Since it’s inception, Strange New Worlds has reintroduced some old favourites back into the Star Trek Universe, from giving M’Benga a full featured role as ships doctor to ending season 2 by bringing a young Scotty into the conflict with the Gorn. The trend will continue in season three with Nurse Chapel’s relationship with Roger Korby – a thread that began with original series episode What Are Little Girls Made Of – as well as continue to tell the story of James Kirk’s first steps into command while dropping by the Enterprise while assigned as the Farragut’s first officer.
Revisiting old characters isn’t a trend that Strange New Worlds began, but it’s one that’s been embraced and while we’d all prefer for Star Trek to keep true to the ‘new’ part of the title, there’s still some fun to be had in seeing who else could have their history explored in the coming seasons…
MATT DECKER
One of the most decorated Captains of his era, Matt Decker spent most of his time in command with the USS Constellation. Having commanded the ship since launch through three five year exploration missions and a promotion to Commodore, Decker would finally lose the ship to the Planet Killer before taking a shuttle for a suicide run to try and get his revenge.
Introduced in the original series, Decker was a strong commander who’d let personal loss take over. Taking command of the Enterprise while Kirk was stranded on the wreckage of the Constellation, his last hours were not his finest and he was eventually unseated by Commander Spock.
References for his achievements since – including name drops in Discovery and Voyager – have held on to his achievements rather than his final actions. With Strange New Worlds expanding on the history of the original series era, they have a chance to revisit Decker and showcase why he was so revered as a commander before he lost his way.
BALTHAZAR EDISON
A relic from the Federations formative years, Edison was a soldier who ended up in Starfleet when the MACO’s were disbanded and absorbed into the force following the Romulan Wars. Given command of an old repurposed ship under the new Starfleet banner, Edison resented the position and after years of combat was disillusioned with Starfleet’s mission of diplomacy and exploration. In 2164 Edison’s ship, the USS Franklin, would fall into a wormhole with his ship and crew listed as Mission in Action.
Edison entered the Star Trek Universe in 2016 with Star Trek Beyond. His history based on the Star Trek Enterprise prequel series, particularly it’s Xindi war arc. His ties to the original series are only limited with a recording giving a scathing and brief recounting of his time in war, including against the Romulans in a conflict that would be the basis of events for the original series episode Balance of Terror. So it’s a bit of a cheat adding him to the list. But in the Kelvin Timeline, Edison would crash land on the planet Altimad, using native technology to prolong his life and mutate himself and his surviving crew as time and isolation made them more bitter towards the Federation. In the Prime timeline, he’s still out there. Pike’s Enterprise crew comes with it’s own history and scars.
How different would it be if Klingon war veterans Erica Ortegas or Joseph M’Benga were the ones to face Krall instead of the idealistic James Kirk? Would he still have became Krall after all the years in isolation? Is there a way to save his lost soul? Or would his fate be the same? For all the times the Kelvin Timeline played a contrast to the original series, Edison could give the chance for the prime timeline to return the favour and see what could happen next…
GARY MITCHELL
Known to be receptive to telepathic abilities, Gary Mitchell was helmsman of the Enterprise when it travelled through the galactic barrier which heightened his psionic abilities to the point of becoming a whole different person. Growing more powerful, he lost all empathy in a singular quest for control which led to fisticuffs with Captain Kirk and ultimately his death.
Only appearing in the pilot episode (or, well, second pilot) Mitchell was a highlight of the dangers of the Enterprise mission and the first major casualty for Kirk on screen. Though his time was brief, he was given background as one of Kirk’s most trusted crew and a long time friend of nearly. Mitchell joined the Academy while Kirk was serving as an instructor and would be one of the first selected for the Enterprise command crew.
As Strange New Worlds explores Kirk’s career before the Enterprise, having featured the prime universe Kirk twice in season two as first officer of the USS Republic, the show has a chance to offer some insight into how his friendship with Mitchell began, which would make an interesting turn considering Star Trek began with how their friendship came to a tragic end…
CAROL MARCUS
Another name from Kirk’s past that could make an intriguing appearance, Carol Marcus was introduced in The Wrath of Khan as a former love interest who distanced herself form the adventures of the young captain after she fell pregnant with his child. Not wanting David to follow in his fathers footsteps, their lives diverged with Carol opting to raise their son away from the dangers of Kirk’s adventure.
Carol’s already had a name drop in Strange New Worlds and one that answered a question thats circled for years. In TWOK we knew Kirk was aware of his son, but in Subspace Rhapsody a young visiting James hints to La’an that his relationship with Carol is complicated because she’s back on Earth pregnant with their child.
While Kirk’s not a part of the Enterprise crew, he’ll continue to be a guest on board and if there’s one part of his background that could give a deeper insight into his dedication to Starfleet, it’s the story of what really happened and how he and Carol made the decision to keep David far, far away from knowing who his father was.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
Having made a huge impression from a small number of appearances in the original series, Roger Carmel brought a larger than life performance fitting of the era and in Discovery we were introduced to him yet again with Rainn Wilson taking on the role as a troublesome inmate on board a Klingon prison ship. That appearance led to the most stand-alone comedy episodes of Discovery as Mudd trapped the ship in a time loop, and a one off comedy short directed by Wilson himself.
So, yes. Mudd’s been done. But Wilson left such a good impression that, quite frankly, we want more. If you can have Harry Mudd spar with Gabriel Lorca in a time loop in the middle of a war and still be fun, the possibilities for a lighter and brighter show are too good to pass up. Especially as the Enterprise cast have shown they’re more than capable of throwing in the comedy elements than Rainn Wilson would bring it he brought Harry Mudd back to the Enterprise.
And yes, this is a list of fives, but..
SYBOK
When it comes to the Star Trek Universe, Spock has become it’s centre and one of SNW’s more common threads is how a young Spock finds peace within himself to begin the journey that will lead to becoming one of the most vital parts of the political landscape by the 32nd century, as well as the glue that held the Kelvin Timeline together before his passing.
Already we’ve seen some early expansion of the original series themes, primarily exploring his relationship with T’Pring before she brought an end to their courtship in favour of a more logical option in original series episode Amok Time, and with giving Nurse Chapel’s flirtations with Spock some deeper context by showing how they got to know each other in their early years of service. Spock’s family life has also been touched on, particularly in exploring his relationship with his mother, but in season one episode the Serene Squall we also saw another hint at what might come; his brother Sybok…
Spock’s family history is, as he’d say, fascinating. Particularly as he’s the second son of Sarek. The first was Sybok, a pure Vulcan coming from an upper class family line. Where Spock had always tried to prove himself as a Vulcan despite his ‘handicap’ of having a human mother, Sybok was made up of all the best ingredients for the perfect Vulcan and yet rejected logic to embrace emotion and his own spiritual journey.
Discovery gave a scathing insight to Sarek’s logic and thought process, boiling down his parenting style to a series of experiments that went wrong. Where Sybok fits in and how he led to adopting Michael and raising Spock leaves some very interesting questions. Especially with Spock himself never mentioning his name until he and Kirk had known each other for decades. And only then because Sybok had raised a new cult and stole the Enterprise…
We can only hope that the hint of Sybok is merely the first step into learning more about the complex chaos that is the Sons of Sarek in the near future…
Strange New Worlds is set to return this summer for season three with he conclusion of the season two cliff-hanger.
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