Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is more than a prequel; it’s a love letter to the original series.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the default flagship show of the Star Trek franchise, and that’s a decision made by fans. Back in 2016, when the relaunch of Star Trek on TV was but an Internet rumor, the scuttlebutt was that the new show would be a prequel to the original series. featuring Captain Pike, Spock, and Number One. Although this was not the case, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman pushed for some inclusion of the Enterprise crew in Star Trek: Discovery and managed to get that season 1 cliffhanger, where the Discovery comes face to face with the Enterprise.
This brought the Enterprise crew into Season 2 of Discovery, and with that, the fans had seen enough. Those Internet rumors would come true by sheer force of the fans’ desire to see the adventures of Captain Pike and his crew continue after Discovery Season 2 wrapped up.
Due to a pressure campaign by fans, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was a fait accompli.
This makes Strange New Worlds the most direct tribute to the fans that the Star Trek franchise has ever produced. Fans wanted a throwback to the original series, so Strange New Worlds has taken a creative approach to bringing back beloved legacy characters, as well as characters who we haven’t seen enough of before.
The casting of those characters had to serve as a tribute to their legacies, which must have been a monumental task. Especially since times have changed, and a few of those characters needed updates. Updating these characters while staying true to their legacies is the challenge at the heart of Strange New Worlds.
Unrated: Dr. M’Benga – Booker Bradshaw/Babs Olusanmokun
Dr. M’Benga appeared twice in the original series. Both appearances are brief, and so we know very little about his original series iteration. In terms of backstory, we have one little detail, that he interned on Vulcan, which made him uniquely able to treat Spock for a gunshot wound.
There was a little more information from the original series that never made it onscreen. M’Benga was to be introduced in an unproduced episode, Schol, written by Darlene Hartman. That script told us that he was born in Uganda, that his first name was Joseph, and that he had a brother named Simon, who served as first officer on the USS Hope, a Federation hospital ship. That was to become relevant in a proposed spinoff called Hopeship.
So far, Strange New Worlds has made the first name canon, but not the rest of that information. Generally only what’s onscreen is canon, so even with that unproduced script and unproduced spinoff, we know very little about the M’benga of the original series. (And the thick Nigerian accent Babs Olusanmokun uses makes his Ugandan heritage doubtful.)
So whether or not SNW’s M’Benga is like The Original Seriess M’Benga is an unanswerable question. There just wasn’t enough information in the original series to make that determination. Strange New Worlds has done a fantastic job of fleshing out the character, with context that gives the original series’ M’benga added dimensions.
6. Christine Chapel – Majel Barrett/Jess Bush
It would be tempting to say that the original series didn’t contain enough information about Chapel for this list as well, but the truth is that she appeared often enough that there should’ve been plenty of information about her. In all her appearances though, she was just sort of there. So the fully realized three-dimensional character we see in Strange New Worlds is inherently unfaithful to her original iteration.
All I really remember Chapel doing in the original series is mooning over Spock, fretting over characters in peril, looking after children, and having to be rescued. She was precisely the sort of character who made the progressive stance of the original seem like something the fans just imagined. The original series was a product of its time, and it can’t be expected to live up to today’s standard for progressivism, But Gene Roddenberry was remarkably forward-thinking when it came to the role of women on the ship (more on that later), but Chapel’s passivity and marginalization undermine that completely.
Strange New Worlds’ Chapel is not merely a fleshing out of the character, but an essential course correction. Giving her a relationship with Spock means that she wasn’t just mooning over him; for whatever reason, their relationship is over by the time of the original series, so what we’re seeing is bitter-sweet lingering affection, which is a much better character trait than that embarrassing dewy-eyed longing.
In addition to that, Strange New Worlds’ Chapel is sassy, ambitious, intellectually curious, emotionally complex, and a war hero to boot.
This personality retcon isn’t completely out of left field, though. I feel like the Strange New Worlds Chapel is similar to how Majel Barrett would’ve played her had she been given the chance. Barrett went on to play Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, proving that she can do sassy, intellectually curious, and emotionally complex (and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lwaxana Troi was a war hero.) She could also handle the whiplash swings between manic comedy and heartfelt drama that have become SNW’s signature.
