Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (season 2)

After beginning development on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery, executive producer Alex Kurtzman said he wanted it to be an ongoing series rather than a miniseries, and said it could explore the seven years between Discovery's second season and the accident that seriously injures Christopher Pike in Star Trek: The Original Series.[16] In November 2021, a second season of Strange New Worlds was reported to be starting production in February 2022.[17] Frequent Star Trek director Jonathan Frakes confirmed the season order a month later,[18] before Paramount+ officially announced it in January 2022.[19] The first episode of the season is dedicated to Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed the character Nyota Uhura in The Original Series and several Star Trek films. It was the first episode of the series released after Nichols's death in July 2022.[20]

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman first discussed a musical Star Trek episode in 2020 and a crossover between the different Star Trek series he was producing in 2021; both ideas were used for episodes in this season.

Work on the second season began before the release of the first, which was structured with standalone episodes and season-long character arcs. Unsure how that style would be received by fans following the more serialized Discovery, showrunners Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman chose to commit to it. Myers said the second season would "go for broke" in differentiating its episodes with unique genres, and Goldsman added that it would have some "creative stretches" and "big swings" that had not been seen in the franchise before.[21][22] Different episodes for the season include the romantic time travel tragedy "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow",[23] the comedic "Charades",[10] the dark and morally complex war story "Under the Cloak of War",[14] and the franchise's first full musical episode "Subspace Rhapsody";[24] Kurtzman had first discussed a musical Star Trek episode for the series Star Trek: Short Treks in July 2020.[25]

Myers said the second season would follow-up on the "serialized threads" left by the first season, including the arrest of Number One, the death of chief engineer Hemmer, and La'an Noonien-Singh taking a leave of absence from the USS Enterprise.[21] Elaborating on Number One's arrest after she was revealed to be a genetically altered Illyrian in the first season, Myers said he and Goldsman did not know how they would resolve that story when they added it as a cliffhanger in the first-season finale, but the writers came up with a "straight-down-the-middle classic Trek episode" idea to address the issue in the second season that made Myers glad to have added the cliffhanger.[26] Because Pike star Anson Mount was expected to have a child around the start of filming, the first episode of the season, "The Broken Circle", was written to focus on the rest of the cast. The explanation for Pike's absence is that he goes to recruit a defense counsel for Number One. This storyline continues in the second episode, "Ad Astra per Aspera", which features Number One's trial,[27] and continues a Star Trek tradition of courtroom-focused episodes.[28]

Discussing the series' approach to fitting within Star Trek canon, Myers said they focused on creating interesting characters for the actors to perform and the audience to watch rather than just referencing previous franchise media. Goldsman added that knowing the end point of the character's stories in previous projects allowed the writers to come up with new and interesting ways to get there,[29] including ideas that they would not have had if they were not constrained by the existing canon.[30] The episode "Lost in Translation" depicts the first canonical meetings between James T. Kirk, the Enterprise captain from The Original Series, and key characters such as Pike, Spock, and Uhura. In The Original Series, Kirk says he met Pike when the latter was promoted to Fleet Captain; the episode depicts Pike being temporarily promoted to that rank for the mission they are on, which allowed the season to align with The Original Series while moving the first meeting between Pike and Kirk to be earlier in the timeline than had previously been presumed.[7] After the first season referenced the Eugenics Wars as taking place in the mid-21st century rather than the 1990s, as established in The Original Series, the second-season episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" explains that those events have shifted in the timeline due to interference from time travelers during the Temporal Cold War in Star Trek: Enterprise. Goldsman said the real-world reasoning for this was so the audience could still believe that the franchise was taking place in an "aspirational" future.[31]

