So, with Star Trek Strange New Worlds airing and already doing well, I thought I’d create
a quick primer for those who are interested in checking out the series, Trek fans or not
to be able to jump in to the adventures of the Enterprise, without having to go back
and sift through all of Discovery and the original series.
There will be no spoilers for Strange New Worlds, but I will include relevant details
from other shows, drawn from media that was already common knowledge before episode 1
of Strange New Worlds.
And just a quick note, the Star Trek 2009 film, and its sequel movies have nothing to
do with this series, that’s set in its own self-contained continuity.
First up, the series is set in the year 2259 which places it one year after Star Trek Discovery
season two, and 6 years before the original series with Captain James T. Kirk.
However, it is set on board the same ship, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 and some of the
characters that will later go on to appear in TOS are beginning to make their presence
known, but we are seeing them at an earlier point in their careers.
At this time, Kirk is still a lieutenant would have been coming to the end of his career
on the USS Farragut but soon to be making a name for himself.
He does have a brother in Starfleet too though who unfortunately dies in 2267.
There was a pilot episode for the original Star Trek called “The Cage” set in 2254,
which featured several characters that would later be dropped in favour of the 2265 crew,
and it was from this pilot episode that the crew of Strange New Worlds is primarily derived.
First off, we have the Captain Christopher Pike.
Born on Earth, from the Mojave, this captain was in command for the Enterprise from 2250
until 2264 when he hands over command to Captain Kirk and he himself accepts a promotion to
Fleet Captain, stepping away from the bridge.
His first officer is “Number One”, real name Una Chin-Riley, who has been his XO since
2254 and a close friend.
By the time of Kirk, she had also stepped away from the Enterprise and is generally
regarded as a genius in Starfleet.
Then there is Lieutenant Spock, the science officer in Pike’s time, who remains aboard
the Enterprise after Pike’s promotion and takes the position of First officer, replacing
Una and serving besides Captain Kirk, becoming one of his best friends.
We also see Cadet Nyota Uhura in Strange New Worlds, another character that would return
6 years later as the communications officer and linguistically gifted officer on the original
series.
This marks her first time aboard the Enterprise, as part of her training.
Alongside this, we also see Nurse Christine Chapel, who is on medical exchange on the
Enterprise and will later return in Kirk’s era as a permanent member of the medical team.
Alongside this, we have M’Benga as the chief medical officer, who has taken over from Philip
Boyce, and will later serve alongside Leonard McCoy.
There are a couple of new characters too, La’an Noonein-Singh, who is the chief of
security and is in some way related to Khan Noonein-Singh, a noted villain of Star Trek
canon and eventual rival of Kirk.
Hopefully that won’t be held against her, as Khan isn’t around for another 8 years
(he’s in cryosleep).
There is the helmsman of the ship, Erica Ortegas, who is a relative unknown and Chief Engineer
Hemmer, a species called the Aenar who are telepathic but blind.
These character’s fates are unknown, and they are all in red shirts.
Just saying.
So that’s the crew, on to the plot.
This series did spin out of Star Trek Discovery and as such has some events that are tied
to it.
However, many of the events of Discovery season 2 were technically classified by Starfleet,
so while there are personal plot elements left over, a lot of it will not be mentioned
or addressed outside of certain characters in the know, Pike, Spock and Una mostly.
This is because throughout Discovery’s career, it visited other dimensions, got involved
in stopping illicit Section 31 operations, and was the testbed for numerous top secret
research and development technologies.
It ended up vanishing into a time vortex to the 32nd century and Pike covered up the disappearance
as a malfunction caused by the aforementioned illicit Section 31.
On board the vessel was a Commander, Michael Burnham, who was an adopted sister to Spock,
and the classification of Discovery’s fate is in part to give a reason as to why she
was never talked about openly again by her brother.
The other biggest take away is that during all of these events, Captain Pike bore witness
to his own future, a future we as an audience were aware of from the original series, which
as a reminder, is set 6 years after Strange New Worlds.
In 2266, Pike is taking part in a training cruise when a malfunction endangers the cadets
and he stays behind to evacuate them from the engine room.
He saves them all but is horribly dosed with Delta Radiation, leaving him to become wheel-chair
bound and only able to communicate through a single light.
Pike has seen this outcome for himself and has been told it is unavoidable, so that is
something he will have to come to terms with.
The last thing to bear in mind for the show, is that it has seen a complete visual overhaul,
even though it’s a prequel to The Original Series, the ship, sets, uniforms, aliens,
almost everything has been redesigned to look more modern than the original, which does
look dated.
Whether that appeals to you or not, that is the route they have gone with it and it is
not indicative of it being set in an alternate universe or anything, unless we are explicitly
told this is the case in the shows.
So that is about everything you need to know if you are going to check out Strange New
Worlds.
It is a more episodic format, akin to the first six series and a deliberate attempt
to recapture that classic style of Star Trek with a modern flair.
For my part, I tend to agree with the common consensus that it has worked out, so far.
Unfortunately, streaming rights and annoyances like this have prevented it from having a
world-wide release on official sources.
Thanks for watching and let me know if you’re curious about this series or if you’ll be
checking it out.
I’ve been Ric, goodbye!