snw s4 – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 4, Episode 4: A Case of Chiaroscuro

A Star Trek-themed spoiler warning (black and white)

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Search for Spock, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Lower Decks.

I think I ought to start this week’s review with a bit of an explanation of how I try to approach new episodes of Star Trek. On the one hand, I’m obviously going to tell you whether I personally enjoyed the story, the character moments, the presentation, the score… all of that *subjective* stuff. But I also try to keep in mind, when writing a review, what an episode was aiming for and how well it measured up to those objectives.

That’s why I can look at an episode like last week’s Human Best Friend and say that I truly enjoyed its sense of humour, its pastiche of films like The Hangover, and its genuinely well-written character moments – and why, conversely, I’ll tell you that the otherwise outstanding horror offering The Griffin Incident came with a glaring narrative flaw. I’ll even admit – however begrudingly – that Season 2’s Subspace Rhapsody was competently made, musically solid, and even had some solid characterisation… even though I will literally never watch that absolute travesty ever again!

Stylised promo photo from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing a vintage television set — I considered doing all of the still frames like this… but don’t worry, I thought better of it!

Why did I start my review of A Case of Chiaroscuro with that explanation-come-caveat? Well, the truth is… I *really* don’t like watching black-and-white films and TV shows. I realise that’s a horrible generalisation, and there are some exceptions – Christmas films, like Miracle on 34th Street, for instance. But, generally speaking, I just struggle to get immersed in black-and-white media, and *modern* productions which deliberately use black-and-white – as A Case of Chiaroscuro does – almost universally feel gimmicky and silly to me.

Again, this is a *subjective, not objective* take – but I wanted to be up front about my bias here, because my general dislike of black-and-white has undoubtedly coloured (pun very much intended) my thoughts on A Case of Chiaroscuro.

A Case of Chiaroscuro was a faithful recreation of the kind of ’30s and ’40s noir movies that inspired it. Not only in terms of its use of black-and-white, but the entire episode’s visual style and presentation all drew from that source, as did its score. Narratively, A Case of Chiaroscuro also leaned heavily on noir and melodrama from a bygone era. And regardless of whether I *liked* that in a personal sense… I respect the commitment to the bit.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the shuttle — A shuttle in black-and-white.

However, more so than any other story so far this season – and really, any other story in Strange New Worlds, save, perhaps for Subspace Rhapsody – A Case of Chiaroscuro felt like “a bit.” Its noir inspiration was *so* omnipresent in everything from the set design and music to the soft-focus close-up shots and narrative melodrama that it feels less like an actual story within the Star Trek universe and more like a pulpy television serial. It was hard to take A Case of Chiaroscuro as seriously as I wanted to – because, by turning the dials all the way up and not just drawing inspiration from film noir but actively copying as many aspects of it as possible, the episode imported all of what I’d consider to be the genre’s flaws.

By choosing to employ an outdated kind of storytelling – not just the black-and-white, but a melodramatic narrative with over-the-top twists and turns and cardboard cut-out secondary characters who didn’t feel like real people – A Case of Chiaroscuro feels… vintage. But that isn’t a good thing in this case, if we’re talking about an episode of Star Trek that I want to watch and enjoy. Most of the episode didn’t just look dated, but it also *felt* out-of-date; TV serials and movies like this were past their prime even sixty years ago, when The Original Series was on the air. And while there absolutely are interesting points in A Case of Chiaroscuro that I can wholeheartedly say that I enjoyed… the final product is simply too gimmicky for my personal taste.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the collaborator — The collaborator.

I concede, though, that A Case of Chiaroscuro knows exactly what kind of story it wants to tell, and sets out to tell it earnestly and successfully. I can absolutely see this being considered a highlight of the season – and perhaps even of Star Trek as a whole – for Trekkies who have a fondness for these kinds of mystery-thriller noir stories. And, as I’ve said before, it’s to the credit of the former Paramount corporation that the executives were willing to greenlight a project like this, to spend a not insignificant amount of money on scripts and sets, and to – for lack of a better word – allow Star Trek to be “weird.” I can’t think of many other big-budget streaming productions that would’ve so wholeheartedly embraced the kind of genre-shifting that Strange New Worlds has done… and, for all of the many, many flaws and failings of the old Paramount, I think they deserve at least some kudos for giving the thumbs-up to a story like this one.

So… another “big swing” in Season 4, then! Adventure, horror, comedy, and now film noir… and we still have the puppet episode yet to come. I think this season will go down in the history books for just how many different ideas the writers brought to the table – and I can appreciate the diversity, the semi-episodic storytelling, and the willingness to go to places Star Trek hasn’t always gone before. Even if the results, on this occasion, weren’t “my thing.”

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the city from above — The city on Mat’Aar XII.

Let’s concentrate on the part of the episode which I liked… or at least the part I felt wasn’t as weak as the main story.

Back aboard the Enterprise – but still in black-and-white – we have La’an’s investigation of a mysterious signal. The probe – little more than a macguffin to kick-start the episode’s two main storylines – may have been tampered with, or at least La’an believed so.

I liked the way that the episode framed this, and the way the story convinced us as the audience that what we were seeing was nothing more than La’an overreacting. Even the little recap at the beginning of the episode, which went back to last season, showed how La’an might be succumbing to paranoia. And, as her storyline unfolded, A Case of Chiaroscuro tried very hard to convey to us that La’an was seeing things that weren’t really there.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an's padd — La’an investigated some missing data.

This made the ultimate reveal – that the probe *had* in fact been meddled with – hit a bit harder. I still don’t think that this storyline was executed perfectly; both Spock’s dismissal of La’an’s concerns and Chapel’s confession felt rushed. But that’s a consequence of this being the B-plot of an episode that had its attention elsewhere. Had we not already got a major La’an storyline already this season, I might’ve said I’d have liked to see this B-plot fleshed out into its own episode. But, that limitation aside, I liked this storyline.

Firstly, the Vulcan cadet – I’ve now learned her name is A’sha – finally got something plot-relevant to do after her introduction in the season premiere. Maybe it’s this episode’s noir tone and double- and triple-crosses, but I can’t help but wonder if A’sha is going to turn out to be a spy or something! But maybe that’s too much of a reach based on her limited screen time. In any case, it was nice to see her on the bridge and for her to get something to do. Modern Star Trek hasn’t always handled its secondary characters especially well, but it’s nice to get *some* conversations and interactions outside of the main cast; it populates the Enterprise and makes the broader world of Star Trek feel more lived-in and real.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an and A'sha — La’an with Cadet A’Sha.

I wasn’t wild about the speed with which Spock dismissed La’an’s concerns – though, in a noir-style story, it made me question whether *he* might’ve been complicit in… whatever may or may not have been going on, so I guess that’s not all bad. I do wonder, though, what recent events – including last week’s argument in the bar and now this dismissive reaction – might mean for La’an’s relationship with Spock.

