“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!” – Captain James T. Kirk
Since William Shatner breathed life into Gene Roddenberry’s words in 1966 and Patrick Stewart twenty years later with his continuing mission, the phrase “Strange New Worlds” have been chiseled in Trek vernacular. It should go without saying that one of the latest additions to the Star Trek legacy would celebrate and carry the namesake from the intro fans have heard for decades. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds isn’t just a new addition, it fills in a part of history that we as fans only received glimpses of in The Original Series. Let’s delve deep into the origins and overview of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The Strange Origins to Star Trek Strange New Worlds:
The Original Series “The Menagerie Part 1 & 2” –
Before Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, its humble beginnings started in the very first Star Trek series. Halfway through the first season in The Original Series, we get a two-parter as we tag along with Kirk and Co. arriving at Starfleet Base Station to see Captain Pike by his request. Then, we see the impossibility of that request, Captain Pike was involved in a horrific accident that left him marred and paralyzed from the neck down and can only communicate in the simple form of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ via a flashing light on his mobile chair.
As the episode unravels, we find Mr. Spock commits some sort of mutiny in order to hijack the Enterprise to Talos IV. Afterward, he is brought to trial to tell the reason why Spock engaged in the insurgency. It is here where we see Captain Pike on the bridge of the Enterprise for the first time in a ‘flashback’ of sorts, as Spock shows the tribunal video recordings of him and Pike on a past mission. OG fans would have to wait 50 years to see Pike on the Enterprise again in Discovery and more in depth in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
In the end, it is revealed that Spock’s reason for overtaking the ship was to bring Pike to a place that would provide his former Captain a happy ending. A place where the Enterprise crew met the Talosians, a species who can create life-like illusions on Talos IV, and would make it seem as though Pike is no longer paralyzed. He could then live out his life as his former self with Vina, a romantic interest he met there years ago while on Talos IV.
This two part episode was edited from the original Star Trek pilot episode named “The Cage”. After Star Trek was picked up, the captain was recast to William Shattner. And later, in order to catch up with their filming schedule, Roddenberry wrote “The Menagerie” by using chopped up pieces of the pilot to make the episode. And even later than that, we’re shown clips of “The Cage” in a small recap at the beginning of episode 8, season 2 of Star Trek Discovery to illustrate that Pike has already met Vina on Talos IV.
All throughout the 90’s Golden-Age of Star Trek we hear mutterings and nods to Pike, there’s even a “Christopher Pike Medal of Valor” given to Sisko for his actions during the Dominion War in DS9. It isn’t until Discovery, where we actually see Pike and his crew again. Season two of Discovery set the stage for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as a spin-off. A young Captain Christopher Pike takes command of the U.S.S. Discovery in season 2. Here we are introduced to Spock, Una, and other characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that have their origins in The Original Series.
Not only does this season act as a prequel to Star Trek SNW, but also it shows an evolution of character in Christopher Pike in command. During the exploits of Discovery Pike learns to live a little looser than this TOS counterpart, for example to power the warp drive, instead of saying “Engage.”, he now has his newly minted signature command – “Hit it.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:
After Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set to take a lighter tone than that of their recent predecessor. Instead, Star Trek Strange New Worlds injects humor in tense situations, gaiety to an otherwise bleak situation and brings heart-filled storylines in the cold confines of space. It marks a return to fun-loving, more episodic Trek as opposed to the heavily serialized and dramatic Discovery.
Strange New Worlds starts approximately seven years before The Original Series takes place. Here’s a quick timeline to break it down:
- 2254 Star Trek: The Original Series – Pike commands Enterprise on a 5 year mission, portrayed in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”. Pike and Spock meet Vina on Talos IV. They have to reason with the Talosians to let Pike leave the artificial reality they’ve created for him and Vina.
- 2258-2259 Star Trek: Discovery – Pike takes command of Discovery
- 2259-2264 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Pike commands another 5 year mission of the Enterprise.
