Regardless of what a vocal minority might need you assume, “Star Trek” has at all times been inherently political. When “The Unique Collection” first aired throughout the mid-Nineteen Sixties, effectively, hopefully I needn’t fill anybody in on what was occurring within the U.S. on the time — the civil rights motion, the calamitous Vietnam Conflict, quite a few assassinations, and extra. The last decade was a protracted second of social upheaval and political turmoil, and creator Gene Roddenberry properly selected to not draw back from addressing the fact surrounding his low-budget science fiction present. That is to not say that the franchise has at all times been profitable in its ambitions, in fact. Even probably the most well-intentioned makes an attempt to talk out about racial or gender inequality and different progressive values through the “Star Trek” universe have not at all times landed. However, like every good sci-fi story, “Star Trek” defines itself by utilizing the longer term to mirror our current … and “Unusual New Worlds” isn’t any completely different.
As followers stay up for the discharge of “Unusual New Worlds” season 3, final month’s New York premiere (which /Movie attended) gave the forged and crew the proper alternative to take a chook’s-eye view on the collection as a complete. The prequel present hasn’t been shy about paying homage to “The Unique Collection” in quite a few methods, however co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman was adamant about doing so in a single explicit method. Throughout a particular Q&A occasion following a screening of the season 3 premiere, Goldsman was requested about taking a web page out of the Roddenberry playbook and utilizing “Unusual New Worlds” to mirror the wildly imperfect world we’re residing in now. After responding with a superbly deadpan “Yeah, the world sucks,” Goldsman went on to elucidate:
“It is very attention-grabbing. 1968: It is Bobby Kennedy, it is Martin Luther King, it is [the My Lai massacre]. It is an inflection level in historical past. It is simply [history book] pages to us, however the world was on fireplace, then, to those that lived in it. That is the reality of the delivery time of ‘Star Trek.’ And that has been ‘Star Trek’ custom all the way in which from its inception, which is to forged a lens on the social situation of the market.”
Unusual New Worlds is about ‘an optimistic, aspirational view of the longer term’
As we all know, Paramount introduced that “Unusual New Worlds” will finish with a fourth and truncated fifth season, so there will probably be much more strain to make the remaining episodes dwell as much as the franchise’s lofty requirements. Regardless of all of the zany premises and enjoyable gimmicks that the present’s writers provide you with on a weekly foundation, the collection has constantly discovered a solution to weave social commentary into the center of the motion. Do not anticipate that to vary within the upcoming third season (which /Movie’s Jacob Corridor reviewed right here).
Akiva Goldsman had extra to say about retaining the collection completely according to its unique mission assertion and the way enjoying round in several genres permits the present to discover all of the idealism inherent within the materials. Inevitably, nevertheless, that requires rolling up its sleeves and coping with the worst sides of society — even in a (supposedly) utopian future. He continued to mirror on how all these themes that “The Unique Collection” grappled with all these years in the past stay “well timed” as we speak, for higher or worse:
“It is immigration, it is marginalization, it is integration, it is the abuse of energy — all issues that, sadly, are as well timed as we speak as they had been then. Style lets us forged a carnival mirror, a means of letting ourselves take a look at it safely.
“So, that is what ‘Star Trek’ does. That is what we attempt to do in service of ‘Star Trek,’ as a result of we’re sort of renting. So, we’re attempting to maintain the partitions clear and painted and the home windows clear and attempt to proceed to serve up what ‘Star Trek’ does finest, which is an optimistic, aspirational view of the longer term; the concept hope’s nonetheless alive.”
I do not learn about you, however all of that feels like music to this Trekkie’s ears. And if these not-so-subtle hints that “Unusual New Worlds” may proceed in one other type come true, hopefully we’ll get to see this inventive workforce channel the spirit of “The Unique Collection” to a fair higher diploma. “Unusual New Worlds” season 3 premieres on Paramount+ July 17, 2025.
