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Published Apr 19, 2023

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Reveals Season 2 Teaser Trailer and Poster

Leave your world behind.

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Paramount+ today revealed the official teaser trailer for the highly anticipated second season of its hit original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

New Season 2 teaser art featuring the U.S.S. Enterprise was also released.

Season two will premiere Thursday, June 15 on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with premiere dates to be announced at a later date. Following the premiere, new episodes of the 10-episode season will drop weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise . The series features fan favorites Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One , Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock , Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel , Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura , Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga .

Season two also features the return of special guest star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and new addition Carol Kane in a recurring role as Pelia . The series follows Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk guided the U.S.S. Enterprise , as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.

The new season includes the previously announced special crossover episode featuring both live-action and animation, and Star Trek: Lower Decks ’ Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler joining the U.S.S. Enterprise . The episode was directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard actor and director Jonathan Frakes.

Paramount+ previously debuted a first look clip from the upcoming season during the Star Trek Day 2022 celebration.

First Look | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 2

Season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers serve as co-showrunners. Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Jenny Lumet, Alonso Myers, Aaron Baiers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.

• Akiva Goldsman
• Alex Kurtzman
• Jenny Lumet
• Anson Mount
• Christina Chong
• 1K User reviews
• 38 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 30 nominations total

Episodes 30

• Captain Christopher Pike …

• La'an Noonien-Singh …

• Lt. Erica Ortegas …

• Una Chin-Riley …

• Nurse Christine Chapel

• Nyota Uhura …

• Dr. M'Benga

• USS Enterprise Computer …

• Lieutenant George Samuel 'Sam' Kirk
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• Trivia Bruce Horak , the actor who plays Hemmer, is legally blind, just like his character's species, the Aenar, who are also blind.
• Goofs There are some rank insignia mistakes. Number One is introduced as "Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley" yet she is wearing the rank insignia of a full commander: two full stripes. A Lieutenant Commander's rank insignia is a full stripe under a thin stripe (in TOS it is a full stripe and a staggered stripe). It is not uncommon for a ship's first officer to be a Lt. Commander if they have not been in the position long. Spock at this point is a Lieutenant but he is wearing Lieutenant Commander's stripes; a Lieutenant just has one stripe. La'an is the ship's chief of security and the ship's second officer. She is also wearing Lt. Commander stripes but is addressed as a Lieutenant, but it would make more sense for her to be a Lieutenant Commander. Either way both of their rank insignia are not matching the rank they are addressed by. Ortegas is addressed as a Lieutenant but is wearing Lieutenant Commander's strips. A Lieutenant Commander may be addressed as a Commander or Lieutenant Commander but never as just a Lieutenant, so either her rank insignia or the manner she is addressed by the rest of the crew is in error.

[opening narration]

Captain Christopher Pike : Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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• Aug 10, 2023

Technical specs

• Runtime 52 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2: New Trailer, Release Date, Crossovers, and More

The new trailer promises more action and comedy

Season 2 of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  is just over the horizon, so you have a few weeks to finish your Season 1 rewatch. To get you even more jazzed for further adventures on the Enterprise , Paramount+ just released the first full trailer for Season 2, featuring some surprising kisses between crew members, a first look at the Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover episode, and plenty of inspiring chatter about the thrill of space exploration.

The series follows Captain Kirk's predecessor, Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), as he takes the Enterprise on missions around the galaxy for Starfleet, and each episode tells a standalone story from a variety of genres. There's also continuity with Star Trek: The Original Series , as it's a firm prequel that features familiar characters like Spock (Ethan Peck), Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and more. 

Thankfully, the sci-fi series was renewed for Season 2 before the first season even aired, but that just leaves us with questions about what's to come. When will Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 be released? Which cast members will be returning? We'll answer as many of those questions as we can and update this story as new information is announced.

Anson Mount and Ethan Peck, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds latest news

On May 24, the first full trailer for Season 2 was released, showing off the first looks at the upcoming crossover episode with Star Trek sibling series Lower Decks . Yes, you really want to see Boimler interact with Spock. Check out the trailer below in the Trailer section.  

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 release date

Star Trek: New Worlds Season 2 will premiere this summer on Thursday, June 15. The 10-episode season will air new episodes on Thursdays. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 trailer

On May 24, Paramount released the first full trailer for Season 2, and it features more action, a few lip locks between crew members ('shipping on the ship!), and a first look at the anticipated Star Trek: Lower Decks crossover, with flesh-and-blood versions of Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid). 

Previously, on April 19, Paramount+ released the first Season 2 teaser trailer, and it got us even more excited for the show's return than we had been. Perhaps it's seeing our old friends in action, perhaps it's the Postal Service score, perhaps it's both. Take a look:

As promised, we'll be seeing more of Captain James T. Kirk ( Paul Wesley ) in Season 2, and it looks like he'll be boldly sending La'an's heart where it's never gone before... if he can manage to navigate terrestrial revolving doors. And while trailers are notoriously packed with eye-catching moments, the effects are looking positively dazzling this season as the Enterprise navigates the depths of space. And while Captain Pike doesn't get a lot of time in the trailer, Spock certainly does, hobnobbing with Klingons and getting time in the Captain's chair. 

Paramount+ also unveiled some beautiful key art for the season:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star trek: strange new worlds season 2 videos.

On Star Trek Day, Sept. 8, Paramount+ revealed the first look at Season 2 with a clip featuring Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), who is usually stuck on the ship as a pilot, psyched to be joining the landing party on a mission. Let's just say it doesn't go as she planned.

In July, a video was released featuring Wesley Crusher himself, Wil Wheaton , giving a tour of the new set with production designer Jonathan Lee, who shows off the Port Galley, a lounge on the Enterprise where crew members can have quiet conversations and get sloshed.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  Season 2 cast

You can expect most of the main cast to return for Season 2. That includes the obvious: Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, Ceila Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, and Jess Bush. But barring a flashback or some sort of miraculous resurrection, we've likely seen the last of Bruce Horak's Hemmer, who tragically died in the penultimate episode of Season 1, breaking our hearts in the process.