We also got a bit of a follow-up to last week’s episode as Ortegas and Scotty were seen hanging out together. I wondered, when they seemed to be in the same quarters, whether this might be another hint at some kind of romantic relationship, but La’an stated they’re “friends now,” at the end of the episode – and I think that’s how we’re meant to read it. In any case, it was cute to see them together after their adventure, and I appreciate how Strange New Worlds retains these character relationships and moments that it develops.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Scotty and Ortegas — Scotty and Ortegas are friends now, after last week’s adventure.

Scotty gave us a great line of technobabble about how he was keeping tabs on the Klingon ship, and that was both fun and very “Star Trekky,” for want of another term. I felt Dr M’Benga’s line about why everything was in black-and-white was a bit hand-wavey earlier in the episode, as technobabble goes, but Scotty’s was definitely more in line with what we’ve seen before. Not sure why he was keeping it a secret from the ship’s security officer, of all people, but I guess it worked as an excuse for La’an to chase leads and catch up with other members of the crew.

One thing I didn’t really like, though, was Scotty’s line about being “trapped in a transporter buffer;” a reference to his ultimate fate and the TNG episode Relics. If this had been a one-off, I wouldn’t have minded (I think), but so far this season, La’an has called back to The Search for Spock and Dr M’Benga made another reference to Relics just last week. Occasional callbacks to past iterations of Star Trek – or calls forward, I guess, to these characters’ fates and ultimate destinations – are okay, but they really ought to be *occasional*. Otherwise they come across as heavy-handed and overwhelming… and it just isn’t necessary and stops being fun. A single line like this is great; a nod and wink to long-time Trekkies. Too many just feel like navel-gazing, self-referential fluff… or just a plain lack of originality, I guess. And because we’ve had several of these lines in earlier episodes – one of which already featured Scotty – this one was a bridge too far. On its own? Totally okay. But after seeing several others already this season, I felt it crossed that invisible line between being a playful in-joke and becoming excessive.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Scotty — Don’t call it “foreshadowing”…

The conclusion of this storyline sees Chapel confessing to being the one who interfered with the probe and deleted its data. Though, as I said, this felt kind of rushed, it was nice that in this kind of storyline, the ending was difficult to deduce and there was still time for a twist. I think both Chapel and La’an got good moments of characterisation here: Chapel didn’t just let La’an think paranoia was overtaking her, instead confessing even though doing so could’ve had real consequences for her, and La’an chose loyalty to a friend over following the letter of the law.

For both characters, those are positive things – and while not “out of character” by any stretch, it’s still good to see both of them doing the right thing and choosing friendship, not blind rule-following. Chapel’s decision to delete the incriminating data felt understandable, even though I wish we’d gotten a longer scene explaining it, and La’an’s choice to keep the issue between them said a lot about her character. If, as I’ve theorised, we could be seeing the beginning of the end for La’an – either aboard the Enterprise or, y’know, alive – moments like this will be all the more important.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an and Chapel — Nurse Chapel with La’an in Sickbay.

La’an got this week’s secondary story, with the main focus of A Case of Chiaroscuro being on Una. But these two stories were thematically linked, and that made these two otherwise disconnected parts of the episode feel a bit closer together. La’an had to wrangle with her own paranoia and consider whether she was imagining things, or whether there actually was an issue with the probe. But the end of this story saw her choosing to do the right thing by a friend, even if that ment bending the rules.

Una’s story ends in a similar way. She chooses to bend the rules – in this case actively, whereas La’an’s was more passive, I suppose – to facilitate the rebels’ plan on Mat’Aar XII. But both characters had to deal with intrigue, mysteries, and ultimately, both had to decide whether to do the right thing – or what the “right” thing even is when faced with complex and nuanced situations.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una and M'Benga — Una’s storyline was similar, in thematic terms, to La’an’s.

Before we get further into the main thrust of the mysteries on Mat’Aar XII, I want to talk briefly about the Klingons.

A Case of Chiaroscuro wasn’t really a Klingon episode. The Klingons were present, sure, and they played a significant narrative role – but the bulk of the story was focused on the main characters and the intrigue on Mat’Aar XII. But the episode did something for the Klingons that I think is kind of important – and that I approve of!

I’ve said, on the record, that I felt Enterprise’s “Klingon-augment virus” storyline was one of the show’s weakest, and that the change in prosthetic makeup for the Klingons in between TOS and The Motion Picture simply did not need to be called attention to nor given an in-universe explanation. Thankfully, modern Star Trek has walked away from that idea, and we’ve already seen Klingons in Strange New Worlds with the more familiar design. That continued here – even with the character of Kor. Kor is a Klingon who tangled with Kirk in The Original Series and returned in three episodes of Deep Space Nine, too.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Kor and three Klingons — Kor with his band of Klingons.

In Kor’s TOS and TAS appearances, he sports the original Klingon aesthetic, but this was updated for DS9. So if you want to be fussy about it, now we have a contradiction! But I don’t really see it as a contradiction at all. Just as when Kor appeared in DS9, prosthetic forehead and all, Star Trek was kind of drawing a line under TOS and updating things without drawing attention to it. And I read this prequel version of Kor in much the same way. Some parts of Star Trek… well, they can (and should) be ignored. Some stories didn’t work, some aesthetic changes could be made as new technologies and higher budgets allowed, and this is the result.

And hey, if you want to be picky and make everything in Star Trek fit? Let’s just say that Kor contracted the virus in between his posting to Mat’Aar XII and his run-in with Kirk!

I felt that Demore Barnes’ take on the character of Kor was one of the best parts of this weaker side of the story. Barnes – who you might recognise from Supernatural, Hannibal, or Twelve Monkeys, among other high-profile TV roles – was absolutely excellent in this villainous role, showing us a nuanced take on a Klingon leader that didn’t just rely on anger, aggression, and murder. In this kind of noir-inspired story, that’s how a villain should behave. Was bringing Kor into the show a bit of cheap nostalgia bait for Trekkies? Well… maybe. And I could entertain the argument that *this* version of Kor doesn’t fully line up with the way the character behaved in TOS and DS9. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the performance or Kor’s role in the story!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Kor — I enjoyed this new take on the established character of Kor.

The Klingons, in their original incarnation some sixty years ago, were famously meant to be metaphorical stand-ins for the Soviet Union, with the Federation representing the United States or the broader western alliance. And A Case of Chiaroscuro called attention to the “cold war” that exists between the Klingons and Federation in this time period. That little connection was neat, and the lines referring to it were well-delivered.

But in this story, the Klingons felt less like 1960s Soviets and more like 1940s Nazis with the way their occupation of Mat’Aar XII came to life. Roving gangs of collaborators, uniformed soldiers, symbolic armbands, and propaganda messages being broadcast all linked up to create a really unsettling feel to the entire city; even seemingly “safe” spaces like the bar or the office felt like they could be raided or interfered with at any moment.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una in her doppelgänger's office — Una in the doppelgänger’s office.

