Above: Doug Jones poses with a fan at San Diego Comic Con. (CBS)
Doug Jones’ happiness is explosively contagious — he’s got the affable joy of a mythical creature who has never known sadness — and as he sauntered over to me at the Star Trek: Discovery press event following Friday’s panel at San Diego Comic Con, I was nearly swept up in his tidal wave of enthusiasm.
“John Kirk!” he shouts. “I’ve seen you all over the webber-net! How great to meet you!”
It’s a stark contrast to the doom-and-gloom attitude usually emanating from his Kelpien alter ego, Star Trek: Discovery’s Commander Saru — someone whom we’ll finally learn more about as the series moves into it’s second season in 2019.
“Yes, there will be at least a couple of times when I ‘peek up,’ for sure,” Jones declared.
“We get a home planet visit, and how we get there — why we get there — I cannot reveal, but it’s a part of the entire arc of the whole season.”
Discovery Season 1 concluded with Saru in temporary command of the USS Discovery after the demise of evil Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) in the Mirror Universe — but thanks to the new Season 2 trailer, we know that his time in the captain’s chair doesn’t last long as Captain Pike (Anson Mount) takes over the ship under Starfleet’s direction.
With Saru shifted out of his ‘acting captain’ role, I asked Jones if he could elaborate further on the Kelpien officer’s involvement in the direction of the upcoming season.
“We’re back to the original mission of Starfleet, which is exploration, right?” he said. “So we have a trail of bread crumbs that are being left for us all over the universe — and one of those leads us right back to my home planet!”
It was clear that Jones was excited that Saru is getting some time in the spotlight this year, something many fans have been hoping for after his character found such a following last season — while he had moments to shine in Season 1, the most amount of character exploration for the Kelpien can be found in Discovery novels Desperate Hours and Fear Itself.
“I want to share the name of my home planet,” he cautioned, “but it’s not been said out loud yet — so I’m sure that I can’t. In the novels and comics there are some names, but I don’t think that’s right, so I don’t know how [the stories will] link up.”
Doug went on, his face took on an expression of wonder as he gave one more though to Saru’s story for the upcoming year.
“Why is there only one Kelpien in Starfleet? I think that’s also going to be answered this season – how I came to be a part of Starfleet and broke the mould of my people.”
One of the biggest components of the new season is the appearance of the Enterprise, and is set during a period not seen in the classic Trek series — the Season 2 premiere takes place in 2257, nearly eight years before Captain Kirk takes command of the ship and three years after “The Cage.”
“The fact that this is ten years before the Original Series,” Jones continued, “ten years is not a great amount of time! The timelines are getting closer, and the farther our season goes — well, [if Discovery runs] five seasons, [it] means that we’re getting five years closer to the Original Series.”
Commenting on some of the news shared by executive producer Alex Kurtzman during the Hall H panel on Friday — regarding Spock’s appearance in the new season, and “syncing up with canon” — Jones looked ahead to what we can expect from Season 2’s Enterprise connection.
“The characters are in place; their backstories are getting built and we have Captain Pike with us — we get to see a part of him that we didn’t see in the Original Series. We’ll see Spock that we didn’t in the Original Series [and] get to learn why he never spoke of his foster sister. I think that the writers are taking very good care to address all of those questions for you.”
As we concluded our conversation, I mentioned that I was from Toronto, where the actor has spent most of his last 18 months filming Star Trek: Discovery.
The great thing about talking to Doug Jones is that he likes to demonstrate his happiness in a tactile way — and sure enough, this bit of personal information initiated the grips of a true Doug Jones hug as he shared with me all his favorite haunts in my home city.
“Oh my gosh!” he shouted. “I don’t get around too much there as I’m a hermit who likes to stay indoors and rock back and forth to myself — but I do love the Imagine Cinemas close to Front Street! I love to watch a matinee by myself and eat at Scaddabush! It’s awesome! And in terms of coffee, I’m a Tim Hortons guy who loves their chili!”
Happiness abounds with Doug Jones, his infectious enthusiasm is sure to make a mark at next week’s Star Trek Las Vegas convention, where he’ll be joining the rest of his crewmates as the Discovery cast for their first trek to the annual event.
We’ve got more from the Star Trek: Discovery cast coming soon, so keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest updates!