Paul Wesley will return as Captain James Kirk in Season 2 — that's what he was originally cast for; the appearance in the Season 1 finale was just a nice bonus surprise — but we're not yet sure in what capacity. And as far as new cast members go, expect a new engineer to replace Hemmer, and welcome comedy legend Carol Kane ( Taxi ), who has been tapped to play the recurring character of Pelia, an engineer who "suffers no fools," according to Paramount+'s press release, and "solves problems calmly and brusquely." Based on her recurring status, we don't think she's the new regular engineer character. 

Carol Kane, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  main cast:

• Anson Mount as Christopher Pike
• Ethan Peck as Spock
• Jess Bush as Christine Chapel
• Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh
• Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura
• Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas
• Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga
• Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley / Number One
• Carol Kane as Pelia
• Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  crossover with Lower Decks

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is doing a crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks . Yep, you read that right. Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler from  Lower Decks , the animated Star Trek comedy on Paramount+, will board The Enterprise , but as flesh-and-blood characters played by Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid, who are the voice actors for Mariner and Boimler on Lower Decks . The episode will be directed by frequent Star Trek director Jonathan Frakes.  

In April, Frakes spoke about the episode with TrekMovie's podcast All Access Star Trek  and confirmed that the majority of the episode will be live-action, but it will begin as an animated episode like Lower Decks . 

"It is a flat-out comic [episode]," Frakes said. "It's fabulous. It's a fish out of water. Fortunately, both Quaid and Tawny look like their characters. So it's so absurd to see them in three dimensions and their interrelations… Boimler is obsessed with Spock, and terrified of Number One. There is so much good stuff. And Mariner comes to save the day. It's very, very funny. I'm very proud of it. And I can't wait for people to see it." 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  Season 3 is already in production

According to co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Season 3 is already filming. Joblo reports that Goldsman, speaking at an event at MIT in March, said, "Today or tomorrow we're announcing the airdate of the second season, which we filmed like 17 years ago… and you'll be really surprised because we just went all over the place," he said. "And we've just starting filming the third season now." If you'll recall, Season 2 began filming before Season 1 aired, so this is consistent with how the series has been produced. When Paramount+ announced the Season 2 premiere date, it also renewed the series for a third season.

Where can I watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a Paramount+ exclusive, so the only way to watch it is to have a Paramount+ subscription. Season 1 is now streaming.

'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2: Release Date, Trailers, Crossover, and What to Expect

Star Trek's flashiest crew flies into the galaxy with all phasers blazing in Season 2.

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When and where is star trek: strange new worlds season 2 coming out, watch the star trek: strange new worlds season 2 trailers, who are the cast and characters of star trek: strange new worlds season 2, what do we know about star trek: strange new worlds season 2’s story (and the crossover episode), what is the future of star trek: strange new world, who are the creators of star trek: strange new worlds.

The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was a masterpiece combining nostalgic elements of Star Trek: The Original Series and modern techniques that was a pleasant surprise for fans of all ages. It had an excellent reception from both critics and audiences, mostly because of its amazing cast, and in many ways, it's a return to what fans loved about much of the original series. Season 2 is coming out fairly soon, and we can hope that it will keep up the excellent quality from the first season. It is another chance for us to see what the Enterprise is up to before Kirk and another excellent saga in the Federation's bid to explore the galaxy. Now without further ado, let's get into everything we know so far about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2.

Editor's Note: This article was last updated on June 4.

Related: 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 2 Character Posters Show the USS Enterprise Crew Ready For Intergalactic Adventures

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 will be hitting screens on June 15, 2023 . As of right now, Season 2 has already finished production, and small bits of information have been leaking out to the public via formal and informal channels. As with the rest of the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 will be released on Paramount+. The first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was on a Thursday release cycle, running from May 10, 2022, to July 7, 2022, and is available for free on Paramount's YouTube Channel .

Watch on Paramount+

Ahead of the official trailer, we got to see two sneak peeks for the season. The first of these sneak peeks features Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (played by Melissa Navia ) on her way to an away mission. It seems the tempo of the crew has hardly changed even though Number One Una Chin-Riley (played by Rebecca Romijn ) is no longer with the crew. We also have some more pithy wordplay with Spock as he continues to grow his ability to interact more naturally with others.

The second sneak peek is more of a behind-the-scenes look. In the previous series, such as Star Trek: The Next Generation , we often see casual places for the crew to relax around the ships. The showrunners thought the mess hall that we saw in the first season was too sparse and have introduced a new area for the ship. The video features Will Wheaton , formerly TNG's Wesley Crusher, and the production designer Jonathan Lee showing off the impressive new set piece. It looks somewhat familiar to Ten Forward and has that modernized 1960s look. This new set is supposed to feature a lot more intimate conversations between characters and includes a ton of easter eggs. One that was immediately picked up by Will Wheaton was the Saurian Brandy from Star Trek: Picard . We see Guinan and Picard drinking it from a similar bottle in Picard Season 2 Episode 1 "The Star Grazer".

The first trailer for Strange New Worlds Season 2 was released on April 19, 2023. The roughly two-minute trailer serves as a teaser for the events to come. Check it out here:

More recently, we got the official trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 on May 24. The new trailer showcases a lot more of the action to come, and gives us our first proper look at the series' upcoming crossover with a certain other Star Trek show. See the trailer in the player below and stay tuned for more:

We received a clip from the upcoming season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . In this clip of Episode 2, Una stands on trial. It's a very entertaining albeit brief video.

Most of the cast from the previous season is returning, which is to be expected given the state the show was left in. Given the events of the last season, the Enterprise will be in need of a new head engineer. The newcomer to the enterprise will be played by the iconic Carol Kane . Kane is well known for roles in the TV series Taxi and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as well as various film roles, usually playing a more comedic motherly character. It seems that this time around she will be a no-nonsense engineer, but perhaps we will see some of that comedic side as well.

The full list of main cast members in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 includes Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Joseph M'Benga, Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley / Number One, and Carol Kane as Pelia, among others.

