Tag: la'an

Strange New Worlds: Taking Stock

Strange New Worlds: Taking Stock

Dennis
A Strange New Worlds-themed spoiler warning.

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, Discovery, and Picard.

At time of writing, Season 3 of Strange New Worlds has just concluded. With Starfleet Academy on the schedule for the first half of next year, and with Season 4 having only finished filming a few weeks ago, there’s gonna be a wait of a year-plus before we’ll see it – late 2026 or early 2027 is my guess, barring any strikes or similar disruptions! So it’s a bit early to look ahead – but Strange New Worlds is on my mind right now.

What I want to do this time is try to take stock of how the series has performed so far, as well as look ahead to a few things that I’d like to see in Seasons 4 and/or 5. This isn’t going to be a review or a recap of Season 3, though obviously we’ll talk about Season 3 along the way, but rather a broader overview of how I see Strange New Worlds now that we’re three seasons in – and, regrettably, past the halfway point of what will be a forty-six-episode run.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing the Enterprise at warp.
The final shot of Season 3.

As always, a couple of caveats before we get much further. Firstly, I have no “insider information,” so anything I say about possible future episodes and stories should be viewed through that lens! And secondly, all of this is the subjective, not objective, opinion of one old Trekkie. If you disagree with me about Strange New Worlds, hate my take, or want to see the series go in a completely different direction… that’s okay! There’s enough room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and polite disagreement.

Alright, now that that’s out of the way… let’s talk Strange New Worlds!

Season 3 was, on the whole, pretty good. There were a couple of dud episodes, but even those had some redeeming qualities. It felt a bit more serialised this time, thanks to the ongoing Batel-Gorn storyline, but still episodic enough that we got a diverse mix of stories. If I had to highlight two episodes for special praise, I’d pick Through the Lens of Time and Terrarium. I think Through the Lens of Time is, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps somewhat let down by a weaker conclusion in the season finale, but on its own it’s still a solid episode. And Terrarium is just fantastic across the board.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing Ortegas on an away mission.
Ortegas in Terrarium.

In terms of characters, I’d like to see Strange New Worlds do more with some of its original creations, rather than leaning so heavily on the younger versions of TOS characters. Scotty seems to have taken precedence over Pelia for a lot of engineering storylines, such as in A Space Adventure Hour, and because Pelia is just a ton of fun… that doesn’t sit right. She’s the chief engineer, and he’s… what? A glorified assistant at best. And although sometimes lacking in confidence, this version of Scotty is still working engineering miracles. We’ve seen that before, and while there’s definitely fun to be had in seeing Scotty’s growth and the development of some of his friendships with folks like Uhura and Kirk… I don’t want that to overwhelm an original character like Pelia.

I’ve said this before, but if Star Trek had relied so heavily on legacy characters when considering spin-offs in the 1980s and 1990s, the franchise would feel a lot smaller today. We might never have met the likes of Picard, Sisko, or Janeway if the folks in charge had insisted on retaining characters from past iterations of Star Trek – and I’m just a little concerned that the attention dedicated to legacy characters is beginning to overshadow the rest of the cast. Spock was almost omnipresent this season, and we got stories heavily focused on Kirk, Chapel, Scotty, and Uhura, too. I’m glad that we finally got an Ortegas episode – and that it was so darn good! But with only sixteen episodes remaining, I’d really like to see Strange New Worlds strike more of a balance between characters who’ll go on to play big roles in TOS and the rest of the cast.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing Kirk in the captain's chair of the Farragut.
Kirk in command.

I mentioned this in one of my Season 3 episode reviews, but La’an being related to iconic Star Trek villain Khan has been a complete nothing-burger so far, and unless something major changes on that front… I’m gonna reach the end of the series wishing she’d been given a different last name. If you know me, you know I’m not a stickler for the tiniest minutiae of “canon,” but given how important Khan is to Kirk, Spock, and really to Star Trek as a whole… making La’an a direct relative of Khan kind of treads on the toes of what was established in Space Seed. If there’d been a big narrative payoff for that, it could’ve easily been worth it. But so far? I’m afraid it hasn’t been.

Think about it like this: what would change about La’an if her last name had been… Shellac-Wombat instead of Noonien-Singh? She could still have been a descendant of augments. She could still have survived the Gorn as a kid. She could still have felt shame about her ancestry. She could still have developed a friendship with Una, fallen for Kirk, and gotten into bed with Spock. Her iconic ancestor doesn’t matter one iota – and because of how important Khan still is to the franchise, I don’t think that’s good enough. There’s just no reason to have made her a member of Khan’s family – and right now, the name feels like little more than cheap nostalgia bait.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing La'an peeking out from a hiding place.
La’an in Season 2.

What appealed to me the most about “the Captain Pike show” in the aftermath of Discovery’s second season was spending more time with Anson Mount’s take on the character. Season 1 gave us a decent mix of Pike and other characters, but the captain seems to have stepped out of the limelight a little in Seasons 2 and 3. There were whole episodes this season where Pike got remarkably little to do, and one of his bigger roles – in Four-and-a-Half Vulcans – was far from his best. Anson Mount did a great job, by the way, in that kind of comedic role… but I just wasn’t thrilled about the end product.

So in Seasons 4 and 5, I hope we get to see a bit more of Pike. That doesn’t mean every story needs to put the captain front-and-centre, but there have been moments in some episodes which could’ve been perfect for Pike to step up and play a role – but where writing decisions meant other characters came to the fore. Maybe you think this contradicts my earlier wish to see more of Strange New Worlds’ original creations – but I kind of include Pike, Una, and Dr M’Benga along with the brand-new characters, as their roles prior to this series were much smaller.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing Pike holding a wine glass.
It’s still “the Captain Pike show” to me!

There are plenty of great characters on the show, and with only sixteen episodes left – and presumably at least one or two new recurring or secondary characters to be added – there are clearly gonna be constraints on how often Pike can be centre-stage… and I get that. But this is, for me, still “the Captain Pike show,” so when Pike is absent, relegated to a background role, or even mischaracterised – as I’d argue he was, to an extent, in episodes like Under the Cloak of War and Four-and-a-Half Vulcans – then a big part of Strange New Worlds is missing.

This leads into one of the concerns I have going into the remainder of the series: filming for Season 4 has already concluded, and Season 5 is currently underway. There’s no time for Skydance/Paramount to address feedback from Season 3; it’s too late to make any changes to the stories that have already been created. And given that Season 3 did have a couple of misfires and, I would argue, an over-use of characters like Kirk and Spock at the expense of Pike and some of Strange New Worlds’ original characters… that could be a problem. Feedback is important, especially in the modern streaming television landscape, and unfortunately, Strange New Worlds went ahead with producing Season 4 and 5 before there was a chance for any significant responses to Season 3 to be known. Hopefully, because the show is still pretty good, that won’t be too much of a problem. But I worry that the creative team may have doubled-down on some of the things that fans and viewers have been less keen on this time around.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing the Enterprise bridge.
Pike and the crew on the bridge.

Returning to Pike, I don’t think we need to see his accident and disability again at the end of the show. That story has already been told in Discovery, in The Original Series, and in a couple of Strange New Worlds episodes, so ending the show that way would, I would argue, be repetitive. If Kirk hadn’t been such a big presence this season, I’d probably have said that the series finale should show Pike handing over the Enterprise to Kirk – and a big part of me still believes that will be the final shot of the series. But given Kirk’s expanded role… I think some of the impact of that will be lost, even if the moment itself is handled well.

Instead, I think Strange New Worlds needs its very own Undiscovered Country-type of story. Perhaps Pike and the crew get word that the Enterprise is to undergo a major refit, and that Pike himself is to be promoted. The crew have one final mission to undertake – perhaps against the Klingons, the Gorn, or another well-known antagonist. The mission could be intense, explosive, and action-packed, but rather than the final moments of the show depicting the handover to Kirk… I’d like to see Pike on the bridge, setting course for parts unknown one final time.

Cropped comic book cover from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds spin off series.
Ortegas, Una, Chapel, and Spock from one of the Strange New Worlds comic books.

We’ve had it confirmed in a recent interview that the creative team weren’t sure a renewal was coming after Season 3, which I think explains a few major decisions this time around. It explains why there was such a rush to do the “backdoor pilot” for their Year One idea, with Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Chapel, and Uhura all working together. It explains why some characters – like Chapel and Uhura – now feel like they’re coming to the ends of their arcs on the show. And it explains that epilogue in the season finale, which I said in my review felt like it was intended to serve as the ultimate ending to the show if it hadn’t been picked up for more episodes.

Some of those decisions could, if the creative team are aware of them, open up different possibilities in Seasons 4 and 5. We’ve already had the “Kirk in command” Year One spin-off episode. So check that one off the list – no need to do that again. Chapel’s relationship with Dr Korby has emerged, gone through a couple of bumps in the road, and gotten to a point where he doesn’t need to regularly reappear. Uhura’s grown in confidence and ability, taking her from a raw cadet unsure of her place in Starfleet to a confident officer who was even willing to bend the rules. Spock has just been all over the place… but even if we never got another Spock episode, I think we can safely say we’ve spent more than enough time with him, too!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing Spock.
Spock.

So that should open up other opportunities. We haven’t had a major storyline for Una since the beginning of Season 2 (and no, getting horny for Patton Oswalt doesn’t count). We finally got our Ortegas episode, three seasons in, but there’s still scope to do more with her character. It would be nice to get a story for Dr M’Benga that doesn’t revolve around either his violent past or some other secret he’s keeping from his shipmates – perhaps one that could explain why, by the time of The Original Series, he’s no longer the chief medical officer.

