The seventh episode of the new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arrives this week and we have details, new photos, a trailer, and a clip to get you started.
“The Serene Squall”
Strange New Worlds episode seven is titled “The Serene Squall,” and it involves pirates. The episode features guest star Jesse James Keitel, playing the nonbinary character Dr. Aspen. It was written by Beau DeMayo and Sarah Tarkoff and it was directed by Sydney Freeland. SNW 107 debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, June 16th.
Synopsis:
While on a dangerous humanitarian mission, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise stumbles into a harrowing game of leverage with the quadrant’s deadliest space pirate.
Pirates!:
Lawerence Libor as Weapons Pirate of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Hough as Remy of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Hough as Remy of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Hough as Remy of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Hough as Remy of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Dr. Aspen:
Ethan Peck as Spock and Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Ethan Peck as Spock and Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Ethan Peck as Spock and Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga, Rebecca Romijn as Una, and Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen, Anson Mount as Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Babs Olusanmokun as M’Benga, Rebecca Romijn as Una, Jesse James Keitel as Dr. Aspen, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel, and Anson Mount as Pike of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+
More photos:
Ethan Peck as Spock of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Anson Mount as Pike of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Christina Chong as La’an of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Jess Bush as Nurse Chapel and Ethan Peck as Spock of the Paramount+ original series STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS. Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.
Trailer:
The trailer is available on Twitter (also Facebook and Instagram).
Warning, spacefarers—there be pirates on the next episode of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds! pic.twitter.com/fS2VuJYEAE
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) June 11, 2022
Clip:
The latest episode of The Ready Room includes a clip of Captain Pike discussing a distress signal with Spock and Dr. Aspen [at 54:25]. [Also available internationally at startrek.com]
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debut on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., Latin America, Australia and the Nordics. The series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. In New Zealand, it is available on TVNZ, and in India on Voot Select. Strange New Worlds will arrive via Paramount+ in select countries in Europe when the service launches later this year, starting with the UK and Ireland in June.
All episode photos by Marni Grossman/Paramount+
Latest TrekMovie.com Podcast
[Strange New Worlds news and review starts at 16:05]
My first thought was Tholians! But was a little disappointed when it turned out it looked like it wasn’t. Tholians are a species they can used without really disrupting what came before/after. Honestly I was always fascinated with the Tholians. Really liked it on Enterprise when Reed pointed out, “It’s awfully hot inside those ships…”
Well, they are pirates (most likely Orions based on their green skin), so maybe they stole the space-net technology from the Tholians. We may still yet see the Tholians in this show.
Boom, good plot twist! I’d be okay with that. I like it!! “We stole it from those crystal $#@$ers back over in the triangle”
Or they are just using a similar tech. I was just saying Tholians were the first thing I thought of.
No Tholians, leave that first contact for the Tholian web.
I wouldn’t mind if they just left the Tholians alone however the Tholian first contact isn’t as cut and dry as the Gorn. There is wiggle room in that one. The problem is Spock and Uhura. When they first saw the web Spock had to run studies on it. He didn’t know what it was. I would say they could use the Tholians but they can’t use their webbing tech if they even have it that early. When they appeared on Enterprise they didn’t use the web. They used it in their mirror episode, not when they appeared in the Prime if I am recalling right…
I don’t think “The Tholian Web” is first contact, because Spock talks about the Tholians’ well-known punctuality. You usually have to have met someone to know how punctual they are.
I kind of got hung up on that word choice even first-run, and remember thinking it was Spock inferring this based just on the limited viewscreen conversation preceding rather than any actual history, and figured this was a first contact. They sure didn’t know from the web.
Yeah good point. Could be good to go there (especially vs. the Gorn).
I actually thought Spock was being sarcastic. But it’s possible Tholians were at least semi well known based on the episode. NX-01 even encountered them. The only issue I see with involving the Tholiens if they use their web thingy.
I’d love to get a good look at the away-team body armor, but it is always dark when they wear it.
Speaking of which, the official Instagram account of startrekonpplus has a really neat video of a good look at the props of SNW like the phaser, communicator, tricorder, and Vulcan stuff, but sadly not the body armor.
That was a great video.
Has anybody else been struck by the feeling they keep sidelining Una? I have and it’s really disappointing.
As someone posted recently, it seems like they don’t know what to do with her. And now they’re adding another female character, so I doubt she’ll gain more screen time. It’s a shame, Romijn is a good actress.
Yes
Here’s a question for TrekMovie! Please!
I’m wondering if the EPs and writers have a different idea about the importance of Number One than was suggested in the original announcements about the show.
On the recent Deadline podcast, Akiva Goldsman referred to Christina Chong holding her own against the two principal characters.
It seemed like he was referring to Pike and Spock. Not Una.
Couple that with Romjin being listed as a “with” at the end of the credits, I’m being to wonder if we’ve missed something where Romjin is no longer a co-equal star with Mount and Peck.
If that’s the case, count me as very disappointed.
“With” *can* mean “major actor.” Not always, but it can.