Related: 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Should Boldly Go in Its Own Direction

One of the major storylines that we can expect to see is what exactly happened to Number One. One of the highlights of the first season was finding out that she was genetically engineered (one of the recurring issues in Star Trek with characters such as Deep Space Nine ’s Dr. Bashier) and that she has been taken away from her position on the Enterprise. Captain Pike and the rest of the crew definitely support her, but with her position unfilled, someone will have to step in to fill her shoes in the interim.

We also have a first occurrence in the Star Trek Universe, a combined crossover episode with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks . Tawny Newsome (who plays Ensign Beckett Mariner in the animated show) and Jack Quaid (who stars alongside Newsome as Ensign Brad Boimler) will be making their live-action debut during the new season of Strange New Worlds . Given that Mariner and Boimler both originate from a timeline much closer to that of Star Trek: The Next Generation , we are certainly left with more than just a few questions. So far, we know that the series will have combined animated and live-action scenes. That episode will be directed by Star Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes .

With characters such as Paul Wesley ’s Captain Kirk appearing in Season 2 , there is certainly a lot of potential for a Season 3. And clearly, Paramount+ has taken note, as it has been confirmed that Strange New Worlds will be getting a Season 3 . The show has plenty of storylines left to explore and has proven to be among the more successful shows in the franchise, so this hardly comes as a surprise. From the tension between Spock and Nurse Chapel to Uhura’s hesitation to continue in Starfleet, not to mention La'an’s murky past, there is plenty left to unpack on this amazing show.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was created by Akiva Goldsman , Alex Kurtzman , and Jenny Lumet . Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman are the showrunners for the season. Season 2's directors include Chris Fisher , Amanda Row , Eduardo Sánchez , Dan Liu , Jonathan Frakes, and Valerie Weiss . The episodes were written by Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman, Dana Horgan , David Reed , Kirsten Beyer , Davy Perez , Kathryn Lyn , and Onitra Johnson . The score for Season 2 was composed by Season 1 and Star Trek: Prodigy composer Nami Melumad . Executive producers on the show include Eugene Roddenberry , Trevor Roth , Jenny Lumet, Frank Siracusa , John Weber , Aaron Baiers , Heather Kadin , Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman, and Alex Kurtzman.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode Titles & Details

With less than a week until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck join Wil Wheaton to sit down, talk about what this season holds, and offer a new sneak peek of what we can expect!

We also have the first three episode titles and synopsis for the second season of Strange New Worlds ! As previously stated, season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will consist of 10 episodes. What should we expect to see from the first 3 episodes of this returning fan-favorite series?

Beware of Spoilers ahead! You have been warned!

Behind the Scenes Look!

We didn’t get too much new from what we can expect from season two, but we did get some behind-the-scenes images of an episode behind the scenes! We got a good look at some new alien species on a planet with La’an Noonien-Singh undercover. There is also a Bolian and a Vulcan on this planet which is very interesting. La’an left the Enterprise near the end of season one, so this is probably an early episode where we meet back up with La’an.

From both synopses and interviews, we know that Episode Two is the courtroom scene of Una’s trial. La’an is back on the Enterprise at this point, so having episode one going to reunite with La’an would make sense.

Klingon Space?

The outfit that La’an wears looks to be the same outfit that Phillipa Georgiou wore when she was undercover on Qo’Nos in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery ! Could this be just a simple reuse of an outfit they have, or could it say about the episode? As Georgiou was undercover as a Klingon, could La’an be doing the same? Blending in undercover on this planet.

The synopsis for episode one refers to this as “disputed space” so could this be a planet on the Klingon-Federation Border? A disputed area of space after the Klingon-Federation war in Star Trek: Discovery Season One? We have also heard we will be looking at Ortegas’ backstory as a soldier, so we could be seeing more consequences from that war in Strange New World’s Second Season!

Three Episode Synopses

Episode synopses and titles are now available for the first three episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Two.

The Broken Circle

A distress call from Lt Noonien-Singh compels Spock to disobey orders and take the USS Enterprise and its crew into disputed space. Episode 201 Synopsis

With the description saying that Spock is in command of the U.S.S. Enterprise, we can presume this might be the episode from the teaser trailer where he says “I want the ship to go. Now!”. What are the orders he is disobeying? With La’an sending this distress call, this looks to be the episode with the scenes shown in the preview.

It is also interesting what disputed space this could be that Spock takes the Enterprise into. From the preview images, it looks like a whole host of species live in this disputed space. From new aliens to old ones like Bolians and Vulcans.

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Commander Una faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonourable dismissal from Starfleet. Episode 202 Synopsis

This is definitely the courtroom episode where Una Chin-Riley will be on trial for being an Illyrian, a species that uses genetic augmentation. We saw a clip of this scene recently, and we broke it down in this article here .

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

La’An travels back in time to twenty first century Earth to prevent an attack which will alter humanity’s future history.

This episode definitely sounds like the La’an and Kirk time travel to modern-day episode. I personally theorized that this might have something to do with the eugenic war, which might be a nice tie-in for La’an and Kirk and help solidify the 21st century in Trek. However, it looks more First Contact inspired, perhaps going back to stop some time travels from the future altering humanity’s history. A Star Trek staple.

Possible episode 4?

It’s been a while since the last Star Trek Day and the first glimpses of new footage with a short clip. Our first short clip showed us an episode centered around Enterprise Pilot Erica Ortegas, and Melissa Navia has talked in some recent interviews about some more Ortegas action in season two! This looks to be episode 4 of Season 2, with a recently released promotional image of Pike being labeled as this episode. His costume matches the one seen in last year’s early sneak peek scene.

This is the episode in which Enterprise returns to Rigel VII, the place where Pike lost crew members and nearly retired from Starfleet. In more recent trailers we have seen more of Rigel VII, with even Dr M’Benga throwing some punches! This episode could be looking at cultural contamination on Rigel VII. We can see a Starfleet Delta symbol over one of the native forts in a recent trailer.

What else do we know?

Apart from the first three episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds second outing, we know a lot about one specific episode. Episode 7 of Season 2 will be the crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks !

This episode is directed by Jonathan Frakes, and will have Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid reprising their roles of Beckett Mariner and Bradward Boimler respectively! In both live-action and animation. The episode will have an animated section, with what looks to be Captain Pike and La’an returning to the U.S.S. Cerritos. The episode promises to be eventful, and we cannot wait!

