The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues its 10-episode second season this week. We have details along with new images and a clip. SPOILERS.
“Ad Astra per Aspera”
Episode 2 of Strange New Worlds’ second season is called “Ad Astra per Aspera.” which is the motto of the original Earth Starfleet meaning “To the stars through hardship.” The episode was written by Dana Horgan, and directed by Valerie Weiss. It debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, June 22.
Synopsis:
Commander Una faces court-martial along with possible imprisonment and dishonorable dismissal from Starfleet, and her defense is in the hands of a lawyer who’s also a childhood friend with whom she had a terrible falling out.
NEW images from episode 2:
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike (Paramount+)
Yetide Badaki as Neera and Anson Mount as Capt. Pike (Paramount+)
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike(Paramount+)
Yetide Badaki as Neera (Paramount+)
Melanie Scrofano as Batel and Christina Chong as La’an (Paramount+)
Ethan Peck as Spock and Yetide Badaki as Neera(Paramount+)
Unidentified Starfleet officers (Paramount+)
Melanie Scrofano as Batel (Paramount+)
Previously released images from episode 2:
Rebecca Romijn as Una (Paramount+)
Yetide Badaki as Neera and Rebecca Romijn as Una (Paramount+)
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike (Paramount+)
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike and Melanie Scrofano as Batel (Paramount+)
Melissa Navia as Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga and Ethan Peck as Spock (Paramount+)
Melissa Navia as Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (Paramount+)
Yetide Badaki as Neera and Anson Mount as Capt. Pike (Paramount+)
Clips:
The latest The Ready Room includes a clip of Captain Pike meeting with Neera (clip starts at 29:04).
A clip from Una’s trial was released ahead of the second season…
Season trailer
There isn’t a trailer yet for episode 2, but here is the full trailer for season 2.
Season 2 episodes drop weekly on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Season 2 is also available on SkyShowtime elsewhere in Europe. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with premiere dates to be announced at a later date.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Regarding the “Unidentified Starfleet officers” caption, the characters’ names are mentioned in the clip. :)
Some people don’t like the TOS episode “Court Martial,” but personally, I love it. Cogley’s extended diatribe against technology is a little weird, but I adore Spock’s testimony, when he says, “Vulcanians do not speculate. I speak from pure logic. If I let go of a hammer on a planet that has a positive gravity, I need not see it fall to know that it has, in fact, fallen. Gentlemen, human beings have characteristics just as inanimate objects do. It is impossible for Captain Kirk to act out of panic or malice. It is not his nature.” Love that Vulcan loyalty! And of course he’s right.
So I was excited to see Spock in a dress uniform sitting in the same kind of chair we saw in “Court Martial.” I hope the writer of this episode gave him some equally wonderfully lines in support of Una.
The interesting thing is that, in reality, they could ALL be subject to court-martial for lying about the fate of Discovery! That was a poor choice of the Discovery writers to make.
‘That was a poor choice of the Discovery writers to make.’ Not really if you think about it.
A lot of Starfleet officers have had to lie and cover up things in past shows. What Pike and others did was no different. So no not a poor choice at all since most of the shows have done similar for different situations.
They were ORDERED to lie about the fate of the Discovery. I’m pretty sure following orders is a valid defense here. :-)
Didn’t work too well at Auschwitz, Andersonville or My Lai.
Hardly comparable. In this case the organization running the court is the same one that gave the order.
Exactly!
So no checks and balances, sounds like the road to s31.
I don’t think it’s as simple as “ordered to lie” Starfleet at its highest level, made the decision to scrub Discovery, its experimental Spore drive, it’s jump to the future, completely from Starfleet’s known history.
Great example of the excellent writing from long ago. Cerebral, thoughtful. So glad I grew up with that.
I agree! And in hindsight, I’m impressed that the writers of “Court Martial” had such a nuanced understanding of how computers might work. I mean, back in 1966, hardly anyone had ever even SEEN a computer, much less worked with one or understood how one would work.
