While it’s understandable to be a bit annoyed that it’s been two years since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds last hit Paramount+, at least that absence has been filled with plenty of Trek. Since Season 2 concluded, we got more of Lower Decks, Prodigy received a second season thanks to Netflix, and Discovery died as it lived, divisive until the very end. While there have been ups and downs over this stretch (like a certain straight-to-streaming flick that’s better left unmentioned), if nothing else, there have been plenty of red shirts and ridiculous-looking aliens as of late.
That said, following a brief period where there were five ongoing Star Trek series, the cancellation scythe has come down hard on the franchise, leaving us with Strange New Worlds as the lone survivor. Between the multi-year wait since the last season and its sudden position as the series’ sole representative in an increasingly scaled-back era of streaming, there’s quite a bit weighing on the return of Pike and his crew.
But in classic Starfleet fashion, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is more than up for the challenge, and at least through its first five episodes, it gives us goofy adventures, high-minded treatises, and more than a little earnest charm. If there’s a simple explanation for why this show is frequently viewed as the best of new-age Trek, it’s in how it pairs the new (glossy, expensive presentation and serial storytelling tendencies) with the old (an episodic structure and a willingness to get a bit silly) and this latest season delivers both modes with ease.
For those unfamiliar with Strange New Worlds, it follows Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew on the USS Enterprise in the years before Kirk takes over the captain’s chair at the start of The Original Series. As for what’s in store this time around (I promise I’ll be spoiler-lite), after resolving last season’s space lizard situation, the crew resumes their travels through the stars: there are comedic hijinks centered on everyone’s favorite Vulcan and a surprising number of tie-ins to The Next Generation.
Part of this run’s success lies in how showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, along with their writers’ room, continue to strike a careful balance between episodic and serialized storytelling, with even the most seemingly disconnected one-offs tying back to season-long character arcs. For instance, at one point, M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) continues to work through his complex trauma over what happened in one of last season’s best outings, “Under the Cloak of War,” while he and Pike land in a well-trodden pop-culture situation so tropey that it has them both a bit incredulous. Meanwhile, Spock also gets plenty of screen time, with his amusing love life developing in the foreground and background of several episodes. Strange New Worlds continues to do right by him, and Ethan Peck nails waffling between stoicism and sometimes not-so-subtly hidden emotions as Spock struggles to become the person we know him as in The Original Series.
But while there are many allusions and tie-ins to the crew’s growth across the story so far, this still remains the kind of show that you can pick up watching at almost any point (even if that’s an increasingly unlikely occurrence in the streaming era). Because while the first episode back suffers a bit from being a direct continuation of a cliffhanger from two years ago, the rest of these missions are siloed in the best way possible, delving into kooky weekly premises. Specifically, in the best episode of this season so far, we get a fan-favorite setup that both pokes fun at The Original Series and pensively reflects on that show’s legacy, all while also developing an unlikely bond. At another point, there’s a grim outing where the gang is dropped into a death trap that has them solving interdimensional puzzles that hint at a tantalizing hidden history. There’s a good variance in lighthearted hangout material and more grave turns, embodying the range that both Strange New Worlds and the series writ large have often excelled at, even if there’s an undeniable emphasis on pulp, and more specifically pulp horror, so far.
That said, the first half of Season 3 admittedly doesn’t quite reach the highs of the previous run’s best episodes, like “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” as it leans a bit more into its silly side instead of offering ethics courses targeted at the living room. While there are still contemplative moments and tough moral decisions throughout, these aspects aren’t quite as much at the forefront as I would like. Still, though, it’s a consistent batch that delivers a good range of genre thrills, whether that’s nights with the living dead or murder temples full of dark secrets, all of which are bound together by great performances and production.
And although I really wish the show hit a yearly cadence this time around, like it did with the first two seasons, at least the payoff is here in the form of impressive CGI, gripping space duels, and some occasional practical effect shenanigans. And hey, considering the fourth season is already being filmed, perhaps the next season will be here quicker this time: basically, this show’s main flaw compared to older entries in the series is that there isn’t more of it because, man, I miss The Next Generation’s 26-episode seasons.
Still, all things considered, Strange New Worlds continues to do an excellent job at adapting Star Trek to this era of television, maintaining the series’ episodic structure and unvarnished optimism while introducing modern production value and overarching character narratives that tie the season together. Its weekly adventures encompass everything from rom-com shenanigans to deadly serious missions, almost all of which deliver on their chosen tone, even if I hope it leans a bit more into the morality play side of the series in the coming episodes. Although we’ll have to wait and see how the second half of Season 3 pans out, Starfleet’s latest mission is off to a fun start.
Elijah Gonzalez is the assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.
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