CBS All Access is boarding the U.S.S. Enterprise again, ordering a spinoff of “Star Trek: Discovery” that will follow Spock, Captain Pike and Number One.
The new series, “Strange New Worlds,” will be the streaming service’s third live-action “Star Trek” series, along with “Star Trek: Picard.” It will also be the second planned spin-off from “Discovery,” joining the Michelle Yeoh-led series based on Starfleet intelligence agency Section 31, which is still in development.
Spock (Ethan Peck), Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Number One (Rebecca Romjin) were all introduced in Season 2 of “Discovery,” which ended its sophomore campaign by blasting the main cast some 900 years into the future. “Strange New Worlds” will follow the three in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy. The “Short Treks” episode “Q&A” detailed the trio’s first day on the Enterprise.
“Fans fell in love with Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck’s portrayals of these iconic characters when they were first introduced on “Star Trek: Discovery” last season,” said Julie McNamara, Executive Vice President and Head of Programming, CBS All Access. “This new series will be a perfect complement to the franchise, bringing a whole new perspective and series of adventures to ‘Star Trek.’”
The series premiere was written by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Goldsman, Kurtzman and Lumet will serve as executive producers in addition to Henry Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth. Aaron Baiers, Akela Cooper and Davy Perez will serve as co-executive producers. Akiva Goldsman will remain an executive producer and a key part of the creative team on “Picard” as well. The series will be produced by CBS Television Studios, Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.
“When we said we heard the fans’ outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded “Star Trek: Discovery” last season, we meant it,” said Kurtzman. “These iconic characters have a deep history in ‘Star Trek’ canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told. With Akiva and Henry at the helm, the Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the ‘Star Trek’ universe.”
Created to be the original main character of “Star Trek,” Christopher Pike, played then by Jeffrey Hunter, was front and center in show’s original pilot episode, “The Cage,” filmed in 1964. However that pilot was scrapped in early 1965 and the show was redeveloped around Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), with only the character Spock (Leonard Nimoy) retained from “The Cage.” But the original pilot was later repurposed for a two-episode season 1 story in 1966 called “The Menagerie,” which established Pike as captain of the starship Enterprise prior to Kirk.
Notably, the events of “The Menagerie,” in which the Enterprise under Pike encounters an isolated planet whose native inhabitants possess incredible psychic powers — which they use to provide a comforting illusion of perfect health for the horribly mangled survivor of a federation ship that crash landed decades earlier — takes place 10 years before the events of “Star Trek.” In other words, presumably just before the first season of “Strange New Worlds.”
CBS All Access will also debut the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks” later this year and has a CG-animated series in development at Nickelodeon.
The main cast recorded a video to announce the show — and thank fans for their support. You can watch it below.