star trek strange new worlds technology

Strange New Worlds' Upgraded Tech Has a Simple Explanation

Some Star Trek fans think technology on Strange New Worlds is too advanced compared to The Original Series, but there is a simple explanation.

Quick Links

Star trek's time travelers explain ever-advancing prequel technology, star trek: voyager explained the modern computer age tos didn't see coming, how time-travel solves star trek's 21st century history problem, what happens when the present catches up to star trek's future.

• Time travel in Star Trek's canon explains why the technology in Strange New Worlds is more advanced than what fans saw in The Original Series.
• Temporal Prime Directive-breaking time travel episodes in previous series create ripple effects that lead to technological advancements earlier than they were supposed to occur.
• The timeline in Star Trek is always in flux, and as the franchise progresses, it will continue to edge closer to future events, resulting in changes to past and future technology.

The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds featured a significant time-travel episode with the crew of the original USS Enterprise. Of course, comparing a picture of Captain Kirk's bridge to the modern Captain Pike's highlights just how more advanced the "older" technology is. Thankfully, Star Trek has a sci-fi explanation in its canon for why Strange New World s' Enterprise is so much more advanced than Star Trek: The Original Series ' version. Obviously, the real-world answer to this question is Strange New Worlds is a new show, and The Original Series had to invent impossible technology on a shoestring budget in 1966.

At its core, it's a question of suspension of disbelief. Still, the disparity of technology in the prequels breaks immersion for some Star Trek fans. While never stated explicitly, Star Trek has an answer for that specific problem: time travel. The fourth episode of The Original Series featured a story where the crew was sent 71 hours into their past. Kirk and the gang would travel back to the 20th century a handful of times afterward in the series and films. Of course, all this Temporal Prime Directive breaking is not without consequences.

Updated February 12, 2024, by Joshua M. Patton: For most fans, accepting the real-life reason for the disparity in technology is easy to do. Whether the updated technology in Strange New Worlds breaks immersion or not, this is a fun subject for fans to think about when considering the Star Trek timeline . Because of all the temporal shenanigans, it means viewers can consider release order as well as when in the timeline a story takes place. The stardate matters, but release order does as well, since the effects of time travel in everything from TOS to Star Trek: Enterprise bring changes to the future and the past as well. This article has been updated to comport with CBR's current formatting standards.

Boimler and Mariner Didn't Actually Change Strange New Worlds' Timeline

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Scotty and the crew end up in the 1980s, which is lucky because they have to bring two humpback whales back to their future. To modify their ship, Scotty goes to a 20th century manufacturing company and gives them a formula for transparent aluminum. Also, Dr. McCoy treats some 20th Century patients with 23rd Century medicine. Every successive Star Trek series until Discovery featured at least one episode where characters travel back to the past. The ripple effects from Starfleet meddling in the timeline and shared technology can explain why new series set in Star Trek 's past have more futuristic technology .

When Doctor McCoy chastises Scotty for giving up the formula to the advanced material (patented in the real world in 1988, two years after the film), Scotty replies, "How do we know he didn't invent it?" It's a funny line and hand waves away the consequences of breaking the Temporal Prime Directive. A change as seemingly insignificant as this could have consequences far beyond just making bulletproof windows. The concepts introduced by this formula could have led to further breakthroughs earlier than they were supposed to occur. At the very least, this alone can explain why the materials on the USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds look significantly more advanced than those on the ship in The Original Series .

Does Kirk's Revelation on Strange New Worlds Fit Star Trek's Timeline?

In The Original Series , the Starfleet crew uses colorful squares called "data tapes," which look remarkably like the 3.5-inch floppy disks used in the 1980s, a technological advancement the series creators didn't see coming. In the famous Star Trek episode that introduced Khan, Kirk revealed that the Eugenics Wars broke out in 1996. However, Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew travel back to 1996 in Star Trek: Voyager Season 3, Episode 8 "Future's End, Part 1." There they discover that the technological revolution the world enjoyed wasn't supposed to happen. It was because a reckless capitalist played by Ed Begley, Jr. cannibalized a 29th Century Starfleet vessel for parts and tech.

If Kirk's Earth didn't have the computer age that began in the 1980s, it makes sense that his version of the Enterprise bridge would seem so retro. Of course, this didn't explain why Khan Noonien Singh wasn't out there taking over the world. In Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," it's revealed why. Star Trek: Enterprise introduced the idea of a Temporal Cold War, which this episode reveals went hot at some point. A Romulan time agent was sent to 1996 to stop Khan, thus preventing the Federation's existence. She revealed that time had changed, and Khan didn't emerge until the near-future date of that episode. So, while Star Trek 's time travel changes the past, the "canon events" still occur in the timeline, just later than they were originally supposed to.

The New Star Trek Series Could Erase the Kelvin Timeline, but Shouldn't

Star Trek: Discovery included lots of technology The Original Series never dreamed of, despite also being a prequel. The storytellers got around this by making the Discovery a bleeding edge research vessel. Still, Pike's Enterprise is incredibly futuristic while still honoring the style of the bridge created by Matt Jeffries for the first series. The advancements compared to Kirk's bridge aren't the result of real-world VFX improvements, but reckless Starfleet time-travelers causing advancements that weren't supposed to happen. This is even at play in Star Trek: Picard .

The ship used in the first two seasons of Picard , La Sirena , featured an almost fully-holographic control panel. These aren't the holograms of The Next Generation 's era, they look like holograms. Even with nearly two decades separating that show from Star Trek: Nemesis , that's a significant technological advancement. The first prequel series, Star Trek: Enterprise , takes place a century before Strange New Worlds . Time travelers from the 26th Century left loads of technology behind in their encounters with Captain Archer and the NX-01. Even though the Temporal Prime Directive exists, there is no way the nerds at Starfleet won't use that knowledge to better their own technology.

The crew of La Sirena time-traveled themselves to the 2020s in Season 2, sent there to fix a change to the timeline that made Picard's present a xenophobic dystopia. While they fix history, Captain Cristobal Rios stays behind, changing the timeline. He's shown to be technologically proficient, so it's possible that in his work helping migrants and refugees he "invented" some technology that further changed things. The group Rios joined was called "Mariposa," Spanish for "butterfly," and it's possible these butterflies affected more than just the people they aided.

Everything We Know About Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Season 3

In 2024, the present has caught up to the near-future Deep Space Nine visited in its third season episode "Past Tense," detailing a housing and employment crisis. Luckily for those writers but unluckily for the real world, they got more right than they got wrong. But what if Gene Roddenberry's storytelling universe continues for another 60 years? The dates of the Eugenics Wars and WWIII that led to the decimated future seen in Star Trek: First Contact shift all the time. Deep Space Nine said the Eugenics Wars happened in the 22nd Century, but Strange New Worlds changed that. This shows the timeline is always in flux.

Eventually, Star Trek will edge ever closer to 2063, when Zefram Cochrane builds the first warp engine and meets the Vulcans. Perhaps that's what Michelle Yeoh's Star Trek movie will be about. When she was last seen in Discovery, she was headed back to the past to stop the creation of the Mirror Universe. For an over 50-year-old franchise like Star Trek , the future starts slow but arrives quickly nonetheless. Strange New World 's amazingly advanced Enterprise bridge is not an immersion-breaking result of miraculous VFX on television. Rather, it's the result of centuries of time travel mistakes making the past a little worse and the future a little better.

Strange New Worlds Season 3 is currently filming in Toronto and will likely debut in early 2025.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The series follows Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock, and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise , as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.

How the Starship Enterprise Was Redesigned for ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

By Scott Mantz

Scott Mantz

• How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Resurrected an Iconic Set 1 year ago
• How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Created the High-Tech Bridge of Its Newest Starship 1 year ago
• How ‘Babylon’s’ Cocaine-Snorting Opening Sequence Came Together 1 year ago

Throughout “Star Trek’s” long 56-year history, the Starship Enterprise has been designed, redesigned, reimagined, blown to smithereens and then reimagined again for the various TV incarnations and feature films based on the classic series created by Gene Roddenberry.

But for the prequel series “Strange New Worlds,” which recently concluded its highly-praised first season, the responsibility to get the Enterprise just right was not lost on production designer Jonathan Lee. This was, after all, the Enterprise that was commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (played by Anson Mount), which was the immediate predecessor of the Enterprise that Captain James T. Kirk first made famous back in 1966 with “The Original Series.”

“We were all of the mind that the Enterprise is a star of the show,” Lee explains. “It’s a major player. It’s an actor, really. It’s not a weapon of war. It’s one when it has to be, but that’s not its function. It’s a scientific research vessel. It’s also a sanctuary. We discussed the Enterprise in that very creative way before we got into the detail of how we were going to deal with the individual elements of it.”

Those elements started with the Bridge, which already made its debut during the second season of “Star Trek: Discovery.” But now that Pike’s Enterprise was getting its own show — one that will hopefully (and boldly) go the distance with a five-year mission — that called for significant revisions to the nerve center of the Enterprise.

Popular on Variety

“We’ve taken the set that we’ve inherited, but we did a great deal of work,” Lee said. “[Executive Producer] Akiva Goldsman briefed me to bring it back to ‘The Original Series.’ We had to move things around a little bit. We moved the captain’s chair around so that Captain Pike could throw a look to helm and navigations really easily, and that would work with the camera.” And since the viewscreen that was seen in “Discovery” was depicted using visual effects, a physical representation of the viewscreen was designed and added to the Bridge set for “Strange New Worlds.”

Lee also changed the color language from the “Discovery” version of the Enterprise. “It was quite cool with blues and greens and cool yellows. I said, the Bridge must feel warmer, particularly the motion graphics on all the monitors. When you see the before and after, it’s pretty dramatically different, but it’s much more intimate, and it feels more like our show.”

But where Lee worked from a previously constructed design for the Bridge, he designed the Sickbay set from the ground up to allow for more ambitious shooting. “Our little mantra for our show is ‘scope and scale,’ and one of the influences for the whole thing generally is ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’” Lee says. “That’s what drove the whole scale of Sickbay. You can take the camera on a dolly; you can go all over that set without stopping, and we can bring a crane in to shoot straight through it.”

And where the beds from “The Original Series” were positioned against the wall, Lee put the beds for “Strange New Worlds” in the middle of the room, so the cameras could go all the way around them and not miss an angle. “Sickbay follows the true radius of the ship, so the beds are set on a radius, the walls are set on a radius, and you really feel like you’re in the circular shape of the saucer section of the ship.”

But perhaps Lee’s biggest challenge came with the design of Engineering, which had to look powerful enough to propel the Enterprise to Warp 9 and beyond. “I wanted to see this amazing structure of the ship, so I thought of what we call the Intermix Chamber, which is a big feature in the middle of Engineering,” he said. “And in the middle of it is this piece that looks like the Sun boiling away, and we can see the Warp Core at work doing its thing.”

To achieve that effect, Lee used cutting-edge new technology called Augmented Reality, or an AR studio, in which a digital wall that’s 25 feet high, 70 feet wide and 100 feet deep is wrapped around the physical set like a horseshoe and contained a 3-D image of the virtual portion on its LED screen.

The decision to build the AR studio was done at the 11th hour and turned out to be just what the Engineering set needed. “We only had to build the foreground element where the actors would work, and the handrail around the elevated area where the actors are becomes the handoff between the physical set and the digital AR extension. And that was a phenomenal decision because it then allowed us to make the scale of the Warp Core look even bigger,” Lee said.

In all, Lee and his team of 60 people designed 10 Enterprise sets for “Strange New Worlds,” which also included the Transporter Room, two corridors, crew quarters, the shuttlecraft interior, the Mess Hall and the Cargo Bay. And there’s more where that came from for the Enterprise in Season 2 (which recently wrapped shooting), such as the Port Galley, a science lab, the Nacelle Room and the Shuttle Bay.

More From Our Brands

Mandisa honored with special ‘american idol’ tribute performance, former google ceo eric schmidt is selling his silicon valley estate for $24.5 million, harris, blitzer add flag football operator to unrivaled portfolio, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, the voice: did the right 6 contestants make it through to the lives, verify it's you, please log in.

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Which Deck Do They Keep the Whales On? & More Enterprise Design Secrets

Strange New Worlds designer takes us behind the scenes on why Captain Pike’s quarters are bigger than Kirk’s, how HMS Victory influenced the Enterprise, greebles, Jefferies Tubes, and much, much more.

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

Jonathan Lee is a designer whose work has appeared in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and the Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies , but his latest job is perhaps his most iconic yet – production designer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

In particular, Lee was responsible for designing much of the interior for the latest iteration of the world’s most famous starship. We had a chat with him to learn the secrets of this version of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (no blood A, B, C or D!)

Here’s what we learned.

The TOS Enterprise Got a Lot Right First Time

Jonathan and his team were not the first to redesign the Enterprise for the 2020s. A large part of why Strange New Worlds was commissioned was the warm fan reception to a guest appearance by Pike & Co in Star Trek: Discovery season 2, but even that appearance left a lot of room for the new TV series to work in.

Ad – content continues below

“They had to convert the Discovery sets into the Enterprise, although they did build the bridge,” Lee points out. “But we were launching a whole new show, so we went back to basics, with the exception of the bridge, which we did keep a chunk of.”

This means going to the drawing board and working out what rooms of the Enterprise Strange New Worlds would need to show. What would the writers need?

The answers, it turned out, had already been pretty well defined 40 years ago.

“It was very similar to what they did in the 60s,” Lee says. “They needed a transporter room, a sick bay, corridors, an engine room. I began general conversations with the producers about their ambitions for the look of the show and they encouraged me to follow my instincts.”

Lee is a lifelong fan of the original series, and while there was lots of work to do in creating a new look for the ship, he was not above making sure his old favourites made the cut. “It’s looked at now as being vintage and dated, but to me, it was cutting edge, fantastic new stuff coming from America to our TV in Scotland,” Lee recalls. “We were blown away by it, so revisiting it was a bit of a dream.”

Details that Lee carried over to the new design included the amber-orange colour of the sickbay’s bed and blankets, the sloped design of the Jefferies’ Tubes (named for one of Lee’s predecessors, TOS production designer, Matt Jefferies), and even the “navigation globe” on the dashboard of the shuttlecraft.

“I was a big fan of that, and we spent quite a lot of money making a fabulous version of that, that was a lot of fun,” Lee says.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Pike’s Quarters Are Far Bigger Than Kirk’s

Another aspect of the old series Lee drew inspiration from was the way the quarters of the TOS Enterprise were personalised for each crewmember, although Lee built on that in the designs for the show to create even more customised designs for each character.

That was pushed even further when it came to the captain’s quarters. Where Kirk’s quarters were largely a redressed version of any other crewmember’s quarters, Pike has an impressively spacious suite.

“One big new thing was Pike’s quarters was a much bigger space than Kirk’s quarters in TOS,” Lee says. “They wanted to have our captain be much more collegial, bringing the crew into his quarters off duty to understand them. Anson Mount was very keen to have a big kitchen, a ranch style kitchen so he could be standing cooking up steaks or pasta with the crew around the table.”

In the series, Pike’s quarters have become the scene for much of the crew’s socialising and bonding, and Mount’s Pike clear enjoys playing host. But Pike’s quarters are not the only rooms on the ship to see an extension – for practical reasons as much as aesthetic ones.

“We didn’t want the sets to feel small because you would always be taking the walls of the set out to fit the cameras, which slows down production,” Lee tells us. “Which was great for me because I could make the sets quite expansive.”

The Enterprise’s Space Battle in Discovery Had Lasting Consequences

One thing that makes the OG Enterprise different from its successors and predecessor is that in almost every other Star Trek series we meet the hero ship either as, or not long after, it graciously glides out of dry dock for the first time. When Kirk helmed the Enterprise it already had a long history behind it, and even Pike commands a ship that feels like it has as many adventures behind it as ahead.

Lee speaks fondly of “the scorch” – the oldest bit of plating on the Enterprise’s hull which the Ensigns dare each other spacewalk out to.

But even its recent history has had a lasting effect on the ship. “The last time the Enterprise was seen in Discovery , it was being towed away to space dock after the entire front portion of the saucer had been blown off and the ship was unusable,” Lee points out. “It gave me a chance to explore the concept that they had to rebuild the front of the saucer, and bring new technology into that.”

Lee introduced new windows that go right around the front part of the saucer section, with blast shields that will close up in the event of combat. From the inside, this gives the Enterprise an expansive, and dramatic-looking Mess Hall set.

This Enterprise’s Influences Go Back to the Age of Sail

While obviously, the original series’ Enterprise was a huge influence on the Strange New Worlds incarnation, Star Trek ’s ships have always drawn from the real world for inspiration. The original 60s sets were evocative of modern battleships. The Next Generation ’s Enterprise, meanwhile felt more like a flying conference centre (which was appropriate, given how many peace talks took place there).

For his take on the Enterprise, Lee went much further back. “Funnily enough, I don’t talk about this very much, but one of the things that is a constant inspiration for me is the wooden battleship HMS Victory, the most superb fighting vessel created of its time,” Lee said. “It had an enormous crew and hundreds of guns, and everything in that ship, nothing was wasted, nothing was there that didn’t have a purpose.”

As Lee points out, it is known that one of Gene Roddenberry’s influences for Star Trek was CS Forester’s Hornblower novels, and that is a feeling he definitely brings to his designs.

