The newest issue of the official Star Trek Magazine is out Tuesday in the United States – a ‘starship special,’ that’s also shining a spotlight on the cast of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3!
In addition to focusing on the wide-ranging fleet of Federation starships — including several pages detailing many different classes of familiar vessels — the new issue of Star Trek Magazine includes extensive new interviews with Star Trek: Discovery cast members Doug Jones (Saru), David Ajala (Book), and even Julianne Grossman, who voices the Discovery computer on the series.
As part of the new issue, Doug Jones goes into depth about how he’s brought now-Captain Saru to life over the last three seasons — and we’ve got an exclusive preview of his length discussion with the Star Trek Magazine team.
Star Trek Magazine: Obviously hugging is a little difficult right now, but when did you become a serial hugger?
Doug Jones: [Laughs] “When I was 18 years old. I was about to turn 19, and I was at the end of my freshman year at college. My father passed away. I was not a hugger before this. And at my father’s funeral, my brothers and I all hugged each other for the first time. And I was like, “Oh. This has been missing. And I need to keep incorporating this into the rest of my life.” So I became a hugger, a face cupper, a petter of people from that point forward.”
We’re so glad we asked that question – it was actually meant to be playful, but that was quite the revealing, serious reply. The same thing might happen with this next question: when you shave your head, is that the official signal that hey, you have work to do?
[Laughs] “Yes! Indeed, it is. It’s not a look I love on myself, especially to the skin. Very few characters have actually required shaving to the skin, where it actually helps. Normally, I’ll give myself maybe a number two crewcut, just to get under some prosthetics. But Saru is to the skin.”
Is it a must in order for you to play Saru, or does it just make it easier for you during production?
“It doesn’t require it. They could bald cap me ahead of time, and stick all of Saru to the bald cap. But that adds another layer, and it also adds more time. I want to cut all that down and keep the amount of time in the chair as short as possible. So, I shave my head just as a matter of ease. It’s something I can do at home the night before; just take my electric razor and [makes buzzing sound]. For touch-ups, it’s very simple. So again, not my favorite look to carry throughout the year, but it works for making Saru happen faster.”
It feels as if Saru has become an entirely new character just in the first two seasons of Discovery. What have you made of his arc so far?
“Oh, wow. The writers keep surprising me about this arc. They’re constantly doing that. So many aliens are written with one note, you know? Over the course of my career, I’ve played many of them. But the time I’ve been able to spend with Saru has given us a chance to peel back the onion and see the layers.
His arc started from the biggest thing: “I live in fear. I’m born into fear. I sense the coming of death. That’s what I’m meant to be and do.” And then losing my threat ganglia, that happened unbeknownst to [Saru]. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought we were all programmed to think that’s the end of our lives and it’s time for our mercy killing. Well, now that I’m away from my planet, away from that system, I’m going through vahar’ai on the ship, by myself, thinking, “Oh, this is where we die.”
And then, little did I know that my threat ganglia would fall out, and I’d feel leagues better! [Laughs] All of a sudden, “I have no fear. There’s a huge, long life ahead of me. Kelpiens might live hundreds of years. We don’t know.” So, this is a very exciting time for Saru. He has a whole new lease of life, because he has a whole new life. He was on the command track through Starfleet, he made it up to first officer as a fear-based animal. Now, without fear, he’s sitting as acting captain, in the chair at the end of season 2.
What will a fearless Saru be able to accomplish in Season 3? So, this has been a beautiful story to follow. And especially in the Saru episode of Short Treks…”
The new issue also gives a featured look at the work of modelers Gary Kerr and Matthew Cushman, each experts who participated in the Enterprise model conservation project at the Smithsonian, and their efforts in documenting as much information as they can about the original 11-foot filming model of the Constitution-class starship — and putting that knowledge into practice, building an interior diagram of the entire layout of the ship.
All of that, along with the rest of Doug Jones’ discussion on Saru and Discovery Season 3, are out this week in Star Trek Magazine #78, on sale Tuesday in the US and Canada, and comes to the UK and Europe in January.