Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season three review: Warp five or so, but the speed is increasing

News.com.au

9 hours ago

Remarkably few elements of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' third season work as well as they could or should.
Its action is decent but never great. Moments intended to convey emotional weight feel just a touch too shallow. The humour mostly elicits more of a bark, a brief 'Ha!', than a full, proper laugh. And its performances fluctuate between being oddly flat, on the one hand, and overly melodramatic on the other.
Always, something feels a teensy bit off. But there is also plenty worth pursuing here; occasional flashes that suggest Strange New Worlds is capable of matching its franchise's previous heights.
Mixed signals, I know.
This is a television show you constantly find yourself wanting to enjoy, because like pretty much all Star Trek projects, it offers an earnestness and optimism rarely found elsewhere. It's ironic, then, that Strange New Worlds' strongest moments are also its darkest.
We were given access to half of the ten-episode season, and until I viewed the very last episode of that batch, this review was not going to double as a recommendation for anyone outside the show's existing fanbase.
Now I find myself in the unusual position of feeling sceptical towards my own scepticism. I still cannot describe this as essential viewing, even for sci-fi tragics, but the potential is there to take this story in genuinely intriguing directions, and when the final five episodes drop, I will be watching.
What can you expect, then?
The marketing for season three promises 'thrilling adventures of faith, duty, romance, comedy, and mystery, with varying genres never before seen on any other Star Trek '.
I'm not sure about the 'never before seen' claim, there. Across its hundreds of previous episodes Trek has done plenty of experimentation. But yes, this season of television does play with different genres.
One episode, featuring an early prototype of the holodecks we see later in the timeline, turns into a fun Knives Out -style murder mystery. Another flirts with horror, to surprisingly haunting effect, and introduces a chilling new villain to the universe.
(You will be either greatly relieved or greatly disappointed to learn there is no musical episode this time around.)
The tonal shifts don't all work. One episode, which includes a guest appearance from the forever delightful Kiwi comedic actor Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death), ultimately strays just a bit too far into silliness. Not egregiously so! But far enough to be jarring.
Previous Star Trek TV shows have gotten away with weirdness and inconsistency, partly because they lived in an era of 20-plus episode seasons which would inevitably include duds, and partly because of their strong ensemble casts. You would happily watch the characters when they were inserted into lesser, or even quite stupid plots.
That is where I worry most about Strange New Worlds. Not so long ago, ten-episode seasons were the mark of prestige television, with almost no room for inert space. There is inert space here. And on top of it, these characters do not always ooze charisma.
That sounds more insulting than intended. No actor is doing a particularly bad job. But the characters, as written and performed, lack the same force of personality as Kirk, Bones and the original Spock, or Picard, Riker and Data.
The standout performers are Christina Chong as Lieutenant La'an Noonien-Singh, the Enterprise's outwardly confident but inwardly churning chief of security, and Ethan Peck as our latest iteration of Spock.
(Though it must be said, an inordinate amount of time is spent exploring his love life.)
The other characters ... they're not quite what you would call one dimensional. But something is missing. Whatever depth they show does not quite clear the 'compelling' threshold.
Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) lacks the sheer screen presence we saw from previous Star Trek captains. First Officer Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) is too restrained and tight-lipped. Carol Kane's acting as the Chief Engineer, Pelia, is hobbled by a completely unnecessary exaggeration of her real-world accent. The characterisation of Nurse Christine Chapel (Australian actress Jess Bush) feels inconsistent.
You end up with line reads that fluctuate between flat, where you can feel there should be more emphasis and emotion, and cartoonish, where you can feel it should have been toned down. Both problems occur here, sometimes in the same scene. And no one wants to be making mental directing notes while watching a television show.
The heart of Star Trek is still there, the thing common to all its iterations: a crew of fundamentally goofy people who support each other like family despite having wildly different personalities. That is intact and, as a concept, it's as charming as ever. It's just the individuals aren't as colourful as before, which makes the final product suffer.
There are other issues, including eye roll-inducing plot contrivances. But the show does play with some interesting scientific ideas, quantum physics being a highlight.
And that fifth episode. Hmmmmm. I can't recall being particularly interested in a new Star Trek villain since ... maybe the Dominion? Strange New Worlds captures some magic halfway through this season, with an hour of television that could have been a film.
Will it go anywhere, or was it a one off? No idea.
Regardless, there is something of very high quality to mine here. It is, as yet, unrealised, and the first half of season three mostly just goes, not so boldly, where other Star Trek shows have gone before. But there is something here.
Luckily, with season four already confirmed and an abbreviated fifth season likely to follow after it, we do not lack for time.