Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet (based on the work of Gene Roddenberry)
Starring Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn
Well, initial thoughts, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is certainly the Trekiest Trek to have ever trekked.
Okay, let’s put that gibberish into something closer to English and give the series some basic context. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds covers the adventures of an earlier captain of the USS Enterprise: Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). The character of Pike was originally introduced way back in the failed original pilot episode of Star Trek,”The Cage”, in 1966. Although initially rejected, the concept was retooled into the series we know today, with that original pilot being cannibalised for the two part first season episode “The Menagerie”.
Cut to 50+ years, numerous films, series, and even alternative timelines later, and Christopher Pike made an extended reappearance in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, which acted as a backdoor pilot to the further adventures of the Enterprise in this era. As such, it represents perhaps the longest period between pilot to series, ever (if we’re not counting the Iliad to Ulysses 31), hence a lot has changed during the interim, even compared to Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry’s Utopian liberal view of the future.
Star Trek: Strange New manages to stay fairly true to that initial vision, while filtering it through modern sensibilities. It updates the design, the history, and the characters, but manages to feel like a sympathetic restoration rather than the dramatic overhaul of early Discovery or the detailed recreation of Deep Space Nine‘s “Trials and Tribble-ations”. From Jeff Russo’s stirring opening theme, which draws heavily on Alexander Courage’s iconic work before launching into something unique, Strange New World is not afraid to show its roots, but it also tries not to be constrained by them.
Part of the way it manages to accomplish this is its shift to an episodic first season, rather than the more common new Trek reliance on the season arc. This gives it a lot of freedom to experiment in various different genres and tones, giving us a great grab bag of all that Trek has to offer. Sure, we get the dramatic battles, character conflict, alien exploration, and the social metaphor that are Star Trek staples, but we also get the comedy episode, the blockbuster rip-off, and the strange bottle episode. In not being beholden to a season-long mystery or a ticking clock of doom, Strange New Worlds is freed up to instead explore its character beats, giving them an arc to tie together the season.
Which is what it needs to do, with its mix of legacy characters and new creations. Some characters we’re encountering for the first time, some we’ve barely seen in any media only having a couple of appearances to draw from, while others are perhaps the most beloved characters in the franchise. Strange New Worlds manages to thread this needle with care, and although it doesn’t treat all the characters equally (Otegas especially feels underutilised), the exceptional cast quickly has audiences engaged and caring for characters, and their various professional and personal relationships. It also does an excellent job in expanding the roles of those legacy characters – Chapel becomes a character rather than a plot contrivance, Uhura gets a backstory, and we get to see Spock struggling to find balance in his mixed heritage.
Most importantly we get to have fun with the crew, see their day to day operations, the shipboard culture they create for themselves, and the way they operate. These character beats can often be lost in the sturm und drang of Discovery or Picard, but have time to breathe here. Be that restoring the flavour of gum through a medical transporter, or Ethan Peck’s spit-take when the subject turns towards sex, or Anson Mount obviously relishing breaking character type to be a sniveling backstabber, there’s just this sense of fun and adventure that has been a little overlooked by the live action Trek of late, but finds expression here.
Although far from perfect (such as the M’Benga story arc’s sudden conclusion) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds might represent one of the strongest first Star Trek seasons (bar perhaps Lower Decks and the Original Series). They may be boldly going where Desilu Productions has gone before, but they’re certainly doing it with new found style and confidence.
