star trek strange new worlds – Page 2

Some characters it could be fun to see in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Spoiler Warning: There will be spoilers ahead for the Star Trek franchise, including the most recent seasons of Discovery and Picard.

Excitement for a series led by Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike had been sky-high since the second season of Discovery was on the air early last year. The series was finally announced a few weeks ago, and if you somehow didn’t know, it’s going to be called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I took a look at a few ideas for the upcoming series shortly after it was announced, but today I wanted to get specific. We’re going to be looking at some characters from past iterations of Star Trek that it could be fun to see return in some way.

Probably not the title card for *Strange New Worlds*!

Some of the characters on this list could join the main cast – though with three of its main roles taken up with re-cast characters, I feel sure that the creators of the show will want to put in some brand new ones of their own too. Others would make great secondary or recurring characters – if Strange New Worlds is to have a large secondary cast like Deep Space Nine had. And of course, some characters would be interesting to see just as one-offs.

This article shouldn’t be interpreted as me having some kind of “insider information”; I don’t, and quite frankly I doubt anyone else in the blogosphere or on social media does, so you should always take any such claim with a grain of salt! This is pure speculation, as well as a bit of fun.

Number 1: Alternate reality Pike and Spock

In 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, the alternate reality version of Captain Pike (played by Bruce Greenwood) was killed. However, by setting any potential crossover before this event, such as shortly after the events of 2009’s Star Trek, for example, it would be possible for the prime timeline and alternate reality versions of the characters to cross over… somehow.

We know from 2009’s Star Trek that travel to the alternate reality was possible by traversing a black hole, so perhaps something like that could happen. It would definitely be expensive to bring in Bruce Greenwood and Zachary Quinto – as film stars they command a higher salary – but if contracts could be negotiated, and a suitably engaging story written, I think it could be fun to see the two versions of the characters team up.

The kind of story I’m thinking of would follow a similar theme to the classic Mirror, Mirror or Discovery’s first season – the Enterprise, or just Pike and Spock, accidentally cross over to the alternate reality and have to work out how to get back – enlisting their alternate reality counterparts for help.

Number 2: James T. Kirk

In the alternate timeline mentioned above, we saw how Kirk and Spock met at Starfleet Academy. However, in the prime timeline we’ve never seen their first meeting. It could be interesting to see a young Ensign or Lieutenant Kirk meet Spock for the first time, and there are many ways this could be included.

However, the way I think it would work best would be in the series finale. And I know, thinking about the finale of a series that hasn’t even premiered yet is very premature! But hear me out because I like this concept. After what will hopefully be a number of successful seasons of Strange New Worlds, Captain Pike gets promoted and will be leaving the ship. The final moments of the finale could see Captain Kirk coming aboard the Enterprise for the first time – and this could be a great moment to use the CGI seen in films like Rogue One to have the character look like a young William Shatner. Shatner himself could even do Kirk’s voice.

That’s one concept that I really think could be cool. But we could also see a young Kirk as a guest star, perhaps as someone who is a junior officer aboard another ship that the Enterprise works with. We know that Kirk served on a ship called the USS Farragut before becoming captain of the Enterprise, and that name-drop could be a great reference to The Original Series.

Number 3: T’Pol

Aside from one brief reference in Discovery, there hasn’t been much acknowledgement of Enterprise in modern Star Trek, despite the fact that the events of that show are canon in both the alternate reality and Discovery. With Strange New Worlds taking place over a century after Enterprise, most of the human characters will probably no longer be around – though there was a hint in the alternate reality of an “Admiral Archer”. However, Vulcans are very long-lived, and it’s quite possible that T’Pol would still be alive and active in this era.

As the first Vulcan to work extensively with humans and Starfleet, T’Pol could offer invaluable advice to Spock as he joins the crew of the Enterprise. Or she could be a senior figure within the Federation – perhaps at Starfleet, working on research, or even taking on a role similar to Spock’s in The Next Generation era, working as a diplomat.

If T’Pol were a senior diplomat or ambassador, she could join the crew of the Enterprise on a mission of first contact – and this could be a great story to show off first contact between the Federation and one of Star Trek’s established races, like the Cardassians. A story like this would tie all three of Star Trek’s main eras together: the 22nd Century, represented by T’Pol, the 23rd Century, represented by Pike, Spock, Number One, and the Enterprise crew, and the 24th Century, represented by a race like the Cardassians that we got to know in that era.

Number 4: Commodore Decker

William Windom played the role of Commodore Matt Decker in one of the best episodes of The Original Series: The Doomsday Machine. Decker is a broken man in that story, having witnessed the loss of his entire crew. He becomes consumed by revenge and tries to take down the planet-killer himself. But in Strange New Worlds, we could see Decker before that catastrophe, as the level-headed senior officer we know he was.

He could retain the rank of Commodore, perhaps serving as the senior officer for the region of space that the Enterprise is assigned to – making him, in effect, Pike’s boss! Or, as Strange New Worlds is taking place a decade or so earlier, we could see Decker as a captain or even a first officer, making a one-off appearance or even becoming a recurring character.

It would be great to put Decker in a story that pays homage to – and foreshadows – his later role in The Doomsday Machine, but it can’t be something too obvious and overt. So no return of the planet-killer please!

Number 5: Sarek

James Frain put in a creditable performance as Sarek across Discovery’s first two seasons. With that show now leaving the 23rd Century behind, it would be possible to keep Sarek as a recurring character in Strange New Worlds.

