Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A perfect example of how we're in the midst of more Star Trek than ever right now is quite literally just as one series ends, another begins. We.

It’s a clever bridge between the drama of Discovery and the more breezy mission-of-the-week set-up Strange New Worlds is going for, and definitely sets the stage for what promises to be a fun season of adventures. But even if “Strange New Worlds” is a lot of necessary set-up, there’s still time for a very fun little alien adventure, as the reason we don’t get much Number One this episode is that the Enterprise is called back into action early to help recover her from a first contact mission gone wrong. There’s a lot of fun and meaty things going on in “Strange New Worlds,” the self-titled premiere of the series.

The series premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is a familiar breath of fresh air ... Time-tested tropes mixed with contemplative tales and a strong cast ...

And yet, with a record five Star Trek series in production at the same time, variety is a good thing. The melodies Strange New Worlds plays may not be completely novel, but its rendition of them is marvelous, with just enough turns and flourishes to feel distinctive. And those who work to preserve the good in the darkest hours may see it blossom when the time is right. Trying to placate the unyielding elements of the fandom with reassuring throwbacks to what they already know and like can net you disappointments like Rise of Skywalker or, heaven forbid, Star Trek: Enterprise. The promise of James T. Kirk’s arrival in a later outing, and the presence of his mustachioed brother here, suggest the new series won’t shy away from tying itself to every piece of Original Series ephemera it can wrangle. But the personal connects to the political (and intergalactic) in the crisis du jour. A vision of harsh consequences can spur us to make the best, and most, of the opportunities available. But it remains stirring to hear one of those time-tested captain’s speeches, acknowledging the difficult moment of the present while suggesting it too can be a wake-up call to work for the future so many young Trekkies dreamed of. Pike, Spock, La’An, and the audience all have a chance to compare notes and consider whether fear of death or rather acceptance of it puts one in the right state of mind. The captain is reluctant in the right moments, becomes commanding and supportive in others, and seems low-key yet confident in a way few other commanders have throughout Star Trek’s venerable history. These types of exchanges allow the episode to focus on its character beyond the adventure of the week. What distinguishes this first episode is the same thing that distinguished dozens of similarly-conceived installments of the older series it borrows from: the specific themes and characters at play. That extends to the officers on deck.

Paramount+ keeps beaming up "Star Treks" whether needed or not, but its latest, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," draws more heavily on the original series ...

From that perspective, "Strange New Worlds" is basically mistitled. It's a departure from the serialized template of something like "Picard," "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" premieres May 5 on Paramount+.

Strange New Worlds is set directly after the events of Discovery Season 2, which first introduced the new iterations of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), ...

It's as if the show is talking directly to the audience and saying, "We know that you know how this is supposed to go, but keep watching, and you might be surprised." In a way, Strange New Worlds is Star Trek finally making the show they had planned from the beginning. Strange New Worlds is set directly after the events of Discovery Season 2, which first introduced the new iterations of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Vulcan science officer Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and ended up being so popular that they were granted their own spinoff show. Pike is reluctant to get back into the swing of things but game once he's in the captain's chair, trading familiar quips with his towering Amazon Number One, who makes the 1960s high ponytail look natural in 2022, somehow. Since Star Trek: Discovery premiered in the fall of 2017, Paramount has treated us to a veritable wealth of Star Trek stories on our small screens, from Disco's epic that took us through the Klingon war and beyond, to the hilarious animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks, to catching up with a fan-favorite retired captain in Star Trek: Picard. There's something for everyone in all of these, but despite all the love the fans seem to agree that there's something missing from the format, particularly in the live-action shows. Part of the joy of a Star Trek show, from the very beginning, was the anticipation of seeing something completely new every week as the USS Enterprise bounced around the universe meeting alien races and soaking up the rays from distant suns.

Additionally, the show will feature characters from Star Trek: The Original Series and will be set aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise in the years before Captain Kirk ...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has already been renewed for a second season ahead of the premiere. Fun fact: The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley will join the cast as Captain James T. Kirk in season 2. You can watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds exclusively on Paramount Plus. Sign up and access a growing library of TV shows and movies, with new titles added every week. Given the name, there's a good chance that this entry in the Star Trek canon will focus more on space exploration. They're now getting their own spin-off series, which will follow them as they explore new planets and interact with alien civilisations. The Star Trek universe is expanding.

Based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the series will feature fan favourites from season two of Star Trek: ...

Goldsman, Kurtzman and Lumet serve as executive producers in addition to Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth and Aaron Baiers. The series is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. The series will follow Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. The cast includes Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" breaks new ground among the more recent "Trek" shows by going back to the old ways of the franchise.

to be associated with that is kind of confusing and strange, but at the same time, it’s been the most incredible journey. Interestingly, both Peck and Mount have been living with these characters since 2019 when they first appeared on “Discovery” Season 2. At multiple points in “Strange New Worlds,” that knowledge causes him considerable stress. And that, in a strange backdoor way, is tied up in his identity.” “The show is episodic but the characters have memory,” as Mount puts it. We wanted to reinvigorate that sense of excitement.”

From familiar planets to Enterprise captains, to the complicated history of Star Trek, here's how Strange New Worlds episode 1 dives deep into the ...

