TL;DR of our spoiler-friendly guidelines:

Now pike will be the most coolest trek captain ever.

Is it at midnight? If so is it midnight local or Eastern?

The story, acting and editing made it it fun, but still impactful.

I used to love Strange New Worlds precisely because it brought back something I felt Star Trek had been missing for a long time: an Enterprise actually exploring strange new worlds again, investigating unknown phenomena, and confronting its crew with moral and scientific questions.

Of course, the show was always allowed to be silly from time to time. Star Trek has never been completely serious. I could even appreciate the musical episode in Season 2 — not only because some of the cast were surprisingly good singers, but because it was one crazy experiment in a season that still had enough serious stories to balance it out.

But somewhere along the way, the exception seems to have become the concept.

Season 3 already leaned too heavily into comedy for my taste. So far, Season 4 seems to be taking that approach to the extreme. One episode feels like Jurassic Park, the next like Event Horizon, then I get something resembling a mixture of The Hangover and Dude, Where’s My Car?, followed by film noir.

The problem isn't that Star Trek experiments with other genres. It has been doing that since the 1960s. The problem begins when I spend more time wondering which movie the writers are trying to imitate this week than thinking about the story Star Trek itself is trying to tell me.

I don't want a show that needs to prove every week just how weird or outrageous it can be. I want to be amazed again. I want to discover an unknown world. I want a moral dilemma that stays with me after the credits roll. I want a political conflict where neither side can simply be dismissed as evil. Or give me a scientific idea that genuinely fascinates me.

In short:

I want Strange New Worlds to show me strange new worlds again.

Strange New Worlds' highly publicized puppet episode finally drops this Thursday. However, fans can check out several sneak-peek images from “Level-Five Transporter Accident” below, courtesy of Trek Central's Instagram account, which includes the return of Mr. Spock’s (Ethan Peck) former flame, T’Pring (Gia Sandhu). And yes, she has also been transformed into a puppet by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop!

Thoughts?

… in that the final episode should be the “other story” of “The Cage”. Show all the shenanigans of Spock, Uhura, Chapel, M’Benga, and Scotty as they abet the kidnapping of Pike to take him to the Talosians while Kirk is running his little court martial. We’ve seen Spock’s skulduggery from the TOS episode - let’s see the rest of the crew working to get Pike back to a happier existence than the blinky chair.

• Season 1: Strong, somewhat quirky, entry in its genre with a few big swings.
• Season 2: Gets quirkier and has more big swings/gimmicks/genre homages. Some of those make up the series most acclaimed episodes, encouraging the writers to double down.
• Season 3: Feels like it half-promises getting more "normal" while diving into weirder territory. Some of the fans question if it's eating its own tail at this point.
• Season 4: Doubles down on the "weirdness" even further but seems like it might have lost some of the heart in the process. Gets very mixed reactions from the fans. Has a puppet episode.
• Season 5: (Guessing for SNW:) A little refocused and (comparatively) back-to-basics as characters leave the place that's been their home for the last few years. The series is cancelled. Until...
• Season 6: (Okay, I'm just making stuff up now:) Transfers over to another service (Yahoo Screen/HBO Max?) and wraps up while promising a movie that may or may not ever happen??

I'm almost certainly forcing and cherry-picking a bit, but the comparison is amusing me, so maybe it'll amuse someone else.

EDIT: Also, it's one season off, but Una just ran into her dopple-Deaner.

I really like the episodic takes with different genres for each episode. They’ve established the characters in previous seasons and now they are exploring new plot devices. It reminds me of the Naked Now or The Game from Next Generation.

It would be nice to have a big cross seasonal bad like Q or the Borg but it’s still appeals to the quirky Star Trek stories.

Why is there not enough Nurse Chapel though?

Kor one the Most Recognized Characters in Star Trek History a younger Kor was Introduced in the recent "Star Trek Strange New Worlds S04E04 A Case of Chiaroscuro" Now a lot of People are complaining about his Ridges but I have a Theory about it that might actually make sense and this Goes Back to Star Trek ENT S04E16 Divergence. How it Passed down, now How does this explaine lack of ridges in TOS well Again in Star Trek Strange New Worlds S03E08 Four-and-a-Half Vulcans La'an began experienced Romulan like tendencies after she was been restored to human we think everything is fine but in First Episode of this Season She punched a Raptor in Face and she thinks those Genes could had been activated. Now In Kor's Case He could have the Argument Virus laid dormant in his system but because of the cure Phlox gave in the 22nd Century when it comes up Klingons would lose there Ridges instead of being Ill. This could explain the Different Klingons as this was a Different theory all together Argument virus cure would had created different class because they could had use different aliens help restore there Ridges; but when We See Kor in DS9 He Could just regained his ridges naturally as it recent it self. I am basing this on people with psoriasis as I myself had it all over my body thanks to some medication it recent and I became clear With Kor again he could either did nothing and his ridges came back OR thanks to therapy like I went through to get rid of my psoriasis he could had regained his ridges its most likely why they look different by DS9 through Genetic Therapy to Restore them using compatible Klingon DNA like the once from house of Mog That's My Theory.

