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As a fan of Doug Jones, one of the things I'm looking forward to most about Star Trek: Discovery is seeing him play this new alien character. Until now, we really didn't know much about who he's playing, but thanks to EW, we have some intriguing new information to share with you. What we have known is that Jones plays a character named Lt. Saru and he is the Starfleet Science Officer. He's described as being the "Spock" of the series.
We managed to get a little tease of the character in the trailer that was released and according to showrunner Aaron Harberts, he has the power of sensing death! That's got to be one of the most depressing powers ever!
“What we can tell you that adds the context to that clip where he says he can sense the coming of death is that he comes from a planet where he’s a ‘prey species.’ He’s the first of his kind to make it to Starfleet.”
The report goes on to offer us a little background on the character and where he comes from:
On Saru’s planet, there’s a dominant predator species that constantly imperils another weaker species called Kelpiens. As part of the latter group, Saru has evolved with heightened survival instincts. Such prey species tend to have a cowardly reputation in the Federation, but Saru should not be underestimated.
That's actually kind of a cool backstory for the character. Jones offers his thoughts on the character he plays and says that Lt. Saru is the Spock and Data of the series. Hey! Every Star Trek series needs one! He also compares his Star Trek character to the alien character he played on Falling Skies:
“[Producers] said Saru is the Spock of the series, he’s the Data of the series — and those are beloved characters that I always connect with whenever I would watch the past incarnations of Star Trek. On Falling Skies, I played an alien species who came to Earth to help the humans fight back the bad aliens who’d taken over, and I was intelligent, well-spoken, had a lot of answers and science-y smart. Saru is all of those things and then some.”
Sounds like a cool character that fans can look forward to getting to know better over the course of the series. I have no doubt that Jones is going to own the role!
Jones and the rest of the Discovery cast will be attending the Star Trek: Discovery Comic-Con panel, which will take place Saturday, July 22 at 2:30 p.m. PT in Ballroom 20. You can bet they'll be showing off new footage from the series and revealing more details about the story and the characters.
Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) as a brilliant Starfleet First Officer — the first human educated on Vulcan — who’s forced to make an impossibly difficult decision which impacts the entire Federation.
The series also stars Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou. Jason Isaacs as Captain Lorca, Doug Jones as science officer Saru, Anthony Rapp as fellow science officer Stamets, Terry Serpico as Starfleet admiral Anderson, Maulik Pancholy as chief medical officer Nambue, Sam Vartholomeos as junior Starfleet officer Connor, Mary Wiseman as Cadet Tilly, James Frain as Sarek, astrophysicist and father of Spock, Chris Obi as Klingon leader T’Kuvma, Mary Chieffo as L’Rell, a Klingon commander, Shazad Latif as Lieutenant Tyler, Rekha Sharma as Commander Landry, Kenneth Mitchell as Kol, Clare McConnell as Dennas, Damon Runyan as Ujilli, and Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd.
