'Star Trek: Discovery': Spock Is "Struggling" In Season 2

Spock comes to Star Trek: Discovery in Season Two, but he'll be different than fans remember.

Discovery co-creator and showrunner Alex Kurtzman says Spock is having a difficult time, and his relationship with foster sister Michael Burnham will be key to turning him into the character fans know and love.

"The Spock we meet in season 2 is not the one we know yet," Kurtzman tells EW. "He's really struggling. But if it were not for his relationship with Michael, he wouldn't become the Spock we know today."

This comment echoes others that Kurtzman has made in the past.

"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. "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."

Sonequa Martin-Green plays Burnham in Discovery. She's teased an "emotional" relationship between Spock and Burnham.

"I will say…that it is not a simple relationship," Martin-Green said. "It is a very complicated relationship. It's a highly emotional relationship. And it will take some work."

Martin-Green also has said that there's an explanation for why Spock has never mentioned his foster sister before.

"Oh gosh, yeah," she said. "And we mentioned that too, you know, there's a long game with Star Trek: Discovery. Because it is hyper-serialized, and because it is a novel told in chapters, there is a through-line, and there are conceptual weavings that take time to unravel – that might have been a mixed metaphor, but we're just going to go with it – but I really encourage everyone to trust that every single question that we raise in Star Trek: Discovery that may seem like it's not canon-compliant, every one of those questions gets answered. Every one."

Star Trek: Discovery Season Two premieres January 17th on CBS All Access.