Fairly stunning how accurately they foresaw Lexis-Nexis.
To me, it evinces a relatively poor (maybe rudimentary is a better word here) understanding of human nature. But it’s comparatively rare that the writing in any iteration of Star Trek is anything to write home about, as it were.
I can’t think of a courtroom episode of Trek I don’t like.
Yeah, they’ve done a great job with them. I’m mostly a TOS fan, yet “The Measure of a Man” is one of my favorite episodes ever.
I thought the one where Riker was accused of raping that lady to be kind of dumb.
But it had Hector Salamanca in it. So there’s that. ;)
I would have to agree.
That’s nearly the only utter turd from TNGs3 that I can recall (at least that I saw all the way through.) There were some that were ‘lesser’ (I am seriously not a fan of SAREK, largely on account of Stewart’s acting during the meld stuff) but that trial one was ‘much less than.’
There was also a film noire-style episode of VOY where Tom Paris was put on trial, as I remember?
There’s a few that could be better but I liked most of them. This one is supposed be really good too.
I love the Court-martial episode. I’m not surprised to see one in SNW. Hopefully, they give Rebecca some wonderful lines. She hasn’t been able to shine yet. I don’t understand why they choose to feature Jess Bush and Christina Chong more. Probably because of the Spock thing and Khan thing. I don’t know.
Yes, I hope Rebecca Romijn gets some great lines! I think perhaps they’re emphasizing Chapel and La’an because Romijn is 51, whereas Bush is 31, and Hollywood tends to push older women to the sidelines. Or maybe Romijn just has other stuff she wants to focus on.
Going by a few pics and clips, Romijn looks immensely more healthy than she has in previous seasons. Not in a cosmetic-fixup way, she just seems to resemble the woman I remember from past films again. I wonder if she had health issues like the wife on DEADWOOD/BREAKING BAD.
I wondered that last season, too.
I had no idea Ms. Gunn had had health issues. She certainly did standout work on those shows, two of the best in the history of television.
She had lupus and was taking a steroid during the last season of Breaking Bad.
I’m on the other side regarding Court Martial. It seems to have had some production challenges by the looks of it.
My biggest beef is that the actual climax takes place off camera. Cogley dramatically leaves the trial, assuring the court he has Something Very Important to do but he’ll absolutely be right back. But he’s never seen again. Per the script, he was supposed to return with Jamie, who would show up at the end of the fistfight in engineering and the sight of her would cause Finney to break down and admit to everything. Instead, a Kirk voiceover explains that Finney broke down and confessed pretty much just because Kirk beat him up. The scene with Jamie was shot, but not used, and makes the end of the episode just kind of awkward.
Generally, I’d say the episode starts pretty strong, but falls apart about midway through.
I’ve never paid attention to that. I need to re-watch it.
According to the Cushman “These are the Voyages, Vol 1” – the problems mostly stemmed from the edit
That makes so much sense!!! They totally needed that scene
When I read the synopsis and it stated that Una’s lawyer was an old friend with whom she had a terrible falling out, I thought to myself “Let it be Sam Cogley… PLEASE let it be Sam Cogley!”
I’m also kinda fond of “Court Martial,” mostly as a world-building exercise and showcase for Elisha Cook, Jr. It’s the fourth act, with its “One to the fourth power” white noise generator, the criminal stupidity of the Enterprise’s decaying orbit, and maybe TOS’ worst-staged fistfight ever, that pretty much tanks the episode.
Yes, “Court Martial” finally told us who Kirk was accountable to back on Earth and provided context for this ship and the service.
I’m amazed at “one to the fourth power.” I know that writers generally are more focused on the humanities than on math and science, but raising a number to a power is stuff we learn in junior high!
But they were making these episodes at breakneck pace, usually in only 5 or 6 days, in one take whenever possible. The miracle of TOS is always how good it turned out to be, in spite of how little time, money, or support from the network the production had.
