{"id":58564,"date":"2025-07-12T03:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58564\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T03:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:26:17","slug":"strange-new-worlds-returns-for-season-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58564\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange New Worlds’ Returns for Season 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long wait for the return of\u00a0Strange New Worlds<\/a>: almost two whole years since the cliffhanger of season two\u2019s ending.<\/a> It all resumes in next week\u2019s season three premiere, picking up where we left off with the Enterprise crew. And while it was quite a place to leave them, we\u2019ll forgive you if you\u2019re hazy on the details. Here are a few things to remember from the finale, and things to know about the next season, as we get ready to return to the world of Star Trek.<\/p>\n

The Grip of the Gorn \"Star\u00a9 Paramount <\/p>\n

Season two of Strange New Worlds ended in a dire situation. With the independent colony Parnassus Beta invaded by the Gorn\u2014destroying the Federation starship USS Caguya and leaving its remaining crew, and the civilian population, to be preyed upon by the Gorn on the surface\u2014the\u00a0Enterprise found itself attempting to mount a rescue mission against all odds.<\/p>\n

It was a rescue mission that didn\u2019t go entirely well. Although the\u00a0Enterprise managed to successfully get a rescue team down to the surface to locate survivors\u2014and destroy a Gorn jammer blocking transporter signals on the planet\u2014just three crewmembers made it back to Enterprise, leaving several of its own crew (including La\u2019an, Sam Kirk, and Dr. M\u2019Benga), and the survivors of the colony and the Caguya to be beamed aboard the Gorn flagship now orbiting the planet.<\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t bad enough, while being pummeled by the newly arrived Gorn fleet, Starfleet gave Enterprise the order to retreat rather than attempt to rescue their captured allies, leaving them to a grim fate. And if that wasn\u2019t enough, one of the trio to make it back to the Enterprise, alongside Pike and a familiar young face (more on that in a bit), Marie Batel\u2014Pike\u2019s romantic partner and the captain of the Caguya\u2014was discovered to have been infected with Gorn eggs. Which is not only a seemingly fatal condition, it\u00a0could mean that the\u00a0Enterprise now has a potential Gorn infestation aboard.<\/p>\n

We do at least know a little about how some of this is going to play out. Back at New York Comic Con last year, Paramount released a clip<\/a> that showed the battered\u00a0Enterprise having its cake and eating it with Starfleet\u2019s retreat order. Unable to go toe-to-toe with the Gorn ships, the clip sees the\u00a0Enterprise tag the Gorn flagship containing their captured crewmates with a dummy torpedo, letting them warp away to recuperate before, presumably, tracking them down at a later time.<\/p>\n

One other important thing to remember about season two\u2019s finale aside from all this is that it also marked the first time that Strange New World had attempted to show the Gorn as anything other than primitive, aggressive monsters. During an encounter aboard the remains of the Caguya, Spock and Nurse Chapel came across an adult Gorn, ultimately killing it\u2014but both feel a pang of sympathy watching the alien being succumb to its wounds. It\u2019s a tiny step, but an important one to bring more nuance to Strange New Worlds\u2018 visions of the species\u2026 and bring us slowly towards the still-hostile, but distanced, relationship between the Federation and the Gorn by the time of the original\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n

Starcrossed Chapel \"Star\u00a9 Paramount <\/p>\n

Before we get to that aforementioned familiar face, let\u2019s address the big Chapelephant in the room. Christine departed the\u00a0Enterprise\u00a0between the events of the finale and its predecessor episode, the musical \u201cSubspace Rhapsody\u201d<\/a> after being accepted into a research fellowship with the scientist Roger Korby. This not only pulled Chapel away from Enterprise, it also brought an end to her brief romantic relationship with Spock, which had only just begun to flourish in the wake of the collapse of his betrothal to T\u2019Pring.<\/p>\n

Or at least, seemingly. Although Christine happened to be reunited with Spock and the\u00a0Enterprise under unfortunate circumstances\u2014she was aboard the Caguya being transported to her fellowship while it stopped at Parnassus Beta\u2014and will stick around for a bit, we know that she both has to go and complete her fellowship with Korby at some point this season (Cillian O\u2019Sullivan has been cast as the character in a recurring role) and that, eventually, she will fall in love with him and become engaged to be married.<\/p>\n

Trek nerds up on their lore know that Chapel\u2019s return to the\u00a0Enterprise comes at least a few years after this time period, when she rejoins Starfleet after her fianc\u00e9\u2019s disappearance, but in the meantime, maybe the sparks between Chapel and Spock aren\u2019t fully extinguished. Our first trailer<\/a> for season three did include an intriguing shot of Spock and Christine sharing a bed together, after all.<\/p>\n

Beam Up, Scotty\u2026 \"Star\u00a9 Paramount <\/p>\n

Back to the Gorn situation. The other successful escapee of the incident on Parnassus Beta alongside Pike and Batel was none other than a young Lieutenant Montgomery Scott (played by Martin Quinn), who had successfully hidden himself on the planet after his own research vessel had been attacked by the Gorn. Now aboard the\u00a0Enterprise, in season three it looks like Scotty is going to be formally integrated into the Engineering team, setting up his eventual rise through the ranks to become the ship\u2019s Chief Engineer. He\u2019s not there yet, though, as we know that Carol Kane\u2019s Commander Pelia is remaining in charge of the department for at least some of this season.<\/p>\n

\u2026 And Kirk, Too? \"Star\u00a9 Paramount <\/p>\n

Paul Wesley\u2019s young Kirk will return seemingly at least a few times this season, finding more ways to conveniently be aboard the ship he\u2019s destined to take over in a few years\u2019s time. When we last saw him in the musical episode, he had been brought aboard Enterprise to begin a command training program, preparing the current lieutenant for his future ascent to captaincy. That\u2019s a theme that will return this season, if the latest trailer<\/a> for the show is anything to go by, hinting that there will actually be an emergency at some point this season that will see Kirk, at least temporarily, command the Enterprise.<\/p>\n

Just why Kirk is going to keep crossing paths with the crew he\u2019ll eventually lead remains to be seen, but we know from trailers he\u2019s in at least a few episodes: one that puts the crew in its own retro riff on a \u201960s esque\u00a0sci-fi show in the vein of the original\u00a0Trek, and another where there\u2019s a retro vibe of a different sort with a murder-mystery twist. But we also know from those same trailers that Kirk will get a drink in the Enterprise lounge with Scotty, so he\u2019s slowly but surely meeting a good bunch of his future crew.<\/p>\n

The Beginning of the End \"Star\u00a9 Paramount <\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s hard to say just how much this will impact the narrative of this upcoming season\u2014production on season four has been underway for a while now after it was confirmed in April last year\u2014we\u2019re heading into season three knowing that Strange New Worlds now has an end point.<\/p>\n

It was announced just last month<\/a> that the show will conclude with a truncated fifth season, meaning a lot of the things we\u2019ve touched upon here in regard to the Enterprise\u2018s future timeline, from the arrival of familiar crew to things like Pike\u2019s eventual fate, are now probably going to be set up even more so over the course of this and the remaining two seasons beyond it. Just as we\u2019re ready to contemplate one five-year mission coming to an end, the most famous one of all has to begin at some point!<\/p>\n

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns to Paramount+ next week, on July 17.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long wait for the return of\u00a0Strange New Worlds: almost two whole years since the cliffhanger…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,42669,42670,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-58564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-star-trek","10":"tag-star-trek-strange-new-worlds","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114838135471723647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}