Strange New Worlds is not a series aimed at Star Trek purists. Anyone expecting a traditional Trek series that is about, well, actually exploring strange new worlds, boldly going and all that had best search elsewhere (and of the modern series, may we direct your attention to the excellent animated Lower Decks and Prodigy, which are far more traditional Trek series than any of the recent live-action incarnations).
Strange New Worlds is more about having fun in the Star Trek universe, playing with bits of the show’s lore, using the format to try out different genres, and testing the boundaries of what Trek can be. Season Two (which aired way back in 2023) veered from traditional Trek episodes to comedy, horror, animation, war stories, and even a musical. Season Three continues this tradition, throwing in a dazzling array of genres episode by episode, with mixed results. In the first five episodes available for review, we’ve got comedy, horror, a murder mystery, an actual sci-fi story, and of course, the conclusion to Season Two’s cliffhanger, Hegemony.
Season opener Hegemony, Part II picks up immediately after part one, with the Enterprise vastly outgunned by the Gorn (who, lest we forget, no one in The Original Series – set after SNW – had ever heard of, despite several crewmembers being around during this episode) and the fate of several crewmembers up in the air. It’s a decent season opener, although fairly by-the-numbers as Pike (Anson Mount) attempts to both save his ship and prevent all-out war with the Gorn. If you liked part one, you’ll find a lot to enjoy here, despite the conclusion borrowing heavily from another classic Trek two-parter.
Being released simultaneously is Wedding Bell Blues. This would be one of those big tonal shift episodes where we go from the dark, action-packed opener to a light, fluffy comedy. Plotwise, we’re not going to go into spoilers, other than to say, yes, it centres round a wedding, and this is the episode that introduces Roger Korby (Original Series fans will know that name and its implications for a couple of characters), played by Cillian O’Sullivan, and the always enjoyable Rhys Darby as… well… that would be telling. Suffice to say that canon purists will be scratching their heads trying to explain how the events of this episode fit into what’s been established previously.
Canon problems aren’t its biggest issue though. It’s lightweight fluff, that doesn’t use its premise to say anything interesting, beyond a bit of development for a couple of characters. Korby is fun though, and O’Sullivan plays him a lot more likeable than anyone familiar with his previous appearance (in TOS’s What Are Little Girls Made Of?) may be expecting. Rhys Darby is, as always, excellent, even given the paper-thin material he has to work with.
After an action episode and a comedy, this being Strange New Worlds, obviously, the next logical step is a horror episode, with episode three, Shuttle To Kenfori. Again, no spoilers, but you’re a STARBURST reader: if there’s a planet called Kenfori, you can probably take an educated guess what’s there. Continuing a running theme for this season, it’s another episode with little to say about anything. Gene Roddenberry used to say Star Trek was about “the human condition” and used the sci-fi format to look at important issues of the day. Strange New Worlds is about as far removed from that as it’s possible to get. It’s the Seinfeld of Star Trek: a show about nothing and proud of it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not what everyone wants from their Trek, and nowhere is the lack of depth more evident than in this and the preceding episode. That said, it’s quite possibly the most violent Trek episode ever made, so there’s that.
If there’s one episode this season guaranteed to divide fans, it’s A Space Adventure Hour. It’s directed by Jonathan Frakes, who has described it as a Hollywood murder mystery and called it the best episode of television he’s ever made. Much as we hate to disagree with Will Riker, he’s wrong. It’s not even close to surpassing or even equalling many of the Next Generation episodes he directed. It is, however, easy to see why he’d think this way, as it must have been an absolute blast to film. The episode – particularly in an impassioned speech by Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) – attempts to make a serious point about, and pay tribute to, something, which would be fine if it hadn’t been completely undermined by a cliché-ridden parody of that same thing earlier in the episode. Still, Christina Chong, who takes the lead here (as La’an, fast becoming one of the show’s standout characters) is great, and along with everyone else – particularly Paul Wesley – is clearly having the time of her life.