Strange New Worlds season 2 is rapidly approaching, and marketing has seen very minimal. We’ve had a small event at MCM London Comic Con. Only two trailers, the first only 2 months ago. So a look into Strange New Worlds Season 2 with Will Wheaton was a nice surprise.

If you want to keep up to date on all this Star Trek , make sure to follow Trek Central on all our social platforms! The second season of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  will premiere on  Thursday, June 15 exclusively on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is available from June 15 on Paramount+ in the US, UK, Latin America, Australia, Brazil, South Korea (via TVING), France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland & Austria. Plus TVNZ in New Zealand & CTV Scifi/Crave in Canada. And from June 16 on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal & Central & Eastern Europe.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 6 Review – Lost in Translation

Uhura and the Kirk brothers team up against a new enemy in the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! Our review...

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This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 6

While the adventures the crew of the Enterprise find themselves in from week to week on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are always fun, they’re often the least important part of the show we’re watching. Instead, the missions of the week are almost always explicitly tied to the larger themes at work in the various emotional journeys of the show’s characters and their relationships with one another. Such is the case in the season 2 episode “Lost in Translation,” an hour that’s technically about discovering a new alien species, but that’s really a larger story about loss, empathy, and the power of listening to others, even when you don’t always understand what they’re trying to say, at first. 

A largely Uhura-focused episode, “Lost in Translation” also gives several other characters key moments to shine, including Carol Kane’s Pelia and Paul Wesley’s James Kirk , who is at long last officially part of Strange New Worlds’ primary timeline. Sorry, Kirk/La’an shippers , there’s minimal progress on the romantic front this week, but the hour does feature his first meeting with Spock, in a ridiculously brief and strangely perfect coda that lands like a thunderclap infused with all our affection for what that bond will one day become. Yes, the close-up on the handshake was kind of cheesy. Did I care? Not even a little bit.

After two previous appearances in episodes that took place in alternate timelines , Wesley finally gets a crack at the “real” Kirk, and I…kind of love it. Don’t get me wrong, I remain as surprised by this fact as anyone else, given that I still don’t believe Strange New Worlds technically needs any version of Kirk to be great. And on some level I do still wish this screen time were going to characters like Chapel or Ortegas. But Wesley’s a relentlessly charming performer, and somehow manages to strike a decent balance between youthful hubris and the thoughtful leadership smarts we know his character will one day possess. Plus, if we have to have some variation of the franchise’s most famous figure on our screen, then I appreciate the deliberate way that the show has gone about introducing this Kirk to its canvas and the obvious care that’s been taken in crafting a space for him that doesn’t feel exploitive, pointlessly nostalgic, or as though it’s somehow crowding out the other characters we care about. 

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Admittedly, I also loved the sly way the episode does manage to stay canon-compliant, giving Pike a temporary fleet command because that’s the only fact we actually know about Kirk’s first meeting with him. This show is truly run by incredible nerds and I love it so much.

Happily, nothing about this Kirk feels as though he’s destined to take over the show, something I think many of us have been rightly concerned about since his addition to the cast was announced. Instead, his presence in “Lost in Translation” is almost solely about serving Uhura’s story. Yes, there’s something particularly lovely about the fact that Kirk’s first scenes opposite a future Enterprise crewmate are with her, a character who casts as long a shadow over the legacy of this franchise as he does, but whose relationship with him The Original Series was never all that interested in exploring. But, at the end of the day, this hour is very clearly Uhura’s episode and it’s her emotional arc that takes precedence throughout.

Far too often when characters die on episodic-skewing shows like this, their loss is simply treated as a fact of one specific story, and everyone just moves on to the next story beat because that’s how the show’s narrative pretty much has to function. So it’s particularly nice to see Strange New Worlds not just revisit Hemmer’s death, but the impact of his life as well. He may be dead, but he’s not gone , and Uhura and Una are both reflections of the way that he lives on in the world of the Enterprise . 

Star Trek’s Paul Wesley Finally Gives Us the Version of Kirk That’s Been Missing

Strange New Worlds Easter Eggs Deliver an Unseen Star Trek TOS Era Storyline

“Lost in Translation” is also a larger story of Uhura finally being forced to face the grief that she has kept locked inside since the accident that killed her family and ultimately sent her to Starfleet, and, in many ways, it feels like the natural extension of some of the themes and story beats we saw play out back in season 1’s “Children of the Comet.” Its primary plot also revolves around communication, and the need to figure out how to talk to an unfamiliar and wildly strange alien race we initially (and incorrectly) assume means Uhura and her Starfleet friends harm. The effects of those attempts—her visions of a zombie-esque Hemmer and hallways full of the blood-soaked bodies of dead crew members—have serious horror movie vibes and serve as a welcome reminder that it’s pure human hubris to assume that the creatures we’ll encounter on our exploration the stars will look like anything we’re familiar with. And that we should prepare ourselves and our expectations accordingly.

As for Kirk, his role in this episode is primarily a supporting one. He’s there to be a sounding board for Uhura and, more importantly, to believe her when she most needs someone to have faith in her. Okay, fine, and also to get punched in the face, which is, admittedly, fun to watch. But Strange New Worlds does make the interesting decision, when the hour is focused on his character, to show us a side of Kirk we’ve never had the chance to see before. Though these are much younger versions of the Kirk, Uhura, and Spock who will one day lead The Original Series , we know the basic shapes those relationships will one day take. What we don’t know is a ton about who Kirk was in his formative years, and/or what his family was really like.  His brother Sam Kirk appears in The Original Series for approximately 30 seconds and only after he’s dead, and we have no idea what their relationship was like. 

Wesley and Dan Jeannotte have great sibling chemistry—Wesley has peak little brother energy here, which is something that I as a former The Vampire Diaries viewer find hilarious given his role as long-suffering elder brother Stefan Salvatore on that show—and their interactions are bursting with unspoken complexities. That Sam ultimately gets to solve the episode’s mystery through the application of his extremely esoteric science knowledge is deeply satisfying, but it’s also clear that it’s not enough to make him feel like his brother’s equal, largely because Jim is succeeding in more traditionally acceptable (and possibly traditionally masculine) ways. (And Jim will never be the eldest son that got his father’s name no matter what he does.)

