“Space, the final frontier.” That narration opens Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and it’s a deliberate signal. The series, created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet for Paramount+, wants to feel like the Star Trek you remember. It mostly earns that.
- Network: Paramount+
- Premiere: May 5, 2022
- Finale: September 10, 2026
- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 40
- Score: 7.6/10
Trailer, via Paramount Plus.
Anson Mount’s Pike and the Kitchen Table
Anson Mount plays Captain Christopher Pike, the Enterprise’s commander, a man who knows he will suffer a horrible fate. Mount has said his Pike represents “true masculinity,” and the show backs him up. Pike’s quarters include a kitchen where he cooks for the crew and builds consensus. It’s a small mechanic that does more work than any speech.
Ethan Peck’s Spock gets the harder assignment. The series explores his human emotions before he becomes the “computer-like” version Leonard Nimoy played. Peck said he was “constantly checking in” with Nimoy’s portrayal, and that those scenes were “a constant source of anxiety.”
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Jess Bush, Celia Rose Gooding, and the Younger Crew
The supporting cast carries the same weight. Jess Bush plays Christine Chapel, Celia Rose Gooding takes over Nyota Uhura from Nichelle Nichols, and Babs Olusanmokun replaces Booker Bradshaw as Joseph M’Benga. Christina Chong, Melissa Navia, and Bruce Horak fill out new roles; Horak was the first legally blind regular actor in a Star Trek series.
Martin Quinn joins as Montgomery Scott, a role James Doohan originated. The showrunners chose to return to the episodic storytelling of The Original Series rather than Discovery’s serialized arc, and the 1960s designs return with it. It is the first Star Trek series since The Next Generation to use the franchise’s opening narration in its main credits.
What Strange New Worlds Gets Right
The episodic choice is the right one. Discovery’s long arcs often buried their characters; here, the crew gets room to breathe. Mount’s hairstyle spawned Internet memes and a fan-run Twitter account, which tells you how quickly the audience claimed him.
The weakness is familiarity. Pike’s fate hangs over everything, and the show knows it, sometimes leaning on that dread instead of finding new tension.
This is the most confident Star Trek has felt in years. It trusts its cast, its format, and its audience. That trust is the whole point.
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