James Frain
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While the bad news is that ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ has once again been delayed, some good news came out from the CBS camp: James Frain has been cast to play Sarek, Spock’s father.

Frain is no stranger to the genre having guest roles in shows such as ‘True Blood’ as Franklin Mott, Mr. Kohl in ‘Fringe,’ Eli Szura in ‘Invasion,’ and the nemesis Peter Fleming/Chess in the short-lived NBC superhero series ‘The Cape.’ Most recently he’s appeared on ‘Orphan Black’ where he played Ferdinand Chevalier, ‘Grimm’ as Capt. Renard’s brother Eric, Leet Brannis on ‘Agent Carter’ and last season on ‘Gotham’ as Theo Galavan/Azrael.

Having Sarek appear in ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ is exciting as it the first tangible connection between this new series and the rest of the ‘Star Trek’ universe. The character has been a recurring one throughout the franchise with Mark Lenard first appearing in the role in The Original Series and continued on into ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ voicing the role in the ‘Star Trek’ animated series and appearing in the Prime Universe ‘Star Trek’ feature films ‘Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,’ ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,’ and ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.’ (In ‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,’ Jonathan Simpson took on the role as a young version of the character.) In the more recent rebooted ‘Star Trek’ films in the Kelvin Universe timeline, Sarak is played by Ben Cross.

Is is unknown how extensive Frain’s role as Sarak will be in the new series, but the show’s Twitter feed does say he “will star” so that does seem to indicate that he will be a regular.

 

 

For those who aren’t Trekkies, Sarak is the Vulcan ambassador to the United Federation of Planets who also happens to be an astrophysicist. He married the Earth-born human schoolteacher Amanda Grayson who is Spock’s mother.

As for the chances of seeing an even younger version of Spock in the series, ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ will take place about 10 years before The Original Series and encompasses the time when the two were estranged. While he may be alluded to, it may be too much to hope that Spock will appear. However, we may get to see Amanda show up. Now that wouldn’t be too bad a consolation.

As for now, there will be a lot of wait and see as the series has yet to now even have a premiere date, but the addition of Frain as Sarak to the cast has made the series that much more worth looking forward to.

We’ll definitely keep you updated as news on the series comes out!