Rebecca Romijn Teases TOS Easter Eggs And Fun With Spock On ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’

The next live-action entry in the Star Trek franchise coming to Paramount+ is Strange New Worlds. The series is currently in production and one of the stars is dropping hints about what we can expect for this new show set on board Captain Pike’s USS Enterprise.

Fun with Spock on Strange New Worlds

Rebecca Romijn took on the role of Number One in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, and she is reprising the role along with Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Pike for Strange New Worlds. While promoting a new movie, the actress spoke about the Trek series with Looper, and reports that they are currently in production on the seventh episode of the 10-episode first season. The Toronto-based production started in February, so this seems to confirm Mount’s comment from May that the show is off to a “smooth start,” despite new pandemic protocols.

The actress kept true to her NDA, but offered this summary of the show and the dynamic between Pike, Number One, and Spock:

“This is the story of the 10 years on the Enterprise — this is the 10 years leading up to Captain Kirk on the Enterprise. So, this is Captain Pike and Number One, and Spock is a science officer. We outrank him, which is really fun, because when does anybody ever outrank Spock?”

Last fall during Star Trek Day, Strange New Worlds writer Davy Perez talked about this different character dynamic, with Pike and Number One “being sort of parental figures to the ship and in specific to Spock.” We also saw elements of this played out in the Short Treks episode “Q&A.”

As for her mention of 10 years, it’s likely she’s not being exact. The second season of Star Trek: Discovery was actually set 8 years before Kirk took command of the USS Enterprise. It is expected that Strange New Worlds will pick up after that.

Ethan Peck as Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Number One in “Q&A”

A lighter show with lots of Easter eggs

It has been said before that this new show is being made to harken back to the original Star Trek. Romijn talked briefly about how this old-school style and tone of Strange New Worlds is playing out:

“It’s in keeping with The Original Series — they’re standalone episodes. It’s a little bit lighter. We are visiting planets. We are visiting colonies, and we are so proud of our work so far.”

She also teased more canon connections for the new adventures on the old NCC-1701:

“I can’t say anything else because there are so many Easter eggs on this show, but we are very, very, very excited to introduce this show.”

In the past, Romijn has talked about how the character of Number One – who only appeared in the Star Trek pilot episode “The Cage” – offers the show’s writers a “unique opportunity” as they will be the first to fill out much of the character’s backstory. However – and this could be getting to the aforementioned “Easter Eggs” – last fall the actress said the writers “floated an idea for Number One’s backstory that I’m not going to share right now because it is it blew my mind when they said it.” So there may be something surprising in store for Number One when Strange New Worlds finally arrives.

The USS Enterprise crew in Discovery’s Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2″

See Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Conner in Endangered Species

Rebecca Romijn and her husband Jerry O’Connell (who voices Commander Ransom on Lower Decks) star together in the African safari movie Endangered Species. The film is available now in select theaters and on video on demand. Check out the trailer. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is expected to arrive on Paramount+ in 2022.


Find more news and analysis for Strange New Worlds.

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It’s impressive that nothing has leaked about this series. We have absolutely no idea what this show is going to look like.

Assuming there is not a radical departure from what has been shown of the characters and the Enterprise previously, there is season 2 of Discovery and several Short Treks that give some idea of what it will look like.

As for what it might look like, Denny, I’m personally hoping for High-Concept, and with a look that might have happened had Lucille Ball (at Desilu in the late 1960’s) had our era’s 21st-Century-style SPECIAL EFFECTS capability and the Year-2021’s financial BUDGET (LOL) to make The Original Series….. that’s what I’m hoping for, as if Gene R. was still with us and had the ability to see his vision come to life with OUR era’s film production capabilities. Remember, a lot of Trekkies are making these new shows, and I suspect they will do right by Roddenberry’s dream, and then some.

So just make the show look and feel more modern? Haven’t they been doing that since TNG through Picard?

Gene Roddenberry created my favorite TV show, but I struggle with that he was a visionary with a utopian view of the future when TOS was filming.
He was a Hollywood producer, plain and simple.

