‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Cast Teases Kirk & Spock Bonding, And Season 2 “On Steroids”

(Getty)

In addition to the panel at San Diego Comic-Con, members of the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also did a series of media video interviews, where the actors revealed more about what we can expect in season 2.  We have pulled together the highlights.

Season two is “season one on steroids”

Anson Mount (Captain Pike) has previously said the second season takes “bigger swings” and talked to  Collider about how they are exploring even more genres:

Mount: When you have a new story every week or a new planet every week, you can also change the mode and the tone. And so we’ve been really pushing the boundaries with that in the second season. And seeing how many different kinds of genres and things we can get away with. And being able to invite many different kinds of directors with many different kinds of styles. It’s just been a joy.

Mount’s co-stars Ethan Peck (Spock) and Christina Chong (La’an) chimed in to back up their captain:

Peck: [Co-showrunner] Henry [Alonso Meyers] describes season 2 as ‘season 1 on steroids.’ And I think that’s probably the most accurate way to put it.

Chong: I agree. It takes everything to another level. For example, the fantasy episode–episode eight–that will be topped in season 2.

Mount also told Collider we can expect to see more USS Enterprise:

Mount: You’re going to see more of the ship. As the show progresses, we get to build more of the Enterprise.

We have already seen one element of this:  the port galley set used in season 2, which was revealed on The Ready Room.

Wil Wheaton tours the Strange New Worlds Port Galley set

Lower Decks crossover is (mostly) live-action

The biggest news from the panel was the announcement of a season2 crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, with voice actors Tawny Newsome (Beckett Mariner) and Jack Quaid (Brad Boimler) appearing as the live-action versions of their characters from the animated series. Mount offered some more detail about the crossover, telling Entertainment Weekly:

Mount: It’s predominantly live-action for everyone involved, but there are animated elements at different points… I thought it was going to be Roger Rabbit with animated characters following us around… but once they explained it to me saying “No, no no,” I was like, “Oh, that’s actually kind of brilliant,” the way it’s been done.

It’s also clear that the Lower Decks characters interact with many members of the rest of the Strange New Worlds. Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura) told EW how it allowed her to explore some new things:

Gooding: Tawny [Newsome] and Jack [Quaid] are both incredible comedians. And they gave all of us permission to show up to work in a way that we haven’t before. I didn’t feel comfortable [before] riffing and doing my own thing, and they showed up guns blazing and it was really awesome to work and collaborate with them.

Ethan Peck (Spock) told TV Insider the experience was “fantastic,” and Christina Chong (La’an) talked about what it was like on set shooting the crossover:

Chong: Being a part of that episode was like watching stand-up comedy for free every day.

Tawny Newsome and , Jack Quaid crash the Strange New Worlds panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 (Photo: TrekMovie.com)

Pike is living his best life

Anson Mount talked about how the season 1 finale allowed Pike to move past the knowledge of his eventual fate, giving him a new outlook in season 2. He told EW:

Mount: I feel like by the end of season 1, we get to that acceptance [of his fate]. So I think going forward what you’re going to find is a much more fully realized, self-accepting person with a with a healthy sense of joie de vivre.

And he told Collider:

Mount: It’s one thing to say that you’ve accepted something and it’s another thing to actually accept it… I’ve I have had the honor of meeting a couple of people in with terminal diagnoses, who will say “I’ve never been more alive because I know the endpoint and I know how many days I have left and I’m going to live them to my fullest.” I think that we’re going to get to see a more fully realized, more accepting Pike who is making the most out of what he has left.

Anson Mount as Pike

Lt. Kirk is more fun

In a number of interviews, Paul Wesley talked more about how he is playing a different Kirk in season two, as he explained to IGN:

Wesley: Anything you saw in the [season 1] finale is strangely not applicable because it’s an alternate timeline future. So when we meet Kirk again in season 2, there’s no memory. He’s meeting Pike for the first time. He’s a young lieutenant. He’s not a captain. He doesn’t have that formidable Shatner-esque quality yet. And I think that he does take some mentorship and he has a high degree of respect for Pike for sure.

