STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS to end with shorter fifth season

Paramount have confirmed that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will conclude with a fifth season, which will consist of six instead of the normal ten episodes. The good news is that this is still some way off: Strange New Worlds' third season is only debuting on 17 July, with the fourth season in production.

Strange New Worlds only exists because of a fan campaign, after the characters were well-received in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery (2019). Delayed by the COVID pandemic, the show debuted in 2022 and attracted very positive reviews for its focus on standalone episodes and a lighter tone than Discovery, which had a much more critically mixed reception, as well as its casting and its focus on an ensemble. Season 2 (2023) was also well-received.

Season 3 is debuting over two years after the second season, but Paramount+ are keen to the get the next two seasons out as fast as possible, hoping to release Season 4 in 2026 and Season 5 in 2027.

The move comes after the ending of Discovery, Picard and both animated shows, Lower Decks and Prodigy. This will only leave one Star Trek series, the forthcoming Starfleet Academy, in production.

RIP Peter David

News has sadly broken of the passing of Star Trek, Babylon 5 and comic book writer Peter David, at the age of 68.

Born in Fort Meade, Maryland in 1956, David became interested in comic books at a young age, through comics left in a local barbershop and TV shows like the Adventures of Superman. David's parents did not approve of his interest in superheroes, especially Marvel, forcing him to read them in secret. David stopped reading comics in his teens feeling he'd outgrown them, but was drawn back in by the Chris Claremont run on X-Men in the 1970s. David also developed a fandom of novels and short stories from reading Harlan Ellison, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

David started his writing career by covering the Washington WorldCon in 1974 for The Philadelphia Bulletin, and then started writing shot fiction in the 1980s which appeared in venues such as Asimov's. He switched to working in publishing, making his way into working for Marvel in the sales department. Switching to editorial was unconventional, but David managed to do it and his first Spider-Man story was published in 1985.

Peter David made his name with his 11-year run on The Incredible Hulk, starting in May 1987 and continuing to August 1998. David's run on the title was acclaimed, with him introducing or popularising many concepts, including the Grey Hulk.

David was keen to keep a toe in the book publishing world and published his first novel, Knight Life, in 1987. David wrote both original series under his own name and the pen-name David Peters, and tie-in fiction. He eventually wrote 101 novels in total, a colossal figure.

Outside of his Marvel association, David was best-known for his work on the Star Trek franchise. In 1988 he started writing the DC Comics Star Trek series (meaning he was working for Marvel and DC simultaneously) and also penned his first Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Strike Zone, for publication the following year. He eventually wrote 41 issues of Star Trek comics and 48 Star Trek novels.

He was particularly acclaimed for his nailing of the voices of the different Star Trek crews, and his sense of action and humour, as well as paying attention to continuity. His most beloved Trek novels were Strike Zone, Q-in-Law, Imzadi and the Borg epic Vendetta, which a lot of fans believed should have been made into a movie. Some of his later novels were more daft, including at one stage having a Borg "supercube" consumed Pluto "ending the debate once and for all." David was also notable for creating the New Frontier series and penning a remarkable 27 books in the series.

In 1994 David was contacted by J. Michael Straczynski, a fan of his comics work, and invited to work on his television series Babylon 5. David penned the episodes Soul Mates and There All the Honour Lies for Season 2, the former notable for introducing Londo's three wives and the latter for mocking Star Trek's focus on merchandising. The latter episode also sparked a friendly war with Straczynski after he pretended to get annoyed by a teddy bear David's wife bought for him and had the bear blasted into space in the final edit. David, who was friends with B5 actor Bill Mumy, collaborated with him on a TV show called Space Cases, in which the bear is recovered from deep space. David later wrote an episode of the ill-fated Babylon 5 spin-off show, Crusade. He later diversified into video games, working on Shadow Complex and Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

David later returned to the franchise to pen the very well-received Legions of. Fire novel trilogy (which tells the story of the fall of the Centauri Republic after the events of the show) and adaptations of the TV movie In the Beginning and Thirdspace.

Through the 1990s, David worked on other comic series including Aquaman, Supergirl and Young Justice, as well as his own original properties Soulsearchers and Company, and Sachs and Violens. In the 2000s he returned to Marvel to pen Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, as well as working on comics for other franchises including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as Marvel's adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

David would eventually win a whole slew of awards for his comics work, including a much-coveted Eisner for his Hulk run.

David started suffering from ill health in 2010 when he suffered a herniated disc. In 2012 he suffered a stroke but made almost a full recovery. He was subsequently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. In 2022 he suffered an additional series of strokes, a kidney failure and a mild heart attack. These complications contributed to his sad passing away at too young an age.

Peter David was an exceptionally prolific writer, simultaneously juggling multiple comic book series and penning multiple novels a year. What was remarkable was that he combined a prolific output with a strong sense of quality control and sly humour. His Star Trek novels are among the very best ever published for that franchise, his contributions to Babylon 5 may be third only in importance to Straczynski and Larry DiTillio, and he was a noted supported of many charities and good causes. He could be irascible and opinionated, and a lot of his time in the comics field was spent arguing with other writers and creators (including Todd MacFarlane) over various issues.

Peter David's popularity wasn't just down to his work, but also his attitude, constantly giving the impression that he was a massive fan of science fiction, fantasy and superheroes and constantly showing enthusiasm for the field, its writers and its fans. He will be immensely missed.