5. Christopher Pike – Jeffrey Hunter/Anson Mout
Christopher Pike was the captain of The Enterprise for the unaired pilot that was filmed in 1964, The Cage. He was played by Jeffrey Hunter. There’s something very reminiscent of Jeffrey Hunter in Anson Mount. They share the same screen idol jawline and sharp salt-and-pepper haircut. When Anson Mount first appeared as Pike on Star Trek: Discovery, it was immediately clear who he was meant to be. Anson Mount’s Pike reads as the same character as Jeffrey Hunter’s.
Despite the physical similarity, however, the two characters could not be more different. A lot has been made of the new Pike embodying non-toxic masculinity, but the original Pike was a product of a far more sexist time. But if you haven’t seen The Cage in a while, it’s easy to forget just how sexist it was and just how sexist Pike was, in particular. In what would’ve been our introduction to the hero of the show, we see Pike chewing out his female yeoman for no apparent reason. He as much admits that it was for no reason, lamenting that he can’t get used to women on the bridge, before assuring Number One that she’s different.
Unbelievably that last bit probably came off as quite progressive at the time (he’s so accepting of that one woman that he doesn’t even see her as a woman.) But today it reads as overt misogyny.
Anson Mount’s Pike is also introduced with a scene that tells us who he is. Pike took command of the Discovery with a crew exhausted from the Klingon War, a trip to the mirror universe, and the revelation that their former captain was actually from the mirror universe. In his first address to the bridge crew, he reveals that he was diagnosed with asthma as a child and that he failed astrophysics at Starfleet Academy, vulnerabilities intended to build trust with the crew. He then assures them that he understands what they’ve been through.
Mount’s Pike is also charming and charismatic, whereas Hunter’s is morose and sullen. They are both deeply affected by the loss of crewmembers, but where Mount’s Pike genuinely grieves for them, Hunter’s Pike seems to just be feeling sorry for himself.
If Strange New Worlds featured a Pike that emulated Jeffrey Hunter, it never would’ve gotten off the ground.
4. Number One – Majel Barrett/Rebecca Romijn
Number one is the second character on this list to be played by first lady of Star Trek Majel Barrett, but the first chronologically. And again, Barrett’s Number One was only seen in The Cage. But unlike Pike, Barrett’s Chapel stands the test of time. Although she wasn’t given a name until Strange New Worlds, Number One was a competent and respected bridge officer with the rank of executive officer.
Despite the sexism of The Cage, none of it was directed at Number One. She was treated with nothing but respect.
Though the other characters didn’t treat her in a sexist way, the treatment she receives in the plot of The Cage is not ideal. When she and Pike are kidnapped by the Talosians, who intend to use them to breed a human slave race, they read her mind, revealing that she “often has fantasies about [Pike,]” which is a manifestation of the hoary trope that a man and a woman can’t just be friends and colleagues. But I guess that makes it canon that she’s at least physically attracted to him, and Strange New Worlds has proven it can do relationships between characters with the sensitivity and maturity needed to avoid cliches and sexist tropes. Perhaps they’ll do something with that attraction.
The script notes for The Cage say she’s “Almost glacier-like in her imperturbability and precision. From time to time we’ll wonder just how much female exists under that icy facade,” implying that one can be either female or competent, but not both, and that she’s an exception. (Also, are glaciers known for their precision?)
Although the Number One of The Cage stands up today, I don’t think a more faithful depiction of her would fly in Strange New Worlds. She’s competent and professional, but shouldn’t all Starfleet officers be competent and professional, especially those who’ve attained the rank of commander? The Cage saw these as notable character traits because she’s a woman. So Strange New Worlds expanded the character, with Rebecca Romijn’s natural charisma and charm, as well as one of Star Trek’s most interesting and meaningful backstories.
3. James T. Kirk – William Shatner/Paul Wesley
On paper Kirk is the most faithful character in this list. Paul Wesley’s Kirk is a brash and daring young executive officer, on the fast track to becoming Starfleet’s youngest Captain, and he’s got that old Kirk charm. But when we first met Paul Wesley’s Kirk at the end of season one, it felt like a let down, the first major misstep in an otherwise staggeringly perfect show. Paul Wesley just didn’t feel like Kirk.
