[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale “New Life and New Civilizations.”]
As Star Trek followers know, Kirk (Paul Wesley), as soon as he’s captain of the Enterprise, and Spock (Ethan Peck), its science officer, will at some point have an iconic bond, however on Unusual New Worlds, which takes place whereas Pike (Anson Mount) remains to be on the helm, that friendship is in its very early days. However the Season 3 finale takes it to a different stage when Kirk should conform to a Vulcan thoughts meld for mission success.
Kirk involves the Enterprise‘s support — repaying them for his or her assist earlier this season — when the crew as soon as once more offers with the Vezda. To be able to open a portal via which the Vezda had taken M’Benga (and never destroy a planet), each ships want to fireplace on the identical goal on the identical time, that means the pilots should be working in tandem. (Wesley says that he did see footage of Peck’s actions to copy them.) It doesn’t require fancy flying however fairly two people who find themselves rapidly comfy sharing a consciousness, and Spock explains he’s realized that Kirk is keen to do issues others aren’t. Kirk agrees, warns him to not choose sure issues he sees, and suggests he calls him Jim.
That thoughts meld is one thing that requires quite a lot of belief, but it surely was a simple resolution for each characters, Ethan Peck and Paul Wesley inform TV Insider.
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For Spock, “I feel it was simply essentially the most logical factor to do,” Peck says. “Typically there’s this actually nice sentiment of falling platonically in love, and that’s how I described their first assembly between the 2 of them. It’s simply one thing unstated, and it’s simply one thing instinctual. That may very well be an additional expression of Spock’s humanism, trusting his intestine about sure individuals, and he’s received intestine feeling about Kirk.”
Kirk, in the meantime, isn’t considering an excessive amount of about what it means for himself, Wesley explains: “One of many religions, so to talk, of Kirk is that he at all times places the crew and the ship above himself. So I don’t suppose for one minute does he ever worth his personal privateness over the mission. For him, that’s every part.”
And whereas there might have been issues Kirk needs Spock doesn’t now know, “it’s extra of a comedic factor,” says Wesley. “They now share this deep connection, and it’s simply extra symbolic of their deep connection on the sequence and in TOS [played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy] that everyone knows. Everyone knows the Kirk and Spock bond is an important bond and most necessary relationship in TOS, I feel, or in Star Trek, interval.”
That thoughts meld additionally permits Kirk to study Spock and La’an’s (Christina Chong) informal relationship that developed in Season 3. And whereas the strongest bond that Kirk has fashioned with La’an got here as a part of an alternate timeline in Season 2’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” and this Kirk is in a relationship (with Carol) and has a child, there’s something about his reference to the safety officer.
“He doesn’t have that deep historical past,” Wesley says. “It’s not like he’s a single man. He’s not ready to dictate who needs to be with who. However I do suppose that there’s part of him that’s one way or the other deeply related to La’an and he doesn’t fairly perceive why.”
Talking of Kirk’s relationship with Carol, “we do study a little bit extra in Season 4,” Wesley, who’s returning as a particular visitor star, teases. (The sequence has been renewed via its fifth and ultimate season.) “I feel he deeply, deeply, deeply cares for his son, however he can’t spend time with him as a result of he’s away and he’s targeted on his mission and his profession, and he’s deeply conflicted about it. I feel that’s an enormous downside in his life.”
However Kirk does have household round him proper now: his brother, Sam (Dan Jeannotte). The final time we see the 2 within the finale, they’re having a drink collectively. “We all know that they’re one another’s closest household as a result of their dad and mom are primarily out of the image. Sibling relationships are very sophisticated, and I feel that we all know what occurs tragically to Sam finally. And I feel that the writers are doing a very good job making a rapport between me and Sam as a result of everyone knows that at some point he gained’t be there,” says Wesley. “I really like working with Dan, and I feel he’s such a simple man to work with. He’s very humorous. He’s received an ideal kind of charisma, and there’s a playfulness that we now have with each other on display. I feel it’s like this brotherly kind of competitiveness, however but executed with a twinkle and a bit of affection.”
As Unusual New Worlds heads into Season 4, Spock remains to be exploring his human half, as he has stated Starfleet has allowed him to do. “He’s uncertain [of that part of himself],” Peck admits. “There’s not a variety of certainty there. He’s starting to see that it’s necessary. I feel he nonetheless does really feel disgrace about it, about being emotional, about being human, and I’m unsure that that may ever change, however I feel he’ll finally discover the worth in it. And that’s a lesson that started throughout his time with Michael Burnham [Sonequa Martin-Green] on the Discovery.”
Wanting forward, Wesley’s hoping to work extra with Chong, however provides, “This can be a prequel to TOS, and so I additionally perceive that there’s a spot for Kirk; that is actually the story of the crew on the Enterprise previous to Kirk. And so Kirk is there as a result of everyone knows finally Kirk will take the helm, however I additionally am very aware of the truth that he can’t overstay his welcome as a result of he must be kind of a type of issues that, when he’s there, you’re excited to see him with out him being shoved in your face in each episode.”
What did you consider the Spock and Kirk thoughts meld? What are you hoping to see going ahead on Unusual New Worlds? Tell us within the feedback part under.
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds, Season 4, TBA, Paramount+