“Even with Pike’s quarters I remember thinking about Nelson’s quarters on the Victory, which is actually a really interesting part of the ship,” Lee explains. “It’s huge. Nelson had an enormous cabin and three huge rooms, but when it came to battle all the furniture was put in boats behind the ship and they opened it up and brought cannons into his quarters. So it was very, very functional space even though it seemed very generous.”

…And Also, Of Course, The Sixties

But despite being set roughly two hundred years into our future, Star Trek ’s 23 rd century will always be inextricably linked to the 1960s that birthed it.

“I spent a long time looking at architects like Eero Saarinen, Oscar Neymar, Carlo Scarpa, and Pier Luigi Nervi. These guys’ work was all percolating around the world at the time Star Trek was being conceived and I thought it would be great to bring all these influences into the set,” Lee says. “But it wasn’t looking at a particular thing and saying I’ll take that and put it there. It was more like a feeling when you look at this stuff and get a sense of how they use space, how they work through one space and into another.”

This link to the sixties was also present in the set dressing, which was hugely important. “The set decorator, [Justin] Craig and I spent months thinking about set dressing in terms of things we could buy, and if we couldn’t buy it we would build it from scratch,” Lee says.

Where they couldn’t buy the right objects, they would build them from scratch, with Pike’s own bed and sofa being designed and built specifically for the show. But these bespoke pieces were mixed in with a blend of vintage sixties period dressing, replicas, and outsourced furniture makers working with that aesthetic in mind.

Latest TV reviews

Star trek: discovery season 5 episode 5 review – mirrors, the red king review: uneven folk horror crime mash-up, red eye review: itv thriller starts silly, gets great, lee broke with tradition by exposing the ship’s tech.

A ubiquitous element of modern TV and movie spaceship design is the “greeble”, the little features that litter the outside of most spaceship models, real or CGI. The Millennium Falcon is covered in them. So is Red Dwarf. So is pretty much any fictional spaceship you care to name.

It is not a design trend the Enterprise’s original designer, Matt Jefferies, would have approved of. In his design of the Enterprise, he drew the quite sensible conclusion that space is insanely dangerous, and any space engineer in their right mind would want to be able to fix any ship components from the inside , leaving a smooth outer hull. “I constantly had to fight anyone who wanted to put surface details on the thing,” Jefferies reportedly said .

For the most part, Strange New World ’s outer hull conforms to this philosophy. However, on the inside of the ship, Lee decided he wanted to see a bit more of the Enterprise’s workings.

“Our corridors look very different from TOS,” he says. “That’s where we began to get our ethos of our new ship. Something I wanted to do from the very beginning was expose the structure of the ship and where possible expose the technology.”

Once again, Lee is drawing from inspirations beyond spaceship, or even ship design. “In the sixties, they had a lot of blank grey walls and it reminded me of houses in the fifties where you’d see Victorian houses with all the Victorian detailing covered up,” Lee tells us. “So what would happen if you took off those grey walls in TOS?”

One of the pieces of tech Lee was proudest to expose was the large “intermix chamber” in engineering. The anti-matter matter reactor was an element often mentioned, but seldom seen in previous Treks.

“I created this big drum shape in the middle of engineering that pulsates with light, almost as if there’s a little piece of the sun in the middle of it behind three feet of transparent aluminium,” Lee says (referencing the transparent metal Scotty “invents” in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ).

Engineering is Basically Filmed in a Holodeck

Not all the Star Trek -ish technology on screen in Strange New Worlds is intended for the audience to notice, and the ship’s engine room is the perfect example.

“Our engineering is almost a whole new set. It is so enormous, but it does hark back to TOS where you had a foreground area the crew could interact, with and in the background there was the warp core stretching away,” Lee says. “But we did it on a massive scale that was a very big set for us.”

The way they did this was by using a technology called “Augmented Reality” or “AR”, which allows filmmakers to do big special effects but without relying too much on green or blue screen technology.

“It is exactly the same design process, but instead of a blue screen it’s a big LED screen and it appears around you in the studio for real,” Lee says.

If you’re a Star Trek fan who thinks this sounds weirdly familiar, you’re not the only one. “It’s very futuristic, very holodeck-y,” Lee admits. “But hopefully the audience will not realise when they’re seeing the AR wall. Every time you see engineering, you’re looking at the AR wall.” The AR wall is also used to extend the Enterprise’s cargo bay and mess hall.

The Episode “The Elysian Kingdom” Almost Included Lifesize Illustrations

One of the most fun episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ’ first season was ‘ The Elysian Kingdom ’. Like many episodes of the new series, it felt like a throwback – like the sort of plot the TOS or TNG writers might have come up with when they didn’t have much budget for an episode. But the episode itself looks incredibly lavish, with the familiar decks of the Enterprise done up like a fantasy kingdom.

It could have looked very different, however. “We spent a long time trying to decide how to bring a children’s fairy tale book to life,” Lee says. “Our first thought was to actually make everything look like a children’s fairy tale book. Literally, take the illustrations and blow them up. So a tree would look like an illustrated tree but nine feet high, and the set dressing would all look exactly like the illustrations.”

Eventually, however, he chose a different tack. “After a while, it just didn’t work,” he admits. “In the end, we decided to try it more for real, with trees that looked like real trees, the witch’s cauldron would be a real cauldron with smoke coming out of it. It took quite a while to work with the writers and the director ultimately to get that look right, but I was really pleased with the way it ended up.”

Even the Designers Aren’t Sure Which Enterprise Rooms You Might See Next

Now it depends on exactly what kind of fan you are, but if you are very into Star Trek there are reasonable odds that at some point you have pored over an elaborate schematic drawing of at least one of the Enterprises.

But while these are fun, Strange New Worlds avoided pinning itself down in this way.

“The ship has a sort of mythical sense about it which I really liked in TOS,” Lee says. “You kind of didn’t know where things were. You knew where the bridge was, the impulse engines, the nacelles, you had a sense that engineering was down in the lower hull.”

The Enterprise of the original series was a lot like the small town in a Wild West TV show. If the plot required a blacksmith, or a funeral parlour, or a performing magician, the characters could turn a corner and find that there had been one here the whole time! It’s a sense Lee wants to bring back.

“People get very excited about drawings and cross sections, but it takes away from the mythology of the ship,” Lee argues. “[Executive Producer] Akiva Goldsman is always challenging us to think of the Enterprise in unusual ways. He often jokes about really crazy things, such as asking which deck do they keep the whales on? He doesn’t mean that literally, but it’s a way of making sure we don’t just keep our heads in the canon world. We invent new canon.”

On the Enterprise D, Cetacean Ops could be found on decks 13 and 14, and the latest series of Star Trek: Lower Decks actually depicts the deck on screen for the first time, although pointing this out probably misses the point that Lee is trying to make.

And while we’re at it – the earliest deck plans we have for the TOS era Enterprise reveal that the lowest deck of the ship is given over entirely to a massive bowling alley. Will we ever get to visit that?

Lee doesn’t dismiss the suggestion as quickly as you might think. He tells us “We are gradually adding to the recreational side of the ship, more and more, so watch this space!”

All episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are now available to stream on Paramount Plus UK.

Chris Farnell

Chris Farnell is a freelance writer and the author of a novel, an anthology, a Doctor Who themed joke book and some supplementary RPG material. He…

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: everything we know about the Star Trek prequel

The latest intel on Original Series prequel Strange New Worlds – including its release date and mysterious Khan connections.

• Release date
• Is there a trailer?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2

The adventures of the USS Enterprise didn’t start with James T Kirk. Star Trek : Strange New Worlds is set around a decade before he embarked on the most famous five-year mission in TV history, and puts his predecessor – Christopher Pike – back in the captain’s chair.

Pike first appeared in original Star Trek pilot ‘The Cage’ back in 1966, but it was his comeback in Star Trek: Discovery’s second season (where he was played by Anson Mount) that earned him his own spin-off show. Pike and fellow ‘Cage’ veterans Number One (played by Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck inheriting the role made famous by Leonard Nimoy) proved so popular with fans that Paramount Plus decided to make Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the latest addition to Trek’s rapidly expanding shared universe .

And when it launches later this year, the show will feature a few more iconic names from the ’60s, including Nurse Chapel, Dr M’Benga and a genuine Trek legend in the form of Uhura. There’s also a mysterious crew member called La’an Noonien-Singh, whose surname has a special resonance for fans of the final frontier.

With producers promising less serialized storytelling than Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds looks set to get back to the cosmos-exploring traditions of the Original Series and The Next Generation. Here’s everything we know so far – hit it!

What is it? A Star Trek: Discovery spin-off following the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike, science officer Spock and first officer Una Chin-Riley (better known as Number One) on the USS Enterprise, around a decade before James T Kirk takes command. 

Release date: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will beam onto Paramount Plus on May 5, 2022 – after Star Trek: Discovery season 4 and Star Trek: Picard season 2 have finished boldly going.

Cast: Alongside its familiar trio of lead characters (still played by Discovery's Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn), six new crew members will be taking their places on the Enterprise bridge. Read more about them below. 

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds release date

Star trek: strange new worlds release date: may 2022.

It's so long ago that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds got its greenlight (May 2020) that Paramount Plus was still known as CBS All Access at the time. 

Unfortunately, coronavirus significantly delayed its departure from Spacedock, and the show didn't make it in front of the cameras until March 2021. Production on Strange New Worlds' 10-episode first season eventually wrapped in October 2021, as confirmed in a video announcement from star Anson Mount:

Incoming transmission from Captain Pike himself Anson Mount ✨ #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds pic.twitter.com/7MzivTtKCH October 11, 2021

Now the wait for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is almost over. StarTrek.com confirmed on January 18, 2022 that the new voyages of the USS Enterprise will boldly go onto Paramount Plus in the US on Thursday May 5, 2022 – coinciding with the conclusion of Starfleet stablemate Picard's second season. 

Jess Bush, who'll play Nurse Christine Chapel in the show, celebrated the announcement by posing in one of the Enterprise's Jefferies Tubes with co-star Christina Chong (La'an Noonien-Singh).

A post shared by Jess Bush (@onejessa) A photo posted by on

While we know Strange New Worlds will stream on Paramount Plus in the US, it may vary depending on where you are. The streamer is set to launch in the UK in 2022, and we'd expect to see Strange New Worlds debuting on there – especially after the recent controversial announcement that Discovery's fourth season has been shifted from its traditional international home on Netflix, to help launch Paramount Plus around the world.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds trailer

Is there a star trek: strange new worlds trailer.

There's no sign as yet, but with less than three months until the series' launch, it can't be long until we get to see a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds trailer. Indeed, with Star Trek: Discovery returning from its mid-season break and Picard's second season kicking off in early March, Paramount have a pair of tentpoles they can hang a promo off.

That said, journalists at the show's Television Critics Association panel on February 1, 2022 were treated to first-look footage focussing on Cadet Nyota Uhura (played by Celia Rose Gooding), the character made famous by Nichelle Nichols in the Original Series. Den of Geek reported that most of the bridge crew were also accounted for in the clip.  

Back in September 2021, the Star Trek Day event also unveiled a brief teaser introducing the cast. It contains a few stills from the new series, including a glimpse at the new-look USS Enterprise uniforms – a modern riff on the classic gold, blue and uniforms we saw in ’The Cage’ and the original series.

Meet the cast of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds 💫 https://t.co/M6D2tyQuBA pic.twitter.com/z6ImvEKwZV September 9, 2021

Going back even further in time, leads Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn beamed in an announcement video in May 2020:

As you’d expect, the party line was very much that the show exists because of fan demand. “Without you this wouldn’t be happening,” says Peck, while Mount explains a bit about the tone of the series. “[It’s] a classic Star Trek show that deals with optimism and the future.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds poster: the frontier is waiting

While Paramount are keeping us waiting for a trailer, the tantalizing new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds poster is doing more than enough to get us excited about the show. It features Captain Pike on horseback in what looks like his home in the Mojave desert – but the real excitement comes from what's in the sky above him. The iconic USS Enterprise is hovering in front of a pair of alien worlds – and, no doubt, several new life forms and new civilizations. 

If the "The frontier is waiting" tagline isn't enough to get Trek fans firing up their warp drives, chances are nothing will.

A post shared by Star Trek (@startrek) A photo posted by on

“We wanted [the poster] to reflect that the [concept] of the final frontier is at just the beginning,” executive producer (and Star Trek's de facto commander-in-chief) Alex Kurtzman told the show's TCA panel (via Syfy ) . “We think it brings the sense of nostalgia hope, optimism, exploration and sense of adventure."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast

Star trek: strange new worlds cast: who’s beaming onto the enterprise bridge.

The principal Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast looks like this:

• Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike
• Ethan Peck as Mr Spock
• Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley/Number One
• Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel
• Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh
• Celia Rose Gooding as Cadet Nyota Uhura
• Melissa Navia as Lt Erica Ortegas
• Babs Olusanmokun as Dr M'Benga
• Bruce Horak as Hemmer

Ever since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was confirmed in 2020, we've known that three actors would be reprising their roles from Discovery.

Anson Mount is back in the captain’s chair as Captain Christopher Pike. Meanwhile, after proving himself worthy of donning the pointy ears that once belonged to Leonard Nimoy, Ethan Peck returns as Spock. Rebecca Romijn continues as first officer/helmsperson Number One.

A ‘start of production’ video released in March 2021 introduced five other members of the cast: 

The five new additions to the USS Enterprise bridge crew are Melissa Navia (from Dietland), Celia Rose Gooding (Jagged Little Pill), Christina Chong (Doctor Who, Line of Duty), Babs Olusanmokun (Black Mirror), and Jess Bush (Skinford). 

At the Star Trek Day panel in September 2021, it was finally confirmed who each of them would be playing.  We also learned that the full name of Number One is Una Chin-Riley – the first time this has been confirmed in the character’s 56-year history.

Intriguingly, three of the new cast members are playing characters who – like, Pike, Number One and Spock – were first established in the 1960s. 

The most famous of these roles goes to Celia Rose Gooding, who plays a younger version of Nyota Uhura, the Enterprise communications officer famously portrayed by Nichelle Nichols in the original series and first six Star Trek movies. (Guardians of the Galaxy's Zoe Saldana took on the role in JJ Abrams' rebooted Trek.) 

Gooding explained to the assembled journalists at the TCA event in February 2021 that this will be a much less experienced version of the communications officer we saw serving alongside Captain Kirk in the Original series. 

“Nichelle had a level of understanding and clarity [in her portrayal], but we're showing different parts of her humanity, which isn't as sure and asks questions as we go along,” the actress explained. “Getting to represent an iconic character in a multi-faceted way is an honor and now we're getting to see other sides of Uhura that go outside of the limitations set for Black women in the '60s."

Babs Olusanmokun plays Dr M'Benga (originally played by Booker Bradshaw), a character who filled in as the Enterprise's chief medical officer when Dr McCoy was absent in the original series. Jess Bush, meanwhile, inherits the role of Nurse Christine Chapel, who worked alongside McCoy in the Enterprise Sick Bay. 

Chapel is one of two Strange New Worlds characters who were originally played by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry back in the 1960s – the other is Number One, who made her one-and-only vintage Trek appearance in 'The Cage'. (Barrett-Roddenberry also went on to play Lwaxana Troi and voice the Enterprise computers in The Next Generation.)

Of the Starfleet newbies, Bruce Horak's Hemmer is a member of the Andorian species. The fact he's wearing a red shirt – aka Star Trek's sartorial kiss of death – doesn't bode well for his life expectancy. The same could be said for Melissa Navia's Lt Erica Ortegas.

The most mysterious addition to the cast, however, is Christina Chong's La'an Noonien-Singh. The fact she shares a surname with The Wrath of Khan's Big Bad can't be a coincidence, but seeing as Trek canon tells us the cryogenically frozen 20th century villain won't be thawed out until after Kirk has taken command of the Enterprise, it's unclear how they're linked – but there definitely is a connection. 

"She's related to Khan for sure, and, uh, the deal will unfold...” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman confirmed at a Television Critics Association panel in February 2022 (via the Hollywood Reporter ).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds already has its first great mystery...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds story

What can we expect to see in the star trek: strange new worlds story.

Star Trek: Discovery spoilers ahead – proceed with caution if you haven't seen season 2.

Pike, Spock and Number One have been part of the Star Trek story even longer than James T Kirk – they were on board the Enterprise in original Star Trek pilot ‘The Cage’, unaired in the ’60s and set more than a decade before Kirk’s famous five-year mission. Jeffrey Hunter, Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett originated the three roles.

While we know that the trio have been together at least three years by the time Star Trek: Strange New Worlds kicks off and that a tragic fate awaits Pike – more on that later – most of their voyages remain undocumented. That means it’s prime storytelling territory and – after the more serialized Discovery and Picard – a chance for Trek to get back to the standalone stories of its earlier years. 

“We’re going to try to harken back to some classical Trek values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic,” executive producer Akiva Goldsman (and director of the Strange New Worlds pilot episode) told Variety in May 2020. “Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story building. But I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you’ve seen in either Discovery or Picard.”

The ability to visit a huge galaxy of, well, strange new worlds, should allow the show to feel different from week to week – after all, this versatile formula is a big reason for the franchise’s longevity.

