SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about the Season 1 Finale of Star Trek: Strange New WorldsParamount+ dropped this today
“You and I are of a kind,”In the Season 1 finale, Christopher Pike (Anson mount) proclaims that a Romulan commander is doomed to USS Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. “In a different reality, I could have called you friend,”He adds words that will resonate over the years for fans of the Gene Roddenberry-created series.
That line in the Henry Alonso Myers & Akiva Goldsman-penned episode “A Quality of Mercy” is, of course, directly taken from 1966’s “Balance of Terror,”The 14th episode of the original season is a highly acclaimed one. Star Trek series. The callback is a repurposing that is ominous. It serves as an encouragement for Paramount+ to relaunch its offering.
“We want you to like it for sure, even if you know nothing, but if you know a bunch, then we want you to love it,”Says SNWGoldsman, cocreator from NYC, on the Chris Fisher-helmed finale. “The more you know, the more we want you to love it,” the Oscar winner adds of the multi-level narrative that also saw Mount’s Pike face his own fate and the introduction of Paul Wesley as the latest incarnation of James T. Kirk. “That was particularly true of this finale, because if you know the original episode, then you should be giddy. If you don’t, it should still be cool because it’s talking about contemporary things.”
Juggling such contemporary things in the form of the last-minute arrest of Rebecca Romijn’s Una/Number One, Kirk’s debut, the war to end all wars, a maimed Spock (Ethan Peck) and the different reality that Pike rejects thanks to a chat with his future self and some green Klingon time crystals, the 10th episode of SNW’s inaugural season — which shares its title with a famous 1961 Twilight Zoneepisode — clearly is the culmination of an origin story with a preordained conclusion.
Goldsman talked to me about Season 1’s finale, its many tentacles, and what Season 2 might bring. Goldsman also talks about the Trekverse canon’s weaving and potential crossovers with other Trekverse shows, such as the Patrick Stewart-led. Star Trek: PicardSonequa Martin Green-led Star Trek: Discovery He will tell you where it should all end up.
DEADLINE: This conclusion is heavily focused on the past and the futur, what are your plans for the future? Strange New WorldsThe Original Series?
GOLDSMAN:We have been constantly rubbing up against TOS. Not just in terms of chronological continuity. We’ve done a lot to identify ourselves with TOS, and that’s the episodic nature of the storytelling and the genre jumping that we do.
It felt like we owed an intersection, at least to ourselves. It was very early that we realized this. “Well, how are we going to do that? Are we going to do that?”You know what? “Balance of Terror”This classic moment is episode TrekThe society through an esoteric lens. So who’s the other? What’s the other look like? Is there another us? What can we do to not alienate people who are different from us? How can we alienate people who may be different? All of Roddenberry’s words, which are tragically and sadly equally true, are still relevant today.
There you go! “Balance of Terror”Sort of sitting there as an object. It’s like an inflection point for our stuff too, and so we thought, “Well, this is sort of fitting and kind of a delightful possibility,”So off we went.
DEADLINE: That final scene of Anson’s stare into the camera certainly takes you to that, doesn’t it?
GOLDSMAN: This is sort of a weird thing to say, but it’s a follow-on to the sort of stylistic Easter eggs that are in the episode. We took the crash zoom on Spock and the eye lights from the original. To pay respect, we did it all the way. Because when we do that thing — and Dom, you and I have talked about this a bunch — where when the modern Star TreksMy view is that being agnostic makes them most effective.
DEADLINE:What does that mean?
GOLDSMAN:You are not a fan, but you still enjoy the fundamental enjoyment of it. Star Trek.
DEADLINE: What’s the take?
GOLDSMAN:It is important that you love it, even if your knowledge is minimal. However, if you have a lot of information, we will want you to enjoy it. It will be more enjoyable for you the more you learn about it. This is especially true in this finale. You should know the episode you are watching, and then you can be happy. If you don’t, it should still be cool because it’s talking about contemporary things.
DEADLINE: And the fate, or fates, of Captain Pike, facing the reality of his death, or, I guess or not…
GOLDSMAN:Although I’ve said it before, we wanted to make it a choice. He’s going to pick his future again, and so I guess that look at the end of the finale is, I’m now facing the audience and facing the coming season, parentheses and question mark, hopefully. There’s a lot of what to do now that I know when my life is essentially over.
DEADLINE:That’s the spirit of it all. “A Quality of Mercy” would have made a great series finale …
GOLDSMAN: That’s a great take, because you have to remember that we made this show before knowing if anybody would like this show. There is always more to come, right? For me, the episode is done. It does however open up to the possibility of a continuation story, as we are returning. By the way, now it does actually continue into Season 2, but when we made it, we didn’t know. So it was in its own way our attempt to close off the arc that started it and therefore fundamentally I guess, you know, the idea that if we had been a one season object, we would’ve been proud to end that way.
DEADLINE: So with Christina Chong’s character La’an Noonien-Singh’s leave of absence in the penultimate episode and the arrest of Rebecca Romijn’s Una at the end of the finale, which way is Season 2 heading?
GOLDSMAN: I can’t tell you that, Dom, because that would sort of break Season 2.
DEADLINE: I have no problem with that…
GOLDSMAN: (laughs) But, I will say this about Christina’s character: Something that I was interested in seeing, in a Star Trekcontext was trauma. So for La’an, having been raised under tremendous duress, who would she be and how she would be in Starfleet? It was less about Khan and more about the type of person who created it. For me, Khan was more about the question of “What is the legacy of history?” Star Trek, right?
Also, there’s this dark moment in the history of Star TrekThat leads to the founding of the Federation. What are the echoes or at the very least, of the fear, trauma, loss, recovery, or resurrection that haunt the lives of generations to come? And so that’s where the Khan thing came in. Then slowly but surely, you know, we started to create how people reacted to La’an, and that’s a little more what’s been leading us down some potential pursuit of her history, but not in the way you think.
With Una’s reveal that she is an Illyrian earlier in the season, and genetically modified, we want to touch on it in a real way next season. To actually bring to the foreground at least in a way that’s fulsome, some exploration of marginalization. We had the opportunity to start that.
DEADLINE: So you’re on the second season, filming in Toronto. What distance do you see?Strange New Worlds going?
GOLDSMAN:I’m referring to the fact that I would love for this thing run into TOS.
DEADLINE: Really?
GOLDSMAN: Oh, yeah.
DEADLINE: Like, to bang up into real time so you could literally…?
GOLDSMAN: Absolutely.
DEADLINE: Really?
GOLDSMAN: Absolutely. Because here’s the thing. You also … I mean, you know, we’ve already started retconning, you know, what we refer to in the sort of building of the show as Smiley Spock, right — which is the Spock we see in ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before” [the third episode of The Original Series’ first season] and the Spock we would’ve seen in [original TOS pilot] “The Cage”And we will again see in [TOS Season 1’s] “The Menagerie,” right? We should ultimately be able drive to. “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
DEADLINE: With PicardIt’s the last season.Discovery We are looking to add Trekverse crossovers to our larger journey.
GOLDSMAN:Let me be clear: Crossovers are a great idea. So when and if they materialize is still in the air, but we’re looking really hard and we might be able to say yes to that question really soon — at least that’s my hope.
DEADLINE: You also have the opportunity to meet up with Original Series both literally and metaphorically.
GOLDSMAN:There are many ways to solve the problem and expand the show’s scope. You can keep the cast and then you begin to fill it with the cast of TOS. This is my idea of a pie-in-the sky. Star TrekAnthology series. These are my thoughts. There’s literally nothing on the boards about that. It would be cool.