It’s fair to say that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the best of Nu Trek.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has ended its first season run on top of the metrics. According to The Wrap’s Parrot Analytics, Star Trek’s newest addition to the franchise secured the Most In-Demand New Show title for its run on Paramount+.
Parrot Analytics has found that Strange New Worlds series finale helped edge the series past the Star Wars mini-series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. It saw a 7% bump in engagement, which factors in things like consumer research, streaming, downloads, social media, and other forms of engagement.
For Star Trek to bounce Star Wars out of the top slot is a strong sign that Paramount has a bonafide hit on their hands. No other Nu Trek show has competed this well against a Star Wars property, and that’s partly due to how bad the fanbase has viewed those series, and how good the fans have viewed Strange New Worlds.
Since Star Wars and most other Disney properties are generally seen as the standard bearer for mainstream engagement, seeing Trek finally knock off a Disney property should give long-time fans hope.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds worked because it went back to basics
Lower Decks, Picard, Discovery, and Short Treks have all gone their own way with how they wanted to present Trek. A lot of personal ideologies superseded the foundations the franchise was built on and that hurt its appeal.
Discovery was too far from center, Lower Decks was too funny, Picard was too dark and Short Treks was just too inconsistent. Yet, Strange New Worlds embraced everything that made Star Trek successful and because of it, they became a hit.
The series went back to what worked and sure enough, the franchise returned to prominence. Now the franchise needs to shutter any property that can’t be molded into the conventional Trek formula and restructure what comes next.
Star Trek needs less experimenting and more giving fans what they want. They don’t want unconventional Trek, they want the Trek that works. If you like the non-Star Trek feeling Star Trek shows, then watch other properties.
It’s been said once, and it’ll be said again; fans want brands to be what they are. They don’t want New Coke when they had Coke. They don’t want Omaha Steaks making vegan tofu dishes. They want steak. They don’t want the Expanse, Star Wars or Sense8. They want Trek when they watch Star Trek.
The success of Strange New Worlds proves that. So, hopefully, Paramount learned its lesson. If you don’t mess with the Trek formula and it will pay dividends.