- 2265 Star Trek: The Original Series – Kirk takes over the command of the Enterprise on his own 5 year mission.
- 2266 Star Trek: TOS and SNW – Pike involved in an accident while teaching cadets.
- 2267 Star Trek: The Original Series – Spock steals Pike away to Talos IV to live in an artificial reality with Vina, happily ever after. And they say Vulcans aren’t romantic.
While Pike was on a mission on the Discovery, he actually catches a glimpse into his fateful future, finally depicting the accident that leaves Pike paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak. Pike has the choice to change that future, but in order to save peoples lives, decides to still live it out. Spoilers for Star Trek SNW ahead!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Arcs:
Season 1:
- Starting a new five-year mission, Pike is still haunted by the future that he saw himself in and struggles to try to find a way to subvert it.
- This season sets up the Gorn (yes, those Gorn) as a real and present threat, shedding away their comical past and taking on a new form, resembling somewhat civilized raptor/Xenomorph-like predators.
- As many series before, Star Trek Strange New Worlds also takes on the issue of augments and adds another layer to the Trek lore. It is revealed that Una Chin-Riley, the First Officer of the Enterprise, is an augment. This leads to SNW’s pivotal Season One climax where Number One is arrested to stand trial.
Season 2:
- Off the cliffhanger of Season One, the trial of Una Chin-Riley comes to roost as she has to defend her decision of lying to Starfleet about her being an augmented Illariyan.
- Throughout Strange New Worlds’ first season we explore the private life of Spock but it’s really in this season where it kicks into high gear when he gets in touch with his human side.
- The Gorn war begins! And escalates to the extremely intense cliffhanger! The Gorn have captured half of Pike’s command crew and Admiral April has ordered the Enterprise to retreat.
Individual Journeys thus far in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:
Captain Christopher Pike: Pike’s character defining end sees him trying to change his devastating future that’s been foretold, coming face-to-face with people involved in it and making hard decisions to sacrifice one life for the lives of many.
Mr. Spock: Probably the character going through the most changes is our beloved, pointy-eared companion. In the first episode, Spock gets betrothed to his Vulcan fiancé T’Pring. They do a ‘Freaky Friday’ and swap bodies in some classic Trek hijinks, and during his engagement ceremony, his Vulcan side disappears letting his emotions run wild in the worst possible time. Again, lovely hijinks. All of this while he starts to have a strong, romantic, connection with the newest addition to the crew, Nurse Chapel.
Number One, Una Chin-Riley: With her first appearance in “The Menagerie” episodes and later in Discovery, her identity and species gets one of the hardest tests in the show. The Eugenics War is a major plot in the Star Trek timeline, with Ricardo Maltoban’s Khan being the major baddie, from which Starfleet outlaws any augmentations. However, this law comes into question when one of their own, in their highest rank, turns themselves in to stand trial.
Nyota Uhura: Yes, the iconic Uhura is on Pike’s crew! Not as an officer, but as a Cadet, learning the Starfleet ropes and unsure if flying amongst the stars is for her. SNW goes more in-depth in her traumatic past and inspiration for joining Starfleet with her parents and brother all dying on a shuttle when she was young. Like her first name, her backstory was taken from the Kelvin Timeline and brought into the Prime. Between seasons Uhura becomes an Ensign.
Doctor Joseph M’Benga: Though his character originated in TOS, it’s really in Star Trek SNW that Doctor M’Benga has delved into his backstory. In preserving his daughter’s life, he’s gotten the crew into a few kerfuffles. His particular history takes a stark turn as we take a look at his service in the Klingon-Federation war.
Nurse Christine Chapel: Another character in TOS, we are treated to an ambitious Chapel as she navigates her feelings for Spock, and her life goals as she gains the prestigious fellowship. A fellowship that drives a temporary wedge between their newly found relationship.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds Quick Episode Guide:
If you’ve seen the first two seasons and want a quick refresher, or perhaps you want to see a particular episode summary, look no further! Here’s a quick recap of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes:
- Episode 101: Pike, dealing with his future in depression and isolation with his girlfriend, Captain Batel, is convinced to come back to rescue Una from an alien planet. In order to do this, Pike has to circumvent General Order 1 and broker peace on their planet. Oh yeah, and Spock is proposed to by his lady, T’Pring.
