Before he was the first officer the USS Discovery, Origins Saru was a member of the pre-warp civilization of the Kelpiens on Kaminar. He’s a common science officer in the Discovery origins crew.
Captain’s Maneuver
Vigilent Increase the Defense of All Officers on the ship by 10
He’s a common officer, and he’s got a captain’s maneuver fitting of a common officer – which is to say, pretty close to useless unless once you’ve got rare and epic officers.
Officer Ability
Prey Instinct – Origins Saru increases the hull health of the ship by (5%, 7%, 10%, 12%, 15%)
As with a number of the new officers in this update, he’s useful in helping your hull health. So this will be most useful on your battleships. So if you’re running a Talla or a Kumari, he could be useful in some basic crew loadouts there.
He’s a common officer, so this isn’t going to be a whole lot to write home about, his older self is obviously going to be much more useful.
Origins Saru Background
Since I covered Doug Jones’ background on the Commander Saru piece, in this one, I’ll go over the character of Saru.
Saru is a Kelpien. Like Kelp. Ien.
He’s an alien from the planet Kaminar, where he lived with his sister Siranna and his father, Aradar. Their species was essentially used as livestock by the other sentient race on the planet, the Ba’ul. He was rescued from that fate by Captain Philippa Georgiou and eventually joined Starfleet.
He was the science officer aboard the Shenzhou, and eventually, the first officer of the USS Discovery.
Doug Jones didn’t audition for the part of Saru, they went after him.
Ever wondered how to make a Kelpien? Here’s how.