Star Trek: Strange New Worlds tries to answer if there is such a thing as a “monster”

Anson Mount wants Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to explore the concept of real monsters.

Are monsters real? Well, not really, no, but Anson Mount is curious to find out if the villains of Star Trek are truly as single-minded and monstrous as they appear. Mount, who stars as Captain Anson Mount on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, talked with TrekZone, a German-Star Trek site, and questions about season two came up.

TrekZone (via TrekMovie.com) propositioned the idea that Strange New Worlds was less willing to be diplomatic as opposed to past series, and asked Mount if he felt that was something the show was looking to explore further on into season two.

Mount of course answered the question with the old “you’ll have to find out”, but did say that they’ll be looking at the concept of some race of aliens being purely monstrous.

"TrekZone: Earlier Star Treks portrayed violence as a problem and empathy and diplomacy as the solution to that problem… I feel Strange New Worlds has a more hawkish, sometimes even more militaristic approach to conflict. We see that in the Gorn arc and—in part—this seems to be the message of the season finale. How does that fit with the optimistic vision of the future that this series is advertised as?Anson Mount: Well, you’ll have to see where we take that. Because some of those themes go on in the second season and really asking those exact questions that you were just asking. Is it possible that intelligence can be so completely ripped apart from any sense of communication or idealism? That, is there such a thing as a monster? Is that really possible? So yeah, we go down that exact road."

Every version of Star Trek has proven that violence is a necessary evil

It’s unfair to say categorize Strange New Worlds as embracing a more militaristic approach than any other show. After all, every show has featured war, violence, and space battles. There’s nothing in Strange New Worlds that wouldn’t have appeared in the original series or The Next Generation.

Though, examining the concept of a true monster in Star Trek is rather interesting as long as it’s done with the right villains.

Picard failed with this concept when they tried to humanize the Borg. Strange New Worlds would fail if they did this with the Gorn as well. We know that there are species of animals that can’t and won’t be accepting to being domesticated by humans.

Why would advanced alien races that think it’s ok to kidnap, torture, and eat people be willing to negotiate a peace? It’s not in their nature and they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong. So hopefully Strange New Worlds doesn’t poke too hard at the concept of certain alien races being purely monstrous.

It could and would have disastrous consequences.