star trek strange new world episode 10

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season-Finale Recap: The Gorn Ultimatum

Star trek: strange new worlds.

Here the other shoe drops. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been setting up a full-on direct conflict with the Gorn since first alluding to the brutal lizard people in the first season, then suggested that conflict was imminent in “ The Broken Circle ,” the second-season premiere. Since then: nothing, or at least nothing beyond faint hints that the Federation-Gorn cold war was about to turn hot. Technically, that status doesn’t change with “Hegemony,” in which our Starfleet heroes find themselves fighting some fearsome Gorn foes on a planet with Earthborn settlers that are not part of the Federation. But for Pike and the rest of the Enterprise, this proves to be a distinction without a difference. Whether you’re technically at war with your enemy doesn’t matter when you’re getting blown to smithereens.

The episode opens just outside Federation space with a Captain’s Log entry from a different captain than usual. It’s Batel, who’s traveled to Parnassus Beta to help a colony modeled after a 20th-century midwestern town. It looks like a nice place, and one completely unprepared for any kind of hostile alien force should one arrive. It does, of course, but not until a scene between Chapel and Batel reveals they’ve both been helping out on the surface since last we saw them. When Chapel beams up to the Cayuga , Batel’s ship, it seems like business as usual for a Federation outing, but she and Batel will have profoundly different experiences when the next plot twist arrives: the arrival of the Gorn.

For Batel, that happens mid–phone call after Pike reaches out to check up on her. After their call is cut short, a shadow fills the sky, but the Parnassus is able to get out a distress call. That sends the Enterprise into rescue mode, but with a warning from Admiral April that any interference could spark a war with the Gorn Hegemony. But when the ship reaches the colony, that warning becomes virtually academic. The Gorn have struck first.

Three problems await them when they arrive: (1) figuring out what’s going on on the planet’s surface after the Gorn have blacked out communication, (2) trying to locate any survivors of the destroyed Cayuga (but especially Nurse Chapel), and (3) the arrival of even more Gorn, who’ve shown up with a message. Actually, it’s really more an image than a message, but the meaning is clear: There’s a line, and you guys need to stay on your side of it, or there will be more trouble.

Starfleet agrees to honor the line, but Pike has other ideas, and he has a secret cache of anti-Gorn weapons to help him. He also, thanks to Ortegas, has a plan to get past the line without the Gorn noticing them by posing as garbage (just like in those old zombie movies that Spock needs to have explained to him). It works (with some help from Ortegas’s piloting skills), but trouble awaits them on the surface. What was once a small, 20th-century midwestern town (sort of) is now a postapocalyptic wasteland complete with random fires and a weird Gorn beacon that explains the communications blackout. What’s more, they’ve got hungry Gorn younglings to deal with, which means it’s time to hide.

That they’re not behaving like typical Gorn younglings — cooperating rather than fighting one another — is a bit baffling, but not as baffling as sensor readings of human life where no life appears to exist. When the Enterprise landing party finds themselves trapped in a force field, the mystery is solved and a new old character enters the stage. It’s Lieutenant Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn)!

The face is new, but the personality, accent, and resourcefulness are unmistakable. Having survived a previous Gorn attack, Scotty has no plans of falling prey to them now. (Hence the trap.) He’s also able to point Pike to a few survivors. These include Batel, who’s happy to see him but also mad he’s there because now he’s in danger too. And Batel understands just how deep the trouble goes: Teleporters won’t work, and there’s not enough room in the shuttle.

But the trouble isn’t limited to the surface of Parnassus Beta. The Enterprise has problems, too. Barely masking his heartbreak, Spock defies logic and continues to look for signs of life on the Cayuga , one sign of life in particular. “Things did not end well between us,” he tells Una, who thinks his continued search will prove futile but lets him carry on anyway. Meanwhile, Uhura shares what she hopes isn’t a crazy plan with Pelia. After triangulating the source of the Gorn’s interference, they can throw some space junk at it to knock it out, avoiding the sort of direct attack that would start a war. All they’ll need to do is put some rockets on a chunk of the Cayuga and send it down. “No human can do this,” Spock says of the “near-impossible task.” So he volunteers to do it himself.

Back on the surface, Scotty has a so-crazy-it-might-just-work plan of his own. In fact, it’s one that has worked, one that will allow Pike’s crew and the survivors to slip away unnoticed by mimicking the Gorn’s signals. But doing this will also require an act of stupid bravery: retrieving a crucial device from the downed shuttle. To get the job done, Pike, Batel, and their new pal Scotty head out into the potentially Gorn-filled night.

As they set out, we learn that Chapel somehow has survived, though her continued survival seems doubtful. She can’t signal the Enterprise, she’s about to run out of oxygen, and, worst of all, there’s a full-grown Gorn with her on what’s left of the Cayuga . This is the first look anyone from the Enterprise has gotten at an adult Gorn, and it’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, pretty terrifying. It even nearly kills Spock, whose timely arrival allows them to fight the Gorn together and exit, holding hands, before the Cayuga remains begin their descent.

On the surface, there’s good news and bad. The good news: Though a Gorn youngling has found Batel, Pike, and Scotty, it chooses not to attack, allowing them to retrieve the parts they need. The bad news: The youngling doesn’t attack because Batel has been implanted with Gorn eggs. Batel, like Hemmer (R.I.P.) before her, wants to sacrifice herself to save the others, but Pike, being Pike, says, “There’s got to be a way to save you.” Then, in a bit of fortuitous timing, the space junk takes out the beacon.

Then the transporting commences. First, Spock and Chapel come aboard, then Pike, Scotty, and Batel, who’s agreed to let the Enterprise med team attempt to de-Gorn her, but only if Chapel agrees to take her out if it doesn’t work. Then matters get worse: The Enterprise can’t locate the rest of the landing crew and the survivors to beam them up because they’ve already been beamed up by the Gorn, who’ve begun attacking the Enterprise . Starfleet orders the Enterprise to leave the area, which would require Pike to abandon his people. And for once, our decisive captain seemingly doesn’t know what to do. To be continued …

And with that, this terrific second season of Strange New Worlds ends, to be resumed at some later date (assuming the ongoing labor dispute ever ends). It’s a throwback to cliffhangers of old, particularly “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1,” the famous season-three-ending episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that seemingly left Riker with no choice but to destroy the Borgified Captain Picard. Where Strange New Worlds goes from here remains to be seen, but it’s left a lot of central characters in mortal danger and one well-liked occasional character seemingly doomed to produce Gorn babies. How will it all work out? Will it all work out? Those questions will have to wait.

• Strange New Worlds has never attempted to hide that its version of the Gorn is heavily inspired by the Xenomorphs of the Alien series. Last season’s “All Who Wander” pays homage to Aliens pretty directly, and “Hegemony” goes even further, revealing full-grown Gorn that bear a strong resemblance to the Xenomorphs in a scene directly inspired by the climax of Alien . Even the divisive Alien 3 gets a nod when the Gorn youngling refuses to attack the implanted Batel.

• The name “The Gorn Hegemony” doesn’t mince words, does it?

• The “small-town model” is an interesting idea. Is it just a matter of romanticizing the 20th-century small town, or was there really something to that model that could be applied elsewhere? Either way, it’s in the great Trek tradition of visiting a planet that looks a lot like Earth (and, presumably, not having to do that much in the way of production design to use it).

• Chances are you haven’t seen Martin Quinn before. His film and TV credits aren’t that extensive, but he does have a small part (as “Wee Cousin Rob”) in an episode of the great Derry Girls . He’s fun here, and it looks like we’ll be seeing more of him. He’s also, unlike previous Scottys, actually Scottish.

• “I’m sorry.” “Save it. There’ll be time later.” Clearly the Spock-Chapel story is not over, despite its turn for the worse.

• Everyone rises to the occasion of a particularly tense episode, but Anson Mount has to be the MVP. Instead of barking orders, Pike turns inspiringly calm and focused. And he’s not above giving Chapel a big hug when he learns she’s alive. That makes his frozen moment at the end all the more unsettling.

• “One of my best students, who sadly received some of my worst grades.” Just a reminder that Carol Kane has been a fun addition this season.

• This episode was written by Henry Alonso Myers, the series showrunner with Akiva Goldsman. He has six writing credits, but this is his first solo credit. It’s directed by Maja Vrvilo, who also helmed season one’s “Children of the Comet.”

star trek: strange new worlds

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

Lower case letters (a-z)
Upper case letters (A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

Home » Streaming Service

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap and Ending Explained

We recap the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10, “Hegemony,” which contains spoilers and explains the Ending.

“Hegemony” is the closing chapter of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ second season .

In this action-packed finale, the USS Enterprise must help save survivors of the USS Cayuga after they are attacked by the Gorn on Parnassus Beta.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap

The episode begins with an introduction to this colony planet, which is located just outside of Federation Space. Batel and her crew are there to help with agriculture and medicine. Even the Enterprise’s very own Christine Chapel is there assisting with inoculations.

Christine is beamed back onto the Cayuga while Batel talks with Pike . They soon lose signal with each other, though. Batel then sends an emergency transmission to the Enterprise; they are under attack from the Gorn. Pike wastes no time at all in journeying to the planet.

Unfortunately, when they arrive, they find the Cayuga has been totally destroyed.

What is blocking the Enterprise’s signals?

Pike is told by Starfleet that he is not to interfere, yet this has become a personal mission now. Both Batel and Christine are in serious danger, if not dead already. The Enterprise crew all vow to help save their comrades immediately. Their plans are scuppered, though, by the Gorn’s defense tactics. They have used an interference field to block incoming and outgoing scans or signals.

The crew is unable to communicate with the Cayuga or the people down on Parnassus Beta. Una attempts to map out a safe route down to the planet, but the Gorn have strategically placed themselves between the Enterprise and the planet. There is no way of reaching those below.

Erica suggests hiding within the Cayuga’s debris field, where they could go undetected. Pike agrees with this plan and lets Erica join the landing party.

Erica pilots a shuttle safely through the wreckage and down onto Parnassus Beta.

On landing, the team inspects the Gorn’s blocking device. They find the aftermath of a battle between the humans and the Gorn but no survivors. A Gorn youngling attacks the party, and La’an kills it with ease.

Their new weaponry seems to work just fine.

How is Montgomery Scott introduced?

After evading another Gorn attack, Pike’s team picks up on a human signal. This is a trap, though, set by the one and only Montgomery Scott. He’s the sole survivor of the Star Diver, who may have just created a device that could help them escape from the Gorn once and for all.

Montgomery Scott explains how his team was studying solar flares when the Gorn attacked. He believes that they are attracted to solar activity. Scott has built a Gorn transponder to trick the enemy. Pike wants Scott’s technology to help them escape.

Later they journey back to Scott’s shuttle to retrieve the gear for the device.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, Spock is worried about Christine’s safety, and Uhura has developed a crazy plan to destroy the Gorn’s interference field. Uhura has located the Gorn’s blocking device and wants to destroy it using the wreckage of the Cayuga.

Spock agrees to plant the rockets onto the starship, which will set this plan in motion.

The Enterprise is unaware of one important piece of information, though Christine is still alive on the Cayuga. She wakes as the oxygen levels reach a critical low.

Christine manages to fix the life support machine and spies Spock fitting the rockets outside the ship. She then space-suits up and follows Spock outside, but a Gorn soldier blocks her path.

Spock and Christine work together to defeat this Gorn soldier. Then they watch hand in hand as the Cayuga plummets towards Parnassus Beta.

What is wrong with Batel?

Back on the colony planet, Scott takes Pike and his team to meet the survivors. Pike is reunited with Batel, but she has been infected with the Gorn’s eggs. She only has a day and a half before they will hatch and kill her in the process. Batel wants to sacrifice herself to save the others, but Pike wants to beam her back aboard the Enterprise instead.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Ending Explained

Their plans are interrupted by the Cayuga’s crash landing. This knocks out the interference field completely. The Enterprise is then able to beam everyone back onto the starship. Batel is rushed off to the medical bay. Scott and Pelia get to work on building a Gorn transponder.

Pike heads back to the bridge just in time for the Gorn to attack. Spock informs Pike that the Gorn have taken all of the remaining survivors hostage on their ships.

The season ends with the Enterprise under attack. Pike seems to be completely overwhelmed by the situation, unable to give his crew mates any further orders, as he is unsure of how to correctly respond. The episode then cuts to black, with a title card indicating that this story is to be continued.

What did you think of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10, and the ending? Comment below.

Article by Adam Lock

Adam Lock is a highly experienced Freelance Entertainment Writer who has written for Ready Steady Cut since January 2022. He is passionate about all things film and TV-related and has devoted his time to tracking streaming content on his social media.

The Journalist (2022) season 1 review - a grim outlook to a festering corrupt political system

The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Episode 8 Recap - "I Heard A Rumor"

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

'Strange New Worlds' season 2 finale brings back those alien antagonists, the Gorn

Kirk et al beam down to the colony planet of Parnassus Beta only to find it's now on the wrong side of a border dispute with their irritable alien adversary.

four women on a starship bridge with illuminated displays behind them

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Strange New Worlds" Season 2, episode 10

Here we are then. After this, it's quite the wait for the next season of any live-action " Star Trek ," let alone "Strange New Worlds," and of course the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes will almost certainly further confound things. However, the good news is, season 2 of " Invasion " on Apple TV+ starts on Aug. 23, and we can tell you having watched it all already, that it's good. Really good. This second season takes all the plot strands that didn't seem to go anywhere particularly groundbreaking and catapults them into some incredibly imaginative places. A late entry into the contest granted, but a very strong contender for the title of Surprise Sci-Fi Summer Hit.

But we digress. We are gathered here today, after all, to talk about the season 2 finale of " Star Trek: Strange New Worlds " and following something of a rollercoaster ride through these last 10 episodes, what did Paramount Plus , Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman have planned for us? And the answer is, further evidence to support the theory that for one reason or another, this second season was rushed through the writing process.

Tragically, this finale, entitled "Hegemony," feels like a lazy lurch over the finishing line. That's not to say it wasn't thoroughly entertaining, but it fell back, retreated if you will, to what the executive producers know is safe, in a similar manner to how each season of " Picard " basically follows the same story template with just the variables changed to make it appear different. In this instance though, it was the reappearance of the Gorn, the introduction of yet another legacy character and the decision to make the finale a two-parter in an attempt to retain your interest and buy Kurtzman, Akiva et al a bit more time to come up with something more original. (If you're feeling a bit lost and need to catch up, check out our Star Trek streaming guide on how to watch all things Trek.)

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.

Lt. George Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) looking like a Starfleet version of Ted Lasso

This installment starts off a little "Independence Day" then goes all "Attack The Block" before borrowing a bit from " All Those Who Wander " (S01, E09) and then finally gives us our first pre-"TOS" look at engineer Montgomery Scott, played in "Strange New Worlds" by Martin Quinn and immortalized of course, by the legendary James Doohan . Still, we should thank our lucky stars that the casting director actually chose a native Scotsman to play the role and not a one-trick-pony from Gloucester, so you know, there's that.

That said, the writers have successfully managed to insert this new chapter of Scott's history into existing canon without having to rewrite anything or rely on a portal and create alt-history. You have to wonder, if there's a printed note stuck to the wall, in the writer's room, to the left of the fridge, above the coffee machine that says, "If in doubt, use a portal."

There's no ignoring the sense that after such a run of amazing episodes, albeit in a very mixed up order, this finale falls just a wee bit flat. If you took all of the second season and mixed it in with the first and put the "Lower Decks" crossover episode (S02, E07) in the first half, bake it all at 475°F for 20 minutes, you'd end up with an amazing "first season" consisting of 20, mostly brilliant installments, comparable to any of the quality sci-fi made in the first decade of this millennia, including "Battlestar Galactica," "Stargate: Atlantis" and " Doctor Who ."

Get the Space.com Newsletter

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

A man stares intently with a spaceship behind him.

Although, the very end scene is quite entertaining upon reflection ... as the USS Enterprise comes under fire from Gorn attack ships, it becomes clear that the away team — including La'An, Ortegas, Kirk and M'Benga — while attempting to escape the colony planet of Parnassus Beta, have been snatched by a transporter beam from an incoming Gorn destroyer.

Blaster fire rocks the bridge of the Enterprise and over the deafening cacophony of alarms and explosions, Number One shouts to the Captain that they've been ordered to retreat, but he has become motionless, almost frozen in time. He's torn, emotionally and ethically about what to do. Over 100 innocent colonists together with some of his closest colleagues and crewmates are now captive and could be virtually impossible to find again, providing they're not tortured and killed first. And then there's the crew of the Enterprise. Still, his face remains expressionless.

"What are your orders sir?!" Number One screams. Any further delay could result in the destruction of the Enterprise and the death of all of those aboard. "Captain! What are your orders?!" She screams again...

At this point, we fade to black — but, when this scene is replayed at the beginning of the third season premiere, if Pike calmly looks up and responds with, " Activate the Omega 13... " I swear I will run and up and down the street naked á la Archimedes.

A Gorn wearing, for the first time, an environment suit in space

There are some fun things to note, in addition to the introduction to Montgomery Scott. The Gorn in an environment suit is extremely interesting and opens up all sorts of possibilities going forward into the third season. Although, it has to be said that clearly, all command crew and indeed any Starfleet officer on an away mission, desperately needs some — any — tactical training.

Quite what will happen to the away team aboard the Gorn destroyer remains to be seen. Maybe, through some clever physiology-altering hypospray, you know like we saw in the first season premiere episode , a couple of Enterprise crewmembers could be made to look like Gorn and sneak aboard, calling themselves "Chris" and "Devon" like Ed Mercer and Gordon Malloy did in " The Orville " episode "Krill" (S01, E06). Tragically, we probably have a year to wait to find out. But in the meantime, don't forget to check out "Invasion" on Apple TV+.

"Strange New Worlds" and every episode of almost every "Star Trek" show ( sorry "Prodigy" ) currently airing streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US. Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream exclusively on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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].

When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

'Borderlands' review: A return to the dark ages of video game adaptations

Marvel and 'Star Wars' take note. 'Star Trek' is now Hollywood's ultimate shared universe

'Alien: Romulus' is a visceral return to form for a venerable sci-fi franchise (review)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 10 review: "An ending that's pure heaven for fans of the original series"

GamesRadar+ Verdict

For newcomers to Trek, ‘A Quality of Mercy’ functions as an entertaining season finale, but its glorious retread of a classic episode ensures it’s pure heaven for fans of the original series. Putting Pike and Kirk in the same room allows you to see both captains in a new light, while offering up some intriguing hints about where Trek’s ongoing TV mission is heading next.