“We want to do Star Trek in the classic mode; Star Trek in the way Star Trek stories were always told,” fellow EP Henry Alonso Myers said at a Star Trek Day panel (via TrekMovie ). “It's a ship and it's traveling to strange new worlds and we are going to tell big ideas science fiction adventures in an episodic mode. So we have room to meet new aliens, see new ships, visit new cultures..."

Strange New Worlds won't be entirely devoid of serialization, however, as writer Akela Cooper explained: “While we'll have individual one-off plots, the character arcs are what's going to carry us through in a more serialized fashion. There's probably one point that we will be sprinkling through this series until we actually get to the episode. And that's all I can say about that.” 

Goldsman explained a bit more about the structure of the show in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in April: “If you think back to the original [Star Trek] series, it was tonally more liberal – I don‘t mean in terms of politics but it could sort of be more fluid. Like sometimes Robert Bloch would write a horror episode. Or Harlan Ellison would have ‘City on the Edge of Forever’, which is hard sci-fi. Then there would be comedic episodes like 'Shore Leave’ or ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’. So [co-showrunner] Henry Alonso Myers and myself are trying to serve that. We’ve all become very enamored, myself included, with serialized storytelling. Picard is deeply serialized but Strange New Worlds is very much adventure-of-the-week, but with serialized character arcs.”

Going on Mount’s performance in Discovery, Pike is the ideal captain for an optimistic mission of exploration. 

“The writers have done a magnificent job of establishing this captain as his own iteration of what a Starfleet captain should be, independent of other captains in canon,” the actor said at the TCA panel (as reported by Syfy ). “Humility is a big part of his character. And his father was a science teacher and scholar of comparative religion, so exploration is a big part of Pike. He’s looking at the things that made us see what’s next over the horizon? Are we searchers or conquerors?”

We can also expect to see a Spock more prone to displays of emotion than his Original Series counterpart, as the younger version of the character struggles to balance his logical Vulcan side with his human urges.

Indeed, in ‘The Cage’, Number One was the more buttoned-up, logical member of the crew – her personality traits passing to the Vulcan when Star Trek went to series. “She's way more complex than y'all know,” actor Rebecca Romijn teased in the cast introduction video released on Star Trek Day, and she expanded on the theme in the panel.

“'The Cage' being such an old pilot, the writers have this very unique opportunity where they've had this character that's existed since the beginning of the canon, but she's never been written,” Romijn pointed out. “I can't wait to find out how vast her skill set is. What are the arrows in her quiver? My number one question is, 'What's her backstory?’ [The writer's room] floated an idea for Number One's backstory that I'm not going to share right now because it blew my mind when they said it.”

Despite being made more than half a century after the Original Series, the look of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will echo those early ’60s designs – from the Enterprise starship interiors to the Starfleet uniforms. 

“It’s a fine line because, obviously, we want to keep continuity with the storytelling and the style, but we also want Strange New Worlds to be a different show,” Goldsman told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s not Discovery. There are a few more reach-backs [to the Original Series] and the uniforms have been adjusted slightly, the sets are slightly different. Remember, the Enterprise existed as a little piece [of Star Trek: Discovery], but now it’s its own object. When you close your eyes and think of the key sets and situations that you think of the Original Series, that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Intriguingly, at this point in the Star Trek timeline , Kirk and other members of the original crew must be out there somewhere in the universe, so the smart money would be on a few headline-grabbing (recast) guest appearances – as the older members of the Original Series line-up, McCoy and Scotty would seem prime candidates.

If a few familiar faces do turn up, however, we may have to wait a while to see them, with Goldsman telling the TCA panel that bringing classic characters back into the fray isn't a priority.

“We’re starting wth this crew and don’t want to bring folks into the show to be splashy,” he said. “We want to dig deeply into the characters in this ensemble. We’re open to widening our arms, but right now, and this is said in the best possible way, what you see is what you get."

Perhaps the biggest elephant on the Enterprise bridge, however, is Pike’s tragic story…

When we meet him in Original Series two-parter ‘The Menagerie’, it’s revealed that he’s been left severely disabled by a radiation leak. In Discovery, he’s forced to endure a vision of that future, so it'll be intriguing to see how that knowledge preys on his mind, and how much it plays into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ story.

“The most honest thing I can say is, I'm still figuring out,” Mount explained at Star Trek Day. “Pike didn't just learn how he dies, he learns in what circumstances. So we do know that at some point he's going to be presented with a promotion opportunity to Fleet Captain. And he has to accept that in order for the fate to come into existence. So what is it that's going to allow him, both in terms of circumstance and emotion, to accept that promotion? It's a tough question but I think we'll figure it out together.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is already confirmed

The show hasn't even aired yet and Strange New Worlds: season 2 has already been confirmed by Paramount Plus via StarTrek.com . In fact, the streaming service is so engaged by the prospect of a follow-up season that it's already shooting – one journalist at Strange New Worlds' TCA panel on February 1, 2022 noted that Ethan Peck was wearing his Vulcan ears and costume because he was already working on the new season. 

At the #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #TCA22 panel, Ethan Peck has his costume and Vulcan ears on. He's currently shooting. February 1, 2022

Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.

How to watch Miriam: Death of a Reality Star online from anywhere

The Mufasa and the fur-ious: Disney's Lion King prequel trailer brings thrills and chills

Scientists design super-battery made with cheap, readily affordable chemical element, Na — Salt-based cell has surprisingly good energy density and charges in seconds

Most Popular

• 2 The obscure little PC that wanted to be a big NAS — super compact Maiyunda M1 doesn't cost that much, offers up to 40TB SSD storage, runs Windows and has 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports
• 3 Microsoft strips Windows 11's Control Panel of another tool - is the writing on the wall?
• 4 7 new movies and TV shows to stream on Netflix, Prime Video, Max, and more this weekend (April 26)
• 5 Meta’s massive OS announcement is more exciting than a Meta Quest 4 reveal, and VR will never be the same again
• 2 This Android phone for audiophiles offers a hi-res DAC, balanced output and 3.5mm jack – plus a cool cyberpunk look that puts Google and OnePlus to shame
• 3 Exclusive: inside Honda's new concept EV that has an infinitely recyclable design – and looks like a Honda e
• 4 Microsoft might have cracked the most important part of video calls — new update could potentially hide all your embarassing apps and pop-ups
• 5 Nanoleaf Skylight starter kit review: Nanoleaf is looking up

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.

• Akiva Goldsman
• Alex Kurtzman
• Jenny Lumet
• Anson Mount
• Christina Chong
• 1K User reviews
• 38 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 32 nominations total

Episodes 31

• Captain Christopher Pike …

• La'an Noonien-Singh …

• Lt. Erica Ortegas …

• Una Chin-Riley …

• Nurse Christine Chapel

• Nyota Uhura …

• Dr. M'Benga

• USS Enterprise Computer …

• Lieutenant George Samuel 'Sam' Kirk

• Jenna Mitchell

• Captain Batel …

• Admiral Robert April

• Captain James T. Kirk …

• T'Pring
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Bruce Horak , the actor who plays Hemmer, is legally blind, just like his character's species, the Aenar, who are also blind.
• Goofs There are some rank insignia mistakes. Number One is introduced as "Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley" yet she is wearing the rank insignia of a full commander: two full stripes. A Lieutenant Commander's rank insignia is a full stripe under a thin stripe (in TOS it is a full stripe and a staggered stripe). It is not uncommon for a ship's first officer to be a Lt. Commander if they have not been in the position long. Spock at this point is a Lieutenant but he is wearing Lieutenant Commander's stripes; a Lieutenant just has one stripe. La'an is the ship's chief of security and the ship's second officer. She is also wearing Lt. Commander stripes but is addressed as a Lieutenant, but it would make more sense for her to be a Lieutenant Commander. Either way both of their rank insignia are not matching the rank they are addressed by. Ortegas is addressed as a Lieutenant but is wearing Lieutenant Commander's strips. A Lieutenant Commander may be addressed as a Commander or Lieutenant Commander but never as just a Lieutenant, so either her rank insignia or the manner she is addressed by the rest of the crew is in error.

[opening narration]

Captain Christopher Pike : Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

• Connections Featured in Nerdrotic: Woke Hollywood is FAILING, and That's a Good Thing (2022)

Technical specs

• Runtime 52 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Jun 10, 2022

RECAP | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 106 - 'Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach'

A reunion leads to a grim story in the latest episode

StarTrek.com

Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 6 to follow!

As the U.S.S. Enterprise approaches the remote Majalan System, Captain Pike reminisces about nearly losing his life there 10 years prior and muses that their current cartographic mission will be less eventful. Of course, this is Star Trek , so we know the opposite will hold true! With Cadet Uhura on a rotation through security under La’An Noonien-Singh’s tutelage, the Enterprise soon receives a distress call from a shuttle that is under attack. Forced to intervene, Uhura fires the ship’s phasers and brings the offender down.

When the shuttle’s passengers are beamed aboard, Pike is pleasantly surprised to learn that one is Minister Alora (Lindy Booth), a Majalan he had rescued on his previous visit. Also in attendance are Elder Gamal (Huse Madhavji) and his biological son, who requires a visit to sickbay. Just prior to the pair’s arrival, Doctor M’Benga once again reads to his daughter Rukiya in one of the rare moments they are able to share when she is outside of the emergency medical transporter buffer. The doctor clearly feels time ticking away as he continues to search for a cure for his daughter’s ailment.

Back in the briefing room, Alora explains that the boy is the First Servant, a holy figure chosen by a lottery to serve the Majalan people. Alora suspects the descendants of a nearby alien colony wished to kidnap the First Servant for a ransom, as the child is to ascend to the throne in two days. Pike decides to send a team to investigate the attackers’ crashed ship for additional clues.

In sickbay, M’Benga and Nurse Chapel are stunned to learn that the First Servant has quantum bioimplants which automatically repair his injuries, technology far more advanced than Federation medical science. Upon hearing that Majalas has no disease, M’Benga begins to hope that this could be the breakthrough he needs for his daughter’s condition. As for the First Servant, he demonstrates a keen intellect and an interest in the medical facility’s gadgets.

La’An oversees security at the alien crash site, once again applying her stern lessons to Uhura’s training regimen. Spock locates a curious piece of technology that Alora does not recognize, though the Majalan does notice a coin given to the guards assigned to protect the First Servant in the wreckage. Fearing the assailants had infiltrated the ranks, Alora brings Pike to Majalas for her own protection. Their shuttle approaches to reveal a civilization boasting a wondrous maze of floating structures that may even outshine the hovering Ardanan city from “ The Cloud Minders .”

Alora inspects the First Servant’s guards (one of whom is played by Avaah Blackwell, also known for portraying Star Trek: Discovery ’s very own Lieutenant Ina!), causing the one who allied himself with the suspected kidnappers to flee. A quick standoff where the traitorous guard claims to act in defense of the First Servant ensues, but Alora kills him after he tries to keep her as a hostage.

Meanwhile, M’Benga brings the notion of using Majalan medical tech to cure a “hypothetical” patient to Elder Gamal, but the Majalan doctor explains that, as the Federation refuses to share certain technologies with outsiders, it is illegal to share their life-saving procedures with nonaligned species.

The romantic tension between Captain Pike and Alora reaches a crescendo, as the two spend the night together in the wake of the confrontation with the rogue guard. Pike reveals what he learned about his future to the Majalan, who says the captain could have access to their medical tech in the event of any accidents… provided Pike would be willing to stay on Majalas. The option to stay on a planet Pike visited ten years before provides an intriguing mirror to the fate the captain eventually chooses when he decides to stay with Vina during a return to Talos IV ten years later.

Acting under La’An’s orders, Uhura analyzes data from the crashed alien ship and, through a linguistic analysis, determines that the inhabitants from the hostile colony where the kidnappers originated were descendants of Majalan settlers. Suddenly, another enemy vessel beams the First Servant off the Enterprise , but it is accidentally destroyed during its escape. Upon hearing the news about the First Servant’s death, Minister Alora states that, without the ascension, Majalas will fall out of the sky and be destroyed by the planet’s lava-ravaged surface.

Courtesy of Uhura’s acute insight and Spock’s observant logic, the Enterprise crew realizes that Gamal had collaborated with the attacking vessel and actually beamed the First Servant back aboard the Federation ship for his own protection. In accordance with Starfleet protocols, Pike returns the First Servant to Majalas and receives an invite to witness the ascension. The captain is horrified to see the petrified body of the previous First Servant being taken away from the “throne,” an ancient device that utilizes a child’s neural network to maintain Majalas.

The enigmatic technology, vaguely reminiscent of that employed in “ Spock’s Brain ,” is no longer understood by the Majalan civilization, but they believe they have no other alternatives. Upon learning that severing the First Servant from the machine would kill him, Pike resigns himself to return to his starship. Also feeling defeated, Gamal offers to try to walk M’Benga through a treatment that could potentially help Rukiya and eventually lead to a cure.

“Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach'' presents the Star Trek universe through a much bleaker lens than the jovial “ Spock Amok ,” but the episode’s powerfully tragic ending may prove to be a “ The City on the Edge of Forever ” moment for Strange New Worlds . The installment poses a devastating question about how far a society will go to ensure the status quo, and given current events, the plot is heartbreakingly relevant to our modern world. The possibility of M’Benga using Majalan science to treat Rukiya remains a ray of hope, but will it bear fruit? Stay tuned as we continue to explore strange new worlds…

Get Updates By Email

Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

• Apple's 'Let Loose' event
• Rabbit R1 AI review
• Best college graduation gifts
• The best laptops for 2024

‘Strange New Worlds’ takes a big swing toward something profound

It’s a mess, but one you can spend hours analyzing..

The following article discusses spoilers for Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach, and topics of a sensitive nature.

Last week, Strange New Worlds hit something of a groove with a lightweight comedy episode that showed how well this show can work. This week, it takes a hard turn toward the weighty, with an episode that tries to cover a whole host of stuff in its 50-minute runtime . In some ways, this feels like the most The Next Generation thing Star Trek has put out since 1994. In others, it feels like the show tripped backwards and landed on something deeply profound by accident.

We open on Pike in pensive mode as the USS Enterprise heads to the Majalan System to run a stellar survey. He’s been this way before, on an unseen rough-and-tumble adventure back when he was a lieutenant, and he’s hoping for an easier ride this time around. No such luck, as just as the ship arrives, it’s thrust into a low-stakes battle between two small vessels, one of which starts firing on the Enterprise itself. That forces Pike to intervene, rescuing three people from one of the ships: A child with the title The First Servant, a prickly doctor who is also the First Servant’s father and Alora, a noblewoman Pike met on his last visit.

The ship came under attack because it was carrying the First Servant, who is about to “ascend” and achieve some great destiny for his people. He’s sufficiently special that he’s been implanted with a special perpetual-healing device to protect him from injury. But what’s obvious, from a few minutes into the episode, is that neither of the adults want to talk about why the kid is special, or what his grand ascension ceremony is going to entail, beyond the fact that the entire civilization will collapse unless it takes place, pronto . In my notes, I wrote “I bet they’re planning on eating the Dalai Lama kid,” because this whole plot felt like a throwback to a less TV-literate age.

Unfortunately, Pike seems to have left his brain in his other pants as soon as he realizes that there was mutual affection between him and Alora. In fact, as soon as Pike realizes that he’s on track to Get Some, he becomes quite petulant when his subordinates try to drag him away to try to further the episode’s narrative. And that’s despite the fact that Alora is the most Character With Something Dark To Hide character you’ll see on television this year. All the while, La’an and Uhura, this week on the security portion of her apprenticeship, try to work out what exactly is going on.

Of course, that perpetual-healing machine piques the interest of Dr. M’Benga, who wonders if such technology could be used to heal his own daughter. Sadly, the doctor brushes off the request for help, saying that it would be impossible for the Majalans to share their technology. The kid’s also something of a child prodigy, and based on nothing more than a half-overhead conversation about a sick child, he’s managed to bust Rukiya out of the transporter buffer. At this point, I can’t work out if her presence onboard is meant to be a secret or not, since it seems like a random child from an alien culture can figure out she’s there in about thirty seconds. (Pike, too, later in the episode, is tempted with an offer to get his own future fixed with their magical medical technology.)

Unfortunately, the next section of the plot is mostly throat-clearing and runarounds as Pike uncovers some sort of conspiracy. The hows and whys of the conspiracy aren’t really clear, and the only real point is to have a laser stick fight/chase scene through what looks like the grounds of Toronto’s Casa Loma museum. You can feel the show spinning its wheels while we get to the inevitable conclusion. Pike rescues the kid and hands him over to the Majalans, who promptly plug him into a supercomputer that “kills” him. This, somehow, is the key to keeping their society, which floats on suspended islands above the clouds, much like Columbia from Bioshock Infinite , from falling into the lava below. (Why? Don’t ask questions, it just does .)

Pike does try to stop it happening, but gets enough of a beatdown to watch as the kid gets wired up. It’s a pretty disturbing scene and as close to horror as Star Trek has gotten for a while, since the child realizes too late that it’s going to lead to his untimely end. Alora, in response to Pike’s objection, then goes on a rant about having the courage to sacrifice one child for the greater good. I’ll quote her response in full: “Can you honestly say that no child suffers for the benefit of your Federation? That no child lives in poverty, or squalor, while those who enjoy abundance look away? The only difference is that we don’t look away.”

