During the TREKtalks2 fundraiser livestream event on Saturday, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds star Anson Mount revealed some details about the upcoming second season of the series.
Things get crazy in season 2
The chat mostly covered the first season and other issues but the discussion briefly veered into the second season of Strange New Worlds, which wrapped up production last summer. Mount said that he felt fans would like it at least as much as season 1, and then talked about how season 2 will build on the first season:
I think that we gained some latitude from the scenes that worked that maybe some people weren’t so sure about that ended up really working well. We got to really go for it this season. So there are some episodes that have never been tried before.
As one example, the actor talked briefly about the previously announced crossover episode:
So for instance, the one that’s already been announced, the crossover with with Lower Decks, is tremendous fun, and straight-up comedy, and we had a blast with it.
Apparently, a comedy episode taking animated characters and bringing them into live action isn’t the biggest new thing for season 2. Mount explained:
That’s not even the craziest thing that we did. There’s one episode I’m thinking of towards the end of the season—and you’ll know when you see it—where it required us to work many weekends. But we we were so excited about it, it was not laborious. We were excited to show up for Sunday rehearsals and all the things we’re having to do to pull together this one episode. We’re really excited about it.
Mount didn’t elaborate on this “crazy” episode; however, what he said adds some context to what co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers told TrekMovie on Star Trek Day last September:
We’re not telling stories without telling stories about character. And that’s really what season 2 is about. But that also means bigger science fiction ideas, bigger stranger worlds, crazier things. We try a couple of things that have never been done on Trek before—personally I believe successfully.
Season one already saw a few episodes that one might consider a bit crazy, including “The Elysian Kingdom” when the crew were turned into fantasy characters, and Pike meeting his alternate future self in the season finale. Maybe season 2 will see the often-discussed musical episode.
Anson Mount in “The Elysian Kingdom”
Fun with Carol Kane
Season 2 brings the addition of Oscar-nominated actress Carol Kane to the cast as Chief Engineer Pelia. Mount talked briefly about what Kane brings to the show:
She is lovely. I love working with her. Obviously, I’ve been a fan of hers my entire life. So when I saw her I was like, “What! That’s crazy.” And I was so excited and it’s so out of left field. But she is so much fun to work with because she has this quality about her where—she’s been doing this for decades—and she has this thing where she never assumes she knows how it’s done and I don’t know how she manages to retain that sense of purity in any given scene… She’s consistently happy and funny and makes the most interesting choices. We’ve been so lucky to have her.
Not much is known about Kane’s role. The Star Trek Day announcement described the engineer as “highly educated and intelligent,” and that she “suffers no fools. Pelia solves problems calmly and brusquely, thanks to her many years of experience.”
Carol Kane joins as new engineer for season two
Season 2 of Strange New Worlds is expected to debut on Paramount+ sometime in this year.
Watch the full TREKtalks panel here, and if you can, donate to the Hollywood Food Coalition.
Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
I’m so very excited for Season 2 of Strange New Worlds! I hope it airs soon!
Hear, hear! What a phenomenal first season.
me too!
*So* excited!
Based on what we’ve heard about production, my guess is SNW S2 will begin streaming the week after PIC S3 ends, or just a few weeks after. Fingers crossed that is the case!!
I’m not thrilled about their choice to replace an interesting alien character with an elderly white woman.
Come on.
I’ll be honest: I’m looking forward to the crossover episode!
Plus, Carol Kane!
Outside of Picard season 3, the LDS/SNW episode is probably is the one thing I’m most excited about! :)
Continue to be curious.
Hope the show focuses more on its non-TOS characters than it did in season one.
Don’t hold your breath lol. I suspect we’re getting plenty of Kirk next season! But the new engineer sounds like she’ll be a lot of fun. But man, I’m still angry Hemmer is gone!
The Hemmer decision burns me up too.
It’s good to know that they are bringing Bruce Horak back in some role, but fridging a representative character (and they’re one really alien one) just to push Uhura’s development is a lazy creative choice.
Writers – especially abled, SWM ones – need to just stop rationalizing to themselves why a certain fridge scenario would be ok. It’s not.
That was a head-scratcher?
I think Kirk is going to be regular guest star on this series because my sense is they are laying for the foundation for a “TOS Continues” series in several years.
As you’ve said elsewhere, with only ten episodes a season, can we not just get at least four or five planet-of-the-week episodes that aren’t burdened with being TOS-prequel focused character points?
I hear you! I just think they have a long-term plan here though for a Kirk series. I’d rather have a Kirk ep per season than a musical or animation crossover though.
But yeah, I’d really prefer just a new ep every week without any of this unnecessary bling.
I hope not. This is pure retro and non-soap at its best. Out zest is for stand-alone episodes that demonstrate human(oid) exploration. You can always go back to ds9 or voyageur.
Stranger New Worlds?
Stranger Newer Worlds?
2 Strange 2 New ∞Worlds
Strange New Worlds 2: Galactic Boogaloo
Christopher Pike and the planet of the Crystal skull
There’s an episode that’s “crazier” than a crossover with LDS… required lots of Sunday rehearsals…never been tried on Trek before…? Sounds like an all-singing-and-dancing episode is coming.
I hope you’re right. Trek’s very first musical episode is long overdue. I’ve been hoping for that since the days of Buffy and Xena…
OMG!
Scotty, beam me out of here. Lol
Been wanting to hear Scotty do the song ‘the scotsman’ for most of my adult life. Maybe somebody else feels the same way, even if it winds up being a different actor in the role.
Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz have sung on Broadway … it’ll be funny if it’s SNW that gets a musical episode first.
A musical episode? I hope so!
Looking forward to the second season very much! Not looking forward to the tremendous wait afterwards for season 3 though. It really is very strange what’s happening with Trek now in terms of no renewal announcements. What’s up with that?
The longer they wait to announce new seasons the longer we’ll be waiting to see anything. At this rate 2024 is looking like it will be pretty empty in terms of Trek content unfortunately.
They may not have decided yet, or perhaps they’re still negotiating contracts. I don’t know any other good reasons for delaying that sort of announcement.
SNW will get renewed. So will Prodigy, LD, and Disco. They want us on the edge of our seats.
We’re not even seeing any of the signals (in the guild lists) that preproduction for either SNW or Discovery is coming soon.
We’ve seen preproduction authorized, and sometimes even production in train before official announcements that new seasons are greenlit.
Currently, it’s radio silence on all fronts while other Paramount productions are going forward and are in post.
If the objective is to avoid subscription churn by offering new Trek 12 months a year, they aren’t going to make it in 2024 and 2025 unless preproduction on something (whether animated or live action) starts now.