Then there’s the secondary cast. Mitchell’s been a regular on the bridge – maybe the show could do something with her? Admiral April’s family was hinted at in the Season 3 finale, as was his friendship with Pike, so perhaps a story in which he’s in focus would be well-received. I’d also love to get one more story featuring Hemmer! Perhaps a time-travel story, of some kind, could see Hemmer getting some screen time with Scotty? That could be absolutely fantastic if handled well. And Sam Kirk has been rather overshadowed by Spock in the science department and his brother, but it would be lovely to get a story in which he’s in focus, for once.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing Sam Kirk holding a machine.
Sam Kirk in Season 2.

You’ll have heard me say this before (I often use it as a bit of a caveat when talking about episodes I didn’t like!) but I’m really glad to see Strange New Worlds remaining a mostly episodic show. Discovery and Picard both went for big, season-long serialised arcs… but for me, that’s not really what I’ve wanted from Star Trek. In past shows, where seasons were longer and there was more room for manoeuvre, arcs like the Dominion War worked pretty well. But in the modern television landscape, where there are fewer episodes and fewer seasons available, I think Star Trek really needs the diversity and options that only an episodic format can deliver.

So, as production gets underway on Season 5… please keep the episodic format! A two-part or even three-part finale could work, sure, but I hope that at least some of Season 5 can retain the episodic charm that has made Strange New Worlds feel like such a nostalgic throwback in the best possible way. It wasn’t until I started watching Strange New Worlds that I came to recognise how much I’ve missed episodic television – and how essential the format is to a franchise like Star Trek.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing zombies.
The zombies in Shuttle to Kenfori.

Star Trek shows need the freedom to explore strange new worlds… pretty much every week. The Enterprise needs to visit a planet, meet an alien, then warp away to a different destination next time. As Strange New Worlds has demonstrated, that doesn’t mean you have to lose character growth, personal relationships, and other modern television trappings. But it means that, for a franchise all about exploring the galaxy, spending too long in one place or having too narrow a focus isn’t what works best. And I’m not alone in feeling that way, I suspect.

I think there’s room for something like a two-part finale to wrap up the show, or even a two-part cliffhanger in between Seasons 4 and 5, as we got with Seasons 2 and 3. One or both of those ideas could be great. But what I don’t want to see, really, is for Seasons 4 and 5 to go down the Discovery/Picard route of being fully serialised, as I think that would take away so much of what has made Strange New Worlds work. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Strange New Worlds model – which I’d describe as episodic with character arcs – should be adopted by Starfleet Academy and by any other Star Trek project that might get greenlit in the years ahead. It’s absolutely the best choice for this franchise.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing La'an on the holodeck.
La’an on the holodeck.

At this stage, with Starfleet Academy on the schedule for early 2026, I’m not convinced that Strange New Worlds’ fourth season will be ready in time for the 60th anniversary, which is now less than a year away! But if I could be allowed one “wish,” it would be for Season 4 to contain some kind of celebratory episode, perhaps a story akin to my Cardassia Prime pitch, which would bring in characters and factions from elsewhere in the franchise.

The 60th anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate a milestone that few franchises ever reach. And let’s be honest: with all the cancellations and Paramount+ struggling, being able to do anything big for the 70th or 75th seems unlikely! And speaking for myself… I might not be here by then! So I’d dearly love to see at least one Season 4 episode written as a “love letter” to Star Trek and to the fans, really leaning into the 60th anniversary and celebrating all things Star Trek.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showing an illusion of Hemmer.
A 60th anniversary episode could really celebrate the franchise.

Before we wrap things up, I have a couple of much siller, almost-certain-never-to-be-made ideas. The first is one I’ve talked about a few times here on the website: rescuing Captain Lorca! Lorca appeared in Discovery’s first season, and the prime timeline version of the character is assumed to have died in the Mirror Universe… but what if he didn’t? Captain Pike could lead a rescue effort, stepping through the looking-glass to save a friend. I think that could be a ton of fun as an episode.

And finally… I still kinda want to see a “Captain Pike versus the Borg” story! Yes, there are timeline problems. Yes, it would tread on the toes of canon. And yes, the Borg have been overused in Picard in recent years. But still… I think you could write a script which sees Pike’s Enterprise catapulted to an alternate universe where the Borg are dominant, with Spock saying “it’s unlikely a cybernetic race like this exists in our universe,” and where La’an, Dr M’Benga, and the rest of the crew have to battle drones and figure out a way home. I just think it would be a really fun idea.

Still frame from Star Trek: First Contact showing a borg drone.
I know, I know… it ain’t gonna happen!

So that’s all for today!

We’ve talked about Strange New Worlds, the show’s first three seasons, some of its characters, and a few things I’d like to see going forward. I’m still disappointed that the show has been prematurely cancelled – especially because it happened before Season 3 had aired a single episode. But we are where we are, and there are now just sixteen episodes left. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some wonderful adventures before Captain Pike and co. have to hang up their uniforms for the final time.

I hope this has been interesting. I wanted to talk about the show more broadly now that Season 3 has ended. I still don’t think we’re gonna see Season 4 before next autumn at the earliest – and a 2027 release doesn’t seem impossible, either, given the lengthy post-production involved for modern shows. So… it could be a while before we rejoin Pike, Spock, Una, and the rest of the crew. Before then, I’d like to finally write up some Season 1 episodes, which I didn’t do at the time because Paramount cut off Strange New Worlds from an international audience! And if and when there’s a trailer, a teaser, or more information revealed about the upcoming season, I daresay I’ll take a look. Until then… Live Long and Prosper!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance and/or Paramount. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 4: A Space Adventure Hour

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 4: A Space Adventure Hour

Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for: The Original Series Season 1, The Next Generation Season 2, and The Undiscovered Country.

After last week’s horrifying zombie story, Strange New Worlds completely changed direction in A Space Adventure Hour. There were elements of comedy and drama, as well as a light-hearted pastiche of Star Trek: The Original Series which, I suspect, will have worked better for some fans than others. Star Trek legend Jonathan Frakes returned to the director’s chair for the first time this season, and while I wasn’t wild about the story at first… it grew on me over its runtime.

A Space Adventure Hour deliberately ignored almost all of the season’s ongoing storylines: Captain Batel and her illness weren’t mentioned, Ortegas was reinstated with a hand-wavy line of dialogue, and the story really zoomed in on two characters: Scotty and La’an. I generally enjoy Strange New Worlds’ episodic nature, so I don’t mind when an episode does something like that. But at the same time, I hope we’ll return to the aftermath of the Enterprise’s run-in with the Gorn before too long. Setting it aside was fine on this occasion, though.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing one of the fictional aliens.
A horrifying monster from outer space!

Before we go any further, let’s just say this: I fucking loathe Paramount’s ridiculous “America First” attitude. It’s self-defeating and stupid. A Space Adventure Hour was made available for free on YouTube and Pluto TV – but only in the United States. We can debate whether this was the right episode to try to use to entice new viewers (I don’t think it was, by the way) but why – why?! – does Paramount insist on this pathetic “America First” fetish? It isn’t the 1960s any more – Star Trek, and really all of Paramount’s shows – have a worldwide audience. That’s why Paramount+ exists in other countries. Why offer something like this to a tiny fraction of that audience but nobody else?

We’ve seen this time and again with Paramount and the Star Trek franchise, and it’s got to stop. In this case it was a “freebie,” but it’s not just that – it’s marketing. Offering a free episode on YouTube is a marketing stunt to try to draw attention to Strange New Worlds and the broader franchise. But why only do that in the United States when the internet is one massive, global, interconnected space? Strange New Worlds is only available on Paramount+ in countries and regions where Paramount has actually bothered to launch the service, so there’s no argument about who has the rights to broadcast new episodes. It’s just so stupid to have these big marketing stunts only to ruin them by cutting off fans from the rest of the world. As it happens, it wouldn’t have made much difference to me as I have a Paramount+ subscription. But the whole point of doing something like this is to attract new eyes to the show. So why only offer that to folks in America when there’s an entire world watching and waiting? Star Trek might be owned by an American corporation, but the fanbase is global and the franchise’s name is known all over the world. A Space Adventure Hour streaming for free could’ve sold new Paramount+ subscriptions from Tierra del Fuego to New Delhi. If only Paramount’s executives weren’t “America First” morons.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a blooper from the credits sequence.
A “blooper.”

Alright, rant over.

A Space Adventure Hour looks like it would’ve been a ton of fun to work on for the cast and crew. Getting to step out of character and try something new is always going to be enjoyable for folks working on long-running productions. But at only twenty-four episodes in (i.e. the equivalent of one season of Star Trek a few years ago) I’m… I’m not quite sure that Strange New Worlds has earned an episode like this just yet. Especially when we consider episodes like The Elysian Kingdom already did something very similar in Season 1… to say nothing of last season’s Subspace Rhapsody. There’s absolutely room for episodes like A Space Adventure Hour… if we were talking about a series that was gonna run to 170+ episodes over seven seasons. But with the recent cancellation news, I’m acutely aware of Strange New Worlds having a time limit. While there absolutely were interesting ideas and elements in the mix here, I just don’t think this is the kind of story I’d have personally chosen to greenlight if I was in charge!

That being said, I didn’t have the almost visceral, bowel-churning hatred of this episode as I did for last season’s musical outing. There were fun elements in the narrative, and on the “real world” side of things – outside of the story taking place on the holodeck – we got some interesting tidbits of lore.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the main holo-characters.
The holograms in La’an’s murder mystery.

I’m a little disappointed that Strange New Worlds seems to be shoving Pelia aside in favour of Scotty. I feared this would happen when Scotty emerged at the end of Season 2, and while it’s interesting to catch a glimpse of Scotty’s younger days… I’m just concerned that it’s coming at the expense of first Hemmer, and now Pelia.

