Hot Girls Found a New Star Trek to Love!
Hot Girls Found a New Star Trek to Love!
Strange New Worlds has officially entered the canon of Lauren-approved Trek
New year, new Trek! If you’ll all kindly go on with my shared delusion that I haven’t been MIA on this Substack for the past couple of months, I’m beyond happy to share that after struggling to really fall truly in love with any of the more recent entries in the Star Trek franchise, I’ve officially fallen head-over-heels for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Like I said, I’ve never quite been able to get into the Kurtzman-run Trek shows: Discovery, Prodigy, Picard, and Lower Deck. The combination of heavy serialization and a darker, more cynical tone meant I didn’t quite get what I was looking for out of most modern Trek shows, which left me as a viewer fondly and frequently revisiting old favorites like Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.
I’m not ashamed to admit, though, when I heard rumors that Deep Space Nine might play a role in season three of Star Trek: Picard, I gave this new era of trek another shot: not only have I thoroughly enjoyed Picard season three (you can read that full review here) but it’s also gotten me to (at last) fully watch one of the Kurtzman trek shows: Strange New Worlds.
Granted, if there was any show I was going to like, it’s probably Strange New Worlds—It’s been on my radar since it was announced that Paul Wesley (of personal Vampire Diaries infatuation) would be playing Kirk, and the much lighter, sillier tone (combined with the charismatic Anson Mount in the Captain’s Chair as Pike) felt like such a stark contrast to the Section 31-riddled action-thriller show Discovery has become.
Admittedly, I still went into Strange New Worlds with my doubts—for the uninitiated, it’s a direct spinoff of Discovery, who introduced leads Pike, Una, and Spock in season two as a sort of backdoor pilot. Having not enjoyed Discovery, it made getting through the pilot of Strange New Worlds somewhat difficult (particularly because it assumes the viewer’s knowledge of went down on Discovery) but on SNW clears its second episode, it undeniably finds its rhythm as a much-welcome return to form for the kind of Trek that made the franchise great.
Though it does dip into some of Discovery’s more frustrating tendencies—specifically, a somber undertone and a need to deliver grandiose, dramatic story developments to keep viewers entertained—Strange New Worlds has a warmth, charm, and earnestness that’s been achingly missing from the more recent batch of Trek shows, and I’m eagerly awaiting its second installment.
Ironically, the two characters with whom I struggle the most are Pike and Una—two characters who have already seen existing arcs on Discovery, and who thus begin Strange New Worlds at a strangely discordant place in their personal narratives in comparison to this batch of new crew members (Chapel, Uhura, M’Benga, La’an, etc) who we’re watching enjoy fully fledged narratives.
Pike’s storyline is the almost comedically one-note (but understandably at the front of his mind), hinged around his foreknowledge (again, established on Disco) that he’s going to die in 10 years. At least Pike is able to explore this story, though—Una is bafflingly left out to dry and constantly underutilized despite receiving second billing and being one of the most charismatic personalities onboard.
But where Pike and Una are just serviceable, it’s characters like Uhura, M’Benga, Hemmer, La’An, Chapel, and, yes, Spock, who make Strange New Worlds great. I was at first wary of seeing yet another incarnation of so many familiar faces reimagined yet again (standard spiel about souls reboots, cashing in on famous names, etc) but these characters feel entirely fresh and thoroughly independent of their Original Series and film timeline counterparts.
This reimagining of Uhura is particularly compelling—she’s undeniably capable, but riddled with self-doubt, indecision, and fear of the future: an empathetic and refreshing take on a character who’s a sci-fi institution of her own right. As a diehard fan of Enterprise (Andorians, a particular favorite alien species of mine) I was DELIGHTED to see that Strange New Worlds’ engineer was an Andorran subspecies called the Aenar, who I have a hunch is a direct descendant of Jeffrey Combs’ Shran (an Enterprise scene-stealer).
Gruff, practical, and no-nonsense, Hemmer made for the perfect reluctant mentor figure to the green-behind-the-ears Uhura, and their unlikely bond delivered some of Strange New Worlds’ most compelling moments. The decision to kill of Hemmer in the third act of season one felt particularly ill-conceived (I’m hard pressed to think of a classic trek show that would kill off a main crew member, especially in season one) and I’ll mourn the loss of Bruce Horak’s excellent performance, but getting to see an Aenar in Starfleet will always be a delight to revisit.
Ethan Peck’s Spock also unexpectedly won me over: an intensely charming performance that combines homage to Nimoy’s more colorful traits (like Spock’s single eyebrow raise) with an endearing youth and a self-aware hunkiness on Peck’s part—Spock and his enjoined T’Pring have nearly as many love scenes as they do dialogue.
I’m a particular fan of CMOs, so I was happy to see M’Benga fleshed out, even if the story with his daughter did fill a little neat-and-tidy (sorry if this is going to deep, but I’ve got a whole season’s worth of thoughts here). Chapel is an interesting character I’d like to see more thoroughly explored, especially when she’s playing opposite Ortegas, who I believe is the single most underutilized presence on the series. I earnestly hope (not just as a shipper, but as a screenwriter) that Ortegas and Chapel will have some kind of romantic arc in season two, but given season 1’s preoccupation with the Spock/Chapel/T’Pring love triangle, it seems doubtful.
I’ll leave it there—though if you’ve seen the season and want to talk specific episodes, feel free to sound off in the comments—but I really want to earnestly recommend Strange New Worlds to Trek fans who might’ve fallen out of love with the more recent takes on the franchise. Season two has a sparkly new release date and is just around the corner, and I hope Strange New Worlds, among the sea of Trek in production right now, finds a home with a loyal fanbase that could take it to the classic 6 or 7 season run it deserves.
PS: I’m very curious to se what Strange New Worlds