I have some limited love for it, esp the end of act 1 when Kirk demands that Stone try him, along with Spock’s drop a hammer line, which I’ve used myself in various forms through the years. But I find a lot of the execution pretty sloppy, especially since the insert shot of Kirk pushing the button doesn’t relate to the established security camera angle views at all. Haven’t seen the show in a very very long time, so some of this might just be stored up antipathy beyond the point of accuracy.
Yeah, that angle flagrantly not matching-up to the rest of the security cam footage struck me as fishy even as a kid. (You can put it down to a holographic recording, I suppose.) The episode was apparently not well-liked by the staff, including Bob Justman, who pointedly excluded it from the summer rerun list. But it has that wonderful Al Whitlock painting of Starbase 11, and a 1960s cocktail lounge version of the main theme, so it’s not a total loss.
Hopefully, the writing will be better than the first ep. This show often wastes it’s outstanding cast (with the exception of Engineer Granny) on poor writing. SNW needs to do better!
I tend to disagree. I found the writing to be very good in the first episode. There were also some very strong character moments and development for the supporting cast. For a longer episode, it had great pacing as well.
I totally agree, Anthony. Very disappointing, the first episode.
Agreed as well, unfortunately. “Swing for the fences”? After that ep — a bunt that barely got its player on first base — I’ll gladly settle for a double, thanks.
If it is a double, but involved multiple canon overruns, does that constitute a ground rule double? Or does it just merit a * like the Maris homerun record?
With the possible exception of “Spock’s Brain” and “The Child,” I think that was the worst season opener in Star Trek.
I see they are using the Federation HQ set from Discovery for the Court Room cool.
Before it was Federation HQ it was the USS Shenzhou bridge.
I still think that bridge, underslung on the ventral side of the hull, was better than Discovery’s.
And the Section 31 Bridge
Yeah I found out about it formally being the Shenzhou and Section 31 bridge very recently. It’s amazing what they can do with sets.
What are those badges they’re all wearing?
It’s from TOS’s Court Martial. They’re ribbons/medals of some kind. It plays into the idea from TOS that the Starfleet arrowhead wasn’t exactly standardized at this point in history.
According to Bob Justman, the arrowhead is just for people who serve on starships. Those who serve on the ground wear other insignia. They got this wrong in one episode, giving people on another starship a different symbol, and Justman sent around one of his famous memos, reminding everyone that all those who serve on starships — but ONLY those who serve on starships — should have the same symbol the Enterprise folks wear. And of course they all wear their medals on their dress uniforms.
But Commodore Decker wore what looked like a pretzel on his uniform!
Yes, that was on the memo too. His insignia was for a flag officer serving on the line.
And he wore a mustard color uniform. Hmmm. What are they trying to tell us?
That even if he couldn’t pass muster, he could still pass the mustard?
I thought the “badges” were actually medals, not insignia.
Yeah I think they’re service medals here. Equivalent of ribbons.
I saw the first two episodes of this season at a fan event, and I cannot wait for everyone to see this one. It might be my favorite courtroom Trek episode, and that very much includes Measure Of A Man.
Wow! “The Measure of a Man” is a stunning episode, just so wonderful about advocating for the rights of all sentient creatures. If you like this one even better, it must be truly fabulous. Can’t wait!
There’s a very clear social allegory to this episode that is relevant to today. Most will enjoy it for that, right wingers will riot (and show their true hateful selves in the process).
Star Trek’s sententious nature is one of the things I love about it, so I’m looking forward to that social allegory. Thanks!
As David Gerrold once remarked, sometimes it’s a good thing to offend the right people.
Was that in regard to people who didn’t give blood, or just your everyday typical close-minded fools?
Glad to hear it, because, as noted above, that first show was a mess, to say the least.
It was an average episode. People calling it a “mess” are not worth taking seriously.
