Top 10 Moments from the Second Season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' highly-anticipated third season arriving with a two-episode premiere on July 17, let's reflect on a memorable selection of Season 2's most outstanding moments.

10. Spock Takes Command ("The Broken Circle")

Following Admiral Robert April's refusal to permit Lt. Spock to undertake a mission to assist Lt. La'An Noonien-Singh on Cajitar IV, the Vulcan science officer took matters into his own hands and enlisted the U.S.S. Enterprise crew to simulate a coolant leak that would free the vessel from its berth at Starbase One.

With some unexpected help from Commander Pelia, Spock assumed the center and set course for the Cajitar system, declaring, "I would like the ship to go. Now." This chain of events initiated a daring rescue that culminated in the Enterprise foiling a false flag operation orchestrated by a fraudulent Federation Crossfield-class starship crewed by Broken Circle extremists.

9. Emotions Abound ("Charades")

In the wake of a harrowing accident that turned Spock fully human and forced him to bluff his way through his ceremonial engagement dinner with T'Pring, Spock defended his mother's human heritage by revealing to T'Pring's mother that the arduous Vulcan ritual had been performed by a human.

Upset that Spock hadn't confided in her about the ordeal, T'Pring suggested the couple take some time apart. Soon after, Spock and Nurse Christine Chapel decided to stop suppressing their feelings for one another and embraced in a romantic kiss.

8. Facing the Past ("Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow")

Transported back in time to 21st Century Toronto, La'An Noonien-Singh worked alongside an alternate timeline's Captain James T. Kirk to investigate temporal tampering in Earth's past.

Upon uncovering a Romulan plan to prevent the Federation from forming by murdering Khan Noonien Singh when he was still a boy, La'An sprung into action and prevented a Romulan agent from carrying out the execution. Having wrestled with her complicated family history for her entire life, La'An suddenly found herself face-to-face with the ancestor who, while still a boy at the time, would become one of Earth's most brutal tyrants.

7. Do No Harm? ("Under the Cloak of War")

A former Klingon general who now advocated for peace, Ambassador Dak'Rah seemed to have shed the "The Butcher of J'gal" moniker he received for killing three of his own officers by the time he visited the U.S.S. Enterprise. Despite Rah's claim that he committed the crime to prevent atrocities, Dr. Joseph M'Benga knew that Rah had been the one who ordered his soldiers to murder civilians.

Also stationed at J'gal, Dr. M'Benga had actually been the person who dispatched the three Klingon officers while Rah escaped. As Rah attempted to discuss the matter with M'Benga in Enterprise's Sickbay, a brief scuffle ensued and resulted in the ambassador's death. While M'Benga insisted that he did not initiate the fight, his ambiguous intentions left Captain Christopher Pike unsettled.

6. Meet the Miracle Worker ("Hegemony")

Under siege by Gorn forces on Parnassus Beta, Captain Pike and his away team accidentally walked into a trap that confined them behind a force field. Fortunately, the clever setup had been placed by Lt. (j.g.) Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the lone survivor of the Gorn attack on the U.S.S. Stardiver.

Though not yet the miracle worker who would go on to save the Enterprise on countless occasions, Scotty had developed a makeshift Gorn transponder that impressed Pike. When Pike finally returned to the Enterprise, he brought Scotty — and his transponder — aboard with him.

5. I Fly the Ship ("Among the Lotus Eaters")

With the Enterprise crew afflicted by acute memory loss above Rigel VII, Lt. Erica Ortegas valiantly battled through the condition, repeating the mantra "I fly the ship" and heroically taking her station as the starship found itself amidst interstellar debris.

Acting on instinct, Ortegas successfully navigated the chunks of rock, even going so far as to fire phasers at an approaching asteroid so that the Enterprise could fly through the obstruction and live to soar another day.

4. The Cost of Confessions ("Subspace Rhapsody")

Tethered to an improbability field in a reality where people sing uncontrollably, the Enterprise's senior staff had to contend with an inability to prevent themselves from divulging personal information each time they broke out in song.

While celebrating her acceptance to Dr. Roger Korby's fellowship, Chapel's joyful vocals concluded on a somber note, as she realized that she was ready to let Spock go. This revelation triggered Spock's own lament in Engineering, where the Vulcan bluntly crooned about being Chapel's ex.

3. Deciphering a Signal ("Lost in Translation")

Plagued by disturbing hallucinations that included a decrepit Lt. Hemmer to a tragic shuttle crash, Ensign Nyota Uhura braved her struggle with reality and deduced that perhaps someone had been trying to communicate with her. Working in concert with Lt. George "Sam" Kirk and his brother James, Uhura surmised that the unknown beings inhabited the nearby nebula and would be slaughtered once the Federation's new refinery went online. Unable to prevent the station’s activation, Uhura convinced Captain Pike to evacuate and destroy the refinery before any more of the beings were killed.

Uhura capped off her eventful day by introducing Spock to his future captain, James T. Kirk.

2. 24th Century Stowaways ("Those Old Scientists")

Propelled into the past by the Krulmuth-B portal, 24th Century Ensigns Bradward Boimler and Beckett Mariner ultimately found themselves aboard the 22nd Century U.S.S. Enterprise.

Grappling with the dream of meeting their Starfleet heroes while also dealing with the reality of the situation, the U.S.S. Cerritos crewmembers made a lasting impression on their Enterprise counterparts. Boimler's admission that a recruitment poster featuring Commander Una Chin-Riley had inspired him to join Starfleet proved particularly moving for Number One, especially considering she had only recently avoided being imprisoned for keeping her Illyrian heritage a secret.

1. A Tenacious Testimony ("Ad Astra per Aspera")

Charged with violating Starfleet's anti-genetic modification directive by concealing her Illyrian ancestry, Commander Chin-Riley took the stand in her own defense and described the persecution that many genetically-modified Illyrians faced while living on a Federation colony. Number One admitted that she had turned herself in so that her crew and Starfleet as a whole could better understand the Illyrians and their plight.

Just as she would learn that her service had inspired Ensign Boimler, Chin-Riley shared a story about how a diverse Federation crew's visit to the colony set her on her path to joining Starfleet. Though Number One was found guilty because she had fit the conditions for asylum, her powerful testimony offered a new hope for Federation-Illyrian relations.

Bonus Moment: The Gorn Attack! ("Hegemony")

Although Pike, Scotty, and Captain Marie Batel were successfully beamed from Parnassus Beta's surface to the Enterprise's Sickbay, their colleagues — M'Benga, Noonien-Singh, Ortegas, and Sam Kirk — were intercepted by the Gorn and transported along with other survivors to the looming Gorn fleet.

With the Enterprise besieged by incoming fire and Admiral April ordering an immediate withdrawal, Captain Pike paused to decide on his next course of action. The next chapter in this saga — and the fate of so many — will be unveiled when Strange New Worlds returns for its third season on July 17!

Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, and ILM.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the U.K., Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Japan. The series is also available on Paramount+ in Canada. It streams on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.