We know from Spock’s comments in The Original Series and The Next Generation that he and his father don’t get along particularly well. Yet in Discovery they seemed to be doing okay together – perhaps Strange New Worlds could explore how the relationship between father and son soured and why, as of The Original Series, Sarek and Spock were maintaining a cool, logical distance from one another.

It would also be a way to keep Discovery in the minds of the audience. Strange New Worlds is but one part of an expanding Star Trek franchise, and convincing fans of one show to hop over and try others is arguably the key challenge for the team behind Star Trek. With the franchise split up into different eras and timelines, finding ways to get some consistency is important and recurring characters have the potential to be an important link between shows.

Number 6: Benjamin Sisko

Wait. Stop. Don’t skip ahead! I know this one seems a little “out there”, but bear with me because it could be amazing. I wrote a few weeks ago that Strange New Worlds could potentially encounter the Bajorans, making first contact with them decades before the Cardassian occupation of their world. That alone could be a fascinating story, especially because we know Bajor in that era was very different: a strict, caste-based society.

In What You Leave Behind, the finale of Deep Space Nine, Benjamin Sisko is saved by the Prophets – the noncorporeal aliens who live in the Bajoran wormhole – and disappears from normal spacetime, going to stay with them. He promises to return, and because of the Prophets’ non-linear view of time, he could return anywhere, at any time.

That means he could return from the domain of the Prophets years before he left – such as during the era when Captain Pike commanded the Enterprise! I know this is a bit out of left-field, but Star Trek has shown with Discovery’s second season that bringing characters back and telling stories that tie into much older iterations of the franchise isn’t something it’s frightened of trying. Heck, that’s how we came to have Captain Pike and Strange New Worlds in the first place! With a brief recap of Deep Space Nine, like the recap we saw in the Discovery Season 2 episode If Memory Serves, Sisko could be introduced to the audience and his presence explained.

I’ve long felt that seeing Sisko’s return could make for a fascinating story, and while it would make more sense in many ways to bring him back in Star Trek: Picard or another 24th or 25th Century series, it’s a story that could be made to fit in Strange New Worlds too.

Number 7: Shran

As I mentioned when talking about T’Pol, Enterprise has very few ties to the rest of the Star Trek franchise at the moment. We don’t know exactly how long Andorians live, but Shran was alive at the end of Enterprise, and as a father to a young child, can’t have been especially old by Andorian standards. It’s at least possible that he’s still alive as of the era of Strange New Worlds, though he would be well over 100 by this point.

Similar to T’Pol, we could see Shran taking on an elder statesman kind of role, and we’d perhaps learn that he had been instrumental in convincing the Andorians to ally with humanity and the Vulcans, making him an important founding father of the Federation.

I could see Shran in this kind of role, and perhaps a story that included him could see him bringing a wayward group of secessionist or renegade Andorians to heel. He could even be teamed up with T’Pol in some kind of big diplomatic mission which the crew of the Enterprise are roped into.

Number 8: A character played by a cast member from The Original Series

George Takei appeared in Season 2 of *The Terror* in 2019.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article looking at comments by William Shatner that he’d love to reprise his most famous role and play Captain Kirk again. I doubt that will happen – not least because Kirk died in Star Trek Generations – but it got me thinking about the potential for Shatner, or another main cast member from The Original Series, to play a new role in Star Trek.

At time of writing, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, William Shatner, and George Takei are still alive and thus could potentially return to the franchise in some way. Takei played a role in a horror series called The Terror in 2019, so he’s still active as an actor. And Walter Koenig has recently produced a Star Trek fan film called Star Trek Renegades. Koenig and Takei also played roles in the Star Trek fan series Star Trek New Voyages in the mid-2000s.

All four are in their eighties – Shatner will be 90 next birthday. Sir Patrick Stewart, who is himself almost 80, has shown that older actors can still put in exceptional performances, so it isn’t impossible to think that any of these actors could make a return to the franchise that made them household names. With time marching ever onward, there won’t be many more opportunities. It would require a story that was really crafted to make such a role prominent and wholesome, but I think it could be done – and based on what Shatner had to say only a few weeks ago, at least one of them would be willing to do it.

Number 9: Dr Boyce

This character only appeared in The Cage (and in reused footage in The Menagerie) and was the Enterprise’s doctor during Pike’s tenure in command. While it could be possible to bring in a different ship’s doctor (such as Dr Nambue, who was the USS Shenzhou’s doctor in Discovery’s premiere) I think Dr Boyce is a prime candidate for re-casting.

Strange New Worlds has promised to be a series in the mould of classic Star Trek shows of the past, and if that’s the case a chief medical officer will be essential. Dr Boyce seemed to have a good relationship with Captain Pike in The Cage; the relationship between Dr McCoy and Captain Kirk was foreshadowed here. This could be a great way to give Pike a McCoy-esque older figure to lean on for advice and to serve as the show’s moral compass.

Dr Boyce – and indeed most of the characters from The Cage – are practically blank slates, so while his surname and approximate age would be constraints, the rest of the character could be up to the new show’s creators to explore and expand.

Number 10: José Tyler

Speaking of The Cage, one character it introduced who hasn’t been since since is the young Lieutenant Tyler. Given the first name José in the novelisation of the episode, Tyler is similar to Dr Boyce in being an almost-blank slate for the new show.

However, one thing that is interesting with this character is that he shares a surname with Ash Tyler – the character introduced in Discovery. While Discovery’s version of Tyler is actually a Klingon named Voq, there’s the potential for Strange New Worlds to explore that relationship. Are they brothers? Cousins? What would José make of the revelation that Ash is a Klingon? How would he react to that? There’s a lot of potential for interesting stories, and it would be a way to include Ash Tyler and potentially the Section 31 organisation that he now leads.

