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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 7 – “Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass”Fans have waited four years to see Sybok in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but after season 4’s soap opera episode, the Vulcan half-brother of Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) still hasn’t appeared. Directed by Anna Dokoza and written by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” is another season 4 ‘big swing’ melding Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with soap operas.
Sybok was created by director William Shatner as the villain in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Originally named Zar and modeled after 1980s televangelists, the character morphed into Sybok and became Mr. Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) secret half-brother in development. Shatner cast Lawrence Luckinbill as Sybok, and the veteran actor portrayed the emotional Vulcan with a mad gleam in his eye as he hijacked the USS Enterprise and sought God in the fabled world of Sha Ka Ree.
Star Trek V was Sybok’s lone canonical appearance until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1’s “The Serene Squall” shockingly brought Spock’s brother back. Although only the back of Sybok’s head was shown, with no actor credited, Strange New Worlds revealed that over 25 years before Star Trek V, Sybok was imprisoned on Vulcan under the name Xaverius and was married to a space pilot named Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel).
Spock’s Brother’s Comeback In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Explained
A character named Sybok appears in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 7, “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass,” but this is not the real Sybok. Portrayed by Ethan Peck, Sybok in Strange New Worlds‘ soap opera is presented as Spock’s evil twin. This is due to reality being warped by Trelane (Rhys Darby), who toys with the Starship Enterprise for a school project.
Star Trek V established that Sybok is older than Spock, and is a full Vulcan. Sybok’s mother was a Vulcan princess, but he was briefly raised in the same home as Spock, and presumably their adopted sister, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), by Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard, James Frain) and his wife, Amanda Grayson (Jane Wyatt, Mia Kirshner).
As Spock confirmed to Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) at the end of “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass,” he and Sybok “are not identical” and Trelane’s soap opera reality turning Sybok into Spock’s evil twin was “by nature, contrived.” Despite La’an’s Trelane-induced memories of meeting Sybok, she never went to Vulcan and freed Spock’s criminal brother.
Thus, Sybok remains incarcerated at the Ankeshtan K’Til Vulcan Criminal Rehabilitation Center, where he was last seen in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1. Despite Captain Angel’s promise to liberate their husband, this apparently has not happened in the intervening years between Strange New Worlds seasons 1 and 4.
How Strange New Worlds Changed & Preserved Sybok’s Star Trek Canon (For Now)
Like Trelane, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has occasionally played fast and loose with canon, and even changed Star Trek history. For instance, Strange New Worlds season 2 moved the birth of Khan Noonien Singh (Desmond Sivan) to the early 21st century, and introduced god-like Metron to alter the reality between humans and the Gorn in Strange New Worlds season 3.
Leonard Nimoy is rumored to have wanted to play both Spock and Sybok in Star Trek V, but William Shatner refused in favor of casting Lawrence Luckinbill after they couldn’t land their first choice, Sean Connery.
However, despite introducing Sybok in season 1, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, thus far, hasn’t disrupted canon by virtue of leaving Sybok where he is. Nothing about Sybok in season 4’s “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” was real, and Spock’s brother remains out of bounds… unless Sybok returns before Strange New Worlds ends in season 5.
If Sybok does come back, he must not meet Lt. Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) to preserve Captain Kirk (William Shatner) not knowing that Spock has a brother in Star Trek V. Then again, Strange New Worlds may have already upended that bit of canon, since Spock supposedly confessed “everything” to Kirk during their shore leave in Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 3, “Human Best Friend.”
Still, it would feel like a cheat by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds if the prequel never utilizes the real Sybok after teasing him in season 1. Sybok has a fascinating backstory that could use more detail to explain how and why he became a false prophet who believed that “God” was speaking to him. After waiting over four years, Sybok’s time has come.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s new episodes stream Thursdays on Paramount+
- Release Date
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2022 – 2027-00-00
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
- Directors
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Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
- Writers
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Onitra Johnson
