Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Ethan Peck on the 'Surprising' Amount of Spock's Love Life This Season

For much of the run of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, actor Ethan Peck has been the series' principal lens of the contemporary view of the Vulcans, the franchise's famous emotion-repressing, logic-driven aliens, in his role as Mr. Spock (the role played by Leonard Nimoy in earlier iterations of Star Trek). But in the Season 3 episode "Four and a Half Vulcans," some of Peck's castmates got to put their own spins on the eminently rational race, and the experience brought a smile to Peck's – if not Spock's – face.

"It was so fun to see what everyone was going to do!" Peck told TV Guide of watching his co-stars Anson Mount, Jess Bush, Celia Gooding, and Christina Chong adopt pointed ears, upswept eyebrows and stony faces as their characters were temporarily transformed into Vulcans for an away mission, only to decide the logical next step is to remain that way – permanently.

"Each one is written a little bit differently and they each had a sort of a different take on what Vulcan-ness this was – and they're all more Vulcan than Spock because they're full Vulcan," said Peck, noting how Spock's half-human heritage left him an outcast among his crewmates, their transformation leaving them as purity-minded as his own Vulcan peers. Peck revealed that he provided only minimal Vulcan coaching to his colleagues here and there. "For the most part they've been around me so much I think they probably have enough notes," he chuckled.

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Much of the episode was played for laughs, with Pike (Mount), Chapel (Bush), Uhura (Gooding), and La'an (Chong) each given their own situations to mine for comedy, while Spock struggled to bluff his way through a ballooning series of lies to help Una (Rebecca Romijn) recruit the help of her ex-paramour Doug (guest star Patton Oswalt), a Vulcan who has a fascination with human behavior. 

It's not the first time Peck has had to find just the right tone in one of Strange New World's comedic episodes to keep Spock true to his straight-faced nature, much like Nimoy did in lighthearted episodes like "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "A Piece of the Action."

"I don't know, I think there's something funny inherently about Spock," mused Peck. "You put him in a situation where he's uncomfortable, and as the performer I think there's an awareness that it could be funny, or is funny, but you can't really show that or play that. But there's almost like a glint or something when you know that this could be funny." 

Peck found himself squaring off in scenes with an acknowledged comedy master, Oswalt, who's also renowned for his deep passion for (and profoundly arcane knowledge of) all things genre-related. But Peck reported that Oswalt resisted any urge to nerd-out and pepper him with Trek questions.

"When I first met Patton, I just was struck by how friendly and easygoing and down-to-earth he was, and I was relieved by that because you never know how someone's going to be until you meet them, obviously," he said. "And I didn't see too much of the super nerd! He was very prepared and very professional."

But Oswalt's banter, both in character and out, tested even Peck's now-formidable ability to stay stone-faced. "We had a great time on set and he made me laugh a lot, and it was really hard to keep a straight face around him." So much so that in a hilarious end-credits sequence in the show's closing moments, Spock finally breaks into a big smile — and it's hard to tell if it was Peck or his half-Vulcan alter ego who broke character.

"That sequence was really difficult for me to not break out into laughter," Peck — who hadn't yet seen the final cut with the grin — admitted. "I did a lot and it was the last thing we filmed that day and I kept apologizing because I don't normally do that, so he really got me."

Spock's romantic entanglements have continued to take center stage in the third season, as he first struggles to come to grips with Chapel's engagement and subsequently kindles a new relationship in the arms of La'an.

"It's surprising that there's so much exploration of his romantic life — I think to some viewers as well," he said, noting that each new romance helps Spock navigate his divided nature. "I think these are all teachers for him. They teach him about being human, which I think is sort of the aim of this Spock, in Strange New Worlds: to sort of explore and understand his humanness."

"I was surprised that they put Spock and La'an together, but on paper it really does make a lot of sense," he added. "They're both protecting their hearts and they're both hiding a lot, I think, and shielding themselves from the world and sort of need each other in this moment to open themselves up and evolve."

In "Four and a Half Vulcans," tensions in the budding romance with La'an are exacerbated when her transformation takes her down a more calculating, conquering path in the mold of the Vulcan's aggressive brother race the Romulans. But it's their deepening bond, as expressed through their chemistry as dance partners, that leads La'an back to herself.

Long, dedicated sessions rehearsing for their recurring tango routines helped Peck and Chong bond in a new way and shift their characters' chemistry into a more passionate mode. "Christina was a professional dancer, so I felt like I was in very good hands with my dance partner, someone who was very experienced, because I don't have very much dance experience. And we put in a lot of hard work during rehearsals, which were outside of normal hours during the weekends sometimes. I just have always had a lot of respect and admiration for her work ethic, and this just further solidified that."

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One element that hadn't occurred to Peck was the curious canonical fact that La'an's ancestor, Kahn Noonien Singh, is ultimately responsible for Spock's self-sacrificing death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. "We never did discuss that," he laughed. "That's funny — I never really thought about that, to be honest with you."

In Strange New World Season 3's sixth episode, "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail," Spock also began to form a nascent bond with James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), his future commanding officer and, ultimately, his most devoted friend. 

"I love that Spock really plants this seed of confidence in [Kirk] so early on," said Peck. "I was very surprised by that when I came across that in the script the first time I read it. And it makes a lot of sense: Spock sees this intelligence in him, and I think this humanity in him that are so important to these characters in Star Trek canon and takes the opportunity when it arises to give him that boost he needs to make these tough decisions that he's taking on a little too trepidatiously."

Having now gotten the just-shot fourth season under his belt, Peck admitted that he still can't quite definite what his journey interpreting the iconic character has felt like. "I don't know — it's still super weird," he said. "I think that once I'm done with the role, with the character, I can really sort of reflect on it, but I'm still in the midst of it, so it's kind of hard to comment on what it's like to be doing it. But I feel just like I've won the lottery. I feel so fortunate. I feel less fear about it."

"When I was first cast, I was pretty overwhelmed by the prospect of this burden, essentially, of this character who was so important to so many people," he revealed. "And I discovered, after everyone else, that maybe I was well-suited to the role. So it was a long process of discovering that, and I still feel very challenged by it now. I think there's a lot to be done with him, and I'm very proud to be playing it."

"Usually I'm everyone's second favorite Spock, or so I've heard," he laughed. "And it's funny because [Zachary] Quinto was my Spock — he's my No. 1. I grew up with him. And that's a great honor and I'm sure he experiences a lot of similar things, because everyone of course prefers the original, for the most part. And so having the humility to internalize that, that's totally fine and understandable."

"But I do think that Spock represents, for a lot of people, a really important aspect of themselves," he added. "A lot of people that might be on the spectrum or otherwise sort of marginalized neurologically I think feel a lot of relation to him and feel represented by him, and that's really wonderful."

Of course, Peck's mention of his personal point of reference for Spock begged one more question: have he and Zachary Quinto had an opportunity to get together for an unofficial mind-meld about their shared role?

"Yeah, we've met a couple of times," Peck revealed. "We haven't really compared notes a little bit, but I'd love to do that someday."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is streaming on Paramount+.