Yesterday’s announcement for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds sent the Internet buzzing, with fans who had been clamoring for the return of Captain Pike and company celebrating the news that Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romjin will be returning for their own Star Trek series set aboard the USS Enterprise.
Much of the online conversation centered around speculation on the nature of this new show, with many expressing hopes that the Strange New Worlds storytelling format would be more episodic in nature — with distinct stories that would perhaps be confined to an episode or two, compared to the season-long arcs seen in Discovery and Picard to date.
Back in November, in fact, Mount told IGN that he sees Pike as a “traditional” character, one that is more well-suited for one-off adventures:
Being a fan, there’s so many things that pop up in my mind, and in general I’d love to do something episodic with ‘Trek’ rather than serialized, because I think that Pike as a traditional character, it just feels like something episodic would be the way to go.
Because that’s Trek, you know, it’s episodic. Not to say that ‘Discovery’… everything they’ve done I think is something I probably would’ve made the same choices in terms of going serialized and getting deeper into the characters.
But I think I’d like to do something episodic, which actually I’ve never done before as a regular.
And it sounds like the actor’s hopes will be paying off in Strange New Worlds, as series producer Akiva Goldsman explained in a new interview with Variety yesterday, who told the publication that he sees Strange New Worlds as being closer in tone to the Original Series — only natural for a show set aboard the original Enterprise.
We’re going to try to harken back to some classical ‘Trek’ values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic. Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story-building, but I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you’ve seen in either ‘Discovery’ or ‘Picard.’
I imagine it to be closer to the Original Series than even ‘DS9′ [in terms of serialization]. We can really tell closed-ended stories. We can find ourselves in episodes that are tonally of a piece.
Goldsman illustrated a way that Strange New Worlds would be more serialized than classic Trek by referencing one of the greatest entries in the Original Series:
Kirk is heartbroken at the loss of Edith Keeler in ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ and has to be just fine the next week…
I think what we would want to do is keep the characters having moved through and recognizing the experiences they’ve had in previous episodes, but to be able to tell contained, episodic stories.
As for when we’ll see the show come to screens, things are still in flux — for obvious reasons — and Goldsman wouldn’t speculate as to when production would start, but actor Ethan Peck weighed in on his hopes and excitement for the series.
Last year, I basically told myself I was gonna do as many conventions as possible to connect to the fan base and campaign for a spinoff show for Anson and Rebecca and I. We all got along so well, and we all loved the content so much and the message of ‘Star Trek.
I believe so much in what we’re doing. I don’t think that there’s ever been a better time for ‘Star Trek,’ because of its ideology. It’s all about coming together and using the ways that we’re different from one another for the advantage of people as a whole.
He also sees his return as Spock to be a new challenge after his time in Discovery Season 2, where the half-Vulcan was still trying to find balance between his emotional and logical sides.
It’ll be a whole new challenge for me as an actor portraying Spock because you’ve had this transformation; I can’t wait to see what we explore.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest Strange New Worlds news as it breaks!