If the currently-untitled Section 31 series retains a 23rd Century setting – and isn’t following Discovery into the far future – then Ash Tyler looks almost certain to be a part of that show. Tying it to Strange New Worlds would keep the two 23rd Century shows together, and there’d be great potential for crossovers.

Number 11: Ash Tyler

At the end of Discovery Season 2, Ash Tyler was appointed head of Section 31. The diminished, arguably decimated organisation – in the wake of what happened with the Control AI – will have to be carefully managed, and in addition we really need to see it disappearing and going underground – so that by the time of Deep Space Nine it’s truly in the shadows. But that seems like something to see happen in the upcoming Section 31 series!

If Tyler is included in the Section 31 show, having him appear in Strange New Worlds would be a crossover, tying the two shows together as already mentioned. Something like that makes a lot of sense, and as a character we know Captain Pike knows quite well from his time in the captain’s chair of the USS Discovery, there could be a continuation of that somewhat frosty relationship.

Characters from Discovery seem far more likely than any others to crop up in Strange New Worlds, and though the main crew have left this time period, Tyler and others who remain could be interesting to see return.

Number 12: The prime timeline version of Captain Lorca

I mentioned this when I looked at some story ideas for Strange New Worlds a few weeks ago, but just to recap: the version of Captain Gabriel Lorca that we got to know in Discovery’s first season was in fact from the Mirror Universe. He was killed there while attempting to seize power, so he obviously won’t be coming back. But the prime timeline version of the character still exists – most likely trapped in the Mirror Universe.

While it was suggested in Discovery that Lorca would have been killed shortly after the accident which sent him to the Mirror Universe, that was purely speculation, and as he was known to be a fairly rough character, it’s at least possible he would have survived – even if he ended up incarcerated.

If it were demonstrated to Captain Pike that Lorca is alive, surely he’d want to launch a mission to rescue him! This would make for a great two-part story, and after Lorca has been retrieved he could even go on to be a recurring character in later episodes and seasons of Strange New Worlds.

Number 13: Dr Richard Daystrom

In The Original Series Season 2 episode The Ultimate Computer, Dr Daystrom is the computer scientist who has developed an AI capable of running an entire starship. We’ve seen the Daystrom Institute – which was named in his honour – appear prominently in Star Trek: Picard, so bringing the man himself into Strange New Worlds would be a neat little connection – one of those threads running through the franchise.

While I don’t expect Strange New Worlds to spend much time dealing with the fallout from Discovery’s second season storyline, we could find out that Dr Daystrom was one of the scientists who had worked on the Control AI. His new work on shipboard computers – which will culminate in the M-5 computer seen in The Original Series – could even be a result of seeing how Control went wrong.

Dr Daystrom was a great character in The Original Series. In the 1960s, seeing a black man as a senior scientist was something genuinely different and pioneering, and actor William Marshall played the role expertly. I would love to see a role for him in some way in Strange New Worlds.

Number 14: Arex

This one is a complete long-shot, but we’ve never seen Arex – or indeed any Edosian characters – outside of The Animated Series. The Edosians were a race which had three legs and three arms, and Arex was an Edosian officer who served on the USS Enterprise when it was under Kirk’s command. James Doohan – better known as Scotty – provided the character’s voice. While animating a “tripedal” character was easy, it was prohibitively expensive to try to recreate Arex when Star Trek returned to live-action in the late 1970s, and his character was never mentioned.

Interestingly, Nepenthe – the seventh episode of Star Trek: Picard – mentioned the Kzinti, who were a race only ever seen in The Animated Series. As I wrote when I picked out a couple of episodes from The Animated Series as part of my Ten Great Episodes articles, the show is considered a full part of the Star Trek canon, which means Arex is too.

Today’s special effects – both physical and digital – are much better than they were in the 1970s, and having a character like Arex in a live-action show no longer faces the obstacles it once did.

Number 15: Samuel T. Cogley

First encountered by Captain Kirk in The Original Series first season episode Court Martial, the old-fashioned lawyer – based on famous American lawyer Clarence Darrow – is a fascinating character, and one who has seen homage paid to him in the show Futurama. Cogley was based at Starbase 11, where he successfully defended Kirk against an accusation of murder in his court-martial.

Court Martial was the first of a number of Star Trek episodes across multiple series which showed that the franchise can do courtroom drama incredibly well. While I hope Captain Pike won’t need Cogley’s services, someone might – and the result could be another great piece of drama.

Number 16: Colonel Worf

As we saw with returning characters in Deep Space Nine, Klingons are almost as long-lived as Vulcans. Colonel Worf – played by Michael Dorn – was intended to be the grandfather of the Worf we’re most familiar with from The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The character played a role in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where he served as the defence attorney for Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy during their rigged trial on Qo’nos.

Discovery’s first season brought back the concept of Klingon Great Houses – and the House of Mogh, to which the more familiar Worf belonged, was certainly among them as of the mid-24th Century. Colonel Worf could have played a role in the Klingon-Federation war, and even if he isn’t the head of his house in this era, he could still have a role in a Klingon-focused episode.

While Michael Dorn wouldn’t be suitable for the role of a much younger Colonel Worf, he could perhaps play his father – our Worf’s great-grandfather. Are you confused yet?