RIP Tony Todd

The news has sadly broken of the death of American actor Tony Todd, at the age of 69. Todd was best-known for his intense performances that led to a starring role in the Candyman horror franchise and multiple roles on Star Trek.

Todd was born in 1954 in Washington, DC and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied theatre at the University of Connecticut and the Eugene O'Neill Nation Actors Theatre Institute, whilst joining the Artists Collective, Inc. and the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island.

He made his screen debut in 1986, playing Sergeant Warren in the classic war movie Platoon. He made a career of memorable supporting terms on film and also on TV, where he played guest roles on 21 Jump Street, MacGyver, Night Court and Matlock.

In 1990 he was cast in his first memorable role in the Star Trek franchise. He appeared as Klingon Commander Kurn in the Season 3 Next Generation episode Sins of the Father, but in a major plot twist it was revealed that Kurn was actually Worf's brother, and sought his brother's help in restoring their family honour, triggering a multi-season story arc. He returned in the two-part episode Redemption before transferring to Deep Space Nine, in the Season 4 episode Sons of Mogh. He also played the role of Kurn in the video games Klingon Honour Guard and Star Trek Online.

Also for Deep Space Nine, he played the role of the adult Jake Sisko in the Season 4 episode The Visitor. Often cited as the single best episode of Deep Space Nine, Todd gained immense plaudits for his performance as a man haunted by the disappearance of his father and who dedicates his whole life to search for him. The episode was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1996.

In 1998 he completed the trifecta by playing the Alpha Hirogen in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Prey.

In 1992 he was cast in what came to be regarded as his signature role, as Daniel Robitaille aka The Candyman in the horror franchise of the same name, created by Clive Barker. Todd attracted critical praise for his performance in The Candyman (1992). He reprised the role in Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman 3: Day of the Dead (1999), though neither sequel was as well-regarded as the original.

In 2021 Jordan Peele co-wrote and produced a new film in the franchise, just called Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta. The film saw Todd reprise his role, despite early consideration of recasting the role due to Todd's age. Todd had kept in good shape in the intervening years and it was deemed his physical presence and distinct voice were integral to the character. The film received critical acclaim.

Todd also became a noted voice actor in video games, playing the Vortigaunts in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, as well as providing voices for Dota 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He also played Venom in Spider-Man 2 and Locus in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which will now be a posthumous release.

Todd is survived by 2 children and his younger sister, actress Monique Dupree. A memorable performer with great screen presence, he will be missed.

Wertzone Classics: Star Trek: The Original Series

Space, the final frontier. And so forth. In the mid-23rd Century, the Federation starship Enterprise explores strange new worlds under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, making discoveries both wondrous and terrifying.

Reviewing the original Star Trek is a bit like reviewing oxygen (you're not going to convince too many people about not using it), or Lord of the Rings. People are probably already going to watch it or have decided not to. I can't imagine there's too many people sitting on the fence over it. Still, having just watched the whole thing, reviewing it is only polite.

Perhaps the most succinct review of The Original Series, as it is now doomed to be called, came from Futurama back in 2002: "79 episodes, about 30 good ones." This is maybe a little harsh but also not entirely untrue. Airing from 1966 to 1969 (with an unaired pilot produced in 1964), Star Trek was a product of 1960s American assembly line television, producing a mind-boggling 29 episodes in its first season alone. Episodes were not so much carefully written as thrown together in a mad rush, with location filming being a rare luxury and decent visual effects an even rarer one. If anything, it's remarkable that the OG Star Trek holds together as well as it does, and when it works it's still excellent television.

The core of the show is the regular cast, particularly the triumvirate of William Shatner as Captain Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy: the action hero, the logical analyst and the emotional heart. This trio works extremely well, with consistently outstanding performances from Nimoy and Kelley across the entire show (Kelley is easily the most underrated performer on the show and in the following movies, and is always a delight to watch; Nimoy's brilliance has been extolled so much over the years it's almost redundant to repeat it now). This focus on the core trio detracts somewhat from the wider cast: George Takei as Lt. Sulu, Walter Koenig as Ensign Chekov, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura and James Doohan as Chief Engineer Scott (with frequent guest appearances by Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel, and a rotating cast of recurring actors as crewmen, some of whom play multiple characters). The wider group gets relatively little time in the sun compared to the core three, which feels a bit weird from a modern lens but was relatively normal practice at the time.

From a performance perspective, William Shatner is a fascinating study. He is, for the first half of the show, consistently very good. Kirk is authoritative, moral and decisive, balancing the logic of Spock with the humanity of McCoy to good effect. In the latter half of the series, starting late in Season 2, it feels like he's checked out a little. The much-lampooned cliches of over-enunciation, attempts at dramatic pauses (which just feel like he's forgotten his lines midway through a speech) and occasionally wild over-acting become much more pronounced. When he has a good day, or is in a good episode with good material, he is still great, but that does become less common as the third season goes on (his worst performance is easily in Turnabout Intruder, which mercifully is also the last episode of the series).

From a writing perspective, the show is often inventive, intriguing and relatively smart, at least in the early going. Later episodes tend to emphasise action and develop tropes that are so rapidly reused they become tedious: the godlike entity who can crush the Enterprise and its crew any time they want, but first they have to use Kirk and the crew as pawns in some game, and are eventually defeated either by semantic trickery or (less commonly) some kind of technological breakthrough. The Enterprise mysteriously loses the use of its weapons, shields and transporter so often that your eyes may roll into the back of your head. Kirk talks sentient computers into self-destruction frequently enough that you wonder why an anti-Kirk firmware update isn't in circulation in the sentient evil computer club.