Their relationship clearly has some deeply complex issues at its heart, despite their obvious care for one another, and I would absolutely watch more of them untangling their daddy issues in future episodes. Because while I’ll admit didn’t really want Kirk here, Strange New Worlds is slowly convincing me there might actually be a place for him on this canvas, after all. In limited doses, of course.

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4.5 out of 5

Lacy Baugher

Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Entire First Season Is Now Free to Stream on YouTube

Get pumped for season 2..

Are you a Trekkie looking to get into the franchise's expanding small-screen catalogue? Fret not! The complete first season of Paramount+’s acclaimed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is now free to watch on YouTube .

It's something of an odd move, considering Trek is one of Paramount+'s biggest draws, but the timing of the YouTube drop is surely no coincedence; it's just in time to get caught up before the second season’s June 15 premiere.

Strange New Worlds chronicles the pre-Original Series adventures of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and the rest of the Enterprise crew. Our 10/10 review of Season 1 called the show “emotional, exciting, funny, and sometimes scary,” singling out Mount’s performance as one of its biggest draws.

Created by Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, and Jenny Lumet, Strange New Worlds is the 11th series in the franchise. For years now, Kurtzman has been building a massive Star Trek universe on the small screen, delivering offbeat concepts such as Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy.

Other shows in Kurtzman’s ever-ballooning Trekverse include the recently ended Picard and the ongoing Stark Trek: Discovery (which is set to end with Season 5 sometime in 2024 ).

A third season of Strange New Worlds was announced earlier this year. The first season is also available on Blu-ray and DVD, with a 4K release scheduled to hit shelves on June 13.

Hayden Mears is an entertainment journalist who enjoys (you guessed it) entertainment. He also likes fitness boxing and writing bios in the third person.

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Catch up on Strange New Worlds before season 2

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From Picard to Lower Decks , there are a quite a few Star Trek shows on Paramount Plus at the moment, but none of them are quite as good at capturing the series’ original magic as Strange New Worlds . Thankfully for fans who might be curious about the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike and his crew, the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is now free on YouTube in advance of the series’ second season — which will also include a Lower Decks crossover .

Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek the original series and tells the story of the USS Enterprise before James T. Kirk was in charge. Unlike something like Star Trek: Picard , Strange New Worlds mostly stays true to the episodic adventures that helped keep the franchise fresh and fun.

While that isn’t necessarily the TV trend that’s most in-vogue, it made for a fantastic format for the series’ first season and made it feel more like the Star Trek of old, whether that’s the original series, The Next Generation , or Deep Space Nine .

Star Trek: Strange New World ’s first season is arriving on YouTube as a way for Paramount to promote it ahead of season 2’s premiere on June 15. The first season of the show will remain free and on YouTube until June 30 at midnight Pacific Time.

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"it's something different": anson mount drops new star trek: strange new worlds season 3 tease.

Anson Mount gives an Instagram tour of his trailer and gives a hint of the new episode Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 they are filming.

• Anson Mount hints at a new season 3 episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in his Instagram trailer tour.
• Season 3 of the highly-anticipated series is finally in production after a 7-month delay due to 2023's strikes.
• Mount shared excitement for a different and fun episode, teasing fans with a top-secret storyline to come.

Anson Mount dropped a new tease about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. The highly-anticipated third season of Strange New Worlds is in production in Toronto after being delayed for 7 months by the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. While Strange New Worlds season 3 is top-secret, it's following up the acclaimed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, which featured the historic crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek 's first-ever musical episode.

On his Instagram (@ansonmount), Anson Mount gave his followers a brief tour of his trailer on the Toronto set of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . After showing off his digs, which has a fireplace not unlike the one found in Captain Christopher Pike's kitchen , Mount revealed they are about to begin filming Strange New Worlds season 3 episode 7. Read his quote and watch his Instagram reel below:

We are plugging away. We're starting episode 7 today. Very excited about it. This is a fun one... I can't tell you why, obviously. But it's something different, something I've never done before.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 - Everything We Know

Star trek: strange new worlds season 3 is 10 episodes, many of strange new worlds season 2's top directors are back for season 3.

Like the prior 2 seasons, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 consists of 10 episodes. With filming of episode 307 about to start, Strange New Worlds ' cast and crew are closing in on the endgame of season 3's production. Anson Mount didn't reveal who is directing Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 7, but it could be yet another one of the returning top directors who helped make Strange New Worlds season 2 such a success .

Melissa Navia recently teased that "incredible things" are coming in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.

Producing director Chris Fisher is directing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's premiere, which closes out the Gorn cliffhanger from Strange New Worlds season 2's finale . Also directing Strange New Worlds season 3 episodes are Jordan Canning, Dan Liu, and Jonathan Frakes. Dr. Valerie Weiss, who helmed Strange New Worlds season 2's courtroom drama, "Ad Astra Per Aspera," just completed filming Strange New Worlds episode 306. Anson Mount says Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 307 is "something new" that he's "never done before," and given the show's boundary-pushing track record, it's cause enough to get excited.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: Instagram

Strange New Worlds, Star Trek 4 and much more: New reveals for all things Trek

Variety just published a huge article detailing what's happening in the wide world of Star Trek , which has more shows on the air right now that at any point in the franchise's 57-year history. From Discovery to Strange New Worlds to Lower Decks to Prodigy to the recently completed Picard , Paramount is going hard on this universe, pleasing older fans and hoping to make new ones.