However! I’m glad that A Space Adventure Hour continued the theme of Scotty having room to grow. In this case, he wanted to solve everything completely by himself, to such an extent that he didn’t even tell the Enterprise’s senior staff about the problems he was having. We saw glimpses of the more familiar Scotty – the self-reliant, confident miracle-worker from The Original Series. But mixed in was an intensely vulnerable man, someone struggling with the loss of his previous ship. I don’t think his comments about the Stardiver somehow explain everything about Scotty, but it was interesting to learn a bit more about why he feels so hesitant to ask for help and why he tries to shoulder all of the burden himself.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty at work.
Scotty working on the holodeck.

It was genuinely fun to see Scotty in the science lab, trying to desperately balance the needs of the holodeck with the rest of the ship. We got a real mix of both TOS Scotty – with his incredible engineering prowess – and a younger, less confident version of the character, who was clearly feeling overwhelmed. It made for an interesting presentation, and Martin Quinn managed to walk the line exceptionally well.

What we’re really seeing is how Scotty’s raw, unrefined talent is being honed. And that’s where I felt Pelia’s absence. Instead of saying “oh, she’s on shore leave,” why not have Pelia be the one to set up the holodeck, but then get called away for some other emergency, leaving Scotty to pick up the pieces? At the very least, Pelia could’ve come in at the end of the story to coach Scotty on what he did right and where he went wrong. Those roles ultimately fell to Una and Uhura, which was fine in theory – and getting some interaction between Scotty and Uhura was definitely fun to see. But if the idea behind bringing Scotty into Strange New Worlds is to show how he has room to grow, and how he can take his undeniable talent and hone it into something more practical… we need his mentor to be present for at least part of that.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty with Una.
Scotty with Una – but where’s Pelia?

So… Spock’s just gonna romance his way through the Enterprise’s female crew members, I guess. First it was Chapel, now it’s La’an… who’s next? Una? Uhura? Pelia?

To me, it feels like Strange New Worlds’ writers have latched onto two story outlines with Spock, and don’t really know what else to do with him. We have the “Vulcans are stuck-up and rigid, so let’s use that for laughs” that we’ve seen in basically every Vulcan episode so far, and now we have the “Spock has no emotions, but what if he fell in love?” that we’ve seen with Chapel and now apparently with La’an too.

Spock can be a fun character, and putting him in situations that aren’t identical to what he went through in The Original Series is absolutely worthwhile. But… I can’t help but feel we’ve taken the “Spock in love” story outline as far as it can reasonably stretch. With T’Pring and Chapel, we’ve already explored this side of Spock. And with Strange New Worlds on the clock, if the aim is to bring Spock closer in line with his TOS version ahead of the show’s finale, we need to see more movement in that direction. A new relationship won’t help.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an and Spock kissing.
La’an and Spock.

Spock and Chapel’s relationship evolved kind of naturally from TOS foundations – particularly Chapel’s apparent “crush” on Spock. While I felt we caught a glimpse of… something, between La’an and Spock in Wedding Bell Blues, where they danced together, I’m just not sure that this is the right way to go for either of them. I guess you could frame it as a “rebound;” for La’an after getting her heart broken by Kirk, and for Spock after his relationship with Chapel fell apart. And there could be something to gain from a “Spock on the rebound” story, I guess. I just don’t think this has the legs to go much further, and I don’t think it’s a storyline I’d have chosen to include.

Maybe this is because I’m asexual, but I don’t really think a show like Strange New Worlds needs this kind of relationship drama to be entertaining or engaging. There have been relationships between characters in past iterations of Star Trek – Troi and Riker, Worf and Dax, Trip and T’Pol – but again, those shows were longer, and the relationship stuff took up comparatively less time. Of the twenty-four Strange New Worlds episodes so far, three have included T’Pring, and four have included Spock’s relationship with Chapel in some way. Now we have another episode – and presumably at least one or two more to come – that will feature Spock and La’an. It’s just kind of a lot, especially for a character who had previously been so famously unattached – aside from his brief Pon Farr infatuation!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an and Spock dancing.
How many romances is Spock gonna have?

Here’s a question: did you guess A Space Adventure Hour’s big twist? I half-guessed it! It seemed pretty clear to me that the “Spock” La’an was talking to on the holodeck was, in fact, a hologram – but I didn’t go quite so far as to pin him as the murderer. In that sense, I think this side of A Space Adventure Hour was pretty creative, and it used the holodeck exceptionally well. We’ve had plenty of “the holodeck done goofed” stories in Star Trek before, but none quite like A Space Adventure Hour in terms of its twist. The story took the same core premise as the one from Elementary, Dear Data – but did something quite different with it. It was creative, and a great way to include this staple Star Trek technology in a new and fun way.

Speaking of the holodeck, it was a lot of fun to see the technology’s origins. It’s a bit of a timeline stretch, perhaps, to say that the holodeck was developed in the 23rd Century but wasn’t widely used nor installed aboard starships for basically another 100 years, but it’s still really interesting to delve into the history of how holodecks developed. Seeing Scotty as one of the early holodeck pioneers is a fun little tidbit, too. I don’t think it really clashes with Relics, where Scotty encounters a 24th Century holodeck, either – though I can see that being a bone of contention for some Trekkies, I guess!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an entering the holodeck.
La’an on the holodeck.

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy when Star Trek takes the time to explore its technologies in a bit more detail – and I think we got an interesting exploration of the holodeck here. Seeing how the holodeck was wired into the rest of the ship could explain how some stories in The Next Generation era unfolded, particularly ones where a malfunction occurred! After the holodeck debuted in The Next Generation, we just kind of accepted that it’s something starships have – even though it could go wrong, sometimes.

Seeing the early development of this technology was fun. But it also presented an opportunity for Strange New Worlds to talk a little about renegade computer programmes – something that’s definitely relevant in 2025 as artificial intelligence software and large language models continue to improve and grow. I don’t think the episode kept this side of things in focus for very long, but the idea of a computer programme being smarter than the people who think they’re in charge of it, and using its generative technology for the purposes of deception? Those are very real and very valid points to touch on!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an about to exit the holodeck, with holo-Spock disappearing.
La’an with holo-Spock.

Where do we draw the line between a funny, self-referential parody or pastiche and something mocking and mean-spirited? I don’t believe that the writers intended for their “Last Frontier” segments to come across as rude, offensive, or mocking The Original Series, William Shatner, or Star Trek fans… but I’m not gonna lie, part of me feels like that’s exactly how it landed. Paul Wesley channelled his inner Shatner to deliver a very on-the-nose impersonation, and other parts of those segments included exaggerated set design, cinematography, and even writing. It felt like something you’d get on a comedy sketch show. And… I don’t think that’s a compliment.

Self-parody is already a difficult thing to pull off. Make one wrong move and it comes across as either masturbatory self-congratulation or a very niche in-joke that only hard-core fans are likely to understand. Both of those problems are present in parts of A Space Adventure Hour, but also… some of those sequences didn’t feel respectful. The tone felt almost aggressive or mocking, as if the writers were saying “look at how silly your stupid little space show is,” and by extension, “you’re idiots for enjoying this crap.” It’s almost like Shatner’s infamous “get a life” skit back in the 1980s – but worse, somehow, because it’s so earnest.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the fictional USS Adventure.
The “USS Adventure.”

There is room in Star Trek for this kind of light-hearted take, and for episodes or storylines that call attention to some of the franchise’s weirder or less serious elements. That’s a big part of what Lower Decks did, if you think about it. But they have to be handled with at least some degree of sensitivity so they don’t come across as mean-spirited or looking down at Trekkies. For me, parts of A Space Adventure Hour strayed uncomfortably close to that line – and I already know some fellow Star Trek fans are gonna absolutely despise what this episode did with this parody.

As I said, I don’t think this was intentional. At least, I certainly hope it wasn’t! But it’s surprising to me that nobody involved in the production of the episode suggested… I dunno. Toning it down a notch or two? I can take a joke; I’m not some kind of stuck-up old fusspot who insists that “Star Trek should be 100% serious all the time!” Just look at my coverage of other episodes with comedic premises; I like comedy in Star Trek and there’s definitely a place for it. And I can see a version of A Space Adventure Hour where this kind of idea worked better. But the way it came across in the finished product… I think it was too much. It was too harsh, too aggressive, and where it could’ve been a funny little nod and wink to fans, it came across as laughing at us rather than laughing with us.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a blooper of Kirk breaking his chair.
What did you make of the parody?

There were things to appreciate with the “Last Frontier” parody, though. Parts of the sets felt silly and exaggerated – the levers on the bridge in particular. But in other ways the sets were reminiscent of that kind of mid-century sci-fi series; the coloured lights reminded me very much of The Original Series, as did Kirk’s chair and the other console to one side on the bridge.

Though I didn’t really like Paul Wesley’s Shatner impression, it took a lot of skill to pull it off, and I can respect that. The soft filter on the camera, the way lighting changed, and the use of dramatic close-up shots were also all drawn from The Original Series, and added something to this pastiche. Holo-Kirk’s comment about a “female first officer” harkened back to The Cage, “Number One” being a woman, and Pike’s comment about women on the bridge of his ship. Or at least, I felt that it did.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the Kirk/Shatner parody from the opening sequence.
There were some creative ideas here, but the tone let it down.

The rest of the holodeck adventure was a ton of fun. I think there were some pretty tropey over-acted performances from, well, pretty much all of the main cast as they took on these new roles, but that’s not necessarily a negative in this instance. It’s basically what the script called for – and these kinds of mid-century murder mystery stories (I’m loathe to call it “noir”) were populated by wildly exaggerated characters. For the kind of story A Space Adventure Hour wanted to be, the tone was pretty good.

