A Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner is promising the last two seasons will have fewer episodes that some Trekkies had issues with in season 3!
Strange New Worlds just wrapped up its third season, with two more coming. While the show remains a success, season 3 had its share of detractors on the quality and up-and-down storytelling. The showrunners even addressed it, blaming some of the problems on the delays caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
Yet many fans have been critical of how season 3 had too many episodes that seemed a bit gimmicky for their taste. They included a wedding episode involving Trelane, a Trek version of a zombie story, a holodeck story with a 1960s murder mystery theme, an episode filmed like a documentary, and one where four of the USS Enterprise's crew members turned into Vulcans.
Speaking to ScreenRant about the show’s upcoming seasons, co-showrunner and producer Akiva Goldsman seemed to address those concerns as he hinted that seasons 4 and 5 will be more like classic Trek than these offbeat tales. Goldsman said:
“We’re making season 5 now, we’re trending towards that, which is probably the center line of Star Trek, right? We’re trending now, and beginning with season 4 and through season 5, to a much more singular sci-fi, action-adventure, emotional storytelling. And you know, the outliers are getting less and less, as we kind of focus on saying goodbye to each other and the fans.”
This is a good direction for the series, as many Trekkies may agree that less is more when it comes to these tales. So, what should viewers expect? Co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers said in the same interview:
“The thing I will say about season 4 is, it’s in line with what we have done with the previous seasons, in the sense that we look at this like, ‘This could be our last season.’ So we treat it that way. What’s something that we want to try to do, that [we] have never done before? What is something we want to try to do a version of, that [past shows] have done before, but never in this way. So that’s what we do in season 4.”
The need for less SNW “outliers”
It’s not like other Star Trek shows haven’t done offbeat episodes before. Every Trek indulges in several installments that are often more comedic or a different style of storytelling. But a major advantage then was all those series had 20+ episode counts per season and thus better to have some one-off tales amid the bigger stories.
In contrast, Strange New Worlds has only 10 episodes per season. So when over half those episodes are strange stories that have little impact on the overall season story arc, it’s a massive distraction that hurts the show’s momentum.
There could have been more episodes this season focusing on the darker threat of ancient aliens and the condition of Batel, while also touching on La’an and Spock’s relationship and some dramatic turns. The writers can still craft some fine tales, and that’s why it was frustrating for the show to rely on these gimmick episodes rather than craft a regular story with needed character growth.
Still, SNW season 4 has at least one offbeat episode in the works where somehow the crew becomes puppets, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Check out the video below. And for more Star Trek content, visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Stream Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+.