Now, it was these lines that threw me, only because it’s clearly meant to be a say-the-quiet-part-out-loud statement about the US. But while the Federation is meant to be some allegorical mash-up of the Western World at large, it’s also meant to represent a utopian version of that. In the 23rd century, the Federation had the ability to synthesize food, clothing and other materials pretty darn easily. In Discovery ’s first season, Burnham uses food and clothing synthesizers to produce a delicious meal and new uniform pretty much on demand. Which means that, while the Star Trek of Pike’s day wasn’t the post-scarcity economy of The Next Generation , the idea that people would go hungry and live in squalor feels… off. I don’t want to be that guy , but did any of the show’s nine thousand producers read Trekonomics ?

Here’s the thing, while the meat of the episode isn’t particularly meaty, the topics it covers are fairly profound. One of Star Trek’s most famous philosophical tenets is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. This form of Utilitarianism is upheld as a noble goal within the spirit of the Federation (except, of course, when Leonard Nimoy fancies a shot at directing and so decides / agrees to resurrect Spock , but let’s not talk about that now). Then again, it’s hard to see how a kid, even a bright one, can be emotionally and mentally mature enough to consent to such a grisly demise.

Then there’s the fact that Pike loses , and is essentially powerless to do much of anything to “correct” what went on here. He can file a report to the Federation and lodge his objection to what went on, but there’s little anyone can actually do. And that raises another interesting point, since Star Trek can be read as an essentially colonialist text, one in which a group of people with Western values venture out to “civilize” the “wilderness.” If Pike had stormed back, phasers blasting, to rescue the First Servant, it might have made for good TV, but is it morally and ethically right for one group to impose its will upon others under force of arms?

(Longtime Trek fans will probably have spotted the handful of nods to the early TNG episode “ Symbiosis ” which covered similar ground. I won’t spoil it for you, but that too posed the question of how much you can, or should, interfere when you find one group of people taking advantage of another. Late ‘80s Just Say No moralizing aside, it does manage to reach a satisfying conclusion and keep within the rules of how the Prime Directive prevents the Federation from simply imposing its order upon the rest of the universe.)

But no matter how hamfistedly the show might be gesturing toward these sorts of problems, it is at least gesturing toward them. The thing that is working about Strange New Worlds is that it’s working to provoke you to think, and dwell upon your own moral and intellectual values. And it’s worth asking yourself, too, what you would be prepared to do to prevent this form of moral injustice in the world we live in today. And that, my friends, is the power of good sci-fi.

Latest Stories

Yelp debuts ai-powered assistant to help you find the right contractors.

Yelp Assistant was trained on datasets from the website itself.

The best fast chargers for 2024

In order to figure out what the fastest charger on the market is across a range of power outputs, we tested 14 adapters across five different devices. Here are the results.

Razer will refund Zephyr mask buyers due to bogus N95 claims

Razer didn't even submit its Zephyr masks for N95 certification testing, according to the FTC.

Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro are back down to their lowest price ever

Apple's AirPods Pro are back down to the lowest price we've seen.

Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars in bonuses for Threads posts

Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars if they go viral on Threads.

Peacock is raising prices again, just in time for the Olympics

Peacock is raising its subscription prices for the second time in a year. Starting in July, subscriptions will cost $8 to $14 per month.

The US Supreme Court rejects Elon Musk’s appeal in ‘funding secured’ tweet ruling

On Monday, the US Supreme Court dismissed Elon Musk’s appeal about a 2018 SEC settlement regarding a “funding secured” tweet. The conservative-majority court passed on Musk’s attempt to throw out the agreement.

The EU will force Apple to open up iPadOS

Apple’s iPadOS has been branded a gatekeeper under the EU’s DMA legislation, which means the software has to comply with a host of rules. The company has six months to comply to avoid fines.

Walmart thinks it's a good idea to let kids buy IRL items inside Roblox

Starting this week, Walmart is expanding its partnership with Roblox by allowing teens to buy IRL goods from inside the game's virtual stores.

The European Union will reportedly open a new investigation into Meta over election policies

The European Union is getting ready to launch a new investigation into Meta over its handling of election-related content.

OpenAI will train its AI models on the Financial Times' journalism

Generative AI is only as good as the training data used to train the models that power it, so AI companies have increasingly been striking deals with news publishers.

Getir is getting out of everywhere but Turkey

Getir is getting out of most markets. On Monday, the “instant delivery” startup said it would exit the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands to serve its Turkish home market exclusively.

OpenAI hit with another privacy complaint over ChatGPT’s love of making stuff up

OpenAI has been hit with a privacy complaint in Europe due to ChatGPT’s tendency to hallucinate incorrect data. This information was about a private individual.

The Apple Watch Series 9 is back on sale for $299

The Apple Watch Series 9 is discounted to $299 at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart.

Gadgets that make great Mother's Day gifts

Show mom how much you care with one of these thoughtful tech gift ideas for Mother's Day.

The DJI Mini 4K is a $299 drone aimed at beginners

The Mini 4K is priced substantially less than its Mini Pro iterations, and it’s actually only $20 more than the non-4K Mini 2 SE.

The best high school graduation gifts in 2024

We’ve compiled a list of gadgets, gear and services that might help the high school grad in your life through their next phase, whether they're heading to college or entering the workforce.

The Morning After: How many Vision Pro headsets has Apple sold?

The biggest news stories this morning: Apple’s OLED iPad Pro may pack an M4 chip and AI tricks, Dell XPS 13 and XPS 14 review, Playing Fire Emblem Engage on easy mode got me back into gaming.

The best MacBook for 2024: Which Apple laptop should you buy?

Apple currently produces just two lines of MacBooks, the Air and the Pro -- but there's plenty of variation within just those two options. Here are our top picks based on our testing.

An iPad version of the Delta game emulator is officially on the way

Developer Riley Testut shared an update on Threads this weekend revealing that an iPad app for the Delta emulator has been in the works and is "near completion." The emulator supports a slew of Nintendo systems.

Legacy Effects wizard J. Alan Scott on creating the Gorn for 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' (exclusive)

The Academy Award-winning creature designer discusses the show's Gorn-centric season finale.

Paramount+'s "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" just wrapped up its impressive second season showcasing the intrusion of a particularly combative enemy species.

The finale episode, titled " Hegemony ," ended in an unsatisfying cliffhanger that upset some faithful fans after a brilliant season filled with entertaining episodes like "Ad Astra per Aspera," "Among the Lotus Eaters" and the historic singing and dancing chapter, " Subspace Rhapsody ."

Despite some narrative hiccups in that climax, there's no argument regarding the return of the Gorn and the reveal of the snarling, 7-foot-tall (2.1 meters) alien decked out in an ultra-cool Gigeresque spacesuit.

Related:   ' Star Trek' streaming guide: Where to watch the 'Star Trek' movies and TV shows online

The Academy Award-winning visual effects studio Legacy Effects was responsible for hatching the principal onscreen villain for "Strange New Worlds" using a clever synthesis of old-school puppetry, modern 3D fabrication, digital modeling, cutting-edge animatronics and suited-actor practical effects.

From screeching Gorn hatchlings to crawling younglings to a full-sized bipedal Gorn clad in a gothic environmental ensemble complete with an illuminated helmet, showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers chose wisely when deciding to use the angry reptilian monsters as the show's primary antagonists.

Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount Plus: Get a one month free trial  

Get all the Star Trek content you can possibly handle with this free trial of Paramount Plus. Watch new shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and all the classic Trek movies and TV shows too. Plans start from $4.99/month after the trial ends.

We spoke with Legacy Effects co-founder J. Alan Scott — whose mindblowing resume includes everything from "Jurassic Park," "Galaxy Quest" and "Real Steel" to "Pacific Rim," "Avengers: Infinity War" and "The Expanse" — about the genesis of the Gorn and how his team created the terrifying cinematic magic.

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Space.com: As a Hollywood creator working in creature effects for over three decades, what inspired you about the form and function of the Gorn?

J. Alan Scott:   What's nice for us is that the reveal of what we've been developing for two seasons now is that we still haven't revealed the full creature yet, so we now have another opportunity to do that. We originally designed it for Season 1 and then they wanted to inch into it and wanted to tease and build up the expectation, which for me is a great horror trope. The anticipation and the anxiety of it is much better than the reveal. But you still have to show it.

With my roots with "Jurassic Park," when they said they wanted a horror episode — and I'm a huge horror fan and love the idea of scaring people — to take what was in broad daylight at Vasquez Rocks with the original " Star Trek " episode's Gorn, there's no scare factor there. It was great, but what would they have done if the series could have supported a horror episode?

When we were designing, they had a couple rules. They wanted to tie it back to the original as much as you can. But the idea to make it a hard-R horror movie with carnage and blood and gore was for me — couldn't have been a better ask. The trick was adding technology and figuring out where they land. Which was different from the original show that was basically just a loincloth and a bandolier. It didn't really inform what they were capable of. 

Space.com: Take us through the developmental challenges in creating a hostile alien species beyond its humble origins in "Star Trek: The Original Series."

Scott: Since they'd already explored in Season 1 that they've got space travel and warp drive technology , the trick is, How do you make a monster that's sentient and intelligent? Can you talk with it? Does it speak? And that mix of horror and technology was a long exploration that culminated in the EV suit. I'm still looking forward to see if they wear armor. Do they have weapons? Do they wear sidearms? All that's going to come later. Do they use communicators? Are they using iPads? What are they using with their hands, and how do you do that when you got this thing that's supposed to be a ravaging beast? How do they interact with each other?  

They can't be screaming raptors all the time. But raptors are a great parallel. They have a culture, and there's a society there. Now add technology to that. Now how do we design the EV suit around that whole thing? You can only screw it up. That's the problem with something as iconic as the Gorn: You're being asked to recreate something, modernize it and do it in a respectful way, but also make it exciting.

You have to be very cognizant of whether it's going to be silly. The writers and the production team guide us through all of that. I'd love to say that these were all of my ideas. They're not. It's a visualization of a team of ideas. It's a balance and a little bit of exploration that unfortunately happens in a very quick timeline. It seems like it was two seasons' worth, but you really only get two months to build it in the end, and then there's no time to go backwards and change it.

Related: The best alien invasion movies of all time

Space.com: What was discussed for lighting schemes in the zero-G fight scene?

Scott: Yes, we have to work with the lighting team and the DP [director of photography] and the director on how much we're going to reveal. We actually had to alter the design of the helmet because the lighting wasn't quite right. The fixtures team came to us, and they got new LEDs and put them in there, and we had to change that a couple of times to get the right balance. It's not something that we can anticipate here, even though we'd sent up a mockup [to Toronto]. Uplighting was great because it makes a real spooky face, but then it wasn’t really enough of the eyes so we changed the helmet so we could hide LEDs inside to illuminate the eyes more. In that dark set, it pops, and you can see the teeth and eyes and the movement in there. You see the animal inside.

—  'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:' Augments, Illyrians and the Eugenics Wars  

—   'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' season 2 episode 4 delivers a well-written nod to the original series

 —   'Star Trek' movies, ranked worst to best

Space.com: For "Strange New Worlds" Season 3, what can fans expect with the Gorn? Will we see them flying their strange starships and firing weapons?

Scott: We haven't shot it yet, but there have been discussions, and I'm looking forward to the same thing. We've seen their entire life cycle now, discussed and designed, so I love the fact that we're just inching into it. I'm looking forward to seeing it full-body. We've seen the EV suit, but we don't know what they look like inside yet. For Season 3 Episode 1, we're anxious and waiting almost as much as everyone who watched [the finale] last night!

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 108 — Starliner: Better Late Than Never?

5 sci-fi movies that weren't great but still deserve a sequel

Russia vetoes UN resolution against nuclear weapons in space

Most Popular

• 2 Beavers are helping fight climate change, satellite data shows
• 3 Astronomers just discovered a comet that could be brighter than most stars when we see it next year. Or will it?
• 4 This Week In Space podcast: Episode 108 — Starliner: Better Late Than Never?
• 5 Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will not fly private missions yet, officials say

Strange New Worlds (episode)

• View history

When one of Pike’s officers goes missing while on a secret mission for Starfleet, Pike has to come out of self-imposed exile. He must navigate how to rescue his officer, while struggling with what to do with the vision of the future he’s been given. ( Series premiere )

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3 Log entries
• 4.2 Production
• 4.3 Cast and characters
• 4.4 Continuity
• 4.5 Reception
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Guest starring
• 5.3 Co-starring
• 5.4.1 From The Day the Earth Stood Still
• 5.5 Stunt doubles
• 5.6.1 Stellar cartography references
• 5.6.2 Enterprise dedication plaque references
• 5.6.3 Meta references
• 5.7 External links

Summary [ ]

Inside some form of control center or bunker, alarms begin to ring, as an officer walks down the corridors to the control room. She and the people within are revealed to be a humanoid species, making first contact with an unidentified object not of their world. As they get a stable image, they find themselves looking upon a Federation starship.

In Bear Creek , Montana , Captain Marie Batel awakens to find the other half of the bed empty. Heading downstairs, she finds Captain Christopher Pike busy in the kitchen, making pancakes while watching the old film The Day the Earth Stood Still – again, as Batel notes. As they sit down to breakfast, greeting each other by their formal rank, Batel notices the look on Pike's face and asks if he has not decided yet. Pike responds that the USS Enterprise is in spacedock for another week, which is "ages" to some. Suddenly, Pike's communicator goes off, and he is pointedly trying to ignore it; when it stops, he asks when she is shipping out. Batel asks him to talk about whatever it was he was keeping to himself, whatever has him questioning a return to his command. Pike replies it was classified, but Batel points out she has a higher security clearance than he does. " Not for this, " is his only answer. She is departing at 0600 the following morning, and would not return for a month. Pike tells her he might still be there when she returns, and asks her to call him when she returns, so they could get together. Batel kisses him, saying that would be nice, but hopes he is not there when she returns, thinking he had better places to be. After Batel leaves, the communicator goes off again.

Admiral April talks with Pike

Pike takes his horse out for a ride in the snow, but the horse is frightened by the low descent of a Starfleet shuttlecraft . The officer that descends from the ramp is Admiral Robert April , the first captain of the Enterprise . Pike scolds him for spooking his horse, and April apologizes, saying that Pike had not been answering his communicator. Pike bluntly demands to know what he wants. April says he has a first contact scenario that may have gone bad, and the officer in command was someone he trusted, but he had lost contact with her ship. Pike is dismissive, saying it was not his problem, and that they had agreed they had until Enterprise left spacedock before making any decisions. The admiral reveals the reason he is approaching Pike: the officer in command is Pike's first officer , Una Chin-Riley , who reports that a new world might be considering Federation membership. She had not taken "downtime" all that well, reminding the admiral of Pike when he had been April's first officer. April is pulling Enterprise out of spacedock, electing to skip the redundant system checks, and needs the ship crewed and ready to go by 1800 hours. Pike tells him that Starfleet doesn't want him in command, but April sees that it was Pike himself who didn't want to be in command; as Batel did, he asks what happened, and as with Batel, Pike answers only that it was classified. April is sympathetic to what Pike is dealing with, but right now, he needs him on the Enterprise to find Una, and makes it an order.

Act One [ ]

In the city of Raal on Vulcan , Spock is seated in a restaurant with his betrothed T'Pring , discussing the formality of Vulcan conversation, often beginning with a query and expecting a response. She has asked him there on the anniversary of their first courtship event, and he notes she is wearing the ritual mating colors, and yet she has not asked him a single question throughout their entire meal. T'Pring replies that this was untrue, that she had indeed asked questions – about his family, about P'Sal 's new lute recordings, and his "galavanting" around the galaxy with Starfleet . She then asks if there was a question he wanted her to ask. Spock is apologetic, as he has been away for a long time, which could mitigate matters of tradition. She finally asks the question he has been expecting: for him to formally marry her. Rather than the typical Vulcan response, he kisses her, causing one of the wait staff to request they do so elsewhere. " What an excellent idea, " T'Pring agrees.

Having settled somewhere more private, Spock looks out at Vulcan's ocean, remarking on how there were oceans of liquid mercury on Salon , while Earth 's were water. T'Pring thinks that nothing out there could be better than what was on Vulcan, and Spock asks her to show him. As she is about to oblige him, his communicator goes off; it is Pike, calling from Earth. Seeing Spock without a shirt, he wonders if he was naked; T'Pring says they were about to be, as it was a special night. Pike is apologetic, before explaining that April is sending them out to find Una. Spock tells his captain that he will meet him onboard, and that T'Pring will understand. As they close the channel, T'Pring points out that her "understanding" would have been worthy of a query, and tells him not to make a habit of assumptions; she does not intend to chase him across the galaxy just to get married. Spock assures her she will not have to chase him across the galaxy to get what they already had.

