In short, I think Star Trek: Strange New Worlds might be one of the most widely appealing science fiction shows of all time.
But before I discuss it more, I’ve been watching the new Trek, lately. My take on each of them.
Picard is where I started,
In short, it’s kind of like Asimov novels adapted to screen, set in the Star Trek universe. There is much deeper exploration into character flaws, cultures, and technologies. It doesn’t really follow the rules of Star Trek—which traditionally didn’t have much focus on character flaws and such. A lot of the stuff isn’t on the nose, so it’s a thinking show, while Star Trwk (and TV in general) usually just delivers plot in very obvious terms. In short, this is a show that follows the rules of a novel rather than TV rules. I know it’s divisive, some love it, some hate it. It’s written by Michael Chabon—a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. Each season is like a separate novel of the later adventures of captain Picard. Some people are a little disconcerted about an 80+ year old actor playing a whisky drinking adventurer; but I find it works.
Season 1 is basically a sequel to the Romulan saga and TNG Offspring, and The Measure of a Man. It delves deeper into Romulan culture than anything before.
Season 2 focuses on Q and involves Guinan (yeah, remember that weird TNG plot hole? Finally filled!). This one ties up a lot of loose threads of TNG in particular. Seven of Nine, who was a recurring character is now main cast. Both Seven of Nine and Picard share a Borg Collective last, this is touched on in season 1, more strongly brought together here.
Season 3 brings in more TNG characters, but is largely focused on a mystery surrounding something left loose in Deep Space 9 (I won’t spoil it, because it’s a pleasant surprise). Also, the villain is played by Amanda Plummer, daughter of the late Christopher Plummer who played General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Star Trek Discovery
I ignored this one for a while because I was a little pissed off they got rid of Bryan Fuller and Star Trek fans hate it. But the show is actually quite decent and I quite enjoy it. It’s told in arcs, with some being very short, others being multiple episodes long. The show starts off about a decade before Captain Kirk, but then jumps 1000 years into the future and is pretty much about how an old crew brings the Federation out of the dark ages, which was caused by the Burn, the sudden destruction of most dilithium, which blew up planets and most ships. One thing about Discovery is it’s fairly fast paced and action packed, and it’s a brutally fast pace without much breathing room… virtually the exact opposite of Picard which is a much slower paced and far more detailed show.
Star Trek Shorts
These are independent stories that are about 10-20 minutes long. They are all different genres, although most are comedy. One of them had H Jon Benjamin in it. My favourite is one called Calypso, which I think is some of the finest storytelling in science fiction TV.
Strange New Worlds:
It features Captain Pike (who was a main character in season 2 of Discovery) who is captain of the Star Ship Enterprise—making this the fourth mainline show to center on the Starfleet flagship (TOS, TNG, and Ent before it, although the 1970s animated series took place on it). This is also the first traditional Star Trek episodic format show since Enterprise (or Voyager, I haven’t seen Enterprise, I assume it’s episodic). It’s back to the mostly positive focus characters—not TNG Mary Sue perfection, but around what Deep Space 9 characters were. The storytelling is the best since the original series. Most TNG era stories were good outcome or bad outcome with few dilemma stories. The original series was notable because often there was no right answer, just a choice between one side of a dilemma and another—Strange New Worlds brings this back. This show is closer in style to The Orville than any other Trek shows, it with higher and consistent production values. The Orville is also most similar to the original series of Star Trek, but with many TNG and Voyager references (Brandon Braga, who was a show runner on both those shows is also co-show runner of The Orville). Captain Pike is VERY much James T Kirk from the original series, although in his fifties instead of thirties… but like a middle aged version of the 1960s Kirk, not the 1979-93 Kirk. Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) does a fantastic Spock, like a fucking fantastic Spock. And Rebecca Romijn, with hair dyed brown, does Number One (from TOS: The Cage and The Menagerie) and she does the role to perfection—she also appears in Discovery and ST Shorts. If you’re a Star Trek fan, you’ll like this, even if you only like the films or one of the shows, you’ll most likely like Strange New Worlds. There’s one season available, and the second season starts this Spring.
In Canada, you can get all Trek on Crave TV (which is basically our HBO, Showtime, and Paramount+ wrapped into one). In the US, I believe it is exclusive to Paramount+. Season 2 of Discovery kind of acts as an introduction to Strange New Worlds, although in the more fast paced and arcy Discovery style; in Canada at least, the first three seasons of Discovery and Season 1 of Picard are on Prime. But season 4 and the upcoming 5 of Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Star Trek Shorts, and Picard season 2 and 3 (currently in progress, up to episode 7 of S3) are only on Crave.