With 20/20 hindsight it’s easy to see why. After NBC didn’t go for The Cage, with its sullen, emotionally complex captain, the Star Trek production must’ve wanted to take a safer route and place a generic all-American hero in the Captain’s seat. William Shatner, with his clean-cut good looks and rogueish smile, may have looked the part, but he was anything but generic. He took his many eccentricities and made them Kirk’s canonical character traits. Captain Kirk is William Shatner, and Shatner is Kirk. It’s ironic that the character written to be somewhat generic is the one who could only be played by one actor.
For this reason, it was a bold choice to put Kirk in Strange New Worlds. The gamble would not have paid off if they hadn’t committed to it. If that season one appearance had been the last we saw of Kirk, we’d be remembering a weird interlude where they gave us a fake Kirk. But having seen more of Wesley’s Kirk, we’re getting used to Wesley, not as a fake Kirk, but as a different interpretation of him.
After all, no actor should have a monopoly on a character; fictional characters are bigger than the mortals who play them. With Kirk being so inseparable from Shatner, any actor cast as Kirk would be jarring at first and have a hard time convincing us, but Wesley is revealing himself to be a really good choice and a fun charismatic Kirk.
This bold choice may have not paid off right away, but bold choices are what we love about Strange New Worlds.
2. Uhura – Nichelle Nichols/Celia Rose Gooding
Urura’s presence on the Enterprise bridge was so significant for society at large that it’s easy to forget that her presence wasn’t that significant to the show. Uhura was a dedicated, competent, and professional bridge officer, but as the communications officer, her job was that of a space-age switchboard operator.
There was a scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in which the crew, including Uhura, frantically flick through Klingon phrasebooks while trying to bluff their way into Klingon Space to rescue Kirk and McCoy from the Klingon penal colony at Rura Penthe. According to Nichelle Nichols’ autobiography, Becoming Uhura, the scene originally had Uhura personally bluffing the Klingons with her knowledge of Klingonese, but director Nicholas Meyer felt the scene needed humor. It ends with Uhura telling the Klingon ship “We am thy freighter…Ursva… Six weeks out of…Kronos…. We is condemning food…things and supplies…,” while the Klingons laugh at her.
The retconning of Uhura started, of all places, with Star Trek: Enterprise, which established that the communications officer is a language and communications expert. By the time it came to Zoe Saldana in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot, it just seemed natural that Uhura’s job would involve more than announcing that hailing frequencies are open.
So, in terms of her role on the show, SNW’s Uhura is quite different from the original. What puts her so high on this list is that Celia Rose Gooding really feels like they’re channeling Nichelle Nichols which makes that retcon all the more significant, as it feels like we’re seeing another side to Uhura, rather than a different interpretation.
1. Spock – Leonard Nimoy/Ethan Peck
It’s ironic that the number one spot on this list goes to the only legacy character where Strange New Worlds decided to take them in another direction, changing the canon and the very nature of the Character. The other characters who they changed got personality tweaks but nothing about them challenges canon.
Especially in season 2, Strange New Worlds has been an origin story for Spock, explaining why he is the way he in The Original Series. Thus, we get a more emotional Spock, more cognizant of his human side. It will be interesting to find out how and why that changes, though the way his relationship with Nurse Chapel is going, I think we’re starting to understand why a life with no emotions might appeal to him.
It’s a new dimension to the character, and it wouldn’t work if we couldn’t see a connection between this Spock and Leonard Nimoy’s. It feels believable that Peck’s Spock will be Nimoy’s Spock in about ten years’ time. If Ethan Peck didn’t have that old Leonard Nimoy Spock vibe, we’d just see two characters with the same name and costume but with different personalities.
What’s incredible about Ethan Peck’s portrayal of Spock is that it’s not simply a straightforward impersonation of Nimoy. Nimoy had an indelible warmth about him that undercut his emotionlessness. We didn’t see much of Spock’s human side in TOS, but that didn’t feel like a plot hole, because that warmth felt human and familiar. Spock had a humanism (for want of a better word) to him, which is what fans responded to, making Star Trek what it is today. Spock’s kind humanist philosophy and respect for all life forms defined the Federation as the utopian organization that makes Star Trek a beacon of hope to this day. And seeing a character who processes emotions differently from the rest was also very meaningful to a certain subset of the audience.
Peck has that same indelible warmth to him. It’s a rare quality, and it’s much more impactful than a look-a-like or impersonator could ever be.