Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Strange New Worlds

The most interesting aspect of Star Trek: Discovery was the reintroduction of the Christopher Pike-led Starship Enterprise which kept a classic feel of the original design of the ship with an upgrade here or there. Featuring the a version of the crew Gene Roddenberry originally intended, these are the voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the years before James Kirk would take command. Spinning out of the Enterprise crew's experiences in Discovery, the new series picks up sometime after the U.S.S. Discovery's disappearance with Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) still haunted by visions of a future and unsure about whether or not to resume the captain's chair. A refit offers a reason for the ship's sets to get a bit of a makeover taking it a little further from the classic look in some aspects while still retaining the feel of the Enterprise. 

While I would have preferred the show to start with the crew already in space on more of a normal mission, the setup of the episode does allow the show time to focus on Pike's struggles with the knowledge of his future and a glimpse into Spock's (Ethan Peck) life on Vulcan and what he leaves behind to return to space. The mission to get Pike back in the chair is to rescue and others who were lost on a First Contact mission of a world who has recently discovered Warp technology. The dreaded Prime Directive will be mentioned, and broken here, in order for Pike and his crew to prevent a disaster on the world which they unintentionally had a part in facilitating. As for his fear of the future, no doubt we'll see more of that as the show progresses, but for now Enterprise seems to be ship shape and ready to go back where no one has gone before (other than all the previous Star Trek series, that is).

• Title: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Strange New Worlds
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