‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ almost homage to original series
With “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” now streaming on Paramount+, the franchise goes once again into the past, with a series you can consider both as a spinoff from “Star Trek: Discovery” and a belated order for the original series’ rejected pre-Shatner pilot, “The Cage,” which starred Jeffrey Hunter as starship Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. When “Star Trek” repurposed that footage into the two-part “The Menagerie,” it made Pike canon and established that he and Spock were crewmates before James T. Kirk entered the picture.
Before it jumped 1,000 years into the future, “Discovery” brought back Pike, played by Anson Mount, as an interim captain in its second season, along with Ethan Peck as a younger Spock and Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley, aka Number One. And here they are, back home on the Enterprise, with some other familiar, less familiar and unfamiliar shipmates.
Characters with roots in the old show include Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), still a cadet, not yet a lieutenant, but a “prodigy” who speaks 37 languages; nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), a recurring “Star Trek” character; and Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), a guest character now getting a regular gig. New are Christina Chong as tough-cookie security officer La’an NoonienSingh (as in top villain Khan Noonien-Singh, a relation); Melissa Navia as pilot Erica Ortegas; and Bruce Horak as Hemmer, an Aenar Andorian and the new chief engineer.
What “Strange New Worlds” brings back is some of the Buck Rogers brio of the original series, on whose opening theme it plays a minor-key variation. Like all pre-streaming “Star Trek” series, it’s episodic in nature, rather than serial, with problems that can be established and overcome in an hour. The plots, reflective of contemporary social issues feel close enough in spirit, even the letter, to the original series to call this almost an homage. There are alien temples and libraries, inspirational speeches, an ever-popular infection story. In time-honored tradition, the least expendable officers go on the most dangerous missions. And based on the episodes available for review, there is seemingly little interest in soap-operatic shipboard relationships, unlike, say, the teary love fest that is “Discovery.”
That isn’t to say some characters don’t get a little back story, or a secret to keep and reveal when the time comes. Psychology creeps in everywhere these days. But dealing with personal trauma, gaining closure, resolving their own issues do not seem to be what will mainly occupy the crew of the new old Enterprise.
Peck catches the essence
of Nimoy’s Spock, inhabiting the character rather than imitating the actor. Mount more or less ignores Hunter’s midcentury-masculine Pike — indeed, dark premonitions notwithstanding, he might be the chillest of all “Star Trek” captains. And Romijn, who has her own chummy relationship with Pike, makes Number One feel like a person with more weight and canonical influence than the character was ever allowed to have.
The franchise always means to be funny, even at its self-referential expense, and “Strange New Worlds” might need a little time on this account, as characters get to the point where a raised eyebrow can serve as a kicker.
It is in the “Star Trek” way of things to get a little cornball, a little goofball, a little silly. This is more feature than bug. Earnestness has the edge over sense; science, if you want to call it that — it often amounts to magic here — just serves the drama, the philosophy and the themes. The real mission of the Enterprise and every other ship in the franchise fleet is to spread understanding and justice to the stars, while perhaps learning a thing or two about human limitations in the process.