Star Trek: Strange New Worlds producer Akiva Goldsman promises a return to “adventure-of-the-week” storytelling

(L-R) Ethan Peck as Spock, Anson Mount as Captain Pike, and Rebecca Romijn as Number One in Star Trek: Discovery, soon to be Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

APRIL 12, 2021 - With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds officially in production since March, Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner Akiva Goldsman has been busy of late, balancing his time between both the new Anson Mount-led series and the second season of Star Trek: Picard. While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published yesterday, Goldsman gave audiences just a little bit more of a peek at what to expect from Strange New Worlds.

“It's unlike the other shows in that it's really episodic,” Goldman said in the interview, something that “Star Trek boss” Alex Kurtzman promised Star Trek fans back in August of 2020. Goldsman remarked that The Original Series would regularly feature a “horror episode”, “hard sci-fi”, or the occasional comedy, and it seems to be a formula he and fellow showrunner Henry Alonso Myers are looking to emulate with Strange New Worlds. “We've all become very enamored, myself included, with serialized storytelling,” Goldsman told THR, adding, “But Strange New Worlds is very much adventure-of-the-week but with serialized character arcs.”

Goldsman is not only producing and serving as co-showrunner, he is also directing the pilot episode of the new series. Calling the experience “super fun”, Goldsman said that due to limits placed on the number of people on set because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still a few scenes that need to be filmed. “There is something extraordinary about a bunch of folks coming together to [work on a new series],” he said of the pilot. “You're surrounded by people who would be perfectly happy to be on the floor of a Star Trek convention, which is a little different than a typical show.”

But what will Star Trek: Strange New Worlds look like? On Star Trek: Discovery, audiences have already met our lead characters, Captain Pike, Number One and Spock. When we get to see them again in Strange New Worlds, however, things might look…just a little different. Here’s what Goldsman had to say about the changes:

“Obviously we want to keep continuity with the storytelling and the style, but we also want Strange New Worlds to be a different show. [...] It's not Discovery. There are a few more reach-backs (to The Original Series) and the uniforms have been adjusted slightly, the sets are slightly different. Remember the Enterprise existed as a little piece of [Star Trek: Discovery] but now it's its own object. When you close your eyes and think of the key sets and situations that you think of The Original Series, that's what we're looking to do.”

“When you close your eyes and think of the key sets and situations that you think of The Original Series, that’s what we’re looking to do.”

— Akiva Goldsman to The Hollywood Reporter

It’s going to be a little while yet before we get to see Strange New Worlds come to life on television screens. ViacomCBS has confirmed that Star Trek: Lower Decks season two, Star Trek: Discovery season four, and the new Star Trek: Prodigy will all air in 2021, but there’s been no confirmation so far of a release date for Strange New Worlds. But until then, you can catch up on all of your favorite episodes and films from across the Star Trek franchise, available for streaming on Paramount+.