10 episodes of Strange New Worlds has in store. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the USS Enterprise haven't warped across audiences' screens on Paramount+ since August 22. Finally, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is set to premiere in summer 2025 on Paramount+.
"10 new adventures," "Romance," "Mystery," and "A touch of analog" are promised by Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's 1-minute teaser. Strange New Worlds' co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers brought back the entire cast plus some surprising new faces. Meanwhile, most of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's directors returned for season 3.
Expect the unexpected from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, and here are 15 cool things we spotted in the new footage of the next 10 voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
15 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Leans Into Genre-Bending & Meta Commentary
Strange New Worlds Doubles Down On Season 2's Success
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's trailer opens with Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) saying, "We want to give audiences a reflection of their own world through the lens of fantasy. You know, science fiction." Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) asks, "All of that with weekly space adventures?" Later, Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) adds, "Do you realize how rare a show like this is?"
Pike’s Strange New Worlds Girlfriend Was A Star Trek Captain Before He Got Enterprise
Captain Pike commands the USS Enterprise, but his girlfriend, Captain Marie Batel, beat him to her own starship in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
While the USS Enterprise's crew are speaking about what's happening in specific episodes, the meta-commentary of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is hard to miss. Strange New Worlds season 2 won acclaim and mainstream attention for its genre-bending episodes like Star Trek's first-ever musical. Strange New Worlds season 3 doubles down with a murder mystery, a 1950s sci-fi spoof, and even a rom-com episode.
14 Strange New Worlds Has Access To A Holodeck 100 Years Before Star Trek: TNG
Those Black Walls And Yellow Grids Look Familiar
Leading into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's murder mystery episode, Lt. Spock and a cosplaying La'an are inside what appears to be a holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The familiar black walls with a yellow grid is identical to the virtual rec room of the USS Enterprise-D. Where this technology comes from and how it exists in Star Trek's 23rd century remains to be seen, but perhaps Strange New Worlds will deliver the origin of the holodeck.
13 Jonathan Frakes’ Film Noir Episode Is A Strange New Worlds Murder Mystery
It Looks Like 1970s Hollywood Noir
Star Trek: The Next Generation icon Jonathan Frakes is no stranger to Star Trek holodeck episodes, and perhaps this is why Star Trek: Strange New Worlds selected Frakes to direct its Hollywood noir murder mystery episode. Apparently a live-action version of the board game Clue, Strange New Worlds' murder mystery is also set in the 1970s, judging from the hairstyles and costumes of La'an, Lt. James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and the rest of the cosplaying USS Enterprise crew.
12 Chapel & Spock Are Back Together - But Christine Is Engaged!
Who Put A Ring On Chapel's Finger?
In a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 shocker, Spock and Nurse Christine Chapel are sleeping together. Spock and Chapel's relationship ended and remained undefined at the end of Strange New Worlds season 2, but their romantic chemistry is back on. Yet there's an engagement ring on Christine's finger. Did she get that from Spock or from Chapel's canonical Star Trek: The Original Series fiancé, Dr. Roger Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan)?
11 Strange New Worlds Does Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Proton
1950s Sci-Fi Cheese Is Back
Another visually eyepopping and charmingly retro Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 episode is a 1950s sci-fi spoof. Lieutenant Kirk plays Captain of some kind of spaceship crewed by Lt. Erica Ortegas at the helm and Nurse Chapel. This appears to be Strange New Worlds' version of Star Trek: Voyager's campy cheesefest Captain Proton. It also confirms that Kirk and Chapel, future USS Enterprise crew mates, meet in Strange New Worlds season 3.
10 Rhys Darby Is Not Playing Dr. Bones McCoy
Who Is Our Flag Means Death's Star Playing?
Our Flag Means Death's Rhys Darby was announced as a guest star in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, and fans speculated Darby could be playing Dr. Leonard McCoy or Dr. Mark Piper. Rhys doesn't appear to be playing any Enterprise doctor. Instead, Darby looks like he's a salesman of some sort, like Cyrano Jones (Stanley Adams) in Star Trek: The Original Series. But by the way Darby is ready to snap his fingers, could Rhys instead be playing a powerful alien like Trelane (William Campbell)?
9 Patton Oswalt Is A Vulcan
It's A Logical Character For Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt guest starring in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is a welcome surprise - as a Vulcan, no less! Oswalt's unnamed Vulcan could be part of the previously-glimpsed Strange New Worlds season 3 comedy episode where Captain Pike, Uhura, La'an, and Nurse Chapel are turned into Vulcans. With Patton Oswalt and Rhys Darby, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 continues to lean into the show's deft capacity for comedy.
8 Uhura Gets A Romance - With Scotty?
Love Could Be In The Air For Ensign Uhura
Could love be in the air for Ensign Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3? Nichelle Nichols' Uhura didn't get a romantic foil in Star Trek: The Original Series, but the long-suffering Ensign Uhura could get a romance. Uhura is seen flirting with an unknown black-haired character in Strange New Worlds season 3's trailer, but she also appears next to Scotty (Martin Quinn). Scotty and Uhura have a bit of a flame in the Star Trek movies. Could it start to ignite in Strange New Worlds season 3?
7 United Federation Of Planets Is Celebrating Its Centennial
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Enters 2261
Behind Nurse Chapel and a multi-armed alien bartender (possibly an Edosian as spotted by Star Trek: Picard season 3 researcher Jorg Hillebrand), is a sign that reads "United Federation of Planets Centennial." The Federation was founded in 2161, which means Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 enters 2261. It looks like the USS Enterprise's crew will celebrate one hundred years of the Federation.
6 The Starship Enterprise Goes Analog
Telephones Replace Communicators
Long-lived Lanthanite Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) announcing that "we're going to wire the Enterprise!" is another eyebrow-raising predicament in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3. Whatever causes the need to take the Starship Enterprise analog, it means installing landlines and old timey telephones in lieu of communicators. Does anyone in the 23rd century know how to use a telephone?