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Warning: This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 10 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

After last week’s Alien homage , Strange New Worlds’ first season finale is an even more blatant journey into sci-fi past. This time the destination is original series classic ‘Balance of Terror’ – aka the one with the Romulans – and, like legendary The Next Generation episode ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’, ‘A Quality of Mercy’ serves up an ingenious alternative timeline adventure.

This Star Trek-flavoured take on It’s a Wonderful Life is essentially Marvel’s ‘What if…?’ on the final frontier, imagining a reality where Christopher Pike – rather than his successor, James Tiberius Kirk – is in the captain’s chair for a mission that could plunge the Federation into all-out war. It also suggests that, just like Trek fans, the residents of Strange New Worlds’ writers’ room like to debate who the best captain is – the difference being that they have massive TV budgets and a cast of professional actors to test out their theories for ‘real’.

Even if you’re not familiar with ‘Balance of Terror’, however – expect the TOS story (which ranks among our best Star Trek episodes ever ) to surge on streaming services in the coming days – ‘A Quality of Mercy’ brings this (mostly) brilliant season to an exciting close. Prior knowledge is a bonus but far from essential.

When Pike delivers his scene-setting log, the Enterprise is on a routine mission retro-fitting the outposts that patrol the Neutral Zone between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire. Things get weird when he recognizes a boy who’ll die in the fateful radiation leak that’s destined to leave the captain paralyzed and scarred. Determined that the future is not set, for him or his cadets, Pike starts drafting a warning letter to the unfortunate kid. Then he’s interrupted by a visit from his future self…

With a few more miles on the clock and dressed in the burgundy uniform of a movie era admiral, the very-much-in-one-piece Pike Sr has traveled back with a message. Courtesy of a time crystal taken from the Klingon holy world of Boreth – similar to the one that revealed Pike’s tragic fate in Discovery’s second season – he has a plausible, canon-friendly tool to show his younger self the path not taken, clearly a hot topic in Trek HQ after similar themes were explored in Picard season 2 .

We’re transported seven years into a future where Pike did send the letter, and he’s commanding the Enterprise on the five-year mission originally overseen by Kirk. For anyone who’s seen ‘Balance of Terror’, Pike’s flashforward plays out like a sophisticated cover version of the original material. As in the earlier episode, the ship’s captain finds himself officiating a wedding that’s quickly interrupted by the ship losing contact with a string of starbases. And even though the timelines quickly diverge, there are plenty of signposts to remind you exactly what happened during the first run-through. There’s a lone Romulan Bird-of-Prey (complete with the overly literal hawk-ish motif on its belly) using a powerful plasma weapon to blow up Federation outposts; a sequence where the Enterprise mirrors the enemy weapon’s moves to avoid detection; a close encounter with a nearby comet; and the Federation’s first-ever sighting of an actual Romulan.

While Spock and Uhura occupy the roles they did first time out, the bridge crew looks slightly different to Kirk’s Enterprise line-up. Ortegas, for example, is sitting in the navigator’s chair occupied by one-off crewman Lt Stiles in ‘Balance of Terror’ and, in her strange, new, wisecrack-free guise, has inherited her predecessor’s shoot first/ask questions later attitude to Romulans.

It’s one of many clever allusions to the plot of the original, including recycled lines of dialogue – whether spoken by the same character or given to someone else – and an almost shot-for-shot redo of the moment the crew realize that Romulans look a lot like Vulcans. Ethan Peck presumably dials down Spock’s response because Leonard Nimoy’s original eyebrow raise is so over-the-top that people might have assumed Peck was shooting for parody.

That the episode never feels like a spoof, however – this definitely isn’t a comedy episode in the vein of Deep Space Nine’s ‘Trials and Tribble-ations’ – is testament to a script that celebrates Trek history while riffing on accepted canon with the relish of JJ Abrams’ first Star Trek movie . ‘A Quality of Mercy’ manages to be simultaneously faithful and subversive, and when it does wilfully change the setting with updated uniforms, visuals and more diverse crews (on both Starfleet and Romulan vessels), the changes all feel welcome. This is a retelling that reflects 2022 much more than 1966.

The key point of difference, however, is the guy sitting in the Enterprise hotseat. Fifty-six years after ‘Balance of Terror’ aired, we know that James T Kirk’s tense game of cat-and-mouse with a Romulan commander didn’t ignite a decades-long skirmish with the Romulans. Even so, Pike’s softly-softly negotiating tactics – exactly what you’d expect from Starfleet’s most famous boy scout – seem entirely sensible. In fact, it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we realize an attack was always the best form of defense against the Romulans. Does the failure of the Pike manoeuvre make him a bad captain? No, but it shows how taking a different decision in the moment can alter history, that the big, Sliding Doors moments can hinge on luck as much as judgment.

And for the benefit of anyone who can’t recall the finer points of the original series, ‘A Quality of Mercy’ makes the Pike/Kirk contrast explicit by beaming James T onto the Enterprise. It was no secret that The Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley would be braving the iconic role, but Paramount Plus played a blinder when they fooled us into thinking we’d have to wait for season 2 for his debut. (That said, after going to all that effort, it’s baffling they let the surprise be ruined by Wesley’s name appearing in the credits.)

This Kirk is commanding officer of the USS Farragut – in the original timeline, he served there as a lieutenant before getting the keys to the Enterprise – and he’s an ideal foil to Pike. On a character level, the way the two captains overcome their differences to develop a mutual respect is incredibly satisfying. “You tried for something better,” Kirk nobly admits.

Alas, the jury’s still out on Wesley. It’s early days, of course, but you have to keep on reminding yourself that he’s James Tiberius Kirk, rather than a random guy cosplaying in a gold sweater. The decision not to ape William Shatner’s performance is a wise one, but Wesley doesn’t bring nearly as much charisma to the role as Chris Pine did in the movies – not yet, anyway.

As anyone who’s seen Back to the Future, Primer, or Star Trek: Voyager episode ‘Year Of Hell’ will recall, tinkering around with the space-time continuum has a habit of backfiring. Pike’s pacifistic approach ultimately brings the entire Romulan armada into Federation space, and the Enterprise consequently takes a hell of a pounding. Where the original ’Balance of Terror’’s sole fatality was the groom from the wedding the Romulans rudely interrupted, ‘A Quality of Mercy’ ends with Spock in Sickbay, having suffered numerous critical injuries. “I’m not sure that he will recover from this,” says a tearful Nurse Chapel, looking at a body scarred by green radiation burns. “But if he does, he will not be the same.”

And that’s the whole point of the episode. For Pike to live, his Vulcan science officer has to die, and as old Pike points out, “[Spock]’s got things to do. Fate of the galaxy-type things.” In this emotionally powerful conclusion, Pike’s penchant for doing the right thing appears to seal his fate, and presumably wraps up one of the few ongoing arcs in this series of standalone stories.

But there is a parting shot. In a fleeting exchange with the surprisingly warm future La’an –apparently just as changed by the intervening seven years as Ortegas – Pike learns that Number One is in prison as punishment for “deception”. It’s therefore something more than déjà vu when Pike’s girlfriend, Captain Batel, arrives to arrest her for being a genetically engineered Illyrian. Una’s fate promises to be a major arc in a second season that’s already wrapped shooting – and after the breath of fresh air of this wonderful first year on Pike’s bridge, the continuing voyages of Strange New Worlds can’t come soon enough.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 has come to an end. For more, check out our guide to the Star Trek timeline .

Richard is a freelancer journalist and editor, and was once a physicist. Rich is the former editor of SFX Magazine, but has since gone freelance, writing for websites and publications including GamesRadar+, SFX, Total Film, and more. He also co-hosts the podcast, Robby the Robot's Waiting, which is focused on sci-fi and fantasy.

The most beloved modern Star Trek shows are both getting renewed, but there's sad news for one of them

Star Trek legend calls his Strange New Worlds season 3 murder-mystery “the best episode of television I’ve ever done"

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker has been infected by Balatro, and the hit roguelike's creator loves it: "It's possibly the most addictive thing ever created"

The Ending Of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Explained

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2, Episode 10, "Hegemony"

A return to episodic adventures in outer space, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has been dazzling audiences and impressing critics since its 2022 debut. Its second season picked up right where the first left off and continued the story of Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise. Alongside returning fan favorites like Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck), and Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Pike's mission in Season 2 has seen him at odds with Klingons, the Kalar of Rigel VII, and even Starfleet itself.

Over the course of the second season, the crew of the Enterprise has gone back in time, gotten visitors from the future, and encountered a dangerous entity from another realm. But the stakes are bigger than ever in the Season 2 finale, "Hegemony," as the Enterprise must face off with one of the galaxy's most terrifying alien threats: the Gorn. A mysterious race of lizardlike monsters, the Gorn are more than a match for Pike and the crew of the Enterprise, and it takes everything they've got to get out alive. If your head is still spinning from the season's jaw-dropping final moments, you can relax, because we're here to explain the ending of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 2.

What you need to remember about Strange New Worlds Season 2

Early in Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" the series wrapped up most of the unanswered questions from Season 1 , including the departure of Security Chief La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) and the trial of Number One. As an episodic, procedural sci-fi series with a new story each week, there hasn't been as much room for ongoing stories, but Season 2 has managed to find some time to set up a few recurring plot threads. The final scenes of the season premiere even teased a coming war with the Gorn, who'd shown themselves to be a dire threat in Season 1 episodes "Memento Mori" and "All Those Who Wander."

"Those Old Scientists," meanwhile, made waves for its genre-breaking crossover with the comedic animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks," and featured voice actors Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome reprising their animated characters Ensign Boimler and Ensign Mariner in live-action. But the episode also saw troubling new developments in the budding relationship between Mr. Spock and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), which began after T'Pring (Gia Sandhu) broke off their impending marriage at the end of "Charades."

The season also saw James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) become a recurring regular, setting up his eventual promotion to captain of the Enterprise, though the first time we'd see him this season would be in an alternate timeline. Following a musical episode, "Subspace Rhapsody," Pike seems more at peace, but it doesn't last long.

What happened in the Season 2 finale

As the season finale "Hegemony" begins, we find Christine Chapel alongside Capt. Batel (Melanie Scrofano, of "Wynona Earp" ) and the crew of the USS Cayuga, who are visiting a Federation colony on Parnassus Beta, just outside Federation space. It quickly comes under attack by the Gorn, and we soon learn that the alien race has claimed this sector of space. Answering Batel's distress call, the Enterprise races in only to find the Cayuga destroyed in orbit and survivors in hiding on the planet's surface.

Evading detection, Pike and a small landing party make it to the colony, where they are under constant threat by the Gorn. Aboard the Enterprise, though, communications are dead, and Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Pelia (Carol Kane) realize the Gorn are using a planet-based device to jam their sensors and comms. Now, it's up to Spock to turn the burned-out hull of the Cayuga into a missile that will strike the Gorn's device on the surface, restoring communications so they can beam the survivors home.

Aboard the remnants of the Cayuga, meanwhile, is Nurse Chapel, who has managed to survive and must get off the ship before Spock sends it hurtling to the planet below. Standing in their way is a deadly Gorn, who wants nothing less than to turn them into its next meal. Down on the planet, a young and resourceful Starfleet engineer and fellow survivor believes he has the key to stopping the Gorn.

Redemption for the crew of the Enterprise

M'Benga, Spock, Ortegas, and La'an gathered

The Season 2 finale of "Strange New Worlds" is the climactic installment titled "Hegemony." More than just a capper to the season, the episode is also a sequel to a story from Season 1 that re-introduced the Gorn, a race of lizard-like aliens first seen in the original "Star Trek" series episode "Arena." No longer a stiff stuntman in a rubber costume, the Gorn in "Strange New Worlds" are a frightening, violent, conquest-driven alien race who are akin to monsters. They have a bloodlust and killer instinct like animals and are ruthlessly territorial. In Season 1, the Enterprise crew faced them down twice, and while they lived to tell the tale, they were not exactly on the winning end.

"Hegemony," though, gives the crew a measure of redemption and a second chance to show they have what it takes against the Gorn. This is especially meaningful for Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), the ship's resident xeno-anthropologist, who wasn't exactly at his best in "All Those Who Wander" and is eager to prove himself.

Similarly, "Hegemony" completes a season-long story for Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) as well. In the finale, she's assigned to pilot a shuttle in a risky maneuver to get Pike and a small assault team to the surface of a planet where survivors of a Gorn attack may be hiding. After being rejected from a landing party earlier this season, Ortega finally gets a chance to shine away from the ship.

Broken romances

Thematically, Season 2 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" could be described in some ways as the season of broken romances. In addition to the awkward love triangle that has played out between Mr. Spock, his betrothed T'Pring, and Nurse Chapel, Pike has struggled to maintain his long-distance relationship with fellow starship commander Batel. That relationship goes all the way back to the series premiere but has faced continued challenges, with a near-breakup in the previous episode, "Subspace Rhapsody."

But that's not all, because multiple episodes this season focused on the cross-dimensional romance between La'an Noonien-Singh and James T. Kirk, which also came to a head in "Subspace Rhapsody" when she's forced to come clean about her feelings. In "Hegemony," however, the story focuses on the latter two romantic pairings, with Nurse Chapel having left the Enterprise when the episode begins to start her fellowship with Dr. Roger Korby. But when the Gorn attack, she's seemingly killed aboard the USS Cayuga, leaving Spock distraught. A mission to rig the Cayuga debris with retro-rockets in a plan to destroy a Gorn device leads to the discovery that Chapel is still alive, and she and Spock reunite after teaming up to kill a Gorn.

Meanwhile, Pike risks everything, going against orders on a rogue mission to find Batel on the planet's surface. But it's later discovered that she has been implanted with Gorn eggs — something that no humanoid has been able to survive.

Lives hanging in the balance

The debut season of "Strange New Worlds" ended on a somber note, with the finale "A Quality of Mercy" forcing Pike to see that he couldn't avert his tragic fate. But the season closed out with little question as to the lives of Pike and his crew. By contrast, "Hegemony" leaves us with a number of lives hanging in the balance at the close of the episode, which ends on a truly shocking cliffhanger — the kind of cliffhanger the franchise arguably hasn't seen in live-action since the "Star Trek: Enterprise" Season 1 finale episode "Shockwave" in 2002.

During the rescue of the Cayuga crew and the colonists who weren't killed in the Gorn attack, only the initial landing party — along with Batel — are able to beam back to the Enterprise. The remaining survivors, though, were never successfully retrieved, with the episode ending with the shocking realization that they've been beamed up to a Gorn ship. Worse still, Pike is ordered by Adm. April (Adrian Holmes) to flee the site of the Gorn attack and retreat to Federation space, and while "to be continued" flashes on the screen before we find out exactly what he does, it's suggested he's forced to leave them behind.

The colonists aren't the only ones in danger, though, because even Batel's life remains in question. Full of Gorn eggs, she instructs Nurse Chapel to "take her out" if the Gorn hatchlings begin to take hold.

Averting another war

Though the crew of the Enterprise wasn't made aware, Starfleet has apparently been making preparations for a war with the Gorn for quite some time. It's likely they began plans behind the scenes following the attacks by the Gorn seen in Season 1, because by the Season 2 premiere "The Broken Circle," Starfleet brass had taken notice of recent Gorn aggression near their space. They'd spotted a Gorn ship near the Galdonterre system and were increasingly concerned that a war might be inevitable, something they aren't exactly eager for so soon after the end of their long and bloody conflict with the Klingons.

By "Hegemony," we learn that those fears were well-founded. But from what we see in the Season 2 finale, it's clear that the Federation may have underestimated the Gorn. They may not even be ready enough for a war, because when the Gorn attacks a Federation colony, and even destroys the USS Cayuga along with many of its crew, they're not prepared to retaliate, and Starfleet orders Pike and the Enterprise away from Gorn space. The Gorn have marked their territory, and it would seem that Starfleet would rather respect the lines on a map than look for justice for the death of its people.

April, however, could have a bigger plan up his sleeve, and the Enterprise's retreat could just be one part of a wider strategy to counter the Gorn. But we'll have to wait until Season 3 to find out what that is.

A future legend joins the cast?

Season 2 of "Strange New Worlds" saw a little turnover in the cast, with additions to its regular and recurring ensembles. With Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) sacrificing his life to save the crew in "All Those Who Wander," in came Pelia to man the Enterprise's engine room. A long-lived Lanthanite, Pelia also appeared living on Earth in the early 21st century in the time travel episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," where she helped La'an and Kirk battle a dangerous time-traveling Romulan. We also got the aforementioned Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, but "Hegemony" added one more future legend to the ensemble: Lt. Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn).

Better known to most as just "Scotty," the young Starfleet engineer was serving on the USS Stardiver when they were attacked by the Gorn. Thanks to a jury-rigged device of his own design, Scott was able to elude his pursuers in a shuttle, crashlanding on Parnassus Beta, where he inadvertently lures Pike and his away team into a trap meant for the Gorn. With his help, though, they manage to escape the planet, and we later learn that he was one of Pelia's brightest students at Starfleet Academy — even if he always did get the worst grades.

Played by newcomer Quinn, Scott returns with the crew to the Enterprise. With his help, including his design for a Gorn tracking device, Pike hopes to turn the tables on their enemy.

What the finale means for Season 3

Season-ending cliffhangers were once a staple of "Star Trek," and they make a big comeback with "Hegemony," which leaves audiences left to wonder how Pike will save the colonists and Cayuga crew after April orders him back to Federation space. But even as it stands, the episode has major ramifications for the series as it moves into its third season in 2024. The biggest ramification, of course, might be the presence of engineer Montgomery Scott.

Heading into Season 3, it's possible that Scotty will become a part of the regular cast. Actor Matt Quinn would be a fine replacement for a departing Jess Bush, assuming she leaves the series with Nurse Chapel leaving the ship to take part in a fellowship at the Vulcan Science Academy. In fact, Scotty could even become the ship's new chief engineer, should actress Carol Kane decide not to return as Pelia for another year on the series.

