SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’ve finished checking out Season 2 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’, the spin-off series from ‘Star Trek: Discovery’. I purchased Season 2 of ‘Strange New Worlds’ for my Mum’s birthday in March 2024. It’s taken me a while to finish checking out the episodes of Season 2. I’m glad I’ve seen them.

I previously shared my thoughts on Season 1 of ‘Strange New Worlds’ back in February this year. I’ve enjoyed checking out Season 2, although I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Season 1. In fact, I prefer other more traditional ‘Star Trek’ shows compared to the more recent ones we’ve had.

I prefer ‘Star Trek Continues’ as a tribute to the original TV series than ‘Strange New Worlds’. I also felt more engaged with ‘The Orville’ which has more traditional ‘Star Trek’ elements to it. Now, that’s not to say ‘Strange New Worlds’ is bad as a TV show. It’s just it has this very unique style to it.

For one thing, there are more elements of the reboot film trilogy in ‘Strange New Worlds’ as well as presumably ‘Discovery’ and to a certain extent ‘Picard’ as opposed to having elements of the original TV series in it. Albeit, ‘SNW’ does handle stories and characters better than the reboot film trilogy. 🙂

Like Season 1, Season 2 of ‘SNW’ has 10 episodes to it. The regular cast includes Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Eric Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokum as Dr. Joseph M’Benga and there’s Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley/Number One. 🙂

I enjoyed the season’s second episode ‘Ad Astra per Aspera’ where Una Chin-Riley was put on trial because of the fact she hid her Illyrian origins when becoming a member of Starfleet. It’s a nice character-driven episode, full of tension on whether Una/Number One would be exonerated or not.

The third episode ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ is a good episode featuring La’an Noonien-Singh where she meets a parallel version of Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk and they go on a mission where she falls in love with him. It’s rather heartbreaking when you’re viewing the episode.

In Season 2, we’re introduced to a new chief engineer in Carol Kane as Pelia. I’m not sure what to make of her in the series, since she’s rather peculiar and she’s not in every episode of Season 2. Also, characters like Una/Number One hold a grudge against Pelia from their days in Starfleet Academy. 😐

There’s this storyline going on in Season 2 where Spock admits having feelings for Nurse Chapel and they end up in a relationship together. I wish that had been explored more, especially when they seemed to have broken up towards the end of the season. They might get back together in Season 3.

I liked the episode ‘Lost in Translation’ where Uhura (who is now an Ensign in Season 2) gets to meet James T. Kirk and they form a bond when working together to solve a problem involving hallucinations. This is also the episode where Kirk and Spock meet each other for the very first time.

There are a few peculiar episodes in Season 2. There’s the episode ‘Those Old Scientists’ – directed by Jonathan Frakes would you believe? 😀 – where we have a crossover of ‘SNW’ with the animated parody series ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’, featuring Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler and Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner. I’ve yet to see ‘Lower Decks’ as a series, but the crossover episode is very weird. 😀

I didn’t like the episode ‘Under the Cloak of War’ where there’s a Klingon Ambassador who was a former general visiting the Enterprise. Whilst I appreciate it showcasing the characters of Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel, I didn’t really like how the episode ended on a rather depressing note. 😦

‘Subspace Rhapsody’ is the most bizarre episode of Season 2 in ‘SNW’, as it’s a musical episode featuring the Enterprise crew performing musical numbers. Whilst it’s bizarre, I think the episode makes more sense than the musical number shown at the end of ‘Doctor Who’s ‘The Devil’s Chord’.

The final episode of Season 2 called ‘Hegemony’ ends the season on a dramatic cliffhanger where the Enterprise is about to go into battle with the Gorn. We have to wait until 2025 for the resolution of that cliffhanger to come about in Season 3. At least the episode introduces us to Martin Quinn as Scotty in the series. At this point, I wonder if we’re going to be introduced to Dr. McCoy in Season 3.

Season 2 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ has been an enjoyable season to check out. It’s taken me a while to check out all of the 10 episodes, but I’m glad I’ve seen this season. It’s been invigorating to see some fascinating character-driven episodes as well as some very bizarre experimental ones. 😀

Looking forward to seeing Season 3 of ‘Strange New Worlds’ once it comes out in 2025.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