AKA: The Redemption of Modern Trek
EPISODE LIST
- Strange New Worlds (the First Contact episode)
- Children of the Comet (the Comet episode)
- Ghosts of Illyria (the Contagion episode)
- Memento Mori (the Space Battle episode)
- Spock Amock (the Shore Leave Hijinks episode)
- Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach (the Ripoff of Popular Short Story episode)
- The Serene Squall (the Ship Taken Over episode)
- The Elysian Kingdom (the Knockoff Q episode)
- All Those Who Wander (the Spooky episode)
- A Quality of Mercy (Balance of Terror but modern and pretty)
DEE’S THOUGHTS
Is this… what I think it is? Is this what I’ve been clamouring for ever since Star Trek: Beyond gave me a taste of the glory we could be basking in? It is. It is. It’s TOS but with a better budget!
You may think it silly, but that’s really all I wanted out of Star Trek this whole time: a return to form, an exploration not just of nostalgia bait, but of the exploration of true, genuine Strange New Worlds. This show pulls it off perfectly. In fact, it breaks the Season One Curse that so many shows suffer, but especially Star Trek shows, coming in with a perfect game. Ten episodes, ten incredible expeditions into our universe, nothing I would even call mediocre, let alone outright bad.
And all of that, without doing a single thing new. You may have noted, in my episode list (don’t worry, individual episode reviews for this season are coming, but I’m prioritising the new season first), that I gave each one a tag: “the X episode”. That’s not just me being an ass, that’s genuinely what formula each episode fits. It doesn’t often do anything new, it just takes the familiar episode ideas we’re familiar with and executes them perfectly.
Each episode begins with the new identity of Star Trek: the hero ship of the show zipping around, eventually forming the shape of the iconic Starfleet delta, Star Trek superimposed over it. And then, sandwiched in between that and the credits, is just… god, I feel like I’m just gushing about a show I love. I mean, I am. That’s the entire point of this website. But, like, it really can’t be overstated just how good Strange New Worlds is, and how much respect for Star Trek the team clearly brings in.
And, my god, the love in this series. The writing deserves no small amount of praise, but that’s only part of a production. The set design, too, is just incredible: not bright and oversaturated like the Kelvin timeline movies, the corridors and various rooms are a lot more like the original series. Just take a look at the bridge:
The ship, too, has received a fresh coat of paint, moving away from the more heavily divergent designs seen in the Kelvin movies, to a more Classic Plus design.
The cinematography, always a high point in modern Trek, remains strong, more than a few shots that are just brilliant. Transitions, views of the ship against the cosmos, shots of our characters. We’re going to get into this, don’t worry.
But the thing that truly stands out, more than anything else, is the casting. When Anson Mount appeared as Captain Pike in season 2 of Discovery, his portrayal was wildly popular with fans, to the point that CBS straight-up put together an entirely new series as a sequel prequel thing. Anson Mount is back in the centre chair as Captain Pike this season, and he brings such a worldly energy to the crew. As followers of Disco may remember, Christopher Pike sacrifices his future for the sake of the galaxy’s, condemning himself to a life in the beep chair seen in TOS. This continues to haunt him, something masterfully weaved into Anson Mount’s performance, a kind of sadness, maybe terror at his future, but tempered by the rest of him: a warm, downright fatherly figure, a strongly moral person, and… fuck, dare I say it, the very model of a modern Starfleet officer. His glimpse into his future clearly affects him, but doesn’t destroy him. In a few instances, it propels his journey forward, offering a valuable new perspective that sometimes ends up saving the day.
Ethan Peck is no less incredible, having since settled into his portrayal of Spock. Spock’s cahracter, in this season, is uncertain beyond anything else: unlike the confident Spock seen in TOS, this one has recently suffered the terrible loss of his secret sister, which has clearly thrown him completely off-balance. He’s still trying to find himself, find balance between his two halves, Vulcan and Human. This is characterised in his relationship with T’Pring, his wife first depicted in the episode Amok Time, in TOS. The two perfectly exemplify Spock’s struggles by externalising it into their relationship. And, since I mentioned T’Pring, can I mention how infinitely glad I am that the writers of this show didn’t make her awful. Some Star Trek books paint T’Pring as a vengeful, spiteful figure, and that’s just not here. She’s frustrated, but very clearly trying to make their relationship work, understanding Spock’s dual nature and his desire to go out into the galaxy.
The whole cast is like this, too. Every single member so beautifully portrays the character written. I’m not going to go over every single one, but I’m going to give an honourable mention to Christine Chapel, who, unlike her TOS counterpart who didn’t have a huge amount of character beyond “wanting to bonk Spock”, has been fully fleshed out in this season, taking what we know of her and putting it under a magnifying glass, taking the time to really get to know it. She’s a maverick, a bright soul, excited by her time in Starfleet and delighting in the kind of stuff she gets to do. Her romance with Spock also kicks off in earnest, the two showing off some excellent chemistry. But, like I said, the entire cast is like this, so we really can’t spend all this time talking about it.
Unfortunately, lurking amongst all this warmth and goodness… is the Gorn Problem. You see, Star Trek is founded off a particular principle: “you and I may be different, but we can still get along just fine”. This has underpinned every show, for the past 50 years. Very few species have been treated otherwise, and that’s more because we can’t treat them otherwise: most notably, the Borg. But, see, here’s the thing. In the future, we’re shown that the Gorn are… well, people. They might lean towards being bastards, but we have evidence in future works that they’re capable of being reasoned with, that they’re not obligate predators to the point of destroying other species as a matter of course. They are not portrayed as such in Strange New Worlds, instead being shown as vicious, evil creatures that humanity can no more reason with than a sheep can reason with a wolf. Personally, I think that, with the rest of the show being so pitch perfect, it’ll explain this in the future, but for now, it remains as the only real blemish on an otherwise perfect face.
Overall, I think I’m going to give Strange New Worlds season 1… literally perfect out of ten.
