In that series, the characters were betrothed as children per the custom of their planet, Vulcan, and there was nothing to suggest Spock and T’Pring had any real interaction or connection in the intervening years.

Spock still behaves like the character played by Leonard Nimoy (or Zachary Quinto if you’re nasty), but a running subplot radically reimagines his relationship with T’Pring (Gia Sandhu), a character previously seen in just one episode of TOS.

Mount’s Pike is basically the platonic ideal of management: listening to his people, cooking for them, encouraging them to be their best selves but giving them every opportunity the job allows to make their own choices. The Captain Christopher Pike of “The Cage,” the original pilot episode of TOS, was a gruff, sexist fellow who lounged about his quarters like a woman in a 19th-century play on her fainting couch, fantasizing to the ship’s doctor about quitting the tough responsibilities of starship captaining and cracking jokes (?) about trafficking in green alien women. M’Benga.īut here’s the thing: None of these characters is a simple cut-and-paste from the 1960s. These three first appeared in those roles in Star Trek: Discovery’s excellent second season and are joined in their new series by three more returning characters from later in TOS: Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), whom we meet as a self-assured yet searching cadet on her first tour of duty nurse Christine Chapel, played by Jess Bush, who pulls off an incredible balance between badass and vulnerability and Babs Olusanmokun as the weary yet warm Dr. Enterprise, Christopher Pike (here played by a magnetic, profoundly caring Anson Mount) and the mysterious Number One (played here by a formidable and wry Rebecca Romijn), as well as science officer Spock (portrayed by a thoughtful, layered Ethan Peck). The show picks up the original Captain and first officer of the U.S.S. The Show (Light Spoilers Only)Īt first glance, it’s easy to assume Strange New Worlds is simply a fan-service throwback to Star Trek’s original series of the 1960s ( TOS).

Combining the adventurous spirit of Those Old Scientists, emotionally nuanced storytelling and up-to-date perspectives on race, gender and sexuality, the result is a truly delightful experience. But like Discovery, it does a fantastic job reinventing Star Trek’s modern myth for today’s audience. It returns live-action Trek to an adventure-of-the week format after the more serialized Star Trek: Discoveryand Star Trek: Picard.

Star Trek: Strange New Worldsis a joyous, effervescent series, starring a mix of new and old crew members (though even the old are new) on one of television’s oldest starships.

Fantastic voyage asimov