Number 17: Montgomery “Scotty” Scott

There’s a case to be made for practically all of The Original Series main cast having roles in Strange New Worlds. But one character who could be included in some capacity is Scotty. He could be an assistant engineer under Pike’s command – such a long record of service aboard the Enterprise could explain why he was so knowledgeable about the ship and its systems by the time Kirk took over.

The Enterprise needs a chief engineer if Strange New Worlds is to have a similar setup to Star Trek shows of the past. While I wouldn’t necessarily place Scotty in that role, he could certainly be working in engineering in some capacity while Pike was in command. Even if he wasn’t a main character, Scotty could be there in a recurring role; a nice little nod to returning fans, but without doing anything quite as dramatic as has been done with Spock.

Number 18: John Gill

The Original Series had a number of episodes with premises that modern Star Trek almost certainly wouldn’t touch. One of these was Patterns of Force, an episode in which John Gill – a Federation historian and anthropologist – introduces Nazism to a developing planet. At the time Patterns of Force premiered, the prevailing theory that John Gill was said to have been inspired by was that Nazi Germany was a very efficient state – a claim challenged by more recent historical analysis.

While I don’t want to see Gill arguing in favour of Nazism in Strange New Worlds, we could see him engaged in other historical or anthropological research – he was, at the time, one of the Federation’s leading experts in those fields. Pike and the Enterprise could even convey him to Ekos – the planet he’d become führer of.

Number 19: Cadet Sidhu

Cadet Sidhu appeared in the Short Treks episode Ask Not, where she was subjected to an intense test by Captain Pike. After passing the test, she was assigned to a role in engineering aboard the Enterprise.

Ask Not was partly a vehicle for Anson Mount to reprise his popular role as Pike. But almost any story could have been written for that purpose – bringing in a new cadet and assigning her to the Enterprise feels like a deliberate character introduction, and we could certainly see Sidhu return.

Number 20: Admiral Anderson

If you read my write-up of Discovery’s premiere, you’ll know I felt Admiral Anderson’s main scene – in which he makes a charged racial comment to Michael Burnham – was one of the story’s weakest points. However, I’d like to give the character a second chance – not because I like him, but because I think there’s great potential to have an Admiral who’s kind of a jerk.

That character archetype – the self-centred, egotistical power-abuser – is one which practically all of can relate to having had a boss, manager, or teacher like that at some point in our lives. If Anderson had been handled better – and Discovery’s premiere as a whole had been a better story – we could have got that from him then. As it is, maybe we could have another chance.

While Anderson’s ship was destroyed, many escape pods evacuated beforehand so I’d say there’s a better than average chance Anderson was among the survivors. Every Star Trek show has used admirals to great effect in a select number of episodes, and Strange New Worlds will need a senior flag officer at some point in its run. Why not Anderson?

So that’s it. A few characters from past iterations of Star Trek who could – but most likely won’t – appear in Strange New Worlds. There are others, of course, including some I would probably never expect! Star Trek: Picard caught me off-guard by bringing back Seven of Nine and Hugh, two characters I would never have thought the producers of the show would seek to include. Some of the team who worked on Picard are also taking senior roles behind the scenes of Strange New Worlds, which I honestly just think is great. Picard did a great job of walking the line between being something new and bringing back characters and story elements from Star Trek’s past – something I hope Strange New Worlds will do too.

On the whole, I’d say some of Discovery’s characters – like Ash Tyler – are probably more likely than some of the others mentioned on the list to make a return in the new series. But as with Seven of Nine and Hugh in Picard, the producers sometimes like to be unpredictable, and we could see any one of a hundred or more characters make some kind of return – or have no returning characters at all!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently in early production and will premiere on CBS All Access in the United States in the future. Plans for international distribution have 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.

A few ideas for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Tue 19.05.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There will be spoilers ahead for the Star Trek franchise, including the most recent seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard.

The announcement a few days ago that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was officially in production was genuinely exciting. Along with Star Trek: Picard’s second season, this is probably the Star Trek project that I’m currently most interested to see on our screens, even though it probably won’t be coming until 2022.

After I’d watched the announcement video and read the official release on Star Trek’s website, I got thinking about some of the different directions that Strange New Worlds could go in its first season – a season that will hopefully be the first of many! None of this is official or anywhere close to official, but these are some ideas that I think could be interesting, enjoyable, or just downright good ways to take the new show.

I’ve already taken a closer look at the announcement itself, and you can find that article by clicking or tapping here.

Number 1: A crossover with the Section 31 series.

A black Section 31 badge seen in *Star Trek: Discovery* Season 2.

Unlike Star Trek shows of The Next Generation’s era, recent Star Trek projects have been wholly standalone affairs. Partly this is because the timeline is so chopped up, with Discovery in the 32nd Century, Picard in the 25th, Lower Decks in the 24th, and so on. There just hasn’t been much opportunity for the shows which are in production simultaneously to share very much of anything – aside from a couple of redressed sets. In my opinion this is a bit of a mistake, not least because it risks the Star Trek franchise becoming convoluted and offputting for newcomers.

One way this could be rectified is for Strange New Worlds to cross over with the other series which is supposedly set in the same era – the currently-untitled Section 31 show. As both series will feature characters who debuted in Discovery, the three shows will be tied together in a way that will be to the overall benefit of the franchise. We know, thanks to the events of Discovery’s second season, that Pike, Spock, and Number One are well aware of the existence of Section 31, and are familiar with both Ash Tyler and Empress Georgiou. While Shazad Latif, who plays Tyler, has not been officially confirmed for the new series, the end of Discovery Season 2 left Tyler as the shadowy organisation’s new director. In any case, however, a crossover with Strange New Worlds could be reciprocated in a second season of the Section 31 show, as both crews work together to accomplish some task or defeat an enemy.

