STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Showrunner Shares Where They’d Like the Series to End
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has wrapped up Season 3, and while fans are still buzzing from the finale, the showrunners are already talking about the bigger picture and how they want this story to close out.
With Season 5 confirmed to be shorter, it’s clear the series is building toward its final destination, brushing right up against the events of The Original Series. The big question is, how exactly will that handoff happen?
In a recent chat with CinemaBlend, Akiva Goldsman was asked the endgame for Strange New Worlds. Goldsman offered some clarity on where he imagines the show’s story will leave off, and it sounds like the writers have their sights set firmly on bridging Pike’s Enterprise to Kirk’s.
“So I think that what we are leading to is Kirk's first day on the job. The truth is that it isn't really in TOS. It's the TOS era, it is Captain Kirk, Kirk's Enterprise, but how that got to, let's call it the Enterprise of ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before,’ just because I'm gonna just sort of go in that version of continuity. Not ‘Man Trap.’”
Goldsman isn’t interested in ending on a note tied to “The Man Trap,” which is often considered one of the weaker Star Trek episodes. Instead, he wants the series to lead directly into the stronger foundation of TOS.
It’s a fitting choice, especially since Strange New Worlds has always leaned into a classic episodic format inspired by ideas once suggested by DeForest Kelley himself.
But that’s not the only idea Goldsman has been toying with. He also revealed that he’s pitched a spinoff concept codenamed Star Trek: Year One, which would explore Captain Kirk’s very first year in the chair and detail the early days of his command.
Still, he was quick to remind fans that the current series has to stick the landing before anything else gets serious consideration.
“That's the wiggle room we have, right, which is that, there is an interval there where transitions can happen. Year One is a dream, and the end of the show is a promise.
“We're gonna end it in a way that we feel is indicative of completion and is satisfying, and that does bring us into the TOS era. So that's a vague way of saying we're gonna come pretty close to something you recognize.”
That certainly sounds like the series will be closing in on something major from The Original Series. Whether it’s Pike’s final accident or the moment the Enterprise bridge finally fills out with familiar faces like Sulu, Chekov, and Bones, fans are guaranteed to get a payoff that feels like a proper bridge between eras.
The show has already dabbled in remixing TOS stories with Season 1’s finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” was essentially an alternate-timeline retelling of “Balance of Terror.” It wouldn’t be surprising if Strange New Worlds finds one last way to honor its roots by echoing a classic episode while paving the way for Kirk’s iconic command.
However the end unfolds, it’s clear the creative team wants to deliver a finale that feels earned and seamlessly connects Strange New Worlds to the Star Trek we all know.