Strange New Worlds (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds)

"Strange New Worlds" is the series premiere of the American television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is set roughly 6 years before the events of the original Star Trek series. It was written by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet, and it was directed by Akiva Goldsman. Anson Mount stars as Christopher Pike, the Captain of the USS Enterprise. The episode was released on the streaming service Paramount+.

"Strange New Worlds"
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Akiva Goldsman
Written by	Akiva Goldsman Alex Kurtzman Jenny Lumet
Teleplay by	Akiva Goldsman
Featured music	Nami Melumad
Cinematography by	Glen Keenan
Editing by	Andrew Coutts
Production code	101
Original air date	May 5, 2022 (2022-05-05)
Running time	52 minutes
Guest appearances
Adrian Holmes Dan Jeannotte Gia Sandhu Samantha Smith Melanie Scrofano

Plot

The episode begins as alarms ring as an alien finds themselves looking upon a Federation starship. In 2259, Captain Christopher Pike is called back into action from shore leave onboard the USS Enterprise, recently restored in spacedock after being repaired from its battle with Control, by Admiral Robert April in order to mount a rescue mission for Commander Una Chin-Riley, Pike's first officer, who went missing during a first contact mission.

Pike is reluctant to return to space and confides to his science officer, the Vulcan Spock - who has just become engaged to T'Pring- that he saw a vision of his future paralysis during their mission with the USS Discovery. However, Spock convinces him to go ahead with the mission.

The crew onboard, the Enterprise warps to Kiley 279, where the first contact party disappeared after investigating a warp energy signature. Disguising themselves as Kiley inhabitants, Pike and his away team beam down to the surface, where they discover a civil war occurring between two different factions of the planet which surprisingly is in a similar state to 21st century Earth despite apparently having a warp signature. After stealing some medical uniforms, the away team is able to sneak into the facility where Una is being held, and get her out. They find out from her that the Kiley inhabitants actually reverse engineered a weapon from starship warp drives after witnessing the Discovery mission in nearby space. She is beamed up along with the rest of the away team, leaving Pike and Spock on the surface.

Pike convinces the government to cease hostilities with the other faction of the war and to begin negotiations, warning both sides that their condition is very similar to that of his own Earth in the 21st century, where hostilities resulted in World War III. They break Starfleet's General Order One in the process by interfering in the planet's negotiations convincing them that the Federation can help them improve their society.

Pike and his crew avoid repercussions because of the top secret nature of the Discovery mission but Starfleet doubles-down on the rule by renaming it the Prime Directive. Pike recommits to his role and captains the Enterprise on a new five-year mission of exploration.

Reception

The episode was praised by reviewers as a return to form for the franchise, and for its positive tone in contrast to the previous Star Trek: Discovery. The episode has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 8 reviews by critics.

Critics praised the character of Pike (Anson Mount), who Den of Geek described as "note-perfect" and IGN described the casting of Mount as "being able to power the Enterprise by charisma alone".

Critics also praised the return to tradtional, episodic Trek storytelling debuted by this episode.

However, others stated that the episode was "too preachy" in that Pike simply lectures the Kileans about his own home planet and leaves.

External links

• "Strange New Worlds" at IMDb
• Strange New Worlds (episode) at Memory Alpha
• New Worlds "Strange New Worlds" at Wayback Machine (archived from the original at StarTrek.com)