On Friday, May 15th CBS officially green-lit the new series, titled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with returning TOS/DISCO characters Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck). Trekkies every where rejoiced in hopeful unison as this trio easily made up some of the best moments from Star Trek Discovery‘s second season.
The Details
We’ve heard rumor of various series coming into flesh out the new Trek-verse on CBS. Some of those became the Short Treks, Picard series, and Section 31 starring Michelle Yoeh (which will start filming when Discovery season 3 wraps airing this year). The others were possibly the newly confirmed Pike show or currently unconfirmed crossover event/show (somehow involving all 4 shows?)
After the official announcement on CBS, stars Mount, Peck, and Romijn took to the official Star Trek Twitter with an awesome video
Hit it 🖖#StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #StarTrekSNW https://t.co/ut5FkrjcLa pic.twitter.com/5CzABFlykB
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) May 15, 2020
What’s unsure right now is how much the fan support of these characters influenced the show choice. I mean, I could argue until I’m blue-faced that this was a no-brainer for the studio; Trekkies everywhere loved their performances.
Why Are We Excited?
Well for starters, Anson Mount is fantastic as Captain Pike, making all the previous iterations seem small by comparison. Granted, this is literally the longest any version of Pike has stayed alive or intact on screen (so that actually may be why I love it) but Mount is definitely doing a great job in the role.
Particularly after Discovery’s rocky first season, having Mount as any actor come in and settle everything down as an actor and fictional captain made the season work. This isn’t a knock on the previous/future captains Lorca (Jason Issacs) or Saru (Doug Jones) but Mount brought the right flair with Captain Pike that quickly endeared him to everyone on board the Discovery and viewers watching at home.
Now, add in solid doses of fan-favorite Spock (in his early Starfleet years, and with no Kirk/McCoy yet) and you easily get the parts I was most worried about in season two. That said, Peck’s performance was pretty darn good. I mean, it’s hard to beat OG Spock (RIP Leonard Nimoy) or even Zachary Quinto’s work on the Abrams’ films. With his focus more on the impending crisis with Discovery’s fight against a rogue AI and his relationship with Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), he gave a solid interpretation. I assume he’ll get more comfortable as the new show takes off and he gets to find his legs, like our final member of the trio…
Number One (Una is what her official name is, based off a novel that confirmed it…can you guess what it means?) has the least scene time of either character…but Rebecca Romijn did a good job with very limited moments. She had instant connection with Pike and they felt like they had been crew mates for a seemingly long time. That’s incredibly hard to coach and it will likely only get better as time moves forward.
As a personal aside, it’s great to see two performers like Mount and Romijn get more steady work after brief stints in another nerd universe (Marvel). And did you know Peck was the grandson of…yes you guessed it, Gregory Peck; what an acting heritage to carry/aspire to!
What Does This Mean For The Trek Universe?
Honestly, I have to eat my words a little bit.
I initially lambasted CBS for their online platform (and some of that is still warranted…God that interface could use some updates or discuss with a UI team…speaking of, how’s our site…scuttles away in horror) and I was originally upset that Trek was getting relegated to a poorly managed online space.
However, CBS and the fan base is proving that the online platform gamble is a minor success, with the service hitting new subscribers highs and Trek fans getting a slew of content.
That said, there are definitely things to be concerned or intrigued about for sure…
- How committed will CBS be if any of their Star Trek shows start to wane?
- If the subscriber count drops off it’s projected rise, will CBS start slashing online-only shows?
- Is the universe too saturated now with 4 shows and a mythical 5th still rumored?
- Given how much Discovery ignored established lore and canon in key spots, how confident can fans be in Strange New Worlds to do a better job in that department?
- How much crossover will happen with this series and TOS or other shows if the crossover show/event doesn’t actually happen?
- And finally…who will play the new generation of TOS characters in this universe? (… you know it’s gonna happen…)
Those will be the questions that I’ll be looking at next year when this series finally arrived to the delight of Trekkies everywhere.
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