Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Will Return Trek to Episodic Adventures, Optimistic Roots

Fans of classic Star Trek have one more reason to beam aboard Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, as it’s addressing one of the major issues they’ve had with the relaunched franchise under the Star Trek universe’s executive producer, Alex Kurtzman. The new series will finally return Star Trek to an episodic format full of the optimism and weekly adventure of Star Trek: The Original Series and perhaps Star Trek: The Next Generation. Kurtzman discussed this good news during an interview with Deadline (via Trek Movie).

He shared the following about the new series:

I think Strange New Worlds, under the guidance of Henry Myers and Akiva Goldsman, it’s going to be a return in a way to TOS [Star Trek: The Original Series]. We are going to do stand-alone episodes. There will be emotional serialization. There will be two-parters. There will be larger plot arcs. But it really is back to the model of alien-of-the-week, planet-of-the-week, challenge-on-the-ship-of-the-week. With these characters pre-Kirk’s Enterprise. I think what people responded so much to in all three characters is this kind of relentless optimism that they have. And that they are at the young phase of their careers.

Trek fans have been clamoring for a series like this ever since CBS relaunched the franchise on CBS All Access with Star Trek: Discovery. The show, alongside Star Trek: Picard, has its fans and detractors, but one common thread is the fact that both series went for season-long arcs over episodic stories, creating what amount to multi-hour movies instead of serialized content. The relaunched shows have also been criticized for their more dour and dark tones that eschew Trek‘s original focus on a future where mankind was exploring the universe with optimism and hope.

Kurtzman has said Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be 10 episodes long when it does premiere, though work on the show has inevitably been slowed by COVID-19. The series will tell the story of the U.S.S. Enterprise before Captain Kirk took command with Anson Mount as Captain Pike, Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock, and Rebecca Romijn as Number One. All three of these characters were major fan favorites during the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, and the announcement that they would be getting their own series was met with a lot of excitement, especially since fans hoped that the show would finally return Trek to its episodic origins. Now that that seems to be confirmed, everyone can kick back with some Romulan whiskey and breathe a sign of relief.