- Episode 102: The Enterprise is gonna blow stuff up in order to save a planet from an impending comet, however, before they can blow the comet up, there’s an alien race charged with protecting it and guarding its trajectory. Turns out, the comet is sentient.
- Episode 103: The whole crew gets a contagion that makes them addicted to harmful lightwaves, even if it costs them their life. Una, who is an augment, is immune and saves the ship. The virus came in because Dr. M’Benga had been keeping his terminal daughter inside a phase buffer in an old transporter system to keep her ailments at bay by hindering her aging. He materializes her every now and then to read her a fairy tale.
- Episode 104: Gorn attack! Luckily, La’An has experience with Gorn from her childhood and mind melds with Spock. They head into a black hole and trick the Gorn into believing the Enterprise explodes by ejecting a destabilized air filter when out of sight. The Gorn leave believing it was the Enterprise that blew up, but we’ll meet up with them later.
- Episode 105: Admiral April needs Pike and Spock to help with negotiations with a species to join the federation, there’s only one problem: Spock has swapped bodies with his fiancé T’Pring! Cue hijinks! A fan favorite episode of Star Trek SNW.
- Episode 106: An ethically complex episode! The Enterprise saves an attacked shuttle’s occupants, a child and his protector. It turns out the child will be sacrificed to be a religious battery to keep their planet copacetic.
- Episode 107: Space pirates try to take over the Enterprise, however, this is just a smokescreen as one of the colony’s leaders, Angel, is actually one of the pirates! Angel’s real objective is to trade Spock’s life for her lover, who is being rehabilitated by T’Pring on Vulcan. The twist at the end? Her lover is Sybok! Spock’s villainous brother.
- Episode 108: This is one of those episodes. The Enterprise finds themselves stuck in a fairy tale story, with the same characters from a book Dr. M’Benga reads to his daughter outside the phase buffer. Turns out it’s a sentient nebula they were passing through and was using M’Benga’s daughter to communicate. This leads to her leaving the phase buffer and joining the nebula as M’Benga says goodbye to his daughter. This ending is great for cutting onions, stubbing your toe or when your allergies really make your eyes water.
- Episode 109: Rescuing some refugees, one of them is infected by chestburster Gorn. Hemmer is an unfortunate casualty but makes a hero-death before he goes. This death hits Uhura the hardest as he was acting as a mentor to her and makes her decide to stay in Starfleet and go for an ensign position.
- Episode 110: Pike meets one of the cadets who will die in the accident that will paralyze him. Facing the future full of dire consequences that happen if he tries to prevent that cadet from dying, he then has to wrestle and accept the ethical dilemma. Pike does not warn the cadet, which will lead to the cadets death but bring a more beneficial future. Just when Pike is appreciating his current state, knowing his future but loving serving with his crew… TWIST! The season ends with Una Chin-Riley getting arrested for being an augmented humanoid.
- Episode 201: Spock, with a few trusted crew members, steals the Enterprise while it’s on dock to answer a distress call from La’An. They stop a Klingon war from restarting and Spock tries to drink Klingons under the table like La’An has been doing on the planet for a while now. They forge an important alliance due to the impending Gorn threat, so Starfleet looks the other way. Little do they know that Spock will steal the Enterprise again. Oh, Spock! You ship stealer, you.
- Episode 202: The Trial of Una Chin-Riley. Pike hires an Illyrian attorney to defend Una and she knocks it out of the park, Una relays that she was a refugee and everything she did after was to the letter in Starfleet protocol… even though she lied about who she is- an augment. Starfleet gives her a pass and she rejoins the Enterprise.