He told TV Insider:

Wesley: In the season 1 finale, he’s an alternate version of Kirk… so we get to see the real Kirk in season 2. He’s much younger, he’s a little bit lighter. It’s Kirk pre-Kirk, basically… We’re going to see pre-Kirk trying to figure out who he is, as a lieutenant on the Farragut. And he’s going show up in unexpected places at unexpected times.

And he told Collider:

I’m looking forward to season 2 because Kirk gets to kind of let loose a little bit and have a little more fun, and not be alt/future timeline Kirk. He gets to be young Kirk in The Original Series canon. So I’m excited to explore that.

Again, it feels like there is a lot of Wesley’s Kirk in season 2, as he explained to IMDb:

Wesley: I think there’s going to be an interesting arc in season 2 that I’m excited for people to see.

Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk

More fun with Kirk and Spock

The season showed Kirk and Spock meeting for the first time in an alternate timeline, but in season 2 we are seeing them meet at an earlier point in the canon timeline, as Wesley explained to EW:

Wesley: It’s interesting because it’s obviously such an iconic relationship and just playing the anticipation of that without spoiling it, I think you play that out as long as possible because they have to forge that over time.

Ethen Peck also talked about this relationship in season 2, telling EW:

Peck: We dabble in it in the [season 1] finale. But we’ll get a little deeper with it [in season 2]. And there are some really great moments I was very excited to be a part of.

He told TV Insider:

Peck: We’ll get a little deeper into it in season 2… It’s been super fun. It’s so great to have him as part of the cast, it’s been a blast.

Spock hijinks

Peck also spoke more about how Spock explores his human side to TV Insider:

Spock gets to really start to explore his human side and it leads to a lot of funny hijinks. So I’m really excited about bringing that comedic element to Spock.

All of this is leading to becoming more like the original Spock, as he told IGN:

You’ll see Spock explore his human side more, in a way that will ultimately affect his more immediate relationships in a fun and interesting way… We’ll see that carry on and it’s definitely a part of his evolution to becoming who he is. He needs to know himself more deeply as a human in order to become the Spock that Leonard Nimoy portrays in The Original Series.

Ethan Peck as Spock and Gia Sandhu as T’Pring

La’an is growing

Speaking to Collider, Christina Chong talked about La’ans arc:

Chong: With La’an, I love covering her vulnerability. She’s a fighter. She’s got all this stuff going on, but she’s fighting to win over it. And even though has this PTSD, at the core of it, she wants to grow. She wants to learn. She wants to move beyond her past. So to play the conflict of the barrier that she has, the bravado and also the soft inner world of her is really interesting for me.

And with TV Insider, the actress said this growth may have surprises:

Chong: La’an continues to grow [in season two] emotionally in ways that perhaps we don’t expect.

The penultimate episode of season 1 had La’an taking a leave of absence to help the young girl Oriana find her family after being captured by the Gorn. The finale showed her as a member of Kirk’s crew on the USS Farragut—which was an alternate future, but it does appear that this was hinting about a connection to La’an and Kirk in season 2. The actress was reluctant to give away spoilers, but did have this to say to IGN about where we find La’an:

Chong: I can say that I have worked with Paul Wesley and it’s very hard to work with him [laughs]. In a good way. He makes me laugh… But La’an, we know that she’s gone off to try and find Oriana’s parents. She is in season two and that storyline kind of continues in a way. And sees Kirk, and Pike, at different times and in different places… in space. [laughs]

Christina Chong as La’an and Anson Mount as Pike

Uhura is still grieving

In a couple of different interviews, Celia Rose Gooding talked about how the death of Hemmer (and of her parents from before she joined Starfleet Academy) will impact Uhura in season 2: She told TV Insider:

Gooding: We are going to see Uhura continue to mourn the loss of her loved ones and figure out how to continue to be the officer that she needs to be while still reeling with the fact that she has a lot of decisions to make and a lot of really close people around her. She’s deciding whether she’s going to let them in and see her at her most vulnerable state.