The sets and stages used to create Mat’Aar XII were genuinely very well done. I got a “Paris in World War II” kind of vibe; that this city was very much under occupation. The ’40s-style barrage balloons, the spotlights, and the art deco-style architecture (which was mostly seen in CGI establishing shots) all added to this sensation, as did the claustrophobic street set with its archway checkpoint. The white steam or smoke – another hallmark of films from this era – was well-used, too. As I said above, every aspect of A Case of Chiaroscuro leaned into this film noir style, and that extends to the way the sets were designed. The city was undeniably atmospheric.

Parts of A Case of Chiaroscuro reminded me a little of A Piece of the Action from TOS – the “gangster episode” where Kirk and co. visit a planet whose inhabitants were inspired by a book about 1920s Chicago. Some of the costumes, sets, and vehicles – all inspired by the first half of the 20th Century – gave me that feeling, and even the Klingons’ disruptors seemed to resemble Tommy guns! Obviously, A Piece of the Action was, itself, drawing on stories from the ’30s and ’40s for inspiration – G-Men, Invisible Stripes, and others – and there’s a difference between the kind of noir story present here and the simplified gangster/crime drama of that older episode. But, as I’ve said before, it can be nice when Star Trek stories… rhyme.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the city on Mat'Aar XII — I liked these establishing shots of the city, and how atmospheric they felt.

The main storyline’s central conceit was that Una is the exact doppelgänger of Mat’Aar XII’s resistance leader. And… I gotta be honest: I hated this and the stupid way it was “explained.” Basically, Dr M’Benga says that “well, space is big so we all have doppelgängers,” and that hand-wavey line is the only explanation offered for this really contrived setup. I admit that I don’t see an easy narrative pathway to tell this exact story without having Una share the exact same look as the resistance leader, but the way it was handled left a lot to be desired.

As I said in my review of The Griffin Incident: this is Star Trek. And in Star Trek, we like our technobabble explanations! You don’t have to be 100% scientifically accurate. You can make something up and then invent fancy-sounding technical words to fit. But in Star Trek stories, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that major narrative points receive more of an explanation than we got in A Case of Chiaroscuro. It was just a weaker narrative setup than the story deserved.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the doppelgänger's corpse — The doppelgänger’s corpse.

Once you got that out of the way, though, A Case of Chiaroscuro was a good episode for Una’s character journey. Her story intersected with her Illyrian heritage – something that we learned about in Season 2 – and gave her an arc about “doing the right thing” even if that meant breaking the rules. For a character who’s usually portrayed as a by-the-book kind of officer, this was a turn – albeit one that makes sense in context.

One thing I didn’t really follow, on this side of the story, was whether the Prime Directive should’ve been applied to Mat’Aar XII and its inhabitants. The planet’s own technology looked like it was from the 20th Century, with only the Klingons in possession of what might reasonably look like 23rd Century tech. But, despite being undercover the entire time, none of the away team mentioned the Prime Directive even once. Does it cease to apply when a planet meets another interstellar power, maybe?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una and Dr M'Benga with the bartender — So I guess the Prime Directive doesn’t apply…

To get back to Una, there was a lot of noir-style intrigue on this side of the story, as Una’s doppelgänger appeared, at first, to be a collaborator, then a rebel leader, and the episode did a reasonably good job of making it difficult to know who she could fully trust. Most of the Mat’Aar XII inhabitants felt fairly two-dimensional – which, let’s be honest, is kind of a hallmark of many films of the era A Case of Chiaroscuro is mimicking – but the question of which one of them betrayed Una’s doppelgänger still felt like an open one as the story progressed.

One thing I don’t really like in Star Trek – and *especially* in modern Star Trek – is just how many alien races are literally identical to humans! There aren’t enough “alien-looking” aliens in Star Trek’s galaxy, and while this was a contrivance during the early days of The Original Series with all of its budgetary and technical limitations… it’s something I wish modern Star Trek would dump. On this occasion, given that Una needed to be an exact lookalike of this rebel leader, I guess you can say the story wouldn’t have worked. But the episode itself even referenced this, with Uhura wondering aloud what the native population of Mat’Aar XII look like. It’s just something that, in older shows – and TOS in particular – I could overlook, but I don’t think it really fits modern Star Trek or a modern sci-fi setting any more, and I’d rather see the franchise invent more aliens who look truly otherworldly and different. With a few changes, we could’ve said that Mat’Aar XII was a human colony under occupation, or… something.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Mat'Aar-ians — Mat’Aar-ians.

That issue also extends into Uhura’s storyline. After being arrested by the Klingons for not showing her ID, Uhura was taken to a Klingon facility to be tortured. But despite having access to 23rd Century scanners, tricorders, and some kind of brain-alyser, the Klingons never found out that she wasn’t actually a Mat’Aar-ian. How’s that possible? Even human-looking aliens, surely, have different DNA or other identifying markers? That’s how sensors and tricorders across Star Trek are able to differentiate between different races.

As an aside, though, I actually really liked the design of the Klingon torture device. It was a retro throwback – and, in this case, I mean that as a positive thing! I suspect that, if the episode was in full colour and trying to employ a more modern visual style, something like that would’ve looked dated and out-of-place, but in this kind of story, the brain-alyser looked pitch-perfect! There’s something about its simple design that just felt like the perfect TOS throwback, and it looked great.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the torture machine/brain-alyser — The brain-alyser.

To wrap up Una’s story, I thought the ending was pretty predictable; I clocked what Una had done – planting the macguffin bomb thing on the collaborator – long before the episode revealed it. But at the same time, it says something about her character that she’d get so involved in this planet’s cause and crusade for freedom. Una bent (or broke) the rules in order to help the people of Mat’Aar XII in their fight against the Klingon occupation, despite knowing that doing so could have massive consequences. She took a risk, but it always felt like a calculated risk.

Dr M’Benga referenced his service in the Klingon War – something that’s become a defining trait of his character, especially in more recent seasons. The show’s writers clearly like this idea of “the doctor who’s also a special forces killer,” and they’ve really latched onto that. I would like to see Dr M’Benga in different storylines, though, as I feel his arc with the Klingons and his backstory from his war days has been reasonably well explored, and with limited time remaining to do anything else… well, time’s a-ticking, sadly.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing M'Benga — Dr M’Benga.

That being said, Dr M’Benga was a great choice to involve in a story like this, not least because of the Klingon element. He managed to be a mentor to both Una and Uhura at different points, offering advice, making note of how the Mat’Aar XII resistance was operating, and kind of serving as an exposition device for us as the audience, too! His war service felt like a natural thing for him to bring up in the context of the story, and while there were some contrivances – like how he could instantly recognise Kor, for example – they’re minor enough to not be bothersome.

