pulaski). On Discovery, that job falls to Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) as well as Tracy Pollard, who filled in for Culber while he was, uh, dead-ish.

• TOS: Nyota Uhura
• TNG: Pendleton
• DIS: Milton Richter (former), R.A. Bryce (active)

The communications officer handles all transmissions incoming and outgoing, a gig that becomes stressful when you’re trying to communicate with potentially hostile entities. Uhura served as communications officer, playing an important role in pop culture. That’s why it’s kinda wild that TNG just didn’t have a communications officer, at least one that was onscreen. Geordi name drops a Chief Pendleton in one episode, but we never see him. The communications officer torch was picked up in Discovery Season 1 by Milton Richter, and then carried by R.A. Bryce (Ronnie Rowe Jr.) in Season 2.

• TOS: Hikaru Sulu
• TNG: Geordi La Forge, Wesley Crusher, various
• DIS: Keyla Detmer

When you get down to it, who has the most necessary job on a ship? The helmsman–you know, the person that actually flies the ship. Sulu (George Takei) flew the Enterprise through a bunch of missions in the first series. Geordi sat behind the “wheel” in the first season of TNG before moving to engineering. After that, a series of helmsmen took their turn, including Sariel Rager and Ro Laren. Oddly enough, the most notable TNG helmsman is probably teenager Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). On Discovery, Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts) has served as the helmsman for both the USS Shenzhou and USS Discovery.

• TOS: Pavel Chekov
• TNG: Natasha Yar (deceased), Worf
• DIS: Ellen Landry (deceased), Ash Tyler (former), Nhan (active), Gen Rhys (active)

Over the course of canon, chief tactical officer and security chief have been combined into one role. Chekov (Walter Koenig) had the job, as did Worf (Michael Dorn). It’s also a dangerous job; TNG’s Tasha Yar and Discovery’s Ellen Landry both died while on the clock. Ash Tyler stepped into the role on Discovery until his true identity was uncovered. Now Nhan (Rachael Ancheril) has transferred over to Discovery from Enterprise and serves as security chief. Separate from the security chief, Gen Rhys acts as Discovery’s tactical officer.

• TNG: Data
• DIS: Joann Owosekun

Data’s primary job on the USS Enterprise was as the operations officer, the man (or rather android) in charge of keeping track of the resources being allocated to all parts of the ship, from navigation to engineering. On Discovery, Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) keeps everything running smoothly.

• TNG: Miles O’Brien
• DIS: Paul Stamets, Airiam

The transporter chief does exactly what you think they do: they control the super important transporter system. During the original series, that role fell under the umbrella of engineering, hence (the misquotation) “beam me up, Scotty.” Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) served as transporter chief on TNG before being promoted and moved to Deep Space 9.

And then there’s Discovery, a show that doesn’t have a transporter chief (that we’ve met). It does, however, have a whole department devoted to the ship’s one-of-a-kind spore drive that allows the ship to essentially teleport long distances via the mycelial network. All that spore stuff is kind of a massive transporter, one that transports the whole ship. Stamets and Airiam (Sara Mitich S1; Hannah Cheesman S2) are in the very small spore department.

• TOS: Various
• TNG: Wesley Crusher
• DIS: Sylvia Tilly

Ensign is the rank usually assigned to officers fresh out of Starfleet Academy. At first, ensigns were mostly the redshirts that beamed down to alien planets just to die. For a long time, TNG’s Wesley Crusher was the most recognizable ensign in Trek canon, until Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) came along and started seeing action on a weekly basis (seriously, she does a lot for an ensign).

Stream Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access