DVD Review: STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: SEASON ONE

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Mar 22, 2023 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

“Our mission? We explore. We seek out new life and new civilizations. We boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is latest series to join Paramount+’s Star Trek lineup. it is a prequel to The Original Series, set 10 years earlier, following the adventures of the USS Enterprise with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) at the helm. We last saw Pike, his half-Vulcan/half-human science officer Spock (Ethan Peck) and his Number One Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, where they assisted the crew of the Discovery as it leapt forward 900 years into the future to save the universe. During his time with the Discovery crew, Captain Pike visited a Klingon monastery on the planet of Boreth, where he was shown his own gruesome future.

This new series opens about 8 months after the disappearance of the Discovery, and Captain Pike and his crew are in a holding pattern while the Enterprise gets checked out. Knowing how and when he is going to die weighs heavily on Pike, especially since he also remembers all the names of those who will perish in that same explosive training accident in the future. He’s not sure that he even wants to return to the Enterprise once it’s been cleared for duty. During the downtime, Pike’s second in command, Una, had taken a temporary role on another ship for a first contact mission. However, that mission has gone wrong, putting her in danger, and only the Enterprise can help. So Pike reluctantly agrees to resume command for the rescue mission.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a throwback feel to it. First there are those classic uniforms from TOS, as well as many familiar characters for whom we finally get to learn their origin stories. Among these are civilian nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Chief Kyle (André Dae Kim), and the ship’s new Chief of Security La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) is a descendant of the notorious villain Khan Noonien Singh. As a young child, she witnessed her family being killed by the Gorn, and this still haunts her and gives her a survivor’s guilt. Also joining the crew of the Enterprise is a wide-eyed new cadet named Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding). James T. Kirk’s brother Sam (Dan Jeannotte) is also a recent addition to the crew, serving as the ship’s xenoanthropology expert. And later in the season we also get a glimpse of James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) himself, and hear a familiar Scottish voice calling up from engineering in an episode that jumps to the future.

Rounding out the main crew of the Enterprise are some new characters created for this series. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) is in charge of fixing up the the wounded crew members, though he is hiding a secret of his own that ultimately ends up putting the ship in danger. Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) is an albino, blind Aenar—a subspecies of the Andorians—he may be a pacifist, but he’s an excellent engineer and serves as a mentor to Cadet Uhura as she does her training rotation through the ship’s various departments. Finally, there’s helmsman Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), who’s a witty, fun-loving, highly-skilled pilot.

The newer installments of the Star Trek TV series franchise, such as Discovery and Picard are more serializes, focusing each season on a larger season-long arc or mission. However, Strange New Worlds has more of a classic mission/adventure-of-the-week way of telling its stories. Some of the missions in this first season include stopping a planetary civil war, stopping a comet before it wipes out a planet, the crew getting infected by a mysterious disease that makes them attracted to light, rescuing a planet attacked by the Gorn, the crew going on shore leave where two of them accidentally swap bodies, trying to stop a cult-like cavillation from executing one of their own, being attacked by pirates, the crew becoming characters in a children’s fairy tale come to life, getting stuck on a frozen planet hunted by mysterious creatures, and an alternate future that brings the Enterprise to the brink of war with the Romulans.

The series does a nice job of mixing up the tone and feel of the episodes. For example, “Spock Amok” is more of a comedy, “The Elysian Kingdom” is a fantasy/drama, “All Those Who Wander” feels more like a space horror movie, and “A Quality of Mercy” has a noir feel, while other episodes may have a scientific or theocratical slant. So with each episode you never know what you’re going to get. One thing I really appreciated about this series is that it didn’t feel as political as some of the other recent shows have gotten at times. It just tells fun and interesting stories with a crew of characters that feel both familiar as well as fresh and new. There are lots of alien races and technology that Starfleet may be aware of but havn’t seen yet—such as the Gorn, or the Romulans and their cloaking technology—even though we may know these well. So it’s interesting to see the reactions as they come across these for the first time. I loved seeing the Gorn be one of the big evils this season, giving viewers a little more history on these creatures, as well as a far more menacing look and backstory, rather than the somewhat goofy looking one Kirk fights in TOS.

There isn’t one seaon-long over-arching mission for the Enterprise crew, they are just on a five-year mission exploring new worlds and civilizations, like in TOS. Even though the episodes are primarily mission-of-the-week, the characters still get to grow and develop over the course of the season—it’s just that those are more of the B-story. The series delves into the backgrounds of the characters, and we learn more about characters like Uhura which was never explores in TOS. Over the course of this first season, we see many of the main characters confront their own demons and pasts. With Captain Pike, it’s accepting his fate; for Spock, it’s dealing with his rising emotions and relationship with T’Pring (Gia Sandhu); both Una and Dr. M’Benga have secrets they are hiding; Uhura must figure out what she wants her career to look like; and La’an must come to terms with her tragic past and fears. Several of the characters also get a chance to narrate their version of a “captain’s log” that opens each episode, so we get to see things from several different perspectives. While some of these Star Trek ships have bars or mess halls where the crew congregates, in Strange New Worlds, , the main crew members often gather in Pike’s quarters where he has a large kitchen and captain’s table where they socialize as Pike cooks up a meal.

The season builds to an exciting finale, which is an exciting and fun homage to/recreation of a classic TOS episode. The season ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but filming of the third season is currently underway, so there is plenty more of this series coming.