In December 2021, Kurtzman said there was potential for the different Star Trek series he was producing to crossover, as long as there was a story reason to justify this.[32] In July 2022, Mount announced that the second season of Strange New Worlds would have a crossover episode with the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks.[11] Myers explained that one of the writers on the series, David Reed, also worked on the series The Boys which stars Lower Decks voice actor Jack Quaid. Reed and Quaid had discussed the potential of their Star Trek series crossing over, and Reed suggested the idea to the Strange New Worlds writers. They moved forward with the idea after Kurtzman also suggested it independently.[33] The episode was originally just going to focus on Quaid's Brad Boimler time traveling from the 24th century to the 23rd and arriving on the Enterprise, but Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan suggested that the character Beckett Mariner also be featured in the crossover.[34] McMahan said he was "heavily involved" in the crossover and worked on the dialogue to make it "feel more Lower Decks".[35] The title of the episode, "Those Old Scientists", references a joke in Lower Decks that explains what future Starfleet officers are referring to when they call the time period of The Original Series the "TOS" era.[36]

Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn star in the series as Captain Christopher Pike, science officer Spock, and first officer Una Chin-Riley / Number One, respectively. Also starring are Jess Bush as nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as chief security officer La'an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as cadet Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as helmsman Erica Ortegas, and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. Joseph M'Benga.[2]

After his introduction in the first-season finale, Paul Wesley returned to guest star as James T. Kirk in multiple second-season episodes.

In March 2022, Paul Wesley was revealed to have been cast for the season as James Kirk, who was portrayed in The Original Series by William Shatner.[5] Wesley's casting was announced before the premiere of the first season, after he was spotted filming for the second season on location in Toronto. Myers cautioned fans about making assumptions regarding Kirk's involvement in the series since the science fiction genre allowed them to introduce the character in various ways. He added that they did not want to "leave a story on the table" and decided to explore a young Kirk in this time period after already exploring other The Original Series characters such as Spock, Uhura, and Chapel.[37] Following multiple unsuccessful auditions with other actors, Myers and Goldsman approached Wesley and hired him after just having a conversation.[38] The actor made a surprise first appearance as Kirk during the first-season finale where he played an alternate version from a potential future that Pike visits.[6] He played a different alternate version of the character in the second-season episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", one from a dark timeline who has never been to Earth.[39] Wesley did not want to imitate Shatner for his performances, but said his portrayal of a younger Kirk in the second season would be closer to Shatner's than his portrayal of the alternate versions.[6] Coincidentally, Wesley was once neighbors with Shatner,[39] and the pair happened to share a plane ride around the time Wesley's casting was announced; Shatner gave Wesley his blessing.[6] The second season explores the relationship between James Kirk and his brother George Samuel "Sam" Kirk, played by returning guest star Dan Jeannotte.[6][38]

Bruce Horak said the first-season death of his character, chief engineer Hemmer, would not be the end of his involvement in the series;[40] Horak returned as Hemmer for a recording that Uhura watches in "Lost in Translation",[7] and also guest starred as the Klingon General Garkog in "Subspace Rhapsody".[8] Myers said the second season would introduce a new engineer who would not be Montgomery Scott (the future chief engineer of the Enterprise as portrayed by James Doohan in The Original Series). Though Scott had a brief role in the first-season finale as part of a potential future that Pike visits, Myers explained that they were not ready to bring the character into the series' main events or cast a new actor in the role which is why that finale cameo was offscreen with a voice actor providing the lines.[26][41] In September 2022, Carol Kane was revealed to have a recurring role in the second season as the new engineer, Pelia.[4] The character is a Lanthanite, a new species created for the season that appears human but is very long-lived. Kane chose to create a new accent for the character that is different from all the other characters in the series, so the audience would not be able to work out where she comes from. She used this in a table read of the season premiere, held over Zoom, and the producers responded positively.[42] Scott is introduced in the season finale as a junior officer and former student of Pelia, played by Scottish theater actor Martin Quinn.[15] Following the controversial Scottish accents used by Canadian actor Doohan and English actor Simon Pegg (who also portrayed Scott in several Star Trek films),[43] Myers wanted to cast an actual Scottish actor in the role and looked at 30 to 50 different actors before Quinn was hired.[15]