Number 2: Bring back some classic Star Trek races.

The founding members of the Federation: Vulcans, humans, Tellarites, and Andorians.

The title of Strange New Worlds implies that we’ll be doing at least some exploration with Pike and the crew, and that’s great. Exploration was at the heart of classic Star Trek, and while recent projects have dabbled with the concept, it hasn’t really been front and centre in the way it was in The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Enterprise – those shows, at least in my opinion, are the ones which were most concerned with exploring. However, as great as it will be to introduce wholly new planets and races, as a prequel Strange New Worlds has to be careful how it does so lest the question of “why was this race or that planet never mentioned?” crop up.

It’s a great opportunity to reintroduce some of Star Trek’s classic races, including some we haven’t really seen in any detail since the era of The Original Series. We’ve already seen that the Andorians will feature in Discovery’s third season, so how about bringing back races like the Tellaraties or Catians? The Xindi and Suliban featured prominently in Enterprise but haven’t been seen since, so either of those could make a welcome return. Enterprise saw the brief return of the Tholians and Gorn, both of whom debuted in The Original Series but haven’t been explored in any detail, so those are both possibilities too. And there are races like the Tzenkethi who have only ever been mentioned and never actually seen on screen.

Strange New Worlds could tie itself into the franchise by depicting first contact between the Federation and, for example, the Bajorans or Cardassians. Seeing those races long before the events of Deep Space Nine would be fascinating, and it would be interesting to see how well or how badly first contact went with a familiar race! We could even seen the Bajorans before the Cardassian occupation devastated and fundamentally changed their society.

Number 3: Save the Prime Timeline version of Capt. Lorca!

Capt. Lorca as seen in *Star Trek: Discovery’*s first season.

Jason Isaacs’ portrayal of Capt. Lorca was one of the high points of Discovery’s first season for me, and even though he went off the rails at the end becoming a caricature and a pantomime villain instead of the complex character we’d come to know, the performance was great throughout. The Prime Timeline version of Capt. Lorca was assumed to have been killed in the Mirror Universe, but that was never seen on screen and is unconfirmed at best. A mission to the Mirror Universe to rescue Lorca would not only allow Jason Isaacs to reprise his role, but could potentially set the stage for him to become a recurring character – either in Strange New Worlds, the Section 31 show, or both.

I don’t know exactly how that could work, and I think it’s a story that they might have to find a way for Spock to stay out of given his first encounter with the Mirror Universe was shown in The Original Series. But it could be made to work, and it would allow the return of a great actor and a genuinely interesting character. What made Lorca such an fascinating captain is that he was a hardball, someone for whom the ends justified the means. And given how the Mirror Universe version was able to blend in so well, it seems the Prime Timeline version can’t be too far removed from that. Knowing what we know about Lorca, he could have survived in the Mirror Universe, and if Capt. Pike were to learn he was trapped there, the Enterprise could launch a rescue mission.

Number 4: Recast a couple of classic characters from The Cage or even The Original Series.

Dr Boyce, who was the Enterprise’s doctor in *The Cage*, is a prime candidate to appear in *Strange New Worlds*.

Any television show wants to stand on its own, and a big part of that is having new and unique characters. Strange New Worlds already has three of its main roles taken up by recast versions of classic characters, so I would imagine that the show’s creators don’t want too many others. However, even if they were only guest stars or recurring characters, I think it could be interesting to bring back some familiar names. The characters from The Cage – including Number One, really – are practically blank slates, ripe for the new show’s writers and producers to do anything with as they’re characters we only saw once. Spock is obviously much more constrained, and so is Pike. But we could see a return of characters like Dr Boyce, Yeoman Colt, and José Tyler, all of whom were present in The Cage. There’s scope for those characters to be explored and fleshed out; their one-off roles turned into something much bigger in the new series.

We could also see classic characters like Scotty or Dr McCoy introduced – though I’d encourage the team behind Strange New Worlds to tread carefully here. Even meeting a young Ensign Kirk could make for an interesting episode – we’ve never actually seen how Kirk and Spock met in the Prime Timeline, after all.

There’s nothing wrong with introducing classic characters if it’s done in a respectful way and in a way that is organic and natural in the unfolding story of the series. Ham-fistedly dumping a character in just for fan-service is never a good idea, but if it can be made to work it would be a great little throwback for fans of The Original Series.

Number 5: Become a genuine ensemble series.

*The Next Generation* was led by Sir Patrick Stewart as Picard, but other characters got a look-in too.

Discovery and Picard are both quite different from past iterations of Star Trek insofar as they’re both shows that have a very clear main protagonist, with other members of the cast being less important to the overall narrative. While various members of the crews got sub-plots – Raffi got to visit her estranged son in Picard, and Tilly helped a race from the Mycelial Network in Discovery, to give two examples – for the most part the shows followed Picard and Burnham’s stories. For a number of reasons, this worked far better in Picard than it did in Discovery, and therein lies a problem. Burnham has, at least for me, never fully landed as a protagonist I’m rooting for. She can be interesting and engaging, but she can also be aloof to the point that her motivations aren’t really clear or understandable. In short, in a series that so closely follows one character, if that character isn’t as sympathetic and enjoyable as they should be, it detracts from the story.

