How Star Trek Gave A Deep-Cut Character An Indiana Jones Reboot
In 'Strange New Worlds,’ Cillian O’Sullivan is not giving us our father's Roger Korby.
Prior to this year, even longtime Star Trek fans might hesitate before explaining who Roger Korby is and why he matters. And, before Strange New Worlds Season 3, no Trekkie would have thought of Korby as being a handsome, likable adventurer with an Irish accent. Now, the robot-obsessed mad scientist Korby (Michael Strong) in the 1966 episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” seems like a far cry from Cillian O’Sullivan’s younger, hotter Korby in Strange New Worlds. In fact, it’s possible that, thanks to numerous appearances this season, O’Sullivan’s SNW Korby might end up eclipsing the TOS Korby in the overall canonical fan memory.
In Strange New Worlds, Season 3, Episode 5, “Through the Lens of Time,” Korby, Chapel (Jess Bush), and Spock (Ethan Peck) embark on a dangerous away mission among strange alien ruins. It’s all a bit of table setting for the rest of the season, but it also finally gives us a chance to get to know the new Korby. And the thing is, he’s really likable and equally charming. So, how do we get from this guy to the crazed Korby of TOS? Inverse caught up with Cillian O’Sullivan to unpack his deep Trek fandom, his love of Chief O’Brien, and how he’s forging a strange, new path for the character.
Mild spoilers ahead.
Anson Mount, Cillian O'Sullivan, Carol Kane, Babs Olusanmokun, Celia Rose Gooding and Ethan Peck at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2025.
Were you freaked out when you got the part?
I tried not to let the terror too much, but I was definitely nervous and excited. Roger Korby's already canon and I knew that the fans would have something to say about it; and the fact that we were making him Irish as opposed to an American, and I'm putting so much of me into it. But at the end of the day, it really just, once I got started, it came down to getting over my first scene, my first scene walking down the hallway. Which was pretty nuts.
Were you a big Star Trek fan before this?
My old man was a big Trekkie, and he got me into it. There’d always be one of The Original Series, or The Next Generation, or Voyager or Deep Space Nine on the telly. I mean, I watch YouTube videos about Star Trek lore and stuff. I’m a full-on Star Trek geek. So, getting the part was insane.
Being Irish, were you obsessed with Chief O’Brien?
Colm Meaney is a big deal in Ireland. And of course, anytime I watch The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, my brain is always registering that this man is an Irishman and he's in Star Trek and that he came from Ireland. He’s a hero and the most important man in the universe, I've heard.
Cillian O'Sullivan as Korby and Ethan Peck as Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Is Korby like the Indiana Jones of Star Trek?
Every archeologist is probably their own individual type of person who happens to be in archeology or has studied archeology. I didn't re-watch Indiana Jones because I was already hearing the comparisons. I just didn't want to be getting into that because you can't be looking at Harrison Ford being the most charismatic guy that's ever lived, and then try and go off and do your own thing in a letter jacket as an archeologist. [Laughs]. So I was just focusing on his own ruggedness and how relaxed he'll be in his own skin.
Why does Korby want to live forever?
Well, for me personally, it wasn't necessarily an obsession for Korby to live forever. It was like the amazing science behind a discovery like that. I do think that he had a pretty dark, unhealthy obsession with this discovery, but it would've been probably the greatest archeological discovery ever. And can you ever top the ability to bring immortality to civilization? Probably not. And he's already one of the greatest archaeologists in the Federation and a driven guy.
Spock and Korby are romantic rivals, but they’re also kind of... bros?
I mean, me and Ethan [Peck] just kind of hit it off from the day that we met. I think some of it comes down to chemistry. He’s who I had my first scene with, and I was revealing my Trek nerddom, my deep nerddom, and I was freaking him out. I’m lucky my casting fits so well with Ethan. Jess Bush would have chemistry with a rock; she’s so good. But I’m lucky I have chemistry with them both. And, as you’ll see, there’s even more of that Spock-Korby relationship coming later in the season!
