Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Contrary to what some might think I may say about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I actually like the show. For one, it holds much closer to what Gene Roddenberry envisioned for the future of mankind in the sense that people simply get along with each other, that utopian society that I hope that one day all of humanity will be able to achieve. When compared to Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Discovery where it’s almost dystopian in nature, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is much closer to that of what hardcore Star Trek fans like me envision Star Trek to be.

That’s not to say that I don’t see problems with the show, because there are some issues. The biggest of them all is the portrayal of Vulcans in the first episode. The first episode of the series completely ignores Star Trek canon that states Vulcans are not at all sexually attracted to one another until a biological condition known as Pon Farr that occurs every seven years in a Vulcan’s life which drives them to mate happens. This whole idea of Pon Farr was thrown out the airlock in the first episode in which we see Spock and T’Pring are about to have sex just as Captain Pike calls him. If we were to follow the canon of Star Trek, that scene would NOT EVER happen. Vulcans aren’t like humans in their sexuality.

The second episode had some issues too. Spock indicated that there was a breathable atmosphere on the asteroid that they were on. OK but how? Did he scan the area with his tricorder? Nope. How did he know? Plot hole! And why is Uhura along for the ride. She’s technically not even an officer yet, she’s a cadet and not only that but one that’s not even sure she wants to be in Starfleet. Why is she there? They don’t even know if they need a linguist when going to the asteroid. Thirdly, how did Uhura know that whatever system was on the asteroid responded to sound? OK, she was humming a tune; I get it; however, it seems a little contrived here.

Can I overlook these issues if they give us good stories? Yes. But please Star Trek writers, give us better stories! That’s all we want. Good stories!!!

However, there are some people like Overlord DVD, The Critical Drinker, and others on YouTube that absolutely hate this new show simply because it does not absolutely, ten thousand percent, follow fifty years of Star Trek canon. I’m not one of them. I can overlook some issues with the show as long as it gives good stories to watch. I simply want to be entertained and so far, Strange New Worlds has done that. Unfortunately, I think that many people like those I mentioned are too focused on what Star Trek used to be. Like it or not, if a new Star Trek show were to come out today that featured stories like that of which Star Trek: The Next Generation featured, today’s modern audience would reject it and it would be cancelled within the first year or even before then because it made not enough money. The idea of going back to what The Next Generation was would never fly with today’s audience. OK, yes… It would work for us small minority of people of people who remember Star Trek as it was in the past, but we’re a dying breed. Star Trek needs to embrace a new audience, or it’ll die with us.

I’ll continue to post new blog entries with praise and critiques as needed as new episodes of the show air on Paramount+.

Last updated on Tuesday, May 17th, 2022 at 10:36 PM by trparky.