The opening monologue- “It’s 5 year mission..” was to insure Trek got 100+ episodes, so that it could be sold into syndication, easily.
The fact that TOS was 21 episodes short? It actually turned out to be a GOOD THING, in the long run.
Paramount sold Trek DIRT CHEAP to fledgling independent TV stations. He wrote lyrics for the original theme music, so he could collect royalties.

When Nimoy asked to be allowed to leave early for an appearance he’d booked on the East coast?
Roddenberry wanted $400.00 of Nimoy’s appearance fee.
GR essentially wanted to act as Nimoy’s agent, when Nimoy already had representation.

GR was a womanizer. He routinely was entertaining women in his office. One time, he was with one woman, while his wife was at the front door, and Majel was at the back door.
Now, that was the culture in Hollywood, at the time. I’m sure sleeping around was commonplace.(I’m not condoning it. Grace Lee Whitney left (fired?) after an alleged sexual assault.)

This utopian view was a vision that developed over time, with input from other producers, the fans, and GR just bought into his own hype, over the years

The Vulcan IDIC was product placement in the 3rd season episode, so that GR could sell a trinket with Lincoln enterprises.
The film cels he sold were from the cutting room floor. GR was a businessman.

Lastly, GR was a veteran, a pilot and a police officer. I appreciate his service to the country, during WWII, and serving the public, during his time at the LAPD.

SNW will cost high 7 figures to produce each episode.
They need to get eyeballs in front of it.
It needs to make $$.
It needs to generate interest in memorabilia and toy manufacturers for merchandise.
DSC and Picard heard crickets from the merchandising people.

SNW is the Trek series I’m MOST excited about.

I hope they capture the essence of TOS while placing their own artistic stamp on it.
If they just try to make it EXACTLY like TOS? It will just be like a well financed fan film.
And, just like we always have, we will nitpick aspects of SNW to death.
We won’t like a ship, a uniform, a prop, or the new look of an established alien.

Nimoy was correct when he suggested that we the fans, not be tied down by canon.
He wanted us to embrace where Star Trek wanted to take the fans, today…

YES! Roddenberry was essential, because we wouldn’t have had Star Trek without him, but he was also a jerk in many, many ways.

A lot of what people think of as “Roddenberry’s vision” is due to the other Gene — Gene Coon — and to Dorothy Fontana, Bob Justman, Leonard Nimoy, and various writers and directors.

Roddenberry gave us “The Omega Glory,” which is not a very good episode, and he was so tone-deaf about how bad it was that he campaigned for awards for it, calling it “something special.” Thank heavens he managed to surround himself with wonderfully creative people — Justman, Coon, Fontana, et al. — who took the foundation he’d made and fleshed it out and gave it life.

It was really crappy of Roddenberry to promulgate that “lone visionary” myth, when it’s clear that Star Trek was very much a TEAM effort, and a lot of what people love about the show are things that were added by other members of the team. Yet he told Leonard Nimoy that he shouldn’t have invented the neck pinch … the mind boggles.

“Roddenberry’s dream.”

Despite what a lot of fanboys like to believe, Roddenberry was not a man with a dream, other than to chase women and make money. He had great ideas, but he also had a lot of bad ones, and he stepped all over those around him. Let’s not make him out to be some kind of visionary, because he wasn’t. For him, it was all about the cash.

No matter how good SNW might or might not be, I just don’t see Trek being the merchandising powerhouse it was in the 90s anytime soon. For a lot of reasons.

Still, if it can garner good reviews from fans, and attract/keep subscriptions to the app, and spawn some modest adult-skewing merchandising, I am sure they will consider it a huge success.

Don’t be such a “you’re an all one thing and nothing else” about other people, especially creative types.

MLK wasn’t a fan of STAR TREK because GR was just an empty suit stuffed with cash. Both men were flawed and neither man’s flaws negated some of the dreams both had worthy of great admiration and the showcasing opportunity the production provided.

True, GR was a PT Barnum, but that’s what it took to sell to the empty network suits of the era.

I think that’s the best compromise for fans to expect.

True. It might be safe to assume it will be using the Star Trek Discovery aesthetic that we saw in season 2. But some might be holding out hope that the designers will be using this as an opportunity to design it to be a much better fit with Trek history.

