Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Knows That Vulcans Are Not Robots [Exclusive]
For all their fancy technology, supremely advanced philosophical ideals, and blissfully post-capitalist societies, "Star Trek" characters are really not all that different from you and me. In "Strange New Worlds" alone, you have characters like Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike who spends his downtime off the clock rocking an apron while cooking up his latest meal. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), meanwhile, would rather face the most impossible medical emergency than confront her most vulnerable and innermost feelings. And Ethan Peck's Spock? Well, even the emotionally distant half-human/half-Vulcan feels the pressure of impressing his future in-laws at a make-or-break ritualistic dinner with his fiancée T'Pring (Gia Sandhu) on board the Enterprise.
The latest laugh riot of an episode, titled "Charades," aired this week and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the cast and crew behind "Strange New Worlds" understand these characters just as well as the most hardcore Trekkies in the fandom.
In an exclusive interview, /Film's Jacob Hall had the chance to speak to episode director Jordan Canning about how she managed to devote an entire hour to Spock's internal struggle between his human and Vulcan halves, expertly literalizing that tug-of-war raging inside him as only "Trek" can do. On an away mission with Nurse Chapel gone horribly wrong, an ancient alien civilization decides to help Spock out of a jam ... by genetically erasing any trace of his Vulcan self. This sudden identity crisis — and all the human emotions that follow — wouldn't even be so bad, if only the most important Vulcan dinner of his and T'Pring's lives wasn't coming up.
That's right, "Strange New Worlds" stole a trope right out of every rom-com and upstaged the classic awkward family dinner scene with one about an unwelcome, half-human boyfriend. Here's how.
A funny thing happened on the way to a Vulcan wedding ritual...
As it happens, transforming Spock into a full human only helps us understand Vulcans that much more. In his interview with "Strange New Worlds" director Jordan Canning, /Film's Jacob Hall asked the filmmaker about the intricate balance involved in directing actors to embody the emotionally-suppressed subtleties necessary in bringing several different Vulcans to life. Canning, naturally, pointed to the central spectacle of seeing Spock wilting under the harsh gaze of T'Pring's disapproving mother T'Pril (Ellora Patnaik) at the tense dinner:
"I think what was such a great example of that in this [episode] obviously is when you get all the Vulcans together for dinner and just how different they all are despite all being Vulcans. Spock is doing a bunch of different levels of suppressing different things. But you've got T'Pril, who is just such an intense presence and Vulcan or not, she would be intimidating. She walks into a room and just, she's a Miranda Priestly kind of character. You're like, 'Oh my God, okay, I don't want to get on this woman's bad side.'
And then you have her husband [Sevet, played by Michael Benyaer] who is just this lovely beta guy who has found his place. He knows how to be around his wife and he knows how to not get in trouble with his wife, but he's also sweet and he has just so many different ... he's such a different energy, obviously, than T'Pril. And then T'Pring is stuck in the middle — she's been reduced down to her teenage version stuck between her parents and her boyfriend in this awkward dinner."
Although Vulcans are commonly misattributed as being total blank slates, there's a ton of emotionally fraught dynamics running throughout this one scene.
'It's really a testament to those actors and what they brought to this'
Who knew emotionally distant Vulcans could be a source of so much comedy? Well, as important as the script obviously is, the key to exploiting all that fun potential comes from finding the right actors who fully appreciate and understand the assignment, too. Between franchise legend Leonard Nimoy, Ethan Peck, and Zachary Quinto in the "Trek" movies, each and every performer to don the pointy ears as Spock mastered the art of the subtle eyebrow raise and the stiff mannerisms of one who's purged their emotions. But with the emotions of this "Strange New Worlds" version of Spock running amok (see what I did there?), it was left to Peck's screen partners to step up and do the heavy lifting.
Later in her interview with /Film, episode director Jordan Canning continued:
"You just get all of these subtle nuances that those actors are doing while maintaining the way of speaking as a Vulcan and the way of holding the posture of a Vulcan. But even just with some of the looks, you're like, "Oh, s***. T'Pril is, she's going to be some trouble." And Sevet is just going to meekly snack on things in the background. And T'Pring is just going to try to keep the peace. I mean, it's really a testament to those actors and what they brought to this."
Robots? Hardly. Vulcans have personalities and flaws like any other "Trek" species out there — they just do a slightly better job of convincing themselves otherwise. "Strange New Worlds" airs new episodes on Paramount+ every Thursday.