The recent clip from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 calls back to a joke made about Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) during the show’s second season. After his introduction on The Original Series, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock became not only a Star Trek icon, but also one of the most beloved and recognizable science fiction characters of all time.

With a Vulcan father and human mother, Spock often struggled to reconcile his human emotions with his Vulcan upbringing. While Spock’s struggle occasionally came up on TOS, Strange New Worlds has leaned even further into Spock’s human/Vulcan duality.

Based on the above clip released at San Diego Comic-Con, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 will continue to explore Spock’s conflict. Under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Spock has found friends among the crew of the USS Enterprise. In Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, “Charades,” Spock temporarily becomes human, and he ends the episode in a romance with the very human Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). In this relationship, Spock embraces his humanity, expressing more emotion than he did on TOS.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Vulcans Was Set Up By Season 2

“I am Vulcan. I love logic. Notice how I move my eyebrow but no other muscles in my face.”

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ “Charades,” a group of powerful aliens mistakenly turn Spock into a human. This proves to be a problem when his Vulcan fiancée T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) and her parents make a surprise visit to the Enterprise. Spock’s friends then try to help him relearn how to act Vulcan. In one scene, Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) coach Spock on how to speak like a Vulcan, delivering impressions of his flat and emotionless way of speaking.

As Spock’s friends lovingly poke fun at his Vulcan speech patterns, Spock asks if he really sounds like that. They confirm that he does, and Spock clearly feels somewhat insecure about his Vulcan inflections. This scene sets up the above clip from Strange New Worlds’ upcoming third season, which shows Captain Pike, Uhura, La’an, and Nurse Chapel all being turned into Vulcans. While some of these characters previously pretended to be Vulcans, now they get to experience the real thing. As they become full-blooded Vulcans, they all act even more Vulcan than Spock, which causes him to feel more insecure.

Strange New Worlds Season 3 Shows Spock Is Insecure He’s Not Vulcan Enough

“Four and one-half Vulcans to beam down.”

As one of the few human/Vulcan hybrids of his time, Spock often feels like an outsider, not really fitting in among humans or Vulcans. Since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes place prior to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show has been able to explore Spock’s struggle before he becomes the logical Vulcan with which fans are most familiar. Strange New Worlds also shows how Spock’s human mother Amanda (Mia Kirshner) encourages him to be himself and brings out his human side. Strange New Worlds season 3 will continue to explore Spock’s struggle, as he wrestles with the feeling of not being Vulcan enough.

In the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode, Spock made the decision to fully embrace his logical Vulcan side, but the clip from season 3 shows he continues to struggle. Spock is confronted with his previously human friends, who now appear even more Vulcan than he is. This clearly gets under Spock’s skin, as his new Vulcan friends continually remind him of his half-human status. Although Pike, Uhura, La’an, and Chapel will surely be restored to their fully human selves by the end of the episode, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 will likely explore the aftereffects of this experience on Spock.