It was also neat to see La’an in this kind of informal environment, as well as learning a bit more about her. La’an can be rigid and formal, though Kirk certainly helped break down her emotional walls! But until now, we hadn’t really gotten to know much about La’an as an individual, and some of the things she likes outside of her work in Starfleet. Season 3 already introduced us to dancing, which is apparently a hobby of hers, and now we’ve gotten to see these “Amelia Moon” detective stories. It was a nice inclusion, and a way to expand her character with something a bit less formal – and dare I say even a little childish – while still being in keeping with what we know about her role as a security officer.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an on the holodeck.
This was a good episode for La’an.

The conversation between La’an and holo-Uhura about fandom was also not lost on me. If the earlier “Last Frontier” parody had been a bit too much, this conversation did succeed at bringing things back, and I appreciated what the writers wanted to say about Star Trek inspiring generations of viewers. I know Star Trek has inspired me – and if you’re reading this, I assume you’re also a fan and that Star Trek means something to you, too. I’m glad that the writers didn’t just leave the parody to speak for itself, but also included this conversation about how this fictionalised version of The Original Series could inspire people in the future.

For La’an, this hit especially close to home because of her connection to the Amelia Moon stories. I interpreted that as kind of a Nancy Drew or Famous Five type of children’s book, not necessarily something as grown-up as Sherlock Holmes! Speak of Holmes, did you notice Spock’s claim to be a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle? I think the writers thought they were resolving a decades-old “plot hole” with that one! If you don’t recall, in The Undiscovered Country, Spock quoted Holmes and referred to the character as “an ancestor of mine,” which led to discussions in the fan community about what he meant, whether Sherlock Holmes was a real person in this setting, and so on. Strange New Worlds seems to have clarified that Spock was referring to Conan Doyle – and perhaps claiming that he’s an ancestor of Spock’s mother, Amanda? I don’t think it’s the kind of thing which needed clarification, but it’s interesting to note that Spock’s Sherlock Holmes connection goes back a long way!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a close-up of La'an.
La’an on the holodeck.

After the opening parody sequence was over, and we settled into the story with La’an, holo-Spock, and Scotty, I felt things improved a lot. The murder mystery looked tropey and silly at first, but then it kind of clicked for me and I found myself getting more invested in it. And on Scotty’s side, while I missed Pelia and felt she could’ve added a lot, it was undeniably a lot of fun to see the origins of the holodeck. Scotty played a big role in the development of that technology, which is certainly interesting!

Strange New Worlds is an episodic show. It remains a lot of fun to shake things up, try new things, and really push the boat out, sometimes. For me, parts of A Space Adventure Hour stuck the landing and showed why episodic Star Trek is still the best kind of Star Trek! Others… didn’t land quite as well as I’d have hoped. Overall, the episode was a bit of a mixed bag, then, but because the least-enjoyable parts were mostly out of the way within the first few minutes, I’d say the episode picked up as it went on, and by the time it ended, I was feeling a lot happier.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty having a conversation with Uhura.
Uhura and Scotty.

I would say, though, that this was a truly stupid choice of episode to offer for free if the goal was to bring in new viewers on YouTube and Pluto TV. It’s a very self-referential, navel-gazing, “meta” episode of Star Trek, and it wouldn’t make for a good first contact either for Trekkies who want to get started with Strange New Worlds or for a more casual viewer looking to try Star Trek for the first time. In that sense, I don’t understand why Paramount would choose this story – of all the Strange New Worlds episodes we’ve seen so far – for this kind of marketing stunt. But then again, I don’t understand why the morons in Paramount’s marketing department make basically any of the decisions they make. The sooner the Skydance team takes over, the better!

So that was A Space Adventure Hour. I didn’t hate it. Well… most of it. And there were some interesting ideas and character moments in the mix. I continue to appreciate that Strange New Worlds is an episodic project, even when some of the episodes veer into narrative or thematic territory that doesn’t do much for me personally!

Next week, we have Through the Lens of Time, which I hope is gonna be a ton of fun. Time travel stories (which I’m assuming this one will be) aren’t always my favourites in Star Trek, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and let’s hope Pelia can make a return to the show soon, too!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 2, Episode 3: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 2, Episode 3: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-2. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: Picard Season 2, Enterprise, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was an interesting episode – and one of the better time travel stories in modern Star Trek. Its central pairing of La’an and an alternate timeline Kirk was interesting, and one that accomplished the objective of putting them together but without treading on the toes of established canon; Kirk’s legendary conflict with the original Khan Noonien Singh is something that modern Star Trek needs to preserve at all costs!

There were a few contrivances in the episode, though, and both the opening act and Kirk’s willingness to erase his own timeline seemed to be quite rushed. That’s despite Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow being the longest episode of the season so far!

Stranded in the past…

I’ve commented on this twice already this season, but here we go again: where oh where is Captain Pike?! Was Anson Mount unavailable for part of the season’s production? In the first episode, Pike was present only briefly before taking off on a mission of his own. Last week, the opening act saw Pike recruit Una’s lawyer – but he was then sidelined and didn’t have much to say. And this week, Pike got one line in a very short sequence right at the end of the episode. Is Paramount paying Anson Mount by the line these days? What’s going on?!

I say that jokingly – but Strange New Worlds was “the Captain Pike show” when we were campaigning to make it happen. You have to admit that it’s odd, at the very least, for Pike to have been so thoroughly absent in the first part of this season. Basically one-third of Season 2 has now progressed with very little input from the Enterprise’s captain. In past iterations of Star Trek there were always spotlight episodes for individuals and stories in which some characters were more prominent than others… but these came in longer seasons, and it was still relatively uncommon to go three episodes in a row with the captain having so little to do. In modern Star Trek it’s unprecedented; can you imagine if Discovery had run three episodes with so little screen time for Burnham? I just find the whole thing rather perplexing – even though I’ve enjoyed each of these three episodes.

Captain Pike was once again notable by his absence from the story.

Let’s talk about a specific story criticism. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow saw La’an make wild assumptions and leaps that had no basis in fact or logic. Given that she’s been thrust into a completely new and unfamiliar situation, her assumption that she must have been sent to a specific timeline to team up with Kirk, or to a specific moment in the past for a reason, or that the device she was given wouldn’t “unlock” until she’d completed her mission… all of these things and more needed more time to play out.

As much as I dislike Picard’s second season, the episode Penance is actually a reasonably good example of this “fish-out-of-water” idea. In that story, Picard and several of his crewmates find themselves in an alternate timeline, separated from one another and with no idea of what’s going on. It takes them basically an entire episode just to piece together what’s happened and get back together; it’s not something that can or should be rushed in the way that Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow tried to do.

La’an and Kirk made some wild leaps in logic.

We know that La’an is capable and self-reliant, but her completely baseless assumptions – though validated in a way by the resolution of the story – undermine her characterisation and significantly weaken the episode. Because of the time constraint, it was necessary for La’an to quickly assess the situation she found herself in and come up with a plan – but there may have been ways to cut some other scenes and sequences down, giving this incredibly important setup more time to play out.

This is also true, to an extent, of other parts of the episode. After seeing the bombing and chasing after stolen parts, La’an and Kirk seemed to pretty quickly figure out – again, via baseless assumption – what they had been sent to the past to do. Although Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow found time to slow down in between these rushed moments, the main plot of the episode seemed to leap from point to point incredibly quickly, leaving very little time to digest what was going on. I wanted to shout at La’an and Kirk to slow down and give me a moment to catch my breath!

Racing through the streets of Toronto…

While we’re picking holes in the story, I’ll say this: time travel can be exceptionally difficult to get right in any fictional setting. It’s all too easy to write oneself into a corner, relying on paradoxes, tropes, and “you can’t tell anyone this ever happened” in order to get out of it. The end of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow raises such a point: if the Department of Temporal Investigations knew what was going on and were able to observe La’an and Kirk, why didn’t they intervene?

La’an is a 23rd Century security officer, and Kirk was a starship captain from a dystopian timeline that shouldn’t exist. They are categorically not the best-qualified people to stop a Romulan super-spy from the future… not without help or guidance, at any rate. If the episode had ended without the official from Temporal Investigations showing up, I guess we could have written it off as the first agent turning to La’an out of desperation. But knowing that this organisation had been watching her all along… it kind of smacks of Enterprise’s Temporal Agent Daniels teaming up with the 22nd Century’s Captain Archer. Surely these organisations have their own staff!

Doesn’t the Department of Temporal Investigations have its own staff?!

That being said, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow might just be my favourite Star Trek time travel story – or at least my favourite one for a long while! Time travel to the modern day is difficult to get right, and practically every Star Trek episode that’s taken this approach has also taken its crew to the sunlit coast of southern California. This happened in Voyager, in Picard, and even in The Voyage Home. By taking the simple step of visiting Toronto (where the series is filmed) Strange New Worlds was already doing something different. I appreciated that.

I was worried that, coming only a year after Picard Season 2 had spent eight-and-a-half episodes wandering in the 21st Century, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow might just turn me off before it even got started. Luckily that wasn’t the case, and we got a good mix of lighthearted moments. Kirk and La’an having to figure out how to dress and how to act in an unfamiliar environment stood in contrast to the heavier storyline involving time-travelling terrorists and a plot to stop the Federation from ever being created.

There were lighter moments to balance out a heavy story.

This last point – preventing the Federation from coming into existence – was a fascinating one that I would have loved to explore in more detail. Because it was only revealed at the climax of the plot that the Federation’s existence hinged upon disaster, genocide, and the reign of terror that Khan brought to Earth, there wasn’t an awful lot of time to get into the real implications of this – and of the decision that La’an was forced to make.

But this is such an interesting idea! I even wondered if Picard’s aforementioned second season might’ve been going for a similar setup, because the idea of having to consciously choose to permit something so horrific is a real moral quandary. In that moment, La’an was face-to-face with one of Earth’s most brutal dictators. She could have chosen to kill him, sparing Earth the torment that she knows is 100% guaranteed to happen. But she didn’t – she couldn’t. Not because she wanted it to happen, but because she knew that without those horrors, the future would be radically and almost unimaginably altered.