And sadly I feel that I must put this disclaimer out as some feel compelled to bring it up… I do NOT mean 100% copying the sets from The Cage. I mean create something that looks futuristic for modern TV but also FEELS like it will flow right into what we saw on TOS. It is a bit of a balancing act. But the artists who design things are not the problem with Star Trek Discovery and I believe are up to the task if they are instructed to do so by the show runners.

That’s true. They are also constrained by budget, and how the sets look on film. How easy will it be to shoot the episodes is a factor.

I definitely do not want them to make it more like TOS but I do think they should tweak things: make it a little less busy. Overall, I loved the bridge design, and the exterior was absolutely delicious.

They might also want to make small modifications to the uniforms. Am I the only one who dislikes how tight the uniforms are, and how the tops cut off almost at the stomach?

Yes, they are a bit too tight. They also don’t look right when the actor is seated. They puff out a bit, making the actor look heavier than they actually are. If they lose the big collars, I’d be ok with that, too

Yes theyre too tight but mostly the shirts are too short. The actors mostly tuck them, or keep pulling them down. Any time Uhuru was in an action scene, she was constantly struggling with the length of her tunic, what there was of it.

Fabric quality was an issue at first too. The shirts would shred if you looked at them sideways. Not too practical for action scenes.

The boots were terrible. They were more like jackboots than cool boots of a future space adventure.

Aside from that, some of the storylines were great. And I loved the comic interplay between Spock and Mccoy which Kirk would sometimes join in.

The bond of respect and friendship between them was very touching too

Well, like it or not, if they designed something that evoked the Cage feel that would at least be more consistent with the universe that was created. Just imagine how horrible and out of place Rogue One would have been had they decided to abandon what some modern designer thought was a “40 year old aesthetic” because they wanted to do their own thing.

There have been location leaks. I live near Toronto. They’ve been filming in the area. With Covid 19 protocols, NOBODY can get close to them.

There’s a line in the movie “ST: III The Search for Spock” when a high-ranking Starfleet official tells Kirk (who is dismayed that his ship is to be decommissioned) that “The Enterprise is twenty years old!” When I first heard that line, it occurred to me that I hadn’t realized that all that time might have already gone by since the E was launched, but perhaps it makes sense (as Rebecca’s comment tells) that NCC-1701 really had been out there for a while and a half: 5 years with Capt. April, 10 years with Pike, and 5 more with Kirk. Does that make sense, and if so, could that be part of the series bible’s back-story she was referring to in the interview?

Which is interesting because every other Enterprise we ever see is brand new, but the 1701 has history. It begs the question, how is it that even after 20 years in space [by the time of the TOS era] the Connie still outclasses everything in the galaxy? If launched in 2245, it takes 26 years for an upgrade/refit in 2271 by TMP, which by then makes her seem again like the most advanced ship in the fleet. Given how quickly starships evolved from the launch of the Ent-D in 2364 and the E in 2372, it makes the mid 23rd century look like technological stagnation

The Enterprise didn’t necessarily outclass everything…But I’d attribute it’s successes to it’s crew mostly. But it did certainly hold it’s own most of the time, and that’s likely due to a sound design, modularization, and it probably had technological superiority for a while after it launched as it was (supposedly) one of the first designs to incorporate Duotronics, and that influenced much of the rest of the technology in the ship. But I think it’s modular design helped a lot. It probably went through some kind of a refit every 5 years or so. So it maybe went through at least 4 minor refits before it had the major refit in TMP. And by TMP, sure it was ‘almost an entirely new ship’ and could still hold it’s own. But it’s hard to tell if it (possibly) continued to outclass other ships because it never had a fair fight against an alien adversary in the movies. But we do know the refit only extended it’s lifespan another 20 years or so, and in that time it had more minor refits to keep it afloat.

It begs the question, how is it that even after 20 years in space [by the time of the TOS era] the Connie still outclasses everything in the galaxy? 

By the time of TWOK, 1701 was being used for cadet training, which suggests it was no longer state-of-the-art.

The “20 years old” line is wrong. Enterprise is significantly older in Star Trek III.