And to IGN:

Gooding: I don’t think she has [got over the death of Hemmer]. Mourning is a very complex, tangled, sticky experience. And untangling grief is not something that’s done overnight. And she, of course, has this incredible crew that she leans on when she needs to. But I think in season two we see her sort of begin to look at the knot that is the grief that she’s experiencing after losing her family and losing Hemmer. Loss has a funny way of really forcing you to look at the people around you and say, ‘Who can I lean on?’ when I know that I’m fragile within myself and can’t lean on the things that I’ve built up within myself. She’ll be okay, but she has to get through a couple of things first. 

Bruce Horak as Hemmer and Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura

Season 2 coming in 2023

There was no clarity on when we can expect the new season, which has already been shot. Paramount+ has only said it will be next year. Season 1 of Strange New Worlds is currently available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the Nordics and airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada. It will also stream exclusively on Paramount+ in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria later this year. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

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If one that was unfamiliar with Star Trek was to view this image, the focus would be on the actors portraying Kirk, Spock, and Uhura all smiles and the center of attention, while wondering who the hell the other two people were.

I love the relationship between Kirk and Spock very, very much, but that’s really NOT what I want to see in SNW; I want to see something we’ve only seen hinted at before: the relationship between Spock and PIKE.

I know Kirk is an iconic character, and I have a lot of love for TOS Kirk (not so much for Kelvin Kirk). But this is PIKE’S show. You can save Kirk for later. Kirk will always be available for you to pull out if you need him in the future, but you don’t actually need him NOW.

Anson Mount is doing a truly fabulous job as Pike, and there are a LOT of stories you can tell about Pike. Please let this be a show about Pike and Spock and Number One.

Totally agree

I agree, the final scene between Pike and Spock in the season finale shows how their relationship can be every bit as meaningful as Kirk and Spock.

Exactly! They know how to do this, so they should go do it. :-)

I was never a huge fan of Kelvin Kirk either but compared to this one, I kind of miss that one now. And yeah agreed it’s Pike show but it’s all about trying to get as many subscribers as possible, so…

Yeah, I understand that attracting subscribers is the goal. But is anybody paying attention to the Star Trek news besides Star Trek fans?

Yeah I seriously seriously doubt it lol. I don’t know anyone watching these new shows personally and that includes a 2-3 self subscribed Trek fans but mostly old school fans; although one watched the first season of Picard being a big TNG fan when that came out.

But I guess they think it will persuade more casual viewers still on the fence? They are pumping these shows with so many legacy characters you literally can lose count at the moment.

Same boat. Yes, this is very anectodtal but I do not know anyone personally watching these shows. And I have two other Trek fans in that circle. Was three but sadly he passed on last year. But he wasn’t watching either. 3 of us shared a subscription for the first season of Star Trek Discovery but none wanted to come back. Even for Picard. And one was a huge TNG guy.

I’m still hoping Wesley only appears in a couple of episodes for Season 2. We already knew from the leaked filming photo Kirk would be working with La’an. I was satisfied with how Season 1 played out, I think they did a great job with it, so I’m going to trust they know what they’re doing and these “teases” are “overblown” a bit.

I hope you’re right that the teases are a bit overblown. You’re certainly right that Season 1 was good, so I do have a lot more trust in the SNW writers than I have in the ones for the other shows…

I’m hoping Kirk doesn’t discover her linage to THE Khan. But then, if he does it would go very much in line with the attitude of the folks running this boat aground.

When Spock finds out in “Space Seed” that “Khan” is Khan Noonien Singh, shouldn’t he be, like, “Hey, I served with one of his descendants”? And Kirk too if he works with her.

Kirk’s story for me has been told. It is not necessary to tell anything else about him. I understand exploring Spock pre-TOS because there is still a dimension to the character worth exploring, but Kirk pre-TOS has already been flushed out in TOS/ST09. There is nothing else to tell. But, the writers just can’t help themselves, I’m sure Una will disappear for multiple episodes so Paul Wesley can do a Kirk arc….. Very frustrating…..

