The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 now streaming on Paramount+.
Despite a noticeable lack of fanfare from Paramount, the 60th anniversary of Star Trek came and went alongside the release of Strange New Worlds Season 4. It’s the last full ten-episode of the most widely praised series in this historic third wave of series in Gene Roddenberry’s universe. For better or worse, this is the show at its most confident, finally content its own identity.
Like any season of Star Trek across its six decades, there are really strong episodes and those that seem so questionable, it’s a wonder how they ended up on film. From a classic “Badmiral” adventures to puppets to dinosaurs to a full-fledged fantasy romp, Strange New Worlds — like the saying goes — “knows thyself.” A prequel to The Original Series that plays with the established canon, it remains at its core exactly what this universe is supposed to be.
Season 4 Featured Far More ‘Hits’ Than ‘Misses’ Among It’s Star Trek Peers
The overall consensus for Strange New Worlds Season 3 was that it was not as consistent or enjoyable as the previous two. Season 4 represented a return to form, though it still played with genre, from the horror-inspired “The Griffin Incident” to the truly out-there puppet episode “Level-Five Transporter Accident.” Still, even these genre benders more often than not delivered a classic Star Trek premise. “A Case of Chiaroscuro” was a film noir-inspired black-and-white episode, but it was also a classic incognito away mission where the Starfleet heroes went up against the Klingons.
Just the same, any show that pushes boundaries like Strange New Worlds will deliver some episodes that just don’t work for fans. The soap opera parody, “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass,” was an emotional character study with a dash of Q-inspired silliness. Yet, the episode also fumbled its Spock “evil twin” gag by naming the character Sybok. After teasing Spock’s emotional half-brother in Season 1, the show has yet to pay it off. Strange New Worlds would have been the perfect vehicle to deep the larger story about Spock’s estranged sibling.
The penultimate episode, “Once La’An a Time,” was the season’s biggest disappointment. It brought back a fantasy world filled with doppelgangers of the characters introduced in Season 1 created by M’Benga’s daughter with the help of another godlike alien being. Why the Enterprise encountered this world was not sufficiently justified, and the story itself was weak. The most unfortunate piece of this episode is that it served as an ending for the tragic La’an storyline this season. This was the most interesting development for a character whose The Original Series absence is most notable. And the teen melodrama resolution just did not deliver on the promise of that storyline.
So, while that penultimate episode was my least favorite in the entire series, the overall arc of Season 4 was very solid. The puppet episode was the biggest risk the show took, and along with a fun Orion storyline the choice to make it Spock’s stress dream was the right call. Every other episode had greater strengths than weaknesses. It was the most confident season of the show yet. Alas, the last full season of Strange New Worlds is the one where the series truly accepted its own identity, for better or worse.
Season 4 Of Strange New Worlds Is A Strong Star Trek 60th Anniversary Entry
Even though producers completed production before the merger with SkyDance finished, Strange New Worlds Season 4 was the first one released under Paramount’s new leadership. It’s also the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, and the studio completely disrespected its oldest franchise by ignoring it. The best 60th anniversary Star Trek project was The Center Seat II, which was produced by the Nacelle Company. The studio effectively ignored this show, instead resting all of its hopes on the new Star Trek movie coming from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.
In fact, according to a Star Trek Insider’s ‘call to arms,’ Paramount might be content to let this universe die. Or, at least, ‘go away’ for the longest stretch since 1974 to 1979, when The Motion Picture debuted. I bring this up because Strange New Worlds Season 4 deserved to be celebrated, because it is the best thing going in this universe’s 60th year. Had Paramount bothered to promote the season while also celebrating the anniversary, it could have been the show’s strongest year for viewers. The cast and storytellers are finally comfortable in their slice of this universe. Absent all this extraneous stuff, Season 4 of Strange New Worlds delivered strong drama centered on its characters. It moved them forward on their journeys to becoming the people we know from The Original Series.
The Season 4 finale, “Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” is the best example of this. It brought back the classic TOS uniforms, and Celia Rose Gooding embodied Nichelle Nichols down to the hairstyle and green hoop earrings. Through time-travel, the episode visited the first year of Kirk’s tenure as captain. It proved just how well this show has allowed the characters to evolve from their younger, less-sure-of-themselves iterations to the people we know from TOS. I interviewed Gooding for CBR, and she acknowledged this. She admitted feeling “slightly conflicted” about the end of this show. “But the overpowering feeling is pride,” she told me. “I’m so proud of the work that me and my cast have done. I think this season, season four has been so well received and I’m so happy with all of our hard work.”
Strange New Worlds Does Not Yet Enjoy The Star Trek Legacy It Deserves
When I reviewed Strange New Worlds Season 4 for CBR ahead of its release, I had only seen the first six episodes. Still, that was enough to realize that the writers, directors, cast and crew embarked on their most confident year yet of their five-year mission. The individual stories were what fans should expect from this show by now, a mix of sci-fi adventures and character studies that play with genre. One episode took them to a “film noir” planet whose sun made the world, quite literally, black and white. Another was a Spock dream sequence in which the characters became Muppets.
As is common today (and one of the main reasons we founded Fandom Rising), there are a lot of bad-faith commentators dressing up entitlement, bigotry, and empty rage as “criticism.” Still there are plenty of sincere Star Trek fans, even among my fellow writers on this site, who have legitimately strong negative feelings about those choices. With only 10 episodes, the balance between genre-bending, humorous episodes and classically allegorical sci-fi adventures feels off to them. Strange New Worlds Season 4 makes it clear this is what their show is, like it or not.
What those disappointed fans don’t seem to realize is that it’s also what Star Trek has always been. Past shows like TOS, The Next Generation, Voyager or others merely had far more episodes per season. Yet, instead of blaming the cowardly executives at Paramount willing to shelve Star Trek for good, the artists end up taking the blame. The way Season 4 shapes its stories and dips into humor or genres like horror is how the storytellers ‘justify’ their existence. Because as much as fans may claim to want it, if Strange New Worlds was just retread of every classic Trek premise, they’d hate that, too.
However, just like with Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, certain Trek fans won’t appreciate Strange New Worlds until it’s gone. Too many are obsessed with what they “didn’t” get from the show that they never took the time to appreciate what it does give us. The last 10 years of Star Trek shows have been magnificent, and Strange New Worlds Season 4 is truly a high point.
The show delivered exactly what it was supposed to, as Gooding put it in our chat, “our whole mission…was to establish a lot of background for the iconic show that started this whole franchise. And so as we get closer and closer to that pilot point for The original Series, it feels very satisfying.” Season 4 is also satisfying on its own as an experience for Star Trek fans new and old. Even with the odd misstep, it remains a gift.
Season 4 rating: 4/5
The complete fourth season of Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+ alongside the first three seasons and the majority of Star Trek shows and films.