The shuttlecraft Stamets takes Pike up to the Enterprise , as he reviews a PADD regarding Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh and her involvement with first contact with the Gorn . The shuttle brings itself into transporter range, the pilot remarking on how she was "scrubbed up and good as new". Pike quietly wishes it were that easy, and tells the pilot to beam him aboard. He is met in the transporter room by Spock, who reports all systems were nominal, even though they had not been able to run simulation studies. Personnel rotation was in process, which meant some officers would have to billet after the mission, including the chief engineer and a Lieutenant Kirk, whom Pike had requested some time before. Pike remarks on how it felt like a million years, to which Spock promptly adds it had been three months, ten days, four hours, and five minutes. Pike asks how Spock himself was doing, and he replies that he was doing well, although he felt the weight of loss for his adoptive sister Michael Burnham each time he returned to space; Pike expresses a similar feeling as they enter the turbolift . He reviews the new personnel roster, including a number of cadets and much needed additions to the medical staff, before coming across the entry for security; the new security chief has also been named acting first officer, much to Pike's surprise, as he had expected Spock, as second officer , to be given that job with Una missing. Spock replies that Starfleet Command preferred him to remain as science officer for the mission.

Pike and Spock arrive on the bridge, where they are greeted by La'an, the new chief of security and acting first officer. Pike welcomes her and all the newcomers aboard, and the old crew back. He asks helmsman Lieutenant Erica Ortegas if they were ready to depart, and Ortegas replies the course is set for Kiley 279 . Lieutenant Jenna Mitchell at operations reports lights are green across the board, and the cadet at communications, Nyota Uhura , receives confirmation that Enterprise is cleared for launch. Pike orders Ortegas to take the ship out of spacedock. Mitchell reports they were prepared for warp speed ("We are five-by-five for warp"). As he looks down at his chair controls, he sees a reflection of what he knows is his future , deformed and crippled by radiation poisoning, and momentarily freezes. Spock recalls his attention back to the present, and he gives Ortegas the order: " Hit it. "

As the ship goes to warp, Pike asks Uhura for a shipwide channel. He begins by jokingly hoping that no one was caught with their hair wet or their pants down because of the early departure, before telling them that Starfleet typically sent out first contact teams when they detect a working warp engine, and one such had been sent to Kiley 279 aboard the USS Archer . The Archer has dropped out of contact, and their mission was to find them – and if they were lucky, make some new friends. " Nobody dies, " he says, a somber note in his voice. " This will not be anybody's last day. " With that, he turns the conn over to La'an and goes to his quarters. Spock looks worriedly after him, before turning back to his console.

Alone in his quarters, Pike recalls his vision of the future, before being brought back to the present by the chiming of his door. It is Spock, who assures Pike he does not mean to overstep. Pike invites him to overstep, before pouring himself a glass of Saurian brandy . Spock gets to the point, asking if Pike was himself. Pike replies he was very much himself, which was the problem. Spock is aware that Pike had been changed when he had gone down to Boreth during their time aboard the USS Discovery , and he knew that Boreth was known for two things: a monastery, and a rare ore that caused temporal consciousness displacement, both of which had the power of transformation. Pike replies it was not the monastery, and Spock had assumed as much, asking if Pike saw the future. Pike confirms he had witnessed what he felt was the death of the man he was now. He knew exactly how and when his life would end, and not only saw it, but felt it as well. He notes how most Humans liked to think they could cheat death until the very last moment, and he had thought so once as well. Spock asks if it was soon, but Pike replies it was not, that it was almost a decade away , which suddenly felt soon to him. Spock thinks that knowledge of death was vital to effective leadership, but Pike not only knew it, he experienced it. He worries what that knowledge will do to him, and had started to second-guess himself, the last thing a captain could afford. Spock believes suffering could be built on insight, and that Pike could make some good come of this knowledge of his own fate, to be the man he essentially is: the captain. Just then, Uhura calls from the bridge, as they were dropping out of warp. Spock rises to report back, as Pike looks at his reflection in the bottle, reliving the moment he witnessed himself confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, before he rises to follow.

Act Two [ ]

The Enterprise comes out of warp over Kiley 279; the Archer 's transponder ping is detected on the planet's nightside. Pike orders Uhura to hail them, but she does not receive a response. Pike asks if they could be losing the response in subspace chatter, but Uhura reports there is no subspace chatter at all; the space was "dead quiet". Ortegas has brought the ship to the Archer 's position and brings it up on visual; Mitchell reports the ship is completely intact, all systems apparently functional. Spock is unable to detect any lifesigns, but there were no signs of bodies, either. He brings up the ship's manifest, showing that the Archer was crewed only by Una and two astrophysicists , Lieutenant Key and Ensign Hadad . La'an thinks if she went to the surface, she would have gone for the detected warp signature. However, Spock is unable to pinpoint it, and Ortegas detects a "pretty weird" signal variance. La'an, digesting the information, recommends raising the deflector shields . Spock reminds her taking a defensive posture would violate first contact protocol, but La'an points out that there were no hails from the surface or subspace chatter, and no signs of any orbital docking facilities or interplanetary traffic, any sign of space colonization at all, which Spock knows would put them a century behind the development of warp travel… and yet there was a warp signature. Pike is convinced, and orders the shields raised. It proves to be perfect timing, as several plasma torpedoes are fired from the surface, with minimal damage to the shields. Pike orders Ortegas to take them into a higher orbit, to deceive whoever fired the torpedoes that they had destroyed the Enterprise … then wonders how a culture that used technology that was two centuries old by Federation standards had built a warp drive. Looking at his readings again, Spock realizes they haven't, and recommends red alert . The inhabitants have not built a warp drive, but rather a bomb.

Spock reviews the data with Pike and La'an, explaining that there were two factions at war with one another on Kiley 279, and their conflict had reached a crisis point; surface scans indicated a pre-warp civilization . When La'an asks how that was possible, Spock replies that the Vulcans invented first contact (" As they never fail to remind us, " Pike jokes), and brings up the systems in the sector that had warp capability, including Xahea , Chin'toka , and the Talarian Republic , among others; all were in the process of negotiating admission to the Federation, and they were free to travel to any of them, and thus General Order One did not apply. However, not on any of those worlds, or even in the history of first contact, had warp capability been developed first for anything other than propulsion, comparing it to discovering nuclear weapons before particle physics : it was possible, but had never been done. Pike asks if Una would have known the signature was a weapon, and Spock believes she wouldn't have; the Enterprise 's scanners had been upgraded in spacedock. La'an thinks that if the plasma weapons were the best the inhabitants had, they should beam down, find their people, and bring them home. Pike points out that there was the possibility the technology was not native to them; no matter how they got it, however, General Order One would apply, and they would not be able to interfere. La'an asks if that meant they were just going to leave their people down there. " Hardly, " Pike replies, before saying they should go down to see the doctor.

In sickbay , Pike is happily greeted by Dr. Joseph M'Benga ; they had toured their mutual home regions of Earth together. He introduces the doctor to Spock, and as he does likewise for La'an, M'Benga notes how good it was to see her again, as he had had to certify her for duty. He introduces them to his nurse, Christine Chapel , who was part of a civilian exchange program from the Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project . Pike thinks her the right person for the job; when La'an asks about said job, Chapel cheerfully replies that she was going to "mess with [their] genome". The locals were humanoid, closely matching the crew's physiology, but some alterations were required to blend in, although the Kiley inhabitants had some organs that would take longer to replicate, and so suggests not getting any X-rays. M'Benga explains that Chapel is part of a Starfleet initiative to observe alien cultures without contamination. La'an asks if the procedure was safe, and Chapel answers that it was, "almost" every time. She applies a sedative first, as the process involved "compressed, jury rigged metamorphosis ", which involved considerable pain. For Spock, his unique Vulcan-Human genetics might mean the process would not last as long the first time. La'an elects to undergo the procedure without the sedative. Pike has read her file, and she asks if he is ordering her to undergo the sedation. He makes clear he's not, and respects her choice.

As the three fully-altered officers enter the transporter room, Chief Kyle reports that local clothing, along with universal translators and tricorders , would be in the buffer along with them, and asks if there would be no weapons. Pike confirms, and Kyle sets the coordinates in an area with no foot traffic. Pike jokingly asks Kyle not to lose his socks, and gives the order to energize.

Act Three [ ]

Pike, Spock, and La'an materialize in an alley, dressed for their environment; Spock is somewhat put out that he is wearing shorts rather than long pants. They see a news report from a screen in a nearby square, reporting on anti-government protests amid rumors of an advanced weapon being developed by the government for domestic use. Pike and Spock recognize it as being similar to events in the United States of America , particularly involving their two civil wars and their devastating results. Pike is concerned that the Kiley society is already at a flashpoint with an advanced weapon, while La'an uses her tricorder to get a closer fix on the warp signature's location – a building ahead of them, with protestors outside. As they get outside the building, Spock's scans show the shielding makes transporting inside impossible. Just then, two Kiley scientists emerge from inside, and La'an asks for permission to "act fast". After Pike grants it, she feigns some kind of illness, asking for their help to get her medication. She then calls out "his neck"; after a moment, Spock finally realizes what she's asking for, and incapacitates both with a Vulcan neck pinch . They could replicate their clothing and security badges to match their retinal scans; as for the two scientists, La'an suggests beaming them onto the ship and keeping them sedated in sickbay.

The two Kileys are placed under low-level sedation while M'Benga runs scans. Chapel asks for a DNA sample; Spock's genetic encoding is beginning to deteriorate, and if he doesn't get a booster with actual Kiley DNA, he won't pass a retinal scan. For it to work, the Kileys would need to have compatable protein patterns to match Spock's Vulcan blood. The first man is incompatable, but the second is a match. Suddenly, the first man awakens, wondering where he is; M'Benga sedates him, while the second manages to scurry away and flee down the corridor. Both M'Benga and Chapel recall a similar incident on Delta Scorpii VII ; the doctor tells her to "chase the rabbit" while he prepares the booster. Chapel jokes about always getting the fun jobs, as she pursues the Kiley through the corridors. " Well, you're my favorite, " M'Benga says. He warns Ortegas, holding the conn, to have the landing party stand by and not enter the building, while Chapel adds they had a "Delta Scorpii VII situation" on their hands. Ortegas grouses about how it always happened when she had the captain's chair .

Pike commends La'an on the "performance" she gave, and La'an replies that she had assumed the "prey posture", useful for tricking predators into thinking one was helpless. Ortegas calls Pike from the ship, saying he couldn't go inside, as Spock needed a booster to get past the retinal scanners. As they were being ushered through by government officials, the landing party couldn't stop. M'Benga asks Kyle if he can pinpoint a location to beam down and apply an eye salve. Kyle protests that transporters couldn't do that, but Ortegas steps in and orders him to make them do that. Meanwhile, Chapel pursues the fleeing Kiley, who is clearly frightened and wondering about his surroundings, before he finds himself inside a turbolift – standing next to Uhura. Uhura reassures him that they were going to the bridge where the " Backtack " was, referring to how the Backtack controlled everything in the Kileys' game of tagball . Chapel runs back to sickbay, accidentally knocking over some members of the crew, and has M'Benga use the emergency medical transporter to beam her to the bridge. As Uhura is discussing a tagball game that the scientist had actually been present for, Chapel comes from behind with the sedative. Ortegas sarcastically welcomes the unconscious Kiley to the Enterprise , as Uhura and Chapel introduce themselves to one another.

At the same time, Pike goes through the checkpoint first, applying his security card and retinal scanner, followed by La'an. As Spock does likewise, the scanner doesn't read him at first, but Kyle is eventually able to apply the salve with the transporter, allowing him to go through. Spock is concerned that the alterations will continue to wear off. La'an is picking up Una's lifesigns, explaing that there were high levels of radiation shielding in the walls, which is why their sensors could not penetrate; only something like a warp signature could even get through. Now that they were inside, she could pick up her lifesigns, indicating she was still alive, several levels below them. As they stand in the elevator, one of the Kileys notices Spock's ears begin to almost shimmer, before the landing party reaches the level they want. As they are finally alone, Spock admits the effect is painful, but the recoding seems to be holding. They approach three locked doors, detecting Una's lifesigns through one of them.

Opening the door, Pike finds his first officer and her crew, looking worse for wear but otherwise unharmed; her foot is encased in a cast, and Hadad has his arm in a sling from a projectile wound during a firefight. She is surprised to see La'an, and Pike is equally surprised to see that they know one another. La'an admits that Una had helped her out of a "bad spot" once, and apologizes for not saying anything earlier. Pike tells her they can discuss it later. Una tells Spock the shielding is jointed, and wonders if they could get a transport signal through the gaps. Spock confirms they could, if they were closer to the surface. The landing party escorts their comrades out, but as more Kileys emerge from the elevator, Spock feels the pain growing unbearable, finally grabbing his head and screaming in pain before his normal Vulcan features assert themselves. Seeing their cover is blown, they are forced to knock out the Kileys and leave them lying in the hall before escaping to the elevator.

Inside, Pike asks what happened, as the Kileys were clearly not ready for first contact. Una glances at La'an for a moment, saying she was not cleared, but Pike dismisses that, asking how they got warp capabilility. Una replies that they had given it to them, during that final battle near Xahea, when Burnham opened the wormhole that sent her and the Discovery through to the future. They were less than one light-year out from the zero point of the wormhole, and between the Klingon ships and the Ba'ul fighters flown by the Kelpiens , there were more than a hundred warp signatures. Pike realizes the Kileys' telescopes would have been just powerful enough to detect all of it, and collected enough data to reverse-engineer a matter - antimatter reactor. The Kileys were not ready for warp drive, and now they were using the technology to build a weapon. Pike blames himself for not considering it, but Una assures him no one could have considered it; they were fighting for the very lives that were in jeopardy now. Spock reports he had contact with the Enterprise , and transporters were able to lock onto them. Una reminds Pike that they couldn't make the Kileys care about the stars, and that they cared only to crush their enemies… and they had given the Kileys the means to do that. An alarm sounds, meaning the unconscious Kileys had been found. Pike again sees his future reflection from the nearby control panel, as Spock awaits his order to return to the ship. But Pike is convinced every death from thereon out would be on their hands. Spock reminds him they could not interfere with the destiny of this world, but Pike points out they already had. He orders that the others return to the ship, while he and Spock remained behind. Una protests, reminding him about General Order One. " Screw General Order One, " Pike replies bluntly. La'an reluctantly pulls her communicator and orders four to beam up, with Pike and Spock remaining behind.

As the others beam out, Spock asks if this was wise, as he was clearly alien; Pike replies that he was counting on that. As the elevator halts, they find themselves held at gunpoint. " Take me to your leader, " Pike says.

Act Four [ ]

Pike and Spock are taken before the head of the planetary government, where Pike apologizes to her entire world for the effect they had upon it. She asks if that meant their ingenuity was the result of his mistake, but Pike answers that he meant the Federation should have been more circumspect about showing off their technologies, as one of its core tenets was to avoid unduly influencing less advanced civilizations. The technology they were using could bridge the gap between worlds, but its destructive capacity could not be underestimated. The leader says the government has been in conflict with a "seditious faction" for centuries and now had the means to end that conflict. Spock asks if that meant mass murder, to which she asks if his people had never put down civil unrest before. Pike believes negotiation and debate led to lasting peace. The leader asks if there were groups who refused to negotiate, powerful ones, and Pike confirms there were. When asked how that was handled, he quotes a proverb from the Kikuyu people of Kenya, that "when elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers". The leader points out that proverbs were less useful than a "big stick", and whoever had the "biggest stick" wins. When Pike tries to explain about what regulations compel him to do, she interrupts by saying his rules were not her rules, and that her job was to ensure her people's ability to govern future generations, and if spilled blood was the price, then so be it. She orders the guards to take them away. Pike wonders aloud what good was a rule if you weren't willing to die for it… or break it. He calls out an emergency communication to the Enterprise , ordering the ship into a lower orbit with full visibility. Outside, air raid sirens begin to sound as the Enterprise is clearly visible in the sky. " Just like you said, whoever has the biggest stick wins, " Pike says to the Kiley leader. " In this case, that is me. "

A newscaster reports that the leaders of the government and revolutionary factions will meet for the first time in a century to discuss the arrival of the aliens, as the Enterprise hovers visibly in the distance. Back onboard, Pike watches the debate with La'an and Spock, the former sarcastically saying it was going well, the latter saying the two sides were used to centuries of violence, and that the true cost of civil war was abstract. " Not believing you're gonna die is what gets you killed, " La'an says disgustedly. Pike looks up at her and asks her to repeat that statement. La'an apologizes, recalling something her father had said before his death. As Pike would have read in her file, her colony ship, the SS Puget Sound , was attacked by the Gorn, the crew brought to one of their “planetary nurseries”. She had not understood her father's meaning at first, but had a lot of time to think about why she was the only member of the Puget Sound 's crew to survive. She asks Pike if he knew what she saw on the faces of her loved ones while they were slit open and eaten alive by their Gorn captors, or used as “breeding sacks”, and Pike has a good idea: surprise, not believing until the very end that they could die. But La'an was different, and that was why she survived. Coming to a decision, Pike asks for access to the historical database, and orders Uhura to prepare a package to transmit to the surface.

