Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Part 1 Review: Comfort Food. Streaming. Hot.
For those of you who were around in the '80s, remember the shock of seeing Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) made into an evil cyborg, followed by the realization that you would have to wait all summer to see what happened next? Two to three months is a long time to wait, but by the time Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 rolls around, it will have been almost two years since that show's last cliffhanger, which was, well...what, exactly? Something to do with the Gorn, right?
Look, I love the movie Aliens. You surely love it too. I don't really need it in my Star Trek, though. It's never going to be as good, and it takes the story from the more intellectual-moral dilemma realm where Trek excels. Alien movies kill off cast members one by one; Star Trek shows, with rare exceptions, can't kill primary cast members. Strange New Worlds used the Aliens vibe to actually do this with original engineer Hemmert, which was a shame; a blind actor playing a blind alien was groundbreaking, while Carol Kane doing a funny accent really isn't, however charming it may be. Regardless, we know that all the major crew members stealthily traversing dark corridors with blasters probably won't get eaten, though Ortegas (Melissa Navia) does get a hearty dose of PTSD that continues through the season.
At least following the cliffhanger resolution, which is full of technobabble and also serves to keep Scotty (Martin Quinn) aboard the Enterprise as Pelia's new assistant engineer, things settle into a more familiar groove, which, to be clear, is a good thing. Some of these episodes follow well-worn Trek tropes, and eagle-eyed viewers watching the trailers have guessed a few; it's surely no spoiler to say that one involves the very first Holodeck, which malfunctions in pretty much the same ways it will continue to do so for centuries. La'An (Christina Chong) gets her version of Dixon Hill in this one, which is set in the '60s and thus allows for a lot of Original Series-era in-jokes, including the show's usual Jim Kirk (Paul Wesley) finally cutting loose with a full-on Shatner impersonation. It's a rebuke to fans and critics (like me!) who initially said he didn't look or sound much like young Kirk, at least compared to Chris Pine, letting us know in no uncertain terms that had they asked him to mimic the O.G., he certainly could.
Another episode has what I think is the first live-action use of zombies in Trek, though in keeping with TV tropes, they not only don't say the word, but they even joke about whether it's appropriate to say “the z-word.” It's Captain Pike who gets that bit of self-reflection – in the first half of this season, Anson Mount feels almost relegated to comic relief, as the writers clearly most enjoy writing for Spock (Ethan Peck) or M'Benga (Babs Olusnamokun). The former gets some complications thrown into his love life with the arrival of Christine's canonical fiancee Roger Korby (the very Irish Cillian O'Sullivan), who's an archaeologist, and that's a great excuse for a Tomb Raider episode that, if I were to guess, also appears to be setting the stage for a possible season-ending cliffhanger. M'Benga, on the other hand, newly revealed last season as a bit of a war criminal, gets to wrestle with that side of himself a little more.
There are storylines that continue as throughlines, but for the most part, each episode still features a distinct adventure that mostly wraps up in under an hour. Too many streaming shows make everything about the cliffhangers; here's one you could actually watch out of chronological order an not be too lost. As always, everything looks extremely expensive, but that would be for naught if the stories weren't such comfort food. Though one does wonder when/if they'll ever circle back to the Sybok tease. (Not in these episodes!)
Nothing here is as radical as the musical episode or the Lower Decks crossover, but that merely shows that SNW doesn't need narrative stunts. Not that they aren't welcome when they happen, but merely having the classic Star Trek formula is enough, and with a crew who are professionals, unlike Discovery and its constant relationship drama. Seriously, how many times can a Captain's boyfriend go rogue, and she refuse to stop him, before it becomes grounds for some sort of penalty? Kirk saved the world for whale-iens in Star Trek IV, but they still demoted him for disobeying orders.
Though it all leans into the familiar, little of this ever feels like continuity porn. Okay, so there is one cameo that arguably canonizes a longstanding fan theory, but it's complete in and of itself, rather than some tease for yet another spinoff. Strange New Worlds, despite the source of its name, isn't going especially bold, and it would be a stretch to say no-one has gone here before. Yet just as Fox News viewers know that “Fair and Balanced” is a trolling slogan to make them feel good, so too are Trek fans likely comforted by the familiarity here. Well, apart from the fact that when anyone dies, SNW seems to go out of its way to ensure they are not wearing a red shirt.
At this point, I honestly don't even care if the show breaks continuity. Keep it going for as long as is feasible. A Trek show about a starship Enterprise discovering new stuff while also navigating intergalactic Cold War boundaries is what we need, not just now, but always.
Sadly, a few days after most of this review was written, Paramount announced they are ending the show at five seasons. This makes a sort of sense, given that it allows for a complete five-year mission. What I hope doesn't happen is much of that last season being devoted to continuity. The individual adventures are the fun of it – if you must explain how Pike does or doesn't face his destined wheelchairing so that Kirk takes over, I hope it's covered in just one episode, max.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episodes 301 & 302 are available to stream on July 17th on Paramount+
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