What does the franchise have coming up next? Let's run through the highlights:

• The upcoming third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , which might be the most universally praised Trek series on the air right now, is expected in 2025. They're going all out on the sets; a new science lab set has "a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team." Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation and who has remained involved with the franchise ever since, is directing an episode framed as a Hollywood murder mystery. He calls it “the best episode of television I’ve ever done.”
• Paramount is also at work on a show called Starfleet Academy , set at a school for officers. This show is set in the 32nd century, far in the future of Star Trek , which is generally set somewhere around the 23rd. Variety saw plans for the larest set in the franchise's history, a "central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space." Starfleet Academy starts production this summer.
• Michelle Yeoh will once agan play Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant she played on Star Trek: Discovery, in a TV movie about Section 31 , a black ops organization within the Star Trek universe. This was originally going to be a TV series, but with Yeoh winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once , Yeoh's schedule filled up. Still, she still has a lot of fondness for Georgiou. “We’d never let go of her,” she said. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’” Yeoh just wrapped on the movie, which will include an appearance from a young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl), a character first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation . If the Section 31 film is successful, Yeoh is down for a sequel.
• On the big screen, a Star Trek movie written by Seth Grahame-Smith and director by Andor director Toby Haynes is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. The movie will be "an origin story for the main timeline of the franchise."
• There are also plans to make Star Trek 4 , a follow up to the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña. That movie will be the "final chapter" in that series. Steve Yockey ( The Flight Attendant ) has been hired to write a new draft of the script.
• Star Trek overboss Alex Kurtzman is thinking about a possible follow-up to Star Trek: Picard , although it doesn't sound like there's anything set in stone yet.

And let's not forget that the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery , the show that kicked off this new jam-packed Trek era, is coming back in just a week!

Descriptions for all 10 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5

Speaking to SFX Magazine , Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise shared non-spoilery descriptions of all 10 upcoming episodes of season 5, which were helpfully compiled by TrekMovie.com .

• Episode 1: “Red Directive”: “Launching the mission. The mission is a red directive. An exciting mission that launches us onto our season, and it’s super-secret.”
• Episode 2: “Under the Twin Moons”: “A lovely Burnham and Saru episode.”
• Episode 3: “Jinaal”: “Culber like you’ve never seen him before.”
• Episode 4: “Face the Strange”: “Mind bending and exciting, and a heck of a lot of fun.”
• Episode 5: “Mirrors”: “[Long pause] I’m trying to think of something that won’t be spoilery! Surprising encounters and surprising new information about our heroes.”
• Episode 6: “Whistlespeak”: “Oh, classic TOS-style adventure!”
• Episode 7: “Erigah”: “Tense and unexpected.”
• Episode 8: “Labyrinths”: “Oh, just an incredible gorgeous location, incredible scope and a singular journey for Burnham.”
• Episode 9: “Lagrange Point”: “Discovery in a location where you’ve never seen her before.”
• Episode 10: “Life, Itself”: “Part of me wants to say the end of an era. But that just sounds so sad. I don’t wanna say that! Hopefully it’s all the things that  Discovery  has always been. Action, adventure, heart, family, love, sci-fi wonderfulness, beautifully acted, beautifully directed, production values, gorgeous VFX. It’s everything we have always had in  Discovery  in one episode.”

The first two episodes on Star Trek: Discovery season 5 drop on April 4. All of this is happenign on Paramount+.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account , sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel .

This article was originally published on winteriscoming.com as Strange New Worlds, Star Trek 4 and much more: New reveals for all things Trek .

2 hr 21 min

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Season 2‪)‬ School of Movies

• TV & Film

[School of Everything Else 2024] The conclusion (for now) to this series of shows on the triumphant return of Star Trek. Season 2 slaloms between unsettling and dark episodes which would feel more at home in Discovery if they weren't so personal to the characters in this rich ensemble... and some of the most hilarious, touching, light-hearted yet heart-breaking downtime episodes which highlight the comedy strengths and the charisma of everyone in the crew. It's bumpy, but so worth the journey. Kaoru's recommended episodes of the original 1966 series, AND the redheaded stepchild of Star Trek, the much maligned Enterprise series which ran for 98 episodes from 2001-2005. TOS S1-24: Space Seed TOS S2-7: Wolf in the Fold ENTERPRISE S4-4 to 6: Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments Chris' Suggestion: The Orville - Season 2 Debbie's Suggestion: Talistheintrovert on YouTube with her presentation "PSYCH the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation in existence". Jesse's Book Pick: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone. Sharon's Book Pick: The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers. The Bad Batch S2-E12: The Outpost. Guests: From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22 and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300 Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow @TheDapperDM Chris Finik @finmonster09

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The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans

“I can’t believe I get to play the captain of the Enterprise.”

“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman , who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says.

The franchise has certainly weathered its share of fallow periods, most recently after “Nemesis” bombed in theaters in 2002 and UPN canceled “Enterprise” in 2005. It took 12 years for “Star Trek” to return to television with the premiere of “Discovery” in 2017; since then, however, there has been more “Star Trek” on TV than ever: The adventure series “Strange New Worlds,” the animated comedy “Lower Decks” and the kids series “Prodigy” are all in various stages of production, and the serialized thriller “Picard” concluded last year, when it ranked, along with “Strange New Worlds,” among Nielsen’s 10 most-watched streaming original series for multiple weeks. Nearly one in five Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. is watching at least one “Star Trek” series, according to the company, and more than 50% of fans watching one of the new “Trek” shows also watch at least two others. The new shows air in 200 international markets and are dubbed into 35 languages. As “Discovery” launches its fifth and final season in April, “Star Trek” is in many ways stronger than it’s ever been.

“’Star Trek’s fans have kept it alive more times than seems possible,” says Eugene Roddenberry, Jr., who executive produces the TV series through Roddenberry Entertainment. “While many shows rightfully thank their fans for supporting them, we literally wouldn’t be here without them.”

But the depth of fan devotion to “Star Trek” also belies a curious paradox about its enduring success: “It’s not the largest fan base,” says Akiva Goldsman, “Strange New Worlds” executive producer and co-showrunner. “It’s not ‘Star Wars.’ It’s certainly not Marvel.”

When J.J. Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” in 2009 — with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldaña playing Kirk, Spock and Uhura — the movie grossed more than any previous “Star Trek” film by a comfortable margin. But neither that film nor its two sequels broke $500 million in global grosses, a hurdle every other top-tier franchise can clear without breaking a sweat.

There’s also the fact that “Star Trek” fans are aging. I ask “The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes, who’s acted in or directed more versions of “Star Trek” than any other person alive, how often he meets fans for whom the new “Star Trek” shows are their first. “Of the fans who come to talk to me, I would say very, very few,” he says. “‘Star Trek’ fans, as we know, are very, very, very loyal — and not very young.”