Past Star Trek shows had episodes that involved the whole crew – stories where no single crew member could do everything and solve every puzzle, with different officers bringing different perspectives and skillsets to the table to tackle what lay in front of them. Call to Arms, the finale of Deep Space Nine’s fifth season, is a great example. Practically the whole main cast, as well as several recurring characters, all have different things to do which all come together to provide a thrilling story.

On the flip side, another format past Star Trek shows used very well were one-off stories in which a single crew member got a turn in the hot seat as that episode’s focus. Interface, from the seventh season of The Next Generation, Barge of the Dead from Voyager’s sixth season, and Distant Voices from the third season of Deep Space Nine are all good examples of how this concept can be made to work. In all three cases, the main cast all had things to do in a story that primarily focused on one character.

None of this necessarily means that Strange New Worlds should be a wholly episodic series – I kind of feel like that ship has sailed in terms of television storytelling in 2020 – but if the show could broaden the number of characters allowed to play major roles in its story, I think that would be to its overall benefit.

Number 6: Don’t use another “the galaxy is about to be destroyed” narrative.

The “Mass Effect Reapers” from *Star Trek: Picard*.

Discovery’s Klingon War and Red Angel story arcs, as well as Picard’s Zhat Vash/synth story all set up potential galaxy-ending threats that would wipe out humanity, the Federation, and life as we know it. While that can be an exciting and engaging premise, not every story has to rely on the threat of armageddon to be interesting.

Some stories, particularly those about exploration, don’t necessarily need an overarching evil villain with an evil scheme planning to doom everybody. With Discovery’s third season looking almost certain to use this kind of story again, it would be nice if Strange New Worlds could just do something different. Not every story has to be about a plucky Starfleet crew saving the Federation and the galaxy – there’s room for completely different adventures that are just as interesting and engaging.

Star Trek shows of the past used this kind of storyline sparingly, and when villains arose they were more likely to be a threat to the ship and crew rather than the whole Federation. Reusing this trope too often can make it less impactful, so it would be great if Strange New Worlds could take a break from threats to the whole galaxy. If there has to be a villain at all, make them something different both in scale and motivation.

Number 7: Show the reality of day-to-day life aboard a starship.

Deck 15 of the USS Voyager contained, among other things, a plasma relay room.

One of the reasons I’m so interested to see what Lower Decks brings to the table is that it will focus less on the command crew of the starship – the people on the bridge taking the big decisions – and will show off some of the “minor” officers who live and work aboard the ship. There’s scope within that show to see what an average day looks like when living and working aboard a Starfleet vessel, and I think that potential exists for Strange New Worlds too.

Not every episode has to be about something big happening to the ship and crew. We have the potential for quieter, character-driven stories as the Enterprise warps between planets, and these kind of stories can be dramatic and interesting just as much as a space battle with the Klingons or an away mission to an uncharted world.

Seeing how the crew live and work together, particularly in those moments where there isn’t some major time-sensitive mission or task to perform, could be really interesting, as well as being something different that we haven’t seen a great deal of in live-action Star Trek.

Number 8: Set up a few recurring characters in addition to the main cast.

Gul Dukat and Weyoun were both recurring characters in *Deep Space Nine*.

Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek show to have a secondary cast of recurring characters who impacted the show in a big way. There had been a couple in The Next Generation, like Reg Barclay and of course Chief O’Brien, but Deep Space Nine had far more of these characters and had them show up far more often. It worked incredibly well in that show, and characters like Rom, Garak, Nog, Martok, Dukat, Weyoun, and many others became just as much a part of the series as its main cast.

On a starship there are more people than just the handful of bridge officers and department heads. While we can’t possibly expect to see all 400+ of the Enterprise’s crew, we could get to know secondary characters like, for example: someone who works in maintenance, a weapons officer or security guard, a civilian scientist or diplomat, a chef, barkeep, or other recreation provider, an officer from a “minor” department like stellar cartography, etc. This kind of ties in with the point above, showing some of the day-to-day life aboard a starship.

Number 9: Engage in some real exploration.

Farpoint Station, the setting for *The Next Generation’*s premiere, was a strange new world!

Strange New Worlds is an interesting title for a series. It strongly implies that the show will be seeking out these worlds – in short, exploring the galaxy like we saw in The Original Series and The Next Generation. In the announcement video, the show was described as being a “classic Star Trek show”, and to me that further reinforces the notion that we will be seeing exploration make a return.

I mentioned above that we could see a return of classic races like the Gorn, Tholians, Cardassians, etc. and even see first contact between them and the Federation. That would be an interesting premise and would fit with the idea of exploring. But I think we do also need to see some new faces to allow Strange New Worlds to stand on its own. There’s a balance there, and it may be difficult to get right.

We should also see the ship visit a number of different planets, moons, and locations in space. It’s called Strange New Worlds, after all, not Strange New World! So we should definitely be seeing a series which visits a few different locations simply for the purpose of exploring and charting those places.

Number 10: Use varied filming locations and/or indoor sound stages.

One of the issues I had with Picard when it aired earlier this year was the lack of diversity in the show’s filming locations. Outdoor on-location shoots have been common in television for decades at this point, and that’s not a problem in and of itself. However, Picard tried to depict a few different locations on Earth, including France and Japan, as well as four planets (Coppelius, Vashti, Nepenthe, and Aia) using locations which were all within a few miles of its Los Angeles base. And that was painfully apparent as the season dragged on, detracting from the aesthetic of the show. During my series of articles reviewing the first season of Picard this was something I commented on, and I said then that if travelling to different places for shoots was prohibitively expensive, indoor sound stages could have been employed to make some of these locations look genuinely different.

