DISCOVERY’s Doug Jones on Playing a First-Time TREK Alien, Lt. Saru

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Filming is set to begin later this month on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, and today IGN released a new interview with recently-cast actor Doug Jones, who takes on the role of alien Lieutenant Saru – a member of a brand new Trek species, debuting in the new series.

In addition to a pronunciation guide to the new character name, Jones also told IGN’s Jim Vejvoda about his preference to create a new alien species, rather than don the makeup of an already-established Trek race.

JONES: I am a new breed of alien that you’ve never seen on the series before, or in any of the movies, which I’m ticked pink about – that I get to, from the ground up, get to find and develop this character and his species, and what we’re all about from the getgo… instead of taking folklore that’s already existing in the franchise and trying to appease the fans in playing a new one of those [alien species].

This is a whole new thing that we get to discover together, which I’m really excited about – and I will be the science officer [Saru].

IGN: How do you say his name, ‘Saow-ru’?

JONES: ‘Suh-ROO.’ Lieutenant Saru, is what they’ve said so far. Now rank, of course, can change over the years; I don’t know where I’ll be heading from here. Let’s hope up!

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY debuts this May on CBS All Access and Netflix.

24 COMMENTS

      • That’s a possibility, sure. His creating an alien species that people will love and will model themselves after — like Leonard Nimoy did for Vulcans or Michael Dorn did for Klingons — is also a possibility, though, and that’s the possibility I prefer to think about. After all, Star Trek is also about HOPE! 😉

        • Exactly! If only people can me more like you: POSITIVE! Not being all negative and doom and gloom like certain people on here before the show has even aired!

          • I prefer to be negative and enjoy the surprise of being blown away and proven wrong, instead of being hyped up and positive and the let down badly.

  1. I’m just surprised filming hasn’t started yet. I guess they really don’t need that much time in post-production to put everything together for such a big-budget elaborate SFX series. I’m sure it’ll all turn out well. And looking forward to some further cast announcements this month!

    • It’s definitely cutting it close. CBS can do it by throwing more money and more artists on it to get it done. I assume the premiere date will be set as late in May as possible, which would give them roughly four months for production and post-production combined.

      If you compare that to something like the previous season of Game of Thrones, that required five months of production (in several countries), but they got an additional four months after that until the premiere of episode one.

      Star Trek: Discovery will probably be mostly interior sets on the Pinewood stages in Toronto, with nowhere near as much location photography as GoT. Also, they probably have a lot of purely CGI space shots that the VFX team could already be working on as we speak, long before principle photography even begins later this month.

    • I know they can really boogie on a TV series once everything in place but damn this feels like they are cutting it close. I worry this timeline might cut stuff like locations for example from the story not because of budget but just because of time.

      • I’m sure they can make up for it later in the season or future seasons which I’m assuming there will be.

  2. Thank you TrekCore for fixing the comments section!

    I’m sure this actor will do a fine job creating this character.
    My only two cents on it would be:
    Cent 1 – That the species is unigendered, giving another dynamic to the role
    Cent 2 – That it would have been really cool if this character was the captain of the Discovery instead of an alien/Spock science-officer role.

    • I had the same thought about if they were doing a new alien species, that maybe they could make it truly alien and not conform to our traditional idea of binary genders. We’ll see what happens!

    • Leave the modern day liberal 87 gender mental illness out of Star Trek, please. The actor is male the being should be male.

      • Ha, Liberal agenda. He is talking about the science fiction agenda. You know that whole explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations thing.

        • This guy often rants about “liberal” this and “liberal” that. He can’t seem to process that Star Trek often is liberal in ideology and reflects contemporary issues modern day society is dealing with. Watch his head explode when more people of color and females in the cast are announced!

          • Independent, actually. Constitutionalist. Rule of Law is paramount. Fiscally conservative. Equal opportunity not “special rights” or “cultural reparations”. Republicans and Democrats are the same corporate-fed Uniparty. As a business person myself, very glad to have a business person in the presidency, not another politician (I really don’t care what their color, gender, etc. is). Bush was terrible, Obama was terrible, and neither of them really followed the Constitution, except when it suited their needs. I am looking forward to seeing if Trump is going to stick to his word and put the Constitution and Rule of Law as the backbone of his administration. I always prefer to try someone new than following the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result (e.g. continuing to electing “politicians”).
            Does that answer it for you?

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