For Man of Steel enthusiasts, this one was crystal clear.
Warning! The following contains minor SPOILERS from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 8 “Orders of Magnitude.”
Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and a small landing party beam down to a mysterious M-class moon in response to a distress beacon in Strange New Worlds season 4’s eighth episode, “Orders of Magnitude.” And once they begin exploring, a clear homage to Superman materializes: the crystalline structures protruding from the surface.
Now, in all fairness, those Star Trek fans who haven't followed Superman media over the years likely didn’t catch the subtle tip of the cap to the Man of Steel in Strange New Worlds’ “Orders of Magnitude.” However, it was crystal clear — pun definitely intended — to comic book enthusiasts who love the Last Son of Krypton.
Those crystalline structures from Strange New Worlds' latest installment harken back to their first on-screen appearance in the classic film from director Richard Donner, Superman: The Movie (1978), which starred the late Marlon Brando (Jor-El), Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor), and Christopher Reeve (Clark Kent/Kal-El).
In Superman: The Movie, the production design team used those cool crystals to comprise Clark Kent’s home planet of Krypton. And when Clark came of age, a much smaller, green Kryptonian crystal called out to him from the vessel that brought him to Earth as a baby.
The powerful crystal then built Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in the Earth's icy north, which was also inundated by the same crystalline structures appearing Strange New Worlds’ “Orders of Magnitude.”
The crystal design from Superman: The Movie was so popular that it made more appearances in other feature films featuring the beloved character over the years, most notably Superman II (1980), Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (2006), and most recently in James Gunn's Superman (2025).
Also, beginning with the Tom Welling-led Smallville series in season 5, the crystalline Fortress of Solitude made numerous appearances on the show, as Jor-El (Terence Stamp) helped train Kal-El (Welling) to use his powers to protect the Earth before the youth became Superman.
In addition to being a lifelong Trekkie, I love Superman! So, seeing this subtle homage to the Man of Steel’s fortress and homeworld in Strange New Worlds was a nice way for the Star Trek series to leap tall buildings in a single bound, in terms of paying respect to the Last Son of Krypton.
What did you think of the Superman homage? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' newest episode, “Orders of Magnitude,” is now streaming on Paramount+.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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