The first season of SNW was so strong that I think expectations were VERY high.
I thought S2E1 was quite a reasonable episode, myself. Not one of the standouts, but I can see where they’d want to allow Babs Olusanmokun to show off his real-world martial arts skills, even though it seemed to sit oddly in the episode. And I adore “The Menagerie,” so even though it was kinda goofy for April to forbid them to check out the problem and for Spock to steal the ship as a result, I loved Spock’s stealing the ship so much in “The Menagerie” that I was happy to watch him steal the ship again, even if it wasn’t exactly well supported. :-)
“The Menagerie” — still the best Trek movie ever made, even after all these years. :-)
I wanted to like this episode, really, and there were a couple of decent moments. But if you want to talk about having a funny aside while stealing a starship, you can’t do much better than McCoy’s discomfiture at having to play senior officer while having Spock arrested (“Well, confine him!”). Note to modern Trek writers: that’s how you add levity to a dire situation while still having your characters act in-character. As opposed to, say, stopping everything dead, just to have them utter a silly catchphrase. I’m quite fond of SNW overall, but dammit Jim, it’s got to start getting by on more than its charm.
Yeah, I think the catchphrase thing is stupid, and I wish the writers would stop with it. Jim Kirk said things like, “Ahead, warp factor two,” and Sulu drove the ship. He didn’t need a special “do it” phrase, because the crew obeyed his orders as he gave them. If something had to be timed precisely, he said, “On my mark.”
I think the catchphrase thing is hokey, but the showrunners obviously like it, since they belabored it in Picard and Lower Decks, too.
in-character humor in moments of crisis are always golden, and TOS had them in spades. (“gentleman, I suggest you beam me aboard.” If you can’t name that TOS ep in zero notes, you don’t deserve to play here.)
Another fave, from THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME, while great music recycled from the ‘I suggest you beam me aboard’ ep plays – Spock: do not risk the ship further on my behalf. McCoy: Shut up, Spock, we’re rescuing you. Spock: Why thank you … Captain McCoy.
In the movie TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING, the protagonists, including Burt Lancaster and Paul Winfield, have taken over a US missile silo and are threatening a launch. They are understandably nervous about the US response, and wonder if there are snipers hidden on the grounds above. Winfield suggest the reason they can’t be seen is that they are using midgets. Utterly and completely deadpan, ex-General Lancaster intones, “There are no midgets in the United States Air Force!” The laughter in the theater for this very tense movie was so explosively loud each time I saw it in its first and only release that it drowned out Winfield’s reply, that “Maybe they borrowed them from the Mafia – it’s all the same outfit anyway.”
Maybe that is what made TFF uncomfortable or painful for people, that we were getting the humor when it wasn’t a critical situation. I never considered that before, because I just wholeheartedly liked the movie, but now I will have to reconsider.
For me, what made the “humor” in TFF fail was because it was a mean-spirited laughing AT the character, rather than with them, AND it was out of character.
Scotty doesn’t know the ship. Spock mispronounces a common word. It was stupid, out of character, and mean-spirited. I suspect it was part of Shatner’s attempt to make Kirk the only character that mattered.
I’m talking about stuff like, “I liked him better before he died” — really good in-character lines. Not saying there were a ton, but those, along with the way some bits were played — am thinking of that great pause after Kirk says “you can debate shakahree till you’re green in the face.”
“The Doomsday Machine” Kirk quip is, of course, iconic. I appreciate that moment of humor in “The Immunity Syndrome” (which I’ll bet credits to Navy beans originated in Gene Coon’s typewriter) as well, though it’s a little jokey for my taste. What I really like about that scene in “The Menagerie,” though, is how realistic and spot-on it is in defining McCoy’s character. This grumpy medico is probably the least military person on the ship; yet he is now being forced to pull rank and put under arrest his best frenemy in the galaxy, and is obviously very unhappy about it. By comparison, those two scenes you cite, much as I also enjoy them, feel kinda like shtick.
