“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds,” greater than something, exists as a enjoyable experiment in style. Not like lots of the streaming period “Star Trek” sequence, “Unusual New Worlds” is offered in an episodic format, with every week’s story concluding on the finish of the hour. Its showrunners have been exploiting that format to the utmost of their capabilities, attempting to rotate by way of as many genres and subgenres as they’ll with every 10-episode season. One episode could also be an intense private drama in regards to the lingering impulses towards violence after struggling wartime PTSD, whereas the subsequent is a lighthearted satirical homicide thriller within the Agatha Christie vein. “Unusual New Worlds” has extra straight-up comedy and novelty episodes than another “Star Trek” present up to now as nicely, having made each a musical episode and a half-animated crossover with “Star Trek: Decrease Decks.”
Certainly, we already know the sequence’ fourth season will embody an episode that includes muppet versions of the “Strange New World” characters. Clearly, this present is not afraid to push the bounds of caprice (though it may have found the limit in that respect during season 3).
All the identical, it appears that evidently one of many silliest concepts for an episode of “Unusual New Worlds” could by no means come to go. Talking to SFX Magazine, “Unusual New Worlds” co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman talked about his work on the sequence, implying that just about nothing is off-the-table when it comes to the experimental format. Nonetheless, whereas the present’s “Decrease Decks” crossover consists of an animated phase, Goldsman as soon as had a extra expansive thought to write down an episode that is totally animated. Extra particularly, he got here up with the notion of a “Unusual New Worlds” episode animated within the model of “Star Trek: The Animated Collection” from the Nineteen Seventies. Goldsman did not go into element past that, but it surely’s actually a enjoyable — and impressive — prospect.
Akiva Goldsman needs to make a completely animated episode of Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds
Many Trekkies would be capable to tell you all about “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” which ran for 2 seasons again in 1973 and 1974. It introduced again many of the solid of “Star Trek: The Authentic Collection” (although Walter Koenig as Chekov is disappointingly absent) and merely adopted the usS. Enterprise on its normal adventures. Because of the medium of animation, nonetheless, the present’s aliens and tales might afford to be slightly extra outlandish. “The Animated Collection” was produced by Filmation, the studio that will go on to make “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” After falling into obscurity for years, it is now simply accessible on Paramount+.
The makers of the brand new “Star Trek” exhibits are clearly accustomed to “The Animated Collection,” having already produced a sequence of animated shorts in its model beneath the banner of “Very Quick Treks.” Goldsman, nonetheless, wished to take issues a step additional and make a full one-hour episode of “Unusual New Worlds” in the identical model. He touched on this when SFX Journal requested in regards to the present’s famed style experimentation. As he defined:
“There have been some [genres] we’ve not been in a position to determine. Yearly we have stated ‘Let’s do a Western!’ I do not assume it will break the present in any respect, I simply do not assume we all know how you can do it. We actually wished to do a ‘TAS’ episode, and for a bunch of causes we could not fairly get there. We’ve not completed a straight animated episode, and I do not assume we are going to. Whether or not it will break the present or not, I do not know. Most likely not. It is exhausting to know what would break it.”
Notably, the “Star Trek” franchise already encompasses a handful of Western episodes. Their ranks embody “Spectre of the Gun” from “Star Trek: The Authentic Collection” and “A Fistful of Datas” from “Star Trek: The Subsequent Era.” Based mostly on Goldsman’s feedback, although, it appears that evidently a completely animated episode of “Unusual New Worlds” is off the desk, not less than for now. Maybe it will merely be too exhausting and/or time-consuming to make. There are nonetheless extra seasons of the sequence to come back, although, so by no means say die.
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” is at the moment streaming on Paramount+.
