As Star Trek: Discovery ventures even further into the far future, leaping ahead to the 32nd century at the end of Season 2, one of the constants on the crew of the USS Discovery is Saru. A Kelpian from the planet Kaminar, Saru captained the Discovery when it made its massive time jump, relinquishing the captaincy to his best friend Michael Burnham as he reunited with the Kelpians and helped guide them into the future. Played by Doug Jones, Saru's journey has led him to become more at peace with himself as he helps Starfleet and the United Federation rebuild itself in this timeline, with Saru providing valuable advice after returning to the Discovery.
In an exclusive interview with CBR in time for Star Trek: Discovery Season 4's home video release, Jones reflected on Saru's journey across Discovery's first four seasons, provided insight on the character and his growth, and shared what he has learned from playing his fan-favorite character.
CBR: I love Saru's outlook this past season, with him almost reaching a more Zen state after spending time with the Kelpians. How was approaching this more serene Saru in Season 4?
Doug Jones: I loved it. I love where the writers have taken Saru. The real me, Doug Jones, is 62 years old, and my place in life is very nostalgic. I deal with nostalgia a lot, and family and those kinds of things are so important to me. Saru is on that journey. At the end of Season 3, he takes a leave of absence, and Michael Burnham takes the captain's chair. Saru goes back to his home planet of Kaminar to help his protégé, mentoring Su'Kal – played by the brilliant Bill Irwin.
At the start of Season 4, we see that he's been on Kaminar for a while and has a place on the High Council. He's very respected as an elder, and Su'Kal is coming along just fine. When he hears that the Discovery is going to be facing a humongous mission, he already turned down captaining his ship and decided to be the first officer for his sister from another mister, Michael Burnham. That sense of loyalty and family is a constant for him now in both places, on the starship Discovery and back home on Kaminar.
On his uniform, he's wearing a brooch that signifies his place on the High Council back home. I love that whenever Saru is lost in thought or having a deep conversation trying to figure out an issue, for comfort's sake, he strokes the brooch on his uniform. He is tethered to home, and home comes in various forms for him; his actual home on Kaminar which he helped bring to where it is today with both species living on one planet and the starship Discovery as a parental figure for the younger crew. He often offers hand-on-the-shoulder advice to the younger crew, and I love where he's at. He's a peacekeeper, and he brings a sense of calm with him.
How did you want to communicate that non-verbally with his posture and the way that he moves compared to the previous three seasons?
He's always been fluid and postured, but what has changed for him over the course of the entire show since Season 1 is his physical touch. He was a bit more standoffish with other characters before. In Season 2, when he first met Captain Pike, when Pike came aboard our ship, the handshake threw him off. [laughs] Now we're at a point, comfortably, where he'll grab an arm and hold onto it while he's explaining something or comforting someone. I love that about him. The hugs between him and Burnham are peak moments for me. I love those scenes.
At the start of the series, Saru had his reservations about Burnham. How has developing that relationship across these first four seasons been? How is your working relationship with Sonequa Martin-Green?
On-camera and off-camera, we feel like brother and sister -- we call each other that. It is a lovely relationship. He forewent the captaincy of his ship to be her first officer because he knew she and the crew were facing something ginormous in Season 4 [because] he wanted to be a supportive family member. I think that says everything about their relationship. That mattered more than his climb up the rank ladder. I love how they've been through so much together.
Over the four seasons you've seen, they have been through life-and-death situations together countless times. When you're in the trenches with someone like that for so long, you bond together. [laughs] They're your lifelongs. Saru and Burnham are lifelongs, no matter where they are, even in those breaks in time, when Saru might be back on Kaminar, or either of them [could] leave the ship for any reason. It's like when you're besties from college. When you haven't talked in five years and get back together, [you can] pick up right where you left off because the love never left.
I love that Star Trek: Discovery started as a war show and has turned into a show about rediscovering the value of hope at the end of the world. As someone with a front-row seat to that, how has it been watching Discovery evolve and change?
It's glorious for me. There's an audience for everything. Action, battles, fight scenes, and kickassery. There's an audience for that, and that's exciting to play. What I like to watch is more in the heartfelt pocket, discovering possibilities in the future with hope, seeing relationships and conflict with a negotiated, peaceful ending to those conflicts as opposed to one of us having to die. [laughs] I love the arc that the show has taken in that direction.
As someone with insight into the character, do you think Saru giving up the captaincy and taking on a mentorship role comes as something of a relief instead of constantly having to make life-and-death decisions?
Saru is certainly capable of that and has proven himself in that role. Again, talking as Dougie, I was tickled pink to give the captain's chair up because it comes with so much responsibility. You're on-camera more because decisions made on the ship have to go through you. I was tickled pink to step back and let Burnham captain the ship. That's where the show was headed, anyway. We all knew she was heading for the captain's chair, and we were rooting for her to get there, so it was the right thing to happen.
What would you say has surprised you the most about this journey?
The biggest surprise so far, no matter how many seasons we go, I think the biggest surprise was in Season 2. I was informed [by] the writers and the director of our pilot that Saru lives in fear. He is a prey species on his home planet with predators, that's how he was brought up, how his people were brought up, and all he knows. There is always this undercurrent of fear. No matter how much he can get past it and suppress it, fear is still a part of him.
That episode comes along where he goes through Vahar'ai and thinks he's going to die, then his threat ganglia fall out, and all of a sudden, he's living in courage without fear anymore. That was a change I didn't see coming, and I had to reconfigure Saru from the ground up. [laughs] I don't think I've made a character shift that big ever in anything I've done before.
What part of the makeup process makes the character mentally click into place for you?
It takes a couple of hours to make that happen, so it's inch-by-inch that it happens. I shave my head down to the skin during the season. Otherwise, they would have to bald-cap me because they do stick Saru all around my entire head and neck. When I have freshly shaven my head the night before, and I am sitting in the makeup chair the following morning, the first thing they do is slather my head with this gelatinous silicon product that will stick to the cowl they slide over my head to start the process.
That's when it happens, then it's like, "Now I'm not me anymore." [laughs] The face gets glued on a few pieces after that, but the cowl is around the back of the head, the entire neck, and the shoulders. That goes on in one big piece that sets rather quickly, and then the rest gets glued on piece by piece. I think a signature piece for him is his boots. When I get those boots on and have to change my posture to get my balance in them, that informs how Saru walks and his signature sideswipe of his hands. All of that comes together with those boots.
I think my math on this is right. Is Saru the longest time you've spent with a single character?
In my 36-year career, that is correct. [laughs] I've never lived this long with any one character.
How does it feel growing with this character?
He's like a close family member to me now. We've gotten to know each other very well. [laughs] We've been through a lot together too --blood, sweat, and tears for Saru and Dougie. [laughs] I think the most valuable lesson I've learned from Saru goes back to that Vahar'ai. A species that lives in fear overcomes that fear and now lives in courage. The circumstances that surround Saru and the challenges he faces are pretty much the same, and they always have been.
There's always something afoot and something to overcome, a sense of the unknown that he has to tackle ahead of him. That hasn't changed, but what has changed is how he reacts to it, and that's a great life lesson for Dougie. [laughs] I've lived with a lot of anxiety and fear of the unknown. If I can't see what's happening tomorrow, I'm afraid of it, and I've lived that way for a lot of my life. To change the attitude to, "Whatever is happening tomorrow, I can handle it." I look back with hindsight at 62 years, and I'm alive and well now, and [I've] dealt with whatever's come. If Saru can handle it, so can I. He's very much inspired my real life.
Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 is available on Blu-ray, DVD, Limited Edition Blu-Ray Steelbook and Digital.