La’an confronted her family legacy.

The fact that La’an has a personal family tie here makes it an even more complex idea. La’an has spent her life living in the shadow of an infamous, hated ancestor – and she was given an opportunity to prevent any of that from ever happening. The themes at play here, expressed through La’an’s decision and the impossible choice that befell her, are incredibly deep, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tommorow almost feels like an episode posing a challenge to its viewers: what would you have done in her place?

This storyline also updates that of Khan and his augments, changing parts of Star Trek’s internal timeline. The Romulan super-spy seemed to imply that the actions of a variety of time-traveling factions may be to blame for Khan’s rise to power taking place decades later than it was supposed to – and that’s something we’ll have to digest or figure out later if it ever returns as a major plot point!

Young Khan.

For now, suffice to say that I’m not a canon “purist,” and I like the idea of Star Trek refreshing and updating itself. That being said, I don’t necessarily feel that the specific timing of Khan’s rise to power is some kind of gaping plot hole that needs to be plugged, even as Star Trek continues to tell modern-day time-travel stories that, in theory, contradict or overwrite parts of the franchise’s prior history. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow could have proceeded just fine without this somewhat ambiguous line.

This was, perhaps, Strange New Worlds throwing a bone to long-term fans: people like you and I who remember Spock’s line in Space Seed confirming that Khan’s ship left Earth in the late 1990s. Is that a discrepancy? Sure, of course it is. But does it matter? Should all future Star Trek projects avoid modern-day time-travel because the franchise’s fictional history tells us that the late 20th and early 21st Centuries are radically different from how they actually turned out to be? Personally I don’t think so – though canon purists may disagree!

The crew of the Enterprise will meet Khan again…

At first, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be sold on Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’s Kirk-La’an relationship. But as the story progressed, this turned out to be one of the episode’s strongest elements. The slow buildup to their shared kiss stood in contrast to other story beats that felt rushed or blitzed through too quickly, and by the time Kirk was dying in La’an’s arms, the love story that the episode had constructed truly hit home and formed a much stronger emotional core to the story than I’d been expecting.

Paul Wesley has earned my respect for not only taking on the role of Captain Kirk – a role that is fraught with criticism and that is watched hawkishly by fans – but for putting his own spin on it. Wesley’s Kirk isn’t an attempt to mimic William Shatner’s portrayal – nor Chris Pine’s, come to that. Paul Wesley has made the role his own, showing off his own range, his own emotions, and his own comedic timing. It’s not a carbon copy – any more than Ethan Peck’s Spock is a carbon copy of Leonard Nimoy’s. But I’m impressed with what he’s done with the character – and this alternate version in particular gave the actor a fair amount of leeway.

Paul Wesley as Captain Kirk.

Does La’an’s contact with Pelia form a paradox? I guess we could argue that it does! If Pelia was inspired to become an engineer by La’an in the past, then investigating her possessions was the reason why La’an was alone in the corridor when she crossed over to the alternate timeline, then… wait, my head hurts.

Pelia’s role in the episode was fun, paradoxes aside. It was neat to see Kirk and La’an tracking her down in the past, and the resolution to this side of the story both gives a bit of background to Pelia that we didn’t have before while also being a lighter moment as it became clear that she wasn’t an engineer and would be of no help whatsoever in creating a tracking device. Again, the resolution to this point felt rather contrived and rushed, but the scenes between La’an, Kirk, and Pelia were more than strong enough to carry the story through.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was interesting for the character of Pelia.

Although it was obvious that there would be no “happily ever after” for La’an and Kirk, the way in which the latter was killed was still pretty brutal by Star Trek standards. The episode did a reasonable job at setting up the idea that La’an and Kirk had hope that he might’ve been able to transport back to the prime timeline, but it still felt like a sure thing that that wouldn’t be able to happen, no matter how much they wanted to believe it.

As mentioned, though, the let-down on this side of the story was the rapid, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it turnaround in Kirk. The episode wanted to say something like this: after seeing Earth for the first time with his own eyes, learning of his brother’s survival, and hearing La’an’s tales of a United Federation of Planets and a peaceful, prosperous humanity, Kirk was willing to sacrifice his timeline in order to bring hers into being. Self-sacrifice is a well-established Kirk trait, so that tracks.

Kirk was killed.

But there just wasn’t enough time for this to play out effectively, and it makes the story substantially weaker than it could’ve been. In order to fit in everything else that Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow wanted – the visit to Pelia, the relationship buildup, the car chase, La’an’s run-in with Khan, etc. – this side of things took a back seat. And while other story points worked well, I’m having a hard time with this supposedly grizzled, battle-hardened version of Kirk being so willing to wipe everyone he’s ever known from existence.

This is something that could have been made more of, particularly in terms of a conflict between La’an and Kirk. Two characters from two alternate realities find themselves at the “fork in the road,” where one path leads to one timeline and the other path to a very different one. There was potential in the idea of them arguing over which way to go, because from Kirk’s perspective at least, don’t his people have as much of a right to exist as La’an’s? The episode just didn’t spend much time on what could have been a really interesting idea – and the result of that is that Kirk’s turnaround feels incredibly abrupt.

We could’ve spent longer on this idea.

The episode’s epilogue contained a truly heartbreaking scene. La’an was confronted with the reality that the prime timeline version of Kirk had no idea who she was, and no recollection of the time she’d shared with his alternate counterpart. All credit must go to Christina Chong for a deeply emotional and raw performance; I genuinely felt La’an’s emptiness, loneliness, and heartbreak as she broke down and cried.

The end of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow feels bleak in more ways than one. La’an had to commit to her ancestor’s genocidal reign, but also lost the sole human connection that we’d ever seen her make. La’an has friendly relationships with her shipmates, but Kirk was something different – someone who seemed to understand her and who didn’t feel encumbered by the weight of her past. La’an caught a glimpse of what that could be like – but it was brutally ripped away from her.

La’an’s heartbreak was a sad end to the episode.

So a bit of a contradictory one this week! Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is one of Star Trek’s best modern-day time-travel stories. It was fun and lighthearted in places, dense and heavy in others, and it connected back to The Original Series in clever and unexpected ways. But it was let down by trying to cram in one too many storylines, with the result being that several key moments and elements of characterisation were missing, lessening the impact as the story wore on.

I had a good time this week, all things considered. Pairing up Kirk with La’an was a risk, but because this version of Kirk came from an alternate reality, I think we can say it’s a risk that paid off. It was a great episode for La’an’s characterisation, bringing her face-to-face with the monster from her past, but also taking her on an emotional rollercoaster and showing off a side of her that we haven’t always gotten to see.

There’s only one question left to ask: will Captain Pike finally get a role to play next time?!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-2 are available to stream now on Paramount Plus in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 2, Episode 1: The Broken Circle

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 2, Episode 1: The Broken Circle

Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1 and 2. Spoilers are also present for Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Picard.

Welcome to the first of my Strange New Worlds episode reviews! Unfortunately, some truly idiotic decisions at Paramount blocked off Season 1 and prevented fans in most of the world from being able to (lawfully) watch it at the time it was broadcast, so for that reason I elected not to write individual episode reviews here on the website. But because Season 2 is more widely available, I intend to cover the series from this point forward. Individual Season 1 episode reviews/re-watches may also appear from time to time.

Strange New Worlds’ first season was probably the best thing I watched in all of 2022. The show was a wonderfully welcome return to an older, more episodic style of storytelling that I think is a perfect and natural fit for the Star Trek franchise. As I said in my spoiler-free review of the season, there really weren’t any episodes that I felt didn’t hit the mark last time around. Season 2 has a lot to live up to, then!

The Enterprise departs Starbase 1.

And on balance, I have to say that The Broken Circle was a decent continuation of the series. It arguably wasn’t as strong as the final two episodes of Season 1, which were both phenomenal, and I have some specific criticisms that we’ll get to. But in terms of entertainment value, I can tell you that I was gripped the entire time! The Broken Circle was an action-packed episode that started the season with a bang.

There are a couple of points of concern that were raised that kind of fall outside of the story told in this week’s episode, and I want to look at that before we get into the rest of the review. Where Strange New Worlds succeeded last time was in its blend of episodic storytelling with some character arcs and storylines that ran across multiple episodes. This modernised the format, allowing for the likes of Dr M’Benga’s story with his daughter or Captain Pike’s struggles with his impending accident to not be forgotten, but the focus was still very much on distinct and individual stories week-to-week.

Spock seems upset…

In contrast, The Broken Circle feels very much like “Part 1” of a larger, much more serialised story. Captain Pike took off on a mission to help Una, who’s on trial. Pike’s destination, who he plans to visit, and Una’s trial were all stories that were started briefly but then paused. La’an’s status as an ex-Starfleet officer was also set up, but left unresolved by the time the credits rolled. And most significantly, as the episode was drawing to a close we saw Admiral April and another senior Starfleet officer looking at a report of a possible Gorn incursion – something that is clearly setting up a story thread that the next episode or episodes will follow.

I’m not wild about this new direction, and it feels that Strange New Worlds has taken some big steps down a path much closer to serialisation. When the show’s semi-episodic format had been working so well, this change simply isn’t one that I’d have made – and while I’m not averse at all to the idea of character arcs, two-part stories, or even cliffhanger endings… the season premiere seemed to bring a lot of those serialised elements into play all at once, leading to it feeling like the first part of an ongoing story rather than a classic Star Trek episode that could be enjoyed as a purely standalone affair. That the episode leaned heavily on characters and storylines that had been set up in Season 1 only added to this feeling.

Is this the beginning of a season-long serialised story?

There will be time in the weeks ahead, though, to assess how far down this serialised path Strange New Worlds may venture in its second season. For now, we still have a lot to get stuck into from this week’s outing – and I have to say that it was a blast to welcome back the Klingons.