Dr M’Benga guided Una, keeping her from making too many mistakes, but this was still Una’s story first and foremost, so we didn’t get any gratuitous scenes of him massacring legions of Klingons, or using his special forces background as an excuse to take the lead. Again, given the kind of story this was, and who it was centred around, that worked pretty well. From an in-universe standpoint, Dr M’Benga has told us many times that he wants to leave his past behind him, so again, his taking a back seat makes sense, too.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Uhura and M'Benga — Uhura and Dr M’Benga.

Celia Rose Gooding put in a great performance as Uhura this week. This younger version of the character is still, in some ways, finding her feet – and this mission took her far outside her comfort zone in more ways than one. Uhura’s friendship with Dr M’Benga was on full display, and the two characters played off one another exceptionally well in those supporting roles for Una and the noir-intrigue story.

However, I didn’t really feel like Uhura was ever in any real *danger,* even when she was literally facing the Klingons and their torture machine. Partly this is because Strange New Worlds is a prequel, and we know, in the backs of our minds, that Uhura will make it off-planet, back to Starfleet, and resume her career (relatively) unscathed. However, for a storyline involving literal torture… I think the episode could’ve made more of it. Perhaps Uhura will reference this experience in a future episode; I didn’t get the feeling, though, that this was an “Ortegas with the Gorn” or a “La’an’s DNA” type of situation, where a character’s storyline in one episode is clearly being set up for something more. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that front!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Uhura being tortured by the brain-alyser — Will this storyline lead to anything more for Uhura?

A couple of final points before we wrap things up.

This is at least the second Strange New Worlds episode where ships (or a shuttle, in this case) have literally been within visual range of one another, but – for no other reason I can discern than “because plot” – the adversary’s ship doesn’t notice or detect our heroes. In this case, a Klingon battlecruiser just wasn’t aware of either the probe or the shuttlecraft until the shuttle passed through the planet’s sensor grid. I know that, in prior Star Trek stories, the range at which sensors are effective can vary a lot depending on the needs of the story… but even with that in mind, this feels like a real stretch.

For the third episode in a row, Captain Pike had very little to do. I think I said this last season, too, but one of the main appeals of “the Captain Pike show” that fans – myself included – were clamouring for back in 2019 was Anson Mount and his incredible take on this character. We’re now a mere twelve episodes away from the end of the show’s run… and I kind of want to get a few more stories with Pike before the curtain falls. Star Trek has always done spotlight episodes where one or two characters are in focus – and this episode was very much an Una story, with supporting roles for Uhura and M’Benga, and a B-plot for La’an. And that’s great! But with limited time remaining, I’d like to spend a bit more time with the Enterprise’s captain.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Pike — Captain Pike hasn’t had much to do for several episodes now.

As the dust settles, I’m left with one feeling more than any other: A Case of Chiaroscuro just isn’t an episode I’m in a rush to revisit, and as and when I return to Strange New Worlds in the future, it’s an episode I’m more likely to skip than sit through. Despite its earnestness and the way it fully embraced its film noir and mystery inspirations… it just wasn’t for me. Partly that’s the black-and-white; a gimmick that felt, well… nothing more than gimmicky. But it’s also, at least in part, due to some outdated and two-dimensional tropes among the secondary characters, the melodrama that the episode imports directly from its source material, and the simple fact that this genre is quite a niche thing nowadays.

That being said, I tried very hard to give A Case of Chiaroscuro a fair shake, and not pre-judge it based solely on the fact that it was going to be in black-and-white. And, as I said above, I respect both Strange New Worlds’ creative team and the leaders at Paramount for creating a story like this and getting it across the line in a way that stayed largely true to the kinds of stories that inspired it. It’s something very few other franchises would attempt, and – at least in that sense – it’s a very “Star Trekky” thing!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the yard set with vehicles — *A Case of Chiaroscuro* stayed true to its noir inspirations.

Next week, Strange New Worlds is going to serve up a Level-Five Transporter Accident – the (in)famous “puppet episode” that was teased in pre-season marketing. I honestly don’t know what to expect from that one; I like that they went to the Jim Henson Company to get proper puppets made, and there’s a potential tie-in, I guess, with an episode of Lower Decks that could be interesting. It’s certainly going to be another “big swing” after this week’s noir-style story.

I hope this has been interesting! As I often say: please keep in mind that all of this is just the *subjective, not objective* take of one old Trekkie. If you liked A Case of Chiaroscuro a lot more than I did, feel it’s irredeemably awful, or just don’t agree with my take… that’s okay! There’s plenty of room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreement.

Thanks for joining me for this review, and as always… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Strange New Worlds: The Latest Season 4 Trailer

Sat 20.06.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 and the trailers and teasers for Season 4.

We’ve recently been shown another new trailer for Strange New Worlds’ fourth season – perhaps the last trailer before the premiere next month. I thought it could be fun to go over the trailer together and see what – if anything – we might be able to learn or infer about the stories that lay in wait!

Along with the trailer, Skydance-Paramount released a brand-new poster for Season 4, too – a cropped version of which you can see above. The poster is pretty plain, in my opinion, depicting the main characters standing on a mountain or rocky outcrop, with the USS Enterprise above them. Clouds seem to form a swirling circular pattern around the Enterprise, but that’s about it. Compared with the fun, artistic posters we got for Season 3 – which depicted pairs of characters in various moments inspired by some of the stories – I felt this one was pretty plain. “Plain” is not synonymous with “bad,” of course! And it is noteworthy, I think, that Paul Wesley’s Kirk is now considered a main character – or a major enough character to warrant a spot on the poster with the rest of the cast.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing Kirk — Kirk is a prominent character in the new trailer.

A few weeks ago, I noted that an earlier Season 4 trailer seemed to contain a lot of talk about the dangers of Starfleet’s mission of exploration, and of death. I wondered if that might be hinting at something big and explosive this season – the loss of a main character, perhaps. That trend didn’t really continue this time, though, and while the latest trailer was still action-packed, there wasn’t really any of that potential “foreshadowing” of death. Make of that what you will!

Also last time, I half-jokingly commented on “Spirk” in the trailer, as Kirk and Spock seemed to be paired up and even hugged at one point. That was more tongue-in-cheek than anything, but this time… well, there were definitely undertones to the clips of Kirk and Spock, especially at the beginning of the trailer.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing Kirk and Spock — Are things about to get… Spirky?

Now, I doubt whether Strange New Worlds will go for any kind of explicit Kirk-Spock romance in Season 4, and I suspect these moments, however they’re arrived at, will be about building the friendship and brotherhood between the two men. Spock, at least in Strange New Worlds’ canon, seems pretty clearly heterosexual, and Kirk told us back in Season 2 that he’s either married or engaged (presumably to Carol Marcus?) in this era. So, again, my suspicion is that we won’t see any overt romance between Kirk and Spock. But their moments together definitely seem to take them beyond mere friendship and hint at the creation of a much stronger bond.