I agree but I also argued that about Spock himself when he came on Discovery. My mind WAS changed once I saw the dynamic between him and Michael but we’re not really learning anything new about these characters (Kirk and Spock); they are just going into bigger details about what we do know about them.

As for Kirk, he may stay on the show from here on out. We really don’t know, but I won’t be surprised he’ll be on the show every season to the end like the rest of them, just in a recurring role.

Good points! You’re right about that.

I’m not sure there’s nothing left to tell about Kirk, but if they want to do that, they can make a Kirk show later. I’d love to see a Kirk show — with a much younger actor — showing him as a young officer on the Farragut and exploring how Kirk develops from “a stack of books with legs” to the mature and seasoned man we see in TOS.

But not in PIKE’S show! There’s plenty to tell about Pike; they can save a Kirk show for later.

I guess Kirk for me just isn’t interesting enough to revisit. Shatner and Pine were great but I just feel like it’s done and find Spock to be a better character to explore in this era.

I feel the same way about Spock, too. There is nothing more to learn about Spock. The only thing that MIGHT be worth looking at was his relationship with Pike. Which honestly should be a lot different from his one with Kirk. I had always suspected Pike was more about loyalty and Kirk was more about friendship. There is a difference.

I’ve been hugely interested in Spock for years and years and expect never to lose interest. :-)

Not only does Spock the character interest me, but also the Spock phenomenon. The fact that so many different kinds of people saw themselves in Spock, from scientists to biracial people to folks with Asperger’s Syndrome to gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, and on and on and on. What does it say about our society that nearly everyone feels as if they’re an outsider? I hope some sociologist somewhere is doing a study. :-)

…and the reboot of TOS continues, seemingly to the detriment of the Pike story, which Anson Mount has done a fantastic job with. I agree, very frustrating.

Completely disagree with you. Anson Mount has done a great job and commands the screen… so having Kirk show up will NOT take away from that.

totally agreed.

The Menagerie was pretty clear that Kirk met Pike when he took command of the Enterprise. Yet it sounds like they are going to meet in Season 2, presumably about 6 years prior to Kirk taking the helm… as good as this show is, they really play fast and loose with the source material… it is a good thing I enjoy coming up with my own head canon to explain the inconsistencies.

Yeah welcome to prequels! I always knew we were going to see Kirk much earlier because they can’t help themselves with these characters. I won’t be too shocked Picard also shows up in season 3 lol.

In a world where cartoon comedic Star Trek characters interact with live action characters from a Trek dramatic series, this worry about canon inconsistencies between SNW and TOS just seems so minor to me now. That’s inconsequential in comparison.

They will be live action in SNW though. And SNW can be silly and playful too as we saw in multiple episodes. And we been dealing with canon inconsistencies since Enterprise, the Kelvin movies and Discovery. So yeah at this point no one should be surprised lol. But why I never will be a huge fan of prequels although SNW has been doing a waaaaay better job at it than DIS IMO.

Yeah, I don’t understand the criticism either. TLD and SNW take place in the same universe, and the TLD characters are drawn to resemble the actors playing them. Therefore, the live-action versions of the TLD characters clearly exist, and they look like the actors. So I don’t understand why someone would have a problem with this. I think it sounds like fun. The Mandalorian did it brilliantly with Ahsoka Tano, Bo-Katan, and Cad Bane, and I’m confident SNW will do just as well with the TLD cast. Even Boba Fett, General Grievous, Commander Cody, and Saw Gerrera debuted as cartoon characters. Not only that, but the current Star Trek shows have repeatedly referenced the 1970s Star Trek animated show.

By bringing up the animated show from the 70s in this context you kind of just unintentionally proved my point. Gene Roddenberry stipulated that that series, and all cartoons, novels and comics were never to be canon in Star Trek.

Gene was right then and it’s unfortunate that the current CBS brass have reversed this directive of the creator of the franchise. It’s actually a f’ing tragedy in my opinion.

