'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 2: Spock is Just the Beginning of Familial Exploration

Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 will visit Saru's homeworld, introducing us to Kelpien society. The reveal comes courtesy of a TrekMovie interview with Saru actor Doug Jones, known for his prosthetic work portraying creatures, including the Amphibian Man from Shape of the Water.

The second season of Star Trek: Discovery was described by former showrunner Aaron Harberts (who, along with co-showrunner Gretchen Berg, was fired from the production in June) as about "science vs. faith." The visit to the Kelpien homeworld described by Jones illuminates another theme for Discovery 's second season: family.

The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery kicked off a season-long war with the Klingon Empire, an atypical state of affairs for a series more focused on exploration and discovery than combat. Characters like Saru and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) came together amidst pervasive wartime tension and were frequently at odds. Where the first season was about a crew forced to become soldiers, Season 2 has the room to explore how they relate to one another outside of the crushing tension of combat.

" What you are going to find in Season 2 is the brother/sister relationships, the tender parts of it," Jones said, describing Saru and Burnham's more friendly connection in Season 2. "We are relying more on that this year."

New episodes of Discovery will also exploring sibling bonds only hinted at in the first season, particularly Burnham's relationship with her foster brother, Spock. After her human parents were killed in a Klingon attack, Burnham was raised by Spock's parents, Sarek and Amanda. But while Sarek featured prominently in the first season, Spock was never seen and rarely mentioned.

In the Season 2 trailer (above), Burnham visits Spock's quarters aboard the Enterprise. It seems the half-Vulcan science officer is somehow connected to the unexplained "red bursts" popping up all over the galaxy. While Spock goes unseen in the trailer, his relationship with Burnham will be an important part of the new season.

"We both have families that we came from. She is foster sister to Spock. I have my own family back on my home planet, which we are going to meet in Season 2," Jones told TrekMovie. "I'm very excited about visiting my home planet. This season we are back to exploring and back to what Star Trek started as."

Visiting the Kelpien homeworld won't just parallel Burnham's exploration of her family with Saru's, but will reveal more about the peculiarities of Saru's species. (By the way, his homeworld is not called Kelpia: "The name of my home planet has not been put out there yet, I cannot be the first one to say it.")

"Questions will be answered as to why am I the only Kelpien who ever joined Starfleet," Jones said. "Not only are we going to go to my home planet and meet some family, but I am also a prey species. That means there is a predator out there. Who is that? How do they have a thumb on us? All of that gets addressed and answered too."

While we've yet to see Spock from Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 (casting has yet to be announced), the focus on family suggests he'll play a major part of the season's thematic arc. A visit to the Kelpien homeworld might just put things in perspective for Burnham.