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Quality Wins Out: The Best New ‘Star Trek’ Show Is Biggest Paramount+ Debut for the Franchise

Samantha Bergeson
·3 min read

The latest “Star Trek” Paramount+ series has already been prospering on the streamer.

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” made history as the most-watched “Star Trek” original series debut on Paramount+ ever and also became one of the top two most-watched original Paramount+ series in the U.K.

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“Strange New Worlds” is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) led the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series features fan favorites from Season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery” including Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. Jesse Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun, and Bruce Horak also star in the series. The show is a prequel to “The Original Series,” set in the time before Capt. Kirk commands the Enterprise.

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It’s particularly gratifying to see the success for “Strange New Worlds” because both fans and critics would agree that it’s the best “Trek” series among the flurry of new “Trek” series since “Discovery” launched on CBS All Access in 2017.

“‘Star Trek’ fans all over the world embraced this incredible new ‘Star Trek’ journey,” Tanya Giles, chief programming officer of Paramount Streaming, said. “We are thrilled that the ‘Star Trek’ universe continues to be one of the most-watched franchises on the service.”

Other Paramount+ “Star Trek” series include “Star Trek: Picard,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” and animated series “Star Trek: Prodigy” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” New show “Strange New Worlds” debuted May 5. The series premiere was written and directed by showrunner Akiva Goldsman, with a story by Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet. Henry Alonso Myers also serves as co-showrunner.

Goldsman, Kurtzman, and Lumet serve as executive producers in addition to Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, and Aaron Baiers. The series is produced by CBS Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.

“Over the past six years, Alex Kurtzman and his amazing team have brilliantly created and carefully curated a new ‘Star Trek’ universe for Paramount+ with five complementary series – each different in tone, style, story and in some cases target audience,” George Cheeks, president and chief executive officer at CBS, said. “Each series is a success in its own right, and now the franchise’s newest edition, ‘Strange New Worlds,’ is earning critical acclaim and delivering notable performance achievements on the service, both domestically and internationally. We look forward to the franchise’s continuing journey on Paramount+ here in the U.S. and globally, where in the case of ‘Strange New Worlds,’ we’re just getting started.”

IndieWire’s Christian Blauvelt wrote in his review of the Paramount+ series that “Strange New Worlds” is “particularly imaginative” and “a joy” to watch, setting it apart from its predecessor spin-offs.

“‘Star Trek’ has always exceeded what other sci-fi franchises are willing to do whenever it looks inward,” Blauvelt penned. “When it uses the events of the 23rd and 24th centuries to comment on what’s happening in our own time. And one unassailably great thing about ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘Star Trek: Picard’ is that, hit or miss as those shows are, they don’t shy away from confronting hard truths and even getting political. ‘Strange New Worlds’ may have found the most elegant way of achieving this of any of these Paramount+ series yet.”

He concluded, “There’s something particularly imaginative about looking at our own time through the lens of people from a much better future. Watching ‘Strange New Worlds,’ a lot of people will wish that future was already here.”

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