Producer Goldsman: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be “optimistic” and “more episodic”

Joan Collins as Edith Keeler and William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek “The City on the Edge of Forever”

Now that we know about the news that Captain Pike is officially back in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, what can we expect from the new series?

Executive producer Alex Kurtzman credits fans with driving the decision to get Pike, Spock and Number One back on our small screens. And now, executive producer Akiva Goldsman has also revealed to Variety that the new show will be giving in to a common fan request: a style of storytelling that harkens back to the days of The Original Series. In those days, episodes were more or less standalone, and while that might be considered outdated for today’s television, we can expect at least an element of it in the new series.

“We’re going to try to harken back to some classical ‘Trek’ values, to be optimistic, and to be more episodic,” Goldsman said. “Obviously, we will take advantage of the serialized nature of character and story building. But I think our plots will be more closed-ended than you’ve seen in either ‘Discovery’ or ‘Picard’.” Goldsman held up the Original Series episode “Shore Leave” as an example of the type of story that you might see in Strange New Worlds, but that you wouldn’t expect to see in Discovery or Picard.

Of course, episodic doesn’t mean wiping the slate clean at the end of every episode, which is a common fan complaint about classic Trek. As Goldsman alluded to, CBS intends to use serialized storytelling for character and story building, and he cited a well-known TOS episode as an example of why. “I think one thing that we always struggled with [as fans] was that Kirk is heartbroken at the loss of Edith Keeler in ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ and has to be just fine the next week,” he said. “I think what we would want to do is keep the characters having moved through and recognizing the experiences they’ve had in previous episodes, but to be able to tell contained, episodic stories.”

Needless to say, the news of Strange New Worlds getting officially picked up by CBS was a source of great excitement to fans over the weekend, and will buoy interest in modern Star Trek while we wait anxiously for the premieres of Discovery season 3 and Lower Decks. However, with the certainty of a new show comes still some uncertainty...According to Variety, Goldsman has “no idea” when production might begin in earnest. Most of the entertainment industry is still shut down due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

So while you will surely have to wait for a good long time to get your full-on Pike, Spock and Number One fix, you can still relive where it all started, with the original Star Trek pilot “The Cage”, and Discovery season two, both on CBS All Access. And of course, don’t forget Short Treks, which might give us a preview of what to expect from Strange New Worlds, with the excellent “Q&A”, “The Trouble with Edward”, and “Ask Not”.