Strange New Worlds Is Exactly What Star Trek Needs Right Now
While Strange New Worlds has plenty of fans, it’s a series that still rubs a few Star Trek fans the wrong way. Perhaps the most common criticism is that the show is too silly, an accusation that seems borne out by the series crossing over with a cartoon and even giving us a musical episode. However, the haters need to realize something very important: not only is a silly Star Trek spinoff fully in the spirit of The Original Series, but it’s also exactly what the franchise needs as relief from this grimdark era of NuTrek.
The Original Series Was A Silly Show
In order for me to fully praise Strange New Worlds, it’s important to establish something that many haters refuse to see: Star Trek: The Original Series was a deeply, deeply silly show. Yes, it gave us several groundbreaking television moments and some serious subject matter that fans are still chewing on over half a century later.
But this is also a show where Spock’s brain is stolen, Kirk makes a cannon out of spare parts, and the solution to a Klingon conflict in “Day of the Doves” was for everyone to laugh.
Capturing The Spirit Of The Original
Strange New Worlds is, of course, meant as a direct prequel to The Original Series: adventures take place on the same ship and often feature some of the same characters (including Spock, Uhura, and Chapel).
Because of this, the comedic silliness of Strange New Worlds is absolutely perfect, and if fans are being honest, it’s usually funnier than what the classic show gave us. Musicals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the worst song in the musical episode is infinitely more entertaining than, say, watching Kirk slap himself or, better yet, fight an evil cat.
Light In The Darkness
In addition to perfectly matching the comedy vibes of The Original Series, I love the silliness of Strange New Worlds because it serves as an antidote to a remarkably dark era of NuTrek. Discovery eventually (and mercifully) veered away from this, but that first season involved a bloody war, a violent rape scene, and grisly details like Captain Georgiou’s dead body getting eaten by starving Klingons.
Picard’s first season, meanwhile, featured beloved Voyager sidekick Icheb getting his eye brutally torn out, and the show weirdly presents Seven murdering the one responsible as a triumphant moment.
Modern Trek Can Be Exceedingly Dark
If anything, Picard somehow got more grimdark going into Season 2: we find out that in an alternate universe, Picard has butchered one foe after another and that our own Picard is tormented by the suicide of his mother, a frankly unnecessary character revelation. Oh, and this is also the season that presents Rios as staying in the past, enduring World War III, and dying in a barfight as a positive outcome. Frankly, compared to this, I’ll take the goofiness of Strange New Worlds any day.
The Right Balance Of Silly And Scary
Plus, for as funny as it can be, Strange New Worlds knows how to be serious: if you can make peace with all the retcons, it’s easy to admire (for example) how the show has transformed the Gorn from the franchise’s most laughable villain to its deadliest.
By combining heart and humor, seriousness and silliness, this show has given us the entire package. Trek is all about Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, and this show is great precisely because it includes all of the different elements (including being silly as heck) that make Trek the greatest sci-fi franchise in the world.
