The meaning of the Red Directive, explained

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery began with an enticing premise. Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) receives a red directive from a top Federation official, Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg), tasking her with a secret mission. An abandoned 800-year-old Romulan science ship is lost in deep space, and Burnham is sent to find a mysterious object on board. However, it appears that the facility was first found by a pair of mysterious marauders named Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis). After a few planet-hopping games of cat and mouse, Captain Burnham retrieves the object from them and discovers that it is a journal written by 24th century scientists that points to the location of impossibly ancient technology built by the Ancestors.

Trekkies will be able to tell you the progenitors may have been the very first humanoid species to evolve in the galaxy. A single progenitor seeded millions of worlds with their DNA, causing evolution on each one. This means that every humanoid species in Star Trek shares a common ancestor. The rest of the fifth season follows an Indiana Jones-style adventure as Burnham and her colleague Captain Reiner (Collum Keith Rennie) try to track down the mysterious Progenitor technology before Moll and L'ak can. Of course, there are several plot twists along the way.

But what the hell is a “red directive”. Its name, of course, implies that it is an extremely important mission, but strangely enough, the term was not used in Star Trek until this episode. This seems to go from Starfleet's top brass being able to commandeer any ship to any mission at a moment's notice, and that the mission must remain top secret. Doctor Kovich seems to have a lot of influence in Starfleet. This creates an additional mystery: What the hell is Kovic's rank?

Through the dialogue, Trekkies can only deduce what the Red Directive actually is. We know that the Red Directives can only be given in a top-secret place called the Infinity Room, a secret location deep inside Starfleet Headquarters, making them the most exclusive of orders that are only given in person. Some starship captains seem to receive red directives often, as Captain Reiner notes that he is now on his eighth.

Flash forward to the end of “Star Trek: Discovery” and Captain Burnham has completed her mission, found the Ancestor Widget and stashed it safely away next to the black hole. She announces that the Red Directive has been shut down and that all details of her mission will be immediately classified. So it seems that the Red Directive is just a fancy term for a top secret mission that you might hear about in the movie “Mission Impossible”.

And who is Ković that he can issue red directives? His ability to do so even undermines the authority of Fleet Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr), one of the highest-ranking officers in the service. It seems Kovic's backstory was more complicated than first thought. In the 32nd century, Kovich appears to be some sort of obscure CEO overseeing various aspects of the Federation bureaucracy. However, in the fifth season of Discovery, he will be revealed as a very long-lived time traveler named Daniel, who has interacted with various Star Trek ships during his lifetime. Daniel famously appeared in several episodes of “Star Trek: Enterprise” played by Matt Winston. His research into events in Star Trek history seems to give him a lot of appeal at headquarters.

“Discovery” ends with Burnham receiving another red directiveand she is on her merry way. The adventures seem to continue.