One Of Star Trek’s Newest Leading Men Unpacks Starfleet’s Heated Rivalries
George Dawson explains what makes Darem so different from previous Trek heroes.
In 1965, before Star Trek: The Original Series first aired, the show got a second pilot episode. NBC didn’t love the vibe of the Jeffrey Hunter/Captain Pike-led episode “The Cage,” and so, a year later, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was filmed, and Star Trek instantly got two alpha males front and center in the forms of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood). Longtime fans know what happened next: the show couldn’t really accommodate two bragadicious dudes, and so, Gary almost turned into a space god, and Kirk had to murder him.
But now, 61 years later, the latest Trek starship crew has two very cocky guys hanging around, and neither has taken out the other. Yet. Right at the start of Starfleet Academy, Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) clashes with Darem Reymi (George Dawson) over who is the top dog. Basically, these two are the Ice Man and Maverick of Starfleet at this point, but historically, Trek hasn’t been able to sustain two types of ego-driven males at the same time. So how does this work?
In a conversation with Inverse actor George Dawson reveals the trick to making Darem and Caleb very different kinds of dudes, and how there’s more to his character than meets the eye.
Darem (George Hawkins) and Caleb (Sandro Rosta) square off in the debut of Starfleet Academy.
“There's a lovely saying that we came up with [while filming], which is: that Darem fights to win and Caleb fights to kill,” Dawson tells Inverse. “I can imagine Darem was brought up in tournaments in violence, and his combat comes from safety almost. But there are boundaries. Meanwhile, Caleb has learned to fight through desperation, through genuine survival. So, they’re two characters with a lot of status, one who’s been almost gifted his status, and somebody else who has collected their status.”
Dawson wasn’t super aware of previous male rivalries in Star Trek canon prior to Starfleet Acadmey, and when I point out that that Episode 7, “Ko'Zeine,” could be read as Darem’s version of the classic “Amok Time,” he points out that it didn’t exactly cross his mind. “I really was not aware of that. And that's what's so lovely. I’m lucky, and especially that I’m playing a new species, I don’t have the heritage and ancestry of Star Trek that I feel like I have to uphold. Starfleet Academy is the perfect place to do that because you’re watching characters explore and respond to a world they’re not used to.”
In essence, Dawson feels that his “superpower” in approaching Star Trek was his “naivety” and “ignorance” of the overall canon. In the debut episode, “Kids These Days,” we learned that Darem was a member of the Khionian species and capable of some not-so-subtle shapeshifting. In Episode 7, “Ko'Zeine,” we discover — much like Spock in “Amok Time” — that Darem has been betrothed to be married, and destined to rule a kingdom, far from Starfleet. But, much like Spock in TOS, things don’t go exactly as planned, and thanks to some help from his Klingon buddy Jay-Den (Karim Diané), he ends up getting out of his royal responsibilities and headed back to Starfleet Academy.
For Dawson, paradoxically, because this episode reveals much of why Darem behaves the way he does, it was a touchstone for his performances earlier in the series. “I used Episode 7 in a lot of my prep,” he explains. “I used it to understand what he's running away from and the life that he was living before we meet him in Episode 1. Before, he lived completely for other people, because he’s told to be a king...so when he comes to the academy, he plays the opposite.”
Spock, Kirk, and Gary Mitchell in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Today, Starfleet Academy plays with male dynamics in a new way, and yet, familiar.
This quiet episode flips our assumptions about the cocky nature of Dawson’s character, which, in theory, will change the dynamic between the two alpha dogs — Caleb and Darem — going forward into the future. Or will it? Does the USS Athena have room for these two huge personalities?
Dawson won’t say what’s left for all the cadets in Starfleet Academy, but he does confirm that the bond between the cast members is as strong in real life as it is on the show.
“We parallel the show for sure,” Dawson says of the friendship with his fellow castmates. “It's a mutual recognition of what we're taking on in life right now. This is a big, big moment in all of our lives to become a part of a franchise that means so much to a lot of people. When you see us all at a table together, or when we’re watching the debate, or in the dorm room, those moments just allow your friendships to seep out and leak into the scenes.”