I have to wonder if the 6 week hiatus of new Trek this January-February is some kind of test to see whether they will drop Trek subscribers or not if they leave gaps in their schedule, and/or whether they can keep the interest of their core Trek audience with other P+ offerings.
And it’s oddly irregular too – we had the double-feature of the LDS finale and Prodigy mid-season launch, but then the longest gap yet between seasons with the delay on PIC. You think they’d have at least held on to Prodigy for a couple of weeks so the wait for PIC didn’t seem so long. We’ll see how things look in 2023, but if the Trek pipeline is going to slow down and month-plus gaps between seasons are going to become a thing, we’ll probably downgrade from the annual plan.
Yeah. if anything, this mirrors the trajectory of the former UPN. They relied on ST (and black oriented sitcoms) early on to get the network on the map and eventually moved on to more diverse programming.
Have you not noticed that nearly every streaming service is doing a financial reevaluation right now, and cutting back on series? That’s what’s going on.
That’s really what it comes down to. Paramount+ is going to need reasons to renew a ST series these days. What those reasons would be, I have no idea.
All of the streaming services with the possible exception of Disney are in a financial reevaluation mode right now. It’s possible they may have to carve back two series. I think it’s a real possibility that we will not get a Picard’s follow-on, and LDS, given its market is limited, be sunsetted after the next season is complete. If you move forward then with DSC, SNW and Prodigy, we’ll you’ve got the three best franchise expanders there… And then that leaves you the ability to add in the Yeoh S31 series in two years, which is an international market expander
They have to have consistency in year round programming to hold people and get them to buy the annual subscriptions.
Last year’s tanking of share prices for streamers is just that, old news. Paramount Global is one of the stocks flagged for a rebound against is streaming peers.
That said, one of the biggest downfalls of streamers is the churn in subscriptions as people drop and re-add based on current offerings.
The biggest predictor of high churn rates is seasonality in offerings instead of ensuring that subscribers always find something on they are wanting to see right away. That’s why Disney+ isn’t making it with one new SW or MCU offering per quarter.
I can see that. Looks like it’s year-to-year now.
As far as the future, Paramount has already said that any future ST series will be shot in Toronto, and I don’t see Patrick Stewart (who insisted PIC be shot in LA) agreeing to relocate, so a PIC/TNG spinoff might not happen*. It’s kind of hard to imagine that SNW won’t get another year, and I would think that DSC would be afforded a true “final season”. Any further series would have to wait until DSC wraps up.
*This, of course, doesn’t preclude other actors from relocating and relegating Stewart to occasional cameo appearances. Seems to me, though, that the most likely venue for a TNG continuation is a streaming movie, or series of streaming movies.
I agree with all of this — good post.
Yeah it’s really unusual. And as Anduinel said, the scheduling out of the shows has been strange too. It’s odd that they didn’t space the content out more if they new that there would be no renewal announcements being made, so perhaps you’re correct about this particular hiatus being a test of some kind.
I’m not really sure about this but surely less Trek content with big gaps in between would make an annual subscription to Paramount+ for Trek fans less attractive, especially given the growing cost of living concerns that people are experiencing?
We do know that we have season 2 of SNW, Season 3 of PIC, Season 4 of Lower Decks, Season 5 of Disco and Season 2 of Prodigy yet to come. All of those are either completely finished or close to being finished.
Season 3 of PIC is the only one with an official release date so I am going to assume that Paramount will decide to drip feed us this new content over a greater amount of time because of the fact that none of the shows are in development for their next seasons yet and take over a year to finish. Instead of getting one show following the next like we have been enjoying, we might only get PIC in Feb, SNW in May/June and DISC in August/Sept.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing season 2 of Prodigy this year at all, and they could push Lower Decks to next year too, or towards the end of the year/ beginning of next year.
It’s all very strange. To have gone from proudly announcing shows and renewals and so much content in development to radio silence on all fronts so suddenly…I’d love to know the reasoning but I doubt we’ll ever know.
The reasoning is that all of the streaming series are in in a re-evaluation/belt tightening mode right now. Just read the trades — it’s not mysterious or strange.
We at least still have more new season of all the shows! So we’re locked in for this year at least, But yeah maybe some of them will start to go. The most obvious is Discovery IMO because its now the dinosaur of the group. It could go seven seasons but it would be the obvious one to drop if they are going to start scaling back.
I think the animated shows are safe because they are probably soooo much cheaper lol. But they can all still get renewed. Until they say a show is ending I’m assuming they will all be back another season.
Yeah I think you’re right about DISCO. I think it’s one of the most expensive Trek shows to produce too, so there’s also that.
I know it has its fans but it does also seem to me to be the one that people are least excited to see returning, although I could be wrong in that.
I wish the comments section had a poll feature so I could test it out!
DSC has significantly expanded the franchise with younger and more female fans. Prodigy has been a big hit with kids — again expanding the franchise. SNW is getting tons of media attention worldwide — expanding the franchise. So these are the series that the bean counters will prioritize.
The two shows right now that are just focused on existing and older core Trek fans are LDS and Picard. So if you are looking to cut budget, I think those two series are likely to be discontinued — for LDS, probably after the next season, and for Picard, I predict that they will not approve a follow-on or a Gold Girls-Janeway/Seven series. Picard will end and that will be it for any near-term TNG/Voy-derived series.
That poll you suggest for would not tell you anything, since the vast majority of fans posting here are the older core fan types — so the survey would not capture the fan growth markets begin captured by SNW, DSC and Prodigy…so such a poll would be rather meaningless.
Has it? I’d be interested to see where you got that data from.
I’m surprised they haven’t cancelled it 2 seasons ago! 😂
I don’t think anyone is really watching this show.
I believe Discovery has a decent audience. I think they all do, it’s why they keep getting renewed lol. I just never believed it had a huge audience but I feel that way about all these Trek shows. It’s not a Discovery thing, I just don’t believe they are pulling in tons of subs outside of the fanbase mostly. It would be nice if we got some actual numbers from these shows.
Maybe but the only show I don’t care about getting cancelled is Discovery. Four seasons of dire story telling.
Sure if has it’s fans but I think most are just hate watching at this point. It’s become a melodrama in space and cry baby Burnham makes the rest of us cry for a different reason
I think more people will be relieved it’s over than upset about it… until we get the Tilly Academy show to replace it…then most will be begging for Discovery again! 😂🙄
I would hate for Lower Decks to get cancelled but people actually like that show so it would be a shock. Same for Prodigy or SNW .
But you’re right we don’t know how they are doing. I think Picard is still the biggest show out of all of them and not a big fan of that one either.