With the announcement of the Lower Decks crossover in July 2022, Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid were revealed to be reprising their roles as Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler from that series.[11] The characters appear in both live-action and animation, while Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, and Romijn's husband Jerry O'Connell just reprise their voice roles as D'Vana Tendi, Sam Rutherford, and Jack Ransom for animation.[12][13] Also returning from previous Star Trek series in the season are Mia Kirshner as Spock's mother Amanda Grayson, an Original Series character who Kirshner first portrayed in Discovery,[9] and frequent Star Trek actor Clint Howard in a new guest role for the eighth episode.[14] Other guest stars returning from Strange New Worlds's first season include Adrian Holmes as Admiral Robert April, Melanie Scrofano as Pike's girlfriend Captain Marie Batel,[3] and Gia Sandhu as Spock's fiancée T'Pring.[10] Additionally, Rong Fu returns as operations officer Jenna Mitchell; Noah Lamanna portrays transporter chief Jay, replacing André Dae Kim's transporter chief Kyle from the first season after Kim left to star in the series Vampire Academy;[44] Alex Kapp again provides the voice of the Enterprise's computer;[45] and Desmond Sivan portrays a young version of Ricardo Montalban's Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh.[31]

The virtual technology used to display digital backgrounds on an LED video wall during filming for the series required additional design work during pre-production. Visual effects company Pixomondo worked alongside the series' art department to design the environments that needed to be displayed, and a dedicated "virtual art department" was created for the second season.[46] In addition to the sets that production designer Jonathan Lee and his team built for the first season, the second season also features sets for the Enterprise's port galley, science lab, nacelle room, and shuttle bay.[47] Lee described the port galley, which is the ship's lounge and bar, as "our new baby" and explained that they built it for the kinds of scenes that were filmed in the mess hall during season one. This was because the mess hall set, which used virtual production technology, was "difficult to schedule" and required space environments to be created for the video wall for each scene whereas the port galley has no windows.[48] For the Klingons that appear in the season, the design team chose to return to a look that is more similar to past Star Trek series and films than the significant redesign that was done for Discovery. The showrunners explained that they wanted the series to be closer to the original shows in all aspects, not just with Klingon designs, and the new prosthetics were also easier to apply than those that were created for Discovery. Myers added, "I like to imagine that Klingons are a diverse species, and that means there are many different looks the Klingons have."[49]

The third episode was filmed on location in Toronto, including at Yonge-Dundas Square, Harbourfront, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Royal Conservatory of Music's headquarters.

Filming began on February 1, 2022,[50][51] at CBS Stages Canada in Mississauga, Ontario, under the working title Lily and Isaac.[51][52] Glen Keenan returned as cinematographer from the first season and was joined by Benji Bakshi, with the pair alternating episodes. The season again used Arri Alexa LF cameras with Cooke Optics's Anamorphic/i Special Flare lenses.[53] Producing director Chris Fisher directed the first episode of the season,[27] and along with the series' producers he encouraged the other directors and cinematographers to use the Enterprise as a mood board that reflected the emotions of each episode's specific genre.[53] Valerie Weiss directed the second episode.[54] A technique she and Bakshi used was to always have something between Number One and the camera until she takes the stand and is able to open up.[53]

By March 14, Amanda Row had begun directing the third episode of the season,[55] with filming taking place over several weeks on location in Toronto;[39] Wesley's casting was revealed when he was spotted during filming.[37] The writers originally intended to film the episode on location in New York City but realized that this would be too expensive. They considered filming Toronto as if it was New York City, as had been done for many films and series before, before deciding to just set the episode in Toronto. Row and much of the crew were from Toronto and excited to have it depicted as itself in the episode.[29] Filming locations for the episode included Yonge-Dundas Square, Harbourfront, the Port Lands, David Pecaut Square, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Royal Conservatory of Music's headquarters which stood-in for the eugenics lab at the end of the episode.[39]