Earth devastated by nuclear war

Pike beams himself down into the middle of the debate hall and introduces himself, explaining that their peoples, despite being from different worlds, were very much alike. He shows them images of what Earth looked like today, with views of San Francisco and of the orbital spacedocks that held ships like the Enterprise ; outside, the protestors are seeing the footage live on the screens. He then shows footage of Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries, before "everything went wrong". He explains he got a glimpse of his own future, and it was not one he expected, and that a good friend asked him what good it was to know your future, but he didn't understand what he meant until now. He now shows what awaits the Kileys in their future, as he shows them images of the conflicts on Earth; he explains it began as a fight over freedom at first, too, which they called the Eugenics Wars , then the Second Civil War , then finally just World War III . It resulted in the destruction of more than six hundred thousand different species of plants and animals, and the deaths of more than thirty percent of Earth's population. The technology the Kileys had obtained gave them the means to exterminate themselves, and from the looks of them, Pike is convinced they will do so. They will use their competing ideas of liberty until their world is blown to rubble, just as Earth had been in the past. Perhaps some are convinced that their futures are written, just as Pike knows his is, but he chooses to believe their destinies are still their own. Perhaps that was why he was there, he muses – to remind them of the power of possibility, that even if their end is already written, as his is, they could still live what life they had gloriously, because until their last moment, the future was what they made of it. He offers them a choice: they can continue to fight one another, or they can join the Federation and reach for the stars. The revelation of the Enterprise has a lasting effect among the people, being taught about in classrooms and scientific research centers.

The Enterprise returns to Starbase 1 , where Admiral April explains that he had just enough pull to convince the Federation High Court not to throw the entire crew in jail for violating General Order One, and had had to call in a few favors to be read in about what had happened to Discovery . Spock asks how he was able to keep them from being charged, and April replied he used a loophole: since there could be no acknowledgment of a battle even taking place, then nor could there of how the people of Kiley 279 acquired warp capability. The Federation Council was not pleased, and was doubling down on enforcement of General Order One, calling it the "Prime Directive", something Pike doesn't think will stick. Una asks for permission to return to the Enterprise , and April replies that was up to Pike, asking if he was planning on keeping the captain's chair.

After the meeting adjourns, La'an meets with Pike in private, and admits she should have told him earlier. Pike asks her to tell him now. She explains the Gorn had a ritual, that the last survivor was sent into space on a raft, like throwing back a fish. One was not actually expected to survive that, and La'an calls it "dumb luck" that she was discovered by the USS Martin Luther King Jr. ; Una had been an ensign on the King at that time and helped La'an find her way home, and was the reason La'an joined Starfleet. She was concerned that her past association would have meant that Pike wouldn't have trusted her on the mission, to which Pike wonders if that meant she decided not to trust him instead. He concedes her record is spotless, but there was more to Starfleet than individual excellence, emphasizing the need to work together. La'an admits other people are challenging for her. Pike points out to the biodomes outside, explaining that during World War III, scientists sent seed pods into space to preserve them, but after the war ended and Earth had rebuilt, the forests had grown too large to bring back, so Starfleet built its first base around them. It was proof that even in space, growth was possible. With that in mind, Pike formally offers her a place on the Enterprise .

Pike welcomes George Kirk aboard

In his captain's log , Pike thinks on how Earth was his hearth, but Enterprise was his home, and considers himself a "lucky man". He arrives on the bridge, where Una reports that the crew rotation is complete, and Lieutenant Kirk is on his way up. As he enters, it is revealed that the Kirk in question is George Samuel Kirk , a friend of Pike's, who has been posted to life sciences and would report to Spock. La'an was on station as the official chief of security. In the transporter room, Lieutenant Hemmer , the new chief engineer, beams aboard. Uhura obtains clearance for departure and warp speed, and Spock reports all systems were ready. Ortegas asks what their course would be, what mission awaited them. Pike says only that their mission was to explore, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one had gone before, something Uhura considers "cool". Pike smiles at her as he orders Ortegas to take them out, warp factor two.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Really? Again? " " Come on. It's a classic. "

" Spock… are you naked? " " No, captain. " " No, Chris. He's not. He was about to be. It's a special night. " " …Sorry. "

" I am well, captain. Although I confess each time I return to space, the weight I carry for the loss of my sister feels heavier. " " I'm sorry. I miss her too. "

" Communications? Ah, yes. The prodigy. Cadet… Uhura? On communications rotation. Very happy to have you aboard. " " Thank you, sir. Glad to be here. Enterprise is cleared for launch. "

" Take me to your leader. "

" Course, captain? What's the mission? " " Our mission? We explore. We seek out new life and new civilizations. We boldly go where no one has gone before. " " Cool… sir. " " Let's take her out, Lieutenant Ortegas. Warp factor two. Hit it. "

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2259

Background information [ ]

• 1 May 2022 : Title publicly revealed. [1]
• This is the fifth Star Trek product to take their title from the opening narration of Star Trek: The Original Series . The others included Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , ENT : " These Are the Voyages... ", TOS : " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", and TNG : " Where No One Has Gone Before ".
• This is the second episode to share its title with a series, following TNG : " Lower Decks "/ Star Trek: Lower Decks , and the first to be an episode of said series.

Production [ ]

The tribute to April Nocifora

• As with the DIS Season 4 finale " Coming Home ", this episode is dedicated to the memory of April Nocifora , who passed away in December 2021 due to cancer. Nocifora, who held several roles with the franchise, worked specifically as a supervising producer in this series.
• The release of this episode marks the first time four separate Star Trek series have aired in one calendar year (excluding companion series such as Star Trek: Short Treks ), following portions of Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 and Star Trek: Discovery Season 4, as well as the entirety of Star Trek: Picard Season 2.
• As a reflection of the times, the closing credits for each episode include a contingent of crew dedicated to observing COVID-19 prevention protocols.

Cast and characters [ ]

• With the addition of this episode, Jess Bush becomes the third actress to portray the role of Christine Chapel. Majel Barrett Roddenberry originated the role in Star Trek: The Original Series , while an unknown performer portrayed her alternate reality counterpart .
• With the addition of this episode, Celia Rose Gooding becomes the third actress to portray the role of Nyota Uhura. Nichelle Nichols originated the role in Star Trek: The Original Series , while Zoë Saldana portrayed her alternate reality counterpart in the films Star Trek , Star Trek Into Darkness , and Star Trek Beyond
• With the addition of this episode, Babs Olusanmokun becomes the second actor to portray the role of Dr. M'Benga. Booker Bradshaw originated the role in TOS : " A Private Little War " and TOS : " That Which Survives ".
• Adrian Holmes becomes the first actor to portray Robert April in live-action and the second actor to portray him. James Doohan voiced the character in TAS : " The Counter-Clock Incident ".
• With the addition of this episode, Dan Jeannotte becomes the second actor to portray the role of George Samuel Kirk . William Shatner originated the role in TOS : " Operation -- Annihilate! ".
• With the addition of this episode, Gia Sandhu becomes the third actress to portray T'Pring . Actress Arlene Martel portrayed adult T'Pring while Mary Rice portrayed Young T'Pring in TOS : " Amok Time ".
• Despite being part of the main cast, Bruce Horak appears only briefly in a non-speaking role at the end of the episode, when his character Hemmer beams aboard.

Continuity [ ]

• The events of this episode follow up directly on many of the events of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, especially " Through the Valley of Shadows ", " Such Sweet Sorrow ", and " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ".
• The end of Spock's relationship with T'Pring is depicted in TOS : " Amok Time ".
• This episode confirms Una 's last name as "Chin-Riley", which had been previously established in the non-canon novel The Autobiography of Mr. Spock .
• Starbase 1 was originally established to have been located one hundred AUs from Earth, according to DIS : " The War Without, The War Within ". It has since been moved to Jupiter .
• Spock shows a map highlighting several planets with warp-capable civilizations who have joined the Federation or are in the process of being inducted. Among those planets are Xahea , Beta Zeta ( Betazed ), Chin'toka , Minos Korva , Thalos , and Capella . Capella, however, has been shown to be the home of a primitive, seemingly pre-warp civilization as of 2267 . ( TOS : " Friday's Child ")
• La'an's mention of the Gorn – and their rather bloodthirsty nursery planets – represents the first mention of the species in this era since TOS : " Arena ". While Terran refugee Lorca kept a Gorn skeleton in his lab aboard USS Discovery , the species is still generally unknown to the Federation at this point in the timeline.
• Historical footage from World War III depicts nuclear blasts destroying famous landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty . The Eiffel Tower would later be rebuilt by 2257 . ( DIS : " Will You Take My Hand? ")
• This episode again describes the Eugenics Wars (however, here mentioned as "the Eugenics War ") and World War III as being one and the same. At different points, they have been said to take place decades apart – the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s and World War III in the mid-21st century – but other times considered the same war ( TOS : " Space Seed ", " The Savage Curtain ") or at least connected (e.g., the Defiant computer graphic in ENT : " In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II "). Pike's speech adds further context by making the Eugenics War the follow-up of a previously-unmentioned second American Civil War which then turned into World War III.
• Although Admiral April says that the Federation Council had only decided to refer to General Order 1 as the "Prime Directive" at the end of this episode, Spock is depicted as referring to the order by that name in a conversation with Number One during the events of " Q&A ", which depicts his first day of service aboard the Enterprise several years prior. This may simply indicate that the origin of the term predated its official adoption.

Reception [ ]

• TRR : " Strange New Worlds " discusses the making of, and events in, this episode.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike
• Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock
• Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel
• Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh
• Celia Rose Gooding as Cadet Nyota Uhura
• Melissa Navia as Lt. Erica Ortegas
• Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. Joseph M'Benga
• Bruce Horak as Hemmer
• Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley

Guest starring [ ]

• Adrian Holmes as Robert April
• Dan Jeannotte as George Samuel Kirk
• Gia Sandhu as T'Pring
• Melanie Scrofano as Captain Marie Batel
• Samantha Smith as Eldredth Leader

Co-starring [ ]

• Carla Bennett as Palion Aide #2
• Jon Blair as Kiley Guard #2
• Peter Bou-Ghannam as Palion Leader
• Marienne Castro as Shuttle Pilot
• Bessie Cheng as Eldredth Aide #2
• John Chou as Kiley Scientist #1
• Joseph Daly as Eldredth Aide #1
• Myles Dobson as Vulcan Waiter
• Rong Fu as Jenna Mitchell
• Chandra Galasso as Lieutenant
• Jaimee Joe Gonzaga as Terminal Jockey #2
• Sandy Kerr as Starfleet Scientist #1
• André Dae Kim as Chief Kyle
• David Kirby as Palion Aide #1
• Joel Lacoursiere as Kiley Guard #1
• Dana Levenson as Newscaster
• Andrew Locke as Terminal Jockey #1
• Etan Muskat as Starfleet Scientist #2
• Daniel Pagett as Kiley Scientist #2
• Rachel Sellan as Woman in Elevator

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Byron Abalos as Trainee #1 (flashback; archive footage)
• Ruth Chiang as Kiley scientist
• Olivia Croft as Trainee #2 (flashback; archive footage)
• Jason Gosbee as Kiley guard
• Daniel Lavigne as Kiley guard
• Kaz Morgan as Enterprise operations lieutenant jg
• Jennifer Murray as Trainee #3 (flashback; archive footage)
• Shannon Widdis as Enterprise navigator
• Trainee #4 (flashback; archive footage)
• Trainee #5 (flashback; archive footage)

From The Day the Earth Stood Still [ ]

• Rama Bai as Scientific delegate (archive footage)
• Sam Harris as Scientific delegate (archive footage)
• Lock Martin as Gort (archive footage)
• Michael Rennie as Klaatu (archive footage)
• Reginald Lal Singh as Scientific delegate (archive footage)

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Avaah Blackwell as stunt double for Rebecca Romijn
• Geoff Meech as stunt double for Anson Mount
• Dan Skene as stunt double for Ethan Peck
• Christine Trinh as stunt double for Christina Chong

References [ ]

21st century ; 2228 ; 2259 ; acting first officer ; Aenar ; Africa ; aggression ; AI ; alley ; Alpha I ; ancestor ; Archer , USS ; astrophysicist ; audit ; backtack ; Bear Creek ; bicycle ; Biden, Joe ; big stick ; billet ; Black Lives Matter ; Boom Shield ; booster ; boot ; Boreth ( companion ); boss ; Brooklyn Bridge ; bureaucrat ; Burnham, Michael ; bus ; captain's chair ; car ; Cardassia Prime ; chief engineer ; chief of security (aka security chief ) ; chief science officer ; children's story ; civil conflict ; civil unrest ; civil war ; Civil War ; Civil War, Second ; civilian exchange ; classic ; CNC ; coffee ; colony ship ; communications ; communicator ; Cone Rockets ; crew manifest ; crisis point ; deep space probe ; deflector shields ; defunding ; Delta Scorpii VII ; Discovery , USS ; disguise ; dream ; download ; duty ; Earth ; Eiffel Tower ; eggs ; Eldredth ; elephant ; emergency medical transporter ; Empire State Building ; Eugenics War ; eye ; faction ; Farragut type ; federal site ; Federation ; Federation Council ; Federation High Court ; figure of speech ; first contact ; first contact team ; foot traffic ; fuck ; future ; gene therapy ; General Order 1 (aka Prime Directive ); genetics ; genetic code ; genome ; globalist ; Golden Gate Bridge ; Gorn ; hail ; hashtag ; health ; helicopter ; horse ; house dressing ; Human ; Human genome ; humanoid ; jury rig ; Kelpien ; Kenya ; Kest Oak ; Kikuyu ; Kiley ; Kiley 279 ; Kiley system ; King, Russel ; Klaatu ; Klingon ; Luna ; Malachowski -class ; Mark IV liferaft ; Martin Luther King Jr. , USS ; March for Our Lives ; mask ; mass murder ; match game ; matrimony ; matter-antimatter reactor ; Mattis, James ; mercury ; microchip ; missile ; Mojave ; monastery ; Montana ; money ; moon ; mRNA ; musculature ; National Rifle Association ; New York City ; Nimitz -class ; night side ; Noonien-Singh, Manu ; Noonien-Singh, Ronu ; Noonien-Singh, Sa'an ; NRA ; nuclear bomb ; Number One ; number one (title); Old Earth ; orange juice ; orbital dock ; outer space ; Palion ; pancake ; pants ; Paris ; particle physics ; pattern booster ; phone ; physiology ; ping ; plasma torpedo ; poison shot ; pre-warp society ; prey posture ; prodigy ; protest ; proverb ; P'Sal ; Puget Sound , SS ; rabbit ; red alert ; red flag ; Rennie, Michael ; retinal scan ; reverse engineer ; rocket ship ; Rome ; Salon ; salve ; San Francisco ; Saurian brandy ; sedition ; science fiction ; scientist ; security ; security badge ; security clearance ; sedative ; Shepard -class ; skin ; snow ; socks ; space dock ; Stamets ; Stamets -type shuttlecraft ( unnamed ); Stanford Morehouse Epigenetic Project ; Starbase 1 ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Archive Museum ; Statue of Liberty ; subspace chatter ; tagball ; telemetry ; telescope ; temporal consciousness displacement ; training exercise ; transformation ; transponder ; tricorder ; truck ; Trump, Donald ; UFO ; United States Capitol ; United States of America ; universal translator ; universe ; vote ; Vulcan ; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan lute ; warp bomb ; warp engine (aka faster-than-light engine ); warp signature ; Washington, DC ; Washington Monument ; White House : wind turbine ; World War III ; wormhole ; X-ray ; zero point

Stellar cartography references [ ]

