‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’: George Hawkins Explains Why Episode 7 Is ‘Hinge Point’ for Darem

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 Episode 7 “Ko’Zeine.”]

What better way to spend some time off from the academy than … getting married?! That’s what’s on the agenda for Darem (George Hawkins) in the Thursday, February 19, episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Jay-Den (Karim Diané) follows when he witnesses Darem being kidnapped — it’s part of the ceremony — and ends up being his Ko’Zeine (best man) for his wedding to his childhood friend, Kaira; it’s been moved up from the originally planned date because her mother had a health scare, and now her parents are abdicating early. Though Jay-Den can’t believe he’s abandoning Starfleet Academy, he does show up when it counts and gives a speech … which makes Kaira realize that by her side is not where Darem belongs. She tells him to abdicate, and with that, he returns to the academy with Jay-Den.

Below, George Hawkins unpacks Darem’s quick marriage and that reflective moment at the end.

So you get the script, it starts with your character being abducted for a marital ceremony, goes into the question of what this means for his future at Starfleet, and ends with his plan for what his life being completely thrown out the window, essentially. What excited you most about the episode?

George Hawkins: I think the most exciting thing for me was just to get to know Darem a little bit more. This was the script that I did the most work on to understand who Darem was throughout the whole season, and that sort of cockiness and the arrogance and the confidence that you feel from him throughout the whole season, for me, is explained in Episode 7. The reason why Darem has this sort of agenda and this sense of drive and purpose is because he’s been told that he’s going to be a king, and that is the truth; he is going to become the king of a whole planet, and that brings a momentum to life. I think that not every person, an average person, sort of feels in their day-to-day, knowing that they have to uphold something. They’ve got this responsibility that they’ve got to take hold of and do well with, I think, and exceed and excel. So I think for me, the most exciting thing was to play out the practice, to play out the study and the preparation that I’d done for a while before we even got to really meet Darem properly, meet his family, meet someone, Kaira, who he’s known since he was a kid, just to get a greater understanding of him. I think that’s what I was really excited for, for sure.

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If Kaira hadn’t ended it, what would’ve taken Darem to do so? Would he have been able to?

That’s what I was going to say. I think maybe he would still be the king of Khionia. Maybe he would be living that life, and that’s such a beautiful lesson, I think, is that if you don’t take hold of it, if you don’t take hold of life and say what you want and say what you need and say what you love and say the life that you want to lead, and the person that you believe that you are, then people are going to say it for you. People are going to do it for you. And I think that’s such a beautiful thing to play. That was such a beautiful thing to play because it’s so sobering. It’s like you weren’t brave enough. You weren’t brave enough to say something.

And that’s a real check for Darem is that he realizes at the end of this episode — I love the moment at the end, right at the end, when we come back to the academy, and it’s Jay-Den, Darem, and Kyle’s [Dale Whibley] waving. It’s not necessarily about the story plot, but what I see in Darem is like a little boy, like he’s 13, 14 again, and he’s rediscovering who he is. I can imagine the Academy had a different smell when he came back from Khionia, that it had a greater weight, that he was noticing things that he hadn’t noticed before. And it’s because he isn’t in this split place. He is now part of the Academy. Like, I am a cadet now. I am for Starfleet. Yeah. I think that’s where anxiety lives. Anxiety is a broken mind. It is two minds in one. You are constantly choosing from both. And I think now we get to see Darem choose and where we get to see him go in Season 2, and at the end of Season 1 is really exciting. This is definitely a hinge point for Darem for sure.

And it also feels like he has a freedom that he didn’t have before because he’s now no longer living for other people, which is what we’ve really seen him doing.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I really like that.

Why was it Jay-Den that Darem wanted and needed by his side for this?

I think Jay-Den is a truth teller in Darem’s life. He’s so good at just stating the obvious, not the obvious, but the truth that Darem’s afraid, Darem wants but won’t say what he wants. And I think Jay-Den is the only person in his life who’s calling him out on that, who doesn’t have anything to take from him or doesn’t need anything from him, because Kaira, yes, for sure, loves Darem and wants the best for him. She eventually says the truth. She’s like, I see you have another life to live. But she has something she needs from him. She needs a partner; she needs someone to be there to support her. She says, this is a two-person job. We need to be aligned in our ambition, with what we want from our lives. So I think Jay-Den is the first person just to say the truth and not want something from him or expect something from him.

Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Speaking of, because it kind of feels like there have been a few moments between Darem and Jay-Den thus far where it’s like there could be something there, maybe. Where does Darem stand when it comes to that possibility?

I think you see what you get from Darem with that relationship. It’s like a rabbit in headlights. It’s very sobering and intense, and I think that comes from just Jay-Den’s character in general; he’s very stoic and quite powerful and strong, and he stands in stillness. And that’s quite sobering as well because you are watching someone really take you in. And I think that’s what that relationship is, is that Darem is watching someone take him in fully. And that can be really intimidating, I think, for any of us, when we’re in a romantic sense, of course, but just in general, when someone is really trying to figure out who you are, what you fear, what you love, what you hate, trying to get to know you, that can be really intimidating at times. And I think that’s what you’re seeing. That’s what you’re seeing with Jay-Den and Darem.

Why does Darem hate Kyle?

I wouldn’t say he hates him. I would say he’s jealous of Kyle because Kyle can say what he wants. Kyle is very upfront, and he can say what he wants. He’s living the life that Darem would want to live. I think Kyle is a character that Darem secretly really admires.

There’s that moment at the end when everyone’s gathered to watch the meteor shower, and Darem is alone. Is that about him not yet ready to really put himself out there after he was just open and vulnerable in such a big way in this episode? Is it just like he needs to be alone at that point?

Yeah, it is a very reflective moment. I can’t imagine he would want to share that with someone that is so — he’s so convicted. I really see someone, his mind is so loud, and that was the thing that I had to really work on with Darem is because a lot of Darem happens behind closed doors and happens behind the eyes, especially. There are two things that I like to play with Darem, and it’s when he has his mask on and when he doesn’t have his mask on and it’s the king and the clown. He will play this brooding sort of bravado outwards in public, but then, privately, he’s like a little boy. He’s so scared.

And so I just see someone waiting for permission, and in that moment, you are seeing Darem again quietly as a little boy, and it’s so soft. It’s such a sad moment for me. It’s more than sad. It’s so deeply reflective. I can imagine he spent so much time after that moment, after the meter shower, just in silence. And a lot of stuff that happens in Season 1, I imagined in the script just before any sort of confrontation or emotional scenes, he’s on his own and he’s in silence, really questioning and scrutinizing himself in those moments. Is this the right decision? Is this the right thing to do? Yeah, so, in that moment, he needs to be alone. He’s deeply, deeply reflective.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Thursdays, Paramount+