Actually, he did change his mind on that several time. When it suited him. When the animated series came out, he said it was a continuation of the 5 year mission. In the 80s, he said it wasn’t canon. But Changed his mind in the 90s when he referenced different things in TNG. Soooooooo….

I have to admit One Lion I very much share your concern about this particular episode but I can’t deny that I also have a little bit of Tiger2’s optimism for it too. The initial announcement for it in which they said it would be mix of animation and live action definitely had me nervous and I was fearing some kind of Roger Rabbit style episode but Mount’s comments have slightly reassured me in that regard.

To be honest I’m not actually opposed to the idea of seeing live action versions of the LDS characters, in fact it’s something that I’ve asked for on these very boards. I just don’t want them to play the characters exactly as they would in a zany animated show. I think it was Garth Lorca who said on here that when he watches LDS he views it as a stylised version of canon that he ‘decodes’ in his own brain to be consistent with a live action show. I like that idea and I think that this episode has the potential to do exactly that in an official capacity. I think it would also be kind of cool in the animated portion of the show if they depicted Pike’s Enterprise as being closer to what we saw in TOS as just another little way of saying these are all just different interpretations of the same characters an events filtered through different mediums and the production capabilities and sensibilities of different eras.

It is funny how so many people have been talking about the possibility of LDS characters crossing over into live action for at least a year now but I don’t think ANYONE thought it would actually happen or at least this fast lol.

I have always been fine with them in live action or at least curious about it too but I always said if it happened at all, it would probably be years from now. I was thinking if LDS made it to season 6 or 7 or something and this whole time this has been planned since last year at least.

But there are a lot of fun possibilities. It could turn out very bad, but since I think both shows have been great so far I trust them more than I don’t to pull it off.

And as I been arguing for awhile now, they are probably trying to follow Star Wars lead as practically all their animated characters are crossing into live action shows and films. TCW and Rebels kept those characters in their own worlds for the most part but now that SW is making all these shows that has changed a lot in just the last few years. Those characters have shown up in Rogue One, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett and Mandalorian and has become vital in some of those shows; Mandalorian especially. And Askoka is the first animated character to get her own last action show. It’s basically a spin off of Rebels so most of those characters will be on that show too.

This is why both SW and ST are keeping all their animated shows canon because you can widen the universe on a level I don’t think anyone would’ve considered doing ten years ago.

It’s paying off in SW so I think they want to try it with LDS and PRO as they keep pushing the crossover idea. My guess is if the LDS/SNW is well received they will try it with PRO and another live action show next.

I love what Star Wars has done so I’ve always been open to them taking a similar approach with Star Trek too. For me, it wasn’t so much that it was going to be a live action episode that concerned me but that it was going to be a hybrid of animation and live action. However, as I’ve said I have come around to that idea more now as I think it could be a good way of bridging the styles of different shows.

One thing I have suggested on here for a while is the idea of doing a time travel crossover story with the first part starting on a series further in the future than the show on which they conclude the event. Although they’ve only announced that this crossover will occur on SNW we do know that season 3 of LDS will finish on a big cliffhanger so I’m hoping that this episode leads directly into season 2 premiere of SNW.

Kate Mulgrew’s comments about live action appearances by Prodigy characters being ‘inevitable’ also makes me wonder if they might actually be imminent. We’ve all speculated that Janeway could appear in season 3 of Picard and if she does it wouldn’t be entirely out of the question if they cast adult versions of one or two of the Protostar crew to appear alongside her,

No, Menagerie was not clear. You are quite wrong. Stop spreading misinformation.
wwwDOTchakoteyaDOTnet/StarTrek/16.htm

MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?
KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.

As long as Pike picks up a promotion in season 2 in recognition of his years of service, and the Farragut delivers the news that’s the first time Kirk met Pike…

MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.
KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him. Spock served with him for several years.

Kirk does not say anywhere that he met Chris Pike at the promotion AND AT THE SAME TIME took over the Enterprise. These are separate sentences, different points in time.

Thanks for this.

Another example of how headcanon conflicts with what was actually onscreen.