But the show is also remarkably adept at employing metaphor: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield's commentary on racism is so subtle it flew over the heads of some people, who wrote into the studio to complain that the near-identical aliens hating one another on the basis of skin colour alone was stupid (right in the middle of America's Civil Rights period). It also sings when it moves away from the all-powerful aliens trope to more even engagements: Balance of Terror's WWII submarine-inspired tension is superb, and Space Seed's battle of intellect and wills between Kirk and genetically-engineered warlord Khan is excellently portrayed. The battle between two Federation starships and a powerful (but not unbeatable) planet-killer in The Doomsday Machine is outstanding. The Devil in the Dark is possibly the show's best statement on how to respect and treat sentient life even if it looks and acts nothing like you are used to.

Like most shows of the period, the idea of "worldbuilding" is absent as a conscious idea, but when it strays into it, it is excellent, such as with our first visit to Vulcan in Amok Time and the Federation conference in Journey to Babel. The Klingons and Romulans are both intriguing enemies, although the portrayal of the Klingons lacks depth (maybe aside from Michael Ansara in Day of the Dove); the Romulans appear less frequently but more memorably, with both Balance of Terror and The Enterprise Incident being series highlights.

The show also gives good comedy, with both The Trouble with Tribbles and A Piece of the Action emerging as comic powerhouses (and The Naked Time having its moments). Gene Roddenberry was definitely less keen on comedy episodes, feeling they encouraged people to mock the show, but it's something Trek has been consistently pretty good at over many different shows and episodes. The show is also adept at existential horror, particularly in the early going through episodes like Where No Man Has Gone Before and Miri which make you wonder how the hell Trek got its reputation as a family show with a lot of charm: these episodes are cold, bordering on the bleak at times. That concept doesn't really emerge until the latter part of Season 1 and really sings in Season 2. It's been said so many times as to be redundant now, but Season 3 sees a marked slump in quality, with some of the worst episodes of the show and the franchise like Spock's Brain. Excellent episodes still crop up amongst the dross, like The Enterprise Incident and All Our Yesterdays, but it can be hard going.

Production value-wise, the show is obviously almost sixty years old so doesn't look fantastic. Location shooting is a bonus, hugely enhancing episodes like Shore Leave and Arena, but most episodes are forced to rely on sets (of wildly varying effectiveness) to portray exterior locations. Makeup and prosthetics are mostly underwhelming, but imaginative design can help overcome that: the Gorn looks weak, but the drama of the script helps overcome these deficiencies. Modelwork and space shots are often decent, and the 2006 remastered version of the show is excellent for updating the space shots whilst staying true to the original design intentions. In a similar vein, the show has some wince-inducing dialogue and ideas about the treatment of women and minorities compared to modern shows, but in other respects, and especially by the standards of the day, the show is remarkably progressive (and later Trek shows aren't always fantastic in this regard either).

Star Trek: The Original Series (****) is, in some respects, dated. But in many others it is remarkably watchable, with frequently great performances. It mixes horror, comedy and SF action-adventure to good effect. It set the scene and groundwork for the most successful TV SF franchise of all time. Sure, there's a fair number of episodes which are poor and don't work very well, but when the show does work - such as in City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, Amok Time, The Doomsday Machine, The Trouble with Tribbles and more - it remains excellent entertainment. The show is available right now in most territories via Paramount+ and on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

RIP Manny Coto

News has sadly broken that television writer Manny Coto has passed away at the age of 62. Coto was best-known for his work on the Star Trek franchise, 24 and Dexter.

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1961, Coto studied at the American Film Institute. He began his television writing career in 1988 with an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and became a regular writer on MTV's Dead at 21. Inbetween, he and Brian Helgeland wrote a script called The Ticking Man, which became the first-ever script to sell for over $1 million. His first show as creator and showrunner was Odyssey 5 (2002-03), about a group of people who witness the destruction of Earth and time travel back to avert the disaster.

In 2003 he began working on Star Trek: Enterprise in its third season. His first episode was Similitude, an ethically complex episode about cloning. The episode was hailed by both critics and cast as one of the best episodes of the series. Coto's next several episodes were well-received, and he was quickly promoted to a producing role.

For the show's fourth and final season, Coto was effectively promoted to showrunner, taking the creative reigns of the series (although Rick Berman and Brannon Braga remained technically the executive producers in charge). The final season used a number of short-form story arcs to tell stories tying into the Star Trek mythos, particularly illuminating stories about the Mirror Universe, Klingon history and the ancestor of Data's creator. Despite a warm reception, the change was too late to reverse the show's commercial fortunes and it was cancelled.

Coto went on to write extensively for 24, penning twenty-seven episodes from 2006 to 2010, and Dexter, penning ten episodes from 2010 to 2013. He returned as a writer on 24: Live Another Day in 2014 and co-created and wrote 24: Legacy in 2017. Coto went on to become a regular writer on American Horror Story and its anthology spin-off show, American Horror Stories.

Coto was a lifelong Star Trek fan with an encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise. It is interesting that he did not return to the franchise after its return to television in 2017, and also did not work on Trek homage show The Orville, which his colleague Brannon Braga worked extensively. Coto's other interests included model trains and wine-making.

Coto passed away on Sunday 10 July from pancreatic cancer, which he'd been fighting for over a year. He is survived by his wife, mother, four children and eight nieces and nephews.

