'Star Trek: Discovery' EP Explains How Young Spock's Story Fits With Canon

Ethan Peck will play Spock in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman says fans shouldn't be concerned about the character's appearance in Discovery contradicting the canon established about the character over the past 52 years.

Speaking to press at New York Comic Con, Kurtzman explained that this Spock isn't quite the stoic logician from Star Trek: The Original Series. At least, not yet.

"What gets me so excited about the story that we get to tell with Spock this season is that it's the unwritten chapter of Spock," Kurtzman said (via Trek Movie). "This is not the Spock that you know from the beginning of TOS, this is pre-TOS. He is not that formed Vulcan yet. His experience with the Red Angel and the signals has fried his logical brain. He cannot make sense of it. And he is emotionally ill-equipped to deal with it. So both logic and emotion are failing him, totally. And he is totally unsure of himself and trying to figure out how to make sense of the mystery and where he fits into the world. And it's through his complicated relationship with his sister that he's able to figure out how to become and actualize himself as the Spock that we know from TOS. And that's really exciting to us because it in no way violates canon, it just builds on what's been set before."

The cornerstone of this interpretation of Spock is "The Cage," the original pilot episode of Star Trek. The episode takes place in the Star Trek canon about three years before Star Trek: Discovery Season Two picks up and about 11 years before Star Trek: The Original Series. The episode starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike (who is played by Anson Mount in Discovery) and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, though Spock in "The Cage" is much freer with his emotions than he is by the time Kirk is in command of the Enterprise.

"We are going to bring everything into alignment at the end of the season, and 'The Cage' will be touched on, but in ways that I think are hopefully surprising and unexpected," Kurtzman said. "I think one of the things that I've really enjoyed in my time working on Star Trek is looking at stories that have been told but then really examining them for the gray areas, the areas where certain things can be filled in or built on, without violating canon. So that's a big part of what we're doing this season."

Are you excited about Spock in Star Trek: Discovery Season Two? Let us know in the comments!

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the U.S., through CraveTV in Canada and through Netflix in other international markets.

Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto and will premiere on CBS All Access on January 17, 2019.