Actor Ethan Peck talks taking on iconic role of Spock for Star Trek: Discovery S2

Enlarge / Ethan Peck took on the iconic role of Spock for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery. (credit: CBS All Access)

Star Trek: Discovery takes an admittedly leisurely approach to storytelling, particularly in S1, but that's frankly part of its appeal. It's very much a character-driven show, taking the time to explore complex emotions and relationships. As we wrote in our year-end roundup, "when Discovery shines, it's like a supernova against the night sky-and much of that light comes from the stellar cast." One of those sources of light is actor Ethan Peck, who plays Spock on the series. Peck recently sat down with Ars Technica to talk about the challenge of stepping into some pretty big shoes to portray the canonical character.

(Some spoilers for first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery below.)

Discovery is a prequel to the original Star Trek, set roughly 10 years before Captain James T. Kirk and his intrepid crew took over the USS Enterprise and boldly went where no man had gone before. It stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham, an orphaned human raised on the planet Vulcan by none other than Sarek (James Frain) and his human wife, Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner)-aka, Spock's parents, which makes her Spock's adoptive sister. (Certain purists might object that this violates Star Trek canon; Ars' own Kate Cox prefers to call it "sanctioned fanfic. There was undefined room around the edges to fill in, so they did.")

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