We’re getting closer to the return of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and as these things traditionally go, Season 1 of the Captain Pike-centric series has just beamed down on Blu-ray and on DVD for fans to add to their home collections.
The three-disc set — also available in special Steelbook packaging — includes all ten episodes of the show’s inaugural adventures, as well as a host of bonus material that dives into the making of Strange New Worlds, a good chunk of additional footage which didn’t make Season 1’s final cut, and an audio commentary track on the series premiere (“Strange New Worlds”).
The relatively episodic first season follows the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his pre-Kirk crew of the USS Enterprise: second in command Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), science officer Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck), tactical officer Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), pilot Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), chief medical officer Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and communications trainee Cadet Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding).
The series also includes recurring characters like Aenar chief engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak), Pike’s superior officer, Commodore Robert April (Adrian Holmes), Jim Kirk’s older brother Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), and Spock’s fiancee T’Pring (Gia Sandhu).
Along with the audio commentary on “Strange New Worlds” featuring lead actor Anson Mount and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman, the Season 1 collection contains over 100 minutes of features.
Exploring New Worlds (53:58) is an interesting, if textbook, run-through of the making of Strange New Worlds Season 1. It has a lot of interesting factoids and titbits, from the show’s inception as a misunderstanding on Akiva Goldsman’s part (he originally believed Discovery was going to be a Pike-centered prequel) through to the stylistic camera choices of “A Quality of Mercy” — but very little of it is very ground-breaking. It is, however, very charming, and a nice insight into the devotion of the actors and production staff to their craft.
A lot of it is stuff we’ve heard before in interviews and press interviews: the discussion about episodic stories and serialised characters was almost verbatim what Myers and Goldsman have said in almost every interview they’ve given, but there are still a few bits of new material peppered throughout the nearly one-hour package.
Pike’s Peek (17:26), a cheeky name for Anson Mount’s video diary of his time on set, is fun… mainly because Mount himself is irresistibly charming at all levels. It’s not particularly insightful, though, beyond reminding you that everyone on that set is having an incredibly good time. There’s a nice bit where Mount reads out a letter from a NASA official wishing them all good luck; apart from that, the content isn’t particularly special.
I did, however, enjoy the behind-the-scenes look in World Building (11:56), which focuses on how the augmented reality wall works. From an up-close look at the wall itself to interviews with production designer Jonathan Lee and the directors, this segment was worth the watch to learn about the integration of the still-new technology. Learning how the AR wall is used and its significant complications and limitations will be intriguing to those who enjoy the peek behind the “holodeck” walls.
The Deleted Scenes (18:50) were a mixed bag. The cuts from “Children of the Comet” and “The Elysian Kingdom” (less than 45 seconds total between each episode), as they added very little to the plot and pacing of the episodes. The two cuts from “Ghosts of Illyria” (about two minutes in total) were hit and miss; the first includes a conversation between Ensign Lance and Una, where Lance’s own general mistrust of augments appears as a foil to Pike and Una’s more tolerant tone. The second — a sequence involving Uhura’s bunkmates — was a worthwhile cut.
The five minutes of cut material from “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach,” though, really stood out to me. The brief flashback to 2249 shows Alura being assisted by a younger — and redshirted — Lieutenant Pike aboard her shuttlecraft, with some brief banter and romantic tension before he disappears back to his ship.
I can easily see why it got cut — it throws the pacing of the episode off completely — but it was a nice little scene, even if just for showing us the nuts and bolts of shooting a scene involving the shuttlecraft set. We also got a new uniform for the 2240s, so thank god this was a deleted scene: we could’ve gotten three weeks of Twitter discourse out of that ribbed collar!
Filling out the rest of the trimmed material is nearly eleven minutes from “All Those Who Wander,” and it’s a very mixed bag. Some of it — especially the slower, more combative sequence of arguments before the away team comes up with a plan to fight the Gorn — was cut for obvious reasons: it’s not very good, and feels a bit disjointed.
An earlier sequence where La’an, Chapel, Hemmer and Uhura “play dead” to dissuade the Gorn from attacking them also has no real plot purpose, except to show Hemmer putting himself in the way of the Gorn’s attack venom. The two scenes removed from the end of the episode were clearly cut for time but would have provided a little bit of plot closure, especially in the case of Uhura’s request to stay on the Enterprise after her academy graduation.
The Gag Reel (2:47) is pretty fun! Gag reels are certainly hit-and-miss, but honestly, this one was a bit of a hit. It certainly solidifies the well-known fact that this is a very fun cast; they are absolutely enjoying every part of this. Even Mount seems a little pleased with himself for continuing the Trek tradition of walking right into a sliding door. Celia Rose Gooding’s gaffes are a complete delight as well, as are a few moments of full cast silliness and pranks.
Finally, to compare with the season-ending “A Quality of Mercy,” CBS Home Entertainment has included an extra bonus feature not previously announced: a full copy of “Balance of Terror,” the classic Star Trek episode which inspired the episode.
(This is the same ‘remastered and enhanced’ version of the Original Series episode which many of you likely already have on disc from the various TOS Blu-ray sets released over the last 14 years, complete with updated visual effects.)
Compared to a regular high-definition presentation on Paramount+, the Blu-ray release of Strange New Worlds is going to be your best way to get the best visual experience watching the series, from the exploratory opening title sequence to the many space adventures Captain Pike’s crew experienced over the ten-episode season.
For those of you aiming a bit higher, however, the season will make its debut on 4K UHD Blu-ray this May, with a limited-edition Steelbook release featuring the show in its best overall presentation format yet. The 4K edition will include all the same bonus features found on the Blu-ray release, along with high-quality include Dolby Vision dynamic HDR coloring.
(Keep in mind the 4K UHD release will not include standard Blu-ray discs, so if you want both formats, you’ll need to pick up two copies of the show.)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — Season 1 (Blu-ray · Steelbook) is the first of several new home media releases arriving this Spring, with the Next Generation films remastered in 4K coming April 4, the third season of Star Trek: Lower Decks on Blu-ray arriving April 25, and the 4K edition of Strange New Worlds Season 1 on May 16.
Additionally, disc releases of Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 1.5) and Star Trek: Picard Season 3 are likely to follow before the end of 2023.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 is in post-production now; it is expected to arrive on Paramount+ in the first half of 2023.