Star Trek: Prodigy - Season 1

A group of workers on the Tars Lamora prison colony discover an abandoned spacecraft, the key to their escape. However, the starship is what the prison colony overseer was looking for, sparking a major pursuit operation. Dal, Gwyn, Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog, Zero and Murf learn that they are the new owners of the Federation starship USS Protostar, a vessel equipped with an experimental drive system. Advised by an emergency advisory hologram, taking the former of Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway, the reluctant crew have to find a way of getting the Protostar home and avoiding their relentless pursuers.

Star Trek: Prodigy is the third animated Star Trek show, but the first primarily aimed at younger viewers. A co-project between Paramount and Nickelodeon, the show assembles a crew of alien youngsters to tell a story that, especially in the early going, feels completely disconnected from existing Star Trek settings and worldbuilding. Indeed, this is the first Trek show not to feature a single human regular castmember (Janeway being a hologram).

The first season is 20 episodes long, which is something of a relief in this age of 8 and 10-episode seasons that all too often sacrifice character development and standalone side-stories for a central arc (often one not remotely worthy of that number of episodes). This allows the show to be a bit of a slow burn as it establishes who the characters are and the problems they are facing before it punches the "story arc" button. Once it does, that arc unfolds with impressive skill, mixing both the modern-day plot of the characters trying to take their Federation ship home from the Delta Quadrant with an elaborate backstory revolving around the villainous Diviner (a superb performance by Fringe and Lord of the Rings' John Noble).

The main cast are excellent, with Ella Purnell adding to a powerfully impressive recent resume of roles (Arcane, Yellowjackets and the upcoming Fallout) with her role as the conflicted Gwyn. Comic lunatic Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks & Recreation, Paper Girls) also imbues both Jankom Pog with expected comedy and less-expected tragic pathos.

The show's real strength is taking the Star Trek ethos of peaceful cooperation and making it work without a lot of Star Trek's baggage. Whilst Picard and Lower Decks have mined a great deal of their stories and setup from earlier shows, Prodigy goes in the opposite direction of keeping the Trek universe at arm's length its early going. Pog is a Tellarite but has little knowledge of his homeworld or culture, whilst Zero is an incorporeal Medusan (who briefly show up in The Original Series), but both are deep cuts to a casual viewer. Janeway is obviously a more familiar reference point, but as a hologram limited by her programming rather than the "real" Janeway, she is not quite the character we remember. Most of the aliens, worlds, technology and ideas the crew encounter are new and fresh, which is a genuinely impressive feat for what is the tenth television series to bear the Star Trek name.

After midseason, the show is more comfortable embracing its place in the Star Trek universe and the show's integration with more familiar settings and ideas is well-handled. Particularly successful is how the show creates a situation where our heroes simply can't immediately join forces with the Federation and instead have to search for a sneaky way of getting the Protostar back to Starfleet without causing a major galactic incident in the process. The season final wraps up this initial story arc with tremendous success, resulting in what might one of Star Trek's single finest debut seasons.

The show is not without weaknesses, however. Much of the final arc revolves around the dangers of AI which, although timely, is a story idea done to death in previous shows and only recently the major focus of both a full season of Discovery and another full season of Picard. It could also be argued that central character Dal is a bit too standard a protagonist for an animated show, being snarky but resourceful, hot-headed but kind etc. He improves a lot in the latter part of the season which his quest to understand his origins becomes more pressing. The animation is also mostly good, but perhaps a little bit of a step below the CG Star Wars shows.

There is much to enjoy in the debut season of Star Trek: Prodigy (****), enough to appeal to both established Trek fans and young children looking for a fun show. A second and final season is in production. The show is still available on Paramount+ in many countries, but in some territories it has been removed pending a move to a new station. DVD and Blu-Ray sets of the first season are available (or will be soon).

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

Star Trek: Picard - Season 3

Admiral Picard receives a cry for help from a very old friend: Dr. Beverly Crusher, his former chief medical officer. Warned not to trust Starfleet with the distress call, Picard joins forces with old allies Will Riker and Seven of Nine to surreptitiously guide Seven's new ship, the USS Titan, to a rendezvous with Beverly. The information she shares reveals a danger to the very heart of the Federation, and the returning threat of two of Starfleet's greatest foes.

The old maxim that a Star Trek spin-off show doesn't really start getting good until its third season is, once again, proven correct. Picard's first two seasons had good ideas, solid supporting casts and, naturally, an iconic lead in Sir Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard, but they were also awash with poor and muddied characterisation, vaguely-defined enemies and variable, at best, writing.

The third and final season of Picard doesn't magically solve all of these problems, but it does make one huge commitment to draw in fans of The Next Generation: bringing back the entire cast of that show. Leaving the underwhelming film Nemesis as their last hurrah always felt a bit disappointing, so giving them another final adventure is a good idea...provided it's good, of course.

In some respects, the season makes some of the same mistakes as earlier ones. There's a lot of faffing around pursuing false leads before the real extent of the enemy threat becomes clear, and the show once again suffers from being built around mysteries. Mysteries are a fine, single genre of storytelling, but it feels like modern shows have drawn too many bad lessons from the likes of Lost in hyping up big mysteries and bigger reveals that almost never land, and Picard's final season spends a bit too long on setting up mysterious events, red herrings and false leads rather than engaging in proper storytelling. Particularly problematic is keeping the true scale of the enemy threat under wraps until the last couple of episodes of the series, meaning we get a bit too much wheel-spinning before that revelation and then we have to wrap up that story with almost indecent (if spectacular) haste.