Of course, the episode's most dramatic development is the inevitability of a war with the Gorn. Whether the crew's current conflict with the Gorn dominates the entirety of the next season or is simply resolved within the premiere episode remains to be seen. Still, the episode's cliffhanger ending feels reminiscent of the "TNG" two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds," which saw Picard face down the Borg. Similarly, an all-out battle with the Gorn could see serious consequences, including the possible death of Capt. Batel, and scars that would leave a lasting impact on the series.

What does the finale mean for Star Trek canon?

Fans of "Star Trek" can be as discerning as any fandom there is, and many have taken issue with "Strange New Worlds" for messing with canon and retconning one too many elements. Some aren't happy that the Enterprise has been redesigned, others are unwilling to even accept that the show even takes place in the same continuity as the original "Star Trek" series due to a number of plot holes it's created. For their part, producers have long said that the series is going to bend canon when needed to tell a good story.

"[W]e will body-check canon when we need to, and we have," producer Akiva Goldsman told SFX Magazine (per Slashfilm ). "But trying to stay within canon is an awfully fun exercise, and leads to solutions that you might not come up with if you didn't have those boundaries." With that in mind, "Hegemony" won't make any fans of those looking for strict consistency with the original Gorn debut episode, "Arena."

In "Hegemony," not only does the crew of the Enterprise once again fight with the Gorn — seemingly contradicting the long-held belief that "Arena" was their first encounter — the Federation itself is on the brink of war with the vicious alien race. If they do wind up in open conflict, it would change everything we know about the Federation's knowledge of the Gorn and completely alter how we see their first on-screen appearance in that 1967 episode.

What has the cast and crew said about the ending to Strange New Worlds Season 2?

From producers to actors, it's clear that the cast and crew of "Strange New Worlds" wanted "Hegemony" to be a real showstopper. "The finale is a very dark, very driving action-oriented episode," said showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, who relished the chance to bring back a number of iconic "Trek" elements. From the season-ending cliffhanger to the return of Scotty, it's part of the show's mission statement, after all. "What we traffic in on this show is modernizing the classic ideas that came out of those original 'Trek' shows," he said.

With all of these new, updated elements, "Hegemony" brings the crew of the Enterprise back to face the Gorn. "Pike's initial approach to the Gorn is to assume that there is an intrinsic set of ethics to any given sentient life form," said actor Anson Mount . But the Gorn don't seem to stick to this philosophy or to have any moral code at all, making them a perfect threat to the do-gooding crew of the Enterprise.

"La'an is very composed this time around," said actress Christina Chong, whose character, La'an, has a traumatic personal history with the alien race. "And when she does go on to the planet and she kills the first Gorn youngling, she gains power over the Gorn." But Chong wasn't the only one who relished her character's opportunity for redemption, because Melissa Navia, who plays Lt. Ortegas, was thrilled to finally get her away mission. "I've been asking for this as Ortegas as Melissa," she said.

Why it might be a while before we see a conclusion

Months before the second season of "Strange New Worlds" began airing, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a third. Considering production had already wrapped on Season 2, which ends on a cliffhanger, it isn't a surprise in hindsight. Yet as of the airing of "Hegemony," there is no start date currently scheduled for production of its continuation. Initially, filming had been set to commence in May — just prior to the release of the second season premiere — but mere weeks after the renewal was announced, production was delayed indefinitely.

Filming on Season 3 was pulled from Paramount's schedule on April 17th, and it's certainly no coincidence that it was removed on the same day that the Writer's Guild of America voted unanimously to strike. The labor stoppage, which sent shockwaves through the industry, forced "Strange New Worlds" into shutdown, where it remains as of press time. That wasn't all, though, because just weeks later, the Screen Actor's Guild joined the WGA, as both unions seek to negotiate better terms on a variety of key issues, and the studios haven't budged.

Of course, "Strange New Worlds" is just one of many projects that have halted production due to the strike. Nevertheless, hungry fans who are eagerly anticipating the conclusion to the Season 2 cliffhanger may have a long wait, as filming on Season 3 is now three months behind schedule and counting.

an image, when javascript is unavailable

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Boss on [Spoiler]’s Season 2 Finale Debut: ‘We’ve Been Talking About Him for a While’

Keisha hatchett, staff editor.

Share on Facebook
Show more sharing options
Share to Flipboard
Share on LinkedIn
Submit to Reddit
Post to Tumblr
Share on WhatsApp
Print This Page

Another Star Trek fan favorite has made their way to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

The Paramount+ show’s Season 2 finale, released on Thursday, saw the Gorn attack a colony modeled after the American Midwest. (The Enterprise crew last faced the lizard-like creatures in Season 1’s penultimate episode, during which Hemmer died after being infected with their venom. Read our full recap here .)

Given that Scotty’s voice (played by Matt Wolf) was previously heard in the Season 1 finale, the beloved character’s physical appearance in Season 2’s final episode wasn’t so much a surprise as it is a warm welcome.

Martin Quinn as Mongomery Scott aka Scotty in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

“We’ve been talking about him for a while as a general idea,” co-showrunner and executive producer Henry Alonso Myers tells TVLine. “As we were going into the finale, it suddenly became a weird, rare opportunity to introduce him for a lot of different reasons. What we’d like to do with the characters [from the original Star Trek series]… We don’t meet our understanding of who they are in that series, we meet who they are before. They don’t know who they will be, and they aren’t that person yet. They have some stuff to go through.”

Quinn is the first actor of Scottish origin to take on the character in a live-action setting. Previously, Canadian actor James Doohan played Scotty in the original Star Trek series and movies, while English actor Simon Pegg portrayed the character in the 2009 Star Trek film reboot starring Chris Pine, as well as sequels Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond .

“We also had a great opportunity to cast someone who’s from Scotland,” Myers notes, “who can do that Scotty, but also who can go through all of the things that we want to see him go through before he becomes the person that we know.”

Scotty’s arrival comes after James T. Kirk ( Vampire Diaries alum Paul Wesley) appeared in the Season 1 finale and several Season 2 episodes. Co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman acknowledges that as Strange New Worlds gets closer to timeline of the original Star Trek series, “it starts to become inevitable that we start to pull in more folks that are sort of TOS -based.”

However, they also attempt these special cameos “because there’s a reason to do it, rather than just to kind of go, ‘Hey, let’s dust off Scotty because he’s cool.’ Although there’s always a little bit of that.”

How are you feeling about Scotty’s appearance in Strange New Worlds’ Season 2 finale? Grade the episode below, and then share your thoughts in the comments.

Cancel reply

37 comments.

Email * Your email address will not be published. We will notify you when someone replies.

Wow as soon as Scotty spoke, I knew exactly who it was and cheered without even seeing him! I can’t believe the season is over already. I’m not ready!! I have come to love this show and cast so much. I love their surprise cameos and can’t wait to see more. SNW has become my #2 Star Trek show behind TNG. I’ll watch it again and again and again.

Really wish we weren’t in the land of 10 episode seasons…. they go by way too fast.

I would rather have ten good to great episodes than lots of filler. I find the 23 episode seasons can get boring. Tighten up the story so each episode has meaning to the overall arc of the series.

I find that the number of episodes and the quality of the season is unrelated. We have streaming putting out seasons of 6 episodes that drag, like the Marvel shows, and you can see season 1 of Desperate Housewives, Lost or The OC, or 2 two of Grey’s Anatomy or The Vampire Diaries, or season 5 of Buffy that rocked 22 to 27(!) episodes at break-neck pace.

15 would probably be about right

He said the first word and I said “Scotty!!!”. Great casting.

I go back and forth about the episode count. I think I’d be happier if there were 15 episodes in each season. I also hope we’re still a few seasons out from Kirk taking over the Enterprise. I want this crew to have as much time as possible to grow. Whatever happens with the Gorn will definitely reverberate through next season. I just hope our crew makes it out of this together.

First word he spoke I knew it was Scotty! Love this new addition and happy to know we will see him next season (could we get more episodes next year?) This show is just so good. Loving Spock and Chapel! May they continue!!! I also love that Chapel is a badass! Brains, Beauty and guts!!!

What a cliffhanger that was.

Amazing show, it deserves many of many seasons thank you😍

This really is a predictable show. I get it, they can’t kill off nurse Chapel since she is in the original Star Trek series (much older). Still, far too predictable.

Apparently the Goren evolve as well. In the original series, the one Goren character that fights Kirk looks like he was straight out of H.R. Pufnstuff.

There was next to no budget for special effects for the original series back in the 60’s, and all those cool special effects created by cgi didn’t even exist, so your comparison is pretty ridiculous. Oh, and the creatures are Gorn not Goren.

You really don’t have a sense of humor, do you? You probably don’t know what sarcasm is either.

As for the spelling error, yeah I screwed up. If that is all you have to complain about in life is another person’s spelling error, consider yourself lucky. You are coming off as incredibly petty.

Try going through life with visual migraines, it isn’t fun. It also affects my ability to proof read.

But hey, go ahead you being you, getting all butt hurt and defensive because I was being a smart ass about a series that is nearly sixty years old.

Migraine affects so many parts of life, including making it difficult to read. Migraines truly suck. I support you. Also I agree, it was very predictable, luckily I don’t watch it for groundbreaking story lines!

And their name is the Gorn!!!

Another stellar season for SNW! This what makes SNW,Star Trek, compelling characters and stories. SNW is spot on adding backstory to the canon while introducing key legacy characters such as Kirk & Scotty and of course M’Benga, Chapel, Uhura & Pike. I am waiting for how they introduce Dr. McCoy. I give the producers high marks for weaving the adventures of Pike’s Enterprise crew into the overall story that leads up to Kirk’s tenure as captain. I am still hoping that ST Legacy will be greenlit but given the labor unrest in Hollywood who knows what will happen. I am fairly certain that Prodigy will picked up not only for the 2 completed seasons but also a third season! Also, I hope that SNW continues onward and then continues with Kirk & his crew. In the meantime, I am immensely enjoying SNW & Lower Decks. I have been watching Star Trek, (TV & movies), since the summer of 1968. SNW is one of the best Trek series. Lower Decks is also very good. I like the approach to Star Trek that the producers of Lower Decks have taken.

The finale was the best episode of the season. In my opinion (and it’s just my opinion) season 2 wasn’t quite as good as season 1 – but the first season was spectacular, so it would have been hard to top. I also think having two “novelty” episodes in a 10 episode season was a bit much – wish they had kept one for next season. I’m torn since I loved having Carol Kane’s Pelia as chief engineer but now I also want Scotty.

He’ll work his way into the Chief Engineer position with Pelia’s tutoring.

Having skipped the last episide, have no intention of ever watching it. This one was good and one of the best two part Star Trek shows I have seen. However the last really good two parter came back with a shockingly poor second part. Hope the second part does not follow suit. Like many Scotie I thought was introduced in a really good way.

I really like Captain Batel and do hope she does surive, however within 1 min of this episode, said to my self this be her last one. Hope I am wrong.

Last time we saw the Gorn, a cast member was lost and not expecting this second part not to do the same. So wondering who that cast member will be, out of the ones we know are not parts of Kirk’s crew. Not counting Captain Batel as she is not a regular casr member, so yes kind of wondering who will be killed of, or just decide to leave the crew. Still think we will lose a regular cast member in second part.

You skipped a fun episode.

It was an excellent episode. Fun and creative, just like TOS was sometimes. As for who might leave…perhaps no one. Still lots of time to get the TOS crew together.

Chapel being the sole survivor was silly. April not caring that they destroyed the Caygua was ridiculous. They should have sent a fleet the moment they lost contact. I am glad they showed Spock vs the adult Gorn. If war is coming we need to learn more about their physiology and anthropology. I like the more serious tone, I just hope they don’t resolve the Gorn issue during 3×01.

So are we then supposed to ignore James Doohan’s performances as Scotty? Is this the only Scotty that matters? Any developments they do in this show they have to undo by Series End so that The Original Series’ can do theirs. It’s the only way that this show will ever be properly in Canon and in Continuity with the rest of the Main Star Trek timeline.

Of course not! Anymore than we’re ignoring Leonard Nimoy or Nichelle Nichols!

SNW is built on TOS. They’re adding to, not taking away.

While I really enjoyed the episode, I am not a fan of cliffhangers of this type. But I thought it was very creepy and very well done. I loved the introduction of Scotty! And I didn’t realize how much of the season finale is in the trailer for this season. If you go back and watch it, at least 50% of the trailer for season two comes from the season finale.

Not necessarily true. If you remember the events of Enterprise, we know the temporal wars have shifted the primary timeline. For instance the Borg got a signal they never should have received. So in theory, everything we are seeing could be the results of the alterations of the timeline caused by time travel. Kinda like the TNG episode where Tasha is alive and the federation is at war, until they undo the change and reset things. Look at this seasons time travel episode to realize Kahn may have been altered by time travel as well. Slight variation is normal.

Phone glitched and I responded to the wrong person. Was meant for the comment above yours.

I love this comment because it gives me hope for Spock and Chapel!

I agree. If the show stuck to canon Nurse Chapel would end up as a woman in a very short miniskirt whose only emotion seemed to be to pine for Spock, and whose sole purpose in the story is to show how unemotional Spock is. Majel Roddenberry, who played Chapel in TOS (and played Number One in the original pilot), found the role demeaning, and well she might have. It’s a juvenile male fantasy. . But there’s absolutely no reason the show should stick to canon, apart from fan service. They’re obviously on a different time line, due in part to “time wars.” There have been a lot of deviations so far, minor and major. For example, when Kirk encounters the Gorn in TOS, in “Arena,” it’s the first time anyone in Star Fleet’s heard of them. That’s plainly inconsistent with “Hegemony.” . Nevertheless, here’s the series talking about Chapel working with some doctor who, I’ve read, comes up in one of the movies as someone Chapel marries and who treats her badly. I hope they pull back from the brink. . I’m really rooting for Spock and Chapel, and I hope the show won’t let me down over “canon.” They make sense together and they’re both willing to put themselves on the line for each other. Their current problem, as far as I can tell, isn’t insurmountable. Yeah, Christine plans to go away for three months, but so what? It isn’t that long, and nobody could reasonably object, and Spock is a reasonable guy. It only became an issue, as far as I can see,because she made it one. First she avoided discussing it with Spock, and when he got the news she immediately told him she’d break up with him before she’d give up the fellowship. . Without trying to read her mind too much, you could see why things might go that way. People who haven’t gone through what she has, like Spock, and most of the rest of the Enterprise, live in a different world. Possibly that has something to do with her preference for casual, uncommitted relationships. Making a transition to something more serious would not be simple, and sabotaging it would be an easy way to get off the hook. You’d expect some bangs and crashes, as you see in Shakespeare when two lovers come together — a serious relationship is a challenge to your identity. It’s scary precisely because it could work out. . But Chapel is an adult, and she isn’t stupid. Nor is Spock, who may be feeling his way, but does so with love and respect. If some idiot adherence to one of Gene Roddenberry’s lamer ideas doesn’t get in the way, you’d expect them to come through this just fine.

I have really enjoyed the deeper dive into the Spock-T’Pring relationship.

Did they start filming season 3 before the strike?

No, they were going to start the day the first strike started.

I startled my cat by sitting bolt upright when he started speaking, and then scared her into hiding when he introduced himself.

More, More, More!!

I hesitated to watch the season finale, knowing that there was going to be trouble. As soon as I watched it, and the ending came with a “to be continued”, I was yelling “nooooooo!” I knew I should’ve waited for season three to come out to watch the last episode of season 2. Now I’m gonna have to wait forever. That being said it was awesome and it reminds me of when the Borg took Picard, as I suppose it was meant to be. I hated it then and I hate it now. I am not a patient person

Loved the episode, hate a cliffhanger.

I loved the finale, Scotty to the rescue! I want SNW to go on as long as possible, because I am going to be a wreck when my Anson Mount aka Christopher Pike gets done in! I love him as an Actor and have been a fan for years. 10 years into the future is far away for now, let’s keep it that way and keep inserting the characters we love on Star Trek! Rock on SNW!

Most Popular

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

81% Alien: Romulus Link to Alien: Romulus
100% Daughters Link to Daughters
78% Cuckoo Link to Cuckoo

New TV Tonight

96% Industry: Season 3
91% Bad Monkey: Season 1
100% Solar Opposites: Season 5
58% Emily in Paris: Season 4
60% Rick and Morty: The Anime: Season 1
-- Bel-Air: Season 3
-- SEAL Team: Season 7
-- RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars: Season 1
-- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures: Season 2
-- Worst Ex Ever: Season 1

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 2, Episode 10

Where to watch, star trek: strange new worlds — season 2, episode 10.

Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — Season 2, Episode 10 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

More Like This

Cast & crew.

Akiva Goldsman

Alex Kurtzman

Jenny Lumet

Anson Mount

Captain Christopher Pike

Rebecca Romijn

Science Officer Spock

Critics Reviews

Episode info.

Anime & Manga
Call of Duty
Gameumentary
Review in 3 Minutes
Design Delve
Extra Punctuation
Zero Punctuation
Area of Effect
Escape the Law
In the Frame
New Narrative
Out of Focus
Slightly Something Else
Escapist Staff
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Affiliate Policy

season 2 teaser trailer Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 10 review A Quality of Mercy Pike doomed by future Pike because of Balance of Terror, misery and grim nihilism ensuing at Paramount+

‘A Quality of Mercy’ Traps Strange New Worlds in an Imbalance of Terror

This discussion and review contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 10, “A Quality of Mercy,” the season finale.

In some ways, “A Quality of Mercy” feels like a culmination of this modern wave of nostalgic franchise media. It is an episode in which Strange New Worlds rejects the opportunity to argue for its own validity or importance, instead positioning itself as nothing more than a show that exists in the shadow of what came before. “A Quality of Mercy” does this while engaged in a particularly unconvincing piece of Star Trek karaoke. The franchise has come a long way from Deep Space Nine .

One of the more compelling tensions threaded through the first season of Strange New Worlds has been the show’s status as a prequel. In particular, given Pike’s (Anson Mount) foreknowledge of the events that would lead to “ The Menagerie ,” there has been an interesting simmering subtext about whether the characters on Strange New Worlds are beholden to what came before or whether they will be afforded the opportunity to chart their own course and explore new worlds.

