Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: how to watch, episodes and everything we know

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is just one of many Paramount Plus entries in the streaming service's expansive Star Trek universe. Other Star Trek shows on the streaming service include Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Prodigy.

Following the success of Star Trek: Discovery and the popularity among Trekkies of a certain Captain Pike (though we suspect actor Anson Mount’s jawline has much to do with it), the Star Trek studio finally gave in to fan demand and greenlit this latest spin-off. 

Strange New Worlds has now completed its initial mission (season), but here's everything you need to know about the new series? Hit it.

How to watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

All episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are available to stream exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US and UK. The Paramount Plus original series is available to all subscribers to the streaming service, whether they are signed up for the ad-supported or ad-free version.

When is the next Star Trek: Strange New World episode?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 10, the season 1 finale, debuts on Paramount Plus in the US on July 7.

For UK Paramount Plus subscribers, episode 5 is now available on the streaming service.

Other Star Trek shows like Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season, are moving from their original UK home on Netflix to Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes

Here are the synopses for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 1, "Strange New Worlds"
"When one of Pike’s officers goes missing while on a secret mission for Starfleet, Pike has to come out of self-imposed exile. He must navigate how to rescue his officer, while struggling with what to do with the vision of the future he’s been given."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 2, "Children of the Comet"
"While on a survey mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a comet is going to strike an inhabited planet. They try to re-route the comet, only to find that an ancient alien relic buried on the comet’s icy surface is somehow stopping them. As the away team try to unlock the relic’s secrets, Pike and Number One deal with a group of zealots who want to prevent the U.S.S. Enterprise from interfering."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 3, "Ghosts of Illyria"
"The U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a contagion that ravages the ship. One by one, the entire crew is incapacitated except for Number One, Una Chin-Riley, who must now confront a secret she’s been hiding as she races to find a cure."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 4, "Memento Mori"
"While on a routine supply mission to a colony planet, the U.S.S. Enterprise comes under an attack from an unknown malevolent force. Pike brings all his heart and experience to bear in facing the crisis, but the security officer warns him that the enemy cannot be dealt with by conventional Starfleet means." In this episodes, Star Trek fans were re-introduced to an iconic villain.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 5, "Spock Amok"
"It’s a comedy of manners when Spock has a personal visit in the middle of Spock and Captain Pike’s crucial negotiations with an unusual alien species."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 6, "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"
"A threat to an idyllic planet reunites Captain Pike with the lost love of his life. To protect her and a scientific holy child from a conspiracy, Pike offers his help and is forced to face unresolved feelings of his past."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 7, "The Serene Squall"
"While on a dangerous humanitarian mission, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise stumbles into a harrowing game of leverage with the quadrant’s deadliest space pirate."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 8, "The Elysian Fields"
"The Enterprise becomes stuck in a nebula that is home to an alien consciousness that traps the crew in a fairy tale."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 9, "All Those Who Wander"
"The U.S.S. Enterprise crew comes face-to-face with their demons – and scary monsters too – when their landing party is stranded on a barren planet with a ravenous enemy."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1 episode 10, "A Quality of Mercy"
"In the season one finale, just as Captain Pike thinks he’s figured out how to escape his fate, he’s visited by his future self, who shows him the consequences of his actions."

Will there be a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2?

Affirmative. In January 2022, five months before season 1 had even aired, Paramount confirmed a season 2 was going ahead. Only a few months later they assigned their Captain Kirk (The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley) and began shooting.

We don't know yet when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 is going to premiere on Paramount Plus.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds plot

While Strange New Worlds is an all new adventure in the Star Trek universe for the uninitiated (unlike Picard for example), there’s a bit of background it’s good to be aware of. The show’s main man, Captain Pike, was Star Trek’s very first captain, appearing in a long-unseen pilot episode of The Original Series entitled "The Cage" (the episode finished filming in 1965 but was not seen by audiences until 1986, via home video) set in the year 2254. 

William Shatner’s iconic Captain James T. Kirk then took over, with Pike (having suffered a debilitating accident) popping up again mid-way through season 1 for a farewell double-bill appearance. Shenanigans with fan favorite Lieutenant Spock ensue, leaving Pike to live out a pain-free life on the planet Talos IV from the year 2267 onwards. 

How is this relevant? Well, Strange New Worlds takes place in the years between Pike’s adventures in Discovery’s second season, circa 2257, and his final days in The Original Series, so there’s a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of precedent, which we think bodes well for some out-of-the-borg-cube thinking.

Series co-creator Akiva Goldsman confirmed Strange New Worlds will take on a near-fully episodic approach (heads up The Next Generation and Voyager fans), confirming there will be, "room to meet new aliens, see new ships, visit new cultures." The one thing that will break the episodic structure? Character arcs.

The poster and trailer show Pike’s transition from his idyllic home in the Mojave desert to the bridge of the Enterprise. We know his two trusty subordinates from Discovery — Science Officer Spock and First Officer 'Number One' (real name Una Chin-Riley) — will be by his side. 

Some iconic legacy characters return here too, including Nurse Chapel, who assisted Dr. McCoy in The Original Series sickbay and Nyota Uhura (famously played by Nichelle Nichols in The Original Series and Thandi Newton in the alternate timeline movies of 2009, 2013 and 2016).

There’s also a new addition we’re particularly excited about, Chief of Security La’an Noonien-Singh, whose surname will trigger Trekkie memories of Ceti eels (think hard-skinned killer leeches) and one of the best space showdowns in Star Trek — perhaps even sci-fi film — history. Whether or not she’s related to Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically-engineered superhuman and the show’s most memorable villain, is yet to be seen, but it’s certainly a thrilling prospect (for the avoidance of doubt, we’re referring to Khan in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, not the alternate timeline Khan of Star Trek Into Darkness).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds cast

The headline cast here remain those from Discovery, namely Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn as Pike, Spock and Number One. Jess Bush plays Nurse Christine Chapel, Celia Rose Gooding takes on Cadet Nyota Uhura and Christina Chong plays La’an Noonien-Singh. Pilot Lt. Erica Ortegas is played by Melissa Navia and sickbay is manned by Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga. Bruce Horak will feature as a recurring guest star as Andorian officer Hemmer.

Is there a trailer?

Yes, Anson Mount unveiled it to the internet on his Twitter feed on April 3, 2022. Check it out below: