WHAT TO WATCH

The latest Trek is a return to the traditional formula — and that’s OK

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Paramount+ | ongoing episodes

It might come as a surprise that liking Star Trek did not make me popular in junior high.

This was in the 1990s, which was a very prolific era for Star Trek in general. At one point in the decade, new episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager appeared on network television at different times. All three had a very different flavor, and I remember distinctly watching the debut of Star Trek: Voyager as I recorded it on a VHS tape. I think I still have that tape somewhere.

It was a great time to be a fan of Trek, except at school.

It kind of snuck up on me that we’re in an era of three Trek series again. Discovery has been airing since 2017, and Picard’s second season just dropped not that long ago. And now we have Strange New Worlds, which at least a couple of people have declared the best Trek spinoff.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a prequel to the original Star Trek series, the cheesy but classic adventures of Kirk, Spock and “Bones.” Here Kirk is a mere lieutenant under Captain Christopher Pike, the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk (he was the captain of the Enterprise in the original pilot episode of the original series). Uhura is a mere cadet (an extremely promising one, but also one who isn’t sure if she belongs in Starfleet; of course we know that ultimately she decided she was). And Spock is a science officer though had apparently served as second in command at one point.

Also back is the Enterprise itself; the set designers managed to keep similar white/red aesthetics to the original series Enterprise but with a slick, Silicon Valley tech look to it. Even the communicators are modern tech reworkings of the familiar black and gold flip-up design. (Super nerdy admission: I once had a Motorola V-60 cell phone that I bought two cases for, black and gold, so I could use the black bottom and gold top to make it look like a Star Trek communicator. I definitely never flipped it open and said “Scotty, two to beam up.” No siree.)

There are also a few new characters, since this is pre-Kirk-in-command. The new No. 1 is La’an, who we learn in episode four is a bit more interesting than they first let on. Hemmer is the ship’s blind engineer. And the ship’s doctor is Dr. M’Benga, who has his own secret.

Several Star Trek fans I spoke to didn’t like spinoff Discovery, which came out in 2017. Each said something about it not really feeling like Star Trek.

It could be that Discovery attempted to cash in on the saga-style storytelling trend, where each episode leads into the next to induce binging. I recall being a bit bored by the show. Other than a pretty cool opening sequence involving the Klingons, I can’t recall much about it at all. Which probably isn’t a great sign.

Strange New Worlds seems to be a return to a more “alien of the week” style of Star Trek. Each episode is self-contained and is neatly wrapped up plotwise, while leaving just a hint of a great plot.

Like many Trek spinoffs, including Deep Space Nine and Voyager, I’d be willing to bet that larger story arcs will start to crop up. Both DS9 and Voyager turned into saga-based shows in their later seasons. It’s likely the Captain Pike-led Enterprise will do so as well.

But for now, it’s almost a relief to have a show one can turn on for an hour and not try to remember everything that was going on the last time you watched it. Bring on that alien of the week.