81 Cancri ; Acamar ; Adelphous ; Ajilon ; Akaali ; Aldebaran ; Algol I ; Algol system ; Alpha Centauri ; Alpha Majoris I ; Alpha Majoris system ; Andoria ; Aneto ; Archanis ; Archanis sector ; Ardana ; Argelius ; Argus Array ; Azati Prime ; B'Moth ; Ba'ku ; Babel ; Bajor ; Balduk ; Barolia ; Barradas ; Benecia ; Beta Lankal ; Beta Leonis Minoris ; Beta Niobe ; Beta Rigel ; Beta Thoridar ; Beta Zeta ; Betazed ; blue ; Boreth ; Brestant ; Briar Patch ; Camus ; Capella ; Cardassia Prime ; Carraya ; Celes ; Chaltok ; Chin'toka ; Cor Caroli ; Coridan ; Corvan ; Cygnet ; Davlos ; Deep Space Station K-7 ; Delta Outpost ; Delta Outpost 4 ; Delta Outpost 5 ; Delta Outpost 6 ; Delta Outpost 7 ; Delta Outpost 8 ; Delta Outpost 9 ; Delta Outpost 10 ; Delta Outpost 11 ; Deneb (Kaitos) ; Denobula ; Deneva ; Dewa ; Dinasia ; Doctari Alpha ; Donatu ; Dreon ; Elas ; Elora ; Epsilon Ceti B ; Epsilon Hydrae ; Epsilon Outpost ; Epsilon Outpost 1 ; Epsilon Outpost 2 ; Epsilon Outpost 3 ; Epsilon Outpost 4 ; Epsilon Outpost 5 ; Epsilon Outpost 6 ; Epsilon Outpost 7 ; Epsilon Outpost 8 ; Epsilon Outpost 9 ; Epsilon Outpost 10 ; Epsilon Outpost 11 ; Epsilon Outpost 12 ; Eridani ; 'etnap Nebula ; Evora ; Free Haven ; Galen IV ; Galen system ; Galorndon Core ; Gamma Eridon ; Gamma Hromi ; Gamma Trianguli VI ; Gamma Trianguli system ; Ganalda ; Gariman sector ; Gasko ; Gorarth ; Grazer ; green ; H'atoria ; Halee ; Halka ; Harlak ; Hromi Cluster ; Hyralan ; Iconia ; Iccobar ; Iridin ; Janus ; Japori ; Jouret ; Kaferia ; Kantare ; Kazar ; Kelfour ; Khitomer ; Kiley system ; Klaestron ; Klingon Empire ; Kobliad ; Korvat ; Kressari system ; Lorillia ; Lya Station Alpha ; Mab-Bu ; Maluria ; Manzar ; Megara ; Mempa ; Mempa sector ; Merak ; metamorphosis ; Minos Korva ; Miridian ; Mizar ; Morska ; Narendra ; Nausicaa ; Nequencia ; Nivalla ; No'Mat ; O'Ryan's Planet ; Omega ; Omega Leonis ; Orellius ; Organia ; Orion ; Pahvo ; Paulson Nebula ; Peliar Zel ; Pheben ; Pi³ Orionis ; Planet Q ; Platonius ; Pollux ; Porathia ; Preenos ; Priors World ; Proxima ; purple ; Pyrithia ; Qo'noS ; Qo'noS sector ; Qualor ; Quam ; Ramatis ; Rator ; red ; Regulus ; Risa ; Romulan Neutral Zone ; Romulan Star Empire ; Rura Penthe ; Sarpedion ; Scalos ; Scalos system ; Septimus ; Septra ; Setlik system ; Sherman's Planet ; Sigma Draconis ; Sol ; Son'a ; Sorna Prime ; Starbase G-6 ; Starbase 1 ; Starbase 2 ; Starbase 9 ; Starbase 11 ; Starbase 12 ; Starbase 18 ; Starbase 19 ; Starbase 21 ; Starbase 22 ; Starbase 23 ; Starbase 24 ; Starbase 46 ; Starbase 47 ; Starbase 88 ; Starbase 234 ; Suliban ; Tagra ; Tagus ; Talos IV ; Talos system ; Talar system ; Talarian homeworld ; Talarian Republic ; Tarlac ; Tau Ceti ; Tellar ; Tellun ; Thalos ; Tomed ; Tonnata ; Toroth ; Tranome Sar ; Tribble Prime ; Trill ; Troyius ; Turkana ; Tzenketh ; Unefra ; Unroth ; Valakis system ; Veda ; Vulcan ; warp-capable civilization ; white ; Wolf 359 ; Wurna Minor ; Xahea ; Xahea system ; Xarantine ; Xepolite ; yellow ; Yridia ; Zibal

Enterprise dedication plaque references [ ]

Agawin, D. ; Anderson, I. ; Armaganian, A. ; Arseneault, S. ; Assimakopoulos, G. ; Baiers, A. ; Ballantyne, R. ; Barbet, H. ; Barrington, J. ; Beyer, K. ; Brock, A. ; Budge, W. ; Burns, D. ; Byrne, C. ; Campbell, M. : chief of staff ; Chris, S. ; Clement, J. ; CNC ; Cooper, A. ; Craig, J. ; Cuthbert, J.C. ; de Cartier, J. ; Croft, B. ; Crosdale, Y. ; DeMayo, B. ; Dening, R. ; Dragonescu, L. ; Edmund, M. ; Eshraghi, S. ; Fisher, C. ; Fleet Ops ; Frakes, J. ; Francis, D. Panet ; Freeland, S. ; Genereux, T. ; German, N. ; Glass, J. ; Goldsman, A. ; Gonsalves, C. ; Gorka, M. ; Gough, T. ; Guilbault, S. ; Haufler, J. ; Herbst, K. ; Holmes, M. ; Hope, L. ; Isaacs, H. ; Jadeja, N. ; Jarvis, J. ; Johnson, O. ; Johnson, R. ; Kadin, H. ; Kao, E. ; Kim, J. ; Kirk, J. ; Knezev, M. ; Kurtzman, A. ; Lee, C. ; Lee, J. ; Leiterman, R. ; Lewandowski, M. ; Li, A. ; Liu, D. ; Lumet, J. ; Ma, A. ; Maurais, P. ; MacKenzie, A. ; Marrello, B. ; McDonald, L.M. ; Meyers, H. Alonso ; Moran, R. ; Murray, J. ; Nassif, T. ; Nocifora, A. ; Ordowich, J. ; Pearce, S. ; Peel, T. ; Perez, D. ; Petrovic, T. ; Phillips, G. ; Quimel, C. ; Raffaghello, A. ; Rigby, M. ; Robertson, M. ; Roddenberry, R. ; Roddenberry, Gene ; Roth, T. ; Schnobb, A. ; Schorn, F. ; Science Ops ; Sidarous, W. ; Singh, A. ; Siracusa, F. ; Smale, T. ; St. Clair, M. ; Starfleet Command ; Stroud, H. ; Summers, T. ; Swope, J. ; Tactical Ops ; Tarkoff, S. ; Thomas, S. ; Tsang, A. ; Van Koeverden, A. Malee ; Vasey, S. ; Vaughan, D. ; Vero, Z. ; Viger, M. ; Vrvilo, M. ; Wan, C. ; Wasserman, R. ; Watkins, C. ; Weber, J. ; Wolkoff, B. ; Wrighte, B. ; yard engineer ; Yorke, R. ; Zahiri, A.

Meta references [ ]

External links [ ].

• " Strange New Worlds " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Strange New Worlds " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " "Discovering Farewell and Strange New Worlds" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

211 episodes

Hosted by planetary scientist and astrobiologist Dr. Michael L. Wong, Strange New Worlds examines science, technology, and culture through the lens of Star Trek!

Strange New Worlds: A Science & Star Trek Podcast miquai

• 4.7 • 36 Ratings
• APR 20, 2024

DSC 503: Half-Life

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and Kim take a closer look at DSC: "Jinaal." What do they make of the Trill's test? And why was Stamets so bubbly about isotope half-lives? Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

• APR 12, 2024

DSC 502: Double Solar Eclipse

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Mike and Kim examine the themes in DSC: "Under the Twin Moons." What does it take to get a double solar eclipse? And what do they make of Captain Rayner's advice? Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

• APR 8, 2024

DSC 501: Sturzstrom

Guest: Dr. Shi En Kim Science journalist Dr. Shi En Kim joins Mike to talk about DSC: "Red Directive," from sand avalanches to the big revelation at the end of the episode. Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai Kim: twitter.com/goes_by_kim

• APR 6, 2024

Episode 170: Learning & Life

Guest: Dr. Stuart Bartlett Complexity scientist, astrobiologist, and artificial life researcher Dr. Stuart Bartlett joins us to discuss how information processing has been a key feature of life, from its emergence 4 billion years ago to artificial intelligence today. Stuart's paper "Provenance of life: Chemical autonomous agents surviving through associative learning": https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.106.034401 Mike & Stuart's paper "Searching for Life, Mindful of Lyfe’s Possibilities": https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/12/6/783 Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: twitter.com/miquai

• MAR 24, 2024

Episode 169: The Abiogenesis Zone

Guest: Prof. Paul Rimmer In the Star Trek: The Next Generation finale, Q and Picard time travel to the origin of life on Earth. How does that scene compare to our modern scientific understanding of life's emergence? Prof. Paul Rimmer walks us through what Star Trek gets right and wrong—and what we still don't know—about our humble beginnings. "Could Dune really exist? What scientists think of our favorite sci-fi worlds" featuring Mike & Prof. Mohamed Noor: https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1198909447/dune-part-two-arrakis-habitable-planets-star-trek-wars Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai

• MAR 18, 2024

Episode 168: The Possibility of Life

Guest: Jaime Green Author Jaime Green beams aboard to talk about how we imagine alien life in science and in science fiction. Her new book is "The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos." "The Possibility of Life" by Jaime Green: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-possibility-of-life-jaime-green?variant=40643758391330 "Uncertain Contact" by Jaime Green: https://aeon.co/essays/alien-life-might-not-be-something-science-can-ever-discover "An Existential Problem in the Search for Alien Life" by Jaime Green:https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/12/defining-life-existentialism-scientific-theory/676238/ Follow us on Twitter! Strange New Worlds: https://twitter.com/scienceoftrek Mike: https://twitter.com/miquai Jaime: https://twitter.com/jaimealyse

• © All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

All science, all fun.

Do you like Star Trek? Do you like science? If yes to both, just stop reading this and start listening!

Love this podcast and its positive vibes

What a wonderful way to engage so many talented people. The podcast is inclusive of all topics Star Trek, and individuals of different backgrounds, scientists and non-scientists alike. Listening to it conjures up images of a fertile garden (Star Trek) with thriving plants (host and invited guests) sharing their beautiful colors (thoughts) and reciprocating one another with their delicious fruits (stories). Look forward to many more episodes. 🖖

If you have ever enjoyed any episode of a Star Trek series, you will love this podcast. It's nerdy and entertaining and educational all at the same time. Mike talks about real science in a completely accessible way while also geeking out about the coolest parts of science fiction and Star Trek and why we all love it. The interviews are great too! Definitely give this a try - you will be hooked!

Top Podcasts In Science

You might also like.

• Shop Everything
• Star Trek Universe
• Sci-Fi Ships & Vehicles
• Themed Sherpa Blankets
• Professional Model Building Services
• Unassembled Model Kits and Model Lighting & Sound Kits
• Model Kit Lighting Control Boards
• Model Kit Lighting Accessories
• Hallmark Ornaments
• Sci-Fi Gifts, Wall Art & Decor
• Star Trek Themed Shirts & Clothes
• Old School Sci-Fi VHS & Other Video
• Other Universes
• About Us/Contact Us
• Financing/Shipping
• Sci-Fi & Model Kit Building Articles

Captain Christopher Pike , Captain James T Kirk , NCC-1701 , Original Enterprise , Star Trek Strange New Worlds , Star Trek The Original Series , Star Trek TOS , Strange New Worlds Enterprise - April 13, 2023

The USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds vs the Original Series Enterprise-How Are The Ships Different?

Have you ever wondered how Star Trek's USS Enterprise has changed over the years?

The famous sci-fi cruiser has been around for decades, accompanying starships and captains alike. From Captain Kirk to Captain Picard and Captain Burnham, the USS Enterprise has been a reliable and integral part of the Star Trek universe for decades. But did you know that there is more than one version of the original ship across multiple shows and movies?

Yes, for those of you who are not familiar with the franchise, there are a total of 9 TV shows and 13 movies. This includes the Original Series and Strange New Worlds, which both have the starship Enterprise...What are the differences between the two ships though?

We'll break down the differences for you in this article, so read on!

The recent reimagining of the franchise, the new series "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is set about 8 years before the events we saw in the Original Series with a ship that is "older" than the ship we see in the Original Series. However, Strange New Worlds' Enterprise features a newly refit ship than the Enterprise that we saw in season 2 of Star Trek Discovery. This newly refitted ship is much more capable, with its more advanced propulsion, weapons and tech. (Strangely though, some alien ships seen in the Original Series could go as fast as a  warp speed of 35 . The original shows warp speed capabilities were inconsistent and relied mostly on what the writers wanted at the time.)

The Strange New Worlds Enterprise is not only faster than the previous versions of it, but more maneuverable as well, with agile thrusters and a sleeker design. This allows the ship to make much faster and tighter turns, making it even more formidable in battle than it ever was before. Overall, the new USS Enterprise has vastly superior speed, making it a much more effective vessel in the strangeness of space.

The Bridge Design

The bridge design of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek has changed immensely over the years. With its many incarnations, it gives us insight into how the vessel and its crew were viewed in different television eras with different views of the future and different production budgets.

The iconic Enterprise bridge of the Original Series is a very simplistic affair by today's standards. It is complete with unsophisticated decor and and budget friendly sets representing the "old school" production values of the mid 60's.

In contrast, the bridge of the Enterprise in Strange New Worlds is much more streamlined and utilitarian. It conveys a sense of modernity and cutting-edge technology.

The sheer size of the original series' bridge is impressive, but the Strange New World's version is much more open and accessible with much more cutting edge looking technology than was seen in the Original Series. It suggests a more collaborative and accessible approach to Starfleet command that seems more realistic of what the future may hold than what was foreseen in the 60's. TV show.

Ship Technology

The Star Trek Ship Technology in Strange New Worlds versus the iconic Original Series is another great example of the theoretical technological advances we hope to achieve with starship engineering in the future. The 23rd-century USS Enterprise featured in the Original Series was a massive fusion & warp powered spaceship designed to explore the galaxy. While the technology of the Enterprise in Strange New Worlds is about the same as the Original Series Enterprise, it looks much more advanced than what was seen in the Original Series...The shield systems seem much stronger, and the weapon systems far more powerful. The ship also features an Artificial Intelligence computer system. The systems seem much more advanced in terms of navigation and communication too and the ship is also equipped with the latest scanners and scientists. It makes it possible to explore the universe more thoroughly. It is clear that the technology of starships has advanced by leaps and bounds in the new series.

Pike's Character

The USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds has seen profound changes from the Original Series when it comes to Pike's character too. Gone are the strong morality and philosophical guidance of Captain Kirk, which has been replaced by Pike's approachable nature and willingness to try different solutions to the challenges they face.

Pike is a warmer, more sympathetic leader, who is not afraid to take risks or step away from his own set principles when the situation requires it. With Pike in charge, the crew of the Enterprise is far more open to and flexible in their approach to the strange new worlds they explore, which often leads to more effective and creative solutions. This is a refreshing and vibrant new take on the old series, and one fans have embraced warmly.

AI Communications

The Strange New Worlds USS Enterprise saw a dramatic shift in AI communications compared to the The Original Series USS Enterprise. Whereas before the initial communication protocols had to do with verbal exchanges between people, AI is now able to operate autonomously on the ship without those conversations.

AI can now also monitor and respond to situational requirements, taking the weight off of the actors who were previously responsible for them. The AI is also capable of remaining conversationally open and engaging with crew members in a more natural and seamless dialogue.

This new AI was able to improve on the existing communication projects and act almost as an ambassador for the ship and crew. By doing this, the AI was able to become a more beneficial part of the communication protocols than it had been previously, and lead to better results than it had in the Original Series.

The crew of the USS Enterprise of Strange New Worlds is an intergalactic crew representing diverse species from various corners of the universe. The bridge includes both Human and non-Human characters that have been brought together under the leadership of Captain Pike. With the inclusion of humanoids from various backgrounds and cultures, the bridge offers a more dynamic crew than the crew of the Original Series Enterprise.

Whereas the original crew of the Enterprise was predominantly composed of human males with a couple of female characters, the Strange New Worlds crew offers a more balanced mix of genders and species. This not only allows for a more interesting dynamic as the crew members interact, but also provides a glimpse into a truly diverse future.

Know These USS Enterprise Changes

The USS Enterprise of the original series was the lifeblood of star trek fandom. With the release of Strange New Worlds, fans have seen a shift in the design, tone, and execution of the show. The changes to the new series created a fresh and exciting foundation on which to explore the ever-expanding world of Star Trek. If you haven't seen the series yet, give it a try and explore the strange new world of The USS Enterprise!

Ship developments don't stop with the Enterprise, though. For more star trek facts and news , check out the rest of our interesting articles too!

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

• Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
• Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection.
• Use left/right arrows to navigate the slideshow or swipe left/right if using a mobile device

Do you want to view this website in the region of your choice?

North America or Your region of preference Close

• News & Events
• Entering Star Trek with ROE Visual LED Technology

Entering Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with ROE Visual LED Technology

The latest installment from the Star Trek Universe, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , premiered on May 5 th on Paramount+. Shot on the co-branded Pixomondo & William F. White stage in Toronto, Canada, this 10-episode spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery utilizes various ROE Visual LED products to bring the sci-fi storyline to life. The action-packed new series takes audiences across the galaxy as members aboard the Starship Enterprise explore new worlds.

Photo Credit: Paramount+

A prequel to the original Gene Roddenberry series of Captain James T. Kirk (played by the inimitable William Shatner) and his crew, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes a new approach to the familiar narrative. According to the show’s description, “The series will follow Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.” ( Paramount+ ).

While the Star Trek franchise is no stranger to using cutting-edge virtual production techniques over the decades, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is only the second installment to utilize LED technology for virtual backdrops. The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery was the first, applying the power of LED walls for in-camera effects. This time around, the new series was created with LED advancements in mind, allowing the crew to expand their creative capacity in real-time.

One major example of this set for engineering on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Supported by PXO’s expert team, the massive ROE Visual LED wall, and Unreal Engine, the Toronto space created a realistic engineering room for today’s fans.

Photo by Marni Grossman

In collaboration with William F. White International (WFW), the largest equipment rental company in Canada, Pixomondo (PXO) has successively established three virtual production spaces in Vancouver and Toronto, all of which feature ROE Visual LED products. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was filmed at the main Toronto stage.

Occupying over 22,000 sq ft, the stage houses a 70x30 ft horseshoe-shaped volume made up of 1,800 ROE Visual Black Pearl (BP2V2) LED panels. To complement the wall, the volume’s ceiling is made up of 650 Carbon Series (CB5) panels driven by Brompton Tessera SX40 LED video processors, which output real-time animation from Unreal Engine. The impressive volume is also outfitted with OptiTrack motion-capture cameras for multi-camera tracking to ensure the visuals move with the actors.