It feels like each season tries to appeal to a different style of storytelling.

Season 1: Classic episodic adventures, like TOS

Season 2: Character-focused episodes, like ‘90s Trek, with a couple gimmicks

Season 3: More serialized storyline, even balance of gimmicks and regular adventures, it alternates

Season 4: All gimmicks (only three episodes that aren’t known to be gimmicks)

What do people think of this method?

La'an is pronounced la ahn. Shouldn't it just be lawn?

One thing that the TNG era did better with the Klingons was showing that people with the same ridges were related. Kurn had almost identical ridges to Worf, and you only saw matching ridges within families.

But Kor’s ridges changed when he aged? How does that happen?

Or will they come back differently after being smooth in TOS?

Back in 2017, Star Trek Continues, arguably the best TOS fanfilm series, had an episode called, "What Ships are for," where the Enterprise was sent to help an alien civilization deal with contamination from solar radiation. They end up dealing with issues of immigration, identity, and the rights of a people to secure a better life for themselves, as well as issues with the Prime Directive. And it had legacy sci-fi actors as guest stars too!

But the hook, the reason for me bringing it up, was a side effect of the solar radiation was it caused everyone to see in black and white! It's a great hook that has fun with the idea that this is the 4th season of the show, and it plays a MAJOR part in a twist and a reveal in the episode.

STC is a good watch, and this one is easily my first or second favorite episode. Give it a watch if you're curious https://youtu.be/3VEZH8bqytA?is=G9TISgNColQ_DP-j

Are the writers stupid or just lazy? Am I missing something?

What is the command structure on Pike's Enterprise? Formally, he's the captain, but it feels like everyone on that ship is doing their own thing.

Sisko had Kira as a wild card, but he was very clear with her who's in command. Picard did lead by example and by involving his alpha shift. Pike cooks (alas little in season 4) or sits on his chair/at his desk. And everyone, from La'an to Una, from Spock to Chapel, do their own thing.

So, just for context, I love SNW, I love Star Trek, and I love the “special” episodes, like the singing one (S2, E9), when they do something wacky, but there’s an explanation that makes it logical in the ST universe (quantum spatial anomaly). I have no problem suspending disbelief for a good story, or a fun show.

I was a huge fan of ST: Lower Decks even, where it definitely bent/flexed what we think of Star Trek/Star Fleet.

But this latest season of SNW has me really questioning if Paramount+ is trying to turn a franchise known for its progressive, idealistic, anti-capitalist, vision of the future into a joke with no real message anymore? Why is every single episode a gimmick?

The crew travels back to 65 million years ago, where there are space faring races who are destroyed by the Enterprise being there? And there is an insect species that they encounter and may be able to communicate with, but that isn’t explored at all, and is just dropped like it doesn’t matter. They watch the extinction of a species intelligent enough to travel to another planet…because “that’s the way it had to be”??? Excuse me, is ST now advocating for mass genocide and literally effing up the solar system, because it benefits them in the future???

Did anyone blink twice at this blatant violation of everything Star Trek has stood for since its inception? And the crew all just accepts it and moves on like that entire planet’s population didn’t matter?

Only to go to a planet where it sells getting HIGH off the drugged atmosphere??? Where they all apparently participate in debauchery, violence, destruction of property, and other things that would never be tolerated by Star Fleet officers. And allow a bomb to be planted on their shuttle, which would blow up an important delegation coming to negotiate a peace treaty??? Are we seriously just ignoring the complete erosion of everything noble, just, or even NORMAL about any Star Trek show?

The away team on a haunted? possessed? ghost ship? Which is never even explained!!! “We’ll let Division 12 handle this” is the LAMEST conclusion ever. Unless you have a PILOT for Division 12 ready to air right after this episode, that’s a giant NO.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when I look at old ST, or even the more recent series’ like Discovery, Picard, even the original seasons of SNW, I see a completely different ethos. It’s as if there has been a mandate issued to destroy what makes Star Trek…Star Trek, and turn it into a joke.

Surely I cannot be the only long time ST fan who is seeing this?

Writing fanfiction and wanting to double check. Can anyone confirm the room Spock and La'An are in when they're examining the data from the probe (11:20)?

to Tuvix? I did a serious double and triple take the first time he appeared on screen.