Episodes like “ Children of the Comet ” argued for faith in the mechanics of the universe, for the belief that everything is fine the way that it is and that things will work out the way that they are supposed to. In contrast, “ The Elysian Kingdom ” argued that some stories can be rewritten and improved through that process of rewriting. Fittingly, the season finale offers a concluding argument. Unfortunately, “A Quality of Mercy” makes a compelling argument for the show’s irrelevance.

The starting premise of “A Quality of Mercy” is that Pike has figured out a way to prevent the accident that will scar him and leave him confined to a wheelchair in constant agony. More than that, Pike has figured out a way to avoid the disaster in such a way that nobody gets hurt. It seems like the perfect solution to all of this. Theoretically, everybody wins. However, then a future version of Pike materializes to argue that this evasion comes at too high a cost.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 10 review A Quality of Mercy Pike doomed by future Pike because of Balance of Terror, misery and grim nihilism ensuing at Paramount+

This is a fairly flimsy argument within the world of the show. The basic thrust of “A Quality of Mercy” is that Pike’s sacrifice of himself — and two innocent cadets — prevents a war between the Romulans and the Federation. However, any Star Trek fan knows that the Federation spends the next century waging several major wars costing billions of lives against the Cardassians , the Klingons , and the Dominion . From future-Pike’s perspective, why is it so important to stop this Romulan War?

After all, future-Pike is wearing a Starfleet uniform appropriate to the era from which he came, approximate to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . So this doesn’t seem to be a dystopian species-ending future like those featured in episodes like “ Yesterday’s Enterprise ” or “ Twilight .” Indeed, future-Pike travels back with assistance from the Klingons, implying the Romulan War has brought peace between the Federation and Klingons considerably earlier than it would otherwise happen.

More to the point, assuming that future-Pike is correct and this possible future with its possible war is objectively worse than the alternative, why does Pike have to sacrifice himself? “A Quality of Mercy” suggests that the bad future will happen if Pike commands the Enterprise instead of Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) during the events of “ Balance of Terror ,” but Pike could simply retire. He could go into hiding. He could fake his own death. Why does the universe rely on Pike’s torment?

The answer, of course, has nothing to do with logic or time travel. There is no scientific or moral justification for the dilemma at the heart of “A Quality of Mercy.” The universe demands Pike’s sacrifice because fans watched “The Menagerie,” and Pike in that wheelchair is one of the franchise’s most iconic visuals. Pike must suffer and die so that the internal continuity and coherence of the Star Trek franchise can be preserved. That is all there is to it. It is bleak.

Appropriately enough for an episode so fixated on preserving “the canon,” there is an almost religious component at play here. Back in “ Strange New Worlds ,” the show seemed to position Pike as a sort of Jesus Christ figure, a clever allusion to original actor Jeffrey Hunter . “A Quality of Mercy” offers something of a demotion. Pike isn’t Jesus Christ; he is John the Baptist. His role is primarily to usher in the Star Trek universe fans know and love. He preserves the text, trapping it in crystal; he doesn’t advance it.

There is something dispiriting in all this, in how weirdly deferential “A Quality of Mercy” is to classic Star Trek at the expense of itself. The show seems to take little pride in its own identity. In the opening scene, Pike boasts about how his cooking “transforms from leftovers into something new,” suggesting that this is what Strange New Worlds is doing. “Kinda like what we’re doing to these outposts,” Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) notes, reinforcing the parallel.

When Pike asks Commander Al-Salam (Ali Hassan) what he thinks about the refit, Al-Salam replies, “Sounds like what I’ve been asking for for the last five years.” It feels like the show is reiterating those arguments that, five years after Discovery brought the franchise back to life, Strange New Worlds “ feels like the only recent installment in the franchise that is actually a Star Trek show .” All that Strange New Worlds has to do to earn that approval is to reject any identity of its own.

“We all want to think our future is important and ours — yours and mine — it is,” future-Pike states. However, “A Quality of Mercy” suggests that Strange New Worlds is only important as it relates to Kirk and Spock (Ethan Peck). Pike’s entire potential becomes forfeit to the stuff Spock has already done in existing Star Trek shows. “The monks showed me something simple: Every time we change the path, he dies,” future-Pike explains. “He’s got things to do. Fate-of-the-galaxy-type things.”

There’s a sense of fatigue and resignation in all this, as if acknowledging that the Star Trek franchise did try to push itself into the future with shows like Discovery , Picard , and Lower Decks , but in the end all that these modern shows can do is remind viewers how much they like the older shows. “You tried for something better,” Kirk states. “Tried and lost,” Pike replies. It is possible to argue that “A Quality of Mercy” is the grimmest episode of Star Trek ever aired, even if it won’t admit it.

Every episode of Strange New Worlds has riffed on a familiar Star Trek template, offering a variation on a type of narrative that audiences have seen before. “A Quality of Mercy” follows that approach to its logical conclusion and just straight-up remakes “Balance of Terror,” right down to music cues and camera movements. It’s a daring move, given that “ Memento Mori ” was already a riff on the basic submarine thriller suggested by “Balance of Terror.” Not content with a second bite of the apple, “A Quality of Mercy” bakes itself an apple pie.

There is a fairly fundamental problem here. In lines that “A Quality of Mercy” quotes directly from “Balance of Terror,” the Romulan commander (Mark Lenard) specifically evokes the idea of an alternate version of the story. He suggests to Kirk (William Shatner), “In a different reality, I could have called you friend.” The implication is that “Balance of Terror” takes place in an imperfect and broken world, that things did not need to play out the way that they did. There was an alternative.

“A Quality of Mercy” rejects this. In doing so, it seems to completely and fundamentally misunderstand “Balance of Terror.” Strange New Worlds is so blinded by its fetishization of Star Trek that it misses the point. It argues that the grim and downbeat conclusion to “Balance of Terror” was really a happy ending, and that hoping for anything better is foolish. For all that fans celebrate the franchise’s utopian futurism, Strange New Worlds insists that future will never be better than it was in the original series.

There is, of course, an irony here. Strange New Worlds doesn’t actually remember the past. “A Quality of Mercy” presents Kirk as an arrogant hothead, in keeping with the characterization adopted in the third season of Star Trek and into the movies . “You flinched,” Kirk chastises Pike. “You deliberated and you lost.” He insists, “Caution means you’re not going to put everything you have into the punch.” However, this was not the Kirk who appeared in “Balance of Terror.”

In its first season, Star Trek presented Kirk as more introspective and thoughtful. In “ Where No Man Has Gone Before ,” Kirk is introduced playing chess and as a nerd who was “a stack of books with legs” in the Academy. In “ Shore Leave ,” the audience is introduced to Kirk’s old bully, Finnegan (Bruce Mars). However, in its attempts to reduce Star Trek down to a set of iconography to be worshiped and venerated, Strange New Worlds misses that nuance.

There is a deep abiding cynicism to “A Quality of Mercy,” tied to the insistence that “Balance of Terror” must have been the best way that events could have happened simply because it was the way that it happened. As in both “Memento Mori” and “ All Those Who Wander ” earlier in the season, there’s a strange militarism to “A Quality of Mercy,” a rejection of humanism and optimism. Pike is a fool for trying to avoid battle with the Romulans, for trying to find a peaceful solution.

“We undertook this mission to test the strength of the Federation,” Sub-Commander (Mathieu Bourassa) states. “They showed us they lack it.” It is a sentiment echoed by the Praetor (Carolyn Scott), who notes, “If not for your weakness, we would have never known what easy targets your Federation would be.” This is as militaristic as Star Trek has ever been. Even in their darkest moments, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise argued that humanism could overcome conflict.

Then again, this is Strange New Worlds in a nutshell. No potential future could ever be better than the familiar past. With all that in mind, the only thing left to remark is that it’s a shame that they didn’t cast James Frain as the Romulan commander.

Agatha Harkness ringing a bell to summon her coven in the Agatha All Along trailer

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 & 36 nominations total

Episodes 31

Melissa Navia Wants to Know Why You Aren't Watching Her on "Star Trek"

Top cast 99+

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)

User reviews 1K

Sep 25, 2023

Technical specs

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

More to explore

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Review

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

One Deadpool & Wolverine Cameo Proves Fancasting Is Bad

All 41 cameos in deadpool & wolverine, lotr: it makes more sense for the rings of power's stranger to be saruman.

The Season Finale for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is here and the show aims its focus on what is going to eventually happen to Captain Pike and how the franchise gets handed off to the next generation of crew members, even if it's not the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew. More shows that a person can count have had some sort of story that is very similar. This episode of Strange New Worlds tells the tale of the dangers of changing someone's future. Fortunately, this version of that same trope has enough likable in it that the episode is still pretty good, but it does leave some questions unanswered.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to be a show that seems like it's too good to be relegated to a streaming platform that not everyone has access to. The show has a sense of humor that pops off the screen and it has acting from people that weren't all that well known before the series launched. Anson Mount is the biggest name on the crew (apologies to Rebecca Romjin) but there are quite a few members of the cast who could be on the verge of big careers considering how well they perform in this show. That doesn't mean everything is perfect, despite above average writing and above average acting, the Season Finale still has some serious problems.

RELATED: Star Trek: The Best Rules Of Acquisition

The episode of Strange New Worlds starts off gentle enough, with Captain Pike and the rest of the crew meeting with another captain of a mining colony. However, when Pike meets his son and that son is someone who dies in the future that Pike has been dreading since the beginning of the series, he decides to try and change the future. Once he makes that decision, his older self shows up and warns him that trying to warn the young man of his future, changes things in an "end of the world" kind of way.

This is also how the show actually handles the trope of "don't change the future or else" better than those that have come before it. There are often plot holes where people wonder "ok but why did those changes happen." There are some of those in this particular episode. Right at the top of the list is why the demeanors of Ortegas and Noonien-Singh are so different. In some ways, it's almost as though they've switch personalities. There's no explanation for this and it's just up to the audience to figure out why. The problem is that there's not even a clue as to why and while it's not all that important, it does strike an odd chord.

Taken into the future, Pike finds himself in the thick of a brewing war between the Romulans and the Federation. It doesn't take long at all for it to be explained just why his changing of the future has changed the way this particular series of events have also changed. That's actually a nice touch because it doesn't keep Star Trek fans wondering just what happened and why. It's how other shows have failed in this regard. How Pike convinces Spock that he's from the future is also a nice touch that helps avoid the "why in the world do they believe him?"

That's not to say there aren't still questions about how the "old" future unfolded without the changes that Pike made. It's the kind of question that any Star Trek fan who really sits down to examine what happened is going to have. It's the kind of question that always comes about from this kind of show. There are simply some questions a show like this can't answer without becoming quite pedantic.

This episode of Strange New Worlds also finally brings a character into the forefront that's been hinted at all season long in the form of James T. Kirk . His appearance has even been teased by the mention of "Kirk" though it's turned out to be his brother Sam. This time around, Captain Kirk finally does show up and while he looks nothing like the Kirk Star Trek fans are used to, the argument could be made that he is indeed simply the younger version of the beloved character.

Of course, his appearance also sparks yet another question. Because the show makes it very clear that if Pike doesn't change the future, Pike and Kirk never become inextricably linked. It's not clear whether the writers even really realize they've just changed a massive part of Star Trek lore . While it might have been a bit harder to do, there are ways that things could have been changed with Kirk's introduction that wouldn't have changed that lore so completely. For whatever reason, the writers took this avenue and it will be interesting to see if they try and change that path in some ways in Season 2.

One of the things this episode of Strange New Worlds does very well is show how the future unfolds from a couple of different angles. It also underlines that sometimes, leaving the future unchanged is indeed going to lead death, destruction, and sadness. The show does a very good job in reminding people that the "better" choice doesn't mean the perfect choice. It shows people that there isn't a choice where everyone comes out unscathed. It's an interesting angle that some of the other shows that try and handle this trope end up missing. Far too often the two choices are "change the future and make things worse, or leave the future and basically solve all problems."

Strange New Worlds ' Season Finale is not a perfect show. There are some issues with some of the follow through but this remains one of the better attempts at "this is why you can't change the future" that television has seen. The show also does a good job of teasing the future of Star Trek , not just in the next season of this fantastic series, but also the future of the franchise in general in a way that is plenty fun.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is now available on Paramount Plus

MORE: Star Trek: Things That Happened To Picard Between The Next Generation & The 2020 Show

Movies & TV
4 Star TV Shows

The Best Live TV Streaming Services With Free Trial

The cheapest live tv streaming services (< $40).

Power Book III: Raising Kanan
Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

Which Netflix Country has Interstellar?

Which netflix country has each movie of the hunger games.

Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin
Which Netflix Country Has Attack on Titan?
Which Netflix Country Has One Piece?
Dragons: The Nine Realms
Interstellar
Each Movie of The Hunger Games
Attack on Titan
The Big Bang Theory
Each Harry Potter Movie
The Walking Dead
Rick & Morty
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Science Fiction
Documentary
To Her (2017)
Kingdom 3: The Flame of Fate (2023)
Totally Killer (2023)
Stranger Things
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
Barbie (2023)
The Queen's Gambit
Peaky Blinders
Breaking Bad
The Last of Us
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Buccaneers
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
King Kong (2005)
Sherlock Holmes
Pride and Prejudice
Scrooge (1951)
Grease (1978)
The Departed (2006)
I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016)
Men in Black (1997)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Mosquito Coast
Prime Video
CBS All Access

Reimagining the Enterprise’s first encounter with the Romulans leads to meaningful moments for Pike, Kirk, and Spock.

The finale of Strange New Worlds ’ first season is cheap, shameless fanservice. It’s also riveting, character-focused, and utterly glorious. Mucking about with time travel and alternate futures, let alone redoing an episode of The Original Series , could easily be a recipe for disaster. Instead, the show ends its inaugural season on an absolute high note.

This final installment, entitled “A Quality of Mercy,” is an alt-timeline remix of “Balance of Terror,” an early episode from the 1960s series which introduced the Romulans. Both feature the first encounter between humans and Romulans in a century, a cloaked assault on Federation Outpost 4, and a chess match between the war-weary commander of the enemy Bird-of-Prey and the steadfast captain of the Enterprise .

Only this time, that captain is Christopher Pike ( Anson Mount ). The new series reimagines what the famous confrontation would look like if Captain Pike had survived the incident that sidelined him and was still in command when the Romulans struck. The result is a fanfiction-y game of “What If?” Seeing Pike call the shots, while marking the similarities and differences from the Prime timeline version of these storied events, helps define the nature of the conflict and the leaders on both sides.

Thankfully, there’s more to it than a mere exercise in contrast and compare. Strange New Worlds isn’t content to measure Pike’s performance against Kirk’s. Instead, it’s here to close the loop on the idea the season started with — whether Pike should accept his grim fate or strive to change it. A chance run-in with one of the poor junior officers who will die in the same accident that will one day disable him prompts Pike to warn the young man. He wants to take action to avert that disaster before it starts and avoid the bleak visions he saw in the Klingon temple.

Digging into how Pike might seek to sidestep that future, for others’ sake if not his own, is a canny choice.

Digging into how Pike might seek to sidestep that future, for others’ sake if not his own, is a canny choice. It’s reasonable to wonder why the captain wouldn’t simply take whatever precautions are necessary to halt that infamous catastrophe in advance. “A Quality of Mercy” gives us a reason — because it could mean the end of the world.

An older version of Pike, one from an alternate timeline where things have gone much worse, is the one who sends current-day Pike to this momentous Romulan stand-off seven years in the future. This elder, chastened officer uses a time crystal to show his younger counterpart the event that dooms the future — not for him, but for billions of lives — to demonstrate why facing down his bleak destiny is the right thing to do.

It adds meaning and intrigue to the pandering cheesiness of essentially remaking a fifty-year-old episode of Star Trek . Granted, “A Quality of Mercy” still practically drips with fanservice. The Older Pike shows up wearing the “K-mart Navy” uniform the original cast donned in their cinematic adventures. The episode repurposes several famous lines, including the timeless, “In a different reality, I could have called you friend.” The voice of Scotty emanates from off-screen as he grouses about not being a miracle worker. The director even replicates the shot selection, lighting, and score from when the Prime Enterprise crew realized the Romulans looked remarkably similar to their own Spock.

Of course, there’s no bit of fanservice more obvious or potent than the arrival of one James. T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) to Strange New Worlds . It’s not enough for the season finale to ponder how Pike might have fared differently. Instead, the captain who started it all arrives to assist in a critical moment, providing for a Star Trek Generations -style team-up. Newcomer Wesley doesn’t capture the mannerisms or vibe of either William Shatner or Chris Pine out of the gate, which is good and bad. Like Ethan Peck ’s Spock, hopefully, in time, he’ll settle into the role and make it his own.

For the time being, though, the writers are sharp enough to use the famous figure for a purpose beyond, “Hey, remember that dude?” He cuts a contrast with Pike. Jim Kirk is the wildcard risk-taker, spoiling for a fight and raring to take chances. Pike, on the other hand, is the seasoned commander, apt to lean into diplomacy, mutual understanding, and discretion. Even as “A Quality of Mercy” posits things would have gone differently in “Balance of Terror” with Pike in the captain’s chair, it uses Kirk’s presence to interrogate the merits of caution vs. action, connection vs. guile, and compassion vs. conviction in real-time.

More to the point, this redo comes with an essential question that helps give the proceedings intrigue, even for those stalwart fans who can recall the episode from half a century ago — what precisely goes wrong here that creates such a grim future in this timeline?

The episode drops plenty of red herrings and feints. True to form, Kirk nearly perishes not once but twice, leading viewers to wonder if the darkest timeline erupts from the franchise’s original Great Man™, dying before he can perform all his heroic deeds. Likewise, by the end, the sympathetic Romulan Commander — who seemed poised to countenance Pike’s plea for peace, much as he related to Kirk in the other timeline — is executed by his own countrymen. Maybe, the episode suggests, the divergence comes when this moderate voice in the Romulan Empire never makes it home to seed a different view of their Federation foes.

The mystery helps add extra juice to a gussied-up reimagining of a familiar story. The 2022 update makes room for things the miracle-working TOS production and effects teams could hardly imagine in the sixties. The space battles come with more firepower and maneuvering to bring the attacks and evasions to life. A trademark Kirk ploy sees him passing off a passel of mining ships as a Federation fleet while their enemies bring a Romulan armada into view for an epic stand-off. The chess match between the Enterprise and a Bird-of-Prey comes with the extra thrills modern effects and studio gloss can achieve with a bigger budget and current technology.

