Last month, Paramount+ renewed Strange New Worlds for a fifth and final season comprised of six episodes. Following that announcement, executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman took time at a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival to talk about wrapping up the series by taking it right up to The Original Series and even hinted they hope to continue beyond that point. TrekMovie had a chance to talk to Goldsman about getting that final season and what they plan to do with it, and possibly beyond even that.
Given the time to wrap up… unlike Discovery
The final season being cut down to six from the usual ten episodes was a noteworthy part of the official announcement in June. While they weren’t given a full season, the show fared better than Star Trek: Discovery, which was not renewed after work was completed on its fifth season. The producers of Discovery asked for more, including possibly a streaming movie, but they were denied, instead given a chance to shoot a short coda added to the season 5 finale. Regarding Strange New Worlds’ final season, Goldsman told TrekMovie that six episodes actually wasn’t the result of a back and forth negotiation, explaining how the process contrasted with Discovery‘s:
“Unfortunately Discovery’s loss was our gain. So they basically said, ‘Look, we think we’re done after four seasons.’ And we said, ‘Hey, what about our whole ‘Let’s get the fans to the TOS era,’ because what happens to all these people, and how does this person will come up?’ And they were like, ‘No, that’s fair. That’s true.’ And they said, ‘What do you need to get there?’ And we said, ‘Six episodes’ and they said okay.”
That all sounds easy, but Goldsman said “it wasn’t” and gave some more detail on how things went down behind the scenes:
“The good news was, when I say ‘they,’ really the folks who make this show wanted this to happen too, but there are fiscal constraints that are real. You know what’s going on with Paramount. So to move things forward in that environment was a challenge, but everybody—CBS, Paramount, Strange New Worlds, and [Alex Kurtzman’s production company] Secret Hideout were all pulling in the same direction. And that’s how we ended up getting six episodes. So it was a wasn’t really a negotiation, but it was a heavy lift for pretty much everybody, because everybody wanted not to have another Discovery circumstance where it felt abrogated in a way that wasn’t thorough.”
Rebecca Romijn as Una, Anson Mount as Pike, and Ethan Peck as Spock (Paramount+)
Taking the final season into Kirk’s command
Picking up on Goldsman’s previous comments about about bringing the show right into The Original Series, Goldsman initially denied plans to turn season 5 into a reboot of TOS. He then clarified that they would go beyond just seeing Captain Pike hand over command of the USS Enterprise to James T. Kirk (played on SNW by Paul Wesley). The EP even got sort of specific:
“We will take the show to Kirk’s first day of command, which is by the way, not actually The Original Series. The Original Series starts a bit into Kirk’s command.”
And when pressed on what he sees as the canonical start to TOS, Goldsman said:
“I think of ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before.’ And that’s not Kirk’s first mission, nor does it feel like Kirk’s second mission.”
William Shatner as James T. Kirk in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (Paramount)
Goldsman points to the second pilot shot for TOS which was the first episode with Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner. The Original Series was never presented in a serialized fashion, nor did they air the episodes in production order, so “Where No Man Has Gone Before” originally aired third, with “The Man Trap” being the first episode to be broadcast on NBC in 1966, even though it was actually the fourth episode produced following the second pilot.
It sounds like the six-episode fifth season of Strange New Worlds will wrap up with Kirk in command of the USS Enterprise, possibly on the famed five-year mission, but before any of the events from The Original Series.
Trying for a follow-up series
At the Tribeca panel last month, Goldsman made an aside about how there was a chance for more stories, noting they will have all the sets and actors already available. When asked if he was just joking around, Goldsman made it clear he wasn’t:
“Let me put it this way: I certainly wouldn’t say no [to a follow-up show set on the Enterprise]”
And the executive producer and Hollywood veteran also made it clear that he knows for that to happen, he will have to officially pitch the idea. It was Goldsman who pushed for Strange New Worlds itself after he joined Discovery, which introduced Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) in season 2. Goldsman told TrekMovie:
“Yes, I know, trust me. There’s a lot of asking… [Co-showrunner] Henry [Alonso Myers] and I would do this until they put us out to pasture, until we were like mumbling bad title sequences, because we love the show. And so if we can convince people to give us an opportunity to continue these missions, of course. Nothing would make us happier. And, when the time comes, we will certainly try.”
Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk (Paramount+)
More SNW interviews to come
In the coming days, look for more from TrekMovie’s discussions with Goldsman and co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers about the season premiere and what’s to come in season 3. We also have more interviews with the cast about their characters in season 3.
Strange New Worlds season 3 debuts on Paramount+, July 17 with the first two episodes. Here again is the trailer.
