Paramount+ drops Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover featuring Lower Decks early

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ crossover episode is out early.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just released “Lost in Translation” on Thursday. In it, Nyota Uhura ends up suffering a bout of hallucinations that will burn out a portion of her brain if they don’t figure out what’s causing it. It was a fantastic episode that showed the depth of her, and her new-found friend, one James T. Kirk.

Yet, due to the actor’s strike, the decision was made to air the much-anticipated crossover episode, featuring Lower Decks’ characters on Strange New Worlds at the San Diego Comic-Con. And for some reason, because the fans in San Diego got to see the crossover episode, entitled “Those Old Scientists”, the folks at Paramount+ elected to start airing the episode to everyone.

So the much-anticipated crossover episode featuring Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, “Those Old Scientists”, is up now, just a few days after “Lost in Translation” and nearly a week before it was originally supposed to.

Not a good idea to release the Star Trek crossover so soon

It makes total sense that Paramount+ would release the crossover episode on the same day they premiered it at Comic-Con. The leaks alone would take some of the fun away from the viewing if fans had to wait another five days to watch it. So that makes total sense.

But that doesn’t mean that it won’t compound the viewership for “Lost in Translation”. A lot of fans are overwhelmed by the amount of content out there, and the need to watch all of it in a specific order. Doubling the release of episodes on top of one another was a poorly planned idea and one that may affect viewership.

The answer isn’t to show the Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks crossover at Comic-Con and then air the episode later in the week.

The answer is to not premier it early at all. It’s not the fan’s fault that the studio doesn’t want to pay the writers and protect their rights.