Paramount Pictures
The arrival of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2022 marked a return to the legacy franchise’s roots.
Leaning into the episodic storytelling and tonal variety that have drawn audiences into the Final Frontier since the original Star Trek premiered six decades ago, Strange New Worlds revisits that classic era of science fiction adventure with fresh, contemporary storytelling and stunning visuals.
Now with its recent third season available on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD, this bold, retro trip to new worlds and civilizations maintains the consistency, quality, and playful experimentation established in the show’s first two seasons.
Season Three of Strange New Worlds hits the ground running with “Hegemony, Part 2,” picking up moments after season two’s cliffhanger ended with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) caught in a fight-or-flight decision as the enemy Gorn battered the starship Enterprise.
This season straddling two-parter echoes Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Best of Both Worlds” as Pike and crew race against time to save the captain’s Gorn-infected lover, fellow Starfleet Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), and rescue their crewmates and colonists from the seemingly unstoppable Gorn.
The adrenaline-fueled story bears elements of cinematic horror previously absent from Trek, but which Strange New Worlds has toyed with since the first season’s re-introduction of the reptilian Gorn into the franchise as an Alien-esque predator, using other species as both food and incubators for their young.
This season, the series blends Lovecraftian cosmic-horror into the action with “Through the Lens of Time,” at the season midpoint, and in the season finale, “New Life and New Civilizations.” These linked episodes feature one of the season’s most prominent recurring characters, Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan), a character familiar to longtime Trek viewers as Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush)’s long-lost love from the TOS era’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Here, Korby is presented as an intergalactic Indiana Jones whose latest excavations have unearthed a forgotten, ancient evil.
These forays into horror are generally well executed and demonstrate how Star Trek is malleable enough to play with a variety of genres and tropes within its science-fiction framework. However, Strange New Worlds has also depicted violence more vividly than any of its predecessors, particularly in these horror-flavored episodes. Some viewers might find these depictions unsettling or even unsuitable, particularly for fans more accustomed to Trek as a show for all ages.
While Korby is central to those later tomb raiding adventures, his introduction to viewers occurs much earlier as the season’s second episode, “Wedding Bell Blues,” pivots to light farce. Spock (Ethan Peck) is disappointed when Chapel brings her new romantic partner, Korby, to a Federation event. Rhys Darby is perfectly cast as an interloping alien intent on fixing Spock’s romantic troubles. Just as Korby is a transplant from Trek’s classic era, Darby’s mysterious wedding planner has one foot planted in the classic era and the other in the Next Generation.
A lighter touch is also present in “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” featuring Patton Oswalt as an unlikely Vulcan and an even unlikelier romantic interest for Number One (Rebecca Romijn).
The second season of Strange New Worlds leaned into risky but effectively executed gimmicks like the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody” and a crossover with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. Season three delivers up a pair of its own.
“What Is Starfleet?” unfolds as a documentary shot during a sensitive mission in which the crew of the Enterprise and Starfleet itself are viewed through a skeptical lens. The documentary is shot by Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia)’s brother Beto (Mynor Luken), who’s been tasked to document the crew over the course of several episodes and forms a connection with Lt. Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding).
Another of the season’s lighter episodes, “A Space Adventure Hour” is a pastiche of classic sci-fi complete with cardboard walls and rubber-suited aliens mashed up with a swinging ‘60s Agatha Christie style locked room mystery as the Enterprise tests a prototype holodeck designed to provide immersive entertainment for crews on long voyages. Security officer La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) is tasked with testing the holodeck’s safety protocols with help from Spock.
Season three achieves a better balance among the growing ensemble than the previous two while continuing to develop individual characters and explore both old relationships and new dynamics among them.
“Shuttle to Kenfori” sends Pike and Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokum) on a dangerous away mission which probes the depth of their friendship as well as Pike’s haunted future and M’Benga’s struggle to put his violent past behind him.
Meanwhile, Lt. Erica Ortegas, woefully underdeveloped in earlier seasons, gets more to do than just fly the ship and not go on away missions. Ortegas wrestles throughout the season with her traumatic Gorn encounter, and the penultimate episode, “Terrarium,” shines the spotlight fully on Ortegas in a twist on two classic episodes from TOS and The Next Generation.
Joining the cast this season is Martin Quinn as engineer Montgomery Scott, the latest addition from the original series’ crew. Quinn is convincing without being imitative in his portrayal, while capturing a less confident and unformed version of the miracle working engineer his character will eventually become.
James Kirk (Paul Wesley), first officer of the USS Farragut, continues to cross paths with the Enterprise crew through the course of the season. “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” showcases a formative moment among the characters as Kirk assumes command of Farrugut in a crisis aided by his future crewmates.
Extras include deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, and several impressive featurettes.
After three seasons, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds remains the strongest and most consistently entertaining contemporary outing into the Final Frontier as it dances through 60 years of continuity and canon with fresh takes, new twists, and countless surprises.
