I serve the light of Kahless. I am reborn in his flames.
~ Voq to T'Kuvma.

Voq is an antagonistic Klingon who was 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.

However, L'Rell 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 and prior to his transformation Voq engaged in intercourse with L'Rell, which resulted in L'Rell becoming pregnant with and bearing Voq a son.

Voq disguised as Ash Tyler.

Reaching the House of Mo'Kai Voq underwent a surgical procedure the House of Mo'Kai termed species reassignment 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.

Just before the Sarcophagus was destroyed L'Rell jumped on Voq/Tyler's back as he beamed back on board the Discovery. He confronted L'Rell in her cell, who tried to awaken Voq's true personality by reciting a Klingon prayer. Voq understood the prayer and was able to give the correct responses, however it did not awaken his true personality.

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 - she attended to it personally so that Voq could be beamed to an area where he could subsequently be beamed aboard the Discovery. Prior to beaming him away Burnham put a data card containing all the Empire's data on the Defiant on Voq's person.

Voq was beamed aboard the Discovery before he could suffocate to death. Saru retrieved the data card Burnham had placed on Voq and the crew began their analysis of the Defiant data. 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 taken in to custody by the Discovery crew.

After his arrest the human and Klingon parts of Tyler and Voq began warring for control over his body. Saru eventually convinced L'Rell to help Tyler/Voq, who told Saru that the changes to Tyler could be undone. She was taken to sickbay, where she performed a procedure on Tyler/Voq. After the procedure was done Voq was apparently gone and the Tyler personality was back in control. L'Rell roared with grief.

In the days following the Tyler personality had resumed control of his body. While Tyler had access to Voq's memories and abilities - such as that to speak Klingon - there was apparently no sign of Voq's personality within him anymore. Following the end of the Federation-Klingon War Tyler remained on Qo'noS with L'Rell, who had stepped out of the shadows to assume a leadership role within the Klingon Empire.

After L'Rell and Tyler barely survived a challenge to L'Rell's leadership by Kol-Sha with the assistance of Section 31 agent Philippa Georgiou, Tyler recognized it was too dangerous to L'Rell to remain at her side. With Georgiou's assistance Tyler faked his death and that of his son.

Tyler took the baby to Boreth to be raised by the monks there, knowing that the child would be safe there from other power hungry Klingons. He accompanied Georgiou on Section 31's starship as it departed to continue the mission. Section 31's Control felt that Tyler would be a strong asset to the organization.

After the mission to keep Control from evolving and wiping out all sentient life in the galaxy, Tyler was one of the few surviving agents. Named the acting commander of Section 31 by Starfleet, Tyler was quickly named the permanent leader of 31. Tyler made it his mission to prevent anything like Control from rising again.


  • In order to keep the fact that Tyler was a disguised Voq a secret from audiences, Voq was credited as being portrayed by Javid Iqbal. This pseudonym was chosen by Latif in memory of his late father.


           Star Trek Logo.png Villains

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: V'Ger
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Whale Probe | Kamarag
Star Trek: First Contact: The Borg (Borg Queen)
Star Trek (2009): Romulans (Nero & Ayel)
Star Trek Into Darkness: Khan | Alexander Marcus
Star Trek Beyond: Krall | Manas | Kalara

