Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Blu-ray Review
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” remains the best current Trek series.
In the 10 episode second season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the series continues to be episodic all while having ongoing story threads and character arcs (from season 1 even). Plotlines this season involve the threat of another Federation-Klingon war and the past Federation-Klingon war, Number One on trial, Pike and Batel’s relationship, La’an and alternate timeline Kirk time traveling, radiation causing memory loss, Spock becoming human, Uhura hallucinating, a portal in which Boimler and Mariner from “Star Trek: Lower Decks” travel into the past to ‘Strange New Worlds’ timeline, an improbability field that causes everyone to sing their feelings, and the return of the Gorn
The debut season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” turned out to be a fan favorite and rightly so. It was arguably the best TV Trek we’ve seen in awhile. While season 2 doesn’t quite soar to the same heights, there’s still plenty to like here.
First of all, “Those Old Scientists” is an instant classic episode. Even as someone who isn’t a fan of “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” this crossover was pitch perfect. Not only was it fun to see Boimler and Mariner in live-action form, but the episode really did justice to both shows. It could have easily been a gimmick that goes on too long, but like crossover episodes before it ala “Trials And Tribble-ations,” it’s a real love letter to the Trek universe. The season finale “Hegemony” also proved to be quite epic. The stakes are high, an important character is at long last revealed and there’s one heck of a cliffhanger.
From a character perspective, season 2 also benefits the characters and cast. Celia Rose Gooding is far more comfortable as Uhura here and has more to do this season. Ethan Peck continues to make Spock his own while Spock himself has quite the journey this season. Newcomer Carol Kane brings engineer Pelia’s kookiness to life. Jess Bush continues to be the most underrated cast member. No character has benefited more from this show than Nurse Chapel. Anson Mount was born to play Captain Pike. Christina Chong is in some ways the heart of this season and has the most emotional arc. Babs Olusanmokun explores the darker depths of M’Benga in the sophomore season.
If there was any knock on season 2 it’s that it wink to the audience a bit too much. Rather than forging its own path storywise, there’s a bit too many callbacks. “Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow” is a clear “City On The Edge Of Forever” homage, “Ad Astra Per Aspera” is wildly reminiscent of “Measure Of A Man” TNG episode, and “Under The Cloak Of War” is a lot like DS9’s “In The Pale Moonlight.” Even the musical episode blatantly rips off a musical episode from another series (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and the season 6 episode “Once More With Feeling” which is still the gold standard of musical episodes. Hopefully in future seasons the writers will create more original stories instead of looking back on past Trek episodes (or fads).
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 2.39:1 1080p. How does it look? The Blu-ray picture quality is so much sharper than the Paramount+ streams.
Audio Track: 5.1 DTS-HD MA. How does it sound? The dialogue, music, sound effects, and, yes, singing all hit the right note.
Extras:
* Deleted/extended scenes from episodes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9
* “Producing Props”- A near 11 minute behind-the-scenes look at certain props featured this season.
* “The Costumes Closet”- As the title suggests, this 13 ½ minute behind-the-scenes extra showcases various costumes from the season.
* “The Gorn”- A 15 ½ minute featurette on the depiction of the Gorn aliens in season 2.
* “Singing In Space”- A 22 minute bonus feature all about the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody.” Interviews and set footage are included.
* “Exploring New Worlds”- A lengthy 46 1/2 minute rundown of the events and character arcs of season 2. Expect tons of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, looks at masks, and more.
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