But this season also makes some very good choices. There are distinct character arcs here, and Gates McFadden gets more to do in her first few episodes in this season then she arguably did in the entire seven years of TNG and four subsequent feature films. It's not just limited to the old regulars, with Voyager and Picard vet Jeri Ryan getting a nice arc as Seven of Nine, and Michelle Hurd getting a small but solid storyline as Raffi, the last actor surviving from Picard's completely original cast (the wonderful Orla Brady gets a couple of scenes in the first episode and is then unceremoniously ejected from the story). Newcomers Todd Stashwick, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut and Ed Speleers also get some solid material as Captain Liam Shaw, Ensign Sidney La Forge and Jack respectively.

Arguably the MVP of the season goes to Jonathan Frakes as Captain Riker. Frakes was very good as Riker but had to grow into it (arguably not starting to really nail the character until TNG's second year and episodes like A Matter of Honor), and since TNG ended he has focused on directing and reportedly suffered anxiety before returning to the role since he had not acted for so long. However, he is outstanding, giving a warm and witty performance whether he's bouncing jokes off Worf, arguing with Picard over the correct course of action or engaging in romantic banter with his wife.

The season has been both praised and criticised for its evocation of nostalgia. In one sequence the crew visit the Starfleet Museum and get to see all of the surviving "hero ships" from previous Star Trek shows: the NX-01 from Enterprise, the USS Voyager from the titular show, Kirk's Enterprise-A from three of the original films, and even the time-travelling Klingon Bird-of-Prey from "the whale thing." Professor Moriarty from TNG shows up as a hologram sentry. The show tactically deploys the theme music from every previous Star Trek incarnation like weaponised emotions. The "good old days" are evoked, a lot. This risks being sappy, but the writing also finds actual reasons in the plot for this stuff. Rather than just saying, "hey, remember that Klingon Bird-of-Prey from San Francisco Harbor, that was cool, right?", its antiquated technology actually plays a key role in the plot. Rummaging through a ton of old artifacts in the Daystrom Institute Archive isn't just an excuse to wink at William Shatner's terrible Star Trek novels, but also provides the crew with an important piece of the puzzle.

In this way, Picard's final season manages to keep things balanced between fuzzy-nostalgia and the dramatic stakes of the unfolding story. It even manages to round off a bunch of story and character arcs left hanging from the original series in a relatively organic and interesting way (even if Picard's tendency to reintroduce a beloved side-character only to brutally murder them five minutes later remains fully intact). But it has to be said that the main storyline is a bit on the vague side. The enemy's plot feels uncharacteristically over-complicated and too reliant on Starfleet personnel holding the idiot ball en masse to really work, and there are canon and continuity plot holes you could comfortably steer the new Odyssey-class Enterprise-F through. For a show that's simultaneously making such a huge deal of continuity, there are some curious choices being made here on what old ideas to invoke and which to blatantly ignore.

Ultimately, this season ended up reminding me a lot of The Force Awakens. The plot is often held together with duct tape and clothes pegs. But a promising, young new cast and the steady hand of experienced veterans help paper over a lot of the problems, and effective use of nostalgia and returning characters makes you forgive a lot. The final season of Star Trek: Picard is not the smartest slice of Trek, but it also has a lot of heart, and it is fun in a way the previous two seasons very much were not. For parking your brain in neutral, chuckling at gag callbacks all the way to the start of TNG and cooing over some great action sequences, this is fairly solid entertainment, and it also makes a reasonable case for itself as a backdoor pilot for a new show focusing on the younger characters introduced in this season.

The third and final season of Star Trek: Picard (****) is streaming globally on Paramount+, and also in some territories on Amazon Prime, right now.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods.

STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY greenlit at Paramount+

Paramount have greenlit a new Star Trek series. Just days after confirming third and fifth seasons respectively for Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, they have now confirmed a new Trek series altogether is in the offing.

Starfleet Academy will follow a group of Starfleet cadets as they come of age and uncover a threat to the Federation. There also indications that the show may feature legacy Star Trek characters as instructors at the Academy, either as recurring or regular characters.

Starfleet Academy does not have a confirmed time setting, as yet. A prior version of the show was actually in development set in the 32nd Century timeframe of Star Trek: Discovery's latter seasons, but it is unclear if this is still the plan, or the new show will be set in the time period of Star Trek: Picard or earlier.

No cast or crew has been announced yet, beyond current head-of-franchise Alex Kurtzman and Nancy Drew writer Noga Landau, who will serve as co-showrunners.

It's been a long road for this particular idea. Gene Roddenberry floated the idea of a Starfleet Academy show in the mid-1970s, featuring younger versions of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The idea resurfaced during the Rick Berman era, although ultimately they preferred to periodically visit the Academy for single episodes rather than have a full show set there.

The show is anticipated to begin filming in 2024, probably for a 2025 debut.

STAR TREK shows gets new seasons and airdates

Paramount have lifted the lid on some of their plans for the Star Trek franchise moving forwards.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will air its second season starting on 15 June, and has been renewed for a third, confirming more adventures for Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the Enterprise crew in the 23rd Century.

Star Trek: Lower Decks will air its fourth season later in the summer. The precise date is to be decided, but since each of the three previous seasons aired in August, that seems a fairly logical deduction for this season as well. Lower Decks has also been renewed for a fifth season, due to air in 2024.

Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are also getting a special crossover episode as part of Strange New Worlds' third season, mixing live action and animation.

