Saru (Star Trek)
Saru is an extraterrestrial television character who features in Star Trek.
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Biography
Saru was a male Kelpian who was from the planet Kaminar. (DIS: The Vulcan Hello) He was the son of Aradar and the brother of Siranna. In his youth, Saru lived an agrarian life on his home planet Kaminar, with his sister and father. Saru and his family were scared of the Ba'ul's watchful eye, as it took Kelpiens as they experienced the vahar'ai. (DIS: The Brightest Star) Saru remembered listening to children's stories told by village elders around a fire, including one about a kelp monster. (DIS: Su'Kal) Though discouraged by his father, Saru contemplated his people's place in the universe and questioned the ritual sacrifice of his people to the Ba'ul. On one occasion, Aradar instructed Saru to dispose of debris fallen from the Ba'ul ship. Saru instead built an interstellar communications device, identified by Lieutenant Philippa Georgiou as the first of his species to show the technical capability of doing so. (DIS: The Brightest Star) After corresponding with Saru, Georgiou was given special permission by Starfleet to retrieve Saru. As his people were a pre-warp civilization, Saru accepted the caveat that he could never return and potentially contaminate his culture where he departed with Georgiou for the USS Archimedes. (DIS: The Brightest Star) The only things he took with him were a handful of seeds and a knife that belonged to his sister. (DIS: An Obol for Charon) He was eventually given refugee status by the Federation and went through processing at Starbase 7. Whilst there, he for the first time saw a wide diversity of life forms and listened to stories as well as aspirations. This led to him deciding to join Starfleet to help those in need similar to how they had helped him. (DIS: An Obol for Charon)
This led to him being the first Kelpian to had joined Starfleet. (DIS: The Vulcan Hello)
In 2249, Saru had obtained the rank of Lieutenant where he was assigned to the sciences division on the U.S.S. Shenzhou under Captain Phillippa Georgio and served as a bridge officer where among his crewmates was Michael Burnham. (DIS: Battle at the Binary Stars) By 2256, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander and worked as the ship's chief science officer. (DIS: The Vulcan Hello)
About six months later, Saru had been promoted to commander, transferred to the command division, and made first officer of the USS Discovery under Gabriel Lorca. When the prison transport shuttle carrying the disgraced former Starfleet officer Michael Burnham was brought aboard the Discovery for repairs, Saru escorted the former officer to engineering so that she would work as a 'data cruncher' under Lieutenant Paul Stamets. When the USS Glenn, the Discovery's sister ship, suffered a catastrophe, Saru spoke up in Burnham's defense, describing her as the "smartest Starfleet officer [he] had ever met." (DIS: Context Is for Kings)
According to Saru, Kelpiens lived in a state of constant fear from the moment of birth. Saru may have been the first of his species to have this alleviated, as after encountering the native energy lifeforms of Pahvo, he briefly experienced relief from this state while on the planet. He became so desperate to continue experiencing this lack of fear that he proceeded to first deceive, and then attack his fellow officers in an attempt to keep the planet out of the Federation-Klingon war. These actions eventually led to the Pahvans withdrawing their influence on him, as they came to believe it was generating disharmony among their Starfleet guests. (DIS: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum)
En route to the Charon, Lt. Stamets came to and told Saru of his counterpart's damage to the mycelial network and the eventual destruction of the entire multiverse. Saru was then contacted by Burnham, who told them that Lorca was really a Terran posing as his counterpart. After this revelation, Saru decided to take command and destroy the Charon before it destroys the entire multiverse. Following Discovery's arrival at the Charon's coordinates, Saru then spoke with Lorca, who offered to spare him and Discovery's crew in exchange for Burnham. At first, Saru agreed. However, when Burnham and Georgiou attacked Lorca, Saru ordered Discovery to open fire. Discovery was successful in disabling the Charon's shields. Saru then ordered Burnham beamed aboard prior to destroying the Charon. Following the Charon's destruction, Saru and the crew then used the destruction's shock wave to return to their universe. (DIS: What's Past Is Prologue)
Overview
Personality and attributes
At first, Saru was bound by the natural traits of his people, with his life governed by a constant innate sense of fear and nervousness.
He said that he saw hope in the stars with this being greater than his fears and thus he went towards it. (DIS: The Brightest Star)
His father was Aradar and he had a sister by the name of Siranna.
Powers and abilities
Besides having more developed senses, Kelpiens had exceptional physical strength and stamina relative to Humans: Kelpiens pursued by apex predators had exceeded speeds of eighty kilometers per hour. (DIS: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum)
After undergoing vahar'ai, the Kelpien's excessive fear responses appeared to be suppressed; Saru in particular showed a more confrontational nature. This was followed by the development of new keratin-based structures in the cartilage previously housing the threat ganglia, new organs from which a Kelpien could forcibly expel (or "shoot") spines (see dart) which grew from them; these structures extended outward in the same manner as the old threat ganglia in moments of great stress. Long ago in their planet's history, post-vahar'ai 'evolved' Kelpiens nearly drove the Ba'ul to extinction before the Ba'ul subjugated them. (DIS: The Sound of Thunder)
During his Starfleet training, he was noted to had gained a first contact specialist qualification. (DIS: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum)
Notes
- Saru was created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman where he was portrayed by actor Doug Jones in the setting of the Star Trek universe.
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Star Trek: Discovery:
External Links
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