Both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard had strayed from the franchise's long-established formula of episodic, standalone stories for story arcs that instead loom across entire seasons to tell an overarching narrative. However, according to Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman, who helms CBS' new wave of programming for the iconic science-fiction franchise, this won't be the case for the upcoming series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
While there will be overarching character arcs, the new series will harken back to the franchise's roots of focusing on stories that are self-contained within one to two episodes.
"I think Strange New Worlds, under the guidance of Henry Myers and Akiva Goldsman, is going to be a return, in a way, to [The Original Series]. We’re going to do stand-alone episodes. There will be emotional serialization. There will be two-parters," Kurtzman told Deadline. "There will be larger plot arcs, but it really is back to the model of alien of the week, planet of the week, challenge on the ship of the week with these characters pre-Kirk’s Enterprise."
Details on Strange New Worlds remain under wraps, including a planned start for production, but the series will be set after Discovery Season 2 and the start of The Original Series. Stars Anson Mount and Ethan Peck hinted that both of their characters will be informed by their experiences from the second season of Discovery moving forward as they return to captain the Enterprise for its ongoing exploratory mission.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn. The series has yet to receive a premiere date.