As Stapf puts it: “There’s a tried and true ‘Trek’ fan that is probably going to come to every ‘Star Trek,’ no matter what it is — and we want to expand the universe.”

Every single person I spoke to for this story talked about “Star Trek” with a joyful earnestness as rare in the industry as (nerd alert) a Klingon pacifist.

“When I’m meeting fans, sometimes they’re coming to be confirmed, like I’m kind of a priest,” Ethan Peck says during a break in filming on the “Strange New Worlds” set. He’s in full Spock regalia — pointy ears, severe eyebrows, bowl haircut — and when asked about his earliest memories of “Star Trek,” he stares off into space in what looks like Vulcan contemplation. “I remember being on the playground in second or third grade and doing the Vulcan salute, not really knowing where it came from,” he says. “When I thought of ‘Star Trek,’ I thought of Spock. And now I’m him. It’s crazy.”

To love “Star Trek” is to love abstruse science and cowboy diplomacy, complex moral dilemmas and questions about the meaning of existence. “It’s ultimately a show with the most amazing vision of optimism, I think, ever put on-screen in science fiction,” says Kurtzman, who is 50. “All you need is two minutes on the news to feel hopeless now. ‘Star Trek’ is honestly the best balm you could ever hope for.”

I’m getting a tour of the USS Enterprise from Scotty — or, rather, “Strange New World” production designer Jonathan Lee, who is gushing in his native Scottish burr as we step into the starship’s transporter room. “I got such a buzzer from doing this, I can’t tell you,” he says. “I actually designed four versions of it.”

Lee is especially proud of the walkway he created to run behind the transporter pads — an innovation that allows the production to shoot the characters from a brand-new set of angles as they beam up from a far-flung planet. It’s one of the countless ways that this show has been engineered to be as cinematic as possible, part of Kurtzman’s overall vision to make “Star Trek” on TV feel like “a movie every week.”

Kurtzman’s tenure with “Star Trek” began with co-writing the screenplay for Abrams’ 2009 movie, which was suffused with a fast-paced visual style that was new to the franchise. When CBS Studios approached Kurtzman in the mid-2010s about bringing “Star Trek” back to TV, he knew instinctively that it needed to be just as exciting as that film.

“The scope was so much different than anything we had ever done on ‘Next Gen,’” says Frakes, who’s helmed two feature films with the “Next Generation” cast and directed episodes of almost every live-action “Trek” TV series, including “Discovery” and “Strange New Worlds.” “Every department has the resources to create.”

A new science lab set for Season 3, for example, boasts a transparent floor atop a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench, and the surrounding walls sport a half dozen viewscreens with live schematics custom designed by a six-person team. “I like being able to paint on a really big canvas,” Kurtzman says. “The biggest challenge is always making sure that no matter how big something gets, you’re never losing focus on that tiny little emotional story.”

At this point, is there a genre that “Strange New Worlds” can’t do? “As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” Goldsman says with an impish smile. “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

This approach is also meant to appeal to people who might want to watch “Star Trek” but regard those 668 hours of backstory as an insurmountable burden. “You shouldn’t have to watch a ‘previously on’ to follow our show,” Myers says.

To achieve so many hairpin shifts in tone and setting while maintaining Kurtzman’s cinematic mandate, “Strange New Worlds” has embraced one of the newest innovations in visual effects: virtual production. First popularized on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian,” the technology — called the AR wall — involves a towering circular partition of LED screens projecting a highly detailed, computer-generated backdrop. Rather than act against a greenscreen, the actors can see whatever fantastical surroundings their characters are inhabiting, lending a richer level of verisimilitude to the show.

But there is a catch. While the technology is calibrated to maintain a proper sense of three-dimensional perspective through the camera lens, it can be a bit dizzying for anyone standing on the set. “The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” says Mount. “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

And yet, even as he’s talking about it, Mount can’t help but break into a boyish grin. “Sometimes we call it the holodeck,” he says. In fact, the pathway to the AR wall on the set is dotted with posters of the virtual reality room from “The Next Generation” and the words “Enter Holodeck” in a classic “Trek” font.

“I want to take one of those home with me,” Peck says. Does the AR wall also affect him? “I don’t really get disoriented by it. Spock would not get ill, so I’m Method acting.”

I’m on the set of the “Star Trek” TV movie “Section 31,” seated in an opulent nightclub with a view of a brilliant, swirling nebula, watching Yeoh rehearse with director Olatunde Osunsanmi and her castmates. Originally, the project was announced as a TV series centered on Philippa Georgiou, the semi-reformed tyrant Yeoh originated on “Discovery.” But between COVID delays and the phenomenon of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” there wasn’t room in the veteran actress’s schedule to fit a season of television. Yeoh was undaunted.

“We’d never let go of her,” she says of her character. “I was just blown away by all the different things I could do with her. Honestly, it was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, because I believe in this.’”

If that means nothing to you, don’t worry: The enormity of the revelation that Garrett is being brought back is meant only for fans. If you don’t know who the character is, you’re not missing anything.

“It was always my goal to deliver an entertaining experience that is true to the universe but appeals to newcomers,” says screenwriter Craig Sweeny. “I wanted a low barrier of entry so that anybody could enjoy it.”

Nevertheless, including Garrett on the show is exactly the kind of gasp-worthy detail meant to flood “Star Trek” fans with geeky good feeling.

“You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans,” Kurtzman says. “You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.”

On its face, that maxim would make “Section 31” a genuine risk. The titular black-ops organization has been controversial with “Star Trek” fans since it was introduced in the 1990s. “The concept is almost antagonistic to some of the values of ‘Star Trek,’” Sweeny says. But he still saw “Section 31” as an opportunity to broaden what a “Star Trek” project could be while embracing the radical inclusivity at the heart of the franchise’s appeal.

“Famously, there’s a spot for everybody in Roddenberry’s utopia, so I was like, ‘Well, who would be the people who don’t quite fit in?’” he says. “I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field. These are not people who necessarily work together the way you would see on a ‘Star Trek’ bridge.”

