While this article avoids spoilers, the first six episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 were screened for review.
Cover image credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4
My feelings regarding Strange New Worlds Season 4 are complicated. Perhaps more so than any of the three preceding seasons, this season leans into the show’s favored episodic format of formal and aesthetic experimentation.
As is natural with this kind of experimentation, one’s opinion on the results will vary wildly from viewer to viewer. We’ve already seen that through episodes like Season 1’s “All Those Who Wander,” Season 2’s “Subspace Rhapsody” and Season 3’s “A Space Adventure Hour.”
However, I anticipate the first six “experiments” of Season 4 may prove even more divisive than anything from the previous seasons. In part that’s connected to the season pushing the boundaries of its experimental elements even further than it has before. (Although there are also several plot points that I suspect will have canon sticklers raising their hackles.)
But when it comes to this kind of storytelling, it’s inevitable that certain experiments will work better for you, personally, than others. I have my favorites, several episodes which stand apart from the others that I can already tell that I will be more likely to rewatch. But, based as those preferences are in my own individual tastes, they will not necessarily be the same episodes others like best.
Prequelitis
The season is at its weakest when it’s leaning into its status as a prequel, at times seeming desperate to facilitate a smooth transition into Star Trek: Year One. But for better or for worse, this proposed sequel series centered on Paul Wesley’s James T. Kirk seems increasingly unlikely to be ordered by Paramount’s new regime. And this begs the further question: if a show isn’t building to a sequel, shouldn’t it be concentrating on its own narrative?
It is possible to strike the right balance between legacy homage and boldly introducing new narrative elements – just look at Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy, both of which managed to strike a near-perfect balance by the end of their all-too-short runs. But by contrast, Strange New Worlds seems to be growing increasingly imbalanced in favor of existing canon as it races towards its conclusive fifth season.
There is plenty that I enjoy in these episodes, too. There are some genuinely funny moments. Occasionally, there is some strong science fiction (which is often present when Star Trek is at its best). And the cast continues to do everything they can with the material, with Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and especially Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) getting some excellent material this season.
On the other hand, it is hard to gauge where a season-long subplot involving another character is heading, and I have a hard time deciding how I feel about that particular storyline without knowing how it ends. It could prove to be one of Strange New Worlds’ greatest triumphs, or it could be one of the show’s greatest blunders (which is significant, considering “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” is a thing).
And I did miss the inclusion of Jenna Mitchell (Rong Fu) on the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge. She is not the first Enterprise supporting crew member to disappear between seasons, and while I get that actor scheduling concerns can be challenging, I would have liked to see more out of characters like her rather than the re-introduction of additional legacy characters. We can, after all, rewatch any episode of Star Trek: The Original Series anytime we want!
“Strange New Worlds”
To my mind, the pilot episode of Strange New Worlds, “Strange New Worlds,” promised two elements would be present in the show. The first is genre homage, embodied through the strong connection between “Strange New Worlds” and the classic sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Not only is the pilot episode filled with direct allusions to the film, but at the climax of “Strange New Worlds,” Pike himself steps into the role of Klaatu.
This facet of the pilot remains a prominent component of the Strange New Worlds formula. There are plenty of episodes that pay homage to either specific movies or genres throughout the run of the series, a trend that continues in full force in Season 4.
But there was another element that was promised by “Strange New Worlds”: direct social commentary. In that episode, it was clear that Kiley 279 represented the current, tense state of life on Earth (or at least in the United States). This was underscored by dialogue from Spock (Ethan Peck) that referred to the U.S. as having had multiple civil wars with “devastating results,” and topped off by the climax, in which real-life news footage of several contemporary events, including social unrest connected to the 2020 presidential election, was used to make Pike’s point.
There is one Season 4 episode (of the six I’ve watched so far) that delivers on this promise of unapologetic, direct political and social commentary. This is a step up from Strange New Worlds Season 3, which mostly eschewed such commentary (outside of the very end of “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” a standout episode for that season).
Admittedly, I would like to see more episodes that possess this type of commentary; Season 2’s “Ad Astra per Aspera” is another example, and there’s a reason many Trekkies consider that to be the best episode of the series (so far). But credit where credit is due: as soon as you start watching it, you won’t have to question which episode embodies this ethos in Season 4.
The Penultimate Frontier
As we’ve been well aware for a while now, Strange New Worlds will be concluding with its forthcoming fifth season, which will be comprised of just six episodes. While I am relieved that Strange New Worlds will get the opportunity to provide a season crafted with the knowledge that it will be the show’s last, the looming end of the series does cast a pall over Season 4.
It is hard not to watch each episode with a mental countdown: “There are only ten episodes left after this.” It’s a difficult thing for a show to navigate, especially when one assumes Strange New Worlds had been built to last seven seasons. What might have the show been able to accomplish with more episodes? Maybe those living in the non-Mirror Universe can answer that for us.
But under the increasingly cruel boot of the fledgling Terran Empire, we’ll have to take what we can get. Perhaps Strange New Worlds never achieved all the potential that pilot episode possessed, but it has pretty reliably delivered several good-to-excellent episodes per batch, and Season 4 is no exception.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 4 premiere will be available for streaming on Paramount+ beginning Thursday, July 23rd, 2026, with new episodes debuting weekly on Thursdays thereafter.
