Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has boldly gone where no Star Trek series or movie has gone before and given Spock a first name. The venerable Vulcan has evolved in countless ways over the past 50+ years, across both the Prime timeline as played by Leonard Nimoy and in the Kelvin universe, where he’s portrayed by Zachary Quinto. Ethan Peck also embodied a younger, rougher Spock in Discovery season two, and now he’s back to explore how the character grew into the one we know and love from The Original Series.
But Strange New Worlds looks to be revealing even more about Spock than we had expected. Trek Core attended the Star Trek: Mission Chicago event and noticed updated versions of the recently released character posters for the incoming Paramount Plus series on display at the con. These altered posters are notable as they supply both Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Peck’s Spock with forenames. This is the first time that any Trek screen media has done so since the duo’s creation in the ’60s.
First of all, M’Benga — who was originally played by Booker Bradshaw on TOS — has been christened Jabilo M’Benga. The name Jabilo was actually first attached to the character in David Mack’s 2005 novel Star Trek Vanguard: Harbinger. As for Spock, his poster reveals that the Lt. Commander’s full name is… S’Chn T’Gain Spock.
See the original SNW character posters via the gallery below, or visit here for the updated ones spotted in the wild.
As with M’Benga, Spock’s moniker likewise hails from a tie-in novel, with his other two names first being mentioned in Barbara Hambly’s Ismael, published way back in 1985. It’s important to note that the book explains that a Vulcan’s given name is listed last, so Spock actually is his first name and S’Chn T’Gain is his surname. That said, this does fit with what Spock said back in TOS episode “This Side of Paradise”, in which he admitted he has an “unpronounceable” first name.
So, assuming these character posters preview some revelations that will be made in the show itself, this is a very big deal. While Spock’s full name has been floating around since the ’80s, the novels’ canon status has always been a little shaky but now it’s officially official.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres May 5 on Paramount Plus.