Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 3 Needs To Avoid A Major Mistake From The Next Generation

Key Takeaways

• Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds starts with a battle against the Gorn.
• It pays homage to a classic TNG cliffhanger.
• High expectations could mean high potential for letdown.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended its second season with an epic cliffhanger that rivals the best cliffhangers in Star Trek history. Spock pulled off an incredibly dangerous mission — attaching rockets to the saucer section of the Cayuga to send it careening down to the planet below so it could crash against and destroy the Gorn interference field that was preventing the Enterprise from beaming up the people on the planet. As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, he was attacked by a Gorn, then saved by Nurse Chapel.

After rescuing the crew from the Gorn, Captain Batel revealed that she had been infested with Gorn eggs. Refusing to let her sacrifice herself, Captain Pike insisted she be kept in a stasis field in sickbay until they could get back to Federation territory.

When Captain Pike finally arrived back on the bridge, Ensign Uhura informed him that another Gorn battleship had joined the three already in orbit. Facing down four Gorn destroyers, Captain Pike ordered his crew to beam aboard the rest of the survivors of the Gorn’s attack on the planet. But Spock informed him that there wasn’t anyone left on the planet. Analysis revealed that the Gorn transported the remaining survivors to their ship. The Gorn ships opened fire on the Enterprise, and the ship took heavy damage. A stunned and demoralized Pike stared at the viewscreen, and the iconic “To Be Continued” as seen in so many episodes of legacy Star Trek ended the episode.

Season 3 Will Start With the Gorn Battle

A clip released at New York ComicCon revealed that the third season will pick up exactly where the second season left off. The clip shows Captain Pike in the same stunned state he was in during the season 2 finale, staring at the viewscreen as Una calls for his orders. Once he regains his composure, Pike asks about orders from Starfleet. Both Spock and Uhura tell him they’ve been ordered to retreat.

Of course, Pike isn’t one to leave anyone behind, even if it means disobeying a direct order. So, the crew starts brainstorming solutions for getting out of the situation they’re in and rescuing the captured survivors. In true Star Trek fashion, they come up with a wild plan based on intricate science, and give it a try.

As they prepare to enact their plan, Pike says, “Hang in there, guys,” and the Enterprise goes to warp.

An Homage to a Star Trek: TNG Cliffhanger

Avid Trekkies have probably noticed that the cliffhanger from Strange New Worlds season 2 and the intro scene from season 3 are very similar to an iconic cliffhanger from Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). There’s a good reason for that, as Henry Alonso Myers, one of SNW’s showrunners, explained in an interview with Vulture:

The entire intent of doing this episode that way was that we were thinking about the great Next Generation two-parter, ‘The Best of Both Worlds.’ It’s a fantastic end of the season, and it shocks the hell out of you […] We wanted people to be shocked and delighted, because I remember experiencing that when I was younger, being blown away and loving it.

The “Best of Both Worlds” cliffhanger is widely considered one of the best in a franchise that became known for its epic cliffhangers. So, it’s no surprise the minds behind SNW decided to make their first ever cliffhanger an homage to this classic episode.

At the end of TNG’s third season, Captain Picard was abducted by the Borg, and a rescue mission to the Borg Cube revealed that he had been assimilated. Dr. Crusher and Lieutenant Commander Shelby suggested another rescue mission, but since the Borg were nearly done repairing their ship, Riker refused. He insisted they needed to attack and destroy the Borg Cube, even though Captain Picard was still onboard.

As the crew protested, the Borg ship hailed the Enterprise. A Borgified Captain Picard appeared and informed them he was “Locutus of Borg,” then uttered the iconic line, “Resistance is futile.” The camera then panned to Riker, who ordered Worf to fire.

For months, while everyone waited for the premiere of the fourth season, Trekkies gushed about how amazing the season three finale was. Fans gathered at Star Trek conventions and theorized about how the first episode of the fourth season would resolve the battle with the Borg. Would the Enterprise succeed in destroying the Cube? Would Picard actually die? Very few anticipated what actually happened in the first moments of TNG season 4.

SNW Needs to Avoid the ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Problem

The fourth season of TNG opened with Locutus addressing the bridge crew and Riker saying “Fire!”, just like the season 3 finale. As Trekkies all over the world waited to see what would happen, the Enterprise-D fired on the Borg Cube and…

Nothing happened. They didn’t damage the Borg Cube at all.

After waiting months to see the resolution to the cliffhanger that left them on the edges of their seats, many fans thought the season 4 opener was one of the most anticlimactic and unsatisfying moments in the show’s history. Some Trekkies feel so strongly about it that they still talk about it almost 35 years later. Though “Best of Both Worlds Part 2” is, overall, a great episode of TNG, it didn’t hold up to the masterpiece of its first part, and it didn’t deliver on the suspense that the cliffhanger had built.

Though the clip from SNW’s season 3 premiere has way more action in it than the first five minutes of “Best of Both Worlds Part 2,” the show could still fall into the same trap as TNG’s fourth season opener. Like “Best of Both Worlds Part 1,” the SNW season 2 finale, “Hegemony,” was filled with action, dramatic moments, and unexpected twists. Its cliffhanger left fans eagerly anticipating the resolution to the story it set up.

That sets a high standard for the first episode of the third season. And the fact that fans are waiting even longer for a resolution doesn’t work in SNW’s favor. It gives them more time to theorize about what’s going to happen and hype themselves up for an amazing episode. If SNW fails to deliver on its cliffhanger, it could go down in Star Trek history as another epic letdown.

However, the chances of that seem relatively small. So far, the writing in SNW has been impeccable. The stories are interesting, and the pacing of each episode and each season has been much better than other modern Trek shows. So far, the seasons have flowed into each other well. Even Trekkies who aren’t fans of other modern Star Trek shows at least like, and even love, Strange New Worlds. Hopefully, the SNW team will keep the momentum from season 2 going through the season 3 opener, and the rest of the season, and fans will end up with another amazing season.

Sources: Vulture, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds