Make it so-so.
I was a huge fan of Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 1, but one episode bored me to tears: “The Elysian Kingdom”, in which the crew of Captain Christopher Pike’s U.S.S. Enterprise found themselves portraying characters from a storytale fantasy.
The actors of Strange New Worlds seem to adore that episode, in which the fairytale characters have little or no resemblance to the member of the Enterprise that they’re inhabiting. Strange New Worlds actors have mentioned the episode numerous times, and refer to it in the same way they say that Season 2 has some “big swings”. The trouble is, most of Season 2’s big swings result in big misses.
Strange New Worlds Season 2 is full of whiffs; of the six episodes that I was able to watch through advance screeners, I’d only recommend one of them. You can’t even win me over with a reminder that Canada, or even acknowledge that a Roots store, exist in the Trek universe.
Extremely light story spoilers are present below in the form of character names; be warned.
Quite frankly, Strange New Worlds Season 2 begins with a poor start. The sheer amount of times the episode brings up Spock’s half-Vulcan, half-human heritage is mind boggling. It’s not helped by the ol’ trope of characters placed in mortal peril that you know exist in The Original Series and beyond; as per usual, that negates any real tension that could be generated. Equally as in SNW‘s first season, Nurse Christine Chapel still doesn’t act like herself; she’s a strong, likeable character that’s been shoehorned into the name. Finally, and in the very much the same vein, what’s with all the Gorn stuff?
Episode two, though? This is proper is Star Trek, and Trek at its finest: a lens to current society, weighing in on current laws that are so obviously bigoted and filled with unrational fear that you can’t understand why they were enacted in the first place. Or, why the people who pushed them through whatever structure exists have any power in society. Still, you watch and hope that the common good will prevail, powered through logic mixed with tempered emotion and a proper, equalitarian, sense of what is right.
I finished that second episode with newfound hope and, quite honestly, the feeling that I had watching most of Season 1; sadly, it went extremely downhill from there.
I’m not one of those diehard fans who insists that newcomer Paul Wesley cannot be Kirk because he doesn’t look exactly like William Shatner (or even Chris Pine). Watching the Season 2 episode in which he features, though, I’m of the opinion we need to see a lot less of him. This appearance marks the second instance of Paul Wesley not doing a Kirk that franchise fans will know and love; I’m sick of having the legacy character dragged into the forefront when Strange New Worlds is supposed to be about Pike and his crew. This is especially so after seeing Star Trek Picard Season 3 do legacy stuff so well.
Wesley’s Kirk feels like a gimmick in a series that could easily stand on its own without. The gimmick is tired; the gimmick has failed.
On average, the five of out six episodes of Strange New Worlds that I wasn’t enamoured by left me feeling hollow; they had the same cookie cutter approach of a mid-tier CW show. Old Berman-era Trek had a bit of a soft reboot between episodes, but most of these episodes of Strange New Worlds have a purposeful, plot-specific hard reboot in each episode. Things end up disjointed, fragmented, and — yet again — rely upon tropes that fell flat in Season 1. Just like “The Elysian Kingdom”.
I was not a fan of Star Trek Picard Season 2, and I’m placing that blame squarely on Akiva Goldsmith. It’s ridiculous how night and day the quality of Picard Seasons 2 and 3 were; Goldsmith’s handiwork — or lack thereof — is obvious. Ridiculous twists and poor writing abound within this package of six episodes. You don’t need to decide to rewrite canon at the same time as you’re trying to fit within it. Let’s actually see some titular strange new worlds and avoid the problem that Discovery warped headfirst into.
Let’s hope Paramount figures this out — and soon — and puts someone like Terry Matalas in charge of the whole thing. Ditch Section 31. Say goodbye to Starfleet Academy. Let’s get Star Trek Legacy up and running, and as quickly as possible. Let’s get out of this weird prequel situtation and chart a new course that does Star Trek right.
Before I leave, let’s end this on a positive note: Carol Kane as Pelia is utterly fantastic, steals every single scene she’s in and, at the same time, is completly underused. I want to learn so much more about her character and her backstory, and it can’t come soon enough. Nor can the Star Trek Lower Decks crossover because the teeny tiny glimpses we’ve seen at it look so damn good.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds airs on Paramount+ in the USA and Australia, and Crave in Canada. Season 2 starts up on 16 June locally on Paramount+; a subscription will set Aussies back $8.99 AUD per month.
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