I think everyone is waaay jumping the gun overall. There has been NO rumors, ANYWHERE any of these shows are on their way out. Even the usual suspects of NuTrek haters who has predicted Discovery getting cancelled for four straight seasons now (including some people on this board lol) has not said a peep about that show or any other about any rumors. And I’l be honest, if there some inkling that show was done we would’ve probably heard about it from any of these people celebrating it’s death like I imagine you would lol. I’m on the fence with it quality wise, but I don’t think it’s really going anywhere.
In fact, the people running the shows have made clear they are still developing a Section 31 show and that Picard could get a season 4. This was both said within the last two weeks. So I don’t think there is anything to worry about, at least right now.
But if what people are saying IS true and it’s a money issue, just seem like simple math to me, period. The more expensive shows would be on the chopping block vs the animated shows which has much less overhead unless they are paying Mulgrew an insane amount of money to be there lol.
But again I don’t think any show is leaving. Picard and Discovery just seem the most obvious if that was the situation. Of course if those were bringing in more viewers, then that would be different. I don’t know if Picard is the top show but the fact they are even considering another season when they made it clear the third was the last does says a lot. I think they are going to see how well season 3 does and then make some decision about another season, spin off or just call it day. If it’s good, REALLY good and get fans onboard and they are calling for more, sure that’s a possibility too. If it’s bad though…yeah probably not lol. Again I’m not saying it IS leaving. just based on basic math at the moment.
My gut feeling is that SNW is pulling in the most, for no other reason being the newest and a lot of fanfare behind it. But until we just get SOME numbers, it’s a shrug to me. All I know is they are on the air right now. I can’t make a call beyond that.
And if I only had one show to save, it would probably be Prodigy for sure. That’s NOT why I don’t think it’s getting cancelled lol. I think as said, it’s lower in cost and it’s only in it’s first season like SNW. I will be honest though, I have a feeling Prodigy probably gets the lowest number because I think a lot of people are still not into the idea of it being a kids show and haven’t watched it at the level of the other shows. All just a guess and that’s the show I want to keep on the most lol.
Just being honest.
And I wouldn’t shed a tear if Discovery was cancelled either. And if fifth season just feels ‘meh’ like the last two, for me, I think I’m just going to just sit it out the next season. But if it was on the chopping block I do think we would’ve heard SOME rumors by now because a lot of people really do gun for this show lol.
Bro don’t kill my dreams of killing Discovery!!! 😭😭
Just having some fun y’all. Relax. You’re probably right too and it may stay on for six more seasons! 😱😱
But then if that keeps away a Silly Tilly Academy show then it’s probably for the greater good? Did I just say that out loud!?! 😭
The one show I would keep on air is Lower Decks. Prodigy second and SNW third. I would want LDS to stay on for 10 seasons but I know that’s crazy lol.
No clue how popular it really is but unlike Discovery and Picard at least people like it!
I’m still not on Picard season 3 but if it pulls out real TNG Trek, I’ll pretend like the first two seasons never happened!
LOL well I been pushing LDS to have 7 seasons and a movie, but yeah maybe I should hedge my bets and ask for 4 seasons and a Tendi spin off just in case!
Nah, I’m still fighting for my seven seasons and a movie WITH a Tendi spin off! I just raised the game! ;D
I wouldn’t have an issue with a Tilly academy show as long as it stays in the 32nd century and I don’t love Tilly either, but I can tolerate her. I just want more 32nd season shows which is sadly the one thing that has kept me semi-interested in Discovery lately. It’s so frustrating I WANT to like this more…but ugh.
But that’s the thing about Discovery it’s so far in the future now it doesn’t really matter because it affects nothing. Love them or hate them all the other shows really ties in to both the universe and each other.
And then there is that crew 1,000 years into the future. If it gets cancelled tomorrow what does it affect in terms of the other shows or universe?? N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!
I like the era but another reason I don’t care it gets cancelled. It feels like JJ verse, just that other thing doing something else on the side that has no bearing on stuff that matters in the Star Trek universe.
If you like the show then I guess it doesn’t matter but why should anyone care if they don’t? I guess that is the one salvation! WE DON’T HAVE TO!!!! 🤣
I still think a Tilly Academy show will destroy the universe though. Especially if that crying Kelpian joins the Academy and the Klingons pick on him. 🙄
I think if you want just a CLEAN SLATE and kind of fresh start, then yeah I think plenty people cares about the show and being in the 32nd century in that regard. Because it’s trying forge a new direction in the franchise, which I’m ALL for!
And maybe that’s also why it has brought in some newer fans (so they say!) because it’s like TNG again when it was new. You don’t have to know all the minutiae of those other shows and canon and maybe they can feel more connected because everything is new to the characters as it is them. IDK, I’m just throwing it out there. Maybe they are watching for Jett Reno and Linus. That’s why I watch lol.
The problem is so far they REALLY squandered it IMO. They took two interesting story lines and just turned it into a melodramatic slog both times. Season 3 was better but I h-a-t-e-d the ending and all the silliness with the Emerald Chain. Season 4 had IMO one of the best Star Trek story lines in decades…and by the end I just didn’t care anymore.
This show is soooo frustrating for me. Other shows had in the past like Enterprise but not on this level and not in it’s fourth freaking season.
But like you said, if you don’t care about the show, then no, it doesn’t matter if you are focused on the TOS and TNG eras which most fans are devoted too. And neither off those eras are going away.
For me the two periods I’m excited to see more of is the 25th and 32nd century because they are both pushing Trek forward FINALLY! But then they are represented by my two least favorite shows at the moment so it’s very frustrating lol.
(And I have to make this clear so people don’t think I have it out for these two shows. That’s NOT why I think they are first to get cancelled if they have to scale back shows, it’s just age and budget end of day. And yes Picard is already technically cancelled lol…at the moment)
I don’t want the 32nd century to go away. In fact I want the opposite, but you still have to tell better stories in it. I don’t really care if Discovery gets cancelled but then if it does will they develop more shows in this time period?? I really hope so.
Picard blows as a show but it’s probably setting up a lot of stuff for the next show and bring in more TNG characters and story lines that fans cares about (please don’t suck season 3 🙄).
But does anyone care about whats next with the 10c aliens or Emerald Chain lol.
The restoring the stuff was OK and they blew that too!!!!
But for people who like it guess so. For most people seem more interested in stuff that carried storyline in 23/24/25th century.
Restoring the Federation… missed a word 👍
I have NO doubt people care about the 23rd-25th centuries more overall. Especially if you been watching it for 50 years lol. And to be honest, even if they cancelled a specific show like Picard for example, we’ll still get a post-Picard show because it’s what fans REALLY want at the end off day. It may not be a Janeway, Dax or Riker show to replace it but it will be something in that era again. I’m not remotely worried about stuff like that. Even (just as an example) SNW didn’t go beyond season 2, something will replace that too. Yes maybe a TOS show, I HOPE not but yeah, it’s all possible.
