Much of the plot of Star Trek: Discovery is still a closely guarded secret even though the series will debut in just a couple of weeks. Now, though, we've gotten a new detail regarding Jason Isaacs' Captain Gabriel Lorca, and, honestly, it sounds creepy as all hell. The character has already been billed as a brilliant military tactician who's got some dark and disturbing secrets, and it seems like at least some of those secrets will involve whoever is located in the brig on the U.S.S. Discovery at any given point in time.
TV Guide had the opportunity to do a set visit in August, along with other outlets, and speak with co-showrunner and executive producer Aaron Harberts during the tour. While discussing how many parts of the set double as at least one additional location on either the Discovery or the Shenzhou (which is the other main starship used in the series), Harberts revealed that the ship's brig is also called "Lorca's menagerie," and that Lorca "is a student of war, in addition to being a Starfleet captain." During the set visit, Harberts also said that Lorca will actually spend a lot of his time working in his menagerie, which has secured access, as opposed to his office or on the bridge.
OK, so this might not seem so weird at first glance, but, let's remember, the brig is the prison on any given ship, and Star Trek: Discovery will take place during a time of great tension between the Federation and the Klingons. It was previously described as a "cold" war, but seeing as how the set visit also revealed that Lora's office is home to a battle map showing active conflicts between the two groups, it sounds like things escalate pretty quickly. And, when I add those two things with Lorca's "work" in his "menagerie" and his "disturbing" secrets, I come up with a whole lot of experimenting on prisoners.
Now, for all we know at this point, the Klingons have taken some Federation prisoners and are also using them in this way, and Lorca just figures turnabout is fair play. But, if that were true, he probably wouldn't feel the need to keep it some big secret. And, the same would seem to hold true if he's just interrogating them to get information on the enemy. These thoughts, of course, lead to a whole lot of other questions with potentially creepy answers. How long has Lorca been doing this? Is he acting on orders from above or is this just his personal passion? Will he experiment on anyone who finds themselves imprisoned in the brig, or does he have an enemy experiments only rule? Also, and possibly most importantly, what is he hoping to gain with these experiments? Does he want to eradicate the entire race by unleashing a virus?
Well, we don't have long to wait until we can start to get the real lowdown on Captain Lorca, as Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on CBS and CBS All Access on September 24 at 8:30 EST / 7:30 CST, with the rest of the series airing exclusively every week on the streaming service. For all the info on what's premiering when this fall, be sure to check out our fall premiere guide.
