Season 4 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has spent the fall bouncing between genres faster than a transporter malfunction. One week the Enterprise crew turns into puppets. The next they’re trapped in a black-and-white noir. Then they show up in a fairy-tale kingdom full of knights and dragons. Fans are not thrilled.
IMDb ratings have dipped for these so-called “gimmick episodes,” and the show’s co-showrunners, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, have responded. They defend the approach, arguing that jumping genres is part of the point. Their defense is simple and a little cheeky: “It’s in the title.”
Goldsman’s Title Argument
Goldsman told TVLine that the show’s name, “Strange New Worlds,” is the whole explanation. “Our worlds are genres,” he said. He acknowledges the criticism that ten episodes per season should feel more consistent. But he pushes back, pointing to the original “Star Trek” series.
“That’s not our show,” Goldsman said. “For us, the answer was no, because the original series always jumped around in genre.” He noted that the original show aired at least 24 episodes per season, compared to the 10 the spin-off delivers. “Part of what ‘Star Trek’ did well was use genre for storytelling, and that was what we wanted to explore in this series,” he added.
He framed the approach as a tribute to the franchise’s history, not a break from it. “We are ‘Star Trek’ fans, deeply, and we try to respond to the fandom in us — and you can’t really please all the people all the time.”
Myers on Winning Over New Audiences
Myers agreed with his fellow EP, but he went further. He wants the show to reach people who have never watched “Star Trek” before.
“We love classic ‘Star Trek’ episodes more than you can possibly imagine, but we also like trying new things,” Myers said. His goal is simple: “the goal is to make a ‘Star Trek’ at some point in our season that is for everyone, to reach out to people who don’t know ‘Star Trek’ and who might find something that surprises them or interests them.”
He admitted that not every episode will appeal to every viewer. “Not every ‘Star Trek’ is for everybody, but I guarantee that the bulk of the episodes that we do in our season will be for most people. There is something to love in every season, and that’s what we were really going for.”
How the Episodes Break Down
Myers walked through the season’s episodes to show how varied they are:
- The puppet episode, which he expects fans of the Tribbles to enjoy
- Episode 6, a real-time thriller called “Off-Hour,” which he called “a straight fastball down the middle for what is a great classic ‘Star Trek'”
- The soap opera episode, which trapped Pike in a melodramatic world and let him confront his grief over losing Marie Batel
- The fairy-tale episode, which sent La’an into a realm of knights and dragons
Each episode borrows a different mode of storytelling, from puppetry to noir to fantasy. Myers argued that this range is the point. “The goal was to create a show that reached out to more people, but also pleased the people who love the show, to give them some surprise, a new version, a point of view about things that they hadn’t gotten to see before, and also to win people over who never thought of ‘Star Trek’ and thought they’d check out a crazy show that would do something as insane as puppets. That’s our goal.”
Why Genre Hopping Works for Character
Goldsman defended the soap opera episode specifically. He explained that the exaggerated tone allowed Anson Mount’s Pike to express himself in a way a more conventional episode could not.
“We do try to use the genre to move character” forward, he said. “The thing about a soap opera is, for all its broad expression of emotion, it creates a context where you get away with that ending from Anson in a way that you might not in a more standard and more typical story structure and tone.” He concluded with a line that sums up the whole approach: “So you know, there is a method to our madness.”
“There is a method to our madness.”
Whether the episodes land each time, he said, “it’s certainly not for lack of trying.”
The Fan Response So Far
The defense is clever, but it doesn’t address the actual complaint. Fans want more conventional science fiction. They want the starship doing what the starship does best: exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before.
Instead, they got a show that spends its episodes in soap operas, puppet shows and fantasy realms. The ratings reflect that split. Some viewers are enjoying the variety. Others are frustrated that the show has wandered so far from the franchise’s core.
The Verdict on the Defense
The EPs are not apologizing. They are not pivoting. They are doubling down on the approach, even as they acknowledge the pushback. Myers framed the season as a mission to win over new viewers. Goldsman framed it as a tribute to the original series.
The tension is built into the premise. A show called “Strange New Worlds” is bound to wander. But a show that calls itself “Star Trek” carries expectations. The EPs are betting that the former wins out over the latter.
The show’s defenders are right about one thing: the original series did jump genres. But it did so across dozens of episodes, not across a handful. The math changes at ten episodes per season. A genre-hopping approach works better when there are more episodes to spread it across.
Some of the episodes are interesting experiments. Some will stick. Some will not. The fact that the EPs are defending them suggests they believe in the approach.
The bigger question is whether the show is still telling stories about the crew and the future. That is the core of “Star Trek.” The genre experiments are fun. But they should serve the story, not replace it.
The defense is clever. The experiment is bold. The test is the audience.
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