Space Seed was fifteen years before The Wrath of Khan, according to Kirk. Around the same time as Space Seed, Spock said that the events of The Cage seen in The Menagerie happened thirteen years earlier. So NCC-1701 is at least 28 years old, and presumably at least a few years older, allowing for shakedown cruises and April’s command and since Pike was worn out and thinking of retiring in The Cage.

The thing is, Morrow was wrong by a huge amount. By the time of Star Trek III, the Enterprise was around 40 years old, not 20. When I saw the film in the theater, that error immediately jumped out at me.

I always attribute that to the refit and rounding.
So the Enterprise served under April/Pike/Kirk 25 years or whatever and then gets retrofit and serves as the flagship.
Admiral Kirk does another five year mission between II and III (I like to think that he was on a special assignment still with Starfleet Operations, prime high priority missions, Enterprise as the flagship).
Then Nogura gets kicked out of starfleet in the transition (FASA Trek blames this on Nogura and Kirk having taken strong action to prevent a Klingon-Romulan invasion of the Federation on the disappearance of the Organians) with Kirk he ends up demoted to training command.
Enterprise does some time as a trainee vessel.

Admiral Kirk does another five year mission between II and III

Did you mean I and II? III picks up only days after II ended.

There was a lot of canon violations in SFS. That “20 years old” line was indeed a mistake. But as canon mistakes go, I don’t feel like it was the worst one. But it was also something that could have easily been fixed by just saying the ship was 35 or 40 or whatever math works for the fact that Spock was on the Enterprise years earlier.

Captains never think their ship is old.

There was a scene about this in Master and Commander that I really loved. The officers are discussing an adversary that’s newer, stronger and faster than they are when the following dialog occurs:

Dr. Stephen Maturin: By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-o-war. Am I not correct?

[Everyone in the room freezes in horror.]

Capt. Jack Aubrey: Would you call me an aged man-o-war, doctor? The Surprise is not old; no one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine sea-boat: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not old; she’s in her prime.

If you somehow haven’t seen this movie you absolutely MUST put it on your list. It’s the Balance of Terror episode on the high seas during the Age of Sail.

I’m still annoyed they never made any sequels to M&C. Very good movie. There’s a whole series of O’Brien books available. But no, Hollywood just keeps making more remakes of remakes.

there was announcement yesterday that there will be a M&C prequel movie

Wow, you mean we’ll have a live action Star Trek show that does actual exploration again?? Say it isn’t so? We haven’t had a show like this since Enterprise, so count me more excited. I never thought I would be so happy to visit a colony again.

It’s crazy, that we’re 3 movies and 3 series into the Trek revival and we haven’t really had much exploration done in all those years.

I honestly believe that’s a big reason why a lot of fans haven’t been completely on board with the new stuff starting with the 2009 film. For a lot of us, Star Trek is MANY things, but its theme of exploration is literally why it exists as a franchise. That’s why I have really gotten to love Enterprise ironically because it wasn’t until AFTER the Kelvin movies started that I gave it a real chance again and realized how strong the exploration component was.; especially since the new movies were missing that for me. I was OK when the first movie didn’t do that given what they were setting up. But the next movie should’ve been about the five year mission. So when I went back to watching Enterprise that’s when I really learn to appreciate it. In a strange way I have the Kelvin movies to thank for that. ;)

But it doesn’t all have to be about that or DS9 wouldn’t be my favorite show today. But it would be nice if they had one show that was about going where no one has gone before and it certainly didn’t feel that way with Picard or Discovery, but even those have the potential to that way as well, especially Discovery now, so we’ll see.

But I’m hoping SNW will feel like TOS/TNG/VOY type of show again, where every week we land somewhere new or at least the possibility of it.

Wouldn’t it be funny if for the last ever episode of this series they completely revert to the 60’s sets and TOS Enterprise model to bring it all together? Maybe sort of de-volve into that aesthetic bit by bit each season?

I really really hope not. It’s no longer the sixties and these shows have budgets. Just keep the aesthetics, you don’t need to make it feel as cheap and bare looking to match the original show by the end.

No, I think that’s an awesome idea- rely on story instead of the CGI aesthetic in every scene…
Why does the new audience think modern flash equals something “good?”
That’s such a simpleton view.