CBS Home Entertainment has released this first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Limited Edition SteelBook Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD, plus there is a 4K Ultra HD SteelBook release scheduled for May. I was sent the DVD version for review, which looks very good for an SD picture, but it definitely lacks that extra level of detail that can be seen in the 4K streaming version on Paramount+. That said, the picture quality never detracted from my enjoyment of the series. The audio track is excellent, providing clear dialogue, and making nice use of the stereo and surround channels to provide a fully-immersive viewing experience. This is especially noticeable during the action sequences, when the sounds of blasters or photon torpedos fill the room.

The season’s ten episodes are spread across 4 discs, which are placed in overlapping pairs on either side of a standard-sized DVD keepcase, covered with a glossy carboard slipcover. The discs contain over two hours of exclusive bonus material—including an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel—plus a classic TOS episode. The behind-the-scenes featurettes are really well done and provide an extensive and detailed look at the characters, storylines, and technology. My one gripe is that the deleted scenes are a bit hard to find, buried under the Episode Selection menu—you wouldn’t even know they were there unless you selected to watch a particular episode that contained them. It would be nice if they would also list these under the discs’ main Special Features menus.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (8:45:22)

All 10 episodes of the first season:
Disc 1 (2:30:55): “Strange New Worlds”, “Children of the Comet”, “Ghosts of Illyria”
Disc 2 (2:36:10): “Memento Mori”, “Spock Amok”, “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”
Disc 3 (2:35:38): “The Serene Squall”, “The Elysian Kingdom”, “All Those Who Wander”
Disc 4 (1:02:39): “A Quality of Mercy”
480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, French

Extras:
Content exclusive to this home video release are noted with a *.

Audio Commentary: Strange New Worlds* (52:50)
Writer/director Akiva Goldsman and star Anson Mount provide a fun and interesting commentary on the pilot episode. They share some behind-the-scenes stories about the production, and talk about the cast and filming locations, the story, the opening title sequence, the special effects, and more. Commentary is offered in English and French.
Deleted Scenes* (7:37)
Collection 14 deleted/extended scenes from five of the season’s episodes. While most of these scenes are really short and don’t add much, a few are more substantial—there’s a lot of good material that was cut out of the penultimate episode. Many scenes contain incomplete special effects. Deleted scenes can be found on each disc under the Episode Selection menu. Select from:
- “Children of the Comet” (:24) 1 scene
- “Ghosts of Illyria” (2:12) 3 scenes
- “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” (5:01) 2 scenes
- “The Elysian Kingdom” (:22) 1 scene
- “All Those Who Wander” (10:57) 7 scenes
Star Trek: The Original Series Episode, “Balance of Terror”* (50:26)
The events of this episode resemble what happens in the season finale of Strange New Worlds, as the Enterprise faces off with a Romulan ship. Originally aired December 15, 1966 as the 14th episode of the series.
Pike’s Peek* (17:27)
Star Anson Mount (“Captain Christopher Pike”) provides an intimate video journal chronicling the first season of the series, starting with his pre-filming quarantine. Includes a long dedication speech to the cast and crew as filming begins, footage of stunt rehearsals, behind-the-scenes moments, fun with the cast, and more. Includes appearances by stars Ethan Peck (“Spock”), Robecca Romijn (“Una Chin Riley”) & Melissa Navia (“Erica Ortegas”), co-executive producer Chris Fisher, and executive producer Akiva Goldsman.
World Building (11:58)
Star Anson Mount takes viewers on a tour of the show’s massive A.I. wall, and then the cast and crew talk about how the technology works, the process of creating the virtual sets, and the advantages of this technology. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with stars Ethan Peck, Dan Jeannotte (“Lieutenant George Samuel ‘Sam’ Kirk”), Rebecca Romijn & Celia Rose Gooding (“Nyota Uhura”), production designer Jonathan Lee, executive producer Akiva Goldsman, director of photography Glen Keenan, director Christopher J. Byrne (“All Those Who Wander”), and executive producer Henry Alonso Myers.
Exploring New Worlds* (54:00)
The cast and crew give an extensive look at the season, discussing the show’s origins, the characters, the season’s storylines, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with executive producer Akiva Goldsman, executive producer Henry Alonso Myers, supervising producer Bill Wolkoff, co-executive producer Davy Perez, co-writer Onitra Johnson (“The Elysian Kingdom”), co-executive producer Chris Fisher, and stars Celia Rose Gooding, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Chong (“La’an Noonien Singh”), Ethan Peck, Jess Bush (“Nurse Christine Chapel”), Babs Olusanmokun (“Dr. M’Benga”) & Melissa Navia.
Gag Reel* (2:49)
Laugh along with the cast as they flub their lines, deal with misbehaving props, crack each other up, and just have fun on set.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Episodes:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Highly Recommended
But Get the Blu-ray or 4K

I thoroughly enjoyed this first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It gives both modern and nostalgic feelings while exploring the origins of the Enterprise crew and its enemies and allies pre-James T. Kirk. I love the way each episode is a somewhat self-contained mission-of-the-week, each with its own tone and genre. The series does an excellent job of blending drama, sci-fi, action and humor into each episode. I highly recommend picking this up, especially for those who were fans of The Original Series. While the DVD presentation is more than sufficient, I would recommend spending a few extra dollars to get the Blu-ray release, or pick up the forthcoming 4K release in a couple months. No matter what version, you can’t go wrong. I look forward to watching the the further adventures of this crew in season 2.