Strange New Worlds is back for its new season. As big fans of the first season, we wanted to see how it stacked up to the debut season.
As always, We break down our reviews into the categories of story, acting, and overall. So let’s jump on into it.
Story 7/10
While the first season of the show started up following the intense and extreme events from Discovery, it took those things and ran with it. While those events are much more significant then those left over for the second season, the show does jump right into the results of Una Chin-Riley, played by Rebecca Romijn, being arrested for violating the eugenics clause of the Federation.
While they relatively resolved this cliff hanger pretty fast, I am thankful they decided to resolve it in the second episode instead of the first. The reason I am glad that they pushed it to the second episode is that the trail ends up being a really heavy subject matter, which touches on the roots of Star Trek’s ability to handle and cover social issues in a complex and abstract way.
In making the first episode a rescue mission, it allows the viewers to be able to reconnect with the cast and crew of the vessel. Once we finally did get to the issues, they didn’t drag it out. The trial episode was extremely well written and was amazingly engaging.
After that, though, the season takes a little bit of a turn. Episode three pulls a single character back in time. While it does a great job of showcasing Paul Wesley, the actor playing James Kirk in this series, this new timeline robbed us of the fun of the whole team dealing with the drama antics of time travel.
So many episodes of this season spend a fair bit of time on individual characters. It’s not every episode, but it begins to start to feel like individualized journeys.
Our main complaint is that we definitely want to see more Captain Pike. That being said, it’s better to be left wanting more of a character, then getting tired of them.
Acting 8/10
This season had some really good stand out guest actors. From the introduction of Paul Wesley as James Kirk, the joining of Pelia as the long living species Lanthanite played by Carol Kane, and Una Chin-Riley’s friend Neera Ketoul played by Yetide Badaki.
Each character does a great job standing out in their roles, but also being part of the ensemble of stars that makes the crew of the Enterprise. There are other guest characters that we will talk about in a different article, but for the most part, the thing that we also really love is how well the actors have become their characters, and are more comfortable to take chances and stand out on their own.
Strange New Worlds gives their actors great journeys and the actors are able to make us genuinely interested in the character’s lives, where they’ve been, where they’re going, and who they’re becoming.
Overall 7.5/10
This season feels very much like Star Trek. If you’re a huge fan of the way Star Trek talked about hot-button issues, focused on topics , and covered subject matters of our time, in covert ways, then you will still enjoy Strange New World.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
The first season ended with a hard final last few episodes with the death of the much loved Hemmer. There were big shoes to fill for the character that would become the next Engineer. It’s a pleasant surprise that without mimicking the role, standing out on her own, Carol Kane has done an amazing job, not just filling the space, but creating a new character.
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