Star Trek Discovery: Saru
Team Saru
**RED SPOILER ALERT**
After watching the first two episodes of Star Trek Discovery, I’ve have fallen in love with the Chief Science Officer, Saru. While I was frustrated by the actions of Phillipa and Michael, I found myself nodding along with Saru’s assessment of tactical calls, danger, and Klingon intention. I’m drawing my line in the sand. He is my favorite character.
I understand the current dynamics in the bridge and elsewhere on Discovery will change. Understandably, because by the end of “Battle of the Binary Stars” the Shenzhou is destroyed, Captain Phillipa Georgiou is dead, and Michael Burnham has been court-martialed. Clearly, the show will take a different direction from previous Star Trek series. We will be off-bridge much more than we have been and dynamics will shift to match this serialized mode of story-telling. All that said, I loved, loved, loved, Saru.
As the Shenzhou approaches the relay they are there to fix, Saru gives his assessment. The relay was not damaged naturally. It was, in fact, the result of malicious intent. The immediate tension between the officers is fun and interesting. Michael and Saru play well against each other. Saru is dismissed by Michael who tells him to “finish your scan so you can express facts instead” of opinions.
A little background on Saru. First, Captain Georgiou states he is Kelpien. The show-runner, Aaron Harberts, has indicated that Saru is the first of his race to join Starfleet. This might be the reason why the captain is a little derisive about Saru’s sense of danger and caution. Georgiou states, “Saru is Kelpian — he thinks everything is malicious.”
These little tidbits give us a sense of Saru’s homeworld. However, we don’t know exactly what the home-world is called yet. What we do know, is that there are only two species in the Kelpian home-world. One species are the Kelpians, which are prey although sentient, and the predator, unknown and unnamed, species.
We also know, because of an interview Doug Jones, the actor who plays Saru, gave at Fan Expo 2017, that they walk “the boots really inform a lot of this. I have hooved feet, so I walk on the balls of my feet all day, in pain, for you.” In other words, Kelpians walk on hind hooved feet.
Over at Memory Alpha, they go into more details about Kelpiens:
Despite being a sapient race, Kelpiens evolved as prey animals on their homeworld — and remained prey animals even after becoming sapient. They were raised as livestock by another species.
Due to being a prey species, Kelpiens tended to prudently avoid risk or dangerous situations, giving them a reputation as being somewhat cowardly. When faced with a novel situation, their default assumption was typically to consider that it might be hostile .
This is all very interesting as it is the first look at a totally new species. We also know that the producer has said, “Saru is the Spock of the series, he’s the Data of the series.”
Personally, characters like Spock, Data, Kess, Odo, and the Doctor among others are what make Star Trek fascinating. The challenges these characters face is intriguing. Their outside perspective, compelling.
The chemistry and push-back between Saru and Michael gave the show cohesion. And for all his caution, Saru was right.
Saru was right about the relay, it was purposefully damaged. Michael agreed on this one. He was right about the object that turned out to be a Klingon relic. He was right about a Klingon ambush. And to a certain extent he is right about retreating. If the Klingons had demonstrated their customary violent behavior they would have attacked the Shengzhou and it would have been catastrophic as they were wildly outgunned. In fact, when they were attacked it was catastrophic.
Sure, by Starfleet standards retreat is not an option. Phillipa explains there was a space station and a colony nearby, but by survival standards Saru was right. If the Klingons had not been working towards a larger goal the confrontation would have been much worse.
In one of the best lines of the show Saru states,
“Biologically bred for one purpose… sense coming of death. I sense it coming now.”
Saru’s newness to Starfleet helps command ignore his sapient warnings. If they had retreated and regrouped the situation might have ended up differently. However, the show would probably have been a lot more boring, so I enjoy Saru’s character and his predicament and I will enjoy watching even more of him this season.
