Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

While only 3 of the expected 5 seasons of this series have been released (and watched), I feel ready to give my review.

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This series made me cringe so much! They turned the Enterprise into the Love Boat by making Spock's sexual life a major plot-line. Not only is all his hooking up out of character, that choice cheapens this and the Original Series.

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In the Original Series, it was hinted once or twice that Spock and Nurse Chapel may have had a dalliance, but in this prequel series the creators made Spock’s bedroom a revolving door.

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I also didn’t appreciate some of the casting. The lovely woman cast to play Uhuru not only doesn’t look anything like Nichele Nicols, her disposition is also not true to the character. In this, young Uhuru is ebullient, wide-eyed, and voluptuous while the character in the Original Series is serious, slender, cat-eyed, and elegant.

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The creators might have made more of an effort to chose people who more closely resemble James T. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Nurse Chapel, too, but the casting is a small gripe.

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My biggest gripe has to do with the fact that there are only 3 or 4 episodes per season that are entirely focused on some kind of space or science-related issue to be solved. The rest of the episodes seem to have been written to give the cast an opportunity to wear different clothes, try on an accent, SING and dance. As a life-long lover of every series of Star Trek though the years, I was mortified.

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On the plus side, a strong choice was made to bring back the Gorn as the central villain of this series.

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We see the Gorn only once in the Original Series in that unforgettable episode where William Shatner has a long, drawn-out fight on an arid planet with a guy in a rubber lizard suit. That episode leaves a lasting impression. The creators of this series did a pretty good job of making the Gorn scary.

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I can only recommended this for die-hard Star Trek fans who want to see every series for the sake of thoroughness.