The break-out hit among newer Star Trek shows is, without a doubt, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Although the show only launched two years ago, in 2022, the SNW crew feels like it's been in the Trek family longer, for two reasons. First, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn and all debuted their takes on Captain Pike, Mr. Spock, and Number One back in Discovery Season 2 in 2019. And second, more than any Star Trek series since The Original Series in 1966, Strange New Worlds intentionally emulates the style of the classic show’s format, which also means embracing nearly 60-year-old canon from the classic show.
And now, at San Diego Comic-Con, Paramount+ has released new information about Strange New Worlds Season 3, and it all adds up to even more bonkers episode premises than Season 2, as well as some very big developments that bring the show closer to TOS, both with vibes and canon.
The SNW crew goes Vulcan
In the five-minute newly released clip, we find La’an (Christina Chong), Captain Pike (Anson Mount), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), and Pelia (Carol Kane) getting injected with a special serum that will transform them, genetically, all into Vulcans. This references the Season 2 episode, “Charades,” in which Spock was briefly turned completely human, rather than just half-human.
In the clip, the serum works on everyone but Pelia, and so Pike, Uhura, Spock, La’an, and Chapel all become 100 percent Vulcan, and head into a mission complete with badass Vulcan attire. Pike is even swinging the Vulcan weapon known as a lipra, first seen in the TOS classic “Amok Time.” This clip also gives us the return of Martin Quinn as the current version of Scotty, after his surprise appearance in the Season 2 finale “Hegemony.” Chronologically, this is the earliest glimpse of Scotty running the controls of the Enterprise’s transporter room.
The context for this episode is totally unknown at this time, but fans of Strange New Worlds probably now know: we get one zany Vulcan episode per season.
Roger Korby crashes Strange New Worlds
In addition to Chapel and Uhura both sporting hairstyles closer to how Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols appeared in The Original Series, Season 3 will also re-introduce the canon character of Roger Korby, originally played by Michael Strong in the 1966 episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” but will now be played by Cillian O’Sullivan in a recurring role. In that original episode, Korby was a brilliant, but crazed scientist to whom Chapel had previously been engaged. But because that episode is in the future for the context of Strange New Worlds, having Korby actually appear this season could suggest that Chapel will begin a romance with Korby very soon. At the end of Season 2, Chapel had never met Roger Korby but had accepted an internship with him, which, in theory, should have taken her off the Enterprise forever.
In TOS, Korby is mostly remembered not just for having previously been Chapel’s lover, but also for being the creator of several off-kilter androids. Technically, Korby didn’t create these androids, but rather mastered ancient robot-building tech from a race of long-forgotten aliens called “the Old Ones.” After creating a duplicate of Captain Kirk in the episode, it’s eventually learned that Korby himself has become a robot, breaking Chapel’s heart. In theory, the new version of Korby in Strange New Worlds shouldn’t be a full-on robot yet. But then again... you never know.
Next Star Trek season release date?
Interestingly, although San Diego Comic-Con gave us a lot of new information about Strange New Worlds Season 3 (and the Trek TV franchise more broadly) there was not an official release date for SNW revealed. In fact, the only new Trek show that has a concrete release date for the near future is the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, which, famously, crossed over with Strange New Worlds in 2023. Although it's unclear if any future LDS/SNW crossovers are on the table, Paramount+ did confirm that Lower Decks Season 5 will debut with two episodes on October 24, 2024.
As for the rest of the Star Trek TV franchise, including Strange New Worlds, we’ll have to be patient a little longer until an exact stardate is officially set.