The season’s tagline, according to the poster, is “boldly go one step closer to where it all began.” Referencing Strange New Worlds’ status as a prequel to The Original Series, this line hints at a season of episodes that will manoeuvre characters into position for the beginning of TOS, and part of that seems to include building up the Kirk-Spock friendship. Kirk and Spock start out in TOS as already great friends; we never really see the beginnings of that bond. Perhaps one storyline in Strange New Worlds’ fourth season will show us how that friendship came to be.

That tagline, though, could also imply that some characters will be stepping away from the series ahead of the truncated fifth and final season. We already know that Strange New Worlds has cast both Sulu and Dr McCoy – the latter being played by the venerable Thomas Jane, who excelled in The Expanse a few years ago. That could be another indication that the likes of Ortegas (the ship’s helm officer) and Dr M’Benga in sickbay could be stepping back. Dr M’Benga was seen a couple of times in The Original Series, but he’d clearly ceased to be the Enterprise’s chief medical officer by that time. And Ortegas may have departed the ship, taken a promotion, left Starfleet… or passed away.

Then there’s Una, La’an, and Pelia. Pelia didn’t even make the cut for the poster, and while we’ve seen her in a previous clip from the season, she was entirely absent from this trailer. Una and La’an may also be on the chopping-block if the show’s writers and producers aim to reposition characters to set up the beginning of TOS, though neither seems to have explicit replacements in the way Pelia has with Scotty, Dr M’Benga has with Dr McCoy, or Ortegas has with Sulu. But I still think, especially after what we saw last time, that a death or other departure for one or more of these characters is a possibility in Season 4.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing M'Benga — Dr M’Benga is one of several characters who could be replaced by the end of the season.

There was a lot of Kirk in the trailer, and not very much Pike. Captain Pike may have drawn the short straw this time, again following that trend of going “one step closer” to the beginning of The Original Series. Because we know Pike’s ultimate destination, he can’t be written out of the show! But he does seem – based not only on this trailer, but the previous one, too – to be taking more of a back seat. I hope that won’t be the case; this was “the Captain Pike show” that fans were clamouring for a few years ago, and I still want to spend more time with this incarnation of the character.

That leads into my next point, which isn’t about the trailer directly, but rather about the direction Strange New Worlds has taken and now seems ready to double-down on. I’m not convinced, I’m afraid, that this series needed to be such a direct prequel to TOS. I think I’d have been much happier, all things considered, to have spent less time with legacy characters like Kirk, Scotty, and Chapel, and to have spent more time with Captain Pike and his crew – some of whom we glimpsed in The Cage, but were never seen again. The core concept of the series – at least, the series that I wanted to see – was, as I said, “the Captain Pike show;” an exploration-focused, episodic show in the vein of classic Star Trek, but that just happened to be set before Kirk’s famous five-year mission. It didn’t need to include all of these characters… and I don’t think it needs to be such an overt prequel.

But all of that’s for the birds now, eh?

Pair of still frames from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing the tagline — The new season’s tagline.

We seemed to get another clip of a scene from the earlier trailer, showing Kirk yelling “noo!” as something happens off-screen. I speculated last time that this could be a character death, and Kirk’s line to Spock in this trailer about “saving [their] friends” could be connected to that. Perhaps the event that pushes Kirk and Spock together is something traumatic; an incident which forces them to come together to help the ship and crew. That, in turn, could lead to the scene we glimpsed at the beginning of the trailer, perhaps as the two men decompress and begin to process whatever it is that they went through.

There was an interesting clip of Kirk (at least, I’m pretty sure it’s Kirk), with his phaser raised, as several characters appear to be transporting in, with either a large window or perhaps the main viewscreen behind. These transporter beams *looked* to be Starfleet in origin (based on how transporter beams have looked previously in Strange New Worlds)… so why would Kirk feel threatened by that? I would point out, though, that we don’t see these people materialise. They could be here to help… or not.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing transporter beams — Who’s this beaming in?

There was a new admiral briefly seen in the trailer – someone other than Admiral April. This character seems to be telling the crew that what they’re being ordered to do “is hard,” and combined with the earlier clip of Kirk… I wonder if this new character is going to be one of Star Trek’s many “badmirals!” A rogue admiral, or an admiral ordering the crew to violate their own ethical boundaries, is pretty much a stock character in Star Trek at this point, but we haven’t really seen much of that in the modern era. It would be interesting if Strange New Worlds were to introduce this kind of antagonist in Season 4.

Those two clips could easily be from different episodes, though – and I could be way off base with this character and his intentions. We only saw the briefest glimpse of him, he doesn’t even have a name, and simply being an admiral and giving orders doesn’t automatically mean he’s gonna be an evil-doing villain! I just thought it seemed like a possibility.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing an admiral — Is this a new “badmiral?”

Dr M’Benga’s line to Pike about time was especially interesting, and I wonder if we’re going to get some kind of time travel or time-bending story at some point. Again, time travel is pretty common in Star Trek, and Strange New Worlds has already done stories sending characters backwards and forwards through time, so it wouldn’t be unexpected. Given that Pike’s future is set in stone, I wonder what he might make of time travel; does he now see the dangers in it, or would he be willing to embrace it if there was a way to use it for the greater good?

An intimidating alien ship fires on the Enterprise, and I think I’m right in saying that this isn’t the same vessel that we saw being prominently featured in the previous trailer. I don’t recognise the design, so this could be a brand-new alien faction, or it could be intended to be a new type of ship for someone we’re already familiar with. This clip also gave me the impression that it was being witnessed from behind glass; perhaps the conflict is being seen from another character’s perspective aboard a third vessel.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing a battle — Under attack!

One of the clips in the trailer appears to have been “mirrored;” La’an, Una, and Ortegas all have their Starfleet badges on the wrong side of their jackets. Was that a “goof,” or a mistake in the trailer? Or is it something we’re gonna see in the finished episode… for some reason? No idea, but I thought it was worth mentioning!

Could it be a hint at a visit to the Mirror Universe, though? That… doesn’t seem likely. The Mirror Universe doesn’t literally “mirror” the way characters look, and while, if Strange New Worlds was gonna do a Mirror Universe story, those three characters could fit without treading on the toes of established canon, I’m still not convinced. Modern Star Trek has done a lot with the Mirror Universe since 2017, as well as similar dystopian settings, and with the Mirror Universe having never really been my favourite part of the franchise… I’m content for Strange New Worlds to steer clear of it!

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing Ortegas, La'an, and Una mirrored — Why was this clip “mirrored” in the trailer?