I wasn’t sure to what extent Strange New Worlds would make reference to Discovery’s Klingon War storyline, but this week’s story connected back to it in a very clever way. Nothing in Discovery was truly “required reading” to make sense of events in The Broken Circle, but for fans who recall Discovery’s first season, the connections were there. The story stood on its own two feet without relying too heavily on Discovery, and could be enjoyed by fans and newcomers alike as a result.

I liked what this episode did with the Klingons.

The Klingons in The Broken Circle were much closer, both visually and in terms of their actions and temperament, to how they appeared in much of Star Trek prior to the Kelvin timeline films. For fans who weren’t wild about those more recent depictions, that’s got to be seen as a positive thing! For me, I think there’s room enough in Star Trek for a more diverse and varied look at a familiar race like the Klingons – but I can’t deny that it felt incredibly fun to see them laughing and drinking bloodwine.

The idea of rogue humans and Klingons on a shared world seeking to re-start hostilities for profit was also a genuinely interesting idea, one that the episode did well to explore. Star Trek doesn’t always give us a look at the denizens of the galaxy outside of Starfleet or the main factions – but in a galaxy so vast, there are bound to be settlements like this one, populated by people who’d do anything to make themselves rich. This felt like a glimpse at that world – and it was genuinely interesting.

Cajitar IV is the kind of place Star Trek doesn’t always show us.

Building an entire starship underground felt like a bit of a stretch in some ways (and if this gang had the resources to do that, did they really need to start a war to make more money?) but it was a neat idea nevertheless. It was also a creative way to recycle some of the sets built for the Enterprise, and to get away with a very minimal redress! These sets, which were supposed to be part of the gang’s newly-minted ship, were integrated well into the story. Not every Star Trek episode in recent times has made good use of redressed sets, but on this occasion we can say that it worked well in context.

It was also neat to see a different kind of starship design, one that seemed to use a Crossfield-class saucer section but on a much smaller star-drive and with different nacelles. The Crossfield-class – famous, of course, for being the USS Discovery’s class – was even name-checked in the episode itself, which was neat. In some ways this design felt like an old-school “kit-bash;” a name used for starships that were often created out of spare parts or leftovers in the days when physical models were still used. Some well-known Star Trek ship designs started out life as kit-bashes!

I liked the “kit-bashed” design of the rogue ship.

On the negative side, I felt that Admiral April’s “request denied” was a rather paper-thin setup to the main storyline. We’ve seen in many Star Trek episodes how by-the-book admirals could be little more than bumps in the road, getting in the way of what our heroes needed to do. And this felt very much like that. April had a reason, namely that the Klingons would interpret any incursion to the shared world as an act of aggression, but didn’t seem at all willing to consider other ideas or alternative proposals – even though La’an’s message, as communicated by Spock, suggested that the situation was dire and that the Federation was in danger.

This was disappointing, and there were other ways to get the story to this shared planet without presenting April as a “badmiral” who was getting in the way. In fact, this entire section of the episode didn’t really get any kind of narrative payoff, with Spock’s decision to steal the Enterprise not seeming to give him much trouble, and with April dishing out what amounted to no formal consequences. It ended up feeling a bit artificial; some forced drama to up the stakes.

Spock and Admiral April.

While we’re talking about Admiral April, I’m not thrilled with where his story seems to be going. If there is to be some kind of Gorn conflict that could be interesting, but why present April as someone who has something to hide? It makes sense that any organisation would share information carefully, but the end of The Broken Circle seemed to be saying that April and one of his co-conspirators at Starfleet Command were deliberately concealing information and not sharing it with their crews in the field.

Perhaps this is something that will be resolved or paid off in a future episode – and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that! I don’t want to see someone like April – who seemed like a decent, upstanding officer last time around – in any kind of negative light. Discovery has done great things in its third and fourth seasons with Admiral Vance, bringing a wonderful character to screen as head of Starfleet. I’d very much rather see April go down that route instead of becoming a typical “badmiral.”

I wasn’t wild about the way April was presented here.

It was a very bold choice for the premiere episode of Season 2 to sideline Captain Pike. Every Star Trek season has episodes in which some characters are in focus and others are not, but Pike is not only central to Strange New Worlds – without him, and without Anson Mount’s incredible portrayal, the show wouldn’t have come to exist at all. So while the decision to send him off on his own little mission made perfect sense in-universe, it was a brave narrative decision by the writers and producers. And arguably a strange one, too.

Strange New Worlds is, for many folks, “the Captain Pike show.” Pike was present in all ten of the first season’s stories, and as the captain of the ship is a key part of the series. His absence gave Spock a turn in the captain’s chair for the first time – which was great to see, don’t get me wrong – but I can’t help feel that there must’ve been a way to include Pike in a larger way. Maybe I’d have chosen to restructure the season to place Pike’s solo adventure first, and then this episode second – just as one example.

I have a theory in the pipeline about who Pike may be going to visit – so stay tuned for that before the next episode airs!

Doing “the Captain Pike show” without Pike?!

Season 1 spent a fair amount of time with Spock, and looked at his inner conflict between his human and Vulcan sides. The Broken Circle threw Spock into a brand-new situation for him… and he didn’t necessarily react the way I’d have expected. This version of the character, perhaps inspired more by his adopted sister and their adventures in Discovery’s second season, seemed much quicker to break the rules when faced with opposition from Starfleet. If we hop over to the Kelvin timeline for a moment, in that reality, Spock told the unvarnished truth about Kirk in a written report and ended up getting him demoted. In The Original Series we could see Spock as a stickler for rules and protocol, too, often butting heads with Dr McCoy and others as a result. I don’t want to say he acted “out-of-character” here, because we are dealing with a younger Spock, a Spock who is still finding himself and finding his feet. But it’s certainly interesting to see how he behaved very differently from the man we might remember.

The theme of Spock’s conflicted nature and how he “isn’t like other Vulcans” came to the fore in The Broken Circle in more ways than one – and was arguably part of the episode’s resolution. Spock’s interaction with the Klingon captain was fun, and I enjoyed seeing him drinking bloodwine and finding an unorthodox route to peace.

Spock negotiated successfully with the Klingons.

This final part of the episode didn’t feel especially strong, however. The climax of the story arrived slowly, and The Broken Circle did a good job at building up its Klingon-human shadowy conspiracy. But the resolution to this conflict seemed to be rushed through, with both the Klingon commander standing down at the drop of a hat and Admiral April back at Starfleet HQ agreeing very quickly to overlook Spock’s actions.

This is something that I’d have liked to have seen a few more minutes dedicated to. We could have drawn out the standoff over the planet, with Spock and the Klingon commander talking around one another with the threat of war hanging over their heads. Seeing Spock handle this situation was great – but it didn’t last very long. And Admiral April gave Spock a pass for desertion, theft of the flagship, violating a peace treaty, and a dozen or more other crimes. Again, this was something that needed more time – especially as the payoff to April’s earlier intransigence.

A Klingon D-7 battlecruiser.

A character like La’an can fall into the trap of stereotyping, or can feel left out as writers don’t always know what to do with a security officer who doesn’t seem to have much by way of a softer side. So it was fantastic to see The Broken Circle really giving her something to do, and doing it in a way that felt natural for her. We saw her past experiences with the Gorn come to the fore in Season 1, and The Broken Circle built on that foundation, taking La’an away from Starfleet for a cause close to her heart.

Seeing her with Oriana really humanised La’an, showing that she can care for others and has more to offer than just her skills with a phaser. The only disappointing thing, as mentioned, was that The Broken Circle didn’t wrap up La’an’s leave from Starfleet one way or another. This is something that may come back into play if a more serialised story is unfolding, and there are sure to be plenty of ways an ex-Starfleet officer could be of use on “the outside,” but in terms of her character arc this week, the lack of a conclusive ending makes it feel like there was something missing from La’an’s story.

Oriana and La’an.

Where La’an’s story built on what had been set up last year, the stories of Dr M’Benga and Nurse Chapel sort of felt like they came out of nowhere. Of course we know about the Klingon War; that was discussed in the episode itself. But even in the recap at the beginning of The Broken Circle, it was noted that the Enterprise and her crew didn’t take part in the conflict. If that’s the case, it obviously means that Chapel and M’Benga came aboard later and did take part – but that was a little confusing and not particularly well-established.

I didn’t re-watch all of Season 1 prior to sitting down to watch The Broken Circle, so my ageing memory may be missing a trick, but I don’t recall either Dr M’Benga or Nurse Chapel discussing the war last season. I don’t think it necessarily matters in a big way, but it was undeniably something that I felt came out of the blue. It certainly succeeded at ramping up the tension as the pair were caught by the Klingons and trapped aboard the fake Starfleet vessel, but it wasn’t a point that felt particularly strong in terms of its setup. If I’m wrong, and if their prior service in the Klingon War was mentioned last year, then I’ll be happy to rescind this point of criticism!

Nurse Chapel and Dr M’Benga.

Being ejected into space is usually a death sentence in Star Trek – and in sci-fi in general! In Picard’s recent third season, a character was killed in precisely this way. So it was odd, in a way, to see Dr M’Benga and Nurse Chapel survive such a harrowing experience. I’m glad they did, of course, and the buildup to their being blown out into space was a tense and deeply emotional sequence. But it does feel a tad inconsistent with what we’ve seen in past Star Trek stories – and rather like the two were given some particularly heavy plot armour.

That being said, it was great to see Dr M’Benga and Nurse Chapel paired up for an adventure that took them outside of sickbay. They work incredibly well together and made a fun pair, and I hope we get to see more of them. It would be fun to explore their history, too – did they serve together during the Klingon War, as The Broken Circle seemed to imply? If so, what was that like? Are they still friends, or have their wartime experiences changed them and driven them apart? And the strange drug that Dr M’Benga keeps in his medical case… what is it? I wonder if it might be some kind of Section 31 invention.

