After a bumpy end to a very uneven third season, it seems like Strange New Worlds is beginning to realize that its next mission is a course correction.
At New York Comic Con today, Paramount revealed our first proper look at the penultimate season of the Star Trek prequel show, after teasing some puppetry-based shenanigans at SDCC over the summer. The extended sequence strikes a much more serious tone in stark contrast, as the U.S.S. Enterprise‘s attempts to respond to a Starfleet mayday broadcast lead to the ship being trapped in a strange phenomenon that robs the ship of all but a smidgen of its power.
Even putting aside Captain Pike literally telling Number One (and the audience) that they wanted more strange new worlds, the choice of a more traditionally toned clip as our introduction to season 4 certainly feels like it’s aimed to address criticisms of Strange New Worlds‘ third season.
Although season 4 itself will not act as a direct response to those criticisms—filming wrapped this past August, before season 3 concluded airing—the choice certainly echoes recent commentary by Strange New Worlds producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers that the new season is aiming to address some of those criticisms regardless.
“We just had more time [for season 4]. Just had more time, more continuous time,” Goldsman told TrekMovie of the mixed reaction to season 3. “We didn’t have staffing changes. We didn’t have a strike. The strike caused change. Those things are real. And starting up and shutting down and starting up again is complicated.”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is expected to return for its fourth season sometime next year. The show will then wrap up with a truncated, six-episode season five, which is currently in production.