Star Trek: Ethan Peck Explains How Discovery Added New Depth to Spock

Star Trek: Discovery‘s second season showed Mr. Spock as fans had never seen him before. Ethan Peck played a younger, more emotional and raw Spock. The season also revealed Spock’s relationship with his foster sister, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green). During an appearance at Destination Star Trek in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, Peck discussed how Discovery leveraged that sibling relationship to reveal new sides of Spock’s character. “It’s interesting from Spock’s perspective,” Peck said (via StarTrek.com). “Because I think he learns to be human from his sister, [Michael], and I don’t think we’ve quite seen the depths of him that we’ve seen in this season of Discovery. Because it’s never been written that way, and I think I decided that Michael was one of the few people that he would really be open with, emotionally. We had some amazing opportunities to be human together and for Spock to learn from Michael. It was a very human and emotional season for Spock at least.”

Peck reflected on playing Spock in an interview earlier this year. “It’s sort of a peak life experience for me,” Peck said. “I’ve never had the much responsibility as an actor, as a human being, with obligations to this entire span of history that is Star Trek that has been around for so long, and especially in this beloved role that was made so wonderfully by Leonard Nimoy and then Zachary Quinto. It was really scary.”

In another interview, Peck expressed interest in reprising the role for future Star Trek projects. “I would like to come back, because being a part of Star Trek is like magic,” Peck said. “It’s funny, I think Star Trek is so divisive amongst people in the world that are like, ‘Never seen it, not interested.’ And those that do see it are very attached and find themselves very connected with it. To be a part of something like that is just really special. Now I feel like I’ve done a lot of the groundwork and Spock is very much a part of me. I’m the same but different having finished it. So would I like to continue? Yeah. I think it would be great.”

Peck returned in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode “Q&A,” which revealed Spock’s first moments aboard the Enterprise. Fans are still hoping that CBS All Access will greenlight a Discovery spinoff featuring Peck’s Spock, Anson Mount’s Capt. Pike, and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One abord the Enterprise before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series.

What did you think of Peck as Spock in Star Trek: Discovery? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now streaming on CBS All Access. Season Three debuts in 2020.