‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Bosses Explain Why We Haven’t Seen Sybok Again — Yet

Where No One Has Gone Before

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Back in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Spock’s (Ethan Peck) half-brother, Sybok, was mentioned and glimpsed. But since then, he has yet to show up (and all of Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+), though clearly, that was a tease for him to be a (future) major problem.

“It is something we have been discussing. We had a lot to do this season. We couldn’t do everything we wanted to. And sometimes when you’re only doing 10 episodes, you don’t quite get to do every story that you want to, but everything we set up, we set up for a reason, is what I will say,” executive producer Henry Alonso Myers tells TV Insider.

But bringing Sybok back in Season 2 wasn’t necessarily the plan, adds executive producer Akiva Goldsman. Rather, it’s one of those “setups that we know we want to pay off over time. And the way we do the show is we put a lot of cards up, and very early on, they’re kind of just ‘an episode about…,’ and never did I think I would say this: We don’t have enough episodes,” he explains. “So what happens is we have 20 always that we really like and then 15 we have to make, and then we have room for 10. That’s just the process.” (Myers also points out that it sometimes comes down to actor availability.)

Marni Grossman/Paramount+

It was in Season 1 Episode 7, “The Serene Squall,” that Angel (Jesse James Keitel, whom we’d like to see again) deceived the crew and took control of the Enterprise in an attempt to use threats against Spock to force his then-fiancée T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) to free a Vulcan from a rehabilitation center (or prison, depending how you look at it). Angel remarked, regarding their lover, “not that mine cares at all about logic,” and Spock deduced who exactly the prisoner was. A series of events ensued, including Spock kissing Chapel (Jess Bush) and (temporarily, at the time) ending things with T’Pring and Pike (Anson Mount) and other crew members on Angel’s ship taking control, forcing Angel to surrender.

“I did enjoy meeting you, Mr. Spock,” Angel said, adding their lover “always talked about you. I urge you to consider that you do not need to be either Vulcan or human. That is and always has been a false choice. The question isn’t what you are; it’s who you are.” Then they transported away.

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Later, Spock told Chapel that “things [Angel] said were specific to one Vulcan in particular. … Ambassador Sarek had a child out of wedlock. He, although full Vulcan, has rejected the teachings of logic.” Spock believed the Vulcan was “someone I was told to avoid at all costs: my half-brother Sybok.”

The episode ended with a look at Sybok’s back (see the photo at the top) … and so far, that’s it. But with Spock exploring his human side and emotions right now on Strange New Worlds, we can’t help but think it’s the perfect time for that half-brother of his to show up.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 3, TBA, Paramount+