The final episode made available to review, Through the Lens of Time, is the most traditionally Star Trek-y episode of the bunch. They visit a new alien planet (something that, despite the show’s title, they don’t seem to do very often – almost about as much as Discovery used to do any discovering), and weird sci-fi things happen. It picks up some plot threads from earlier in the season and seems to be setting up a big bad for the season (we have our theory, but we’re not telling!). For us, it’s the best of the season to date, but as with all things Strange New Worlds, that’s a title that’s likely to be contentious. We can see episodes two and four delighting and outraging fans in equal measure.
That’s the thing about Strange New Worlds. It’s a fun, if frustrating show. The constant switching of tone and genre means both that there’s something for everyone, and equally, a number of episodes that will turn fans off. If musicals are your thing, it’s entirely possible horror isn’t. If you like the serious episodes, the lightweight whimsical episodes may turn you off completely. If you’re a stickler for canon, you’re likely to regularly throw things at the screen, but if you just want a bit of fun in the Trek universe, you’ll have a blast. It’s not that Trek hasn’t varied tone and genre before, it’s just never done it this wildly. But that’s what Strange New Worlds wants to be: a fun, genre-hopping sci-fi show. And it does it well, even though its superficiality is sometimes frustrating to those of us wanting something with a bit more depth. The problem here is that – so far – Season Three isn’t doing it as well as previously. The action episodes feel fairly run of the mill, the comedy episodes aren’t very funny, the horror episodes aren’t scary, and so on.
The cast, however, is largely excellent. As mentioned earlier, Christina Chong’s La’an Noonien-Singh is fast becoming one of the more interesting characters, having lightened up considerably since her debut. As is Christine Chapel, with Jess Bush continuing to make the nurse a compelling character, although a world away from the ‘60s incarnation. Rebecca Romjin as Number One/Una gets a bit more to do this season, in one scene dressing down one of the crew in a manner we’re not used to seeing on the most informal ship in Starfleet. Fan favourite Ortegas (Melissa Navia) seems to have an interesting storyline developing, which hopefully will lead somewhere in the second half of the season. Considering her character’s been woefully underserved the first couple of seasons, this will hopefully placate her many fans.
If anything, it’s the male characters who are short-changed. Pike is as jovial as ever but lacking anything resembling command presence. He’s too chummy with his crew, more their best friend or father figure than their captain. Babs Olusanmokun continues to excel as Doctor M’Benga on the rare occasions he’s given anything to do. And Ethan Peck makes a decent Spock, although completely lacking the gravitas that Leonard Nimoy brought to the role and despite the writers still not having a grip on his character. New addition Martin Quinn as Scotty (now elevated to series regular) is a fun addition, thankfully veering closer to James Doohan’s version than Simon Pegg’s comic relief incarnation, and makes for a fun double act with the still-bonkers Carol Kane.
If you loved previous seasons, this is more of the same, with the wild mix of genres and tonal shifts that has become de rigueur for the show, although in this initial batch of episodes it’s done far less successfully than previous seasons. Hopefully the second half of the season will pick up in the same manner of Season Two, which went from an average first half to produce both the excellent Those Old Scientists and Subspace Rhapsody later on. If, however, you haven’t enjoyed previous seasons of Strange New Worlds, you’re going to find little here to convert you. The characters and storytelling continue to have little depth, the liberties taken with canon are frustrating, and there’s a superficiality to the whole thing that we doubt Gene Roddenberry would approve of. Yes, any long-running franchise needs to evolve to stay relevant, but there’s an argument that Strange New Worlds is a step in the wrong direction. Star Wars recently changed pace and gave us Andor: one of the best, timely, and relevant shows in any genre of recent years. And yet Trek, traditionally the more serious of the two franchises, has gone the opposite direction and is giving us a show with nothing to say. The two franchises have switched places, and it’s Trek’s loss.
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS SEASON THREE streams on Paramount Plus from July 17th.
