Star Trek Strange New Worlds: A harmless yet forgettable series

Any Star Trek-related review should, I think, begin with a declaration for context. A disclaimer to clarify where a writer sits on the Trekkie fandom spectrum on a scale of newbie to casual fan to Klingon cosplayer, and how familiar we are with this universe. 

Personally, despite my unshakeable nerd inclinations, I never fell into Star Trek fandom and its many, many, many recent reimaginings and offshoots. Where I did fall for this world, however, is through the insanely fun Chris Pine-led movies which remain among the most underrated blockbuster trilogies in recent memory.

Those movies served as the origin story of the legendary James T Kirk (Chris Pine) as captain of the USS Enterprise, under the guidance of retired Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Timeline-wise, Strange New Worlds takes place some years before that and follows the adventures of a younger Captain Pike (Anson Mount) as captain of the Enterprise.

Joining him on his deep space voyages is a richly diverse cast of his fellow crew members. There's Una 'Number One' Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), a young Spock (Ethan Peck, grandson of Gregory Peck, as the gentlest, least interesting Spock yet), young Cadet Ahura (an endearing Celia Rose Gooding), and security officer La'an Noonien-Singh (a joyless, permanently sulking Christina Chong) among others. Their mission? To explore strange new worlds, seek out new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before.

'Strange New Worlds' is theoretically a sequel to the second season of 'Star Trek Discovery' and for those, like me, diving in with but a basic understanding of these characters, the references to events in Discovery can be disorienting. Thankfully, creators Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman and Jenny Lumet ensure 'Strange New Worlds' is accessible to newcomers and invite us to strap in, sit back and just go along for the intergalactic ride of funky space adventures on the fancy spaceship.

What struck me early on during the first two episodes (five of the first season's ten episodes were sent to critics) is just how simple, shallow and watered down the proceedings are, especially considering the screenwriting royalty (Goldsman) and world-building wisdom (Kurtzman) behind it. The first episode, for example, is essentially Rescue Mission Impossible with the crew trying to go undercover to save one of their own who's imprisoned on a planet consumed by civil war. And in this world, Captain Pike making an impassioned speech at the end of the episode can immediately bring peace to both sides. But it gradually becomes clear that there's a self-awareness to Strange New Worlds' corny simplicity that works in its favour. These are bright, optimistic, large-hearted adventures, each advocating peace and unity.

"Anyone wanna tell me how a comet can put up a forcefield?" The more imaginative second episode follows a bunch of religious space monks sworn to protect a comet that's on a collision course with a neighbouring planet. A race-against-time episode that involves our heroes saving the day by literally singing to a comet (I wasn't kidding about that corniness). 

The third and fourth episodes bring in a much-needed sense of urgency and higher stakes, dealing with a contagious pandemic aboard the Enterprise, followed by a space shootout with the Gorn. But even here the action-ness of the show feels benign and unremarkable. There's a sense of disjointedness in the cross-cutting between the external view of the Enterprise taking a beating, and the internal view of the crew members onboard the ship.

In the end, what you're left with is a pleasant, watchable series that has its heart in the right place and works best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. But it's that very enjoyable genericness that makes it unable to transcend passive viewing, rather than the kind of show you'd actively return to week after week. A more fitting title might have been Star Trek: Familiar Old Comfort Watch, but I guess that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.