Chapel and M’Benga were blasted out into space!

When we were first introduced to Commander Pelia, I confess I wasn’t particularly blown away. She’s replacing a character in Hemmer who I felt was hard done by in Season 1, and was someone I’d have liked to have had the opportunity to spend more time with. There was a uniqueness to Hemmer, not only as a blind character or as the first Aenar to be a major character on Star Trek, but as an avowed pacifist. We’ll have to deal with Hemmer’s wasted potential in more detail in a standalone piece one day, because there’s a lot more to say!

But suffice to say that I was impressed by Pelia’s chaotic energy, and the revelation that she’s a member of a previously-unseen species – one that is especially long-lived and that has lived amongst humans for a long time. Her connection with Spock’s family is also an interesting angle that The Broken Circle set up that I hope will be further explored in future stories.

Commander Pelia is a brand-new character for Season 2.

Pelia’s scenes on the bridge with Spock (and others) were cute, and I liked the way that she was dancing around what was going on without just coming out and saying it. And it was a fun subversion that this older, higher-ranking character who sussed out the truth didn’t immediately turn Spock in, but actually wanted to come along for the ride. That was fun, clever, and a somewhat unique way to introduce this new character.

Pelia has an almost child-like charm, despite being such a long-lived character, and I’m now especially curious to see her in an engineering setting. We only got the barest of glimpses of her in main engineering this week, but I’m sure she’ll have a lot to offer. It’s premature to be thinking about adding too many more characters, but the idea that Pelia might’ve been a mentor of sorts to Montgomery Scott is a fascinating one that I wonder whether the series might explore in future. Perhaps that’s an idea for Season 3, 4, or even 5!

Spock and Pelia have a connection already.

So I think that’s all there is to say for now. The Broken Circle was a solid start to Season 2 – albeit one that wasn’t quite at the level of the episodes that immediately preceded it. There were some contrivances in the story that left some moments feeling rather flimsy or too short, but overall I had fun with Spock and the crew of the Enterprise as they went off on an unsanctioned mission.

I’m curious to see whether some of the storylines set up or teased this week will turn Season 2 into a fully-fledged serialised affair, or whether they’ll be revisited in some other way. My hope is that Strange New Worlds can find a way to course-correct and return to the semi-episodic style that it employed so perfectly last time around. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-2 are available to stream now on Paramount Plus in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Strange New Worlds: Thoughts on Captain Pike’s crew

Strange New Worlds: Thoughts on Captain Pike’s crew

Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, and Star Trek: The Original Series.

Though we still haven’t seen a trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, which is on the schedule for next year, last week’s Star Trek Day broadcast finally introduced us to members of the crew of the USS Enterprise who will be joining Captain Pike. Along with Pike, Spock, and Number One, who are returning to their roles from Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, we briefly met six other characters.

We’ll look at each of these characters in turn to see what we can gleam and if we can figure out anything about the direction of any of Strange New Worlds’ plotlines, but first I wanted to cover an omission. Ever since Strange New Worlds was announced last year, fans had been speculating about who may or may not join Captain Pike on the Enterprise, but one character I felt had a strong chance of making an appearance was Cadet Sidhu.

Captain Pike with Cadet Sidhu in engineering.

Cadet Sidhu was introduced in the Short Treks episode Ask Not in 2019, and played a major role in that story alongside Captain Pike. Though Ask Not was primarily a vehicle for Anson Mount to reprise his much-loved role, almost any story aboard the Enterprise could’ve been invented for that purpose. To tell a story that focused on Cadet Sidhu and her being assigned to the USS Enterprise felt like a deliberate character introduction, and even though Strange New Worlds hadn’t been announced at that point, the series was clearly something that Star Trek was building up to.

I felt that Ask Not was a strong story, and that Sidhu actor Amrit Kaur put in a solid performance. It was a little surprising to see that she wasn’t part of the main cast at Star Trek Day, and while it’s still possible the character could return in some form, the inclusion of Cadet Uhura – whose role we’ll come to in a moment – seems like it’s potentially occupying a very similar space to the role that Sidhu might’ve played. Although the two characters are in different departments – Sidhu in engineering, Uhura in communications – in terms of narrative structure and character roles it seems unlikely that Strange New Worlds would have space to do justice to the stories of two cadets. If Sidhu is included, then, it seems certain that her role will be much less prominent than I’d have initially expected.

Cadet Sidhu doesn’t seem to be coming back – despite Ask Not seemingly setting her up for a role aboard the Enterprise.

Now that we’ve covered one non-appearance, let’s look at who will definitely be part of Season 1! The character about whom we know the least right now is Erica Ortegas, played by Melissa Navia. This lieutenant appears to occupy a role on the bridge, perhaps in either the helm or navigation positions in front of Captain Pike. Wearing a red shirt, however, could mean she has a role as a security officer, tactical officer, or engineer either in addition to or instead of a permanent role on the bridge.

Lieutenant Ortegas does not appear to be connected to any known Star Trek characters, either from The Original Series era or any other Star Trek production, so that speculation is really the extent of what we know! We can assume that she’s of Spanish, Latin American, or Hispanic-American origin simply based on her name and casting, which would make her the first major character in the franchise to be from one of those backgrounds.

Lieutenant Ortegas on what appears to be the bridge of the Enterprise.

Interestingly, the name “Ortegas” is not new to Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry’s original pitch for Star Trek, prior to commencing work on The Cage, included a character named José Ortegas who would occupy the role of the ship’s navigator. By the time The Cage entered production, however, this character had been changed. José Tyler (whose first name wasn’t mentioned on screen) replaced Ortegas. This subtle nod to Star Trek’s origin is incredibly sweet, and if we can infer anything at all from this connection, it could mean that Lieutenant Ortegas will indeed occupy the role of navigator on the bridge.

Up next is the other character who appears to have no connection that we’re aware of to anyone else in Star Trek: Hemmer, played by Bruce Horak. Horak was not part of the announcement of the cast of Strange New Worlds earlier in the year, so his inclusion was a bit of a surprise for more than one reason! Most interestingly, though, Hemmer appears to be an Aenar – an Andorian race first encountered in Enterprise.

It’s Hemmer time!

Most Aenar were known to be blind, and actor Bruce Horak is himself legally blind. This aspect of Hemmer’s character wasn’t discussed at all during Star Trek Day, which was a little odd considering it’s a significant step for the franchise. The character of Geordi La Forge in The Next Generation was also blind, but in his case a visor allowed him to see. Hemmer will potentially be the first blind character on Star Trek whose sight hasn’t been restored through technological means. What that means for his role aboard the ship isn’t clear, though.

Hemmer was wearing the red shirt of the security or engineering departments, and the very brief clip of him appeared to show him in a different area of the ship. Perhaps we can infer from that that he isn’t a bridge officer and may work in engineering. The Aenar in Enterprise were known to have extensive telepathic abilities, which could give Hemmer an edge when it comes to things like diplomacy or even a medical field. Hemmer is already a fascinating character, and I love the nod to Enterprise. His inclusion is a positive one for the visually-impaired, and for folks with disabilities of all kinds. Not only that, but it was done in a very “Star Trek” way – casting a character who is a member of a blind race of aliens doesn’t tread on the toes of things like Geordi’s visor and the prospect of offering a cure for blindness in Star Trek’s optimistic future.

Geordi La Forge in The Next Generation.

Now we’re coming to characters who may be a little more familiar. La’an Noonien-Singh, played by Christina Chong, shares a family name with Khan Noonien Singh (albeit with a hyphen, though that could be a mistake). It seems incredibly unlikely to me that that’s a coincidence, so the question it raises is to what extent is La’an connected to Khan? At this point in the timeline, Khan is still in stasis aboard the SS Botany Bay. He wouldn’t be encountered by the Enterprise and awakened until after Captain Kirk assumed command of the ship, so La’an seemingly can’t be a direct relation.

It’s possible that she’s a distant descendant, then. Though Khan was genetically augmented, the practice was banned after the Eugenics Wars and thus it seems unlikely that La’an could be an augment herself. However, genetic traits found in Khan may still be present after several generations and she may have increased strength or mental faculties as a result.

La’an may be in sickbay during this scene.

One storyline that could be interesting for a character like La’an is how she might want to move away from her family history. Assuming that she does have a family connection with Khan, the choice to either embrace or reject his legacy could be something we see the character struggle with at points. Some people struggle with a family name and family legacy, and this can be a source of drama in fiction. Though Kylo Ren’s story went completely off the rails in the Star Wars franchise, it began with lofty ambitions of depicting a man struggling with different parts of his family history. Perhaps we’ll see something similar with La’an Noonien-Singh.

Other than that implied connection with Khan, all we can say about La’an is that she’s also wearing the red uniform of either the security or engineering divisions. Either could be a good fit if there’s any kind of genetic legacy from Khan and his augments – a security officer with enhanced strength and endurance would have an advantage, and an engineer whose brain works faster than everyone else would likewise be an incredibly useful asset to any engineering team.

What connection might La’an have to iconic Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh?

Those three characters are brand-new to Star Trek – even though there are connections to the rest of the franchise. Strange New Worlds also re-introduced us to three other characters who are returning! These three all appeared in The Original Series. We’ll begin with Dr M’Benga, who appeared in just two episodes. When Dr McCoy was absent, Dr M’Benga appeared to be in charge, so he could’ve been the deputy chief medical officer by the time of The Original Series.

Though never confirmed on screen, the character’s first name was intended to be Joseph, and Dr M’Benga would’ve been born in Uganda in Africa. By the time of Geordi La Forge’s birth around a century later, an organisation called the African Confederation was known to exist, so it’s possible that Dr M’Benga may have originated from there as well. The actor taking on the role, Babs Olusanmokun, was born in Nigeria, so it’s possible that Dr M’Benga’s origin could be changed to give him a west African ancestry.