If they at least upgrade things to eliminate the still-doesn’t-make-sense “Discovery” uniform collars, I’ll be happy.

It’s not 1960s anymore. As said you can keep the aestthetics. I been saying that since season 1 of Discovery. Make it look as much to the look of TOS as possible, I have no issues with that. But I just think trying to make it look like something less than the production level we saw it on Discovery makes no real sense. It’s a TV show, we understand things are just more updated because it’s been 50 years. I said nothing about ‘flash’ just modern as in every show airing today.

Haha right on Tiger2. The Cage was made in 1964 – almost six decades have passed. I certainly and totally understand nostalgia why many (including myself at times) want “to live in the past”, but for me Star Trek is all about the future. To paraphrase Picard, that would take us in the wrong direction. Our mission is to go forward.
Perhaps they could use William Shatner’s opening as the final lines to SNW series finale – hopefully seven years from now!!

Personally while I agree with both you and Tiger, there are also examples out there where the exact older design has been used with minimal changes, like the using of original cylons in several episodes of the new BSG or in Star Wars Rogue One. So it is doable and it is good to see nostalgia from time to time, but it shouldn’t be the default design style.

An excellent point, add to that the TOS sets looked fine when they used them in the MU episodes of Enterprise.

They did and in all honesty I personally would be fine if they tried to duplicate the style of The Cage down to the last detail. But I also understand the need for upgrades. My point is the upgrading in the design should not completely contradict what we saw before. Like what the Star Trek Discovery folks did. Enterprise I felt looked great. But that show was set over 100 years before TOS. So they had a lot more wiggle room.

I really hope they do.

The bridges is the classic shows are far between than anything in Kurtzmantrek.

On that note I hope they fix the uniform collars and the portion by the waist, that design looks really off.

I’m okay with that, especially about the uniform collars (which I’m happy they get rid of as well in the new 32nd century uniforms). I’m saying I don’t want it to look like a low budget 60s set by the time it gets to the end, which again, makes no sense. I mean why other than nostalgia???

Personally, if they design the ship for this show right, it won’t be needed.

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to those cathode ray console TV monitors and a real bulls**tty explanation why that’s more advanced then my smart phone. Good luck flying the USS Plywood.

Phil,

While I agree with you, it is my understanding that plywood is still a major component in movie and tv set construction. Maybe less so on the surface, but it’s still essentially the USS Plywood.

Just when you think the forum has reached peak semantics….

If you loved that, you’ll love this:

Vaccum tube electronics, which includes CRTs, are extremely more radiation resistant than smart phones.

Plus this poser:

Space is naturally a better vacuum than the partial in glass sealed vacuum tube electronics. Would they even need to be glass sealed to operate in space?

Its not going to be a cameo of Kirk on the Farragut because Spock and Kirk meeting before the original series would break canon right?

I don’t think we know anything about when they first met.

I rewatched all of TOS and the movies not too long ago and I can’t think of a single mention anywhere where they say they first met. It’s assumed to be on the Enterprise of course but yeah absolutely nothing stops them from meeting earlier (and probably why them meeting at the Academy idea keeps showing up). We only know Kirk and Pike didn’t meet until Pike left the Enterprise.

In “Amok Time,” at the beginning of Season 2, Kirk says something to Spock about, “in all the years I’ve known you.” Season 1 of TOS is supposed to be (from internal evidence) 1.5 – 2 years after Kirk takes command. So the beginning of Season 2 should be 2.5 – 3 years after Kirk takes command. Would Kirk talk about “all the years I’ve known you” if he’d known Spock for 2.5 – 3 years? I guess he could, but personally, I wouldn’t talk about “all the years I’ve known you” if I’d known someone for ~ 3 years.

Of course, given how eventual THEIR years are, I think maybe theirs are subjectively longer than mine. :-)

So yeah, that could’ve been any time. It could’ve been 3 years ago. It could’ve been 10.

The first series intimates, fairly strongly, that Kirk hand-picked his bridge crew for his first command. Actually, at times, Kirk hints that he did so for the entire initial 400+ crew complement. I don’t recall whether, like Pike, he whines about being straddled with a yeoman, in which case, if he did, I’d doubt Rand was hand-picked.

