Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has never been shy about experimenting with its storytelling. The series has regularly bounced between genres, putting its own spin on everything from comedy and romance to horror and musical theater.
That willingness to take risks was part of the show's initial appeal, but as Strange New Worlds has leaned even further into those experiments, some fans have started to grow tired of what they describe as gimmick episodes.
Season 4 has featured episodes inspired by horror, film noir, classic soap operas, fairy tales, and, even a full-blown puppet comedy. While these may have been embraced in the past, several of these genre-bending installments have also received some of the season's lowest ratings from viewers.
So when Strange New Worlds co-showrunners and executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers were recently asked how they respond to fans who want more conventional science-fiction Star Trek, Goldsman acknowledged the criticism but made it clear the series isn't planning to abandon its approach. Granted, there's only one more season left in the series, and it's already been filmed, but it sounds like we shouldn't expect anything different.
"I get it, and we love those, too," Goldsman told TVLine, referring to more traditional sci-fi episodes. "But that's not our show."
As Goldsman sees it, the show's genre-hopping is baked into its identity.
"It's in the title," he said. "Our worlds are genres."
Goldsman also acknowledged that experimenting so frequently can feel different when a season consists of only 10 episodes.
"I really do respect and hear the criticism that, 'When you have 10 episodes [per season], should they be more homogenous?'" he said.
Goldsman pointed to the original Star Trek, which also jumped between different genres and tones. The obvious difference, he noted, is that those older seasons had at least 24 episodes to work with, giving the show a lot more room to experiment without making those experiments feel like such a large percentage of the season.
"Part of what Star Trek did well was use genre for storytelling, and that was what we wanted to explore in this series," Goldsman explained. "We are Star Trek fans, deeply, and we try to respond to the fandom in us — and you can't really please all the people all the time."
Myers made a similar point. For the writers, trying something weird or unexpected isn't about moving away from Star Trek. It's about seeing how far the format can stretch while still feeling like Star Trek.
"We love classic Star Trek episodes more than you can possibly imagine, but we also like trying new things," Myers said. "The goal is to make a Star Trek at some point in our season that is for everyone, to reach out to people who don't know Star Trek and who might find something that surprises them or interests them."
Of course, that also means some episodes are going to land better than others depending on the viewer.
"Not every Star Trek is for everybody, but I guarantee that the bulk of the episodes that we do in our season will be for most people," he said. "There is something to love in every season, and that's what we were really going for."
Myers pointed to Season 4 as a good example. Yes, it has a puppet episode, but it also has something like Episode 6, "Off-Hour," which he described as much closer to traditional Star Trek.
"I think people who love the Tribbles are probably going to love the puppet episode," Myers said. "I think people who love some of the more classic ones will love Episode 6 [the real-time thriller 'Off-Hour'] because that is a straight fastball down the middle for what is a great classic Star Trek."
Myers reiterated the broader ambition of Strange New Worlds has been to expand what a Star Trek episode can look like without abandoning the audience that already loves the franchise.
"The goal was to create a show that reached out to more people, but also pleased the people who love the show, to give them some surprise, a new version, a point of view about things that they hadn't gotten to see before, and also to win people over who never thought of Star Trek and thought they'd check out a crazy show that would do something as insane as puppets," Myers said. "That's our goal."
There's only one more episode left in the current season. The finale is set to air on September 24 on Paramount+. Fans still have one more season to look forward too though. Strange New Worlds will conclude with a truncated fifth and final season that will consist of just six episodes. The season has already been filmed, but Paramount has not announced a premiere date. Beyond the next season of Strange New Worlds, the future of Star Trek is a bit up in the air as executives continue exploring new series ideas.