The Paramount-Nickelodeon co-production Star Trek: Prodigy will also start airing its second season before the end of the year, but has so far not been renewed. Prodigy's seasons are double the length of the norm, though (20 episodes each) and usually air in two blocs, so it might be next year before we hear any more about that show's fate.

Star Trek: Discovery will air its fifth and final season in early 2024, whilst Star Trek: Picard is currently wrapping up its third and final, warmly-received season. Whilst there have been discussions about a follow-up series, called Star Trek: Legacy, that has not been formally greenlit yet. There is also no further word on the much-discussed Section 31 TV series which has been in development hell for some considerable time.

Still, that's a reasonable amount of Star Trek to look forwards to in the foreseeable future.

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY to end with fifth season in 2024

CBS and Paramount+ have announced that streaming show Star Trek: Discovery will end in 2024 with its fifth season.

The news is not a huge surprise, with Paramount+ moving to cut original programming budgets in pursuit of greater profitability, and the show having a fairly hefty price tag attached to it. The show kicked off in 2017 with a reported budget of $7 million per episode and costs have only increased since then. The show was at the vanguard of a whole new generation of Trek shows, with live-action series Picard (also ending after its currently-airing third season concludes) and Strange New Worlds following, along with animated series Lower Decks and Prodigy.

The show had a difficult genesis, with co-creator Bryan Fuller originally envisaging an anthology show that would dramatically shift locations, casts and even time periods from season to season, extending across different eras of the Trek universe and timeline. However, when that idea was shot down for cost reasons and Fuller's responsibilities to American Gods increased, Fuller chose to move on, leaving co-creator Alex Kurtzman to put together a new writing team (ironically, Fuller was later dismissed from American Gods due to massive budget overruns).

The early critical response to Discovery was somewhat tepid, but improved over its first four seasons. The show's position as a prequel set some ten years before the time of the original Star Trek series, but looking centuries more advanced, was contentious amongst fans, as was its embracing of both a darker and more emotional aesthetic than previous Trek shows, and problems fitting into established continuity. However, the show did nab a Hugo nomination for an early episode and the critical assessment of the show did improve after it moved a thousand years into the future.

The show was also a commercial success, being cited for almost single-handedly driving impressive subscriber growth for the CBS All Access platform in its early days, before its recent rebranding as Paramount+.

It also appears that the decision has been made to delay the final season into 2024, with some reshoots due to take place later this year, possibly an indication that the decision to end the series after five seasons was made late in the day and these reshoots will turn a season finale into an overall series finale.

With Picard also ending, this leaves the Star Trek franchise with one sole live-action show on air. Apparently other shows are under discussion, two live-action projects apparently under series consideration. One would pick up after the events of Picard and would feature a mix of new and established characters in the early 25th Century, and could draw upon characters from Picard, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. The second is unclear, but could be either the much-discussed Section 31 series starring Michelle Yeoh (which may be complicated by Yeoh's much higher profile following a series of successful movie roles) or a Starfleet Academy series, possibly set in the Discovery time period of the 32nd Century. It is believed that there have also been discussions around a new series or mini-series featuring the return of Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway. She has already returned to voice the character in Prodigy, but is apparently keen to explore the character again in live-action.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will air a second season later this year, with Lower Decks also getting a fourth season in 2023 and Prodigy expected to start airing its second at the end of the year. The timescale for any new shows joining the stable is unclear.

Where to Start with Star Trek? (revised)

This is a revision of an article I originally wrote two and a half years ago, here.

The recent arrival of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has spurred a renewed interest in the venerable SF franchise. New viewers want to check out the older material, but the sheer amount of it is daunting. By the start of 2023, no less than 41 seasons of television will have aired in the franchise, totalling 872 episodes spread across eight separate series airing over fifty-seven years (and counting). It would take you more than 621 hours (or almost 26 days, non-stop) to watch all of that material. In addition, there are 13 feature films in the mix, as well as a plethora of video games and hundreds of novels, audio dramas and fan films. If you want to check out this mass of material where do you start?

There are several different approaches you can take and I’ll run through a few of them below. The one thing I would say first is that, with a few notable exceptions, Star Trek is mostly an episodic franchise, where each episode stands alone with its own beginning, middle and end. That starts to shift in Deep Space Nine, which introduces more serialised elements, and by the time of Discovery and Picard the series has become fully serialised, but for the most part the different series are episodic and in fact designed for each episode to be enjoyed by themselves.

Before we get into the lists, it might be worthwhile briefly brushing up on what each series is about.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Live-action: 1966-69 • 79 episodes • 3 seasons • 6 films (1979-91)
Animated: 1973-74 • 22 episodes • 2 seasons

Also called the original series, the classic series or just Star Trek, this series follows the adventures of Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Constitution-class starship USS Enterprise. They explore strange new worlds, encounter new alien life and seek to uphold the utopian values of the United Federation of Planets in the mid-23rd Century whilst dealing with recurring enemies, including the Klingons and Romulans. The story of this series continues in Star Trek: The Animated Series (which is the same, but as a cartoon) and then in the first six Star Trek feature films.

The first episode of the series, The Cage, was filmed two years before the rest of the series and features a significantly different cast of characters (who do go on to play major roles in some of the films and in Star Trek: Discovery, which revisits the same time period).