I would assume if Kirk hand-picked Spock, then, at the very least, he knew of him if not actually knew him?

In TWOK, Spock says, “As I recall, you (Kirk) took the test three times, yourself.” He doesn’t relate it like some factoid his eidetic memory called up. He says it as if it is something they experienced, in history, together. I’m not saying Spock was in the simulator with him, but his manner of speaking of it implies they knew each other at the Academy.

It’s also just as possible that Kirk told Spock about it at some point in their lives.

Or McCoy, but then Spock started relating to his protege details of Kirk’s solution that Kirk would never have bragged about to Spock It’s related more as a part of history Spock personally experienced.

I’m not disagreeing. Just saying there are other possibilities that are just as reasonable.

Understood, which is why I mentioned McCoy could have told him, as well.

On reflection, I think Spock was reminiscing with Kirk and not Saavik. He even said in his last words that he never cared about the test enough to have bothered to take it, himself.

What he said was, “I never took the Kobiashi Maru test until now. What do you think… My solution…”

I’d say it’s it’s a bit of a leap to jump to he never cared to take it. Maybe but if he is to be believed all we really know is he never took the test.

To echo others, there is absolutely zero canon regarding the first meeting between Kirk and Spock. The only conclusion I’ve ever drawn is that by judging from their interactions in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” their relationship is very new at that point. But that’s pure conjecture on my part. Could just be that’s the first time they’ve been comrades in such a setting. There could be a decade of causal acquaintance under their belts at that point. Wouldn’t mind if SNW filled some of that in, though I don’t think it’s necessary for a Pike/Number One/Spock show. I’d like more of the Aprils, though. And maybe an episode with a very crusty, very old Admiral Archer and his Vulcan attaché.

As much as I enjoyed Enterprise I really don’t want to see an Admiral or former President Archer show up. I really really really don’t. The guy would be pushing 150 by then, right? Let’s not.

Or maybe he was stuck in the Nexus. :)

Hey… There is nothing that says he wasn’t stuck in the Nexus! ;)

I’d love to see Archer retry, but SNW would definitely not be the right show to do that.

Why not a time travel episode, where the SNW crew arrive in 2168, a couple of years prior to “These are the Voyages.” Get the whole cast back, including Trip. SNW crew must stop a time traveling villain without being discovered, and just like Sisko and Dax in “Tribble-ations”, Pike and Spock can reminisce about their respect for the early explorers.

This could then be a back door pilot for a full ENT relaunch, with the “refit” NX-01.

Their first meeting has never been established onscreen, so no.

So excited for this show!

I have a hard time imagining a young, green Spock. Being competent and having all the facts at his fingertips seems like part of the definition of the character. I really hope they don’t have him make stupid mistakes or something to try to show he’s a newbie; even young Spock will be wildly intelligent!

I still remember me and you having a big fight of even the idea of introducing another Spock when it was announced he was coming on Discovery. Glad you came around. Looks like many did after Discovery.

I guess you missed a lot of what I said earlier. I said that Leonard Nimoy had been thrilled that the character he’d worked so hard to create wasn’t going to die with him, and he’d been happy to pass Spock on to Zachary Quinto, so the character could continue. I’m guessing he would have felt the same way about Ethan Peck.

My only qualm is that the writers and producers who are currently doing Trek haven’t really made me feel that they truly GET Spock, and I’d hate to see him messed up.

No I’m talking waaaaay before that, even before Peck was cast. You were adamant at one time that even casting a new Spock was a mistake. It’s not a big deal, it’s just nice you came around as I suspected many would if they liked him enough.

Re: green Spock

So, his green blood and tinged skin aside, you are saying there’s no room in your Spock canon for YESTERYEAR, where he was green enough to get his sorry green a** killed and needed his ripe older self to save his life?

i just realized rebecca and jerry are married and they’re both on a star trek show

And both First officers on a Star Trek show…just a century or so apart from each other. ;)

Jerry, also is what is known in the entertainment industry as a “doctor”, i.e. they bring him in to shore up a struggling show suffering from some traumatic incident. Lately, he’s been servicing talk shows.

