Yes, yes, those who have seen the second season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds must be going insane and for good reason. The episode “Hegemony” ends in a cliffhanger! What’s worse is the fact that the production of the third season of the TV show has come to a complete halt because of the ongoing writers and actors strike. So it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll get to see the conclusion of the second season finale. However, “Hegemony” is the final proof that the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been a soaring triumph.

It was critical for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to have a successful second season to keep up the praise it received with its inaugural season and to measure up with the triumphant final season of Star Trek: Picard. After all, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streamed mere weeks after Star Trek: Picard concluded and it had to at least be competent unlike Star Trek: Discovery. Thankfully, the second season was able to pull it off and deliver exceptionally well executed standalone episodes. Not every episode was a homerun but they were fantastic, and even pushed the creative envelope. The two episodes that best exemplify this were “Subspace Rhapsody” and “Those Old Scientists”.

“Subspace Rhapsody” had the audacity to be a musical and it was actually entertaining and provided interesting character insights, such as Uhura’s (Celia Rose) loneliness, La’an’s (Christina Chong) willingness to face her emotions, and Spock (Ethan Peck) and Christine Chapel’s (Jess Bush) doomed relationship.

Meanwhile, “Those Old Scientists” demonstrated that unlike the uneven comedic attempts in the first season, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was able to deliver very humorous episodes. At the same time, the episode was a truly great crossover with the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks as Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Mariner Beckett (Tawny Newsome) made their live-action debuts. They also served as representatives of fans by the way they kept gushing over the OG Star Trek characters.

The best episodes in the season however, were “Under the Cloak of War”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and the previously mentioned “Hegemony”. The episodes were your more traditional Star Trek yarns, but they were exceptional.

“Under the Cloak of War” offered a sobering look at the impact the Klingon War had with Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Christine Chapel as they had to interact with a notorious Klingon general (Robert Wisdom) who defected to the Federation. While the two dealt with their emotions in the present day, intense flashbacks of their time during the Klingon War were vivid and evoked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Dominion episodes.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” was an above average Star Trek time travel episode as La’an, along with an alternate version of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), wind up in Toronto during the mid-21^st century. What made the episode stand out was the chemistry between the two and La’an’s dilemma as she faced her ancestral history (she is a descendant of the infamous Khan Noonien Singh).

 “Hegemony” brought back the Gorn, the reptilian enemy race of the the Federation, and they were as deadly and frightening as ever. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) had to find a way to evacuate colonists off a world that has been claimed by the Gorn. The mood of the episode was chilling and foreboding as it had elements of Alien, and as a bonus we get to meet the new version of the future miracle worker, Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn). The actor perfectly captured the essence of Scotty without seeming like a parody.  But as mentioned at the start of this review, the episode ends on a cliffhanger. Nuts! Come on you mega-rich studio execs, find a way to properly compensate the writers and actors who are the backbone of your products!

Along with the well written scripts and the luscious production, the show was highlighted by some great performances. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck were fantastiuc as always, although Pike had less of a presence in this season. The only major thing going on with him was his long-distance relationship with Captain Patel (Melanie Scrofano). Spock was able to explore his human side and emotions with the episodes “Charades” and “Subspace Rapshody”. At times these efforts were quite funny. But the acting standouts this season were Babs Olusanmokun, Jess Bush and Christina Chong. They added a lot of depth to their more obscure Star Trek characters and had some memorable moments throughout the season. They also were prominent in the TV show’s best episodes.

It’s too bad there weren’t any more episodes in the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but in a way that is a good thing. It is better to want more in this case than to have too much. It is also unsettling that we do not know when the third season will be ready or how circumstances will change in the meantime and affect the quality of the future episodes. For all we know we could end up with a shortened third season or with inferior episodes. All we can at this moment is to savor the TV show and hope for the best.     

José Soto              

By the way, here is how I would rank the episodes for the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:

“Under the Cloak of War”

“Hegemony”

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

“Those Old Scientists”

“Among the Lotus Eaters”

“Charades”

“Lost in Translation”

“The Broken Circle”

“Subspace Rhapsody”

“Ad Astra per Aspera”