The people behind the newest Trek show, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” however, are teaching themselves not to take their presence in the Trek canon for granted. Showrunner Henry Alonso Meyers said as much in a recent interview with TrekMovie. He is, perhaps wisely, not thinking beyond the show’s second season. “Strange New Worlds,” it should be mentioned, is presented as a series of one-off, hour-long episodes rather than as a series of enormous, season-long story arcs. The classic episodic storytelling has allowed “Strange New Worlds” to capture the traditional spirit of “Star Trek,” which always functioned better as a bunch of miniature morality plays.
As such, “Strange New Worlds” is freer to explore the things the showrunners want to do, rather than be beholden to long-term storytelling plans. The first season of “Strange New Worlds,” which concluded on July 7, worked just fine. Meyers said that he would like to continue in the same tradition.
“I want to [do] more of what’s worked. But I would also say, in some ways, it’s different. We were trying to take what worked and really amplify that. And then try to correct where we weren’t happy with it. But the biggest thing we tried to do was not hold back stuff. We were really like, ‘Okay, let’s pretend this is our last season. And let’s absolutely go for everything that we wanted to do.'”
While “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard” may have their fans, it may be to both those shows’ detriments that they adhere so closely to larger story arcs. As such, plot supersedes all else, and there will be little time for the trademark optimism, idly philosophizing, and workplace camaraderie that are Trek’s signatures.