Caught him hosting on THE TALK, and noticed something odd about his eyebrows. They looked shaved like when Trek preps actors for a Vulcan or Romulan role? I wonder?

Easter eggs are nice so long as the show itself is working. If it works, it’s a little icing on the cake (so long as they don’t go overboard with it.) If it doesn’t, it feels like a distraction designed to hide the fact that the show doesn’t work.

I’m still pessimistic about this show in spite of the fact that I’m hearing some good things about it from time to time. It’s just that I’ve heard good things about the other shows too and, well… You know. So I’m cautiously pessimistic. There have been 5 seasons of SH Trek so far. And they’ve gone 0 for 5. One would think that eventually one of the darts will at least hit the board for a point… Hopefully this will be it.

I wish they could have gotten some modern science-fiction writers like Andy Weir or John Scalzi to write for this show like how guys like Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison wrote for TOS back in the day. I feel like that literary element is sometimes missing in the modern Star Trek stories.

Sometimes?

What was Michael Chabon, chopped liver?

He’s only one man, whereas Sturgeon, Ellison, Bixby, and so on were many.

Besides have we really truly seen Chabon’s contribution? It more felt like Picard season 1 was basically written by a committee.

Committee or not, Chabon was the showrunner, right? Frankly, I’d like to see Peter David write an episode.

Yes, he was technically the showrunner, but it wasn’t all his. I think most of the things he wished for didn’t happen so I have a hard time fully acknowledging his contributions. But if we have to be pedantic about then yeah, he is a novelist and a showrunner of Trek. In that case there should be more like him but with more freedom given.

I agree SO very much! Robert J. Sawyer is a real science fiction writer and a huge Trek fan, so I think he’d be a great fit.

Wagon Train to the Stars baby!!! Horatio Hornblower in Space.
Only starship in the quadrant!!
Response from Starfleet Command a day away?
A final frontier and a mission of exploration?
Warp speed in ten minutes or we’re all dead!!!
Sounds fun and exciting!
I am really, really glad we get a bridge where we aren’t staring at someone sitting in a chair in front of a door with all the crew and panels a football field away as well. Bring on the visual stimulation.
One request – D7 vs. Connie… whole episode, boarding parties, tactics, everything.
Not mentioning any names, but some have waited decades to see those legends face off.

I’ll be offering some free advice. Since this show takes place between The Cage and TOS, you don’t have to give Peck the awful bowl-cut wig, which aside from the fakeness, doesn’t look much like Spock’s hair on TOS, especially around the sides. Just give Peck something with his own hair that is Spockish enough with the bangs and that doesn’t make Peck feel too humiliated. (I might note Sarek almost has more of a Caesar ‘do on TOS and Stonn has a bit of a part I think.) And you’re doing a “visual reboot” anyway. So no need to obsess over the terrible bowl wigs. Maybe you’re already doing such and in that case, you can disregard this message. All our hopes. P.S. Peck’s Vulcan ear appliance is grotesque, with his human ear scaphae and helices appearing to push out a disconcerting bulge near the upper center of his appliance. Maybe this was done for comfort of the actor? But I urge you to reconsider this blunder- those ol’ ears are one thing you don’t to mess around with. All our hopes.

All Vulcans in this incarnation train in wrestling from a young age. That is why they have the cauliflower ears.

Peck’s ears were damaged by a mechanical rice picker

Yeah, that line holds up as well as “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to women on the bridge”…

Yep, sounds like modern entertainment. Fuelled by nostalgia, easter eggs and references instead of good writing. Hopefully they don’t take it to the utterly ridiculous degree Lower Decks does.

As I was reading your 2nd sentence I felt like you were 100% describing Lower Decks. Then you acknowledged it. Glad that was where you went with it because it is dead solid on.

Young Sheldon!

BTW this is not what I want. I am very excited for this series. I can’t believe I am not sceptical or worried at all, but I’m not.

RE: dumping on Roddenberry, the dead guy…

Gene Roddenberry was a human being of his time and did visionary work. The comments preoccuopied with the juvenile, cancel-him-now BS with the Roddenberry-list-of-sins reflects the need to GROW UP. Heroes are normal people that do things beyond self-service to themselves – especially heroes in the predatory, giant-tub-of-crap that is the entertainment industry – especially television and music.

