Star Trek Ruined Its Best New Show Setting Up A Dead Spinoff

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 6 seconds ago

Strange New Worlds is arguably the most successful NuTrek show. That’s largely because it manages to embrace the storytelling philosophy of The Original Series (episodic adventures centered around a charismatic and friendly crew) while still delivering what modern audiences want (like slick effects, romantic tension, and a few ongoing storylines). However, many feel that the series lost a few steps (or maybe even fell off entirely) with its third season. Why is this, exactly? One frequently cited issue is the sheer number of outright silly episodes and characters and episodes, making the show feel more like a goofy comedy than a sci-fi drama.

However, Season 3 may have been doomed by some big decisions happening behind the scenes. The producers were hoping to leverage the success of this show into a new series called Star Trek: Year One, which would give us entirely new episodes featuring the recast crew of The Original Series in their shiny new sets. Sadly, Paramount passed on this idea, and these iconic sets have already been dismantled. Unfortunately, that means that Strange New Worlds’ final seasons may be doomed by the same thing that doomed Season 3: the writers constantly setting up a spinoff that we now know is never going to happen.

Meet The New Trek, Same As The Old Trek

For a long time, Strange New Worlds has been slowly introducing familiar characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. Spock, Uhura, Chapel, and M’Benga have been there from the beginning. It didn’t take the show long to introduce Kirk, and Scotty has been added more recently. Now, we know that Punisher actor Thomas Jane will be introduced in Season 5 as Dr. McCoy. Early on in Strange New Worlds, these character additions were mostly nostalgia bait for Star Trek fans. More recently, however, more familiar characters and stories have been introduced to set up Star Trek: Year One, which would be a complete remake of The Original Series.

As an example, Season 3 introduced Roger Korby, Chapel’s love interest, who is doomed to die in The Original Series (to die twice, if you want to be technical about it). The introduction of Scotty is handled rather ham-fistedly, including a goofy scene where Kirk has to teach the engineer about how great Scotch is. Did we really need an origin story for a Scottish guy liking Scotch? Speaking of Kirk, he also does a mind-meld with Spock that is effectively intended to jumpstart their deep friendship. This ignores the fact that, when we first see the meld in The Original Series, Spock emphasizes that he has never used it on a human.

Captain Quirk, Ready To Beam Up

All of this is on top of other weird character retcons, including having Starfleet encounter the Gorn and Trelane way before they are supposed to. What’s going on with all of this? Simply put, this is here to set up Star Trek: Year One. If they want that spinoff to feature additional misadventures between Kirk and foes like the Gorn and Trelane, they need to basically re-introduce them for the younger fans who may not have watched The Original Series. Having weird origin stories for everything from Scotty’s love of booze to Kirk’s bromance with Spock similarly caters to fans who didn’t watch TOS but might watch Year One.

Sadly, all of this is for naught. Kirk actor Paul Wesley told fans at a convention this past week that he and Spock actor Ethan Peck are quite eager to star in such a Star Trek spinoff. Unfortunately, Paramount has already dismantled the same Strange New Worlds sets that would have been used to bring that spinoff to life. Plus, in the wake of the merger with Skydance and the upcoming merger with Warner Bros., the studio has decided to pivot Star Trek into a feature film franchise. It’s a terrible idea, one that puts the nail in the coffin for a possible Strange New Worlds spinoff.

A Bad Feeling About The Future

Given how much Season 3 of SNW spent trying to set up that spinoff, I’ve got (to borrow a phrase) a bad feeling about Season 4 and 5. They’ve already been shot, and I can’t help but wonder how much of the show’s dwindling episode count will be spent setting up Year One. Call me old-fashioned, but I feel like Strange New Worlds should focus on being a great show unto itself rather than a constant backdoor pilot to a spinoff that will never see the light of day. The first two seasons were excellent, but will the last two be filled with nothing but nostalgia bait and member berries?

We’ll find out together when the fourth season drops on July 23. If it’s as bad as the musical episode, then fans are going to make like Scotty and suddenly learn the value of a good, hard drink!