Scotty seems to get a romantic encounter in the new season, sharing a kiss with a character who I thought might’ve been the Vulcan cadet we saw in the first teaser clip. Not so sure that’s who it is now, having looked more closely, but in any case, giving Scotty a storyline like that could be fun. Anything’s better than more Spock romance, right?

Did we see a *zombie* aboard the Enterprise (or a similar-looking derelict ship)? At one point near the end of the trailer, a very zombie-esque character raises a finger to their lips in a “shush” motion, and… yeah. They look like they could be some kind of zombie. That could be a trick of the light, but I’ve seen other fans speculating that the previous trailer contained a scene in engineering with La’an where she may have been surrounded by similar-looking “zombie” characters. I didn’t read that clip that way last time… but maybe I got that wrong.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing a character — Is… is that a *zombie?*

This is already running long for an article about a two-minute trailer, so let’s quickly run through a few other things I noticed. I like the city we see as a shuttle approaches; it felt like it could be a Federation colony, or maybe one of those “lawless” settlements that modern Star Trek likes to visit. It’s always cool to see a shuttle being flown – though we also see a shuttle encountering a problem at one point. The settlement also had a hot air balloon, which was funny – I wonder if anyone’s gonna take a ride in it?

Did someone draw on Captain Pike’s face while he was asleep? In one clip he seemed to have some kind of marking or drawing on half of his face, while a group of aliens (and some members of the crew) were present. That clip also looked like it could involve a supernova or perhaps a wormhole. Spock having posters in his quarters (if indeed that room is his quarters) was kinda funny.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing Pike with the crew and aliens — Did someone doodle on Pike’s face while he was asleep?

We saw clips involving sword fighting, riding on horseback, wearing dresses, and a dragon-like creature attacking the Enterprise. Is that hinting, perhaps, at another fantasy-inspired story? I wasn’t wild about The Elysian Kingdom back in Season 1, to be honest, but if a story like that was played a bit more straight, with some of the familiar fantasy ideas coming into Star Trek’s galaxy… I could see that being interesting. Lower Decks already established that some human settlements use “dragons” in some capacity, so it’s not totally out of left-field.

I couldn’t tell what Uhura might’ve been doing with a drone while wearing a spacesuit, but maybe it’s connected to the black hole we saw. The black hole was glimpsed this time, but was more prominent in the previous trailer. Admiral April telling Pike he’s going on a “fun” mission could set up something comedic… or it could lead to a dark twist; perhaps even an episode where a character is killed. Something about the way he said it, and the way it was presented, just made me feel that “fun” might not actually mean “fun” in this instance!

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing Pike and April — Will this mission turn out to be as “fun” as Admiral April hopes?

Several clips showed the ship in flight, encountering various phenomena, and at one point we hear Ortegas telling everyone to “hang on,” perhaps suggesting she’s about to pull a difficult or dangerous manoeuvre. The away mission that, last time, I said could’ve taken the crew back to the Vezda prison looks a bit different now that we’ve seen it from a different angle, for which I’m glad. I still think this set design isn’t the greatest, but seeing it from a new angle – as the crew are seemingly ambushed by Andorians – definitely improved things.

We also saw a second, much shorter clip of one of the dinosaurs or dino-like aliens. I still can’t tell if this will be a time travel story to ancient Earth or if we’re gonna see dinosaur-eque aliens on another planet, but I’m definitely curious! Spock seems to be addressing an Orion or a group of Orions when he warns that “the finest crew in Starfleet” will fight back. I also glimpsed what looked like a Gorn ship, perhaps implying that the Gorn aren’t completely gone from the show. And one of the buildings – perhaps in the settlement with the hot air balloon – seemed to have a digital display with writing in Klingon as well as Chinese.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing a dinosaur — A dinosaur.

Is Pike being beamed away from the bridge against his will? One very brief snippet seemed to suggest he might be! And was Spock conjuring something by magic, at one point? Again, it looked like he was. We see at least two characters walking or clambering on the Enterprise’s hull – I assume one might be Uhura, because that could be where she launched her drone. Not sure about the other, though.

So I think that’s all for today!

I encourage you to take a look at the trailer for yourself, and to look at other breakdowns and analyses from elsewhere in the fan community. I could be way off-base with some of my assumptions and guesses, and other folks have undoubtedly spotted things I’ve missed. Still, the trailer looked fun, certainly seemed action-packed, and it’s set the stage for what I hope will be an interesting and enjoyable season of Star Trek.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing the USS Enterprise — I liked this shot of the Enterprise’s “shadow.”

What I didn’t see was anything to indicate that Skydance-Paramount is gonna really lean into the franchise’s big sixtieth anniversary. I’ve said before that I’d have loved to see a crossover, perhaps the return of an actor from The Original Series, or a storyline that links up in a big way with something from past iterations of Star Trek. Strange New Worlds Season 4 will run through September – with episodes presumably airing either side of the anniversary. It would’ve been the perfect moment to do something big to really celebrate this milestone, and I’m still crossing my fingers and hoping we get *something* like that.

I hope this has been interesting – and please take all of this with a grain of salt! I have no “insider information” about the upcoming season, and at the end of the day, all of this is just one old Trekkie’s *subjective, not objective* take.

When Season 4 hits our screens next month, I’m planning to write individual episode reviews. I hope you’ll join me for those! And if you missed it, I’ve also talked about previous trailers and clips for the upcoming season. You can find the first of those articles by clicking or tapping here, and the second by clicking or tapping here. The sixtieth anniversary has also been a cause for celebration here on the website! I’ve written up a re-watch of Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot for The Original Series. And most recently, I’ve also written up a re-watch of The Royale, from Season 2 of The Next Generation, which is the earliest episode of Star Trek that I can ever remember watching. Check out those posts by following the links! And until next time… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 will premiere on Paramount+ on the 23rd of July 2026. Seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Paramount+ now, and are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – remains the copyright of the Paramount Skydance Corporation. Some still frames used in this article were edited using A.I. tools to remove logos and watermarks. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The New Season 4 Trailer

Fri 01.05.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 and the trailers and teasers for Season 4. Spoilers are also present for Discovery Season 2 and Picard Season 3.

I haven’t had as much to say as usual over the past few weeks, but we’re slowly getting back into the swing of things – and the website isn’t going away, so don’t worry about that! A few days ago, though, we got to catch another glimpse of Strange New Worlds’ impending fourth season! So I thought it could be a bit of fun to go through the trailer and share my thoughts on how the season is shaping up. In addition to the trailer, we also got a release date for the season premiere – the 23rd of July, which is a little over eleven weeks away at time of writing. These spring and summer months can pass quickly, so it won’t be long before we’re sitting down to watch the next batch of episodes – and, disappointingly, Strange New Worlds’ final ten-episode season.

If you want to check out what I thought of the first Season 4 clip we got, back at last year’s Comic-Con event, you can find that by clicking or tapping here. And it goes without saying, but there will be spoilers for all of Strange New Worlds – including Season 4 – from here on out!

