While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is returning for a third season, it’ll also mark the beginning of the end for the beloved Star Trek spin-off. Paramount recently announced that Season 5, which enters production later this year, will be the end of the series. “We’re deeply grateful to Paramount+ for the chance to complete our five-season mission, just as we envisioned it, alongside our extraordinary cast and crew,” executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers and Alex Kurtzman said when the news was first announced. “With three more spectacular seasons ahead for you to see and enjoy, this adventure is far from over.” But there will be one major difference that sets Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 5 apart from previous seasons: it’s only going to be six episodes long. This points to a recurring issue that hasn’t just been present in the current crop of Star Trek shows, but streaming shows in general — and it’s something that needs to be addressed, as it’s holding back multiple TV series.
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Isn’t The Only Star Trek Show That’s Been Undercut
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds isn’t the only Star Trek show to be cut short after five seasons. Both Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Discovery (which laid the groundwork for Strange New Worlds in its sophomore season) ended with their fifth seasons. The truncated final season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also brings to mind another Star Trek show that was cut down in its prime — Star Trek: Prodigy. Despite Prodigy becoming popular with Star Trek fans of all ages, Paramount+ ended up canceling it as part of a content write-down, and it was only thanks to Netflix that its second season managed to see the light of day. Prodigy and Strange New Worlds both offered something that had become a rarity in Star Trek: the standalone episode. Up until their release, most of the Star Trek series, including Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard were heavily serialized; Prodigy and Strange New Worlds had recurring storylines, yet they took the time to deliver standalone episodes that anyone could follow, whether they were just jumping into the middle of the series or following it from the beginning.
A large part of why Strange New Worlds is so popular is because its standalone episodes allow it to play in different formats. One week, you could have an episode that’s a full-blown musical; another week could see the crew of the Enterprise re-enacting a Dungeons & Dragons session. Season 2’s “These Old Scientists” even featured a crossover with Lower Decks! This type of experimentation allows a series to stay fresh while offering plenty of different challenges for an actor. The Strange New Worlds cast has had to flex their singing skills or shift into a different dialect. Season 3 even features an episode that’s a murder mystery — hearkening back to other classic Trek series like Star Trek: The Next Generation and keeping the standalone aspect of the series intact. Cutting Star Trek: Strange New Worlds short rids the television landscape of a show that’s truly doing something different, and it’s a shame because that landscape could use more shows that aren’t heavily serialized.
Six Episodes Isn’t Enough for ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ To Wrap Up Its Story
The final season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds only being six episodes long points to a problem that’s been plaguing streaming shows lately: there are not enough episodes to let a story breathe. A common complaint that surrounded the recent seasons of Doctor Who was that Ncuti Gatwa‘s tenure as the 15th Doctor felt undercut by two very short seasons, especially when it came to the recent finale. Marvel’s early run of shows on Disney+ also left much to be desired — imagine if Ms. Marvel or Moon Knight had a few extra episodes to flesh out their stories. How do you bring a satisfying end to a series in a mere six episodes? How do you make sure that you wrap up all the character journeys, while not ending on that most dreaded of storytelling devices, a cliffhanger?
It’s a struggle that streaming series have struggled to pull off, and with a series’ fate often left up to the mercy of an algorithm, most series don’t get a chance to end on their terms. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also doesn’t benefit from a truncated ending, since it’s meant to cover the ten-year gap before Star Trek: The Original Series. Unless these six episodes are feature-length, this means that Strange New Worlds will either end on a cliffhanger or have to make major time leaps similar to Andor. Neither option seems like it’ll give the show the ending it deserves; even worse, it feels like a slap in the face to viewers who’ve been with the show since the beginning.
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‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Having a Shortened Season 5 Will Undercut Key Characters
When discussing the series finale of Star Trek: Discovery, showrunner Michelle Paradise revealed that the final scene was meant to be part of a potential sixth season. It explains why the series leaped ahead to the future, but it also felt like Discovery was rushing to get to the end. It’s hard not to feel like a similar fate might befall Strange New Worlds season 5, especially when it comes to certain members of the Enterprise’s crew.
Captain Pike (Anson Mount) already knows his fate, while most of the crew — including Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Spock (Ethan Peck) — will become mainstays of Star Trek: The Original Series. But what about fan favorites like Ortegas (Michelle Navia) or La’an (Christina Chong)? They’ve grown to be just as beloved as some of the most iconic Trek characters, and they definitely deserve a proper send-off. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds won’t be the end of Star Trek on TV, as Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is in production. But six episodes doesn’t feel like enough time to give such a great show a proper ending.