Voq

Voq was a Klingon antagonist introduced in the Star Trek: Discovery pilot The Vulcan Hello.

He was portrayed by Shazad Latif.

Due to his albino skin, Voq was an outcast from Klingon society. After the death of the original Torchbearer after Rejac was accidentally killed by Michael Burnham Voq was chosen by T'Kuvma as the new Torchbearer. He became one of T'Kuvma's most fanatical followers, speaking in support of T'Kuvma's cause to the members of the Klingon High Council.

Following the death of T'Kuvma the Sarcophagus was left disabled. Voq and L'Rell were left stranded with the crew of the Sarcophagus at the site of the Battle of the Binary Stars, slowly running out of food and supplies. General Kol was able to convince the crew to turn against Voq by supplying them with food and supplies. After the Sarcophagus was repaired Voq was left on board the wreck of the USS Shenzhou to die.

L'Rell, however was still on Voq's side, and beamed on board the Shenzhou to join Voq. She provided Voq with the means to go to the House of Mo'Kai - who specialized in infiltration and espionage. She warned Voq that he would have to sacrifice everything to defeat Kol and the Federation. At some point after his escape from the Shenzhou Voq engaged in intercourse with L'Rell.

Reaching the House of Mo'Kai Voq underwent surgical procedures over the course of several months to give him the appearance and memories of a Starfleet prisoner of war named Ash Tyler.

As part of the plans, Voq's personality was buried beneath that of Tyler's. L'Rell captured Captain Gabriel Lorca of the Discovery, giving Voq and Lorca the means to escape from her ship.

After returning to the Discovery, Voq/Tyler was subjected to medical tests. Assuming the wounds from the surgery to have been resulting from torture, Voq/Tyler passed these tests. Due to the memory transfer Voq/Tyler was able to convince Starfleet that he was Tyler, and Lorca offered Voq/Tyler the position of Security Chief on the Discovery.

Voq/Tyler began experiencing flashbacks of his previous life. The Tyler personality interpreted his intercourse with L'Rell as the latter raping him, and the surgical procedures as medical experimentation upon him.

During a trip to the Mirror Universe, Voq/Tyler encountered his mirror counterpart. Angered over the mirror Voq's willingness to work with other species to defeat the Terran Empire, he attacked the mirror Voq, but was defeated in combat. Burnham was barely able to convince the rebels to leave Voq/Tyler alive.

The encounter finally awakened Voq's personality, and he and Burnham beamed back on board the ISS Shenzhou he attacked Burnham. Voq was stopped from killing Burnham by the mirror Saru, who reported to the Shenzhou crew that Voq/Tyler had attempted to kill Burnham. Sentenced to die by the Shenzhou crew, Voq was beamed in to space by Burnham. Voq was beamed aboard the Discovery before he could suffocate to death.

Voq then told Saru that Burnham should have let him die, but Saru said that even though they were in the mirror universe that Federation law still applied and that Voq would be tried according to Federation law. Voq was then taken in to custody by the Discovery crew.

Trivia

 * Prior to the revelation that Tyler was a disguised Voq, Voq was credited as being portrayed by Javid Iqbal. This pseudonym was chosen by Latif in memory of his late father.