At the end of the day, though, the consequence of those skirmishes, not Pike’s strategy versus Kirk’s, irrevocably shifts the course of the future. While some clever gamesmanship from both captains leads them to safety in the shadow of renewed war, it comes with a cost. Spock is grievously injured while trying to repair the ship’s systems in time for the battle. The damage leaves him maimed. His burns and maladies are not unlike the ones Pike himself faces down in the future he’s desperate to avoid. The tragedy that makes this timeline so bleak isn’t the absence of the Romulan Commander or even Captain Kirk; it’s the loss of Spock as we know him.

[T]his glimpse of an alternate future helps the captain be at peace with his destiny because he knows his loss will help make a better world and spare those he cares about.

It’s a clever turn. The elder Pike explains that the son of Sarek is the key to securing a better future because he’s the one who paves the way for peace between the Federation and Romulus possible. Sure, it’s a bit of a cheat since, apparently, in every alternate timeline Pike’s choices could create, Spock will die, per the Klingon time monks. Yet, from his presence in the original encounter to his plans for reunification with Captain Picard, to his efforts to save Romulus in Star Trek ‘09 , there’s a plausibility to the brightest star in the galaxy being the one whose presence helps avert the eternal war with the Romulans the alternate Pike warns of.

More to the point, it moves Pike himself, who refuses to trade his suffering for that of the science officer he supports and cares for. It is, remarkably, a decision that adds extra harmony to Spock’s own extraordinary choices to aid Pike in “The Menagerie” from the 1960s series. And this glimpse of an alternate future helps the captain be at peace with his destiny because he knows his loss will help make a better world and spare those he cares about. For now, anyway, despite the late tease of Number One’s ( Rebecca Romijn ) exposure and apprehension.

With that, this finale is a microcosm of Strange New Worlds ’ first season. It is a sop for the fans. The episode is riddled with even more familiar faces and homages. It outright remakes one of the signature installments of the series that started it all. It deploys tropes — from the Kirkian bluff to the glimpse of a dark future to the older doppelganger with a grave warning — that will be familiar to any Trekkie worth their mail-order combadge.

Yet, the episode and the season find a deeper resonance amid all these familiar scenarios and well-worn beats. The creative team applies old concepts to new situations. They use the chance to revisit this era and these characters to comment on them, develop them, and show viewers sides of each we’ve never seen before. In its superb finale and outstanding first year, Strange New Worlds remembers the past, looks to the future, and finds a way to make both meaningful in the here and now.

Kneecap tells a bigger story of Irish identity though hip-hop

By: Sarah Gorr

Kneecap stars the Irish hip-hop trio as themselves in an exciting, stylish music biopic that refuses to play by the rules.

Streaming guides

The praises of live TV streaming services don’t need to be further sung. By now, we all know that compared to clunky, commitment-heavy cable, live TV is cheaper and much easier to manage. But just in case you’re still on the fence about jumping over to the other side, or if you’re just unhappy with ... The Best Live TV Streaming Services With Free Trial

Cord-cutting once carried the promise of reducing live TV costs, but with most services nearing a $100 per month, that statement checks less every day. That said, there is a handful of cord-cutting services with reasonable monthly prices. Below we list them.

How to Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3

Season 3 of the hotly anticipated Power spin-off, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, is arriving on Starz soon, so you know what that means: it’s the ’90s again in The Southside, and we’re back with the Thomas family as they navigate the ins and outs of the criminal underworld they’re helping build. Mekai Curtis is ... How to Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3

How to Watch Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re so back! To celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary, the BBC is producing a three-episode special starring none other than the Tenth/Fourteenth Doctor himself, David Tennant. And to the supreme delight of fans (that would be me, dear reader), the Doctor will be joined by old-time companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and ... How to Watch Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

Maybe you’ve just seen Oppenheimer and have the strongest urge to marathon—or more fun yet, rank!—all of Christopher Nolan’s films. Or maybe you’re one of the few who haven’t seen Interstellar yet. If you are, then you should change that immediately; the dystopian epic is one of Nolan’s best, and with that incredible twist in ... Which Netflix Country has Interstellar?

For whatever reason, The Hunger Games series isn’t available in the same countries around the world. You’ll find the first and second (aka the best) installments in Hong Kong, for instance, but not the third and fourth. It’s a frustrating dilemma, especially if you don’t even have a single entry in your region, which is ... Which Netflix Country Has Each Movie of The Hunger Games?

How to Watch ESPN With A Free Trial

One of the major concerns people have before cutting the cord is potentially losing access to live sports. But the great thing about live TV streaming services is that you never lose that access. Minus the contracts and complications of cable, these streaming services connect you to a host of live channels, including ESPN. So ... How to Watch ESPN With A Free Trial

How to Watch Paramount Network With a Free Trial

To date, Paramount Network has only two original shows on air right now: Yellowstone and Bar Rescue. The network seems to have its hands full with on-demand streaming service Paramount+, which is constantly stacked with a fresh supply of new shows. But Yellowstone and Bar Rescue are so sturdy and expansive that the network doesn’t ... How to Watch Paramount Network With a Free Trial

How to Watch WE TV With a Free Trial

Previously “Women’s Entertainment,” We TV has since rebranded to accurately reflect its name and be a more inclusive lifestyle channel. It’s home to addictive reality gems like Bold and Bougie, Bridezillas, Marriage Boot Camp, and The Untold Stories of Hip Hop. And when it’s not airing original titles, it has on syndicated shows like 9-1-1, ... How to Watch WE TV With a Free Trial

How to Watch TNT Sports With A Free Trial

For many sports fans, TNT is a non-negotiable. It broadcasts NBA, MLB, NHL, college basketball, and All Elite Wrestling matches. And, as a bonus, it also has reruns of shows like Supernatural, Charmed, and NCIS, as well as films like The Avengers, Dune, and Justice League. But while TNT used to be a cable staple, ... How to Watch TNT Sports With A Free Trial

How to Watch Comedy Central With a Free Trial

It’s no coincidence that many of today’s biggest comedians found their footing on Comedy Central: the channel is a bastion of emerging comic talents. It served as a playground for people like Nathan Fielder (Fielder For You), Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), Tim Robinson (Detroiters), and Dave Chappelle (Chappelle’s Show) before they shot ... How to Watch Comedy Central With a Free Trial

How to Watch FX With a Free Trial

You’d be hard-pressed to find a bad show airing on FX. The channel has made a name for itself as a bastion of high-brow TV, along with HBO and AMC. It’s produced shows like Atlanta, Fargo, The Americans, Archer, and more recently, Shogun. But because it’s owned by Disney, it still airs several blockbusters in ... How to Watch FX With a Free Trial

Lower Decks
Short Treks
Strange New Worlds
Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Picard
Starfleet Academy
The Next Generation
The Original Series

UPDATED: Star Trek Books 2024

What to expect from star trek las vegas 2024, new trailer for star trek: section 31, robert picardo returns for star trek: starfleet academy series, star trek online introduces classic starships in new bundle, review: star trek adventures core rulebook 2e, review – sons of star trek #3, review – star trek: discovery finale ‘life, itself’, review – star trek: celebrations, review – star trek: discovery ‘lagrange point’ (s5, ep9), beam me to ohio: a visit to federation hq, tribute – star trek’s patti yasutake, trek back to star trek: tng’s ‘all good things’.

SNEAK PEEK – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 – Finale

We’ve reached the finale for the second season of Captain Pike’s ( Anson Mount ) adventures. The Gorn are back! In this sneak peek for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 , we see how the scary aliens are again wreaking havoc on the USS Enterprise crew. However, do we see trouble for Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano)? This week we have preview pictures, teaser trailers and more.

Titled “Hegemony”, this episode is the one we have been waiting for. Henry Alonso Myers writes the episode. He is the executive producer and showrunner of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Read the official synopsis below. Maja Vrvilo directs the episode. She previously directed the second episode of Strange New Worlds , “Children of the Comet”.

When the U.S.S. Enterprise investigates an attack on a colony at the edge of Federation space, Captain Pike and his crew face the return of a formidable enemy. Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10

SPOILER WARNING – We heavily dive into theories and speculation and show you the latest trailers and preview materials. Turn away now If you do not want to be potentially spoiled. As always, Trek Central DOES NOT receive screeners or advanced episodes.

Preview Pictures – Season 2 Episode 10

As always, we have preview pictures for the latest episode. The preview pictures for Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 give us a glimpse of what is coming up. We’ve got a preview of tense bridge scenes on the USS Enterprise. While The Ready Room preview, which we discuss briefly, gives us a glimpse of the bridge before the away mission, the pictures show the aftermath. Pike and the bridge crew look very worried.

Meanwhile, we have two pictures of La’an and Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) on the surface of a planet. Both are wearing tactical gear in typical Starfleet design. However, we’ve also got shots of Number One (Rebecca Romjin) and Mr Spock’s stay at Pike’s conference table. Likely the mission being planned.

The Ready Room Clip

Last week’s Ready Room clip for Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 benefits my theory about Captain Batel. For example, it gives us a glimpse of the episode, and we see a destroyed starship. This ship, likely to be a constitution-class at this point, is the USS Cayuga. Pike even says, “No assumptions here”. It’s made clear that Captain Batel was on this planet and that both ships are orbiting. Pike mentions how the Captain and her crew were on the planet’s surface. This lines up with the main trailer for the second season.

A detail that might be central to the plot of this episode is the Gorn disruption device. La’an (Christina Chong) mentions how this device renders enemies of The Gorn blind to attacks. Therefore, they are unable to communicate or use transporter technology. So, for example, it is stopping The Enterprise from beaming people off the USS Cayuga. Then again, looking at that ship, I do not think any survivors are left onboard.

Now, what is interesting is Starfleet’s involvement in this clip. We learn they have communicated with The Gorn, and some border has been established. It looks like The Gorn have marked their territory, and perhaps The Federation is trying to avoid another costly war. We’ve already seen this glimpse in Season 2’s “ The Broken Circle “. The episode’s ending revealed Admiral Robert April (Adrian Holmes) looking at a map of systems with a Gorn Attack Ship shown on it.

Gorn Mission Gone Bad

I’ve been digging through the trailers for Strange New Worlds Season 2 . This Star Trek season trailer has given us a good glimpse of this episode, especially when we combine scenes from the publically released trailers. For example, very early on, we now know that a starship was destroyed in the orbit of a planet. We’re aware this is the USS Cayuga. It allows us to piece together more of the plot. However, another trailer shot shows the saucer section crashing into the surface. It’s crashing into some pylon. Likely The Gorn interference device.

It’s possible we will see an adult Gorn in this episode. The last time we saw the alien species was the penultimate episode of Season One. “ All Those Who Wander ” featured the USS Peregrine infested with Gorn eggs; therefore, Gorn hatchlings were shown. In the Season 2 of Strange New Worlds trailers, we see two types of The Gorn. In one shot, La’an faces off with a hatchling. However, Mr Spock (Ethan Peck) is seen with a creepy individual behind him. It looks like an Adult Gorn on the hull of the USS Cayuga.

An Interesting Away Team

We’ve also got the away team descending to the planet. Likely this is a rescue mission for Captain Batel and her crew. Pike’s away team is full of our cast. However, Samuel Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) is also present. He is a Xenoanthropologist, so it makes sense. I think Batel was sent to this planet to evacuate the civilian population. However, she was likely caught off guard. We see this in the main trailer. Batel looks at the sky and sees a Gorn destroyer entering the atmosphere. Batel exclaims, “My god,” as the ship approaches.

All in all, Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 looks to be an exciting season finale. But will it take some bold swings regarding the crew? For example, we know Captain Batel might not make it out alive. However, what about other members of the crew? We’re worried about Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) based on the trailers. She’s not seen at the helm of the Enterprise when the crew return from their scary away mission. Is Strange New Worlds going to make the bold choice to kill a main character off? Hopefully not.

It’s somewhat apparent that Strange New Worlds is setting up Star Trek: The Original Series . James T. Kirk has been introduced . However, I think it is too soon to introduce another character to replace Ortegas. I don’t think this should happen anyway. This is the Pike series, not a TOS one. But it will be interesting to see what route this episode takes and how it changes Strange New Worlds. If we get the third season, things might be slightly changed.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays via Paramount+ in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea (via Tving), France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland & Austria. As well as CTV Scifi / Crave in Canada, & TVNZ in New Zealand. And on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.

more star trek 🖖

the latest 🚀

Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy

Trek Central is not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated with ViacomCBS / CBS Studios Inc or the STAR TREK Franchise. All STAR TREK trademarks, logos and images © CBS Studios Inc.

Today's news
Reviews and deals
Climate change
2024 election
Newsletters
Fall allergies
Health news
Mental health
Sexual health
Family health
So mini ways
Unapologetically
Buying guides

Entertainment

How to Watch
My watchlist
Stock market
Biden economy
Personal finance
Stocks: most active
Stocks: gainers
Stocks: losers
Trending tickers
World indices
US Treasury bonds
Top mutual funds
Highest open interest
Highest implied volatility
Currency converter
Basic materials
Communication services
Consumer cyclical
Consumer defensive
Financial services
Industrials
Real estate
Mutual funds
Credit cards
Balance transfer cards
Cash back cards
Rewards cards
Travel cards
Online checking
High-yield savings
Money market
Home equity loan
Personal loans
Student loans
Options pit
Fantasy football
Pro Pick 'Em
College Pick 'Em
Fantasy baseball
Fantasy hockey
Fantasy basketball
Download the app
Daily fantasy
Scores and schedules
GameChannel
World Baseball Classic
Premier League
CONCACAF League
Champions League
Motorsports
Horse racing

New on Yahoo

Privacy Dashboard

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Release Date & Time

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release date and time have been revealed. The next episode titled “Hegemony” will air on Paramount Plus. Following the events of musical-themed episode 9, the series finale will send Captain Pike’s crew on one last game-changing adventure before they return in the next season.

Here’s when the next episode is coming out.

Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Right Here

When is the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release date and time?

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release date is Thursday, August 10, 2023.

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release time is:

Pacific Time (PT) – 12:00 a.m

Central Time (CT) – 02:00 a.m

Eastern Time (ET) – 03:00 a.m

United Kingdom (GMT) – 08:00 a.m

Central Europe (CET) – 09:00 a.m

To watch the forthcoming Strange New Worlds episode, viewers from different parts of the world can tune into the following streaming service at/after the aforementioned times as per their respective time zones.

Where to Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10

Viewers can stream Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 on Paramount Plus.

To watch the episode written by Henry Alonso Myers, you could pay $5.99 / month, $11.99 / month, or $59.99 / year and subscribe to Paramount Plus.

The second season began on June 15, 2023, and is now coming to an end. Episode 9 showcased an accident with an experimental quantum probability field that led everyone aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise to speak with songs. The theme even expanded to other ships and led all friends and allies in the episode to sing. Now after a colorful episode, we expect to see some major action in the finale.

The season featured Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, and Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel in the lead. Among other cast members, we’ve seen Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga, Paul Wesley as James T Kirk, Carol Kane as Pelia, Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, and Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner.

The official synopsis for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 reads:

“In series two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, confronts increasingly dangerous stakes, explores uncharted territories, and encounters new life and civilizations. The crew will also embark on personal journeys that will continue to test their resolve and redefine their destinies.”

To get a preview of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2, watch its trailer . Also find out how to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 .

The post Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Release Date & Time appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

Russell Wilson makes his Steelers preseason debut, and the offense goes nowhere with him

Russell Wilson got his first preseason start after being held out last week.

Here’s how often you should actually be washing your hair, according to experts

There are a lot of myths out there when it comes to washing your hair. It's time to set the record straight.

These are the 10 longest-lasting vehicles on the road today

iSeeCars' latest analysis found that a handful of models have a much greater chance of lasting 250,000 miles than others.

Robert Griffin III, Sam Ponder let go by ESPN in budget moves

Griffin had been with ESPN since 2021 and worked on their college football and NFL coverage.

2025 Ford Mustang 60th Anniversary adds Brittany Blue to the palette

Brittany Blue is joining as one of the possible colors for the Mustang's 60th Anniversary Package.

Jonathan Taylor among the few NFL players to wear the 'guardian cap' on his helmet

Jonathan Taylor's helmet looked a bit odd during his first preseason game.

Haason Reddick requests a trade; what are pass rusher's top potential landing spots?

Which teams might be interested in adding a top pass rusher?

Longtime dirt Late Model racer Scott Bloomquist killed in plane crash

Bloomquist was one of the most successful dirt Late Model drivers ever.

Paris Olympics: British marathoner reveals she finished race with a broken leg

"At the halfway mark, I knew that it was going to be incredibly painful."

Screen Rant

Star trek: strange new worlds.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Your Rating

Reviews (0).

Have You Watched It?

Be the first to leave a community review!

Melissa Navia

Babs olusanmokun, celia rose gooding, rebecca romijn, bruce horak, anson mount, seasons (4).

Season 1 (2016)

Season 2 (2018), season 3 (2022), season 4 (2026), sdcc 2024: star trek: strange new worlds cast & eps celebrate season 2 & hype season 3, star trek: strange new worlds season 3 first look clip, images (40), users reviews (125).

We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the review below and remember to keep it respectful.

Your comment has not been saved

Latest Stories

Every star trek movie & tv show by alex kurtzman, star trek strange new worlds’ 4 versions of kirk explained, 10 great star trek episodes written by women, chris pine’s captain kirk faced death in star trek long before william shatner, related titles.

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

BABY REINDEER

Star Trek Strange New Worlds 4 Versions Of Kirk Explained

Paul Wesley played three versions of James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Unexpected twists include an alternate future Kirk, a different reality Kirk, and Lt. Kirk's debut.
The Kirk family legacy on the Enterprise is further explored with the addition of Lt. Sam Kirk.

Paul Wesley portrays three versions of James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Wesley is the third actor to play Kirk in live-action as an adult, following in the footsteps of William Shatner, who originated the legendary Captain in Star Trek: The Original Series , and Chris Pine, who plays the alternate Kelvin Timeline's Captain Kirk in the J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek movie trilogy. Meanwhile, there is yet another Kirk serving on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

It was a surprise when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds announced Paul Wesley was cast as James T. Kirk before season 1 premiered in 2022. Strange New Worlds is a prequel set about 7 years before Star Trek: The Original Series , but the series was expected to exclusively focus on Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck). That USS Enterprise trio who debuted to great acclaim in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 before receiving their own spinoff. Not only was Strange New Worlds adding a young Kirk initially a curveball, but so is Paul Wesley also playing alternate reality versions of Captain Kirk.

