As Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues, the producers have confirmed that at least one classic Trek character won’t be appearing on the show.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has the issue of many prequels in trying to work within an established continuity. It does help that Trek history has been altered over the years by time travel and other touches. For example, a third-season episode hinted that cosmic forces are the reason the Gorn go from an established threat to unknown in TOS.
The series has excelled, managing to bring in classic Trek characters like Pike, Number One, Chapel, Spock, Scotty, and even James Kirk himself, and making them shine with new actors in the role. They’ve also managed to integrate some long-forgotten characters like Trelane or Sybok into things.
As the series continues to build toward its final two seasons, there’s naturally interest in whether other classic Trek characters could pop up. Speaking to Trek Movie, showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers talked of wanting to pull surprises on the fans as to who can arrive.
"We have the same questions ourselves as fans. We watch this and we feel those same questions. What we want to promise is that a lot of these questions will be dealt with or at least asked. So we as viewers want the same experience that you as viewers want.”
The pair were coy on some big names but were very clear that one famous Trek face will most certainly not be part of the show.
Why Pavel Chekov won't be in Strange New Worlds
The pair were pressed on whether Strange New Worlds would introduce future Trek faces to the series. It does appear the show is building to Kirk taking over as captain, and it would make sense to have other crew members join up.
The obvious suspects are Sulu and McCoy, with the latter hard to see being ignored since he’s so critical to the dynamic of Kirk and Spock. Goldsman merely said, “We cannot confirm or deny.”
However, there is one name that the pair confirmed won’t be on the show: Pavel Chekov.
“Not Chekov. There’s no Chekov,” Goldsman said with Myers adding, “Yeah, Chekov doesn’t make any sense.”
The reason is that the character didn’t appear on Star Trek until season 2. He was added as the producers wanted to get more younger viewers on the show and cast Walter Koenig to appeal to them.
This has led to a classic continuity issue, as in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan claims to recognize Chekov when he wasn’t in that season. It’s often been handwaved as Chekov was on the Enterprise in the first year, just not a member of the bridge crew yet.
Even if SNW plays with the canon a bit, having Chekov show up so early doesn’t fit the character’s arc, as at this point in the timeline, he wouldn’t even have entered Starfleet Academy yet. The only point he could appear is very early in a “Kirk: Year One” show as a new ensign on the ship who works his way up.
That may be a slight letdown to fans, but still, the hopes are that other Trek characters could appear to liven up Strange New Worlds.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+.