Trek in warp drive again
This spinoff/ prequel series New Worlds Treks back to the future and introduces a new Spock, writes
WE are not long into the new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, before we are confronted with the image of a bare-chested Spock.
In 1966, when the original
Star Trek was unfurled, it did not take long for fans to begin a fascination with the sexual side of the cool and logical Vulcan. Spocksploitation, anyone?
For Ethan Peck, the actor playing Spock in this spinoff/ prequel series, those scenes, and another where Spock, who suppresses his emotions, is heard to laugh, are a sign that by dialling the clock back to less than a decade before the 2265 setting of the original series – we are in unfamiliar territory.
‘‘There’s a certain amount of fun that he’s finding in being himself, in being these strange and disparate halves of himself,’’ says Peck. (Spock is half-human, half-Vulcan.)
‘‘He’s really trying to balance his two sides, which is what I think makes him such a compelling character.
‘‘I think it also speaks to so many of us who are constantly drawn between our emotional and impulsive sides and our more civilised parts that we must present ourselves in a way, and behave in a rational manner. There’s a certain amount of fun to be had in discovering that. What is too rational? What is too emotional?
‘‘We’re provided with an opportunity on Strange New Worlds, to really get into his inner life and more deeply understand his conflicts, his insecurities, his doubts, his romantic curiosities. He’s so mythical at this point.’’
If you like Star Trek, Strange New Worlds beats a path back to the core of the half-century old franchise. A television series, episodic in nature, set on the iconic starship that started it all, the USS Enterprise, going boldly where no-one has gone before to seek out new life forms and visit strange new worlds. If you find the long-form storytelling of the newer Star Trek shows too ponderous, then this is your
show; the Star Trek franchise’s The Mandalorian.
Commanding the ship is Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), who audiences first met in the 1965 Star Trek pilot The Cage, when he was played by actor Jeffrey Hunter. Pike’s first officer, Number One (Rebecca Romijn), is an update of The
Cage character played by Majel Barrett, the wife of Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry. In Strange New Worlds, she even gets a name, Una Chin-Riley.
And, of course, there is Mr Spock, played here by Peck, but played in the original series and films by the legendary Leonard Nimoy, and in the more recent films by Zachary Quinto. At this point in the story’s canonical history, Spock is just the ship’s science officer, fresh off the shuttle and finding his way.
In a way, ironically, Spock has become something of a Rosetta Stone for Star Trek’s stories, like Hamlet or Macbeth, a characteristic anchor through whose struggle we can open a window into the storytelling.
In his third incarnation, he feels like the most recast of the Star Trek characters, though there are as many Captain Kirks. Each is different, but all are quintessentially Spock.
‘‘That’s a flattering comparison, not just for the actors playing him, but for the character himself,’’ Peck says.
‘‘I am just trying to do my best to discover him every day that I work. With each new script, I’m presented with new challenges, and I’m quite often frightened. But I have given myself over to this unknown that occurs every single day that we work.’’
Perhaps the most striking thing about the series is its physical structure. One of the challenges setting Star Trek projects in the close-to-Original Series era is they cannot replicate the 1966 television series too closely, lest they look dated. Strange New Worlds has struck that balance magnificently, delivering a USS Enterprise that serves as a piece of future tech, without departing too dramatically from the midcentury aesthetic which informed the original series.
‘‘Architecture is one of the most misunderstood, underappreciated, aspects of acting,’’ Mount says. ‘‘Knowing and being able to use one’s environment in relationship to a camera and other people. Every time, every space I walk into, one of the things I’m thinking about is architecture.
‘‘In this case, there is such a legacy there that we really
wanted to find a balance, a call back to something, and yet something that is still going to feel not only futuristic today, but is going to meet the very high standards of today’s television. How do you balance all of that?’’
Though the subtle design notes have changed, the Strange New Worlds bridge is essentially the same bridge introduced in early episodes of Star Trek:
Discovery, which set up the new series.
For the three actors who first appeared in Discovery – Peck, Mount and Romijn – the pinchme moment was back on Discovery when they first walked onto the bridge.
‘‘We had a very physical reaction to it,’’ Romijn recalls. ‘‘Like, what is happening right now? Is it possible that they built this set for one episode? We had no inkling where this would take us.’’
It reflects one key point, adds Mount, which is that the USS Enterprise is a character in the story. ‘‘I am not the star of the show, Pike is not the star of the show, the cast is not the star of the show, the Enterprise is the star of the show,’’ he says.
‘‘As is the big idea of the week. Television is at its best when it serves as a metaphorical platform in which we can talk about other stuff. And Star Trek
was one of the shows that has done that the best. It’s really a mandate to us to continue to do that, so hearkening back to the episodic structure clears out space for the big idea, or the big planet, of the week.
‘‘What I loved about the Original Series was. . . that sense of excitement I got turning on the TV. Because not only did we not know where the Enterprise would end up, we didn’t even know where the Enterprise would start.
‘‘I wasn’t tuning in to find out what happens in this relationship or with this cliffhanger or with that plot line. I was tuning in to see the new discovery. And hopefully, we’ve managed to bring that sense of excitement to our episodes.’’
–