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing a planet being destroyed — The destruction of a planet.

First of all, I’d like to start by saying that a July broadcast date is a little earlier than I expected. Starfleet Academy only wrapped up its first season a few weeks ago, and while we’re still a long way away from 2022’s incredibly poor scheduling, with Star Trek shows tripping over one another… I wouldn’t have objected to Paramount-Skydance giving the franchise a bit more of a break. There are only two more seasons of Strange New Worlds left, and maybe it’s just me… but I really don’t wanna rush through these remaining episodes! I’d have been happy to leave Season 4 until the autumn/winter season, or even into the first part of 2027, if that in turn would’ve meant the remaining season of Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds’ own swansong could’ve also been pushed back a bit. As this current era of Star Trek winds down… that kind of thing has been on my mind.

And as another aside, we got news recently that the sets and stages for both Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds are to be fully dismantled. That seems to put the final nail in the coffin of any kind of resurrection for Starfleet Academy or for the Year One spin-off idea that we discussed last year. Neither seemed likely to me, so this news is really just a confirmation rather than a shock. But as we look at the trailer for Season 4… I can’t escape the fact that we’re looking at a show cancelled before its time, and that the curtain is already beginning to fall on this era of Star Trek.

Behind-the-scenes photo from the set of Strange New Worlds showing the bridge — The *Strange New Worlds* sets have been dismantled now that production has wrapped.

The first thing to say about the trailer is this: for something that was barely a minute long, there seemed to be a lot of discussion about danger – and perhaps even death. Strange New Worlds has killed off characters before: Hemmer and Captain Batel, to name just two. But with the show winding down – and, crucially, the production team being aware of that and trying to pivot to their Year One pitch… could we see another main character death this season? If so, it would obviously have to be one of the original characters: La’an, Pelia, or Ortegas. I suppose we could throw Una into the mix, too, as her fate beyond the end of the series is also unconfirmed.

That could be a total overreach, but in a short trailer, I thought it was at least noticeable that some of the only lines of dialogue we got involved the danger of Starfleet’s mission and the risk of injury or death to Federation personnel. Hemmer’s death in Season 1 was admirable, in some ways, for its sheer brutality and the impact it had on the crew, but it’s also a plot point I’ve criticised, as I felt we hadn’t really spent enough time with Star Trek’s first Aenar main character (and first blind character to be portrayed by a visually-impaired performer). However, now that we’re three-plus seasons in and we’ve gotten to know these characters a lot more, a main character death – if handled well – could be an incredibly powerful moment. I don’t necessarily think it’s something the series “needs,” but if it was well-written and the story could carry such a powerful emotional beat… I do believe it could work.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing an away mission — An away mission to a crystal-filled cavern.

Speaking of Hemmer, one of the clips in the trailer showed a suspiciously pale hand on La’an’s shoulder. Could that be a hint that Hemmer might return for a cameo or single-episode role, as he did in Season 2? If this moment were taking place in the past, either as a flashback or through some kind of time-travel shenanigans… well, anything’s possible. And as Connor Trineer told the audience at a Star Trek convention just last year, in sci-fi, no one is ever *really* dead, right? I mean, if Data can come back after everything that happened to him… why not have a story in which Hemmer once again features?

The very next frame of the trailer shows La’an standing in Main Engineering, speaking to a crowd. And if you look closely, one of the people closest to her in the crowd looks like an Andorian or Aenar. So… Hemmer’s return is confirmed! Just kidding, there’s been no official word on that so far. But it’s interesting, in any case, to even be considering Hemmer as a possible returning character this time around.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing La'an with a second still frame inset showing a crowd scene and a circled character — La’an with a hand on her shoulder.
*Inset: Could the highlighted character be Hemmer?*

Obviously, the dinosaur has picked up the most attention from fans coming out of the trailer, and it was undeniably a cool “Jurassic Park”-inspired moment. I’m going to reserve judgement on the dinosaur until we know a bit more about this story; will it be a wonderful homage to classic monster movies, or is there something else being planned? Will the creatures be actual Earth dinosaurs, or dino-like aliens from another world? And will they even play a major role in the episode that features them, or is this all just a bait-and-switch; a cool visual for the trailer to get viewers interested? Without knowing more, it’s hard to say.

I will say, though, that last season’s “zombie episode” was in pretty much the same camp for me! When we glimpsed what appeared to be Klingon zombies in the Season 3 trailer, I was cautiously excited – but I wanted to wait and see what the finished episode would be like. Shuttle to Kenfori ultimately turned out to be a great story, a horror-tinged outing that was fun and frightening in equal measure. So I’m cautiously optimistic that this season’s upcoming “dino episode” will go the same way. It’s definitely something different for Star Trek, and I continue to appreciate that Strange New Worlds is willing to try different things and explore not only the Final Frontier, but also new genres and different ways of telling stories.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing a T Rex — *The Jurassic Park theme plays.*

Speaking of new forms of storytelling, we didn’t see anything of the puppet episode this time around, which I think is a noteworthy omission from this trailer. We’ve known for a while that the Jim Henson Company has created puppets for one Season 4 episode, and I guess Paramount-Skydance doesn’t want to spoil too much more of that story at this early stage. I know the puppet announcement wasn’t met with universal support from Trekkies, but I’m definitely curious to see what kind of episode it’ll turn out to be – and whether the writers and creative team have been able to take full advantage of a very different medium to put together a story that we may not have seen in Star Trek before.

The young Vulcan cadet whom we’d caught a glimpse of in last year’s clip also made a return, this time serving as a stand-in transporter chief. This would seem to indicate that this character might be a slightly bigger presence on the show, perhaps appearing in more than one episode (and certainly appearing in more than one scene). In both of her appearances, she was paired up with one of Strange New Worlds’ younger characters – Uhura last time, and now Scotty. I think that could be interesting, and I like the idea of one or both of those characters getting an arc that could take them from being the younger, less-experienced trainee to a mentor of sorts to a new, up-and-coming cadet.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing a cadet — The Vulcan cadet.

There were two points in the trailer where we seemed to see a “black hole” – or at least a space phenomenon which greatly resembles one. First, we saw the Enterprise approaching one right at the beginning of the trailer, and later, we saw one of the female characters – Uhura, perhaps, or La’an, I couldn’t really tell – flying towards a black hole-like phenomenon in a space suit. These clips are probably from the same episode (it would be kinda repetitive to re-use the same kind of CGI creation twice in one season), but at the same time, I felt that the scale of the black hole was different when you look at the two clips side-by-side.

Black holes in Star Trek have been a kind of magical macguffin in the past; a real-world scientific name that has been bent and twisted to fit the whims of generations of storytellers! But it will be interesting to see something like this up close again; my mind wanders back to Season 2 of Discovery, where the Talosians projected an imaginary black hole as a shield to hide their planet. I’m not saying a return to Talos IV is on the cards, of course. But there’s precedent for things not being entirely as they seem!