Strange New Worlds Season 2 Cast Guide Every New & Returning Star Trek Character

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' cast of USS Enterprise legends grows in season 2, including the additions of Scotty and Lt. James T. Kirk.

Captain Kirk In Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 10 - "A Quality Of Mercy"

This james t. kirk is captain of the uss farragut.

Paul Wesley's debut as Captain James T. Kirk is in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1's finale, "A Quality of Mercy." In an alternate future where Captain Pike never gave up command of the USS Enterprise, Kirk is Captain of the USS Farragut. Pike and Kirk's starships team up against a Romulan incursion in a reworked version of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "Balance of Terror," which ended up having a very different and tragic result for the United Federation of Planets.

Captain Pike's tendency toward diplomacy ended up being the spark of an endless war with the Romulans, whereas Captain Kirk's decisive aggression in Star Trek: The Original Series prevented that same war.

However, this Star Trek alternate future timeline, and this version of Captain Kirk, were deleted by Captain Pike choosing to accept his tragic fate so that this future never comes to pass. Partially driving Pike's decision was learning that avoiding the tragic accident that disfigured him would force a similar fate upon Spock. Meanwhile, Pike was so intrigued by Kirk that Strange New Worlds season 1's finale ends with Chris looking up Lt. James T. Kirk's personnel file to learn more about the young Starfleet Officer.

Captain Kirk In Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 3 - "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"

A different captain kirk falls for la'an noonien-singh.

Paul Wesley plays a second Captain James T. Kirk from another alternate reality in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3 , "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." This Captain Kirk grew up in space aboard the USS Iowa and is the Captain of the United Earth Fleet's USS Enterprise, which is also mired in a losing war with the Romulans. Kirk ended up in 21st-century Toronto with Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) , where the duo sought to prevent a terrorist attack that would alter Star Trek 's timeline.

Heartbreakingly, Captain Kirk was murdered by a Romulan operative named Sera.

La'an fell in love with Captain Kirk during their mutual ordeal in the past. La'an's time with James, who was relaxed and outgoing, sparked her desire to break out of her shell which kept La'an from connecting with others. Kirk and La'an also encountered Pelia (Carol Kane), the extremely long-lived Lanthanite, centuries before she became a Starfleet engineer. Heartbreakingly, Captain Kirk was murdered by a Romulan operative named Sera (Adelaide Kane). When La'an foiled Sera's attempt to assassinate a young Khan Noonien Singh (Desmond Sivan), Kirk and his timeline were wiped from existence when Star Trek' s proper timeline was restored.

Lt. James T. Kirk In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Lt. kirk is the younger version of william shatner's captain kirk.

Paul Wesley's primary version of Kirk, Lt. James T. Kirk, officially debuted at the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," but Kirk finally beamed aboard the USS Enterprise in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6 , "Lost in Translation." The newly-appointed First Officer of the USS Farragut, Kirk soon helped Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), who introduced him to Lt. Spock, forging Star Trek: The Original Series ' iconic friendships.

Lt. Kirk also joined the crew of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' musical episode.

While Lt. Kirk was educated in the finer points of being a First Officer from Number One (Rebecca Romijn), he also learned from Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh about the alternate reality Kirk she met and fell for. Although Kirk is attracted to La'an , James admitted he has a pregnant girlfriend named Carol. Lt. Kirk also joined the crew of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' musical episode, and Paul Wesley will return as Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3.

Lt. Sam Kirk In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

There's already a kirk serving on the starship enterprise.

Another surprise from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that another Kirk serves on the USS Enterprise before James T. Kirk is assigned to the Federation flagship. Dan Jeannotte plays Lieutenant George Samuel "Sam" Kirk , the older brother of James T. Kirk. The mustachioed Sam is a xenobiologist and a friend of Captain Christopher Pike. Sam takes great pride in serving on the Enterprise. Still, sibling rivalry flares up whenever his brother Jim beams aboard.

It''s ironic that Sam Kirk begins the Kirk family's legacy aboard the Starship Enterprise.

Lt. Sam Kirk is destined to die in Star Trek: The Original Series , but in Strange New Worlds, Sam is a popular member of the Enterprise crew. Unfortunately, and amusingly, Lt. Spock is no fan of Sam's . Still, it's ironic that Sam begins the Kirk family's legacy aboard the Starship Enterprise, setting the stage for James T. Kirk's legendary Captaincy. And it's amazing that in just 2 seasons thus far, four versions of Kirk have appeared in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Cast Bruce Horak, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Melissa Navia, Ethan Peck, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong, Anson Mount

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Directors Amanda Row, Valerie Weiss, Jonathan Frakes, Chris Fisher

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek Strange New Worlds 4 Versions Of Kirk Explained

Watch the First Ever ‘Strange New Worlds’ and ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Cast Crossover

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Big Picture

The final season of Lower Decks features an extended finale episode, promising an exciting conclusion and growth for the characters.
Season 3 of Strange New Worlds will feature a Vulcan episode and a Hollywood murder mystery.
Despite challenges, the crossover episode between the two shows was a success, with a unique blend of tones and fun experiences for the cast.

Last year, two of the best Star Trek shows came together to maximize their joint sci-fi slay with an epic crossover episode between the adult animated series Lower Decks and the episodic prequel series Strange New Worlds . However, because that episode dropped during the industry-wide writers and actors strikes, press for such a momentous fandom occasion was sadly limited. Now, by a stroke of luck and timing, Collider can bring you the first shared interview between these two casts. Last week at San Diego Comic-Con, Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub was chatting with the Lower Decks crew ahead of their final season, when their live-action pals from the Enterprise decided to crash the party for an epic joint interview.

During their 30-minute conversation, Weintraub spoke to both casts about filming the crossover episode, working with Jonathan Frakes , and how Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid were largely responsible for bridging the tone between the two shows . They also discussed the final season of Lower Decks , which will feature an extended finale episode , and what changes they had to make when they learned Season 5 would be the show's last. Season 3 of Strange New Worlds was also a hot point of conversation as Weintraub asked how they plan to top a crossover and a musical in the coming episodes.

The cast also teased Frakes’ highly anticipated return to the director's chair, which he has called the best episode he’s ever directed, as well as the teaser footage which sees five crew members turned into Vulcans . You can read the full conversation with Strange New Worlds ’ Ethan Peck , Rebecca Romijn , showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers , and Lower Decks ' Tawny Newsome , Jerry O’Connell , Noel Wells , and creator Mike McMahan in the transcript below or watch it in the video player above!

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Behind every great captain, is a crew keeping the ship from falling to pieces. These are the hilarious stories of the U.S.S. Cerritos.

COLLIDER: I am a huge fan of your series, and I'm really bummed that it's ending, but I'm also grateful that you guys got to make five seasons. It's like winning a lottery to make any show. Everyone watching this knows the show by now, but what can you tease about Season 5?

MIKE MCMAHAN: We've got some amazing Orion episodes. Noël, as Tendi, goes back to Orion for a little while, and you learn a lot more about Orion culture.

TAWNY NEWSOME: What do I do?

MCMAHAN: You do a lot of growing. You actually did a lot of growing last season.

NEWSOME: Growth and grappling.

MCMAHAN: Then Ransom is actually both equal parts dumbass and beloved commander, so as he's always been, but maybe more than ever before. We knew this was gonna be our last season pretty early, so instead of going out feeling final, it feels more like a fireworks show when they blast everything off at the very end. So it's like a huge celebration with everything I've been planning on doing put into one big party all season.

I’m so happy that you knew going in that this was going to be the end. How much did that allow for exponential character growth and lead everyone toward where they're ultimately going to go in the future?

MCMAHAN: We did not jump them ahead of where they are in the story. Instead, it feels like the end of a chapter. It feels like we're in chapter one of the story of Lower Decks. So it still feels like Lower Decks . It's still funny, it's exciting, it feels like it fits into canon, but it does feel like we've said something by the end of it. So, you could take the first five seasons and be like, “This is a full idea,” but it does not feel final , which I think is the best way for a comedy to be.

JERRY O’CONNELL: Wow, that was so well-put, Mike.

MCMAHAN: Thanks, guys.

O’CONNELL: He's a smart guy, our boss. He worded that perfectly.

NEWSOME: It’s like when you make a cheesecake, and then you put it in the fridge to chill. It firms, but it's not solid. You can still puncture it.

O’CONNELL: You can still puncture us!

NEWSOME: You can still puncture us.

O’CONNELL: It's funny, being a performer on it, I felt very satisfied with this season. I felt Mike did a great job.

How much does it cost for him to say that?

MCMAHAN: Too much.

O’CONNELL: It doesn't at all, really. To quote Tawny, “If I didn't have a good time, I would just be quiet.”

NEWSOME: [Laughs] That’s true.

O’CONNELL: It's really funny, I'm very proud as a performer, I'm very proud as an employee, but also, I'm really proud of my Lower Deck ers. I'm really proud of them.

NEWSOME: I’m proud, too.

Without spoilers, have you recorded all of Season 5? You're done?

NEWSOME: Yeah.

'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 5 Will End With an Extended Finale

What was it like reading that last script and seeing ultimately where it was all going to be going?

NEWSOME: I refused at first. I said, “If I don't end it, it won't end, and we can just live here forever.” Then they tackled me in my home and asked me to come down to the studio to do it, so eventually we did it. It was bittersweet but lovely.

MCMAHAN: You joke, but we did keep adding and adding and adding to the finale because nothing was ever satisfying enough and there weren't enough goodbyes to tell in a funny way. Ultimately, what we ended up with is a gigantic episode that's really fun.

Is it longer than a typical episode?

MCMAHAN: Oh yeah.

MCMAHAN: I think a lot of the season actually is. It's a big season.

NEWSOME: It's a double-stuffed Oreo of an episode, for sure.

O’CONNELL: It was really interesting working on the finale of a series and watching Mike's process because you did a version, you honed it, you did a version, you honed it. It's funny, by the time that I did my last recording, you really did a great job, Mike.

NOËL WELLS: I feel like when I first recorded the episode, we didn't know that it was the final episode, but then when we had to make some changes…

NEWSOME: We're reading it, going like, “Well, this sure sounds like the end.”

WELLS: We had to make changes to some things just to adjust to that.

MCMAHAN: Comedies that end, comedies that have a final episode, that's usually not anybody's favorite episode. On a serious level, on this , we may have broken that. This might be somebody's favorite episode. A lot of people's.

A lot of the episodes are like 25 to 30 minutes?

MCMAHAN: They want them at 22, but because we're on Paramount+, we can rob from some episodes and add to the others and be a little more flexible.

Do you know the running time of the last episode? Is it like 35?

MCMAHAN: We're still working on it. The last I saw—my editor and line producer would kill me—right now, we're, like, eight minutes longer than an episode usually is, which is like an entire other act, basically.

NEWSOME: That's gargantuan at a half hour.

MCMAHAN: It’s really big, and we're not done with it. So, I don't know. We'll see.

I have so many follow-ups to that. Was it hard coming up with the last shot? The last thing?

MCMAHAN: No, that was the easiest part.

NEWSOME: No, at first you didn’t have…

MCMAHAN: The last shot . The very last shot.

NEWSOME: Oh, I'm talking about the last scene . At first, you didn't have that. I remember, I was like, “I can’t believe we're not doing blah, blah, blah. Doing et cetera, et cetera.” And then you did it.

MCMAHAN: We added a couple of things at the very end, and… Oh, man.

WELLS: Our fans are here!

MCMAHAN: The Strange New Worlds gang banging on the window.

NEWSOME: Akiva Goldsman is banging on the window like one of his monsters in I Am Legend .

'Strange New Worlds' and 'Lower Decks' Cast Finally Reunite to Talk About the Crossover Episode

I loved, loved the crossover episode. So let's talk a little bit about that because I don't know if you guys have ever done an interview together.

ETHAN PECK: No, we haven’t.

REBECCA ROMIJN: We barely got to talk about it because of the strikes. We wanted to talk about it from the mountaintops, and we couldn't.

NEWSOME: We just talked to each other about it. We were like, “Pretty cool, right?”

HENRY ALONSO MYERS: Mike and I were on the phone a lot .

Fans loved the episode, I loved the episode. Let's talk a little bit about the planning stages. Was it difficult to do? What was it like for the cast? Let's get into it.

MYERS: We didn't know what we signed up for. We wanted to do something that was a merge. A crossover episode is a classic Star Trek element and we really wanted to do that, and we love their show so much. We thought this would be one that no one would expect. We knew it was also a challenge because we had to animate a huge section of it, and then we knew we were gonna have to work with all of the folks that we could bring over into our world. Honestly, we wanted to get everyone in it. We had time for about two of them to do live-action, but we really wished we could have found a way to absolutely have everyone there.

AKIVA GOLDSMAN: Here's the thing that nobody will tell you: it was really hard . Fundamentally, it seemed like, “Well, they'll just come over.” But it turns out that they're animated, and we're real, and we have different tones in our show. The integration of their tone and our tone was a full-on job.

MCMAHAN: But you know what? Everything I heard from both casts was, “This is the most fun we've had.” It was a synergistic effect. It was hard, but it was getting to have the most fun doing both shows at once that we couldn't have gotten separately, which I thought was really cool.

GOLDSMAN: Real costumes. They like that.

MCMAHAN: No, we have them recording costumes!

NEWSOME: And we got paid more, so that was fun.

WELLS: You got paid more?

GOLDSMAN: That was a secret. That part was quiet.

ROMIJN: It was really fun watching Jack and Tawny make these minute adjustments to fix tonally what was the divide between animation and real. It was really fun watching you guys.

NEWSOME: Thank you. All props also go to Jonathan Frakes for helping guide that so expertly.

ROMIJN: He massaged that a lot.

NEWSOME: I don't mind being told to tone it down when it's Jonathan Frakes. Most people, I’m like, “Mmm, disagree.”

MCMAHAN: Did he ever tell you to?

NEWSOME: No. [Laughs] He did say, “Go harder.” At one point, he said, “Please say the script.” He said, “The writers would really like for you to say the words on the page.”

MYERS: I gotta say there were a bunch of ones that we were like, “We're gonna use this one,” because it was fun and funny. There were things that we didn't expect. The way that Boimler walked? When Jack did that, we were like, “Well, we have to use that shot because he's actually doing the walk,” which he's never gotten to do in real life before, so I think it excited him.

NEWSOME: I've seen him do it. That's just how he walks.

The thing about that crossover episode is it's so nice when everyone loves something, and rather than tearing things down online, it's all like, “Oh, that's great.”

'Strange New Worlds' Season 3 Turns the Crew Vulcan

With Strange New Worlds and the upcoming season, you did a musical episode, which was phenomenal, and you did this crossover episode. What can you tease about the upcoming season?

GOLDSMAN: We’re doing Vulcans.

MYERS: In addition to seeing a lot of people become Vulcans who you wouldn't expect, we get to see other people on the ship behave in ways—some of them who might actually be present today—that you've never seen them do before.

GOLDSMAN: That's mostly Jerry.

I saw the five-minute clip of the cast getting turned into Vulcans and not being able to get back, and it was fantastic. What's interesting for the cast is that you are having to act like a Vulcan and you're not used to doing something like that. What was it like for you having your fellow castmates acting as Vulcans? Are they talking to you about, “How should I do this?”

ETHAN PECK: Well, I didn't appreciate being the half-Vulcan and being ostracized and criticized for that. But they did seek my advice a little bit, the actors. I spoke probably most thoroughly to Celia [Rose Gooding], who plays Uhura. It was really fun to see everyone turn into Vulcans. It was kind of shocking, too. And funnily enough, it made me feel like I belonged more to see more pointed ears. But then, of course, they were very offensive.

MYERS: Weirdly, the hardest part wasn't the performance—performance came very easily to them—it was the hair. The hair was the hardest part, but also to give each of them their own specific feel and look. Yes, they are Vulcans, but that doesn't mean they all act the same.

NEWSOME: Vulcans are not a monolith.

ROMIJN: They all have their own brand of Vulcan. That was pretty surprising and fun to play off of.

Where is that in the season?

MYERS: It's Episode 8.

Is it really? Oh, wow. When you're in the writers’ room, you're coming up with pie-in-the-sky ideas, and then it's about, “How do we get this on the page? How do we get this to be filmed?” Are there certain things in animation that are more expensive than others? And how much does that dictate how much you can do in an episode? With Strange New Worlds , you obviously have a budget for the season. Can you talk about where and when you want to deploy the big resources in an episode, and how much does that impact two other episodes when you go big in Episode 6?

MCMAHAN: Mine is easy because red costs a lot more. If you use red on screen, it costs twice as much. The ink is just really expensive. For us, it's just, “How many voices do we have in the episode? How many minutes do we have?” Every minute is just compounding for us, and every voice, we only have a certain amount of people we can have on the show. So, we use every penny.

WELLS: But the great thing about animation is that you can invent anything and go anywhere, and there is no cap on what your imagination can be.

MCMAHAN: We can put in a lot more aliens, we're not paying for prosthetics, and we can do a lot more ships. We're not building new sets. We're drawing all that stuff.

MYERS: We did spend a bit of time beforehand talking about what were the existing sets from Lower Decks that we could use. I remember having a long conversation with you about, “What angles on the ship already exist? Which ones can we use? If they go in this direction, can we see this? Can we see that?” And then there was a whole thing where the set that we built on the AR wall, which existed both digitally, practically, and also in an animated style, was probably the most interesting one because these are divisions that probably never have to work together and we had to get them all in line. So, that was challenging.

We spent a lot of time beforehand trying to decide where the money's gonna go big and where the money is gonna go small. It's more like we're gonna spend a lot on this episode for TBD reason like we have a creature effect that's really expensive, we have a visual effect that is gonna cost a lot of money because we're gonna be out in space for a while. That's one thing. If we are gonna take that away, we have to give something else, like maybe turn a lot of people into Vulcans, for instance.