This is a slight retcon that Star Trek canon has been grappling with since TOS. In “Space Seed,” Spock mentioned that the Eugenics Wars were fought in the 1990s and that it was the last of your “so-called World Wars.” However, in TNG, WWIII and “the Eugenics Wars” were posited as separate events. April tells Pike and the crew that General Order 1 will now be called “the Prime Directive.” Pike scoffs at this saying the term will “never stick.” This of course is an inside joke. Number One refers to “zero point,” saying it’s “where we and the crew of Discovery opened up a wormhole to the future. Pike seems to roll the concepts of “the Second Civil War,” “the Eugenics Wars” and WWIII, all into one time period. As Spock shows Pike and La’an a map of “worlds in this sector with warp,” he uses his hands, casually, to point at the screen, and change what’s being displayed without touching it. What once sounded like a “mistake” now is part of the real-deal sound. Pike did two five-year missions, but not back-to-back, and we know that because there’s some non-five-year-mission action in there during the Klingon War and Discovery season 2 (in fact, right now, canon puts “The Cage” in 2254, which would be close to the end of Pike’s first five-year-mission.) Here’s a funny thing: Of all the points in the Star Trek chronology, the exact years of The Original Series have a tiny bit of wiggle room. Spock mentions to Pike that it’s been about “three months” since the events of Discovery season 2, which could imply this is still 2258, or maybe a bit later. Spock mentions the Klingon Moon Boreth, which is where Pike had his future vision in Discovery. Boreth was first introduced in a TNG episode called “Rightful Heir.” At that time, time crystals were not discussed, and Worf was seeking spiritual enlightenment. Throughout the episode, Pike and Number One both mention events that are “classified.” As Una makes clear toward the end of the episode, they’re talking about the ending of Star Trek: Discovery season 2, in which crews of both Enterprise and Discovery fought the evil AI known as Control, and Discovery opened a time portal wormhole to the future. Well, in Star Trek: Picard season 2, we learn Rick and Morty exist in the Trek timeline, which suggests that Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan also exists in the backstory of Trek, somehow.

After years of up-and-down, divisive, serialized storytelling, the latest 'Star Trek' series triumphantly returns the franchise to its familiar, ...

It’s not initially clear what galaxy-altering implications, if any, Strange New Worlds may be building up to, though the series does introduce an imaginative possible Big Bad and, in typical Trek fashion, finds ways to comment on the 21st century by way of the 23rd. Most of the episodes evoke Trek episodes past: a conflict between warring factions on a world that’s about to blow itself up; a vintage mysterious space anomaly; a crew contracting a confounding infection; a colony in distress; the complexities and perils of shore leave and diplomatic negotiations. Star Trek doesn’t necessarily need to be static; it could and should be a Changeling that adapts to its times and challenges its audience, and future Trek incarnations may perfect the model that Discovery and Picard pioneered. We want to do it the way it was done.”) From its font to its theme song to its story structure to Spock saying “reh-cords” and “sen-soars” to much of its recurring cast—which includes younger versions of Original Series characters Uhura, Nurse Chapel, and Kirk’s brother Sam, and will, as of Season 2, welcome Kirk himself (played by Paul Wesley)—Strange New Worlds is a comforting, familiar throwback. Perhaps improbably, the most consistent of the series that preceded Strange New Worlds is the animated Lower Decks, a comedic sitcom that fondly and perceptively spoofs TNG-style conflict by focusing on the not-in-command crew of an outmoded vessel that specializes in second contact. In some respects, Strange New Worlds seems almost regressive and cautious compared to the series that spawned it. I’m often the first to point out the problems with prequels or bemoan uninspired, nostalgia-centric narrative recycling, and on the surface Strange New Worlds would seem to risk checking both boxes. Discovery made Michael (and Sonequa Martin-Green) the first Black female captain in live-action Trek; in Pike (and Mount), Strange New Worlds returns to the franchise’s white-guy-captain roots. I finished it mostly out of vestigial loyalty to the character, the urge to rubberneck at a flaming 10-episode pileup, and fascination with what Stewart was thinking as he delivered his lines and presumably wondered how he got himself into this. Pike, preparing to settle into the captain’s chair on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, reminds his crew of its mission: “We seek out new life and new civilizations. You know the ones: those previously proclaimed by William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, and even Scott Bakula. They come right after the phrase “to explore strange new worlds,” which means they were always bound to be the big finish of an episode called “Strange New Worlds” that launches a series called Strange New Worlds. And after 50 minutes of anticipation, there they are, as expected and promised, with only minor modifications. But that’s not Strange New Worlds. Through the series’ first five episodes, which were provided to critics in advance of Thursday’s series premiere on Paramount+, the prequel/spinoff doesn’t take the coolness of the Enterprise’s five-year/ continuing/ ongoing mission format for granted.

The Original Series told us that was Starfleet's first encounter with the villainous Gorn. But there are hints that we might see them on Star Trek: Strange ...

The potential of the Gorn, to Goldsman, trumps anything previously set down by The Original Series. This may anger some fans but we’ll have to wait and see what Strange New Worlds does with the Gorn in the future. Goldsman describes the race as “a really, really great enemy for whom we have no compassion. Executive producer Akiva Goldsman however teases that the writers are “less concerned” with canon in this case than you might think. A classic example was in Star Trek: Enterprise’s use of the Romulans. In their first appearance in The Original Series, it had been established no human had ever actually seen a Romulan. That meant in Enterprise, set around 100 years before the time of TOS, no human character should lay eyes on a Romulan. The show went out of its way to keep this consistent, despite featuring several Romulan appearances. It took a lot of work, but canon was (mostly) respected. St ar Trek is a franchise with a massive legacy, one the newer series on Paramount+ are gleeful to explore.