Star Trek Strange New Worlds is set to return to a TOS style of episodic storytelling, and what better way of doing that,
than taking a look at Aliens from the previous Star Trek Series, in the words of Captain Pike, let’s hit it!
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
The upcoming series of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which will feature the great Captain Christopher Pike in command of the USS Enterprise
before the captaincy of James T. Kirk,
might be revisiting some legacy trek alien species from Star Trek: Enterprise, let's take a look!
Be warned, this information does come from leaked set pictures of the final episode of Strange New Worlds, so potentially spoilers will be inbound, you have been warned!
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According to several leaked set pictures from the Strange New Worlds production team during filming of the final episode of the upcoming series,
Antarans will be showing up, with scenes of anti-war protesting.
It seems like this final episode of the season will have some anti-war messaging within it.
Before we delve deeper into this and what it might mean, let's take a look at the history of the Antarans,
for those who might not know who they are and how they fit into the Star Trek Universe so far.
The Antaran species were first introduced in the Enterprise Episode “The Breach” where the NX-01 Enterprise,
under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer, rescued a ship of Antarans,
one of the crew was badly injured and required surgery,
but refused aid as the Enterprise’s Doctor, Phlox, was a Denobulan.
There are generations of bad blood between the species Antarans and the Denobulans, and for good reason too.
The Antarans were the targets of several brutal military campaigns by the Denobulans. Yes the same Denobulans which the ever so happy Dr Phlox is a member of.
However they weren’t so friendly during the 19th century,
where their military campaigns caused the death of 20 million Antarans.
During these campaigns, it was alleged that Denobulan doctors committed war crimes, by experimenting on captured Antarans to learn about their anatomy.
This is one of the reasons why Hudak, the injured Antaran brought to Enterprise,
refused to be treated by a Denobulan Doctor.
Fearing he might also be experimented on, due to the stories he was told of the past conflicts between his and Doctor Phlox’s people.
These conflicts brought bitter prejudice between the two populations.
Both sides made the other into faceless enemies that they despised, and passed this hatred onto their children,
and didn’t try to reconcile with each other even 6 generations after the wars had ended, not even meeting each other.
Doctor Phlox decided to treat the Antaran, despite his prejudice, as he had taught his children to embrace other cultures, and he would be hypocritical if he did not do the same.
After Hudak was told about how Phlox had taught his children to not fear the Antarans and to make opinions based on experiences,
Hudak eventually allowed Phlox to save his life and let himself be operated on by someone, who only hours prior he despised.
Hudak, with children of his own, would later go on to tell his children this, and teach them in similar ways to how Phlox taught his children.
Now the Legacy of Hudak, and by extension, Dr Phlox may be what we might see in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
As stated previously, the set pictures seem to have Antarans in them, carrying placards and signs which say messages like “Stop fighting”, “stop the war” and “No pride in Genocide”.
Credit to Jörg Hillebrand who was amazingly able to translate these signs.
There are also pictures of Sign-posts saying “Fire Route” and “Department of Defence”,
so presumably this riot is happening outside a building related to the Department of Defense,
and they are deciding to go to war with someone, and some of the population is against that.
We see groups of not only Antaran civilians.
But also what look to be Antaran Scientists.
They are clad in scientific looking outfits, and in one shot they are even following someone in a red dress, who could be some sort of leader of the Antaran government perhaps?
Now if there is a protest on a planet, why is this going to involve Pike’s Enterprise.
If this is Antaran, then at this time they could possibly be a Federation Member.
We know that there are at least Antarans in Starfleet during the 2380s so 100 years later,
but we do not know if the Antarans have joined the Federation.
If they have Joined the Federation, it would make sense why the Enterprise is sent there,
possibly to stop them from going to war, as it is probably seen that Federation Members shouldn’t conduct wars.
Bear in mind, there is a lot of precedent for Federation members during this TOS era to not be the pinnacles of virtue they have to be by the TNG/DS9 era.
During the time of DS9, you can’t become a Federation member if you have a caste system in place,
or if you have an unstable government. But during the TOS era the rules of Federation Membership were slightly laxed.
It could also be viewed that Federation Membership rules are lessened during times of conflict,
as we see this with the Evora during Star Trek: Insurrection, where the Federation expedited their application,
in order to recover losses suffered during the battle of Sector 001 and during the Dominion War.
This could be a similar practice now, after the Klingon-Federation war and the control incident seen in Star Trek: Discovery’s first 2 seasons.
However, what if the Antarans weren’t Federation Members at this point of time,
then the reason the Enterprise would visit them could be that the Antarans have decided to go to war against a Federation Member,
and that Member could be none other than the Denobulans.
It stands to reason that the Denobulans would be an early member of the Federation,
being present during both the talks to form the Coalition of Planets and the Founding of the Federation.
The Antaran government might have decided to declare war on the Denobulans, giving in to their hate against the Denobulan people.
The rioters then, who are protesting against the war, could be the children of people like Hudak and Phlox.
Parents who teach their children that Denobulans are not this faceless enemy and that the sins of the father are not the sins of the son,
which is a message Trek has gone into before.
With such a storyline, you not only have Star Trek: Enterprise references,
which are sorely needed in modern Trek,
but an interesting story about generational hatred and how we should not give in to it in order to make a better world.
Strange New World’s should strive towards such messages in their episodes,
echoing that of previous trek and not having such messages be the result of a whole season of episodes,
but of standalone episodes to get across a larger breadth of messages about how to strive towards not only a better future but a better self.
What do you think about this? And if you were to bring back something from the Star Trek Enterprise Era of Trek,
what would you bring back? Let us know in the Comments section below!
That’s a wrap on our latest video talking about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,
be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments as per usual, because if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it!
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For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!