A lot can be done with indoor sound stages in 2020 that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago, and with digital effects as well there’s potential to make each visited location look genuinely different. If there’s a choice between seeing four locations that look the same because of where they were filmed or having to use smaller-scale shots because a sound stage is being used, I’ll always prefer the latter if it means we can see some genuinely different scenery.

If Strange New Worlds is to be the kind of exploration show that its name implies, visiting fifteen planets that all look the same wouldn’t be good, so finding different filming locations and using indoor sound stages where necessary is going to be important.

While it’s unconfirmed at this stage, every Star Trek production aside from Picard is currently being filmed in Toronto not California, and while that will be to the show’s overall benefit, if it retreads too much ground the same issue will arise. In the cut-down seasons that current Star Trek shows use, filming locations are even more apparent than they had been in the past. In The Next Generation, for example, there might only be a handful of episodes in a 26-episode season that saw any outdoor filming. In Picard, with only ten episodes and multiple outdoor shoots, the fact that these locations were all in California was far more obvious.

Number 11: Have a DOT-type robot.

Dot, a DOT-7 robot seen in the *Short Treks* episode *Ephraim and Dot*.

Ephraim and Dot was one of two animated episodes of Short Treks released in December last year, and it was an absolutely adorable story. One thing that the episode established is that ships like the Enterprise had a handful of robots aboard to perform certain tasks that humans couldn’t, like working inside the warp core or out on the ship’s hull. These DOT or DOT-7 robots are closer to something like R2-D2 or BB8 from the Star Wars franchise than anything we’d really seen in Star Trek before, but I think there’s scope to bring a DOT-7 into Strange New Worlds as a part of the Enterprise’s “crew”.

It doesn’t mean that such a robot would need to feature heavily in the story – or even in any episode – but seeing a DOT-7 or a handful of them in the background a few times, perhaps performing some repair work or doing something in engineering, would be a cute little nod to Short Treks.

Number 12: Try to respect the overall canon of the franchise.

Seven of Nine’s backstory, including the introduction of her parents, complicated the history of Federation-Borg contact.

This doesn’t mean that every tiny little detail needs to be perfect. Most fans will allow any new Star Trek project some leeway in changing minor things. The redesign of the Enterprise is one area where I feel they made a positive change, updating the aesthetic of the show without really “damaging” canon. All that’s required to get around the different aesthetic – if you feel that’s necessary – is to say the Enterprise had a refit between Pike’s command and Kirk’s.

But when it comes to bigger things, like introducing races and factions that had no contact with the Federation prior to The Original Series or The Next Generation, the show does have to be respectful. We shouldn’t see, for example, the Dominion or the Borg brought in, as the history of contact between the Federation and those factions has already been established. In the latter case, Enterprise and Voyager both made the history of Borg-Federation contact quite convoluted and complicated, and trying to insert them into Strange New Worlds would be too much of a stretch, at least in my opinion.

There is scope within canon for a lot of interesting things to happen. We could see, for example, Pike’s Enterprise transported somehow to the Delta Quadrant – provided they make their way home again – as doing so would not really disrupt anything established in Voyager. As long as care was taken with such a story, canon can be flexible, and Akiva Goldsman, who is one of the show’s executive producers, did a great job on Picard keeping the established canon of the franchise intact, so that’s a positive in my book.

So that’s it. A few ideas for Strange New Worlds. At this stage we have very little actual information about the show itself, and with production being suspended across the television industry, it may be a while before it even begins filming. As I mentioned at the beginning, I doubt we’ll see the show before 2022 with everything else going on in the world.

These were just a few of my ideas for what I’d like to see from Strange New Worlds, and should be taken as just that – fan ideas. I don’t have any kind of “insider information”, and there’s really nothing to suggest Strange New Worlds will use any of the ideas and concepts on this list. Whatever happens, however, I’m really interested and excited to see what the show will have to offer.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be released on CBS All Access in the United States at an unknown future date. International distribution rights have 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.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been officially announced!

Sat 16.05.20Sun 20.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery.

Last night, while waiting for my dinner to finish cooking (alright, reheating) I found myself scrolling through Instagram. I don’t follow a lot of accounts – aside from a handful of friends and colleagues, I follow a couple of sports teams and the official Star Trek page, and that’s about it. Tucked in amongst the cat pictures and social-distancing was a post from Star Trek. It was a video, and normally I skip past those. But the soundless preview showed Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn, so it piqued my interest enough to unmute the video and watch it in full. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re only making the Captain Pike show that everyone’s been asking for since Season 2 of Discovery aired last year!

In case you missed it, the announcement video is available on Star Trek’s official website, as well as YouTube. You can watch it below:

The series promises to be, in the words of Anson Mount, a “classic Star Trek show that deals with optimism and the future.” It’s far too early to know exactly what they have in store for Strange New Worlds, but I think we can make a handful of reasonable assumptions.

A “classic” Star Trek show. That’s a very specific way to explain it, and to me what I think it means is that we’re going to see a show with less of a focus on one main character, as Discovery and Picard have been. Past Star Trek series have been ensemble affairs, with other members of the crew besides one primary character being given storylines all their own, and while there were sub-plots in Discovery and Picard, those shows largely followed the story of their designated main protagonists. What I don’t think “classic” infers, at least at this early stage, is that we’ll see a return to wholly episodic television, with a “monster-of-the-week”, in which each episode forms a fully standalone story. Television storytelling has largely left that format behind, so what I think Strange New Worlds will offer will have at least elements of serialisation, including season-long arcs for its main characters.

