Strange New Worlds’ Final Season Genre Change Will Make It The Star Trek We Need

Published Oct 7, 2026, 9:31 AM EDT John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises. Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4's Finale - "Tomorrow's Enterprise" Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 was defined by its explorations of genre, but the fifth and final season will see one more genre change that will turn it into the Star Trek show we need. The recently wrapped Strange New Worlds season 4 was controversial because nearly every episode showcased a gimmick, from film noir to stoner comedy to becoming a soap opera to the crew of the USS Enterprise turning into puppets. Star Trek fans are divided on multiple fronts, but every Trekker feels consternation about the 60-year-old franchise's unresolved future. Only the final seasons of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Strange New Worlds remain before Paramount+ sends Star Trek on hiatus for what will likely be years. Strange New Worlds season 4 carried the fandom's hopes after Starfleet Academy was canceled following its first season being targeted by online hate. Strange New Worlds season 4 certainly has fans who appreciated its bold 'big swings,' while others felt frustrated at the show's indulgence. A core issue is that Strange New Worlds season 4 had only 10 episodes, and nearly all of them were devoted to gimmicks rather than 'traditional' Star Trek. Forced to define what that means, 'traditional' Star Trek generally involves the crew of the USS Enterprise solving complicated problems through science, and episodes that center on a moral or ethical quandary. Strange New Worlds Will Become True Star Trek In Its Final Season & We Need It Image credit: Paramount+ Early signs for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fifth and final season indicate that more 'traditional' Star Trek will be the prequel's final genre change. If this happens, it will also be most welcome. Executive producer and co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman says, Without revealing anything... we approach story a little bit more like traditional Star Trek episodes" in Strange New Worlds season 5. While not promising the storytelling style exemplified by Star Trek: The Next Generation, Strange New Worlds season 5 will leave soap operas, fairy tales, and puppets behind. The final six episodes will be a "suite," according to Goldsman, that will also be "very serious," says Paul Wesley, who will portray James T. Kirk as he becomes Captain of the Enterprise. To be fair, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 boasted three episodes that veered toward the 'traditional': the time-traveling season premiere, "Valles Marineris," episode 6, "Off-Hour," and episode 8, "Orders of Magnitude." They were all, arguably, season 4's strongest and most dramatically powerful episodes, proving that Strange New Worlds can still make riveting and resonant Star Trek without outright gimmicks. The final six episodes of Strange New Worlds will also be the last new Star Trek for a few years, at least, given how long it takes to develop and produce a new Star Trek series. Every aspect of the franchise's fandom yearns for recognizable Star Trek in tone, style, structure, and complexity. Strange New Worlds already has a talented cast playing characters fans are invested in, and season 5 must send them off in a way that unifies the audience by presenting Star Trek at its very best. Fans need their last dose of new Star Trek for the foreseeable future to contain the crucial elements of smart writing, beloved characters, and great storytelling that made us all fans in the first place. Strange New Worlds' Gimmicks Will Be Better Appreciated In Time Image credit: Paramount+ Time has proven to be kind to Star Trek, and most new series aren't fully appreciated during their original runs. This was the case with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, which found new audiences thanks to streaming. Star Trek: Enterprise enjoyed perhaps the biggest 180-degree turn, as what was once derided as 'the show that killed Star Trek' is now respected and beloved two decades later. Season 3 and 4's focus on gimmicks, genre-hopping, and pushing Star Trek's boundaries led many fans to feel that Strange New Worlds 'jumped the shark.' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was wildly popular in its first two seasons. However, seasons 3 and 4's focus on gimmicks, genre-hopping, and pushing Star Trek's boundaries led many fans to feel that Strange New Worlds 'jumped the shark.' A vocal segment of the audience grouses that they no longer recognize Strange New Worlds from its original form, when it was the heir apparent to Star Trek: The Original Series. In defense of Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: The Original Series was laden with gimmicks, from a comedy with Tribbles, to meeting Abraham Lincoln, to space hippies beaming aboard the USS Enterprise, to Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) brain being stolen. The difference is that there were about 26 episodes in a TOS season that made gimmicks feel more evenly distributed. Yet the infinite talent of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' cast and the sheer joy and inventiveness of the show's gimmick episodes will endure. After some time has passed, audiences rewatching Strange New Worlds will warm to gimmicks they may have disliked during the first run. More importantly, new viewers will discover Strange New Worlds and see the quality, care, and mad genius of its genre-bending hours. Strange New Worlds needs to become the Star Trek we need in its fifth and final season. With six episodes left, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds carries the unenviable pressure, but also the golden opportunity, to remind every Star Trek fan of the greatness of the final frontier, its characters, and the voyages of the Starship Enterprise before we say goodbye to Star Trek until who knows when. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+ Release Date 2022 - 2027-00-00 Network Paramount+ Showrunner Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman Directors Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman Writers Onitra Johnson Franchise(s) Star Trek Creator(s) Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet