Star Trek’s Wildest Show Is Officially Its Most Frustrating | Review
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns for its fourth season on Paramount+ this week, timed to coincide with Star Trek's 60th anniversary celebrations at San Diego Comic-Con on 23 July. Collider's review, based on the first six episodes provided in advance, finds the season a return to form after the more subdued, emotionally weighty Season 3 finale, but argues the show's long-standing flaw persists: characters are treated as vehicles for episodic plots rather than as people who develop meaningfully over time.
The review praises the series' trademark genre-hopping structure, which sees episodes swing between classic moral-dilemma sci-fi, horror, buddy comedy, noir and even puppetry, backed by strong visual effects, practical props and inventive camerawork that the critic says sets it apart from anything else currently on television. However, it criticises the lack of narrative follow-through, citing Captain Pike's swift emotional recovery after living a lifetime with, then losing, Captain Batel at the end of Season 3 – a experience compared to Picard's in the Next Generation episode "The Inner Light" – as evidence that character growth is sacrificed for weekly plot resets.
- Strange New Worlds Season 4 premieres this week on Paramount+, timed to Star Trek's 60th anniversary.
- Review praises bold genre-switching episodes and strong visual effects.
- Critic says characters still reset emotionally each week, lacking real development.
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a Paramount+ television series set in the world of Star Trek, following Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise before the events of the original 1960s series. It has built a reputation for jumping between very different styles from episode to episode, tackling everything from moral dilemmas and horror to comedy and noir, which has made it stand out among current sci-fi shows. Its fourth season is arriving on Paramount+ this week, timed alongside Star Trek's 60th anniversary events at San Diego Comic-Con on 23 July.
The wider Star Trek franchise has run for six decades and includes numerous television series and films, of which Strange New Worlds is one of the newer entries. A recurring point of discussion around the show is how it balances self-contained weekly stories with the longer-term development of its characters, including Pike and fellow officer Captain Batel, whose personal history was a major focus of the previous season's ending.
This background matters because it frames ongoing critical debate about the series: whether its inventive, genre-shifting format comes at the cost of consistent character growth across episodes and seasons, a tension that recurs in discussion of the new season.