Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season One [2022]

With this first season, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds proved to be the best live action show of all the outings from Paramount+. Glad the real Trek is back!

When the show was announced as a spin-off of the second season of Discovery, I was skeptical. However, after watching this season, I’m sold. This back-to-basics prequel embodies a lot of the best of the original Star Trek with its charming ensemble and episodic structure. And somehow, it also managed to dredge up some 1960s morality, too, with its questionable depiction of disability.

Pike, Una, and Spock. The unholy pre-Kirk trinity of Star Trek are the perfect power trio to helm this show. Anson Mount is clearly more comfortable with Captain Pike, Rebecca Romijn gets actual time to highlight her talents as Una, and Ethan Peck uses his time as Spock to crawl out from the shadow of Leonard Nimoy.

In addition, Strange New Worlds sets the tone right from the start: comfort blanket Trek, a great cast, and snappy writing that reminded me of TOS. This show understands that you can be earnest & silly, and you can still tell good and entertaining stories.

After the fumbles of Discovery, Strange New Worlds is exactly what the doctor prescribed: a return to what made it so memorable in the first place. The show delivers that and then some.

Should you watch it?

Though Strange New Worlds doesn’t quite reach the heights of TOS, it delivers a consistently good time, as well as that signature Star Trek sense of wonder and optimism we’ve been craving since the end of Voyager. No, Discovery doesn’t count.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+ in USA and Crave in Canada.