The point is they have built up these periods for years. I want them to go forward like Discovery did but you have to be naive to think we’ll ever truly leave periods with so many characters and story lines to mime for probably another 20 years.
And I’m convinced most of the casual fans sign up to watch Picard, Spock and Janeway more than having something new. At least everywhere I read, including here, it’s a demand for more legacy characters, not less. I think we’ll be getting post-Picard shows for a long time. You can’t unring that bell now.
Yeah I don’t care too much if Picard gets cancelled but I still want a Janeway or Worf show after it! 😎
I am liking SNW a lot, it’s fun. but I think most fans who grew with TNG will always want to continue in that period. I can’t complain because we have three new shows there and probably more coming. And I like we get the original actors too.
Prodigy sounds like next season will be amazing and be a bigger Voyager show. I’m probably excited about that one the most now.
I’m hoping Picard is really good though and we’ll get more TNG stuff if fans love it. 🤞
I complain a lot but I’m excited about a lot of stuff. Never knew I would ever even care about NuTrek. 😁
You would be thinking incorrectly. Discovery is not only my favorite Star Trek show, it’s my favorite TV show of all time. Everyone I have introduced it to, Star Trek fans and non-fans alike, have loved it and waited for each new season with excitement. Discovery started the current resurgence of Star Trek’s popularity and continues to lead it into the future.
TG47 cited Parrot Analysis that Picard and Discovery has brought in newer and younger viewers, which I can believe. That still doesn’t mean they are most viewed overall, but I admit that is a positive for both.
I still think Discovery days are winding down either way simply because the show is getting older but I think it’s getting another season regardless as I said.
I’ve seen it for myself where at a Creation Convention in NJ a bit over a year ago SMG had double the audience that the Shatner and Picard sessions had, and many of the fans attending hers were there just for her session, and there were tons of younger fans, and many more females fans than for the other convention sessions. I asked the registration folks, and was told that they had a huge segment of 1-day registrations from the NYC metro area for fans there just for her session.
Additionally, this is reinforced by some data analytics one fan posted here a couple of months ago that showed DSC has significantly high numbers of viewers.
Again, if you are P+ and Kurtzman and you are getting the message from the corporate suits that you need to tighten you belts, you need to stick with the shows that are growing the franchise — DSC, SNW and Prodigy — and you need to sunset the series that are only being watched by the older core fans — Picard (i.e. no follow-on series) and Lower Decks.
So yea, I don’t think we get any follow-on series to Picard, and I think the next season of Lower Decks will be the last. It’s unfortunate, as I don’t want to see any of these series’ being cancelled, but those series are simply not franchise growers.
Subscriber churn is still a thing. It has to be weighed against the economics of longer runs for shows that don’t mirror Broadcast (hence why the streamers tend to cancel legacy shows in favor of new ones), but there’s a reality that cancellations get people to tipping points on cancelling.
Lower Decks has started to get real acclaim and wedged its way into fans’ affections as well. And it’s cheaper than the live action shows. Its premise suggests a finite run as the characters are all competent and can’t be ensigns forever, but there’s a reason so many animated shows last more than 5 seasons.
That’s what is great about Lower Decks it could go on a long time.
I was listening to Cirroc Loften podcast and he loves the show too and thinks it can go like The Simpsons. I’ll watch it every year! 😎
The irony is I think Lower Decks has the best chance to go the longest out of any show because as said it is not only much cheaper but it has become adored in the fanbase.
Sure it can be done after it’s fourth season, I just don’t remotely think it will be. And oddly it has become the ‘glue’ for modern Star Trek IMO. It connects to all the classic shows very well and maybe it will start connecting to the new shows too as we are seeing with the SNW crossover.
It is funny though, if you asked me before it started, what show do I think would be cancelled first it would’ve been this one. But I thought there was going to be a lot of hate and backlash over it lol; especially considering what DIS and PIC went through in their first seasons. I thought LDS was going to have an even worse reception than those but by some crazy miracle the opposite happened.
It probably has, I consistently see Disco chats in places like Reddit that aren’t just closed loops amongst legacy fans. But the rest of their post is still supposition. And while Paramount may think the millions of legacy fans will tune into everything, not just LD and Picard, that doesn’t mean they don’t see the value in keeping that fanbase more specifically catered to. Behind a paywall, everyone’s money is valuable.
As we saw with the Kelvin movies, you can’t rely on the new fans like the old fans. That’s the problem end of the day. The entire model of the Kelvin movies was to build and grow a new fanbase outside of the oldies whose been watching since TOS and it ultimately failed. Of course the other issue is they needed a LOT of new and devoted fans to make those movies more successful. It’s not the case with the shows.
And while I agree many times over the franchise NEEDS new fans to keep growing, you can’t expect them to be committed like the old fanbase. If any of these new shows is really pulling in new fans, that’s a huge positive. But end of the day they know for a fact it’s still going to be the old and casual fans who will happily pay to watch it at a devoted level and will want to keep them happy.
But yes if Discovery and Picard is really bringing new fans as apparently Parrot Analysis shows (IDK personally, but I trust TG47 implicitly) and its a LOT then yeah both shows should stay on without a doubt and go on if it has the viewers. But without any real data, no one really knows.
EDIT: Or was it just Discovery??? I thought TG47 said both Discovery and Picard gained new and younger viewers in another thread?
The Kelvin movies proved the new fans could be fairweather friends, but the question for Paramount is how many of us from the TNG heyday they can get back to pay for Paramount+. The hardcore fans basically amount to whomever was still watching Enterprise worldwide, and that’s a good amount behind a paywall, but they clearly dream big and have to find the sweet spot of aiming higher while not angering the legacy fans as happened with STID.
To me it’s very very obvious how much they think old fans are still the main draw.
A. They’ve changed basically everything fans were screaming about on shows like Discovery and Picard while from Lower Decks to Strange New worlds were obviously meant to appeal to old fans first and foremost. And not a shock why LDS, SNW and PRO are so popular in the fanbase and why DIS and PIC are more divisive. Sure part of it is the writing and overall quality, but its really the tone of those shows as well which didn’t feel like Star Trek to a lot of fans. And now Picard is turning into TNG season 8 and Discovery has had so many changes and facelifts at this point, it probably doesn’t recognize itself in the mirror anymore lol.