The man was a showrunner on a show that wasn’t selling toys like the STOLEN Lost in Space on CBS – – and NBC couldn’t have been less supportive if they tried really, really hard. He was a showrunner responsible for money and shaping stories based on material solicited from sci-fi writers how wouldn’t understand the boundaries and necessities of episodic television if they were run over by it.

I heard garbage like this about George Lucas from commenters just like some here: hack, pig, useless, cancel him – – that is until JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan sucked the soul and trajectory out of Star Wars just like JJ Abrams did for Star Trek. Suddenly, it was much more clear what Lucas was to Star Wars and the creative genius of his contribution.

The same is true of Roddenberry. He with Dorothy Fontana and Gene Coon created and nurtured in a hostile environment something that is timeless, inspirational, and visionary DESPITE their human natures – like all heroes.

Grow up, even Saints were never 2-dimensional beings of consistency and perfection, despite the propaganda to the contrary.

Spot on, David. I’m really amazed how Star Trek fans, so appreciative of “First Contact” movie, so often fail to see that Zephram Cochrane is a sort of paralel to Gene. In his own words – he was not a saint or visionary – he just wanted to retire to an island full of naked women. He’s done a great thing, even though he did it of the wrong reason. And do did Gene, with the exception that making money wasn’t and isn’t anything wrong. He created a lot of Star Trek on his own and he worked very hard to bring it to screens. Sure – he did it to get money, and sure he acted like a d*ck many times over but still – I doubt that Picard, when he came back to XXIV century demanded that Zeph be cancelled and his statue destroyed…

I agree with you both. He was a shortener who managed to come up with an idea that took off. People loved the show, and his reason for creating it is irrelevant. His personal character is irrelevant, as well. If he were still alive I could see a certain amount of friction (the metoo movement has changed the equation in Hollywood gratefully so) but as the man is dead, I respectfully suggest that you leave the man and his flaws in peace, and just enjoy the entertainment that he left for us. Quit trying to force the past into modern sensibilities. It’s past…let it go. As for this new series, I am excited to see where they go with it. I liked Discovery, but I would dearly love to see a show get back to what ST is meant to be…exploration. Peace and long life.

Nicely said, much more poetic… although there’s something to be said for screeching on a soap box about being sick and tired of being sick and tired! :)

George Lucas career peaked early on. The prequels sucked but that’s life. He should relent on releasing the originals. The sequels went in their own direction and did everything right except for the characters of Luke, Han and Leia. He should have brought in new people ages ago, new directors and writers to refresh Star Wars. If was his intent to do so early on in the late 70s but he found it hard to delegate and was unable to cede control to others and still get his own way.

ahhh – – and here you are. You’ve obviously worked closely with Mr. Lucas over the last 30-or-so years and I bow to your intimate observations.

A lot of stories can be told in Strange New Worlds leading up to the Original Series. Such as Spock’s old girlfriend Dr. Leila Kalomi or the Early Voyages comics or Captain Pike novels.

Since it has been established that Pike was April’s first officer on the Enterprise before succeeding him as captain, it would be cool to see a flashback to Pike’s recollection of the original launch of the ship. If not as part of a SNW episode than perhaps as the subject of a Short Trek.

Yeah, I’d love to see April too, my fancasting for him is Robert Patrick.

Why can’t anybody seem to reproduce a realistic version of Spock’s haircut these days?

It’s the shape of the actor’s face – if the actor doesn’t have a long, lean, thin face (like Nimoy), the haircut will never look right…

Everything about this production looks exquisite so far, except Spock’s haircut. It entirely distracts me from the character, & I can only hope they reconsider the bowl.

That doesn’t appear to be the case if the Paramount Mountain commercials are any indication.

Yay, more memberberries.

I’m sure someone has already mentioned it, but it was established in the TOS episode “The Menagerie” that Spock served with Pike for 13 years, not 8 years.

Concerning Number One’s backstory & easter eggs:

What if Una’s last name is Troi?