‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Sonequa Martin-Green Comments on “Hipster Spock”

Spock is back in Star Trek: Discovery‘s second season. Ethan Peck will play a younger version of the famous Vulcan from Star Trek: The Original Series, but he looks a bit different from what fans remember.

Some fans have taken to referring to Peck’s bearded Spock as “Hipster Spock.” Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert asked Martin-Green about the “Hipster Spock” label.

“Well, you know, we laugh about it,” Martin-Green said. “We all do. [Spock] doesn’t laugh. He grew that bearded very seriously. We love that because we’re 10 years before TOS, before where people remember, we have some room to explore and its just one of those things and we always are reminding people, ‘Hey, there is 10 years before you get to…,’ and so there’s time for him to shave.”

Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman has made similar comments about how Discovery‘s Spock has some evolving to do before he becomes the Spock of The Original Series.

“Well, obviously there was a lot of questions from the last season, right?” Kurtzman said. “How come Spock doesn’t ever mention his half-sister to Michael Burnham? And we owe the audience an answer to that. And one of the things that I’m most excited about with this season is that this is the untold chapter of Spock. So, this is Spock pre-TOS. He’s not actualized as the character you know from The Original Series yet. He has seen something that his logical brain and logical training cannot make sense of, and he’s emotionally ill-equipped to deal with it. So logic and emotion have failed Spock and he is trying to figure out who he is and what the signals mean and the red angel means. And it is through his relationship, his very complicated and broken relationship with Michael, that he’s able to actualize himself as the Spock we know from TOS, and that’s a big part of what the season’s about.”

Discovery will also reverse the usual dynamic between humans and Vulcans.

“Well, it’s funny because we pitched this season in some ways as, ‘This is the season about a human who learns emotion from a Vulcan and a Vulcan who learns logic from a human,” Kurtzman explained. “So, it was an interesting barometer for how we wanted to gauge our relationship between the brother and sister.”

Star Trek: Discovery returns this week to CBS All Access. Be sure to read our review of the season two premiere episode, “Brother.”

What do you think of “Hipster Spock”? 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. The first season is also now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

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