Speaking of characters, we know of only three right now: Anson Mount’s Capt. Pike, Ethan Peck’s Spock, and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One/Una. All three reprise their roles from Season 2 of Discovery, where I think a lot of fans would agree that they were that season’s breakout characters. Before Discovery’s second season aired, ViacomCBS announced that there would be a spin-off: the still-untitled Section 31 show, starring Michelle Yeoh and (presumably, given where his character wound up at the end of the season) Shazad Latif. That announcement wasn’t the home run that it was meant to be, but it did indicate that the franchise was here to stay. However, when Pike, Spock, and Number One proved to be so popular with fans as the season rolled out, there was a sense that perhaps ViacomCBS jumped the gun and announced the spin-off too early; given the reaction fans had to the season, the obvious choice for a spin-off was one centred around Pike. So for over a year, in almost every interview and at every face-to-face meeting with Trekkies, Alex Kurtzman, Anson Mount, and others involved had been asked the question: “can we please have a Capt. Pike series?”

It took a while, but as Ethan Peck said in the official announcement video: “you asked, we listened!”

It’s definitely interesting to me that Strange New Worlds has a title and has had this announcement with much fanfare, but the Section 31 show remains without a title and with very little official information having come out about it. Hopefully this will be rectified in due course, because a show looking at the shadowy organisation has the potential to be very interesting too, and I am looking forward to it. I wonder if Strange New Worlds will be released first, especially with the disruption to Section 31’s shooting schedule that the coronavirus pandemic has caused. Both shows, I believe, have at least one set already built. In Section 31’s case, the ship used by Capt. Leland in Discovery’s second season was brand new and given that the spin-off had already been announced at that point, it seemed obvious that they were planning to use that set in some form for the new show. The Enterprise’s bridge had also been built for Discovery, and I don’t think that it was just a reworking of existing sets so perhaps that can be reused too. We’ll have to wait and see!

The bridge of the USS Enterprise as seen in the *Short Treks* episode *Q&A*.

I love the title – Strange New Worlds. Obviously this is taken from the famous phrase spoken by Captains Kirk and Picard at the beginning of their shows, and it encapsulates what Star Trek has always sought to do – to find these worlds, to explore the unknown, and to meet whoever is out there. This show sounds like it will be one in which exploration makes a return. Discovery has definitely had elements of exploration, bringing in new races like the Pahvans and the Kelpiens, and visiting their homeworlds. But it has largely been a show that followed its main storylines – war with the Klingons, escaping the Mirror Universe, and of course unravelling the mystery of the Red Angel. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to explore the galaxy for Burnham and the crew with all that to accomplish! Picard, of course, didn’t see La Sirena’s crew engage in any exploration, really. They did eventually travel to Coppelius and meet the synths, but those synths were human-built, so I don’t think we can really consider that to be a significant “first contact”! In short, it will be absolutely wonderful to get a Star Trek show where exploration is a key story element.

We’re still missing a lot of key information at this stage, information which I’m sure will come out over time. With the lockdown keeping production across the industry stalled right now, perhaps a 2021 release is a tad optimistic, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn Strange New Worlds is slated for a 2022 launch. One season has been ordered – and yes, it will be a show with multiple episodes and not a one-off television movie. While we don’t know how many episodes that will entail, recent Star Trek productions have offered 10-15 episodes per season. I’d guess they’re aiming for 12, like Discovery was, but perhaps with the potential to add an extra one or two if necessary – as Discovery did in both of its seasons.

There is perhaps the potential for crossover characters from Discovery’s first two seasons, provided those characters didn’t travel into the far future at the end of Season 2. Aside from obvious ones like Ash Tyler and Georgiou, we could perhaps see a return of Harry Mudd, Sarek, Tilly’s Xahean friend Po, Klingon Chancellor L’Rell, or Saru’s sister Siranna. We could even see the Prime Universe version of Capt. Lorca… somehow!

There will also be several spots for main characters, and if we’re thinking about “classic” Starfleet roles, there will need to be a chief engineer, helm officer, communications officer, doctor, and perhaps a tactical/security officer too. Some of those roles existed in The Cage – Star Trek’s original pilot which introduced Pike, Spock, and Number One. Perhaps those same roles could be recast, bringing us a return of Dr Boyce, José Tyler, or Yeoman Colt. I’d wager that there will be unique and original characters joining the crew too, of course.

Dr Boyce was the Enterprise’s doctor in *The Cage*… could he return for *Strange New Worlds*?

The team behind Star Trek’s recent successes, including overall head of Star Trek Alex Kurtzman, will be involved in Strange New Worlds. Akiva Goldsman, who wrote and directed the two-part finale to Picard, as well as serving as that show’s executive producer, will taken on a similar role for Strange New Worlds – and has already written the show’s premiere. Given how great Picard was overall, that’s something genuinely encouraging (even if the show’s first-season finale wasn’t exactly the best part!) And Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry, will also be involved behind the scenes, as he has been for Discovery and Picard.

There’s not a lot more to say at this very early stage, except how pleased and excited I am for this announcement. I keep saying it, but it really is a great time to be a Star Trek fan at the moment, with so much new content on the horizon. This series joins Picard’s second season as being what I’m most excited for, and I hope you’ll stay tuned here because as and when we get more news about Strange New Worlds – and other Star Trek projects – I’ll be sure to write about it.

Hit it!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will stream on CBS All Access in the United States. International distribution rights have 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.