B. You wouldn’t be throwing in so many legacy characters in the first place. At the moment there are nearly 60 legacy characters who appeared and a few of them has appeared on more than one show. And you’re only giving someone a name like La’an Noonien Sigh that name to appeal to everyone who really really loved TWOK. And every show minus Discovery for obvious reasons has said more are coming. I wouldn’t be shocked we got the main cast of Voyager showing up on Prodigy soon and a few more TOS characters on SNW. Matalas has also promised we’re getting more DS9 and VOY characters on Picard. And yes, its NEW characters. Some of the people who already seen it confirmed it. So yeah Janeway, Bashir, Dax, Tuvok, etc could all show up.
To me none of this screams “we’re really trying to get the new adoring fans onboard.” It screams the opposite, ‘we really really want to keep the old fans happy as possible.
Fans think Discovery sucks being in the 23rd century, let’s solve that problem and throw them in the future. You want the classic Klingons again, you got them on the animated shows, Worf is (thankfully) Worf again and we’re just going to pretend the others didn’t happen, OK? You really missed episodic Trek, here is both Lower Decks and SNW to give you one off adventures again. You (kind of) like Picard, but it’s still not TNG enough…well here is the entire cast back. You’re not sure about watching a kids show aimed at 9 years old? Well here is Janeway again and Voyager centric going back to the Delta Quadrant , how about now?
Sure they want new fans but the direction they been taking these shows since Picard has been nostalgia bait like crazy. And my guess it will only get crazier if fans are really asking for the Picard spin off show (which according to everyone whose seen it, think fans will be begging for one).
What’s even funnier about season 3 of Picard, some confirmed you don’t even need to watch the first two seasons and it basically just ignores those story lines. It feels like a direct continuation of Nemesis 20 years later. And this is the show they said has also pulled in newer and younger fans, but yet it sounds like it’s basically directly aimed at TNG fans again. Why dramatically change something if you got so many so-called new fans and just let it be?
So I don’t really subscribe to this idea Paramount is trying sooooo hard to grab newer fans. Obviously Prodigy but the rest doesn’t feel that way at all as shown above. ;)
Discovery could be very very very popular. Want to make that clear lol. But the reality is nobody actually knows. It’s all a guessing game and I don’t pretend to know which shows gets more views than others until Parmount+ just show the numbers.. But it made it to a fifth season it’s probably doing OK obviously.
But yeah I suspect as most shows, the longer they go, the more expensive they get. And most streaming shows don’t have the same life span as network or even cable shows. Most of them seem to be done around their 5th season. There are definitely exceptions but it’s probably not going to go that much longer regardless, again based on what most streaming shows usually go for. The fifth season could even be its last which wouldn’t surprise me.
Now, ALL that said, I could be wrong. But I think if it’s a money issue then the more expensive shows could go first and that could Discovery and Picard. But Picard is going anyway, but could imply no spin off either.
But if I HAD to bet, those would probably the two on the chopping block. And I don’t want either to go, certainly if Picard season 3 is actually good. I don’t want ANY to show to go lol.
I hope not! You either love musical episodes, or you hate then and I’m firmly in the latter camp!
I enjoy West End/Broadway musicals for what they are. I’ve disliked most musical movies, the only real exception being LA LA LAND and perhaps Spielberg’s WEST SIDE STORY.
I definitely don’t think the format maps well onto Star Trek, where the sci-fi nature of the beast requires some suspension of disbelief. The same is not true for one-and-done musical movies, like LA LA LAND.
Also, Trek actors (setting aside Celia Rose Gooding and Nichelle Nichols) aren’t cast for their abilities as vocalists.
And I really, really don’t trust NuTrek’s writer’s room to come up with music of Andrew Lloyd Weber or Lin Miranda-Manuel quality.
I fear this will be the Trek version of the CATS movie.
My Fair Lady, The King and I, and The Sound of Music are great. La La Land I consider 2 hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Agreed! Lol
Agreed on THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I had forgotten that one. Have to confess I’ve never seen MY FAIR LADY beyond the “Rain in Spain” number.
By George, I think you’ve got it!
It‘s like po-rn. If I want to see a musical or a po-rn movie then I’ll watch a musical or a po-rn movie. I don’t need to see either format templated into Star Trek, thank you.
Episodic Trek has always be experimenting with tone and format.
Yes, there’s a few regulars here who will never forgive the existence of ST IV The Voyage Home, but is the favourite of many.
The franchise’s dignity will survive.
But ST IV The Voyage Home is standard Star Trek? It’s actually more like the series than any of the first three movies. I saw nothing groundbreaking in ST IV terms of blowing up the format like with force-fitting musical numbers or animated comedy crossovers into that movie?
TVH is absolutely standard Star Trek, particularly the 23rd century parts! You can argue the comedy is dated, corny, or not really Star Trek’s strong suit (all of which I’d agree with), but there have always been comedic episodes, like “Piece of the Action.”
Exactly!
I know this is going to sound crazy, but if any of the classic shows did a musical, it’s DS9 I can see doing one. I know it sounds so left field lol, but DS9 actually did a lot of experimenting on that show. And they had plenty weird and fantasy based episodes too. So I can see it.
EDIT: OMG, I forgot all the Vic Fontaine episodes! There was tons singing on that show thanks to that character. That’s not the same as musical but again, it proves that DS9 NEVER had an issue getting out of it’s comfort zone.
Vic Fontaine is a huge reason why I’ve never bought this “DS9 is the best Star Trek evah” argument that some people make.
VOY’s cast had the best comedic chops, and indeed “Virtuoso” was a quasi-musical episode. It wasn’t a bad episode, and the musical numbers were organic, since the Doctor was actually performing. But Picardo, versatile actor that he is, was still no Whitney Houston.
You always say this lol. No one is forcing to like the show, right? It’s been my best Star Trek show ever…or for last 20 years though! ;)
I make that argument because I really really really REALLY love the show!
But you make an excellent point Voyager and especially the doctor. Yeah a very talented cast as most so they could pull off a musical too. The Doctor could just do a one man opera…but yes no Whitney Houston lol.
I didn’t say I disliked DS9! I said it’s not my favorite.
No it’s just the way you phrase it, as if you are shocked WE love it so much. But I’m probably just reading it wrong. So no worries!
Haha yeah the epilogue of the DS9 episode where the crew saves Vic from the “Jack in the Box” program is classic. The Best is Yet to Come duet with Sisko and Fontaine is so good. In fact, that song is really hard to sing in that key and the performance by both the pro Darin and actor Avery Brooks is pretty impressive!
Celia is a broadway trained singer and I would imagine that many of her other SNW cast mates can also sing… so dont be surprised to eventually see some singing and maybe even a whole musical episode!
Good to see you DeanH!!! :)
I love Badda-Bing Badda-Bang! Just a fun episode (I know many people here hate the holodeck episodes but just the opposite for me with episodes like this). I’m not into musicals either but I think DS9 could’ve pulled it off! It was the first time I heard Avery Brooks sing too!