Dr M’Benga holding a padd in what could be sickbay.

The Original Series clarified one thing about Dr M’Benga – he was somewhat of an expert on Vulcan physiology having spent some time on Vulcan. It’s possible that we could see him strike up a friendship with Spock based on that, or prove useful if Spock requires medical attention. Given Dr M’Benga’s status by the time of The Original Series I’m not convinced that he’ll be the chief medical officer – if so, why would he seemingly have taken a demotion to serve under Dr McCoy a decade later?

Dr Boyce, who we met in The Cage, appeared to be a friend and confidante of Captain Pike as well as the Enterprise’s chief medical officer. It’s possible this character may yet return in some form, and that Dr M’Benga is again a deputy. Or perhaps Dr Boyce has taken a leave of absence leaving Dr M’Benga in charge temporarily. Of the returning characters from The Original Series, Dr M’Benga offers the creative team behind Strange New Worlds the most freedom. We saw him on only a couple of occasions, so his character is still largely unwritten.

Dr M’Benga in Season 2 of The Original Series – played by actor Booker Bradshaw.

Staying in sickbay, we come to Nurse Chapel. Along with Una (Number One), Nurse Christine Chapel was played by Majel Barrett during The Original Series and was a mainstay in sickbay alongside Dr McCoy. Jess Bush is taking on the role for Strange New Worlds, and presumably will share a number of scenes with Dr M’Benga. The two characters knew one another by the time of The Original Series, and even worked together to treat Spock in the episode A Private Little War.

Despite appearing in twenty-five episodes of The Original Series, as well as in The Animated Series and two films, I’d argue that Nurse Chapel is still quite an underdeveloped character open for Strange New Worlds to explore in more depth. Many of her appearances in The Original Series were as an assistant to Dr McCoy, and learning more about her as a person away from her medical duties could be something the new show does.

Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel in what appears to be sickbay.

There’s also the romantic feelings that Nurse Chapel developed toward Spock. Does she have a crush on him at this early stage? If not, perhaps the series will show how that came to be. Though I’m sure her characterisation won’t just be about that – the trope of female characters having nothing to think about but men is a tired one that needs to be retired – it could be one element among many that we see. Chapel was engaged to a man named Roger Korby by Season 1 of The Original Series, and this relationship could also be explored.

As a character that we’re at least a little familiar with, Strange New Worlds will have to tread somewhat carefully with Nurse Chapel. Though there is scope, as mentioned, to dive deeper into her characterisation and learn more about her, there are some constraints based on what we know of her from The Original Series that the show will have to respect.

Nurse Chapel in Season 1 of The Original Series.

Finally we come to the character that got many fans incredibly excited. Strange New Worlds was even trending on Twitter for a time following the reveal that Cadet Nyota Uhura will be a member of the crew. With the exception of Spock and, to a degree, Captain Pike, Uhura is the character fans are most familiar with, as she appeared in sixty-nine episodes of The Original Series, all but three episodes of The Animated Series, and all six films starring Star Trek’s original cast. She also appeared in the alternate reality Kelvin timeline films.

As such, there’s less scope to reshape or change Uhura’s character than there is for any of the others. However, as Discovery did with Spock in Season 2, there’s a lot of potential to show where Uhura came from and how she came to grow into the person we came to know and love during The Original Series. She can’t be too fundamentally different, but she can certainly start in a different place and slowly become the person we’re more familiar with. This was Spock’s journey, in some respects, in Discovery.

Cadet Uhura. We can clearly see Pike in the captain’s chair behind her, so this must be on the bridge.

We know from both her original depiction and her Kelvin timeline depiction that Uhura has a knack for alien languages. Perhaps her unique skillset is what landed her a role on the Enterprise to begin with, as it seems unlikely that a cadet would ordinarily be a regular on the bridge! In that sense we could see her akin to Hoshi Sato from Enterprise – still finding her feet on the ship, but confident in her particular field.

A young cadet or newly-graduated officer is a character archetype that Star Trek shows have used in the past to great effect. Wesley Crusher, Harry Kim, and Sylvia Tilly come to mind first and foremost, but I’d also point to Dr Bashir in his first appearances, as well as Pavel Chekov, D’Vana Tendi, and the aforementioned Hoshi Sato as great examples. These kinds of characters present a strong contrast with the more experienced members of the crew, and can offer different perspectives as a result. Not only that, but any character who’s new aboard the ship makes for a great introduction and point-of-view character for us as the audience. It’s possible that Uhura will fill this role at the beginning of Strange New Worlds.

Uhura in Season 3 of The Original Series.

Before we wrap things up we can also talk about Una Chin-Riley, also known as Number One. She’s Captain Pike’s first officer, and though we spent a little time with her in Discovery Season 2 and Short Treks, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about her. Her depiction in The Cage was as a rather unemotional, straight-laced person. In particular the Short Treks episode Q&A showed us that there is a fun side to her – and this is something we could definitely see more of. Number One seems like someone with a very professional attitude, and perhaps a very clear line between friends and co-workers. Captain Pike and Spock may have bridged that line – but who else will?

Rebecca Romijn, who plays the character, told us that Una is “way more complex” than we might expect, which is tantalising to say the least! She also said that Strange New Worlds will take the opportunity to “flesh out” the character in more detail, which sounds fantastic. Though the original portrayal – and to an extent what we’ve seen in Discovery – does act as a constraint on where the character could go, I think there’s still plenty of scope to explore who Number One is.

Number One passes Spock on what seems to be the bridge.

The uniforms have been redesigned for Strange New Worlds, with most characters sporting a V-neck variant without the high collar or much of the piping and stitching seen in Season 2 of Discovery. Number One appears to have her own unique variant with a zip collar and black undershirt, and more black or dark patches on the sides of the torso. It’s not clear why she gets a special uniform – or indeed if this is what she’ll wear most often. But it’s interesting, and makes her stand out from the rest of the crew.

Of course we also have Captain Pike and Spock returning as well – but I daresay you know at least a little about both of them already! We didn’t really learn too much more about either of them at Star Trek Day, though there was talk of Captain Pike potentially inviting members of his senior staff to his quarters and cooking meals for them. That seems like a neat addition to his character. In Discovery Season 2 we came to see Captain Pike as the embodiment of Starfleet’s values and the epitome of what it means to be a leader. I daresay that side of his characterisation will remain.

Captain Pike wearing the new V-neck uniform tunic.

When it comes to Pike, one element of his story that I’m most interested in is how he’s going to handle the knowledge of his impending accident and disability. He chose that future for himself in Discovery Season 2, and now it’s locked-in. As someone who’s disabled and suffers from a complex set of health issues, I’ve been in the position of knowing something is wrong and only going to get worse. I’ve heard bad news from a doctor, knowing there’s nothing I can do to change the outcome. Seeing how Pike will respond to being in a comparable situation has to be one of the things I’m most anticipating when it comes to his role in Strange New Worlds.

However, I’m also looking forward to spending time with Pike himself outside of that. There’s more to him than just one storyline, and we could see him, for example, attempt to make contact with Vina on Talos IV again, or furthering his friendships with Spock and Number One. I’m curious to see him interact with some of the other members of the crew, particularly those we remember from The Original Series era.

Captain Pike traded his future health for a time crystal in Discovery Season 2.

Finally we have Spock. As the character we know best, and as someone who’s been a major part of Star Trek for practically its entire history, there’s far less scope to radically change Spock. Additions can be made to his character – as we saw with Michael Burnham in Discovery – but at a fundamental level, who he is as a person is set in stone.

We may see Spock’s human and Vulcan sides in conflict in Strange New Worlds as he tries to bury his emotions. At Star Trek Day, producer Akiva Goldsman made reference to The Cage and how Spock was depicted there. How “smiley Spock” became the character we know, perhaps influenced by the loss of Michael Burnham, could be one element of his character that the new show will explore.

Spock aboard the Enterprise.

I think it’s more important for Spock to stay true to his past characterisation than it is for any of the others. Spock has appeared in The Original Series and its films, The Next Generation, and the Kelvin timeline films, and was a major character much of the time. There is still scope to explore unknown aspects of his character – and we could see, for example, how or why he came to have a falling-out with Sarek – but generally speaking this is the character that Strange New Worlds has to be the most careful with.

Production has now finished on Season 1 of Strange New Worlds. Though I fully expect a second season is already being worked on behind closed doors, there’s been no official announcement as of yet. If the show follows a similar pattern to Discovery and Picard, it might not be until the first season is about to premiere that we’ll learn a second is going to happen. Regardless, I think it’s a safe bet right now that, after all the effort and work that’s gone into Season 1, Strange New Worlds won’t just run for a single season!

The cast of Strange New Worlds Season 1.
Photo Credit: Rebecca Romijn on Twitter.

Promising a return to a more episodic format, and bringing back Captain Pike and Spock after their excellent roles in Season 2 of Discovery, Strange New Worlds was already high up on the list of shows I’m most excited for. But I have to say, after seeing the casting announcements (and, perhaps, because Picard Season 2 has dropped down a little) it’s now officially right at the top! 2022 can’t come soon enough, to be honest!

Each of the new characters look genuinely exciting and interesting, and the series seems to be doing a good job at walking the line between staying true to Star Trek’s past and carving out its own niche. That isn’t always going to be easy, and the producers have certainly taken on a challenge by bringing back fan-favourites like Uhura. But everything I’ve seen and heard fills me with confidence that Strange New Worlds is going to be utterly fantastic. I cannot wait to see the show when it premieres next year.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be broadcast on Paramount+ in the United States (and other regions where the platform is available) in 2022. Further international distribution has not yet been announced. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.