For Osunsanmi, who grew up watching “The Next Generation” with his father, it boils down to a simple question: “Is it putting good into the world?” he asks. “Are these characters ultimately putting good into the world? And, taking a step back, are we putting good into the world? Are we inspiring humans watching this to be good? That’s for me what I’ve always admired about ‘Star Trek.’”

Should “Section 31” prove successful, Yeoh says she’s game for a sequel. And Kurtzman is already eyeing more opportunities for TV movies, including a possible follow-up to “Picard.” The franchise’s gung-ho sojourn into streaming movies, however, stands in awkward contrast to the persistent difficulty Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company Bad Robot have had making a feature film following 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” — the longest theaters have gone without a “Star Trek” movie since Paramount started making them.

First, a movie reuniting Pine’s Capt. Kirk with his late father — played in the 2009 “Star Trek” by Chris Hemsworth — fell apart in 2018. Around the same time, Quentin Tarantino publicly flirted with, then walked away from, directing a “Star Trek” movie with a 1930s gangster backdrop. Noah Hawley was well into preproduction on a “Star Trek” movie with a brand-new cast, until then-studio chief Emma Watts abruptly shelved it in 2020. And four months after Abrams announced at Paramount’s 2022 shareholders meeting that his 2009 cast would return for a movie directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), Shakman left the project to make “The Fantastic Four” for Marvel. (It probably didn’t help that none of the cast had been approached before Abrams made his announcement.)

The studio still intends to make what it’s dubbed the “final chapter” for the Pine-Quinto-Saldaña cast, and Steve Yockey (“The Flight Attendant”) is writing a new draft of the script. Even further along is another prospective “Star Trek” film written by Seth Grahame-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) and to be directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor,” “Black Mirror: USS Callister”) that studio insiders say is on track to start preproduction by the end of the year. That project will serve as an origin story of sorts for the main timeline of the entire franchise. In both cases, the studio is said to be focused on rightsizing the budgets to fit within the clear box office ceiling for “Star Trek” feature films.

Far from complaining, everyone seems to relish the challenge. Visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman says that “working with Alex, the references are always at least $100 million movies, if not more, so we just kind of reverse engineer how do we do that without having to spend the same amount of money and time.”

The workload doesn’t seem to faze him either. “Visual effects people are a big, big ‘Star Trek’ fandom,” he says. “You naturally just get all these people who go a little bit above and beyond, and you can’t trade that for anything.”

In one of Kurtzman’s several production offices in Toronto, he and production designer Matthew Davies are scrutinizing a series of concept drawings for the newest “Star Trek” show, “Starfleet Academy.” A bit earlier, they showed me their plans for the series’ central academic atrium, a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada.

But this is a “Star Trek” show, so there do need to be starships, and Kurtzman is discussing with Davies about how one of them should look. The issue is that “Starfleet Academy” is set in the 32nd century, an era so far into the future Kurtzman and his team need to invent much of its design language.

“For me, this design is almost too Klingon,” Kurtzman says. “I want to see the outline and instinctively, on a blink, recognize it as a Federation ship.”

The time period was first introduced on Season 3 of “Discovery,” when the lead character, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), transported the namesake starship and its crew there from the 23rd century. “It was exciting, because every time we would make a decision, we would say, ‘And now that’s canon,’” says Martin-Green.

“We listened to a lot of it,” Kurtzman says. “I think I’ve been able to separate the toxic fandom from really true fans who love ‘Star Trek’ and want you to hear what they have to say about what they would like to see.”

By Season 2, the “Discovery” writers pivoted from its dour, war-torn first season and sent the show on its trajectory 900-plus years into the future. “We had to be very aware of making sure that Spock was in the right place and that Burnham’s existence was explained properly, because she was never mentioned in the original series,” says executive producer and showrunner Michelle Paradise. “What was fun about jumping into the future is that it was very much fresh snow.”

That freedom affords “Starfleet Academy” far more creative latitude while also dramatically reducing how much the show’s target audience of tweens and teens needs to know about “Star Trek” before watching — which puts them on the same footing as the students depicted in the show. “These are kids who’ve never had a red alert before,” Noga Landau, executive producer and co-showrunner, says. “They never had to operate a transporter or be in a phaser fight.”

In the “Starfleet Academy” writers’ room in Secret Hideout’s Santa Monica offices, Kurtzman tells the staff — a mix of “Star Trek” die-hards, part-time fans and total newbies — that he wants to take a 30,000-foot view for a moment. “I think we need to ground in science more throughout the show,” he says, a giant framed photograph of Spock ears just over his shoulder. “The kids need to use science more to solve problems.”

Immediately, one of the writers brightens. “Are you saying we can amp up the techno-babble?” she says. “I’m just excited I get to use my computer science degree.”

After they break for lunch, Kurtzman is asked how much longer he plans to keep making “Star Trek.” 

“The minute I fall out of love with it is the minute that it’s not for me anymore. I’m not there yet,” he says. “To be able to build in this universe to tell stories that are fundamentally about optimism and a better future at a time when the world seems to be falling apart — it’s a really powerful place to live every day.”

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Star Trek legend calls his Strange New Worlds season 3 murder-mystery “the best episode of television I’ve ever done"

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Star Trek actor and director Jonathan Frakes has some high praise for Strange New Worlds season 3.

"[It's] the best episode of television I’ve ever done," Frakes told Variety , referring to a Hollywood murder-mystery episode he directed. The actor-director starred as Captain William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation and began directing episodes during the show's third season. He went on to helm Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and episodes of almost every subsequent live-action Star Trek TV show including Voyager, Discovery, Picard, and Strange New Worlds.

Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise as they embark on intergalactic adventures that take place in the 23rd century. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and Ugly Betty writer Henry Alonso Myers serve as showrunners. The cast includes Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, and Rebecca Romijn.

The series premiered in on Paramount Plus, the home for all things Star Trek, in 2022 and became the most-watched original Star Trek series on the network. Season 2 was greenlit in January 2022 and aired in June 2023. Season 3 was announced in March of last year, but production was delayed due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 does not yet have a release date, but is expected to hit Paramount Plus sometime in 2025. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2024 and beyond.

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