All of these features came together in support of the otherworldly set design, including the many new environments and planets the crew visits in the series. In an article with American Cinematographer Magazine, Nathaniel Larouche virtual-production and visual-effects supervisor for Strange New Worlds discusses the difference in production when using LED technology on camera:

“‘There’s something tangibly better about capturing these shots in front of a real lens versus compositing everything in post. The natural depth of field and the way the light falls on fine details like hair and cheekbones — all of that definition and accurate lighting are what you’re losing when removing greenscreen spill to get a good composite. Using the LED volume gives you back all of those highlights and creates a beautiful and natural-looking image that we’re all very proud of.’” ( ASC Magazine ).

Installed in countless virtual production studios worldwide, the Black Pearl and Carbon series continue to outperform expectations on set. Particularly, BP2V2 offers a trusted in-camera performance with a 2.88 mm pixel pitch and true-to-content color representation that specialists rely on in post-production as Larouche mentions. Acting as the volume’s ceiling and lighting source, the CB5 panels (5.77 mm pixel pitch) possess excellent brightness while maintaining a low panel weight. A reduced weight is instrumental for large projects that require extra considerations and rigging.

A second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has recently wrapped production.

Additional Info

Products used: BP2V2 , CB5

Original Source: Boldly Going Virtual with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - American Cinematographer

Related Article: 'STAR TREK: DISCOVERY' SEASON 4 DEPLOYS ROE VISUAL TO CREATE BACKGROUND SCENERY - ROE Visual

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Virtual Production

Related items

ROE VISUAL HIGHLIGHTS BROADCAST-GRADE LED TECHNOLOGY AT MPTS

ROE Visual, is set to participate in the Media Production & Technology Show (MPTS) in London. This eagerly awaited event will feature ROE Visual's latest LED displays and offer on-demand demos, providing a firsthand look at cutting-edge technology tailored for broadcast studio environments.

ROE Visual Launches Obsidian—Its First ICVFX-Focused LED Panel

The new, cinematic panel, Obsidian, sets a new standard in virtual production technology, and has already garnered attention for its design, winning the iF Design Award 2024 and recently the Red Dot Award.

ROE Visual Showcases LED Innovations at Saudi Light and Sound Expo

Discover the latest ROE Visual LED solutions and services at Hall 4, Stand #4C11, the Saudi Light and Sound (SLS) Expo 2024.

Subscribe today and get educated and entertained with the monthly ROE Visual email Newsletter

• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on Facebook
• Follow us on X
• Follow us on LinkedIn
• Follow us on YouTube

Share Comparison

Select your region of preference.

• North America

• April 29, 2024 | Preview ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Episode 506 With New Images. Trailer And Clip From “Whistlespeak”
• April 28, 2024 | Interview: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Writer Carlos Cisco On Unmasking The Breen And Revisiting The ISS Enterprise
• April 26, 2024 | Michael Dorn Wanted Armin Shimerman To Play The Ferengi That Worf Killed In Star Trek Picard
• April 26, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Gets To Know The Breen In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 505, “Mirrors”
• April 25, 2024 | Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

Prep Begins For ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Finale; Cast And Directors Share BTS Images

| April 25, 2024 | By: Anthony Pascale 15 comments so far

Work on the third season of  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds  continues to move swiftly in Toronto and looks to be set to wrap up next month. We have some fun bits from the set shared by the cast and a couple of directors, as well as some details on the production.

2 more episodes to go

First up, a selfie from director Jordan Canning, who previously directed the season 2 episode “Charades.” The image posted earlier this week shows the director with Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn and has the message, “Always happy to be the redshirt between these two.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jordan Canning (@jjhcanning)

TrekMovie has confirmed that Canning directed episode 8, which has wrapped. Filming for episode 9 has already begun, with Andrew Coutts directing. This will be the directorial debut for Coutts, a co-producer and editor on the show. The 10th and final episode of the season will be directed by Maja Vrvilo, a Paramount+ Trek veteran who has directed episodes of Discovery , Picard , and Strange New Worlds . Earlier this week, she posted an image of her office door, indicated prep work for her episode had already begun.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Maja Vrvilo (@majavrvilo)

Anson has a challenge for cosplayers

There have also been a couple of fun recent social media updates from the cast. First up, Anson Mount posted on Twitter/X that season 3 will require cosplayers to bring their “A-game” as he shared some creative fan costumes.

I will say this about season 3 of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds : Cos-players, you better be ready to bring your A-game. #Cosplay @StarTrek @StarTrekOnPPlus pic.twitter.com/mZ9gMmIhsL — Anson Mount 🖖 (@ansonmount) April 16, 2024

One new look for cosplayers to try is an armed Nurse Chapel, as seen in this short video from Jess Bush showing off her phaser holster.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jess Bush (@onejessa)

Finally, on the day of the big eclipse, some of the Strange New Worlds team took a moment to check it out. Bush shared an Instagram story with herself and co-star Melissa Navia rocking their eclipse glasses. (They had 90% totality in Toronto.)

Last week brought big news for Strange New Worlds: It’s been renewed for a fourth season. Paramount+ recently confirmed season 3 will debut in 2025.

Keep up with news about the  Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com .

Related Articles

All Access Star Trek Podcast , Discovery , Lower Decks , Star Trek Origin Movie , Strange New Worlds

Podcast: All Access Faces The Strange On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’

Strange New Worlds

Actor Talks “Authentic” Scotty On ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’; Season 3 Production Passes Milestone

Lower Decks , Strange New Worlds

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Renewed For Season 4; ‘Lower Decks’ To End With Season 5

Awards , Strange New Worlds

‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Picks Up Two Hugo Award Nominations

I LOVE holodeck dude in cosplay!

I’m curious how long their entire season shooting period actually is.

Usually 5 to 6 months. This one started just before Christmas.

I know I’ll end up watching it, but I’m just not excited for the next season. Season 2 was all over the place, in my opinion. For every episode like Those Old Scientists or Ad Astra Per Aspera, there was rubbish like The Broken Circle and Under the Cloak of War and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I like the cast, but the quality isn’t there- and for all the talk of “big swings” and pushing the envelope- Season 2 was almost painfully generic.

Same here. I’ll be tuning in, but it’s not up there on my ‘must-see right away’ list. I feel like overall, the storytelling floundered during S2, legacy characters written badly, and a distinct corny popcorn feel to it. Both Spock and Pike were reduced to bumbling sidekicks. Hoping S3 has a bit more gravitas to it. Like you said, not the fault of the cast. All blame goes back to the writer’s room. I’m more than happy to consider this show as existing in its own separate timeline, as has been confirmed.

I still can’t get over how *boring* the finale was. It felt like it went on for hours and yet nothing actually happened besides a super-quick and appallingly shot fight in zero-g. Season Two really dropped the ball.

I agree. I don’t even remember what happened in the finale, except Pike at the end hesitating like a scared junior officer when the situation called for fast decisive action. As for the season in general, it feels empty, like nothing really happens in the episodes. I hate the way they turned Spock into a moron. There are better ways if the writers wanted to put some humor in… I’m sure the 12 year olds found it funny but adults are watching too…

They seem to be testing the water for the Academy show with teen romances also. Spock, Chapel / La’an, Kirk and Pike, Batel were all shallow romances and just really boring that took up way too much time in the season. They seriously need to get back to writing some good sci fi stories or this show will go down as one of the worse Star Trek series for me. It seems more of a comedy starship show than the Orville at times. And season 1 had so much promise as well.

The SNW writers room has a chalk board titled Gimmick Board only they misspelt it Big Swing Board. Hopefully they can’t destroy Spock’s character anymore as they have already scraped the bottom of the barrel with their writing of his character.

So relieved I’m not the only one who felt this way. I hear “game changer” and “big swing” and I think “great, they’re effing with my show again to bring in the non-Trek fans”!

Yes, to them “big swing” means having the characters do things completely out of character and turning Star Trek into a Broadway play. Sure the musical was original and unexpected, but really out of place, and I will never be able to get the K-Pop Klingons out of my head.

I didn’t mind the musical episode (probably because I love musicals!) but on the whole, the season felt soulless and devoid of anything interesting to say (outside of Ad Astra Per Aspera). It’s as though the entire season was written by committee and was deathly afraid of offending the fandom by doing anything even slightly controversial.

I’ve had this feeling since the first season. Anson Mount is a wonderful lead, but they’ve completed destroyed the character that we got to know in Season 2 of Discovery. And they need to do something with Spock besides him being a complete and utter pig to women.

I’m absolutely giddy for this next season. Season two was fantastic and I cannot wait for this next season.

I really wish studios would get it together. They used to be able to turn out twice the number of eps or sometimes more every year without year-long pauses between seasons.

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery just did a secret strange new worlds crossover.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 brought Captain Burnham to the Mirror Universe's Starship Enterprise. If the sets look familiar, it's because they are.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 - "Mirrors"

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5 was a crossover with Strange New Worlds' Enterprise sets.
• Captain Burnham found the Mirror Universe's ISS Enterprise in interdimensional space.
• The two Star Trek series share sets in Toronto and they have filmed on each other's sets before.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5, "Mirrors," was a secret crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Written by Johanna Lee & Carlos Cisco and directed by Jen McGowan, Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 sent Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) into interdimensional space in pursuit of Moll (Eve Harlow), L'ak (Elias Toufexis), and the next clue to the ancient treasure of the Progenitors. Burnham never expected to find the derelict ISS Enterprise from the Mirror Universe within the dangerous wormhole.

Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror", introduced the Mirror Universe and the ISS Enterprise , the alternate reality counterpart of the USS Enterprise. The ISS Enterprise hadn't been seen since, but Star Trek: Discovery revealed refugees attempted to flee the Mirror Universe aboard the Constitution Class ship. The passengers, including Science Officer Dr. Cho, abandoned the Enterprise in interdimensional space and made it to Star Trek 's Prime Universe. Later, Dr. Cho returned to hide her clue to the Progenitors' treasure aboard the ISS Enterprise.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Star trek: discovery season 5 filmed on strange new worlds’ enterprise set, discovery and strange new worlds film on adjacent sets in toronto.

Although no characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds appeared in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 5 - which makes sense since the two series are set over 930 years apart in Star Trek 's timeline - "Mirrors" was filmed on Strange New Worlds ' USS Enterprise sets which doubled for the ISS Enterprise. Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds shoot in Toronto on adjacent soundstages and both shows have access to each other's sets. In an interview with Screen Rant , David Ajala confirmed that Discovery filmed its scenes in late 2022 after Strange New Worlds season 2 wrapped production.

Sharing sets is a Star Trek tradition going back to the 1990s Star Trek series.

This type of 'crossover' between Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has happened before . Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 2 , "Ad Astra Per Aspera" shot its courtroom scenes for Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley's (Rebecca Romijn) trial in Discovery 's Federation headquarters set. Sharing sets is a Star Trek tradition going back to the 1990s Star Trek series when Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would film on each others' sets as a cost-saving measure.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country redressed Star Trek: The Next Generation 's 10 Forward set to become the office of the Federation President (Kurtwood Smith).

Can Discovery & Strange New Worlds Have A Real Star Trek Crossover?

It's unlikely, but not completely impossible..

Star Trek: Discovery season 1's finale and season 2 can be credited as the first Star Trek 'crossover' of the Paramount+ era when the USS Enterprise, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One joined the show. The trio proved so popular, fans clamored for them to receive their own spinoff set aboard the Starship Enterprise, which became Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Star Trek: Discovery then jumped forward to the 32nd century, and it was a one-way trip that left the Enterprise and the 23rd century permanently behind. But can a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover still happen?

Yet there are possibilities for a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover.

There won't be a crossover with Star Trek: Discovery season 5 outside of Burnham, Book, Moll, and L'ak occupying the ISS Enterprise in "Mirrors" . Discovery season 5 has long since wrapped production and the hunt for the Progenitors' technology doesn't leave room for any time travel to see Strange New Worlds' characters . Yet there are possibilities for a Discovery and Strange New Worlds crossover. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is in production and the series is renewed for season 4. Perhaps a way could be found to have Captain Burnham see Captain Pike and Spock one more time. Or both show's characters may meet on neutral ground through various sci-fi means on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy . Where there's a will, there's a way to still crossover Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5 stream Thursdays on Paramount+

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek Discovery Cancellation Ruins Strange New Worlds Crossover?

Posted: April 29, 2024 | Last updated: April 29, 2024

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery has been filled with fan service, including the entire season’s mystery arc being based on the beloved TNG episode “The Chase.” We’ve gotten callbacks to the Dominion War and a cameo by a Soong-type android. But one of the most ambitious bits of fan service was Discovery encountering the abandoned hulk of the Mirror Universe vessel ISS Enterprise.

We later found out its crew rebelled from the Terran Empire and escaped into the Prime Universe, but it’s my belief this episode was meant to set up a Strange New Worlds crossover we will never get.

Star Trek: Discovery Setting Up Strange New Worlds?

How, exactly, could Star Trek: Discovery have been setting up a crossover with Strange New Worlds? It may seem unlikely, especially with SNW taking place in the 23rd century and DSC now taking place in the 32nd century.

However, there are various ways for the show to explain how a vessel could time-travel to the future (something that the Discovery crew knows all about) or just get stuck in a timey-wimey space phenomenon.

Star Trek: Discovery “Mirrors”

In the Star Trek: Discovery episode “Mirrors,” Captain Burnham and Booker board the ISS Enterprise in search of the criminals Moll and L’ak as well as clues about the Progenitors. These ancient aliens who created many major races in the galaxy and whose technology could be used as a superweapon.

Our heroes eventually discover that this ship fled the Mirror Universe after Spock became the Terran Emperor and was executed for trying to usher progressive reforms into a regressive empire.  We later find out they safely made it into the Prime universe despite the ISS Enterprise getting stuck in the wormhole.

Didn’t Know Fifth Was Last

Here’s my speculation: we know that the Star Trek: Discovery cast and crew did not originally know the fifth season would be their last. After the show’s surprise cancellation, however, Paramount allowed new scenes to be shot to help wrap the season up and make it feel more like a finale. 

Many fans (myself included) assumed these new scenes would mostly be added to the season finale to help wrap up the series. However, seeing the ISS Enterprise makes me think the show had an ambitious Strange New Worlds crossover planned for a future season and a new scene was added to quickly resolve things.

Trying To Find Clues

In Star Trek: Discovery, we learn that the ISS Enterprise crew rebelled against the Terran Empire and fled to the Prime Universe, with the ship getting stuck in a wormhole.

At first, what happened to the Mirror crew was a mystery. Later, though, Captain Burnham happily reveals that everyone safely made it to the Prime Universe in the 23rd century. The one fleeing Terran, Dr. Cho, became a Starfleet branch admiral who researched the Progenitors and left the clue Burnham and Book are trying to find.

Strange New Worlds Mirror Universe?

My theory is that Star Trek: Discovery was originally going to leave the fate of that crew as a mystery so that in future seasons, we could find out they escaped into the future and get cameos from Mirror Universe versions of Strange New Worlds characters.

Mirror Pike, for example, could basically be an anti-Lorca: a captain from the evil universe who is actually a good guy and not just putting on an act. The crossover between Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks proved very popular, and this would have been a chance for Paramount to engage in more of that sweet, sweet brand synergy.

Adding New Scenes?

Furthermore, I believe that after Star Trek: Discovery was canceled, the conversation where Burnham tells Booker the crew all survived and settled in the Prime Universe was later added as a new scene.

Think about it: that scene is just two characters talking on a very small set. That’s not exactly a smoking phaser when it comes to my theory, but this would have been a lot easier to add as a new scene compared to something like a major ensemble scene on the Discovery’s bridge.

Future Crossovers Could Still Happen?

We may never definitively know if Star Trek: Discovery was setting up a Strange New Worlds crossover, but I’m trying to embody what Burnham said about the rebel Enterprise crew. “They had hope…despite impossible odds.”

In my case, I hope that Paramount hasn’t fully given up on ambitious plans like crossovers in favor of just playing it safe with Starfleet Academy, an upcoming show aimed at teens so aggressively that it might as well be called Stardate 90210.

More for You

Former boxing world champion dies aged 57

The most dangerous state to drive in in the US, according to data—plus, see where your state ranks

19 Things People Treat As Safe That Actually Are Pretty Dangerous

7 Things Stroke Doctors Say You Should Never, Ever Do

I’m a psychologist and mom—here are 3 phrases I wish more parents would say to their kids

11 Facts You Should Know About Hard-Boiled Eggs

‘American Idol' To Pay Tribute To Mandisa With Special Performance By Colton Dixon, Danny Gokey, Melinda Doolittle

Map reveals best places to live in the US if nuclear war breaks out

Here’s How Much the Definition of Rich Has Changed in Every State

Scientists claim people with this blood type more likely to have early stroke

I Am Doing a PhD at 16—My Mother's Death Is the Reason

29 common human foods you may not realize are poisonous to your dog

US Air Force: Critical Staffing Shortage Prompts Program to Recruit Retirees

Ghosts of the USA: The Most Haunted Places in America

UN experts say North Korea missile landed in Kharkiv

‘American Idol' Winner Just Sam Returned After Going Viral For Singing In NYC Subways: "This Is Way Better Than An iPhone From Home"

Best Online Computer Science Programs of 2024

Experts Say These Are The 5 Worst Foods For Your Cholesterol

Age at which you're officially old has changed

A Massive U.S. Nuclear Plant Is Finally Complete. It Might Be the Last of Its Kind.