Has Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly) Really left Discovery?
The short answer to this is, “No”… Is everyone ok? No more panicking? Good. Same here.
Spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery “All Is Possible” follow. Continue reading at your peril if you haven’t seen the episode…
((( SPOILER ALERT )))
Still here? Alright, let’s talk about that latest episode.
Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly has made some serious strides in her short Starfleet career. She started out as a cadet on the USS Discovery during the Klingon War and made herself indispensable to several captains, including Gabriel Lorca and Christopher Pike.
She dealt with the existential threat of Control and followed her ship and crew into the distant future to fully end that threat. And upon arrival, she and Discovery’s crew helped to solve the mystery of the Burn and prevented a second cataclysmic dilithium explosion, all while ending another threat to the galaxy, the Emerald Chain.
Five months later, Tilly found herself hip-deep in two new crises. The first, a mysterious gravitational anomaly called the DMA which destroyed the planet Kwejian and threatens to cause even more damage. And a second, more personal quandary: Tilly has found herself out of sorts in this new time, not sure of the path she’s on but willing to right her course or change it thanks to her boundless enthusiasm for, well, everything.
After a training exercise gone awry with several cadets of the reestablished Starfleet Academy and fellow science officer Ensign Adira Tal, Tilly may have found her new calling as an instructor at the Academy. To me, this makes a lot of sense. Tilly has been through the wringer in Starfleet, having seen more in a couple of years’ active duty than some 20-year space veterans.
She has the experience that would be invaluable to new cadets, especially in 3189 when many of those cadets are encountering different species for the first time and may have some trouble adapting. Tilly is an exemplar of the ideals and capabilities of Starfleet and the Federation and now has a chance to really BE an example to the future officers of the fleet while imparting her knowledge and experience, helping to build the next generation of Starfleet.
Teaching can be a very enlightening experience, and I think Tilly will be a much better officer and person for having that opportunity.
Mary Wiseman has spoken to several media outlets regarding the significant changes in Tilly’s storyline. In a recent Forbes article, she explained that the change feels right for Tilly:
It just felt like an organic outgrowth of the story, that she was in this sweet place of questioning, both her past and her motivations for the path that she was currently on. That’s kind of what this character needed, some time to grow, on her own, as an adult.
So it’s kind of a natural extension of that.
Speaking with Slashfilm, the actress talked about how she related to what her character was going through:
Oh, it’s so interesting. I mean, so much of it was pretty accessible because —and I think I can speak for a lot of us — we were all living through a period when we shot it, of personal upheaval.
We had to recalibrate things because we shot through COVID, and I was really grateful to have a storyline that was so synchronous with my own experience, of having to take a new look at things and reassess, and then decide what you want to do from there.
In an interview with TV Insider she spoke of filming the emotional goodbye between Tilly and Burnham:
It was really emotional and really tender. When we read it the first time at our read through, it was really teary. I love Sonequa very, very much as a person. She’s a dear friend. And I also adore Tilly and Burnham’s friendship as it exists in the story and they have had all these nice, quiet, intimate moments with each other kind of sprinkled throughout the series.
And so to return to that sort of home base felt organic and just really special. I hope it came out well because it felt very good as we were doing it, and I love to work with Sonequa. She’s such a good actor.
Regarding Tilly’s future on Discovery, Wiseman told Inverse simply:
You will see Tilly again before the end of the season. Don’t worry.
This matches up with official confirmations from Paramount+ and is restated in several interviews. Wiseman joked that “they have snipers on me right now” preventing her from saying much more, though she did hint to TV Insider that Tilly’s hair and clothing will be different when she returns to the show later this season.
Speaking with TV Line, executive producer Michelle Paradise confirmed that Tilly still has a future on Discovery, saying:
I expect that we will see her again, for sure. We didn’t send her far, far away. We’re keeping her close.
Elaborating further on how natural this transition feels for Tilly, Paradise said:
It’s a place where she feels like she fits and can do good right now. It doesn’t mean it has to be forever, but it did feel like…
Digging in a little more deeply to why was that path her dream and where did it come from? Having her ask some of those questions feels like a way of showing her growth as a character.
Mary Wiseman was on this week’s episode of The Ready Room with Wil Wheaton, which you watch below
No matter how you feel about Mary taking a small yet important break from the bridge, Tilly will be back and just like she has done in the past, she will make an impact upon her return…
Star Trek: Discovery returns with “All Is Possible” this Thursday on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.
