Strange New Worlds Is Looking Like The Savior Of Star Trek
Paramount has positioned Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as one of the biggest selling points of its streaming service.
The same studio behind Yellowstone and Top Gun: Maverick is launching a new market campaign designed to get more subscribers signed up to Paramount and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is being positioned as one of the main selling points. You can see in the TV spot below that the company is using the slogan “Popular is Paramount” with shots from Strange New Worlds showing up first in the spot, with no images from any of the streamer’s four other Star Trek series showing up.
If nothing else, this is a good sign for those who have been hoping Strange New Worlds was safe from the reported cuts Paramount is making to the Star Trek franchise. Star Trek: Discovery‘s fifth season, which will premiere next year, will be the series’ last hurrah. In the meantime the only other live-action series in the franchise, Star Trek: Picard, is already in the midst of streaming its third and final season.
Considering for the time being that Strange New Worlds is the only live-action Star Trek show without a confirmed conclusion date, it makes sense that it would be the only series in the franchise to show up in Paramount’s new branding spot. Promoting two shows that aren’t far from ending doesn’t make as much sense, and promoting animated series like Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy might give the uninitiated the impression that it’s purely targeted for children (even though, as anyone who’s seen Lower Decks knows, while it ain’t exactly Rick & Morty, it’s still anything but targeted at children).
Set between the unaired pilot “The Cage” and the events of the franchise’s original series, Strange New Worlds mixes both the new and old of Star Trek. The lead characters are a mix of younger versions of original series characters, characters who were featured only once or a handful of times in either the original series or the unaired pilot, and a couple of new heroes to round things out. Captaining the Enterprise as Christopher Pike is Anson Mount, who first assumed the role in Season 2 of Discovery.
Likewise Ethan Peck first appeared on Discovery‘s second season as the iconic Vulcan hero Spock, as did Rebecca Romijn as Number One, originated by the late Majel Barrett in “The Cage.” Nichelle Nichols’ boundary obliterating hero Nyota Uhura is played by Celia Rose Gooding on Strange New Worlds, and Nurse Chapel — one of the many Star Trek characters played first by Majel Barrett — is now portrayed by Jess Bush.
The role of Dr. Joseph M’Benga, which Memory Alpha reminds us was assumed twice in the original series by Booker Bradshaw, has been taken up by Babs Olusanmokun. While he’s only shown up once so far, Captain James T. Kirk is now being played by Paul Wesley.
We also get to see more of Spock’s betrothed T’Pring, played by Gia Sandhu, who shows up only once in the original series, in the classic “Amok Time” when she was played by Arlene Martel.
The new heroes include helmsman Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) who is a distant relation to the infamous Khan Noonien-Singh, and Hemmer, an Aenar, played by Bruce Hemmer.