Sometimes I get confused between Chris Pike and Chris Pine

OK. Who was Captain of the Enterprise between Pike & Kirk, then?

Why would they need one? There’s no reason why Pike can’t be Fleet Captain at the same time as he is skipper of the Enterprise. From what I understand ‘Fleet Captain’ is a historic title not used in modern naval institutions so what this actually means in Starfleet has not actually been defined.

OK. But then the question is… Is Pike getting promoted to Fleet Captain next season? If so then that could be the time Kirk meets him. But that one time is about as much “wiggle room” as one can find based on Kirk’s comment.

I know you’re not a big fan of the term ‘wiggle room’ but if (and it’s a big if given their handling of the Gorn) they do address canon by having Kirk meet Pike when he makes Fleet Captain then I think they actually have some in my opinion. There’s only so many times they can go to the well before they break canon but it doesn’t have to be a once and done thing.

Kirk saying they met when Pike was promoted should be taken to mean that was the one and only time they met. If they met again Kirk would have said something like “We FIRST met when…” No one says “we met when” if they had subsequent encounters. So even if he didn’t specifically say so one using reason can conclude that meeting was the one and only time they met. It’s how we can determine the Gorn were first revealed in Arena all based on what was said and how the characters reacted even though no one specifically said “Gorn? Never heard of them before…” Such lines are not needed to make the audience aware of the situation.

Unfortunately, precedent has been set by the folks running SNW. Anything TOS did that gets in the way of what SNW wants to do gets chucked out the window. Which I see as a complete disrespect to their source material. Again, if they wanted to do their own thing then make your new show a GD reboot!

Pike’s time on the Enterprise has been assumed to end in 2263 or 2264, with Kirk taking command in 2265. There was also an assumed refit between those two periods, so it could be an engineer was captain if one was actually even named during the refit.

The refit can be used to change the interiors so that it can be used for 430 crew instead of 205.

But almost all of that is assumed history. I don’t think there is an on-screen reference of Kirk taking command in 2265, but (another assumption) – Kirk’s TOS mission was years 2,3,4 of the 5 year mission, and was +300 years from the production date of the show.

You are digging a little deeper into this than I ever would. It’s enough for me to just say the ship transferred from one Captain to the other without any major refit. Yes, there were changes made but they were not major. Certainly not like the 18 months that turned it into the TMP Enterprise. I guess such conclusions are kinda reasonable. So sure… Possible. Since there has been nothing official about such things I feel like I am considering what would seem to be the most likely scenario regarding the changeover.

WELL SAID !!!

This is a great point. I hope they do promote him to Fleet Captain in season 2, it would be an easy enough thing to do to reconcile the show with canon and then it gives them a lot of storytelling freedom going forward.

I also remembered this as Kirk meets Pike as he takes Enterprise, but noticed this dialogue a few years ago on a rewatch of Menagerie — and was like ‘whoa, that’s doesn’t say what I thought it meant all my life’ — there is a hole there you could pilot the Enterprise though… and I hope that Kirk is present at Pike’s promotion. It’s fully possible that they may be giving Pike that title now so that he won’t fight the Una stuff.

What is a problem, but since it was a problem in the Menagerie itself:
MENDEZ: “About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.”

Pike is certainly not about Kirk’s age. Kirk born in 2233. Pike appears to be older than Menagerie Kirk (2267) in the footage of the Cage, 13 years earlier (2254).

We have never been given a firm birthdate for Pike but one accepted date is 2205, which makes Pike 54 years old in SNW season one which seems about right, to Kirk’s 26.
Mendez probably should have said “about my age”.

Yep. I can’t wait to hear the lame excuse some bad writer is going to use for doing it. That “wiggle room” excuse was used before. Why not just use it again?

It’s pathetic they are making fans feel the need to come up with “head canon” to explain their bonehead mistakes.” If fans have to do that you are making an inferior product. Period.

Those are such minor issues when compared to what we have to accept with the ridiculous canon huge enchilada known as Lower Decks. Give me some SNW wiggle room any day versus the the shit that goes down on that brain-fart of a series.