But before I discuss it more, I’ve been watching the new Trek, lately. My take on each of them.
Picard is where I started,
In short, it’s kind of like Asimov novels adapted to screen, set in the Star Trek universe. There is much deeper exploration into character flaws, cultures, and technologies. It doesn’t really follow the rules of Star Trek—which traditionally didn’t have much focus on character flaws and such. A lot of the stuff isn’t on the nose, so it’s a thinking show, while Star Trwk (and TV in general) usually just delivers plot in very obvious terms. In short, this is a show that follows the rules of a novel rather than TV rules. I know it’s divisive, some love it, some hate it. It’s written by Michael Chabon—a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. Each season is like a separate novel of the later adventures of captain Picard. Some people are a little disconcerted about an 80+ year old actor playing a whisky drinking adventurer; but I find it works.
Season 1 is basically a sequel to the Romulan saga and TNG Offspring, and The Measure of a Man. It delves deeper into Romulan culture than anything before.
Season 2 focuses on Q and involves Guinan (yeah, remember that weird TNG plot hole? Finally filled!). This one ties up a lot of loose threads of TNG in particular. Seven of Nine, who was a recurring character is now main cast. Both Seven of Nine and Picard share a Borg Collective last, this is touched on in season 1, more strongly brought together here.
Season 3 brings in more TNG characters, but is largely focused on a mystery surrounding something left loose in Deep Space 9 (I won’t spoil it, because it’s a pleasant surprise). Also, the villain is played by Amanda Plummer, daughter of the late Christopher Plummer who played General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Star Trek Discovery
I ignored this one for a while because I was a little pissed off they got rid of Bryan Fuller and Star Trek fans hate it. But the show is actually quite decent and I quite enjoy it. It’s told in arcs, with some being very short, others being multiple episodes long. The show starts off about a decade before Captain Kirk, but then jumps 1000 years into the future and is pretty much about how an old crew brings the Federation out of the dark ages, which was caused by the Burn, the sudden destruction of most dilithium, which blew up planets and most ships. One thing about Discovery is it’s fairly fast paced and action packed, and it’s a brutally fast pace without much breathing room… virtually the exact opposite of Picard which is a much slower paced and far more detailed show.
Star Trek Shorts
These are independent stories that are about 10-20 minutes long. They are all different genres, although most are comedy. One of them had H Jon Benjamin in it. My favourite is one called Calypso, which I think is some of the finest storytelling in science fiction TV.
Strange New Worlds:
It features Captain Pike (who was a main character in season 2 of Discovery) who is captain of the Star Ship Enterprise—making this the fourth mainline show to center on the Starfleet flagship (TOS, TNG, and Ent before it, although the 1970s animated series took place on it). This is also the first traditional Star Trek episodic format show since Enterprise (or Voyager, I haven’t seen Enterprise, I assume it’s episodic). It’s back to the mostly positive focus characters—not TNG Mary Sue perfection, but around what Deep Space 9 characters were. The storytelling is the best since the original series. Most TNG era stories were good outcome or bad outcome with few dilemma stories. The original series was notable because often there was no right answer, just a choice between one side of a dilemma and another—Strange New Worlds brings this back. This show is closer in style to The Orville than any other Trek shows, it with higher and consistent production values. The Orville is also most similar to the original series of Star Trek, but with many TNG and Voyager references (Brandon Braga, who was a show runner on both those shows is also co-show runner of The Orville). Captain Pike is VERY much James T Kirk from the original series, although in his fifties instead of thirties… but like a middle aged version of the 1960s Kirk, not the 1979-93 Kirk. Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck) does a fantastic Spock, like a fucking fantastic Spock. And Rebecca Romijn, with hair dyed brown, does Number One (from TOS: The Cage and The Menagerie) and she does the role to perfection—she also appears in Discovery and ST Shorts. If you’re a Star Trek fan, you’ll like this, even if you only like the films or one of the shows, you’ll most likely like Strange New Worlds. There’s one season available, and the second season starts this Spring.
In Canada, you can get all Trek on Crave TV (which is basically our HBO, Showtime, and Paramount+ wrapped into one). In the US, I believe it is exclusive to Paramount+. Season 2 of Discovery kind of acts as an introduction to Strange New Worlds, although in the more fast paced and arcy Discovery style; in Canada at least, the first three seasons of Discovery and Season 1 of Picard are on Prime. But season 4 and the upcoming 5 of Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Star Trek Shorts, and Picard season 2 and 3 (currently in progress, up to episode 7 of S3) are only on Crave.