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing a black hole — A black hole.

Kirk and Spock – who’ve been building up a friendship across several episodes now – seem to get another turn in the spotlight. Their hug – or rather, Kirk’s hugging of Spock – seems to indicate that this friendship is progressing even more, bringing both characters closer to how we remember them from The Original Series. Strange New Worlds has already done a lot to lay the groundwork for this relationship, so I don’t think we need to go overboard with this younger version of Kirk. One storyline with Spock should be all it takes, as Strange New Worlds enters the latter part of its run, to get Kirk exactly where he needs to be.

Speaking of Kirk, I hope we’ll get to see him with other characters this time around, too. Season 3’s “backdoor pilot” for the Year One spin-off saw Kirk meeting Chapel, Scotty and Uhura, as well as Spock, and Kirk also got a B-plot with Scotty in the comedy episode Four-and-a-Half Vulcans later in the season, so there’s plenty of room to build up some of those relationships a little more. Perhaps it’s because I’m beginning to feel a little burned out on this version of Spock (after so many “Spock comedy” and “Spock relationship drama” stories), but I’d quite like to see Kirk teamed up with other characters this time around… at least for some of the time.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing a hug — Things are about to get… Spirky.

One of the CGI clips showed a planet (or moon, I guess) being destroyed in a way that felt eerily similar to Star Trek 2009′s destruction of Vulcan. I don’t think we’re going to get things like Red Matter or the Kelvin timeline in Season 4, of course, but there’s gotta be an explanation for this destroyed planet… and the advanced-looking starship of unfamiliar design seen in orbit as it blew up.

Pike’s voiceover, which carried through the first part of the trailer, was interesting. At first, I thought it sounded like it could be one of the captain’s typical inspirational speeches… but now I’m not so sure. Could Pike’s words – if they’re taken from the season and weren’t written for the trailer itself – actually be a eulogy? Think about it: Pike starts by reading what seems like a quotation about exploration, and specifically the *dangers* posed by exploration, then goes on to say that “space is limitless in its beauty… and in its terror.” He concludes with the line “sometimes, things still don’t work out the way we’d hoped.” Could he be speaking to his crew after someone’s death? Could this speech be a eulogy delivered at a wake or a funeral? Combined with La’an’s line about how “any of these missions could be our last,” I think we’ve got at least enough evidence to posit a theory!

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing Uhura and La'an — *“Any of these missions could be our last.”*

Then there’s Kirk’s scream as turbolift doors are closed. What’s happening on the other side of those doors, behind the camera? Is Kirk… leaving someone behind? It could be Spock, of course – perhaps Spock is saving Kirk’s life or putting himself in danger in some way, and that could be what leads to the hug and the strong bond the trailer is hinting at. Or… this could be another piece of the puzzle hinting at a main character’s death, perhaps a death involving self-sacrifice to save their comrades.

Okay, I’ll drop the “death” angle for now. But that was a big part of the tone and presentation of this trailer, in my opinion, and while of course it could be the case that the trailer was deliberately cut this way to generate interest, excitement, and trepidation… somehow, some way, by the end of next season, Strange New Worlds will have to explain what’s coming next for its main characters. Why, as of The Original Series and Kirk’s tenure in the captain’s chair, were the likes of Ortegas, Una, La’an, and Pelia no longer serving aboard the Enterprise? They could be promoted, transferred, demoted, arrested… any of that. Or… one or more of them could be killed in action.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing Una, La'an, and Ortegas. — Three characters who may not survive to the end of the series…

A few final thoughts, then, before we wrap this up. The cliff or canyon, with flying creatures, would seem to be taken from the same episode as the T. Rex; I read those flying animals as being pterodactyls, or similar winged dinosaurs. The shot of the canyon was pretty, though, and I liked that it seems to be a unique location rather than a re-used outdoor filming site. The same can’t be said, though, for the away mission to the crystal cave, which looks like it might’ve been filmed at the quarry near Toronto that has been seen quite a few times since Discovery premiered.

Speaking of familiar locales… was the moment with Pike and Una being fired at taking place in a similar complex to last season’s Vezda prison? The dark stone, the angles of the plinths… it kinda looked like that to me. Again, that could be a coincidence (or a consequence of recycling sets), but it could also indicate that the Vezda storyline hasn’t been entirely wrapped up. I hope that isn’t the case; it would make Captain Batel’s sacrifice feel a lot worse if the enemy she gave her life to stop came back just a few episodes later! But that very brief clip definitely reminded me of last season and the Vezda prison.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing Una and Pike — Does this location feel familiar to anyone else?

We saw a brief shot of characters on horseback; Pike is known to be an equestrian, but we haven’t seen him in the saddle since Season 1. It would be neat to get another sequence of Pike on horseback, and perhaps see him introducing some of his shipmates to the joys of riding. The next clip seemed to show an all-female away team, comprised of Una, La’an, and Ortegas, which was interesting. We can also briefly see a shuttle in the background, which could suggest that Ortegas gets another chance to show off her piloting skills.

The alien ship seen in orbit of the destroyed planet seems to have some kind of energy field or weapon which we briefly saw encroaching on the Enterprise; will this be another “they just wanted to communicate!!1!” story, or could we be seeing the introduction of a new villain? I didn’t recognise this ship, and the blue colour used for its engines and weapons is also not something we’ve seen a lot of in Star Trek before. While I think it’s fun to welcome back alien races and villainous factions from the past, it’s also interesting – and healthy for the long-term prospects of Star Trek – to introduce new ones. As with characters, striking a balance between new and returning alien races is important.

Still frame from the Strange New Worlds S4 trailer showing the Enterprise being attacked. — The Enterprise being attacked(?) by the alien ship.

So I think that’s everything for now. I wanted to take a look at the trailer, even though I’ve been absent and not really posting much over the last few weeks. I guess Starfleet Academy’s cancellation – and the realisation that this era of Star Trek really is winding down – kinda hit me harder than I expected, and while my website has never been *only* about Star Trek, that news has kinda sapped some of my enthusiasm for writing about the franchise – or writing in general, I guess. So… sorry about that. I’ll try to get back into the swing of things over the next little while.

This trailer did what it needed to do. It piqued my curiosity and got me a little more excited for the upcoming season. I wouldn’t necessarily have rushed Season 4 out the door this summer (and TV shows tend to perform worse in the summer months, which is another great reason to wait), but now that we have a confirmed date of the 23rd of July, I promise to be here with individual episode reviews! So I really hope that you’ll join me for those in what we can officially say is “just a couple of months’ time!”

Dinosaurs, black holes, and Spirk. Oh my.

Until next time… and Live Long and Prosper, friends!