- Episode 203: Time travel episode! A mysterious man gives La’An a device before dying, sending her back to an alternate timeline where she has to prevent a Romulan from killing her ancestor, Khan, which would prevent the Eugenics War. During which she forms a meet-cute with James T. Kirk. Oh, the drama.
- Episode 204: The Enterprise crew loses their memories while the away team gets held captive on an enslaved planet. Pike starts a revolt while Ortegas pushes past memory loss and drives the ship to safety based on instinct, towing the asteroid that was affecting people’s memory away. The slaves of the planet and Enterprise regain their memory and autonomy back.
- Episode 205: Another fan fav. Spock and Chapel get hit by an ethereal entity, causing Spock to lose his Vulcan half. He has to deal with his human emotion while going through his engagement ceremony. Classic Star Trek Strange New Worlds hijinks! In the end, even though Spock makes it through the ceremony as a human, a task almost impossible, T’Pring suggests they take a break because he kept this hijinks from her. Also, at the end, Spock acknowledges his feelings toward Chapel and they share a kiss. Yowza!
- Episode 206: Uhura is getting strange hallucinations that depict her fallen comrade, Hemmer. She finds out that these visions are actually from an undetectable species being torn apart while refining deuterium.
- Episode 207: Crossover and time travel episode! Lower Decks invade Star Trek Strange New Worlds! Ensign Boimler and Mariner travel back using a portal that is later stolen by Orion scientists. Thankfully, they figure out a way to come together and send them back… to the future.
- Episode 208: An interesting episode. A Klingon ambassador of peace, Dak’Rah, is hosted on the Enterprise, however, Chapel and M’Benga remember him from the war and know him to have ordered the killing of civilians. Dak’Rah claims that it was his crew that did so without his orders and that he killed them and defected after learning what they did, giving him the nickname “The Butcher of J’Gal”. M’Benga confronts him privately; he knows Dak’Rah’s story is false because the Doctor is, in fact, the Butcher of J’Gal. An ambiguous struggle happens leading to Dak’Rah’s death. M’Benga claims it was self-defense… but… was it? M’Benga says “I didn’t start the fight.” Was he talking about his self-defense or was he talking about the Klingon War? The layers in this episode cannot be understated.
- Episode 209: A musical? In Star Trek? How can it be done? Hologram gone awry, you say? WRONG! Uhura tries to communicate with a space entity that makes everyone break out into song, even a Klingon ship nearby (A Klingon ship that has the best interlude in the episode’s final number, btw). Pike and the crew find a way to eliminate the song and dance before Klingons take it out.
- Episode 210: The Gorn finally make their move against Starfleet and take out the USS Cayuga and a human colony, ripe for harvesting. Pike leads an away team to find his gf and other survivors, they find Batel but she’s got Gorn eggs inside her but also finds Scotty who has a solution for Gorn not to see them. Spock and Chapel strengthen their relationship after thinking Chapel was slain on the Cayuga. The away team gets captured by the Gorn and Admiral April tells Pike to retreat just as the Enterprise is surrounded by Gorn ships. What a cliffhanger to Season 2 of Strange New Worlds!
What’s Next for Strange New Worlds?
FINALLY Season 3 is here, we’re getting answers to things already set up in Season 2 and 3. Fans cannot wait for more episodic sojourns with very delicately placed character development. Will one of the Enterprise bite the big one? Will Pike find a way to bypass his own fate? If the timeline changes will a lot change with it? Are Spock and Chapel resigned to their TOS relationship fate?
Speculations have been hitting the roof, not only for this season, but for season 4 with the puppets trailer recently released but also season 5.
Join Starfleet!
If you’re digging what Star Trek Strange New Worlds is doing, why not experience it for yourself? July 2025 Fleet Command will drop its new Strange New Worlds arc. Play your favorite character, build your own fleet and command your own missions. Join Starfleet today! Play Star Trek Fleet Command and dive deep into the Star Trek universe! Join the adventure, build your fleet, and explore the final frontier with other fans.