O’CONNELL: This is crazy too. Ethan’s body makeup is…

GOLDSMAN: And the CG that we have to do afterwards.

O’CONNELL: I've seen the cost, and it's astronomical.

MYERS: That was all set up for the original deal that he made on the show, and we're not actually allowed to change it.

GOLDSMAN: We're doing it in real-time right now, which is really pricey.

NEWSOME: You look great.

MYERS: You wouldn’t believe the effects that this has.

When you think about the episodes you've done thus far in Strange New Worlds , what scene or sequence do you consider the toughest one to have pulled off?

ROMIJN: Personally, I think the most work I put in was a scene that you and I had in the third season. It's a sequence of scenes that we got to do together.

PECK: Oh, I remember.

O’CONNELL: You guys are being so shady.

ROMIJN: In Episode 8.

PECK: Mine might have been the sequence in which Spock has an anxiety dream and fights himself. I had to play both sides of the fight, obviously. That was pretty complicated.

Obviously, you can read something on the page, and you could be like, “Oh, this is really good.” Sometimes it turns out better than you expected, and sometimes not so much. For all of you guys, what is an episode that you are just so happy with the way it turned out in terms of it being better than you imagined and it’s one of your favorite episodes of Star Trek?

O’CONNELL: The crossover episode that we all did. I don't recall in recent memory anyone else doing that, and the tone was perfect. They really pulled it off. I gotta say, I was extremely doubtful when it was announced.

ROMIJN: When they pitched it, I couldn't understand how they could possibly make it work, and it totally worked. I'm gonna go with the crossover episode, as well.

NEWSOME: I wanna shoot some love your way, Rebecca. The trial episode.

ROMIJN: “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

NEWSOME: When that episode came on, I don't think I read it ahead of time or anything. I think I just heard, “Oh, they're doing a trial episode,” and as a lifelong Trek fan, we've seen a lot of trial episodes, and so I was like, “Sure. This will be good and fine and whatever.” I was really blown away because of the portrayal that you brought to it. Also, it's really hard to do trial episodes in Star Trek that still feel like there's something new to say or to discuss in that way, and I thought you guys really nailed it.

ROMIJN: Thank you. It was a beautifully written episode.

MCMAHAN: I think to some extent, every single episode goes through this process of, “I like this– Oh no, it's a disaster. Wait, an army of talented, amazing, passionate artists are making it better and better and better.” For me, once you get music into an episode, it's such a relief because that's where the heart comes from. You've edited it, and you've lived with all these lines. So, I can't think of a single episode where you don't go through waves of joy and panic and then ultimately are just so relieved that it's good and that you're telling a story and making people laugh, and being in space together. I don't know. It's great. Star Trek's great.

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is Strange New Worlds , you’re going to stay with me, but Lower Decks , you need to leave and do another interview.

Your show is one of my favorite things to watch. I love it so much. I'm so excited for Season 3. The thing a lot of people don't realize is that you were originally going to film Season 3, and then the strike happened. How did the scripts for Season 3 possibly change because of the extra time, or were they just locked?

GOLDSMAN: It's not quite as simple as it sounds because we were down, so we didn't actually have a lot of time. We had the time we had, then we stopped. Everything ground to a halt, and then we picked up again six weeks out of production. Really, what was problematic, or at least was unique, is the machine is typically really running six weeks out. When you're just six weeks out, everybody's getting it, and now we were starting all over again in terms of momentum six weeks out. So, it was energetically complicated, creatively annoying, but fundamentally, we made the episodes we planned to make.

One of the things about Season 2 is you really did it—the musical episode, the crossover. You were very ambitious. How ambitious is Season 3 compared to Seasons 1 and 2?

ROMIJN: Surprisingly ambitious. We didn't know how they were gonna push the envelope, and they did! We're really proud of some things in Season 3.

GOLDSMAN: It is amazing what you can do if you get polaroids of your cast and then offer not to put them on the internet. They will do things that are extraordinary.

PECK: Things you won't believe.

What can you tease without spoiling about Season 3?

PECK: The Robocop episode.

GOLDSMAN: The Star Wars crossover.

ROMIJN: The all the all-nude episode.

GOLDSMAN: I love that one.

PECK: The Godzilla episode’s gonna be great.

'Strange New Worlds' Season 3 Picks Up Immediately After Season 2

So Season 3, Episode 1, is there a big time jump from the last episode?

MYERS: No time jump at all. So, just almost an instantaneous pickup.

ROMIJN: Mid-battle.

Jonathan Frakes has said that he directed something in Season 3 that he considers his favorite thing that he's directed. I don't know if he's directed more than one episode.

MYERS: He directed one this season and one last season.

Can you say what episode number he directed?

MYERS: Episode 4.

When he said that out loud and announced that it was his favorite thing he's ever directed, were you like, “Yeah, he's probably right.” Because there must be something to this episode.

MYERS: That is a spectacular episode. I'm delighted with it.

ROMIJN: It was a really special experience. When he wrapped that episode, he and I were on the same flight going home that weekend, so we were at the airport, which was delayed by three hours, so I got to listen to him talk about, for three hours, how it was his favorite hour of television that he's ever directed.

What can you tease?

MYERS: It’s a very unique version of Kirk, one that we have not seen on the show before. All of our actors get to do things that we've never seen them do before.

GOLDSMAN: It's a Hollywood murder mystery. I think he’s said that, and if he hasn't, let us say it officially now. We are, as always, striving to create a different genre within ours, so there's a reason for it. It's not somebody having a dream, although we did once in the room have a thing about a dream and many Unas.

MYERS: That was the Godzilla episode.

GOLDSMAN: So, because of that, our actors get to do things that they haven't gotten to do previously. As you've been asking, and as Rebecca was saying, we do keep trying to push, because we were so delighted ourselves with the musical episode that we kind of were like, “Oh, fuck, what are we gonna do now?”

MYERS: It is like a genuine Star Trek episode. No one who knows and is familiar with Star Trek will say, “Oh, that doesn't feel like a normal episode.” They will be like, “Oh, I get it.” But it will surprise them.

How quickly during shooting are you able to let go and then turn it back on in the morning and how much is a piece staying with you the entire time?

ROMIJN: I'm able to let it go really quickly because I have kids who are there with me sometimes, and I gotta get home and make sure they're okay and make sure they're fed. You gotta be able to turn it off and on. But I think it's different for Ethan.

PECK: Well, I spend probably more hours as this character than I do as Ethan during the season, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't altered a little bit. I do take a little bit of it home with me, which isn't so bad because he's a great guy, a person of integrity, a half-man of integrity. He's very aspirational and wants to be something pure, and I think that's beautiful. So, I'll take that home.

How much do you want to leave set wearing the uniforms and just go to Starbucks?

PECK: I would love to. All the time.

ROMIJN: I remember one time Melissa Navia’s family, her sister and brother-in-law and their kids came to visit us, and it was also during COVID, so we weren't really allowed to see anybody, but we all stepped outside on the street to go take a picture with them. We were just walking down the street in Mississauga in our uniforms. We were like, “This is weird.” It was awesome, though.

PECK: I would love to just go on a Starfleet field trip.

I personally think some viral stuff when you're filming Season 4 is just for all of you guys to go to the local supermarket in costume and just act like you're on an away mission, and just don’t acknowledge anybody, and let them film it.

MYERS: The problem is they wouldn't have money.

With currency, but in full costume.

GOLDSMAN: Do we own the idea? I'm just checking.

You can have it for free.

MYERS: That's very kind of you. Thank you.

When do you start filming Season 4?

MYERS: We start next year.

'Strange New Worlds' Season 4 Is Already In Development

Already knowing that Season 4 is coming up, are you writing on Season 4 already?

MYERS: We're in the room. We have the cards with the episodes, we know what they are, we know what the 10 episodes are going to be about. The network doesn't yet, but they will soon.

MYERS: We're excited for them to find out.

What is it like when you're in that blue sky in the writers’ room when anything is possible? Do you think about, “We want Episode 8 to go fucking big, so how do we save on these other three?”

MYERS: Yes. That is the conversation we have, but we don't look at it that way. We don't want every giant-budget episode to be back-to-back. We want to separate them because it takes some recovery time. Also, there are other things we can do in the meantime that also require a different kind of work. If there's one that is a romantic episode, we'll have that in one place and then we'll have a comedy and then we'll have a horror movie or a big space battle. We'll try to separate these with some space so that we're not doing everything hard altogether.

GOLDSMAN: Within reason, we start with all the kids being equal. So, we don't actually build with the idea of size as an organizing principle. Because remember, our show is a little different in that we rotate characters. We're an ensemble piece, but our lensing changes. Most typically, you hear it in the captain's log or the first officer's log, so you know who's walking you through the show, right? So fundamentally, in that way, just as we try to keep all the actors getting a shot, all the episodes get the same shot, and then as we lay them out creatively, some sort of go, “Oh, I could be big or small. Oh, I could only be big. Oh, I really need to be small.” Then we sort of move it around like that. But our show is pretty, again, within reason, evenly distributed where there's not a terrible swing between our most expensive episode and our least. They’re all right in the same strike zone.

At the beginning of Season 3, when you're in the writers’ room and you're figuring out the arcs, are you coming up with where Spock is in Episode 1 and where Spock is in Episode 10?

MYERS: Yes.

What can you tease about your character's journey in Season 3, from where it starts to where it goes?

ROMIJN: You get to see a lighter side of Una now that she no longer is hiding behind her shame of the Illyrian side of her character. You get to see a lighter side of Una.

PECK: At the beginning of Season 3, Spock is alive, and then he’s still alive at the end.

MYERS: Spoiler alert.

How much are you thinking in terms of, “We have a five-year plan, we have a seven-year plan,” or how much is it, because of the freedom of this show being able to do so many different things, just episode by episode and season by season?

MYERS: Episode by episode and season by season. We really try to treat everything like, “If this was our last episode, what would it be like?” We want to do the best version of everything. If this was all we got to do, what are the cool things that we will be really upset that we never got to do? We look at every season like that.

GOLDSMAN: And left to our own devices—which really means if Paramount will—we'll keep going into the TOS era, and we know how. That's the hope. But as Henry said, nothing is assured, so we come from a conservative place with great aspirations.

Both Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike (played by Anson Mount) and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in the 23rd century as they explore new worlds throughout the galaxy in the decade before Star Trek: The Original Series.

Watch on Paramount+

Subscriptions

By clicking Sign In, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

We won't post to any of your accounts

Your password must include:

Min 8 characters
Min 1 lowercase character
Min 1 uppercase character
Min 1 number

Woman's World

Mental Health
Heart Health
Pain Management
Supplements
Celebrities
Alzheimer’s
Joint Health
Spirituality
Relationships
Online Learning
Online Fitness
Online Finance
Online Cooking
Give a Gift
Accessibility Statement
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Cookie Preferences

‘Subspace Rhapsody Star Trek’ Musical Episode, a Track-by-Track Breakdown with Lyricist Kay Hanley (EXCLUSIVE)

Kay Hanley takes us where no one has gone before on the Star Trek prequel series 'Strange New Worlds'

The Original ‘Star Trek’ Cast: Where They’ve Boldly Gone, Then and Now

“status report”.

PERFORMERS: Anson Mount (Captain Pike), Jess Bush (Christine Chapel), Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh), Ethan Peck (Spock)

PLOT ELEMENTS: The crew is starting to break into song while simultaneously informing Captain Pike that everything is normal.

KAY HANLEY: It had the most Star Trek vocabulary; all of the mechanical stuff that the casual fan is not going to know how to write, so we really needed an assist from the writers on making sure that the correct terminology was being used in the lyric, and it was great.

“Connect to Your Truth”

PERFORMERS: Rebecca Romijn (Number One), Paul Wesley (James T. Kirk)

PLOT ELEMENTS: Based on what she’s learned, Number One informs Kirk how he should interact with his own crew as he goes forward.

KAY HANLEY: This was the Gilbert and Sullivan tribute and obviously the most Broadway of the songs, which was perfect because Rebecca is a musical theater person. A song like that has to have some levity to it in order to really pull it off. If you did a real Gilbert and Sullivan song where they were being really earnest, I don’t know if that would’ve worked, as it needed Rebecca’s lighter touch. The only reason to do that song is because Rebecca was singing it; she had the vocal and comedy chops to do it.

DeForest Kelley: Remembering the Life and Career of the Heart of ‘Star Trek’

“how would that feel”.

PERFORMER: Christina Chong (La’an Noonien-Singh)

PLOT POINTS: La’an pleads with herself to open up and be free emotionally to express her feelings developed for Kirk in an alternate timeline, while recognizing her inability to “color outside the lines.”

KAY HANLEY: As we were going, the script was in first and second draft, but we knew what had just happened with Rebecca’s character kind of just being so open and free with an “I don’t care” attitude. And Lon is the complete opposite — she can’t tell Kirk how she feels, because she might embarrass herself or would be breaking the social contract of living in this world, which ups the stakes even more for her.

I was actually thinking of my sister a lot while writing that song. We’re Boston people, very sort of parochial and polite and, as my father used to say, she wouldn’t tell you if her coat was on fire. My sister was always obsessed with coloring inside lines. She would outline in our coloring books — she would outline the lines in dark crayon and then color. So I was thinking a lot about her.

“Private Conversation”

PERFORMERS: Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike), Melanie Scrofano (Marie Batel)

PLOT POINTS: Through singing, Pike is forced to admit that in some ways he’s closed off emotionally from Captain Marie Batel of the USS Cayuga , who he’s been dating.

KAY HANLEY: This is when everyone starts to realize that the situation could be really bad and that the singing that has infected our ship is not adorable anymore. It’s not funny, it’s dangerous.

William Shatner in Star Trek (1966), T.J. Hooker (1982) and Boston Legal (2004)

William Shatner: His 10 Greatest Roles, Reverse Ranked

“keeping secrets”.

PERFORMERS: Rebecca Romijn (Number One)

PLOT POINTS: The importance of keeping confidences is shared — via song — by Number One to La’an.

KAY HANLEY: “Keeping Secrets” is the only song that was edited for time in the episode and I thought it worked beautifully. Tom and I loved the challenge of creating a song with a twist. We think Una is giving La’an a pep talk about keeping her feelings in check, but she’s really warning her younger self. Rebecca really sold that emotional turn with subtle heartache. Such a fan of her acting.

“I’m Ready”

PERFORMER: Jess Bush (Christine Chapel)

PLOT POINTS: A developing relationship with Spock is abandoned by Christine Chapel, whose song announces to him and everyone else that she’s leaving the Enterprise to join the fellowship offered by Dr. Roger Korby.

KAY HANLEY: Tom went to Toronto and met with the cast before we started writing and he recorded everyone’s range; just had them sing “Happy Birthday” or whatever so that we had a sense of what their range was. So the thing that was exciting about writing the Chapel Song is that she sings more like I do. I don’t have this huge range, but she’s my kind of singer and we were able to write this really simple melody for her with attitude to burn and she just crushed it. So good!

And then there’s Spock observing this, which Uhura set up because she realized that if they can’t get more people to their emotional peak, they’re screwed, so she set him up.

Father’s Day EXCLUSIVE: Adam Nimoy, Son of ‘Star Trek’ Legend Leonard Nimoy, Talks Their Complicated Relationship and Reconciliation

“i’m the x”.

PERFORMER: Ethan Peck (Spock)

PLOT POINTS: Emotionally devastated by Christine Chapel’s announcement that she’s leaving him and the starship, Spock has to recoup and realizes he needs to embrace his Vulcan philosophies and devote himself to the study of the universe and the pursuit of logic.

KAY HANLEY: “Spock is such a part of our American television vocabulary that you really can’t just pop off and give Spock a broken-hearted love song. He’s half-Vulcan and half-human, so he’s not your average broken-hearted guy, but with that song, coming up with using a metaphor of a math equation, searching for Y and “I’m the X,” that felt like cracking the code for Spock. As soon as we had that, we could run with it and felt like we could really say some interesting things.

One thing I’ll say is that we never meant to have “I’m the X” bookend with “I’m Ready,” and the melody is exactly the same. Everything about that song just kind of happened very organically.

“Keep Us Connected”

PERFORMER: Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura)

PLOT POINTS: Uhura wrestles with her loneliness on the Enterprise and her role on the starship, ultimately reconciling herself with her job of keeping the crew united.

KAY HANLEY: I’ve never cried while writing a song in my life until that song, really. i would go to Tom and sat down and we came up with the melody. We kind of felt like her station was almost like a temple, so we were thinking very churchy, but also sort of setting it up like a Greek tragedy or something like that. I was able to reach into a place inside to find that song that I’ve never been to before; it was an out of body experience and the closest thing to a spiritual experience as I will ever have writing a song. And then, of course, Celia — anything that I dreamed of for it to sound like, her singing was just 10 times what I imagined.

The writers gave me so much to work with for her character — like the fact that her family had been killed. And so when Spock leaves her alone because he’s wrestling with all of these human feelings, she’s left holding the bad to deal with everything and is, like, “Why am I always having to clean up the mess?” Again, thinking of my sister, who ultimately saves everybody and fixes everything. The writers just gave me so much to work with and then Tom’s musical arrangement was just incredible.

“We Are One”

PERFORMERS: The full cast.

PLOT POINTS: To disrupt the fold in subspace (also known as an improbability field), the entire crew needs — as well as the Klingons on their vessel, who break into a K-Pop act — to sing together, all about the joy they feel in working together.

KAY HANLEY: I almost lost my mind writing that song, because everybody had to say something about their job and my head was just spinning. But we totally worked out what the finale was going to be and what everybody had to be singing. We knew that it had to get loud so that they could break the improbability field, and the Klingon thing got solved pretty early on. They wanted the Klingons to be singing opera or whatever and I was, like, “No,” and pulled up a video of my favorite K-Pop band at the time and said, “ These are the Klingons!” We pitched the showrunners and they were, like, “Let’s do it!”

I have to say, I am so proud of this episode. My dad introduced me to Star Trek ; it was a show we would watch together on Channel 38 WSBK in Boston when I was a little kid. He died in January, but he got to hear these songs, so it was really special that I got to have that with him before he died.

