It’s attainable to have an excessive amount of of a superb factor.
Within the case of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” Season 3, reviewing the frothy, effortlessly watchable first 5 episodes brings this reviewer to that inescapable conclusion. That is the present that introduced the enjoyable again to “Star Trek,” that introduced again the astronomical alchemy of Gene Roddenberry’s “Unique Collection” and Rick Berman’s ’90s “Trek” collection in a method most viewers thought they’d by no means see once more. You can maintain up a mirror to our society and have a lighthearted, pop-art-colored romp; you would encourage deep emotion alongside real thrills.
Of that equation, although, the deep emotion is lacking from Season 3 of “Unusual New Worlds,” as is the mirror — even regardless of a personality actually saying in a single episode that sci-fi could make us look extra intently at our personal world.
All that’s left is the enjoyable. Hey, who’re we to complain when it’s a present this enjoyable? However “Star Trek” at all times has had the capability to be extra, and so has this present: This very collection has given us extremely complicated episodes discussing our personal social second (going as far as to say that twenty third century historians labeled the U.S. within the 2020s as in a “Second Civil Battle”), a riveting courtroom drama about private freedom, and, in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” one of the crucial soulful of all “Trek” episodes, one that actually turns Kirk right into a romantic hero for the ages.
As a substitute, within the first half of Season 3, “Unusual New Worlds” opts to maintain it surface-level.
The season picks up immediately after the final frames of the Season 2 cliffhanger, with quite a few the Enterprise crew captured by the Gorn and the ship itself being swarmed by Gorn assault craft. The plot unfolds in an undeniably intelligent method — Season 3 continues to be sensible, however is rarely fairly thought-provoking — with a decision to this story that feels very “Trek” and a number of LED-wall CGI mush that feels sludgy and like another TV manufacturing today. Quite a lot of storylines are arrange from these occasions associated to ongoing bodily and psychological trauma on account of the Gorn, for which your interest-level could fluctuate.
The solid is uniformly stellar, as at all times. Anson Mount brings a texture and integrity to his Capt. Pike that places him among the many finest “Star Trek” collection leads ever. Earlier “Trek” collection did a lot to determine that their leaders have lives past the captain’s chair, have ideas past their captain’s log — Picard’s love of classical music and Dixon Hill detective tales, Sisko’s function as a father and his curiosity in his heritage and in archaeology, Archer’s burning want to look at “Rosemary’s Child” after actually saving Earth, Janeway’s despair and inward flip throughout the “Night time” episode of “Voyager” — and of all of the “Trek” collection for the reason that franchise relaunched as a streaming property in 2017, Mount’s Pike is the one one that actually suits of their ranks. He brings a lot extra to the function than simply the supply of dialogue, discovering gestures and expressive nuances that convey far past what may ever be on the web page alone. His romantic relationship with Capt. Batel (Melanie Scrofano) is a very nice method to additional discover dimensions of each characters.
Babs Olusanmokun continues to carry dimension and depth, even coiled menace, as Dr. M’Benga, whose outstanding Season 2 episode that resulted in him fairly clearly flat-out murdering a Klingon battle felony is revisited shortly in Season 3. Jess Bush’s Nurse Chapel is rarely lower than riveting, someway humorous and earnest in essentially the most excellent “Trek” method. Christina Chong’s La’an is without doubt one of the nice humor-by-way-of-repression characters the franchise has ever given us.
And below Ethan Peck’s extraordinary steering of the character, Spock has change into all however a Jane Austen hero, somebody whose inflexible management of their feelings and adherence to the strictest code of conduct corrals a barely-contained sensuality. He’s the “Pleasure and Prejudice” hand-flex as a full-fledged character. (One can’t even think about Leonard Nimoy doing a greater job delivering the road “I don’t require a Bacchanale.”) A lot of this present is now about his romantic pursuits, or these pursuing him, and it really works.
Spending time with these characters looks like spending time with associates. What’s missing are actually significant storylines to place them into, culminating in a really dispiriting episode that options zombies. “Star Trek” doesn’t, now or ever, want zombies. An “escape room” archaeological dig episode isn’t vastly higher both.
The one absolute triumph of an episode is the one which goes all-out in simply being a lark: “Trek” ought to in all probability have its “lark” episodes after which extra critical episodes, giving us a wide range of tones whereas protecting them distinct. This explicit “lark” episode, directed masterfully as at all times by Jonathan Frakes, includes the Enterprise testing out a holodeck (not a spoiler, its distinctive grid sample was seen within the official teaser) through an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit that La’an has to unravel.
But it surely’s not only a Christie-style thriller, it’s one set in Nineteen Sixties Hollywood and a couple of homicide on the set of an area journey present that’s mainly only a redressed “Unique Collection,” with “As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood” model abounding. It’s an absolute blast, and it reminds that by way of these first 5 episodes we don’t get practically sufficient of Rebecca Romijn as first officer Quantity One or Celia Rose Gooding’s Uhura. This present has at all times been good at spreading the wealth, so it’s possible they’ll get their moments earlier than Season 3 wraps. And wait until you see who Mount is taking part in in that holodeck episode.
That installment is nice, however even nonetheless, hanging over all 5 of those episodes is a whiff of “what is that this present about now?” The relative lack of substance throughout the board can’t assist feeling like a cop out for a present that’s been able to much more. God forbid the avoidance of something topical is one other expression of Paramount trying to keep away from any potential confrontations forward of its proposed merger with Skydance. It is probably not that, but it surely’s beginning to appear to be the choice to wrap the collection after a six-episode fifth season shoots later this 12 months is an effective one.
After the 5 episodes we’ve screened of Season 3, there are possible solely 21 episodes left. Let’s hope, with an actual plan, showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers can really make them depend.
Grade: B-
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” Season 3 premiered on the 2025 Tribeca Pageant. It is going to stream on Paramount+ beginning July 17, releasing a brand new episode every week.