“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” proudly carries the lighthouse of the franchise in season 3 | TV / Streaming

It is hard to believe that it has been two whole years since the last season of the remaining leg of Paramount + of the franchise “Star Trek”, “Strange New Worlds”, honored our streaming screens. In the meantime, Paramount has swept away and quietly canceled or cut his knees all his remaining series: “Discovery”, “Picard”, “Lower Decks” and “Prodigy” all left (even if “Prodigy” returns in a way for a third season, it would be on Netflix). In the meantime, all fans of “trek” had to snack is a deeply disappointing “section 31” film that barely resembled the final border. It is therefore natural to seek the comforting and episodic delights of the third season of “Strange New Worlds”, a program which continues to maintain the ideals of the point of origin of its franchise, even if its swings are boldly nowhere so deep.

The last time we left the crew of USS EnterpriseThey faced an invasion of Great from a distant federation colony, the Gorn having captured several members of the crew, and a fleet of enemy ships bearing the Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his intrepid crew. The opening of the season, “Hegemony leaves II”, concludes this two parts in an exciting way, an hour in love and dramatic which offers many chances for the effects of first order and the design of the production of the series. (That said, I would be happy that the show looks a little less ready for the features if it meant by tightening a few more episodes in the order of the season. Ten episodes are simply not enough for a season of “Trek”, in particular such a liable to the light and exploratory rhythms of vintage television.)

More than all precipitated technicians, explosions and a surprising surfing of body horror, however, the first sets up some questions of the season that the rest of the first half of the season explores in the background of its otherwise autonomous memory. The events of the episode led to a clock scenario on the scale of the Pike lover and her compatriot Captain, Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano, also doing the work of Yeoman on “Revival”), whose Imminent Gornau infection offers more to pike than his usual captain. We also finally see new shades of Lieutenant Ortegas (Melissa Navia), while her trauma of Klingon’s war and his experiences as a prisoner of Great begin to affect his judgment (and his dynamic with the number one of Rebecca Romijn). And above all, we are starting to fill more shortcomings from the pre-TOS crew, Scotty de Martin Quinn now officially joining the ship as a new nervous engineer, who can do miracles as long as you keep a phaser at his head. (He bounces well off the chief of Carol Kane Pelia, although the latter enters and out of the season more frequently than I wish.)

But under these serialized sons, the “new strange worlds” remain determined to stretch their legs and explore more wild tones than the franchise often allows it; During these five episodes, we see space battles, mysteries of holographic murder, romantic pranks of sliding things and even a tinged pastiche that I do not remember having seen in the franchise to date. What is remarkable about these Laphing tones is that the Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers showrunners, and their own crew of writers, manage to sail in this asteroid field with a particular plumb, allowing each episode to feel without giving it the impression that it is a different program each time.

Take “Wedding Bell Blues”, the “spock farce” episode of the season of the season, which offers a lot of space for the gags on jealousy in Dewey’s eyes while he sees his ex, Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), nurture a new relationship with Dr. Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan) (and a mystery God-Liking being different). Like any good episode centered on Spock, this gives Ethan Peck the opportunity to demonstrate his exceptional comic sides, as well as his innate understanding of tempodity cordially from Spock. And it ends with a surprising note of grace for anyone who had to abandon the hope of rekindling an old flame. (That the show continues to provoke this injury in future EPS remains a weak point, although I suppose it is an indicator that this trip, as the prophets of “Deep Space Nine” would say, is not linear.)

The rest of the distribution also gets their moment to shine; Dr. M’Benga de Babs Olusanmokun obtains an episode to count with his demons of the Klingon War (in the form of a knife fight to death which remembers his fate at the end of “Dune: Part One”), and the Noonian Singh of Christinat the first days of “Trek” as a television program and its cultural importance. (The cold open for this one gives the actor of Kirk Paul Wesley the chance to go to its own right, and it is a riot.)

Where the season is still tripping is in its innate nature as a moral game, something that the original series has broken and that “Strange New Worlds” previously emulated. You will not find major episodes of speech like “Ad Astra by Aspera” of season two in the harvest of this season (although this can change as the season develops); Instead, the show aims to keep it light, with its darkest moments focused on the emotional whirlwinds of its characters rather than making great political allegories. The closest we get is late in the above -mentioned episode of the 1960s, where a character manages to oppose the usefulness of a “Star Trek” program to inspire his audience, to make him look at the stars and dream of what exists. This kind of optimism is what distinguishes this franchise in the 20th century – and that the streaming legs of the franchise like “Picard” had trouble capturing.

By calculating Paramount, “Strange New Worlds” should end in its fifth season, the fourth being filmed alongside it. No one knows what to expect because this last stage of the “Trek” franchise enters its last border. But we have a lot of light years to go, and we could just as easily enjoy the really exciting ride while we are there.

The first five episodes projected for examination. The first two episodes are currently broadcasting on Paramount +, with new episodes broadcast on Thursdays.