The pressure is on during the second season of any hit show. Showrunners must use the creative foundation they’ve already established and build on from it, often exploring a show’s characters more deeply and placing them in situations audiences will find intriguing. It’s a heavy lift, especially for a beloved IP like Star Trek. What a refreshing surprise it is then to know that we’re in good hands with showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers at the helm of season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Like the third season of Star Trek: Picard before it, this is some of the finest Trek we’ve seen in years. It’s inventive, often daring, sometimes genre-busting, and most of all — and this is important — fun.
Season two of Strange New Worlds, which drops June 15 on Paramount+, finds the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, once again exploring uncharted territories — new life and new civilizations and all that Star Trek stuff we love. One of the most refreshing perks this season is the addition of more personal journeys that reshape the crew’s destinies. Humor filters into the mix, too, and you’ll be thanking Goldsman and Myers for the addition of newcomer Carol Kane, who plays Pelia, the new Chief Engineer. Not since Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generationhas such an offbeat yet deep character captured such interest. Bottom Line: Phasers have been set on “fun” this go around. Read on.
All Things Pike, Spock, Number One & Kirk
Strange New Worlds had a lot of things going for it coming into season two. Its Rotten Tomatoes score was a certified 99%. All around, fans and critics heralded the new prequel series, set some seven years before any episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episodic format was a refreshing return to form. And that season one finale! Let’s chat about that for a moment…. What a cliffhanger it was. Number One/Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) was arrested for lying to Starfleet about being a genetically engineered Illyrian. Her fate comes into question in the first few episodes of season two. Season one also featured one of Star Trek's most iconic figures, Captain James T. Kirk, played by Paul Wesley. Lieutenant Kirk figures prominently in season two.
About that… fans will undoubtedly be gasping with delight when episode three drops. Dubbed “Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” the story is bold and inventive if not reminiscent of one of the original series' most iconicepisodes. (Best to experience this on your own rather than give anything away here.) The character Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) figures prominently in the outing, too. You may recall that early in season one, La'an Noonien-Singh revealed that she had long ago been saved by Una-Chin Riley after the Gorn killed her immediate family. Khan Noonien-Singh (Ricardo Montalbán) also happens to be her ancestor, so it’s captivating to watch this stellar episode play out.
Speaking of Number One, look for her plight to be a primary focus in the first few episodes where that “will Starfleet kick her out?” question creates an added sense of mystery. The characters of Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Spock (Ethan Peck) are given plenty to work through this season as well. Mount and Peck seem to have generously embodied these characters with confidence, and by the time you arrive at episode five, dubbed Charades — boy, is it loaded with wit and lore — you’ll feel as if you’ve known these characters forever. And yeah, watch how things play out between Spock and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) this season.
Thrills, Depth, Humor, and Carol Kane
One of the best things about season two is that showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers know how to balance the more personal stories featured with plenty of action-packed episodes. Episode one delivers on that front as does the episode four, Among the Lotus Eaters, where Pike, Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) find themselves on life-and-death mission with seemingly no way out. Fun.
Throughout the first six episodes provided for critics, it is evident that the show’s writing has never been this sharp and refined. There’s a true sense of world building, or perhaps prequel building going on here. You wound up feeling that way by the time you were midway into season three of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery. You sense the amount of thought and care the writers have given to these characters and where they will all fit into the Star Trek canon.
There’s also the great addition of Carol Kane (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Scrooged) who enters the fold as Pelia, the new Chief Engineer, after the surprise death of Hemmer (Bruce Horak) last season. This may smack of Discovery's engineer Jett Reno (Tig Notaro). But what fun it is to experience this character. Kane is on the mark. And, like TNG’s Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), the character has a storied history. She’s also a smart mouth and isn’t afraid to speak up. As clever as she is wise, it will be great to see how this character evolves throughout the run of the series. Note to Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers: Let’s explore this captivating soul more deeply, thank you.
Meanwhile, the cast of season two, including Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Jess Bush, have all teased that this season’s last few episodes will surprise fans. In fact, in an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Mount and Romijn shared that Paramount+ gave the writers plenty of freedom to be creative. Cheers to that. This season delivers some of the best Star Trek we’ve experienced. Let these groovy Trekkers keep boldly going exactly where they’re going. Onward...
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres June 15 on Paramount+.
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