'Star Trek: Discovery' season 1 episode 11 spoilers: Burnham struggles to keep her humanity

Promotional poster of "Star Trek: Discovery" from CBS.Official CBS website

In the next episode of "Star Trek: Discovery," Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) struggles to be her evil alternate self in the parallel universe.

The trailer for the upcoming installment, which is titled "The Wolf Inside," was released just recently, and it shows Burnham sitting in the captain's chair of the Discovery in the alternate universe. The people in this Starfleet are cruel and ruthless just like the Klingons.

Therefore, Burnham has to pretend to be heartless and show the crew that she has no mercy when it comes to conquering the galaxy. "Every moment is a test, and everywhere I turn, there's fear. Can you continue to pretend to be one of them, even as little by little, it kills the person you really are?" Burnham says to her colleague Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) as he caresses her in a private moment.

It seems that she is starting to doubt if she can keep her humanity while pretending to be a ruthless captain. "Maybe none of us really know what darkness is waiting inside," she expresses in an ominous tone.

Later, she leads her alternate crew to a planet and meets her Vulcan foster father, Sarek (James Farin), from that universe and his forces. They appear to have a misunderstanding and end up fighting them in a laser battle. It remains to be seen what will happen in that fight and if Burnham's humanity will endure.

In the last episode, Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) and the crew realized that they ended up in a parallel universe when they tried to use the unstable spore drive. Moreover, they discovered that the Starfleet and their alternate selves weren't humane explorers but merciless conquerors of the galaxy.

"Star Trek: Discovery" season 1 episode 11 will hit the airwaves on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 8:30 p.m. EST on CBS All Access.