Like a welcome palate cleanser after the “Space Cowboys”-inspired third season of “Picard” — which while fun from time to time, was very, removed from the masterpiece some appear to think it was — Season 2 of “Strange Latest Worlds” is finally, once more upon our screens. Two relatively recent teasers have offered us tantalizing glimpses of what is in store and it is going to be interesting, that much is for certain.
It’s secure to say all of us hoped “Strange Latest Worlds” was going to be good and supply a refreshing alternative to the somewhat less enthralling “Discovery” and hit-and-mostly-miss “Picard,” but nobody expected the primary season was going to be pretty much as good because it was. Not even Paramount, probably. And while a rewatch of the last season of “Discovery” is as appealing as a rail-replacement bus service, almost every episode of “Strange Latest Worlds” improves upon watching it again. It’s in spite of everything, officially essentially the most watched “Star Trek” show on Paramount Plus.
And a rewatch at this stage would not hurt. In truth, we would strongly suggest it. Since despite being composed of a largely episodic story structure, there are nonetheless ongoing, seasonal story arcs too … there needs to be to retain out interest. But, it has been thoroughly handled. That said, it will be nice if we could perhaps someday we could return to having 20+ episodes in a season. But sadly that applies to simply about every modern television show it seems.
You’ll in fact have to remind yourself that Lt Cmdr Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) is in a spot of trouble over the proven fact that she kept her identity as an Illyrian secret from Starfleet. While this is way from essentially the most serious situation the Federation has found itself in, hopefully this plot strand will give us something unexpected.
Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) continues her relentless hatred of all things Gorn, but will Capt. Batel (Melanie Scrofano) be understanding of all of Capt. Pike’s (Anson Mount) extra-galactic activities? Lest we forget Alora from the Majalan system; Pike’s PTSD, plus the potential of more hijinks with Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) and his fiancé T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) and Lt. Spock’s and Nurse Chapel’s (Jess Bush) blossoming relationship, Cadet Nyota Uhura’s (Celia Rose Gooding) blossoming profession, Lt. George Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), Capt. James Kirk (Paul Wesley) … and that bizarre “Lower Decks” crossover.
And while we could have seen the last of Lt. Hemmer, we already know, Bruce Horak himself might be back. “I can officially let you know that the Star Trek profession of Bruce Horak will not be done,” he told Space.com in July of last 12 months.
Read more: ‘Strange Latest Worlds’ proves to be successful for Paramount
A rewatch may also remind of all of the moments of genius from the previous and there are various, from the seven golden rules of security (despite the fact that we only get to listen to five of them), to Enterprise Bingo and the “Scorch” to those gorgeous away mission field jackets to Pike’s culinary genius … to the hope that we would see more of Sybok and perhaps, just perhaps we’ll catch a glimpse of the magnificent, mischievous Harcourt Fenton Mudd. We will only pray.
Sadly, the second season blast off wasn’t quite of the identical high-octane standard as we saw the tip of the primary season, but that is OK. Carol Kane’s character, Chief Engineer Pelia, is a brand new species to “Star Trek” — she’s a Lanthonite and supposedly the species not only lives well past 100 years old, but in addition they lived undetected amongst humans on Earth for hundreds of years. Kane’s character seems to represent the comic relief, which in comparison to Lt. Hemmer’s arid-dry wit, might quickly turn out to be annoying, however it’s only episode one thus far.
This week’s episode, entitled “The Broken Circle,” has been written by long-time “Strange Latest Worlds” involvees Henry Alonso Meyers and Akiva Goldsmith and directed by one other, Chris Fisher, all of whom were heavily involved in the primary season, in order that’s a very good sign. Hopefully Season 2 follow the identical pattern adopted by Paramount for the production of “Picard” where different directors were each given two episodes, because all we got was a major variation in styles that made an already thin-stretched storyline even harder to enjoy.
The showrunners have chosen to make the connection between Spock and Chapel very much the main target of this second season premiere and sadly, Pike disappears after the opening credits. Apart from the notion of perhaps teaching the Transporter Chief basic CPR, since she or he is nearly all the time the primary person to be ready to treat wounded incoming personnel and perhaps a proof as to what that drug was and why is not used more continuously on away missions, this was still a solid start.
Also, so far as “your thing” goes, Jean-Luc sort of had two, so he was cheating somewhat bit (“make it so” and “engage”), “let’s fly” is actually awful, Captain Styles (James B. Sikking) all the time had the perfect runner up spot, with a really focused and serious “execute.” Perhaps it is time to stop hanging a lantern on this and let one come along more naturally.
“Strange Latest Worlds” and each episode of each “Star Trek” show currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus within the US. Internationally, the shows can be found on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, in addition to on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. In addition they stream exclusively on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.