I don’t know about the suspension of belief thing and Star Trek not fitting into the format. It takes as much effort to imagine a universe where a crying alien can wipe out space travel for a generation as it does one where everyone sings all the time. Both are pretty ridiculous, but in general suspension of belief just comes with the territory of fiction.
And to me it seems pretty plausible from everything we’ve already seen in the grand diverse tapestry of the world of Star Trek where there is a planet out there in which the inhabitants communicate mainly through song. To me that idea doesn’t seem too far fetched; a first contact mission whereby our Enterprise crew would have to communicate by singing. That’s how I suspect we’d see the musical aspect manifest itself, not just in a random “we’re now breaking out in song” episode. We’ve seen species who communicate through allegories like in Darmok, through telepathy like species 8472 and through emotion-conveying hydrocarbons like the 10-C. Communication through song seems more realistic in comparison to some of those.
And just a note on the music; if it ever does comes to light the SNW writer’s room may come up with the lyrics but if Nami Melamud is behind the scoring then I doubt we have anything to worry about really musically-speaking; she’s proven to be such an excellent talent and overall incredible addition to Star Trek with her work on both SNW and Prodigy.
I don’t know about the suspension of belief thing and Star Trek not fitting into the format.
Maybe not for you, but for me, it’s a worrisome issue I have. I have had to really force myself to live with LDS being real Star Trek — that’s been a real suspension of disbelief struggle for me as a fan. A musical ep I worry would tear apart the fourth wall in terms of how fans view this series.
Except that particular plot point went over like a lead balloon; the best that could be said was that it wasn’t yet another new alien race hellbent on invasion.
That’s not a terrible idea, actually, at least from a believability standpoint. Rather like “Virtuoso” mentioned above; there would be a reason for the singing.
Whether this is something I *need* to see depends a lot on the execution, though. They’d need to come up with the next “Memory” or “Last Night of the World,” and I just don’t see the musical composition or singing talent there to do that for a one-hour weekly episode, although admittedly the current format of 10-episode seasons makes it more possible than the TNG format of 24-26 episode seasons, where execution was always rushed.
They sorta work as long as the cast can sing. But shows like “Once More, With Feeling” on Buffy were hampered by the fact that only Anthony Stewart Head and Amber Benson could carry a tune.)
Same! I’ll stay open minded though.
I won’t lie a musical episode sounds really really bad to me and I love this show. But I’m going to be positive about it.
And it can’t be worse than Threshold, TATV, The Fight or Code of Honor. These all hunt my dreams. 🙄
2024 will probably start with the second half of PRO S2. As for the other series, I’m sure we’ll get announcements soon. We’re only halfway through January.
I’m less than optimistic with this description. TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT: none of these were hyped as being “crazy.” Wonderous, yes, mysterious, yes, exciting, yes. “Crazy,” no.
All I can say is: we’ll see.
“Strange” New Worlds. Perhaps the showrunners are emphasizing the Strangeness of space and storytelling. (moreso than other Trek series. Not apposed to this if handled correctly. Perhaps Mount’s choice of words is “crazy” means weirdess or strangeness. Ir Perhaps just taking more risks
Well some stuff on enterprise was so bad I would call it crazy. The decontamination chamber scenes, the changing of the Vulcans into Prejudiced a-holes, and the fan service Klingon augment virus were all kind of nuts.
I think you mean “arrogant” more than “prejudiced.” And Vulcans were always depicted as arrogant — there was that “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” episode on DS9, not to mention Tuvok throughout VOY’s run (where it stuck out like a sore thumb, much more so than on ENT).
Good point!
To be fair none of those had to sell subscriptions to get people to watch either!
I been saying this for a long time now, there are probably still a lot of people not willing to just pay for these shows all year unless there is some big hook to keep them coming back and why I’m not shocked we have so many legacy characters showing up and now getting quasi TOS, VOY and TNG sequels/prequels with PIC, SNW and PRO.
There are a lot of hardcore fans like us who will blindly watch anything but I still suspect we are not the majority either. There are probably way more casual fans who watch a particular show, etc. That obviously is the case since not all these shows gets the same amount of views, we just don’t know what they are.
FWIW, I unsubscribed from Paramount+ not long after SNW concluded its first season, and I plan on re-subscribing in February. I plan to watch Prodigy season two then, since the first season was surprisingly good and the second has good reviews. Unsurprisingly, I don’t have any firm plans to watch Lower Decks, but who knows, if there’s a stray half hour or what not and it strikes my fancy, I might.
I subscribed to Netflix in between, so as to watch Better Call Saul (in the UK), Borgen season 4, and The Crown. Having watched those, I unsubscribed today. I may subscribe to HBO for a month to watch season 2 of My Brilliant Friend.
(I have Amazon Prime, so I am a continuous subscriber to that.)
My own hunch is that there’s quite a bit of this “cafeteria plan” style subscribing going on, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the streaming services introduce a monthly discount to people who commit to subscribing for, say, a year.
Dude, I’m just happy you actually like Prodigy lol. So that’s a big positive at least. And while I was certainly more supportive of the show than you from the beginning (that’s not really hard ;)), I’m still surprised how much I ended up liking it. It’s currently my favorite show with the new shows, but also probably because I got two Janeways out of it lol.
I would love if you started to like LDS more too, but I do think that’s a much bigger hill to climb! ;D But I’m an optimist!
As far what services I have etc, I’ve actually gotten sweet deals on a lot of them. The Black Friday deals for these services are great when you can get them. I’m paying $2 a month for Hulu and I attached the Disney+ add on which is only $3 extra. I have Peacock for $1.00 and it’s for the whole year. And for the second straight year I got P+ for $50 for the commercial free annual plan. So when you add those up, I’m roughly paying $10 a month for a year for four services and P+ is fully paid already. But the catch is you cancel, you lose those deals (but D+ is always just $3 when you add it to Hulu).
The only two services we’re paying full price on is HBOmax and Netflix and my girlfriend pays for those. ;)
But I think you’re right, there is probably a lot of yo-yo subscriptions so they are trying to entice people to stay for on the year instead of dropping at their whim…it’s working for me lol. Those Black Friday deals are amazing!
It could be crazy GOOD though right?😀
It’s a musical episode, 100%. That’s the only thing I can think of that they would be working on over the weekend. Gotta get the choreo right.
Sci Fi version of a musical … race communicates through percussive tapping, so you have the crew having to ‘dance’ their words. Imagine DARMOK done with Flamenco dancers stomping out morse code (or don’t — I’m not a big fan of that show like most folks.)
That’s interesting…perhaps that might be the only way this would make sense.
They really know how to nail it at SNW. A great first Season – and now a S2 with Carol Kane. I’m looking forward to it!!