Simple. Romjin is a well known actress, arguably better known than Mount or Peck. Those two come first and her agent didn’t want her billed third, so she gets the “and” credit instead.
Good point, although I’d remove the “arguably.”.
Very much so. Hoping she takes center stage and center seat more often in S2
Is it possible that they had an overreaching storyline planned for her that was subsequently yanked when the scripts actually got written?
Could have happened if folks thought they were going a bridge too far with canon breaks, given how many others seem (to me anyway) to have happened, based on discussions here about eps aired to date.
Other possibility is that the actress has health issues. Based on her appearance on DSC s2 and SNW ep1 (all that I’ve seen of her in recent years), I thought her face/cheek area seemed to look odd — might that suggest a health problem like that one Anna Gunn (DEADWOOD/BREAKING BAD) suffers from, which might preclude her from making this a f/t gig.
Then again, tons of actors are getting fillers put in and distorting their features, to the point that weirdness in appearance is practically becoming the norm, so maybe I’m seeing something that other people just look past.
Yeah, you’ve covered it pretty well. Usually, on a cast this large it works out this way:
// writers haven’t figured out what they want to do with the character
// health/COVID-related reasons
// producers not digging the performance so minimizing role
// scheduling
If it is because of the #1 is not human but an alien storyline then I am all for pushing her more to the background. This is not a canon violation but I considered it another bad creative choice. One that added nothing to the character.
As depicted on screen so far, I feel that the Number One character (stoic alien) is too similar to Spock (stoic alien). Most viewers (and the writers) know the Spock character well. He already has a rich franchise history that is easier to explore than that of Number One. Except for the revelation that she is an Illyrian, her character could have been easily eliminated from the aired episodes to date and her lines assigned to the other characters (but primarily Spock, who seems to be Pike’s actual right-hand person).
In The Cage, Spock was a lot less stoic. Later Spock sort of took on a lot of Number One’s characteristics, once she was gone.
Solid point. I just think the producers really like La’an (and the actress). The early publicity indicated that she’d be a supporting character, part of the ensemble, but that’s not the way it’s developing. La’an is is the number three character on the show now, after Pike and Spock.
Exactly. They should have given Number One some of the kick-ass qualities possessed by La’an to differentiate her from Spock and Pike. As it is now, there are too many characters, several of which are not really necessary (and most good Trek’s rely on the triumvirate).
Agreed, and she’s my fav character so far besides Pike.
Obviously at some point in the writing process they decided that they show was going to center around Pike, Spock and La’an, (because I think this is a TOS reboot, that code for the main trio of characters alá Kirk, Spock and McCoy) as a result Number one has faded into the background.
Well, maybe it’s because Pike couldn’t get used to a woman on the bridge.
*runs and hides*
About time the Orions showed up!!! Rigel was also integral to the Pike plot given they lost the majority of a landing team there.
I’m liking the body armor, reminds me of the motion picture, love how they kept the TOS colors though!
Looks like stylish fun, but some of the dialogue out of context is cringey, but that tends to be a Star Trek phenomenon. I just can’t get over how great the production work is on this show.
That Remy dude in the second picture looks like the John Candy Wookiee spoof character in Spaceballs.
Omg, I posted that too. Yes!
“Barf”
It’s kind of obvious! The resemblance is going to take me out of the show, while I ROLF…
Exactly….
Alright here we go!!!!!
Looks like we have another well known plot line happening. This one looks to be Orions take the ship hostage and the crew has to find a way to outwit them to get it back! Yeah, veeeery standard fare for Star Trek but still a lot of fun. Discovery did a big one for their season 3 finale of course with the Emerald Chain. And I suspect we will get an interesting twist somewhere.
Nothing super exciting overall but still looking forward to it.
The producers seem determined to make this as “Star Trekkie” as possible. It seems to be working, too, because most of the positive reviews love the show’s throwback vibe. The question is what the viewership figures are. I’d be interested to know if it gets more eyes on screens than Picard or Discovery.
Yep, it’s comfort food Trek in the best ways possible and fans are enthusiastically happy about it. Even I was cynical about how good the show would be after the utter let downs I felt over last season’s Picard and Discovery. And frankly SNW is just a much better written show than those two, regardless if it relies on popular tropes to keep fans hooked.
As for if it gets more viewers than those shows, that’s a great question. I would assume so ONLY for the fact it’s a new show (and the first live action show since Picard) so that alone will bring a lot of interest, at least in the beginning. And they hyped the show extra hard. But I wouldn’t be shocked that Picard would still have more viewers overall because it’s still Picard with the original actor, but the hype over that show has definitely waned after two seasons. So who knows?
The bridge design doesn’t really work. Whoever is in the captain’s chair frequently has to turn the chair fully around to see the science officer or comm officer and although Uhura was behind Kirk in TOS, this is where the “real world” aspect of it was less important — it was more elegant to have her behind Kirk in the shot and be able to keep Kirk in the shot when they were on Spock. This bridge isn’t really designed with the camera in mind, then — although it sure does work for a widescreen frame — and in terms of functionality, it’s very limited.
Anyway, the show is good. Just a bummer that being on the bridge isn’t as cool as it could be.
