Strange New Worlds: When Experimentation Becomes an Identity Problem
I used to love Strange New Worlds precisely because it brought back something I felt Star Trek had been missing for a long time: an Enterprise actually exploring strange new worlds again, investigating unknown phenomena, and confronting its crew with moral and scientific questions.
Of course, the show was always allowed to be silly from time to time. Star Trek has never been completely serious. I could even appreciate the musical episode in Season 2 — not only because some of the cast were surprisingly good singers, but because it was one crazy experiment in a season that still had enough serious stories to balance it out.
But somewhere along the way, the exception seems to have become the concept.
Season 3 already leaned too heavily into comedy for my taste. So far, Season 4 seems to be taking that approach to the extreme. One episode feels like Jurassic Park, the next like Event Horizon, then I get something resembling a mixture of The Hangover and Dude, Where’s My Car?, followed by film noir.
The problem isn't that Star Trek experiments with other genres. It has been doing that since the 1960s. The problem begins when I spend more time wondering which movie the writers are trying to imitate this week than thinking about the story Star Trek itself is trying to tell me.
I don't want a show that needs to prove every week just how weird or outrageous it can be. I want to be amazed again. I want to discover an unknown world. I want a moral dilemma that stays with me after the credits roll. I want a political conflict where neither side can simply be dismissed as evil. Or give me a scientific idea that genuinely fascinates me.
In short:
I want Strange New Worlds to show me strange new worlds again.