Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode #1 // Review
NOTE: This review will be avoiding major spoilers, to respect those who have not seen the episode yet.
Paramount has been working furiously to put out new content for both their Paramount Plus service and the Star Trek franchise. From Discovery to Picard, almost every era of the franchise has been represented. However, with Discovery set in the even further future now, there’s a perfect spot for a new Star Trek series.
And hey, fans have been wanting to know about that era before Kirk, right?
Enter Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Set in 2259, this new show would flesh out the time of Captain Christopher Pike, Spock, Number One, and the crew of the Enterprise prior to Kirk’s time in the late 2260s (and 1960s). Returning from his time on Star Trek: Discovery, we have Anson Mount portraying Captain Christopher Pike once more. Ethan Peck also returns to play Spock, and Rebecca Romijn graces the screen as Number One. Adding to this excellent cast, we would also have new crew added as both familiar and new faces.
Unexpected characters were Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), and a younger Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). Meanwhile, new characters include the security chief La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Andorian chief engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak), and helmsman Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia).
57 years after this crew was first tested out as a pilot with CBS, the adventures of Captain Pike and his crew are coming to TVs across the nation. How does the pilot, also confusingly called Strange New Worlds hold up?
Damned good.
The basic plot is that the episode covers a first contact situation with a new culture gone wrong. Pike’s Number One was commanding another ship at the time, and has gone missing. Pike is grabbed from a leave of absence to go find out what happened and help out where he can.
What first needs to be said, however, is that Anson Mount does an utterly incredible job as Christopher Pike. Admittedly, this should go without saying as he stole the show in Discovery’s second season. However, the writers of Strange New Worlds also deserve some credit for building off of the previous appearances of Pike. This Pike is haunted by the future he’s now locked into from the events in Discovery, and Mount does a fantastic job expressing the PTSD that Pike is now constantly suffering. It ties into the plot of the first episode well, and really adds a weight to the character that is welcome in addition to the burden of command.
Captain Pike and Spock ponder the local star map.
The other characters are given a chance to shine in their own ways, including some delightful scenes with Uhura and Chapel. Special mention deserves to go to Ethan Peck for basically stealing several scenes with his interpretation of Spock.
In fact, this actually feels like an episode ripped from the third or fourth season of an ongoing Trek series: a solid plot, great chemistry within the cast, and an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment that the show has about itself. There are several moments that give this show a larger feel of history between all these characters, which eases the audience into these new interpretations of classic characters. Combine that with many clever references fans will catch without being annoying about it, and you have a fantastic pilot episode.
There could have been a lot of baggage behind this pilot. Spinning out of a pilot episode from 1965, a television series from 1966, and a season of television from 2019, this could have been nothing short of a disaster. What we received instead was the difference between fast food and a home cooked meal. The works of Discovery and Picard have been filling and enjoyable, satisfying the itch for more Star Trek much like a quick meal at Burger Joint or Gyro Hut. However, there is just something missing that comes from a home-cooked meal. Maybe you can feel the love and dedication, maybe there’s a secret piece of the recipe Grandma won’t tell you, but it’s there.
And it positively shows in Strange New Worlds.
Time will tell if the next nine episodes of this season will remain as strong, but it’s a great start.