Star Trek: The Next Generation
1987-94 • 178 episodes • 7 seasons • 4 films (1994-2002)

Set in the mid-to-late 24th Century, roughly 100 years after the events of the original series, The Next Generation focuses on a brand-new, much larger and vastly more sophisticated Galaxy-class USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The emphasis remains on exploring new worlds and meeting new races. Although the series mostly remains episodic, recurring and more serialised elements creep in towards its end. Most notable is the introduction of the Borg, an overwhelmingly powerful cybernetic threat which remains a key enemy through the next several series, and the Cardassians, a mid-ranking antagonistic enemy. The story of this series continues in the seventh through tenth Star Trek feature films and the sequel-series Star Trek: Picard, set thirty years later.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
1993-99 • 176 episodes • 7 seasons

To date, the only Star Trek series not set on a starship. Instead, the focus is on Deep Space Nine, a Federation outpost established on an abandoned Cardassian space station orbiting the planet Bajor. The Cardassians conquered and ruled Bajor with an iron fist for forty years before withdrawing, leaving the planet in ruins. The Federation are helping them rebuild, their efforts spearheaded by Commander Benjamin Sisko. Unlike most Star Trek series, which focuses on the Federation and Starfleet crewmembers, this series has a large number of civilian and alien recurring characters. Bajor becomes unexpectedly important when a stable wormhole leading to the remote Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy is discovered, allowing the planet to benefit from increased trade (to the fury of the Cardassians). Early seasons revolve around renewed Cardassian/Bajoran tensions before the introduction of the Dominion, the alien alliance which rules the Gamma Quadrant and is unhappy with the Federation poking around its back yard. Later seasons are more heavily serialised and see the outbreak of full-scale war between the Federation and the Dominion.

Deep Space Nine was controversial during its first airing for being perceived as a lot darker than prior Star Trek shows, but in recent years it has undergone a critical reassessment and is now often cited as the best (or at least the most critically consistent) of the Star Trek series.

Star Trek: Voyager
1995-2001 • 172 episodes • 7 seasons

This series opens when the USS Voyager is flung 75,000 light-years across the galaxy to the Delta Quadrant and has to return home, which is estimated will take over seventy years at maximum warp. Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew seek to find faster ways home with any means at their disposal, whilst upholding Federation values in a desperate corner of space where no one even knows who the Federation are.

Star Trek: Enterprise
2001-05 • 98 episodes • 4 seasons

A prequel series taking place about a century before the events of The Original Series, this show takes place before the Federation or Starfleet even exist. Instead, it follows the adventures of the NX-01 Enterprise, Earth’s first experimental spacecraft with a Warp 5 drive. The series sees the crew trying to engage in interstellar diplomacy, exploration and commerce with much more primitive technology than even in Kirk’s time, whilst also trying to deal with problems such as a brewing conflict between the Andorians and Vulcans, and Earth’s first fumbling dealings with the Klingons and Romulans. The series is almost completely episodic for its first two years, but in its third season explores a series-long arc where Enterprise has to search for aliens who carried out a devastating sneak attack on Earth. The final season is divided into shorter arcs revolving around the formation of the Federation.

Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline Films
2009-16 • 3 films

A series of three films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) produced by J.J. Abrams, these films are set in an alternate timeline created by time travel. Spock (from the original series) is blasted back in time by his failure to stop the destruction of the Romulan homeworld, pursued by a vengeful Romulan crew. This results in alterations to the timeline, such as a younger James T. Kirk and his fellow crewmembers joining forces and taking command of the Enterprise years earlier than in the original timeline and getting into fresh, new adventures in the mid-23rd Century.

A fourth film in this series has been in development hell for several years.

Star Trek: Discovery
2017 onwards • 55 episodes • 4 seasons (to date)

Another prequel series, this time taking place ten years before the events of The Original Series. The focus is on Michael Burnham, the first officer of the USS Shenzhou who badly fumbles a confrontation with the Klingons, inadvertently leading to a massive war. A disgraced Burnham is assigned to the USS Discovery, a highly experimental starship with unusual technology and an oddball, maverick captain, where she is offered the chance to atone for her mistakes.

The show undergoes a drastic format change in its latter seasons, when the USS Discovery is shifted through time to the 32nd Century.

A fifth season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Picard
2020 onwards • 20 episodes • 2 seasons (to date)

A sequel series set at the end of the 24th Century, Star Trek: Picard picks up story elements left dangling from the end of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, as well as exploring events in the original timeline after the destruction of Romulus (in the original timeline).

A third season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

2020 onwards • 30 episodes • 3 seasons (to date)

An animated series set several years after the end of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and almost a decade after the end of The Next Generation, Lower Decks is a lighter-hearted show looking at life on one of the "regular" Starfleet ships that doesn't get the high-profile, glamorous missions of other hero ships in the franchise. The show is noted for being an affectionate satire of the rest of Trek, whilst also keeping its ethos intact.

A fourth season will air in 2023.

Star Trek: Prodigy

2021 onwards • 20 episodes • 1 season (to date)

A CG-animated show set a year or so after Lower Decks, Prodigy is notable as the first show in the franchise not to focus on a regular Starfleet cast. Instead, the show features a crew of young aliens who salvage a Federation starship and use it to try to reach Federation space, fed dreams of what it is like to serve in Starfleet by the ship's advisory hologram, based on Voyager's Captain Janeway. However, various problems complicate their mission.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

2022 onwards • 10 episodes • 1 season (to date)

A spin-off of Discovery and a prequel to The Original Series, this show focuses on the adventures of the original USS Enterprise, but almost a decade before Kirk's time. The show instead expands from the original pilot The Cage by concentrating on the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike and his crew. The show deliberately bucks recent trends by consisting of episodic adventures.