MUST-READ: TV Show Musical Episodes 7 of the Best, Ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to Scrubs, Buffy and More

From Star Trek to X-Men , Patrick Stewart Steals the Show — Read About His Early Career Here

GLO24K Red Light Skin Rejuvenation Beauty Device for Face and Neck

Deal of the Day

The Star Trek: Voyager Cast Then and Now, Sharing What They Thought of Their Characters (EXCLUSIVE)

My Lunch with Kate Mulgrew: Owning the Havok She Wreaked on the Star Trek Set

entertainment ,

12 Classic TV Spin-Offs You May Have Forgotten

Mister Ed, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters and Bewitched are four examples of Fantasy Sitcoms of the 1960s.

Best Fantasy Sitcoms of the 60s: 'Bewitched,' 'The Munsters' and Much More

Various shades of denim jeans from maurices, an online retailer of size-inclusive clothing for women.

Shop Maurices Denim Jeans for Styles You Can Look and Feel Good Wearing

Clockwise from left: Lassie, Frasier, Full House, Peanuts, Mad About You and Scooby-Doo

TV Shows with Dogs: 15 of Your Favorites Remembered

Bill Bixby on the set of the TV series The Incredible Hulk

Bill Bixby TV Shows: More Than Just 'The Incredible Hulk'

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor long before they became a part of Green Acres.

'Green Acres' Cast Young: Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor Before the Farm

An image of a black and white dog next to various fresh dog food products from Ollie, along with the ingredients that make up that food.

14 Fresh Ingredients in Ollie Dog Food That’ll Make You Jealous of Your Pup’s Meal

An illustration of different actors who have played The Odd Couple, L-R: Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Ron Glass, Demond Wilson, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

'Odd Couple' Memories: See Oscar and Felix Over the Years

7 Under-the-Cape Facts About The Hit 1964 Superhero Cartoon 'Underdog'

Jack Albertson and Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man, 1974

'Chico and the Man' Turns 50: 30 Facts About the Freddie Prinze Series

An image with skincare product bottles and text reading 'Bluemercury Free Shipping Event!'

Shop Bluemercury and Get Free Shipping for a Limited Time!

L-R: Agnes Moorehead, Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York in their younger days.

The 'Bewitched' Cast Young: See Elizabeth Montgomery and Others Early On

Den of Geek

Modern Star Trek Needs to Bring Back ‘Filler’ Episodes

The days of 20-episode seasons of Star Trek may be long behind us, but we think that's kind of a shame...

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)

Klingons in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Earlier this year, Cinemablend asked Star Trek writer-producer Alex Kurtzman whether he thought that a modern Star Trek show could ever reach 100 episodes in the age of streaming. This was fairly standard for previous franchise entries that would later be syndicated to other networks, with The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager all broadcasting nearly 200 episodes across seven seasons—though poor, unloved Enterprise was cancelled just two episode before hitting triple figures (whether you think this is a tragedy probably depends on how recently you re-watched that prequel series).

Kurtzman, who has been a key creative figure in modern Trek since 2009’s J.J Abrams-directed big-screen reboot, said that hitting such a milestone in the era of streaming was “unlikely.” But he also suggested that this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing: “You can talk to old writers of old Trek series, and they’re like, ‘Man, there’s a bunch of filler episodes in there. We are just trying to get to 22 a season,’ you know … and we all know which of those episodes were [filler], we know the ones that were truly stellar from the ones that felt like they were kind of spinning their wheels.”

Regardless of one’s personal feelings about Kurtzman or his approach to Star Trek , his observations are not without merit. For such a beloved and influential franchise, televised Star Trek has historically had, to put it charitably, variable quality control. While a more conventional syndicated crime procedural from, say, the mid-’90s might never reach particularly mind-blowing heights, you could be pretty confident that an average episode would be competent and baseline watchable.

Not so with Star Trek . Tuning in to watch live in the ’80s, ’90s or even early 2000s, you truly had no idea what might be waiting for you. It could be a tense, exciting adventure. It could be thought-provoking, high-concept science fiction. It could be a poignant character piece, or a diverting bit of comedy fluff. It could conceivably be one of the worst episodes of television you would ever see in your life.

Ad – content continues below

But what if that’s actually a good thing?

A Different Time

It’s important to put Kurtzman’s remarks in context. The current era of streaming TV is vastly different from that which produced the likes of TNG, DS9 and Voyager. In the ’80s and ’90s, US cable and broadcast networks wanted seasons of 22 episodes or more so that they would have enough content to pump into people’s living rooms between September and May, assuming that people watched less television during the summer. This nine-month period was in turn roughly split into a September-December block and a January-May block—hence the breaking up of TV shows into “seasons,” terminology that has since found its way over to the UK, even though our model for TV production is very different

It was also increasingly profitable for shows to be “syndicated,” i.e. sold to other networks in various different markets, both national and international. That’s why UK viewers were able to tune into TNG on BBC2 from September 1990, three years after the show’s US debut, a gap it’s pretty impossible to imagine fans putting up with these days. The more episodes available, the more valuable the package.

This is all a roundabout way of saying that the 22-episode season model was not one born out of an artistic or creative impulse. The motive was profit. After all, t paraphrase one of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, a production company without profit is no production company at all.

Of course, the streaming era is no different in that respect. The motive is the same, it’s only the model that has changed—in a world with so many more options for entertainment, competition for attention has become much more intense. And in this new landscape of increased competition and decreased attention spans, even a legacy brand like Star Trek can’t assume enough viewers to justify the cost of a 22-episode season—costs that would likely be prohibitive anyway, as most streaming services seem to be operating at a loss even now. Audiences are no longer limited to what happens to be showing on TV at a particular time of day, and a season of around 10 episodes has therefore become the ideal model, with creatives being forced to adapt as a result.

For Kurzman, this is ultimately a positive thing. It means 10 lean, focused episodes, where the excitement—and by extension the audience’s investment—is constantly maintained, and all the money is always on screen rather than stretched to breaking point. It means heavy serialization, story arcs, big action, and big emotions. No bottle episodes, obtuse chamber pieces, or quirky character experiments.

No “filler.”

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

The Best Star Trek Time Travel Stories Ever, Ranked

Will Wheaton as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: Prodigy

Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton on How Wesley Crusher Found His Place After TNG

The joy of “filler”.

But Star Trek ’s mission, famously, is “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no-one has gone before.” And longer seasons—while undoubtedly stressful for writers and prone to dramatic fluctuations in quality—are arguably a more comfortable fit for such a mission, because of the increased room for experimentation.

Kurtzman seems to be suggesting that without the requirement to fill a 22-episode season, the wheat is naturally going to be separated from the chaff, and only the truly great ideas will make it to screen. A sort of televisual survival of the fittest that will only ever produce episodes that really deserve to be seen, filtering out the odd ducks where the production team is “spinning its wheels.” But there’s no guarantee that lessening the quantity automatically improves the quality, and this approach risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Would a more modern, 10-episode season of The Next Generation find space for stories like “The Inner Light,” the Hugo Award-winning season 5 episode in which Captain Picard experiences 40 years of life as an alien scientist? It’s a quiet, meditative, hugely poignant episode, with no battles and few flashy special effects. A streaming audience could conceivably be put off by its deliberate, thoughtful pace—but what a tragedy to potentially lose such a memorable, moving story, in service of such a risk-averse model.

What about “Data’s Day,” whose heavily comic A-plot focuses on the android Data’s confusion over human marriage rituals, with a political assassination consciously relegated to the B-plot? At best, you can imagine these two plots being reversed for a modern version, on the assumption that audiences will be more attracted to the thrilling political machinations. A beloved main character bumbling around, learning more about what it is to be human? Don’t waste my time.

Okay, two acknowledged classics there, of course it would be a shame to lose them. But what about acknowledged disasters? There are almost too many examples to list across TNG ’s much maligned first couple of seasons. Would you really try to court a fickle streaming audience by subjecting them to season 1’s “Justice,” in which the reviled Wesley Crusher falls afoul of some cheerful, scantily clad hippies who happen to have the death penalty for minor acts of vandalism?

The thing is, while it’s hard to defend “Justice” on its own merits—it is, in a word, crap—in the broader context of Star Trek , it’s helpfully illustrative. The episode is trying, in its own half-baked and cringeworthy way, to show us a strange new world, and use that setting to generate a compelling moral dilemma. The execution is lacking, even by the standards of the time, let alone those of the modern era. But it’s far closer to the beating heart of Star Trek , to its true mission statement, than 50 minutes of exploding spaceships designed to distract someone from scrolling TikTok.

There’s also a reluctance here to embrace sillines—because old Trek was silly, and we don’t want to remind people of that, because it’s embarrassing. But silliness is part of Star Trek ! It’s in its DNA. Even Deep Space Nine , which leaned much more heavily into serialization and moral ambiguity—and brought us one of Star Trek ’s finest ever “filler” episodes in “Far Beyond the Stars”—knew when to give us a lighter, frothier instalment. The season 7 episode “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” took place right in the thick of the Dominion War, in which millions died and many ethical boundaries were crossed—and it was a perfect bit of low-stakes fun to break up the drama. In a 10-episode Dominion War season for the streaming era, there simply wouldn’t be time for Sisko to settle an old rivalry with a Vulcan captain via the medium of holographic baseball.

And that’s a terrible shame, because not everything has to be epic. Not everything has to be about destiny or intergalactic conspiracies or battles for the future of the universe or shouting. Sometimes it’s just nice to see characters we care about doing fun, silly, or interesting things, between exploring strange new worlds.

Speaking of which…

A Brighter Future

If there’s one modern Star Trek show that seems to appreciate this, it’s Strange New Worlds . The Discovery spin-off, following the adventures of Captain Pike and Mr. Spock on board a pre- Captain Kirk USS Enterprise, feels much closer to the spirit of older Trek , finding space between arc episodes and action thrillers for quirky character pieces like season 1’s “Spock Amok,” in which Spock switches bodies with his fiancé T’Pring, or season 2’s musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody.”

Are all these episodes completely successful? No. But they speak to a desire to grow, to explore, to experiment. To show us new settings, new dilemmas, new ideas. The kinds of stories that only Star Trek can tell.

It was only natural, when the 2009 movie reboot came out, that Star Trek would be re-tooled into something more action-packed, more straightforwardly thrilling. Even the TNG movies had already started to go that way. And in 2024, the time of slow-paced TV with silly foam foreheads is long gone.

But there are many different franchises that can indulge our appetite for space battles, chases, and fist fights, while only one can give us an annoying boy genius falling on some flowers and being condemned to death by scantily-clad space hippies.

Sorry, what was that? You want me to defend the TNG episode “Code of Honor” now?

Oh dear, is that the time? I must be going…

Stefan Mohamed

Stefan Mohamed is an award-winning author and performing poet based in Bristol. He is the author of four novels and three books of poetry. You can…

IMAGES

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Review: Hegemony
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Review: Hegemony
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Review: Hegemony
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Review
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 10 Review: A Quality of
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 10

COMMENTS

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Review
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10. The season 1 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a love letter to the series that started it all, an at times shot-for-shot and line-by-line remake ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Review
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is honestly an astounding achievement. It not only pulled off a musical episode and a live-action ...
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Recap, Season 2, Episode 10
The bad news: The youngling doesn't attack because Batel has been implanted with Gorn eggs. Batel, like Hemmer (R.I.P.) before her, wants to sacrifice herself to save the others, but Pike, being ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap and Ending
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap and Ending Explained. "Hegemony" is an action-packed finale that introduces an exciting new cast member and an epic space battle to come. This teaser's ending hints at a lot more drama and suspense to look forward to in the following third season. We recap the Paramount+ series Star ...
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' first season finale is a perfect 10
That was the last 10 weeks. Yup, it's finally here, 10 seemingly super-short weeks after the very first episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" and already we've arrived at the season finale ...
'Strange New Worlds' season 2 finale brings back those alien
Space Movies & Shows. 'Strange New Worlds' season 2 finale brings back those alien antagonists, the Gorn. News. By Scott Snowden. published 14 August 2023. Kirk et al beam down to the colony ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 10 review: "An ending
Warning: This Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 10 review contains major spoilers - many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…
The Ending Of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Explained
The Season 2 finale of "Strange New Worlds" is the climactic installment titled "Hegemony." More than just a capper to the season, the episode is also a sequel to a story from Season 1 that re ...
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Recap: Season 2 Finale, Episode 10
Another Star Trek fan favorite has made their way to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.. The Paramount+ show's Season 2 finale, released on Thursday, saw the Gorn attack a colony modeled after the ...
Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 10: Star Trek
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series features fan favorites Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Samantha Coley Collider Overall, Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is incredibly solid, with its main drawback being that the season was too short. Rated: A-Jul 12, 2022 Full Review Diana ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Keith Phipps New York Magazine/Vulture Here the other shoe drops. Rated: 4/5 Aug 10, 2023 Full Review Sam Stone CBR Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gets serious for its Season 2 finale, with the ...
'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Season 1 Episode 10 Review: Maybe in
Overall, Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is incredibly solid, with its main drawback being that the season was too short. While many of the ensemble characters got an episode centered ...
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" A Quality of Mercy (TV Episode 2022)
A Quality of Mercy: Directed by Chris Fisher. With Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong. In the season one finale, just as Captain Pike thinks he's figured out how to escape his fate, he's visited by his future self, who shows him the consequences of his actions.
Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Review: 'A Quality of Mercy' Is Misery
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 10 review: "A Quality of Mercy," the season finale, evokes "Balance of Terror" in the grimmest way. ... This is a fairly flimsy argument within the world of ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV Series 2022- )
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet. With Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, Melissa Navia. A prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the show follows the crew of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Finale Clip Released
The second season will stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with a premiere date still to be announced. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2's finale episode debuts on August 10th. Star Trek ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Review
One of the things this episode of Strange New Worlds does very well is show how the future unfolds from a couple of different angles. It also underlines that sometimes, leaving the future ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Recap: "A Quality of Mercy
Reimagining the Enterprise's first encounter with the Romulans leads to meaningful moments for Pike, Kirk, and Spock. NOW STREAMING: Powered by JustWatch The finale of Strange New Worlds' first season is cheap, shameless fanservice. It's also riveting, character-focused, and utterly glorious. Mucking about with time travel and alternate futures, let alone redoing an episode of The ...
SNEAK PEEK
Christina Chong as La'an Noonien-Singh in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 (Via Paramont+) Preview Pictures - Season 2 Episode 10. As always, we have preview pictures for the latest episode. The preview pictures for Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 give us a glimpse of what is coming up. We've got a preview of tense ...
Watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
The series features fan favorites Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. 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. Genre Drama. Year 2022.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1
The first season of the American television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise in the 23rd century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions throughout the galaxy during the decade before Star Trek: The Original Series.The season was produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout, Weed Road Pictures ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Release Date ...
The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release date and time have been revealed. The next episode titled "Hegemony" will air on Paramount Plus. Following the events of musical ...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Summary and Synopsis
A spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a television series that takes place before the events of the original series and follows Captain Christopher Pike as he mans the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show focuses on this previous crew of the Enterprise as they explore the galaxy with returning characters from Discovery.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds 4 Versions Of Kirk Explained
It was a surprise when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds announced Paul Wesley was cast as James T. Kirk before season 1 premiered in 2022. Strange New Worlds is a prequel set about 7 years before ...
Watch the First Ever 'Strange New Worlds' and 'Star Trek: Lower Decks
The final season of Lower Decks features an extended finale episode, promising an exciting conclusion and growth for the characters.; Season 3 of Strange New Worlds will feature a Vulcan episode ...
Star Trek Subspace Rhapsody, a Track by Track Analysis
In its near 60 year existence, sci-fi stalwart Star Trek through its many incarnations has continued to push the creative envelope, most recently having done so on the Paramount+ prequel streaming series Strange New Worlds, which features the musical episode "Subspace Rhapsody.". With a script by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff, and lyrics and music by, respectively, Kay Hanley and Tom Polce ...
Modern Star Trek Needs to Bring Back 'Filler' Episodes
The Joy of "Filler" But Star Trek's mission, famously, is "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no-one has gone before."And ...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season-Finale Recap: The Gorn Ultimatum

Most Viewed Stories

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

Sign In To Continue Reading

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap and Ending Explained

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Recap

What is blocking the Enterprise’s signals?

How is Montgomery Scott introduced?

What is wrong with Batel?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Ending Explained

More Stories

Article by Adam Lock

The Journalist (2022) season 1 review - a grim outlook to a festering corrupt political system

The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Episode 8 Recap - "I Heard A Rumor"

'Strange New Worlds' season 2 finale brings back those alien antagonists, the Gorn

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Most Popular

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 10 review: "An ending that's pure heaven for fans of the original series"

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Most Popular

The Ending Of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Explained

What you need to remember about Strange New Worlds Season 2

What happened in the Season 2 finale

Redemption for the crew of the Enterprise

Broken romances

Lives hanging in the balance

Averting another war

A future legend joins the cast?

What the finale means for Season 3

What does the finale mean for Star Trek canon?

What has the cast and crew said about the ending to Strange New Worlds Season 2?

Why it might be a while before we see a conclusion

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Boss on [Spoiler]’s Season 2 Finale Debut: ‘We’ve Been Talking About Him for a While’

Cancel reply

Most Popular

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 2, Episode 10

More Like This

Critics Reviews

‘A Quality of Mercy’ Traps Strange New Worlds in an Imbalance of Terror

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Episodes 31

Top cast 99+

More like this

Did you know

User reviews 1K

Technical specs

Related news

More to explore

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 10 Review

One Deadpool & Wolverine Cameo Proves Fancasting Is Bad

The Best Live TV Streaming Services With Free Trial

Which Netflix Country has Interstellar?

Read next: The Spool's Best New Releases

Kneecap tells a bigger story of Irish identity though hip-hop

Streaming guides

How to Watch Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 3

How to Watch Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

How to Watch ESPN With A Free Trial

How to Watch Paramount Network With a Free Trial

How to Watch WE TV With a Free Trial

How to Watch TNT Sports With A Free Trial

How to Watch Comedy Central With a Free Trial

How to Watch FX With a Free Trial

UPDATED: Star Trek Books 2024

SNEAK PEEK – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 – Finale

Preview Pictures – Season 2 Episode 10

The Ready Room Clip

Gorn Mission Gone Bad

An Interesting Away Team

More From Trek Central

more star trek 🖖

the latest 🚀

Entertainment

New on Yahoo

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 Release Date & Time

When is the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 10 release date and time?