“Take away every gimmick, and it’s still a Star Trek episode.”
Whether it’s the musical “Subspace Rhapsody” or the murder mystery “A Space Adventure Hour,” Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has always been all about genre exploration within the confines of the show’s science fiction boundaries. However, with few exceptions, SNW season 4 has been a veritable playground for boldly going beyond sci-fi borders, and don’t expect actress Rebecca Romijn to apologize for the so-called gimmicky nature of the series either.
When asked if she really meant to apologize for Strange New Worlds focusing heavily on gimmicks during a newly published interview (per TrekMovie.com), Romjin said, “No! This is so much fun for us, and it’s exactly what we intended to do with our show. Take away every gimmick, and it’s still a Star Trek episode. Every single last one. We stand behind every single swing that we took. A lot of people loved it. A lot of people hated it.”
Romijn, who first appeared as Una Chin-Riley, aka Number One on Strange New Worlds, during the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, continued during the same interview by saying:
“A lot of people come back around on second and third viewings. It’s been a mixed bag. But I think that when it’s all said and done, and when the entire series has wrapped, we’ll be able to look back on a very well-rounded series that was very intentional on our part, and hope that people can find the love in it that we put into it ourselves.”
I couldn’t agree more with Romijn’s reaction. Without question, Strange New Worlds season 4 has taken some huge swings, but it’s also delivered some truly memorable episodes which have merged the show’s thematic sci-fi baseline with must-see horror (“The Griffin Incident”), a gritty love letter to the film noir (“A Case of Chiaroscuro”), and one of my personal favorite SNW installments of all time, the outrageous and hilarious “Muppets” adventure “Level-Five Transporter Accident.”
Now, for those Star Trek fans who are dying for less genre-jumping episodes in Strange New Worlds' final season, Romijn also said during the same sit-down: “[Season] 5 has a different nature. Yes. We were given enough notice to really wrap up people’s storylines, to really give every character its due justice. You won’t see so many gimmicks in season 5 [laughs]. Good news, gimmick haters!”
Do you agree with Romijn’s unapologetic reaction to Strange New Worlds’ propensity to play around in the genre sandbox? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And Star Trek: SNW’s medieval Mirror Universe episode, “Once La’An a Time,” is now streaming on Parmaount+.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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