David Cronenberg's Star Trek: Discovery Role Explained - Who Is Doctor Kovich?

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Discovery"

The universe of "Star Trek" is so jam-packed full of fascinating characters — human and otherwise — that there's always tons of information we don't know about them, even the recurring ones. Someone like Dr. Kovich (played by the esteemed horror director David Cronenberg), for example, has been making his presence felt over the last three seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery," but for the most part, very little has been revealed about his actual character.

While this might be frustrating for lore-hungry fans, it has also allowed him to remain a tantalizingly mysterious figure whose true intentions are always unclear. Until now, that is. In the series finale of "Star Trek: Discovery," we finally get an explanation of who Dr. Kovich really is — and the reveal is a lovely gift to fans of "Star Trek: Enterprise." Because Dr. Kovich isn't just Dr. Kovich, the chaotic sometimes-ally of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Starfleet officer whose job operates in a cloud of secrets: He's also Agent Daniels, a temporal operative featured in "Enterprise."

For a long time now, "Star Trek" has had a complicated history with the concept of time travel. While sometimes it's been used as a band-aid of sorts, to cover up any inconsistencies between the many different arms of the franchise, that doesn't mean that there aren't any internal rules about messing with time. Thus, different "Star Trek" series have employed the use of temporal agents, whose job is to maintain the integrity of crucial timelines, even if that means going into the past themselves and cajoling key figures into making the right choices.

It's in this capacity that we first meet Agent Daniels on "Star Trek: Enterprise." Originally played by Matt Winston, he made his first appearance back in 2001 in the Season 1 episode "Cold Front," and appeared several times over the first four seasons of the show. He would often turn up to resolve some time-related crisis or to nudge Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) into aiding him in his efforts to preserve the timeline. In a landscape where many of the frontiers of space are being mapped out, Daniels was a reminder that time (perhaps the final final frontier) still presents its own mystery. His return as Dr. Kovich is a pleasant surprise, especially to "Enterprise" fans, and adds to the satisfying conclusion of the "Star Trek: Discovery" finale that capped off a stellar final season.