Mount and Peck are so manly they had to bring in another woman to balace things out 😉.
Given the tons of rehearsals comment it sounds like we’re getting a a f’ing musical ep, and that’s in addition to that silly animated crossover ep. I’m just hoping we get six or seven apps that are ‘voyage of the week” eps like we’re supposed to be getting in this series — if that happens then it will ameliorate the two or three crazy eps that the prolific clown show types here are going to wet their pants in enjoyment over…lol (-:
Prolific clown show types? Are you serious?
Just out of interest, why do you not like the idea of a musical episode, or an animated crossover episode?
I was joking — hence I used both an “lol” and a smiley face.
I respect Star Trek as a science fiction future history. That’s why I am not crazy about a musical ep and an animated comedy series crossover…that’s just too cute for me and not needed — and it reduces my hope that what we are seeing on screen could represent our future in space.
Precisely.
Gotta say, though: I still don’t get your dislike of ENT. It had more of a sense of future history than any other Trek series, which is why I like it.
Well it started with me not being able to stand Archer, the NX-01 and the theme song. And then there were a lot of boring eps early on, and then a lot of unnecessary fan service pandering eps later.
This is a really strange comment to me.
Star Trek may be science fiction, but it’s still fiction. It’s an imagined future created and developed by many different people over decades that is not the reality of what our future will be. I think you may need to reassess your hope that what you’re watching is representative of our actual future as you’re going to be really disappointed not only by reality, but by Star Trek going forward.
Look, Star Trek has always told stories in different ways. In the Berman era those ways were a little more subtle and honestly, a bit unimaginative given the possible scope that the concept allows. What I’m talking about here is that some episodes leaned into comedy, some were more serious, we had some horror-themed episodes, we had a few courtroom dramas here and there etc etc etc, but I think we all got used to seeing Star Trek as told in one very particular and confined way and that’s the idea many have of what Star Trek is and should be.
But with new minds comes new perspectives and ways of telling stories. And at the core of it I think that that’s what NuTrek is aiming for – exploring how the ideas and elements of Star Trek can be told through different types of storytelling modes, expanding it out in terms of genre, medium and tone. So Star Trek can be an emotion-based space opera (Disco), it can be a slapstick comedy (LWD), it can be a very serious drama (PIC), it can be an episodic adventure where anything goes (SNW) and it can be wholesome and hopeful family-friendly fun featuring an indestructibly charming blue blob (PRD). While we’re at it it can be a time-travelling rom-com (TVH) and it can be big budget blockbuster revenge story (Into Darkness). Some might resonate with you, some may not, but at the end of the day it’s all just people out there trying to put their own creative spin on Trek.
Musicals and animation are just other mediums in which to tell stories. They’re as valid as any other storytelling conventions. You may not personally like musicals, you may find it hard to believe that an animation is Star Trek becasuse it is not told through a live-action medium that we’re used to seeing Star Trek presented in, and you may find it hard to accept an exaggerated comedy as canon, but they’re all just ways of telling stories. Stories that you have to suspend belief in regardless because let’s face it Klingons are not real, the Eugenics Wars didn’t happen in the 90s, Jean Luc Picard will never actually exist.
I think the creators of SNW are just trying to push the envelope with different ways of storytelling within the Star Trek world and trying out new things. We already watched in season one how they played with genre and took advantage of the episodic nature of the show by creating a comedic episode (Spock Amok), a horror episode (All Those Who Wander), and silly farce (The Elysian Kingdom). Sure, some were good and some were not but I think it’s an exciting way to take Star Trek into new areas it hasn’t been seen before in terms of how they tell the stories.
What I’m getting at here is Star Trek is ripe for reinvention and interpretation. For me anyhow I’m not shackled to the idea that Star Trek is, or should be, one thing. Why can’t a Star Trek story be told as a musical? Why should Star Trek stories always be serious? This is entertainment and I’m really excited about the potential of seeing Star Trek expressed in new ways. I’m already suspending my belief because none of this is real, so going one step further to animation or musicals isn’t hard at all. It’s just a new way to experience and enjoy Trek.
Final warning for trolling
CLOSED
I just want me some Star Trek!
Exactly, we got enough shows with gimmicks and “look at me” bling stuff already.
Expect the unexpected as the next season puts the Strange New in Strange New Worlds. This isn’t your father’s Star Trek yet in some ways it is your father’s Star Trek. Warp factor: bananas. Launch angle: Barry Bonds.
Maybe even a cameo by Danny DeVito as Spocko?
I don’t know, Pike acts like my dad… only not black! 😁
But then my father hated Star Trek so I certainly isn’t his Star Trek!
Totally stoked.
I been saying since October I think SNW is getting a musical! I’m not pushing for it since I’m not a musical person, but that seems to be the consensus more and more. But if a lot of us are wrong, what else could it be? It’s a real question lol. They keep going on and on about it, so it must be something truly weird and different.
But if it is a musical, I think it will be fun. People seem to like SNW for the same reasons they like LDS, because it’s light and fun. It’s not a comedy like LDS but it’s a pretty comedic show overall. It doesn’t take itself THAT seriously and people just like being entertained and not feel stressed out like watching Discovery lol. So a musical actually seems perfect for the tone of this show.
It’s comfort food Star Trek in all the best ways possible!
I suppose another option would be to film the episode as a stand-alone episode, apart from the rest of the series, where the cast breaks out into song without any explanatory foundation such as “percussive communication” or “musical notes as language.”
That is what THE WEST WING did with “Isaac and Ishmael” after 9/11; they wanted to acknowledge the event without it affecting the show’s canon.
Again, though, the whole thing just sounds gimmicky and “lookie me,” as Normal Necks wrote above. There’s an obvious reason a show about politics would want to acknowledge 9/11. That’s not true of Star Trek musical episodes.
I think they could do it just like they did with the Elysium Kingdom episode which was very standalone obviously and put them in some kind of alternate reality vibe where everyone sings lol. I think if it is one, it will be some fantasy type thing.
Actually I saw another interview with Anson Mount a week ago discussing whatever this episode is and he specifically cites Elysium Kingdom the reason they were allowed to do it. It sound like it convince the higher ups they can do big fantasy stuff successfully and why I think it will be another alternate reality thing.
Is it gimmicky, of course, but there’s been a lot of gimmicky Star Trek in the past and some have been very good. But yeah this can go very badly.
Although it tied up M’Benga’s season one arc well, “Elysian Kingdom” was no masterpiece; it was better than the DS9 Rumpelstiltskin episode, and the VOY Flotter stuff, but this doesn’t bode well.