I’ve always found The Cage far superior to The Menagerie.
Too much in Spock’s motivations was incomprehensible when all one had was that episode.
It was terrible, imo. Seriously.
My statement holds true, thanks for confirming.
If we try to be more descriptive and call it a ‘hot mess’ (a.k.a. steaming dump) instead, does that then make it alright for you to take us seriously again?
No but it does make you a childish, hyperbolic fool. Thanks for playing.
I’m not playing. And that phrase is as played out as ‘it’s a gamechanger,’ so up your game, schmuck.
I didn’t like the first one that much. But whoever wrote episode 2 (Dana Horgan, for the record) deserves all the awards.
Cool. I’m a sucker for courtroom dramas anyhow, even as in this case where the outcome is preordained. As for “Broken Circle,” well, you hate to see even one misfire in a season only ten episodes long, and that it was the first didn’t help. Still, I wasn’t really enamored of the SNW pilot last year either, and things rapidly improved from there.
(Prediction, not spoiler) Damn you Spock for outing her secret love of Gilbert and Sullivan!!!
Hee!
I’m very excited for this one. Nearly all the reviewers I read or watched on YouTube cited this one as one of the best and yes a few has compared it to the level of Measure of a Man. That one is still probably the best courtroom episode to date.
But I love the courtroom stories. In fact, maybe I will watch one episode from a show to get in the mood. ;)
Measure of a Man is probably in the top 5 in all of my fav Trek shows of all time
The dress uniforms are gorgeous. And it looks like they have updated the Tellarite makeup to be closer to what they looked like on Enterprise instead of Discovery. Another good update in my opinion!
Agreed on both fronts.
Yes the dress uniforms are shockingly faithful to Court Martial in TOS while adding just the tinest hint of Enterprise with the shoulders. Perfect imho
I liked the Discovery Tellarites much better.
I felt the Enterprise prosthetics still looked super fake and dripping.
This isn’t a bad compromise though, especially if one believes there are many different Tellarite looks and types (as noted in Prodigy). More, the court officer may look wrinkly and dripping-faced because he is in fact much older.
I miss having next week’s episode trailers at the end of each story.
Do they just not have them ready at that point, or is the idea to get people to log back onto the site or youtube in midweek to watch the promo?
I’m sure they have them ready, I guess it’s their way of boosting social media buzz midweek, yeah.
I really don’t understand why they stopped doing that with all these new shows? It’s what people looked forward to. But since Discovery, that’s been eliminated and we get it days later and usually on YouTube lol. It’s so odd.
Not many shows do it anymore at all, really. HBO does, bless them.
Do weekly trailers help viewership? They sell the story to the audience.
But what if the shows we are watching are not stories anymore? Then we will know we are all watching soap operas.
I like many others, am looking forward to this week’s episode. Courtroom Trek episodes have usually been memorable and I hope this one is no different.
Btw, as I mentioned before, in the DS9 episode “Dr. Bashir, I Presume”, Julian and Miles are talking about genetically enhanced humans not being allowed to serve in Starfleet. Miles says there hasnt been a case about this for nearly 100 years! Now we will get to see one of those case trials.
Wow great point, it actuallly fits in with the time period!
You know people talk about all forms of different Trek spinoffs but one spinoff I think Trek could do well is a law show set in the Trek universe. I mean Trek has always done courtroom dramas extremely well and I wouldn’t mind watching a whole show dedicated to this concept. Maybe they could get Shatner to reprise his role of Danny Crane :))
JAG: Starfleet…
Law & Order: Starfleet
alright! A courtroom drama. That’s good stuff
To complete Pike’s 80s retro style:
Mirrored Aviator Ray-Bans, $165 – Free Delivery with Amazon Prime.
Nitpicking. Shouldn’t that be “Office of the Judge Advocate General” ?