Spock Is Coming To Star Trek: Discovery
As Spock would say, it's only logical.
After months of speculation, Spock is officially coming to the cast of Star Trek: Discovery, bringing the franchise prequel ever closer to territory first forged by Star Trek: The Original Series more than 50 years ago.
The news was first reported on by Comic Book, which took the information from Justin Oser, the host of the Star Trek: The Next Generation-related show Earl Grey on Trek FM.
On the show, Oser confirmed the news that Anson Mount from Hell on Wheels and Marvel's Inhumans would be joining the cast of the series as Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike, elaborating that the character would make his first appearance in the second episode of Star Trek: Discovery's second season.
Further, Oser stated on Twitter that a young Spock would also appear in the second episode in flashbacks, seen alongside a younger version of his adopted sister Michael Burnham.
According to Oser, Jonathan Frakes (a director for Discovery who also played William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation) confirmed the news of the young Spock and Michael flashbacks.
The flashback format is an interesting approach for Discovery to take for this slow-burn establishing of the Spock character, the possible arrival of whom viewers have been looking forward to with anticipation — or dread.
One consistent issue longtime Star Trek fans have had about Discovery regards the way it tends to play fast and loose with established characters and canon, with one of the show's "original sins" being making the human Michael a sister of Spock and a ward of Sarek to begin with. (Sarek, Spock's father, has appeared in several episodes of Discovery so far, played by James Frain.)
In the overall Star Trek timeline, a Spock roughly ten years younger than his Original Series counterpart is out there in the world somewhere already in Discovery, coming up in Starfleet as he prepares to join Kirk as first officer on the Enterprise. The news that a young Spock is in the immediate future for the show opens up a lot, regarding potential future grown-up appearances for the character — and even others, should the showrunners decide to go that way.
Previously, showrunners for the series indicated that they would not be casting an adult Spock for the series. According to executive producer Aaron Harberts, speaking to Comic Book, "we'd never want to go down that road."
"We live a lot in memory and flashback," Harberts said. "The center of our show is always Michael Burnham."
Depending on how things shake out, Star Trek: Discovery might start looking a whole lot like The Original Series the further it goes along, as years go by and more and more familiar faces like Spock get referenced or arrive for new adventures. Whether that's the right thing or not for Star Trek as a whole is something for fans to debate.
The second season of Star Trek: Discovery is in development now; No release date has yet been announced.