What a distinction 5 years make. Again in 2020, the 2 live-action Star Trek sequence that hit Paramount+ had been Star Trek: Picard Season 1 and Star Trek: Discovery Season 3. With loads of shiny spots, general, each of these seasons had been deeply earnest, full of tension and bloodshed, and positively created division among the many varied sects of Trek followers. As we speak, Unusual New Worlds — which paradoxically started as a Discovery spinoff — is now the close to tonal reverse of the place the franchise was very not too long ago. And with Season 3, Unusual New Worlds is outstanding as a result of, in contrast to the varied course-corrections in Discovery and Picard, this present isn’t actually attempting to reinvent itself in any respect.
Unusual New Worlds is, if you happen to squint, a live-action model of Decrease Decks, albeit a way more mainstream one. For followers who liked the 2 earlier seasons, Unusual New Worlds Season 3 is solely one other season of that very same present: a breezy episodic construction mixed with a unusual tone, and fast to set phasers to enjoyable (nearly) each time. And so, judging by the primary 5 episodes of Season 3 that got to critics, Unusual New Worlds is doing all of that once more, with just one distinction: In contrast to Season 2, there appear to be fewer gimmicks. No musical episode. No crossover with one other present. As a substitute, the sequence is assured that followers will benefit from the very particular cleaning soap opera woven across the newish crew of the Starship Enterprise.
The connection between Spock and Chapel appears to have been the blueprint for this new season’s path.
Paramount+
Unusual New Worlds isn’t a serialized present when it comes to huge overarching sci-fi plotting, however it’s a serialized present when it comes to emotional character arcs. And it’s because of this that the one factor to find out about Season 3 of SNW is that it expects that you just’re extra invested within the characters than the sci-fi. Arguably, this can be a technique that comes from the heyday of The Subsequent Era. Again then, Michael Piller shifted the model of the present to ship episodes targeted on single characters. The Subsequent Era Season 3 (1989-1990) then shifted into the period the place we obtained “Worf episodes” or “Riker episodes,” an episodic model that suited that present, and works decently properly with Unusual New Worlds Season 3, too.
And, like The Subsequent Era earlier than it, SNW Season 3 appears more and more much less involved about matching up completely with Trek canon. Whereas Discovery Season 2 bent over backwards to retcon how that crew slot in with the bigger puzzle of pre-Unique Sequence canon, the present machinations and character conditions in Unusual New Worlds appear not anti-canon per se, however definitely exist in a special tonal world.
Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura and Mynor Luken as Beto in a lighthearted second.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
To place it one other approach, The Unique Sequence gave us hints on the romance between Spock and Chapel, whereas SNW has turned that subtext into the precise textual content of the sequence. Ditto minor one-off characters like Roger Korby, who, appeared in a single episode of TOS as Chapel’s estranged former fiancé, however in SNW Season 3 is a serious pressure, a recurring character with so much to say and do. Did we get the sense within the episode “What Are Little Women Made Of?” that Spock knew the unique Korby this properly? Not likely. However that’s been the vanity of SNW all alongside. Kirk interacts with Pike way more than we’d assumed, Uhura is on the Enterprise for for much longer, and now, after his introduction on the finish of Season 2, Martin Quinn’s new tackle Scotty is charmingly entrance and heart in Season 3.
It’s tempting to say that SNW succeeds as a result of, of all of the newer Trek exhibits, it is the one which feels essentially the most like fan fiction. Or maybe, to place it one other approach, it’s Star Trek model of Marvel’s What If? On this case, the “What If?” situation that’s floated in almost each episode is “What if the 60s Star Trek present had been made right now?”
Typically talking, on this notice, the episodes in SNW Season 3 succeed, however solely within the sense that they really feel like fashionable variations of episodes from Season 2 of Star Trek: The Unique Sequence (aka, the season most jam-packed with comedic episodes like “I, Mudd” or “The Hassle with Tribbles”). Unusual New Worlds Season 3 is definitely enjoyable, although sometimes on the expense of presenting stakes which are larger than merely emotional. In case you enable your self to say that this present is concerning the characters and the way they really feel, then you’ll find it irresistible. In case you’re on the lookout for one thing that’s nearer to For All Mankind or Basis, you must watch these exhibits as a type of counterbalance.
Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga and Anson Mount as Captain Pike in one of many extra critical moments of Unusual New Worlds Season 3.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
In a type of reversal from Season 2, a number of the higher episodes of SNW Season 3 are the extra serious-minded ones, together with the superb first episode, which is a direct sequel to the Season 2 cliffhanger, “Hegemony.” Actually, the Season 3 premiere episode of Unusual New Worlds is significantly better than Season 2’s considerably forgettable opener, “The Damaged Circle.” Whereas SNW has some unfastened ends to tie up, it doesn’t rush to repair every part the way in which Season 2 did within the first two episodes. Some occasions from Season 2, significantly in reference to Captain Batel, nonetheless linger in Season 2. And, as talked about earlier than, we’re removed from being achieved with Spock/Chapel drama.
When the episode “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” subtly reset the SNW timeline in 2023, the present appeared to be making a not-so-subtle assertion: This present is not a prequel. And regardless of the large quantities of TOS characters that make up the spine of the present, this season cements that assertion. The legacy of Unusual New Worlds within the bigger pantheon of Trek is, for now, unknowable. As a result of we’re getting Season 4 and Season 5 after this, in some methods, we’re nonetheless very a lot in the course of this journey. The place the sequence will boldly go subsequent is perhaps considerably predictable, but it surely’s nonetheless very a lot one of the enjoyable sci-fi exhibits on TV.
