What Makes Strange New Worlds As 'Timely' As Star Trek: The Original Series

Despite what a vocal minority might have you think, "Star Trek" has always been inherently political. When "The Original Series" first aired during the mid-1960s, well, hopefully I don't need to fill anyone in on what was going on in the U.S. at the time — the civil rights movement, the calamitous Vietnam War, numerous assassinations, and more. The decade was a prolonged moment of social upheaval and political turmoil, and creator Gene Roddenberry wisely chose not to shy away from addressing the reality surrounding his low-budget science fiction show. That's not to say that the franchise has always been successful in its ambitions, of course. Even the most well-intentioned attempts to speak out about racial or gender inequality and other progressive values via the "Star Trek" universe haven't always landed. But, like any good sci-fi story, "Star Trek" defines itself by using the future to reflect our present ... and "Strange New Worlds" is no different.

As fans look ahead to the release of "Strange New Worlds" season 3, last month's New York premiere (which /Film attended) gave the cast and crew the perfect opportunity to take a bird's-eye view on the series as a whole. The prequel show hasn't been shy about paying homage to "The Original Series" in numerous ways, but co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman was adamant about doing so in one particular manner. During a special Q&A event following a screening of the season 3 premiere, Goldsman was asked about taking a page out of the Roddenberry playbook and using "Strange New Worlds" to reflect the wildly imperfect world we're living in now. After responding with a perfectly deadpan "Yeah, the world sucks," Goldsman went on to explain:

"It's very interesting. 1968: It's Bobby Kennedy, it's Martin Luther King, it's [the My Lai massacre]. It's an inflection point in history. It's just [history book] pages to us, but the world was on fire, then, to those who lived in it. That's the truth of the birth time of 'Star Trek.' And that has been 'Star Trek' tradition all the way from its inception, which is to cast a lens on the social condition of the market."

As we know, Paramount announced that "Strange New Worlds" will end with a fourth and truncated fifth season, so there will be even more pressure to make the remaining episodes live up to the franchise's lofty standards. Despite all the zany premises and fun gimmicks that the show's writers come up with on a weekly basis, the series has consistently found a way to weave social commentary into the middle of the action. Don't expect that to change in the upcoming third season (which /Film's Jacob Hall reviewed here).

Akiva Goldsman had more to say about keeping the series perfectly in line with its original mission statement and how playing around in different genres allows the show to explore all the idealism inherent in the material. Inevitably, however, that requires rolling up its sleeves and dealing with the worst facets of society — even in a (supposedly) utopian future. He continued to reflect on how all those themes that "The Original Series" grappled with all those years ago remain "timely" today, for better or worse:

"It's immigration, it's marginalization, it's integration, it's the abuse of power — all things that, sadly, are as timely today as they were then. Genre lets us cast a carnival mirror, a way of letting ourselves look at it safely.

"So, that's what 'Star Trek' does. That's what we try to do in service of 'Star Trek,' because we're kind of renting. So, we're trying to keep the walls clean and painted and the windows clear and try to continue to serve up what 'Star Trek' does best, which is an optimistic, aspirational view of the future; the idea that hope's still alive."

I don't know about you, but all of that sounds like music to this Trekkie's ears. And if those not-so-subtle hints that "Strange New Worlds" could continue in another form come true, hopefully we'll get to see this creative team channel the spirit of "The Original Series" to an even greater degree. "Strange New Worlds" season 3 premieres on Paramount+ July 17, 2025.