I can’t believe I’m defending LDS… I agree it is terrible but I say that because it fails in its goal. Being a comedy. There is just no joy in that show. I haven’t securitized it beyond its failure at being a comedy. So whether or not it adheres to any sort of canon I really can’t say. But I would think that the fact that they are just a goofy, not to be taken very seriously show, in my mind at least, would give them a very large berth when it comes to canon issues. Especially if they were successful at being a comedy.

Can’t wait to see more comedic hijinks with Spock. “Spock Amok” is my favorite episode in season 1. They also mentioned in another interview there is going to be a bigger fantasy episode than what we saw in “Elysian Kingdom”.

These are the things I miss about Star Trek along with exploration stories. We’re getting the more campy/goofier stuff TOS did a lot of. It’s nice SNW doesn’t always take itself so seriously like Discovery and Picard does. It can let its hair down more like the older shows here and there (and what better to do that than crossing over with Lower Decks lol). Excited to see more Captain Angel and Sybok too!

Agreed!

Love Peck’s japanese Star Trek 5 T shirt! Movie comes out on 4K UHD early september!!

Release the Shatner Cut :)))

It will be four hours of Kirk climbing the mountain! ;D

I really don’t want to see the Rock Creatures.

I’ve tried to find that online and had no luck. Great looking retro shirt

Didn’t Kirk mention something about first meeting Pike when he got promoted to Fleet Captain or something?

In my country, we would call this ‘super-excitement’!

I like very SNW very much, after TOS and TNG, it is my favorite Star Trek ever! (And I mean that most sincerely guys)

Fully agreed. TOS, TNG and SNW… Those are the big three now. Quite logically, the only shows about a Federation Starship USS Enterprise :-)

It’ll be interesting to see exactly how Shatner-like (or not) Paul Wesley’s portrayal of Kirk is in Season 2. Sure, it’s a younger version of Kirk, but it’s still meant to be the same person in the same timeline and “cinematic universe” (and unlike the Kirk we saw in Season 1, this is not an “alternative future version” of him). Ideally there should at least be some distinctly Shatner-like vibes coming across. However, in his interview Wesley said Kirk “doesn’t have that formidable Shatner-esque quality yet”. Hmm.

It would definitely be possible to “channel Shatner” without the performance being disrespectful or turning into a parody. To give an example, I saw the Bryan Cranston movie “Trumbo” a while back. One of the important characters was early 1960s Spartacus-era Kirk Douglas. In terms of appearance, voice, mannerisms etc, the on-screen character was so unnervingly similar to the real Kirk Douglas from that period that I was convinced the whole thing was incredible CGI or deepfakery while I was watching the film. It was only when I checked the credits at the end and then double-checked the cast online that I found out Kirk Douglas was played by the actor Dean O’Gorman, with no CGI or reuse of old footage at all (he really should have been nominated for an award for that extraordinary performance).

So, in theory, there should be no issues with Paul Wesley going all-out to copy 1960s Shatner accurately but still respectfully, especially if it’s channelling the more restrained Shatner from TOS’s first season or the movie “Judgment at Nuremberg”. It would need an extremely good actor to pull this off, of course.

PS: Speaking of Judgment at Nuremberg, William Shatner’s pre-TOS performance in that 1961 film is so similar to Kirk that you can absolutely imagine this is exactly what Kirk was like when he served on the Farragut. Shatner is in a secondary-but-important role as a US Army Captain assigned to assist the trial’s judges, and he has plenty of scenes with the chief judge played by Spencer Tracy. Ideally it would have been great if Paul Wesley had watched Shatner in that movie to get pointers about how to play SNW-era Kirk. I guess it’s a moot point now, since it sounds like he’s already finished filming SNW Season 2. In any case, it’s a superb movie, and Shatner already had the recognisable “easy charm” and star-quality charisma.

