The Star Trek franchise is at another inflection point. After a decade of expanding the franchise into an entire universe of TV/streaming shows, Star Trek is making a hard pivot back toward movie theaters. However, there’s still a lot of closing shop to do before the current Star Trek TV universe can be brought to an end.
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There are two fan-favorite Star Trek series still currently airing (on Paramount+). Starfleet Academy is about training a new generation of Starfleet in the future timeline established by Star Trek: Discovery. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a series set in the years leading up to Star Trek: The Original Series, when Captain Christopher Pike was still the commander of the USS Enterprise, and eventually became a mentor to a rising cadet named James T. Kirk.
Vampire Diaries star Paul Wesley has been playing the younger version of Kirk since the Season 1 Finale of Strange New Worlds. Season 4 will premiere in July, with a fifth and final season set to bring the show to a close. There’s been a lot of speculation that Strange New Worlds‘ ending will be a segue into the next Star Trek TV series; the most popular theory is that the next series would be another prequel, exploring Kirk’s promotion to Captain of the Enterprise, and how he and the crew formed a tight bond, through various adventures they went on, before embarking on the three-year voyage that was Star Trek: The Original Series.
There Are No More Prequel Stories to Tell
It’s admirable that Star Trek fans have enjoyed Strange New Worlds so much that they don’t want the journey to end. Since premiering in 2022, the series has been a much-needed bridge between the classic era of Star Trek and the new era that Paramount has been trying to build.
A large part of that success has been Strange New Worlds selling fans on the recasting of some major TOS characters, including Kirk (Wesley), Spock (Ethan Peck), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Scotty (Martin Quinn). Each of those actors has taken ownership of their respective roles and rightfully deserves to carry them forward into the next chapter of the franchise. The question is: Are there really any more chapters of this story to tell?
Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds both explore the era that preceded the events of The Original Series, detailing all the deeper lore and character arcs that led to the Enterprise crew coming together, and making the three-year voyage that had massive impact on the galaxy. However, once we get to the point where Captain Pike steps down (following his dark fate, which has been teased since Discovery), that’s about all the prequel story that needs to be told. After Pike hands the captain’s chair to Kirk, any story you would tell would just be Star Trek: The Original Series by a different name. There’s no room left for lore expansion, even if fans want it.
Star Trek Needs to Leave Kirk Behind
We’ve already been on a deep, long-form journey into what motivated the officers of the Enterprise to be in Starfleet and what formative missions and experiences shaped them early on. That’s the value of getting a prequel series, and Star Trek has already accomplished a major feat by getting fans on board with new takes on The Original Series lore and characters.
Strange New Worlds has put some specific emphasis on how Kirk had to go through some brutal lessons to become the confident leader we know him to be. Paul Wesley’s take on the character has paid proper homage to William Shatner, but has also made room for Kirk to be more complicated and layered than he was in TOS. Meanwhile, William Shatner’s Kirk had the entire run of TOS, and seven feature films to really flesh out who Kirk becomes later on and life (and even afterward, as seen in Star Trek Generations).
Between the two actors, they’ve covered the majority of James T. Kirk’s lifespan. A second series about Kirk getting more experience and experiencing personal growth would be more like a continuing season of Strange New Worlds than a new series that actually offered a new take on Star Trek lore. In short, it’s not something that the franchise, or the fandom, needs right now.
Captain Kirk has had his time (and then some). Star Trek needs to focus less on trying to explore new pockets of the past, and instead focus on what the future looks like (no pun). That’s already a plan that’s in motion: Paramount has handed the Star Trek movie franchise to Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the duo behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. They have stated that the film will be a new take on Star Trek, which is not connected to any previous material. Maybe it will turn out to be hard proof that there’s so much more opportunity in moving forward than looking back.
Star Trek content can be streamed on Paramount+. Discuss the series with us on the ComicBook Forum, below.
Forum Conversation: Star Trek Sets and Props
Go to ForumIt’s a bummer these didn’t last longer. In particular, I thought Strange New Worlds was one of the better Trek offerings in a while.
Resistance is futile. -Borg
I really liked Star Trek strange new worlds and would love if they did the followup of Kirks first year as captain of the Enterprise! I feel like that was the whole reason behind “strange new worlds”. Instead of tearing down the sets just refurbishe them and make the missions leading up to the 5 year trek. I believe that if enough of us were asking for this it would happen. Paramount please hook us up! Star Trek future of the TOS! =-●