Eduardo Sánchez and Jordan Canning directed the fourth and fifth episodes, respectively. Jonathan Frakes, who was prevented from working on the first season after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted his directing schedule on Star Trek: Picard, travelled to Toronto during the week of April 4 ahead of starting production on the seventh episode.[56] Filming for the sixth episode, which was directed by Dan Liu, began by the week of April 11,[57][58] and was still underway at the end of the month.[58] Frakes's episode is the Lower Decks crossover,[11] filming for which had to work around scheduling conflicts for Quaid with The Boys and Newsome with the series Space Force.[35] Production for the second season wrapped on July 1.[59]

McMahan was involved in the animated portions of the Lower Decks crossover episode, which used the same animation team and style as Lower Decks;[35] independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for that series, using a style that reflects the look of "prime time animated comedy" series such as The Simpsons.[60] McMahan also directed the voice actors for the episode.[35] In addition to animated segments featuring the Lower Decks characters, the episode also features a new version of the series' title sequence animated in the style of Lower Decks as well as a final scene where the crew of the Enterprise are animated in the Lower Decks style.[13]

Composer Nami Melumad began work on the season's score by late July 2022,[61] and was recording it with a 55-piece orchestra (up from the 37-piece orchestra used for the first season). Melumad also introduced a choir for the season.[62]

The writers were inspired for "Subspace Rhapsody" by the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Myers said that was one of the best musical episodes made because it was "really smart and thoughtful. It has big heart." The one thing the writers did not try to copy from that episode was creating the songs themselves;[8] instead, Kay Hanley and Tom Polce wrote 10 original songs for the episode. It also includes a special version of Jeff Russo's main theme for the series. A soundtrack album for the episode was released digitally by Lakeshore Records on August 4, 2023. It reached number two best-selling album on iTunes worldwide, number one in the United States and Canada, and charted under the top five in several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom.[63] All music by Hanley and Polce except where noted:[64]

Whip Media, who track viewership data for the 19 million worldwide users of their TV Time app, ranked Strange New Worlds in the top 10 original streaming series for U.S. viewership each week the season was released. It peaked at second place, behind Disney+'s Secret Invasion, during the week ending July 23.[70] JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 20 million users around the world, included Strange New Worlds on its list of top 10 streaming series in the U.S. for the weeks ending June 25 and July 2.[71] Parrot Analytics determines audience "demand expressions" based on various data sources, and the company calculated that Strange New Worlds was the 6th-most in demand U.S. streaming series for the week ending on June 16 (after the series premiered on June 15). Parrot said the series was 33.4 times more in demand than the average U.S. streaming series which was a 53 percent rise from the previous week when the series was the 18th-most in demand. It remained in the top 5 of Parrot's weekly list for the rest of the season, peaking at third-most in demand.[72] Nielsen Media Research, who record streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, estimated that Strange New Worlds was watched for nearly 1 billion minutes during June 2023. This helped Paramount+ get to one percent of the total streaming television viewership for that month.[73] Viewership for the season was high enough to enter Nielsen's list of the top 10 original streaming programs in the U.S. for the weeks ending June 18, June 25, and July 9, then continuously for the weeks from July 17 until August 13.[74]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval score with an average rating of 8.5/10 based on 84 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Boldly going where this hallowed franchise has gone before with effervescent execution, Strange New Worlds' superb sophomore season continues to recapture classic Trek with modern verve." Each episode of the season received an individual approval score of 100% except for "Charades", which has an 83% approval score.[75] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 88 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[76]

Yetide Badaki and Rebecca Romijn were named honorable mentions for TVLine's "Performers of the Week" for the week of June 18, 2023, for their performances in the episode "Ad Astra per Aspera". The site praised Romijn's "subtle yet powerful" performance and Badaki's "otherworldly charm", and concluded that "the trial may have ended with a small victory... but Romijn and Badaki's stellar performances were a huge win for the series".[77] The site also named Babs Olusanmokun as an honorable mention for his performance in "Under the Cloak of War" which they called a "stunning, tour-de-force performance" that added complex new layers to M'Benga.[78]

In July 2023, critics at Vanity Fair, Esquire, and Vulture all included the season on their lists of best series of 2023 so far.[79][80][81]