The Curated Sample

This order is not exhaustive but what it does is provide a snapshot of the different series and some of the strongest stand-alone episodes which hold up well today. These episodes are stand-alones (not part of multi-episodic arcs) and are designed to showcase some of the different types of storytelling the series indulges in. A viewer can jump from these episodes into the rest of that series if they like what they see.

The Animated Series is effectively a continuation of The Original Series and it would be hard to recommend individual episodes from Enterprise, Discovery or Picard due to their heavy serialisation (Picard is also best-watched having seen some or all of The Next Generation first).

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The City on the Edge of Forever
• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Trouble with Tribbles
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Space Seed
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Measure of a Man
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q Who?
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Inner Light
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Visitor
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Far Beyond the Stars
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, In the Pale Moonlight*
• Star Trek: Voyager, Eye of the Needle
• Star Trek: Voyager, Message in a Bottle

* This may seem to be an exception to the multi-episode arc rule, as In the Pale Moonlight has references to and a big impact on the Dominion War storyline which dominates much of Deep Space Nine’s latter seasons. However, the episode itself is more about Sisko’s journey and how he and Garak bring about a major shift in political events whilst never leaving the station (the Dominion itself does not appear), which can be understood well enough without additional context.

The Pilot Sample

This approach simply has the viewer sampling the first episode of each version of the series to see what grabs their attention straight away, and from there they can choose which series to watch first:

• Star Trek: The Original Series, The Cage (1964)
• Star Trek: The Original Series, Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series, Beyond the Farthest Star (1973)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint (1987)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Emissary (1993)
• Star Trek: Voyager, Caretaker (1995)
• Star Trek: Enterprise, Broken Bow (2001)
• Star Trek: Discovery, The Vulcan Hello (2017)
• Star Trek: Picard, Remembrance (2020)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks, Second Contact (2020)
• Star Trek: Prodigy, Lost and Found (2021)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Strange New Worlds (2022)

Release Order

AKA the “completionist” approach. This may be the approach everyone ends up taking once they’ve been sucked into the material, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a first run-through. This approach basically means watching the series in order of release and is the best for enjoying the series as it originally aired and was intended (just somewhat compressed).

The primary weakness of this approach is having to watch The Original Series in full before the more recent shows. The original show is certainly great from the perspective of a 1960s TV series and also has many outstanding episodes that have withstood the test of time, but it also has a lot of episodes that…have not. The series underwent an in-depth HD remastering process in 2006 which saw the film quality improved and revamped CG effects added to make the visual quality of the episodes more acceptable to modern audiences, although obviously the writing and performances were not affected.

You can tweak this order for simplicity: there’s nothing stopping you from watching all six films featuring the original cast before watching The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager are divorced from one another almost completely, so you could watch DS9 in full before switching to Voyager. TNG and DS9 do have a few more notable crossovers in terms of characters and storylines, but it also wouldn’t be the end of the world if you finished watching TNG in full before watching DS9.

• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (made in 1964, but didn’t air until later as part of the original series)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1-3 (1966-69)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Season 1-2 (1973-74)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1-2 (1987-89)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3-4 (1989-91)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (1991-92)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 (1992-93)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 / Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (1993-94)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 (1994-95) / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (1995)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (1995-96)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (1996-97)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (1997-98)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (1998-99)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (1999-2001)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 (2001-02)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
• Star Trek: Enterprise Season 2-4 (2002-05)
• Star Trek (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 1-2 (2017-19)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 1 / Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 (2020)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 (2020-21)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 (2021)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 / Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 (2021-22)
• Star Trek: Picard Season 2 / Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 / Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 (2022)

Chronological Order
This order lists the series in the order of when the episodes take place in the order of events within the Star Trek universe.

This order has some strengths, as it roughly matches the historical order of events, but it also has some major weaknesses. It puts Enterprise, arguably one of the weaker Trek series overall, up first and also features a number of spoilers for later series (since the Enterprise writers couldn’t resist pulling in familiar creatures and aliens to the show from later periods, no matter how incongruous). You’re also talking about waiting a long time to get to "the good stuff."

• Star Trek: Enterprise Seasons 1-4 (2151-55, 2161)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Pilot, The Cage (2254)
• Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-2 (2256-57)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 (2259)
• Star Trek: The Original Series Seasons 1-3 (2266-68)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series Seasons 1-2 (2269-70)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (2271)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (2285)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (2285)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (2286)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (2287)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (2293)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Seasons 1-5 (2364-68)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 (2369)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 2 (2370)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 1 (2371)
• Star Trek: Generations (2371)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 (2372)
• Star Trek: First Contact (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 5 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 3 (2373)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 6 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 4 (2374)
• Star Trek: Insurrection (2375)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 / Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 (2375)
• Star Trek: Voyager Season 6-7 (2376-78)
• Star Trek: Nemesis (2379)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Seasons 1-3 (2380-81)
• Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 (2383)
• Star Trek (2385, alternate 2258), Star Trek Into Darkness (2259), Star Trek Beyond (2263)*
• Star Trek: Picard Seasons 1-2 (2399-2401)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3-4 (3188-90)

* The chronological order of events also makes placing the Kelvin timeline movies awkward, as they rely heavily on knowledge of events after the original show and The Next Generation but are set much earlier, albeit in a parallel universe. Sticking them here is probably the best approach.

What's the best order then? I'd say order of release for those who want to experience the franchise as it was released and understand it could be a bit of a bumpy ride, otherwise one of the curated approaches might be best.

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