Attendees at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019 were treated to panels featuring some of their favorite stars, including Ethan Peck, who appeared as a younger version of Spock in Season 2 of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, and Anson Mount who portrayed Christopher Pike, Kirk’s predecessor as Captain of the Enterprise.
Among the info that these actors gave the audience was a behind-the-scenes perspective on filming the big season finale. As Mount stated:
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“The general rule of thumb is: the more exciting a scene is to watch, the more grueling, tedious and boring it is to shoot, because you have to make so many tiny little pieces they are going to stitch together. That was not the case, because we were coming to the end of the season and we were all feeling like “oh, school’s about to be out,” and we were all enjoying each other’s company. And we knew it was going to be an incredible sequence. The hardest part on Star Trek is that so much of what is going on, you are not seeing. They’re telling you and sometimes giving you points to focus on, but you are having to imagine all of this stuff. I didn’t even have it all straight in my head until I saw it, and it is so great to see the CG cut in after all that work. They do such a great job of making it all blend.”
In a separate panel, Peck disclosed:
“I was told about what would happen at the end of the season at a dinner I had with Alex Kurtzman and a bunch of the producers. And he took me through and I remember being almost moved to tears, because this has been such an emotional and incredible journey for me. And I was still in the middle of the season and just to know that I was going to be a part of this sort of soaring narrative that ties it into canon and being a part of that, it was surreal, like living in a dream…I can’t believe I get to be a part of it.”
Peck got extremely emotional when he described his scruffy grunge Spock moving closer to the classic clean-cut character most fans are familiar with:
“You see the smile on my face, it was so tremendous. I had known that Spock would end there back on the Enterprise in his science officer’s uniform, clean-shaven, clean bangs. It’s still kind of hard to articulate. It has been so surreal. I think I can spend a lifetime processing the magnitude of Star Trek and Spock. Look at the community it has created and what it means to people. It is really beautiful. I feel very, very lucky. It is a privilege to do this and be here. It was only one day we filmed with the clean-shaven look. The first day I came out on set with that look, people didn’t recognize me. It was fun to surprise everybody and meet everybody again because I had that beard the whole time. It’s hard to put into words. I had felt I had earned my way back onto the Enterprise, not just as Ethan, but as Spock. But to suddenly be him, those last moments it felt like now I am Spock. It was like I was snuck into it, very quietly, and now I was on the Enterprise in my science officer uniform. It was magic. That is hallowed ground.”
Both Peck and Mount will return in upcoming episodes of ‘Star Trek: Short Treks’, along with Rebecca Romijn who played Number One. Fans are pushing for an ongoing series featuring these characters, and Mount for one is whole-heartedly in favor.
But it remains to be seen if that comes to fruition. Would you like to see another series starring these characters?
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