I loved that Trumbo movie, and you are right — the actor playing Kirk Douglas nailed it@

But you forget… Wesley is playing Kirk, not Shatner. Shatner sis Kirk in his acting style as Pine did Kirk in his. You don’t want it to be a parody of Wesley playing Shatner playing Kirk. That was the problem with the fan productions, they were trying to play Shatner playing Kirk. And it came across as laughable. I don’t… think… you want… someone to… speak as Shatner did. You want the qualities of Kirk… the bravado, the confidence, the thinking outside the box. And THAT is what Wesley has to do.

I have to say I’m really skeptical of the crossover this way round. It would have been fun to have the LDS visit SNW characters on the holodeck. It would also have been fun to have some kind of anomaly on LDS and a live action segment in that show.

Bringing them into live action, in a show set in the relative past that at times functions as quite a serious drama is bold to say the least. It will be an interesting experience to say the least.

i’m hopeful for season 2….I wish SNW was a new ship and new characters but once i put that aside its the best trek since the Berman era (ok maybe tied with LDs)

It’s definitely my favorite show from modern Trek but partly because it feels like a Berman show to me just being episodic and anomaly/adventures of the week story telling again. People have REALLY missed this type of story structure after not having it since Enterprise went off the air. And I will also agree it’s mostly tied with Lower Decks for me as well which is the same thing, just on a wackier level IMO.

Mount should have negotiated terms in his contract to the effect that Spock, Kirk, Uhura, Chapel, can’t steal too much of the spotlight from him as the show lead. (If that sounds crazy, think about it: Shatner definitely would have tried something like this!)

I echo what others are saying here: these writers can’t help themselves. What they really want to do is a TOS reboot, so they’re using SNW as a backdoor to write fanfic where they get to redefine characters we already know so well.

At this rate, Khan himself is going to show up and be the main villain of season 4, and they’ll hand-wave it as an alternate timeline or a fracture in subspace or some other technobabble. Please, please, please, no.

Mount is great as Pike. I believe he (moreso than Peck as Spock) is why the fans clamored for this show to be made at all. SNW should be the adventures of Pike and Pike’s Enterprise. Kirk never should have been brought into the show, except perhaps as a fun cameo in the final episode of this series.

Well put, well put.

At this rate, Khan himself is going to show up and be the main villain of season 4, and they’ll hand-wave it as an alternate timeline or a fracture in subspace or some other technobabble.

No, you give them far too much credit. They will just say something about “wiggle room” because there was nothing saying Khan wasn’t awakened before the Enterprise found it or something just as inane.

LOL, OK, whatever dude.

For those of us who worry about canon and who take Star Trek’s future history seriously, Lower Decks is a much, much larger problem. This is small potatoes compared to having to buy that everything in Lower Decks happens in the Trek future history and is consistent with the Starfleet and UFP that I have always admired.

So yeah, don’t sweat the small stuff regarding SNW canon. We’ve got much bigger problems with this franchise.

If he did that then in 20 years we’d be hearing the supporting actors bitch, whine and moan like Takei, etc. That’s just not a good idea as it creates negative energy camps with the cast

bring back Hemmer! There has got to be a way in Star Trek!

Anson Mount is a fantastic actor. Please don’t minimize his character for Kirk. And please include Una in the stories instead of sending her elsewhere or to jail.

I agree with all of this. Kirk has plenty of time to come into his own. This is Pike’s finest hour(s).

Since if very much sounds like Kirk is going to be interacting with Pike I suppose we can take “season1 on steroids” to me even grander ignorance of Trek lore. Good lord Trek is currently is terrible hands…

>Mount: It’s predominantly live-action for everyone involved, but there are animated elements at different points… I thought it was going to be Roger Rabbit with animated characters following us around… but once they explained it to me saying “No, no no,” I was like, “Oh, that’s actually kind of brilliant,” the way it’s been done.

My guess here. These Lower Deck’s characters will see the Hologram Projector and i bet their personalities will then look like their Animated counterparts.. Perhaps some sort of “Holodeck” Episode

I am very much looking forward to this season because SNW is the best Star Trek show currently in production. But “The Menagerie” is clear on the fact that Kirk only ever met Pike once. So I wish the SNW writers would avoid creating plot hole after plot hole in TOS.