“Captain, we’ve been ordered back to spacedock for a refit — you’re getting a swivel chair!”
That’s partly my point – it’s awkward that he has to swivel all the way around. Or, at the very least, they don’t really make it LOOK all that interesting and purposeful when he does. Part of the problem is the viewscreen is so big that they play to it so much. For some reason, it just looks odd when they congregate around the other stations. Or maybe a director hasn’t decided to do something interesting with that approach yet. Everybody’s still figuring the show out to be perfectly fair.
You have a point about bridge design — it’s as though they only thought of the straight-back-from-the-front proscenium view for designing to widescreen, which is a pretty boring way of looking at things. If you go back to when art directors used to make master illustrations for a potential set, they’d design for maximum effect, not just for safe master coverage. You can even see this in art for stuff from the last 35 years, like HARLEM NIGHTS, but it all really goes back to Menzies and how there was an art as well as a science to production design.
I’m not saying old-school approaches or older designers are the only way to go to get things right … I still think Michaelson’s call to bring light from below for so much of TMP was an insanely bad call, especially given you had aging actors, the last people you want to light like it is Halloween. But there are principles that should be remembered, even if they wind up going unimplemented some of the time.
For me, I find it very disturbing to see scenes that aren’t lit and exposed in what I see as proper fashion. Just saw a still of the bridge on trekmovie in the last day or so that illustrated this deficiency. The idea you’ve got blown-out overexposure on standard bridge scenes from source lighting is just seriously wrongheaded — you should be saving that for when something strange happens, like a big explosion, not for the normal scenes. It’s hard on the eye and unflattering and distracts away from the actors and the scene, too. I saw a scene of Pike and Spock in an elevator on youtube and there was a glarey bulb behind Pike that was downright unpleasant throughout the shot.
Given the control possible with LED lighting, they should be able to dial the source lighting exposure up or down and get things looking good, but instead they seem to be embracing a quarter-of-the-way-or-more-of-the-way-to-nuBSG aesthetic, which to my eye is visually corrupt and bad for Trek in an Abrams-awful way.
Well, aside from the strip lights and a few clunky touches (e.g. the over-busy separators between the bridge stations), I think the bridge looks great, though it did take a little while to grow on me. It’s a lot closer to what Karl Urban claimed about the PD of Trek 2009: much-inspired by the original, only with far greater detail. I don’t know how he thought he’d get away with that one!
Think he must have made that claim while wearing three pairs of polaroid sunglasses.
I agree. It feels a bit too big, but that’s just par for the course in the new shows. And yes, it doesn’t look or feel like an Apple store.
I like the increased size, especially the main screen, which makes everything more epic in the wide shots and fits better with modern TV aspect ratios. But I don’t like the shiny flooring, which is pretty but looks impractical (and even dangerously slick) for the deck of a spaceship.
There might also be some issues with the reflective flooring/surfaces they’ve put everywhere on most of the sets. For me, it really makes the engineering set especially look like crap. Anyway, I’ve watched quite a few fan films, so, and this is definitely one of the better ones. Hopefully, they’ll make some adjustments as they continue.
I am so very excited for this series! Every week, I count the days until Thursday. :-)
I hope Erica Ortegas gets a focus episode soon; I’m really liking her and wanting to know more about her. Of course, I’m really liking Pike, Spock, Una, M’Benga, Chapel, and Uhura, too…
With 10 ep seasons, it is going to be difficult to have character episodes like we used to have.
BTW, where is Jose Tyler in this timeline?
Hanging out with Yeoman Colt, Dr. Boyce, Jim Morrison, and Amelia Earhart.
And Ed Madden as ‘geologist.’
Maybe they all got kidnapped and taken to the Delta quadrant. ;)
If Jim Morrison was in the Delta Quadrant we’d have heard about it by now.
Apparently Ortegas is based on him. (He was originally “Jose Ortegas.”)
Does “Remy” remind anyone of “Barf”?
“Barf, Puke, whatever!”
Upvote. ;)
Don’t you mean Upchuck? ;)
I don’t expect to see either Romulans or Tholians in this series.
We’ll see how the Enterprise under Captain Pike does against pirates.
I actually wouldn’t hold my breath on that. ;)
Showing the Romulans might be going too far over the line but they may still try to find a way to have them like Enterprise did.
All the best stories involve pirates.
I think I have seen Remy — he lives in a trailer park in Van Nuys
Is the Hemmer actor the Tig Notaro of SNW? He’s only really been in half of the eps so far. I think it was Laurie who predicted his character would be a fan favorite. But how can he become a favorite when he’s rarely seen?
Seasons are now only 10 episodes long,. There really isn’t time to do character exposes like we used to get. Most of the action is bridge/away team centric. He is the Chief Engineer, he isn’t going to do away missions in the post-TNG world.
Not to mention that the actor is nearly blind, so it would be a bit of a production challenge to have him on away missions.
Yeah, but a major scene is set in engineering this week and he’s still MIA. It’s a weird decision no matter how you look at it.
Boy, the comments about this episode are gonna be buck-wild.