Regrettably, I’m prepared for this and the Lower Decks crossover to be the moment when Star Trek jumps the shark. Perhaps more optimistically, it might be like James Bond fighting in outer space in MOONRAKER, or his invisible car and CGI surfing in DIE ANOTHER DAY: something so ludicrous it shakes the writers out of their complacency, returning them to a more grounded vision.
As Phlox would say OPTIMISM!!
I liked Elysium Kingdom but it was on my lower side of episodes. Probably my 3rd least favorite of the season?
Again you can be totally right. I really don’t know but I was generally happy with season 1 so I’m more upbeat about it. I’m just happy the LDS characters will be live action. I didn’t really expect to see that at all and if it did, probably that show’s last season.
OMG if we get anything like the surfing scene like DAD, I think I’ll stop watching both shows! ;D
Musical episode sounds plausible, if they had to show up for Sunday rehearsals and work more days on it but still had fun, this points towards rehearsing dance choreography and singing.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of shows changing the format that drastically. I remember in the 2000s a number of shows did that, like Buffy. And there was also a HIMYM episode where every line of dialogue rhymed. I often find it more distracting from the story of the episode than enjoyable. But we’ll see how it turns out. Looking forward to the LDS crossover and I’m genuinely curious how they’ll pull that one off.
I agree actually. I seen a few of those (never seen a Buffy episode in my life but I know about the musical episode) and some of them are fun but kind of distracting too. I remember Fringe did a musical episode, it felt SO weird because I had no idea that’s what it was until I watched it. Not bad, but really did feel out of place overall for the tone off that show.
I think Alex Kurtzman seems to really want to do it. He seems like he wants to shake the franchise up as much as possible. He was the one who asked them to do the LDS/SNW crossover too. These can all be huge disasters lol, but I am really looking forward to the crossover and we’ll have to see if the other is a musical or not. But I’m open-minded about it.
But based on an Anson Mount interview on another Trek site, he made it sound like the entire season is going to do some really goofy things. But yeah they did it first season and I liked all of them personally. Elysium Kingdom could’ve been stronger but still fun! But it sounds like season 2 is going to be nuts lol.
The musical episode for BuffyTVS worked because a) the writing was just that sharp and b) enough cast members could actually sing so it was easier to carry those who could not.
Strange New Worlds is the new Trek show to pull this off, because the format is episodic. This could also be a big tie-in for the new Carol Kane character.
That’s actually a great point, because the show is episodic again, it gives them the chance to just do anything they want with it. And I think after DIS and PIC where they can’t really take the show any direction they want, SNW has kind of been the guinea pig they can either redo a lot of their favorite Trek tropes and story lines or simply just think big in a creative way.
Like others I certainly have my doubts over doing a musical, but I also push for these shows and films to be as creative as possible. So I would feel like a hypocrite if I was soundly against it, at least until I see it. And like I said, with the show’s lighter and playful tone, it does feel perfect to do something like this with. Hopefully it will be good.
I think everyone bemoaning a possible musical episode will have to brace themselves for what the creators are trying to do with Strange New Worlds in general.
From things that Anson Mount has said in the past I feel like the creators are treating SNW like an anthology series of sorts and are really taking advantage of the episodic format, but instead of the characters and story changing each week, the medium, tone and genre of the storytelling is what is being played with. which we already saw signs of in season one with the Gorn horror ep, the body-swap comedy ep and the Elysian fantasy ep.
I like this.
Star Trek has always told stories in different ways, but in the Berman era those ways were a little more subtle and honestly, a bit unimaginative given the possible scope that the concept that Star Trek allows for. What I’m talking about here is that some episodes leaned into comedy, some were more serious, we had some horror-themed episodes, we had a few courtroom dramas here and there etc etc etc, but I think we all got used to seeing Star Trek as told in one very particular and confined way and that’s the idea many have of what Star Trek is and should be.
But with new minds comes new perspectives and ways of telling stories. And at the core of it I think that that’s what NuTrek is aiming for – exploring how the ideas and elements of Star Trek can be told through different types of storytelling modes, expanding it out in terms of genre, medium and tone. So Star Trek can be an emotion-based space opera (Disco), it can be an 2D animated slapstick comedy (LWD), it can be a very serious legacy drama (PIC), it can be a big-budget episodic caper where anything goes (SNW) and it can be a wholesome and hopeful family-friendly CGI-rendered adventure featuring an indestructibly charming blue blob (PRD). While we’re at it it can be a time-travelling rom-com (TVH) and it can be big budget blockbuster revenge story (Into Darkness). Some might resonate with you, some may not. But they’e all just different ways of telling these stories.
What I’m getting at here is Star Trek is ripe for reinvention and interpretation. For me anyhow I’m not shackled to the idea that Star Trek is, or should be, one thing. I’m really excited about the potential of seeing Star Trek expressed in new ways. I’m already suspending my belief because none of this is real, so going one step further to animation or musicals isn’t hard at all. It’s just a new way to experience and enjoy Trek and I look forward to the silent episode, the black and white episode, the stop-motion episode, the musical episode or whatever else they want to do because it’s about time we’ve seen Star Trek expand into new creative avenues and storytelling modes.
Just rewatched season one of SNW again last week. It really was well done. The decision to take Hemmer out was jarring, I agree, as he was a truly interesting new character to the franchise. Doubling down on calling out the bad choice to make La’an a ‘Khan’ descendant, no reason for it. I also agree with those who think we’ll see more of legacy characters (the mis-cast Kirk, sadly and who knows who else), but once I let the canon-bending/breaking go, season one was a fun ride. I just consider it a slightly alternate universe, personal choice. But first, season 3 of Picard – fingers crossed, the show will finally be good for its last season, and The Mandalorian is coming back on March 1! Looking forward to both.
As usual we fully agree Danpaine! :)
SNW was really fun its first season. Like LDS and PRO, I thought I could like it but ended up way more than I did. I didn’t love every episode but I loved most. I think the reception was so good because this is what Trek fans wanted back in 2017, just fun one off adventures again. Once again, they been listening and now we have a show (I think) most fans are really enjoying.
Yeah I still don’t get the point of La’an. The character is fine but it was so unnecessary to make her connected to Khan and just make cannon messier, not enhance it. And I really don’t like the new Kirk and I think it’s waaaaay too fast to introduce him but maybe he’ll grow on me next season.
But outside of that and canon issues like the Gorn, I don’t have any huge issues with the show. They captured the right spirit and tone. And even MORE surprising, it’s actually well written. ;D
Does anyone know if/when music from Strange New Worlds will be available? I don’t see anything on iTunes except a fan-made track, and I guess Star Trek music doesn’t come out on CD anymore. (The last CD I found was Discovery Season One.)
Plz, plz don’t devolve into soap crap.