Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

I have been watching a lot of Star Trek recently. Thanks to Strange New Worlds, I am more invested in the series than I ever was before. 

Strange New Worlds, or SNW, is one of three live action shows that have started since 2017 in the Star Trek universe, with Picard and Discovery being the other two. I am also a huge fan of the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and I will explain why that is related later on.

SNW is a spin-off of both Discovery and the first pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) which featured Captain Christopher Pike at the helm instead of the now iconic Captain James Kirk. It features a look at the U.S.S Enterprise before it had the iconic crew it featured on the original show and provides a renewed look at the story of Captain Pike and the events leading up to his accident outside of the two-part episode in TOS.

What has been most incredible to see is the way they have presented the episodic format compared to it’s predecessor Discovery. Discovery has a storyline which follows Michael Burnham and the start of the war with the Klingon. It relies on watching from start to finish, a formula which SNW seems to avoid with the way it contains story lines to a single episode. There is, naturally, some minor story lines that are carried over from each episode creating a world you feel invested in.

They also bring a variety of unique characters to pair alongside the likes of Mr. Spock and Uhura. There are more aliens on-board the Enterprise too, with a variety of species collaborating to make the starship run. 

My favourite alien from the series has to be the way that SNW has re-imagined the Gorn. The Gorn were first shown in the episode “Arena” from TOS. They were a slow-moving reptilian species that attacked a human outpost and was pitted against Captain Kirk in a fight that has become parodied across media, including the show Family Guy and the movie Paul. The Gorn have gotten a rework though.

They are now a far more horrifying species than they were before, being a bogeyman for the space-faring members of Starfleet. They are faster and far more diabolical than earlier iterations, with a few similarities to the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. They use humans to host the young of the species, which then burst out of the body before growing at an exponential rate into the humanoid form they possess.

The use of the Gorn brought elements of horror into the series that I absolutely loved. Now, I should mention that SNW isn’t entirely as dark as what I just described. There are episodes that are on the much lighter side of things, with some of the escapades being truly hilarious.

One such episode is the crossover with the animated show Lower Decks, featuring the voice actors playing their characters in live action. It is a hysterical time on the Enterprise when the ensigns from the Cerritos show up. 

Another bright moment in the series is the episode that becomes a musical, the first episode of Star Trek to ever do so. There is something quite fascinating about watching these characters sing their hearts out about working on a spaceship. Without revealing too much, I will add that the Klingon do make an appearance, and it made me laugh so hard it hurt.

I am making my way through TOS after watching the first two seasons of SNW and plan to make my way through the rest of the Star Trek series as well.

Live Long and Prosper.