The six best moments from the 2022 slate of Star Trek episodes
Star Trek has had a wild year. Five shows got air time in 2022, with Star Trek dolling out Discovery’s fourth season to start the year, then we had Picard and its third to follow that up. We had the debut of Strange New Worlds just after Picard, followed by the third season of Lower Decks. We also got the second half of Star Trek: Prodigy’s first season to close out the year.
It’s been an interesting year, defined by returning characters, cameos, rumors, and more, all against the backdrop that includes films that are seemingly never getting made.
To say Star Trek has been busy in 2022 would be an understatement. Now, with all the Trek we’re getting, some may wonder about the quality. After all, quality over quantity every time, but what if you can have both?
Now, not every show was perfect this year, and some shows were better than others. Some shows really embraced Trek as it should be while others got experimental. There was so much going on that we decided to look at the biggest moments of the year to remind you of what came this year.
So we’re looking at the six best moments from the year that was in 2022. Just for full disclosure, not every show is represented, because some shows didn’t deliver where they should’ve.
Star Trek: Picard
Star Trek: Picard has been an up-and-down show since its inception. Constant turnover on the showrunner side of things, controversial stories, and character changes that have not landed. In fact, the show was so middling, it ended up getting canceled after three seasons. It was originally pitched as a three-season show, but everyone involved was pushing for more seasons; so much so that Patrick Stewart wants to do a Picard film as he’s not ready to say goodbye to the character just yet.
But it hasn’t done its job of keeping fans engaged. Now, that said, despite a bad season with characters misused all over the play, they did hit one moment. One moment that made it all tolerable. At the end of the second season, Kora is approached by a mysterious figure to join him on his travels, and that figure ends up being Wesley Crusher, aka Wil Wheaton. Seeing Crusher come back, even for a cameo, a week or so after revealing he wasn’t going to be part of season three, was a really fantastic thing. It made so many fans incredibly happy.
Now, he didn’t do much, and fans are hoping for more Crusher in future episodes but for now, most fans are just happy that he got his chance to come back to Star Trek
Lower Decks
Star Trek: Lower Decks fell in the same vein as Picard and Discovery, despite its grand promises, it didn’t deliver across the board as Strange New Worlds had. This is the ultimate Trekkie show, as it thrives off of inside jokes and deep-cut references. Not exactly the type of show that brings in new fans.
This has made Lower Decks incredibly niche and while that doesn’t always translate to a universal appreciation for the masses, it does give the show a unique flavor that the most diehard of diehards appreciate.
In the latest season of Lower Decks, fans were not as excited about the resolution to several lingering storylines, as much as they were looking forward to seeing the Cerritos arrive at Deep Space Nine. Staying true to form, Lower Decks embraced their deep-cut offerings by building an entire episode around the return to the Deep Space Nine universe. We got to see Kira Nerys, Quark, the space station, and even Grandpa Sisko’s restaurant in New Orleans.
While the story for the episode wasn’t great, it was very sentimental. Getting to see some of our favorite characters again, even if they’re a bit older, is a treat, and seeing them still doing the same shenanigans on DS9 is even more amazing.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Paramouont+ has been looking for one of their streaming series to hit with a broader audience and they finally found it with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, aka, Captian Pike with the Good Hair. The show was a smash hit and was a top-trending show during its initial run. It did everything you would hope a show would do, and it was carried by some powerful storytelling.
The first major moment that really sold the show was the debut of The Gorn. The Gorn had premiered all the way back in the original series, but when they made their Strange New Worlds debut, they came in so much more evil. The Alien-inspired episode, where the crew chased around a baby Gorn really highlighted just how much of a problem this species truly is.
And while Star Trek did a great job highlighting an old foe in a new way, earning it a spot in this article, the highlight of the series was the conversations Captain Pike would have with people. Namely, while he was cooking them dinner in one of the best kitchens we’ve ever seen. It’s those small moments on the show that really define who Pike is as a character.
That’s important, as Pike was arguably the best part of the show.
Star Trek: Prodigy
Finally, we end with Star Trek: Prodigy, a show that has defied expectations. It wasn’t as how that many had the highest hopes for, but even though it’s animated and has just 22 minutes to tell its stories, it’s done an exceptional job of being great Star Trek for all ages.
The first great moment the series produced involved the ship’s captain, Dal R’El, teaming up with the chief engineer Jankom Pog to take on the Kobayashi Maru. In this simulation. Dal and Jankmon have to team up with Federation legends like Spock, Odo, Nyota Uhura, Beverly Crusher, and Montgomery “Scotty” Scott.
Though many of the original voice actors had passed away and Uhura’s actress, the late Nichelle Nichols, was unfit to record at the time, the producers decided to use past audio clips for all four, while Gates McFadden came in to provide new lines for her character, Dr. Crusher.
That wasn’t the only great moment in the show, as we finally got to see two icons meet, even if they’re technically the same person. Throughout the run of the show, the Emergency Command Hologram version of Kathryn Janeway had been helping the crew of the Protostar, while the real Janeway was a Vice-Admiral, hunting the crew down.
The two finally met near the end of the season, with the real Janeway giving her ECH construct companion a much-needed pep talk and a hard-wire reboot.