On Thursday, season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premieres and you can check out our earlier report for first-look images for episode 1. Now we have some new first-look images for episodes 2 and 3, plus more promotional stuff. Note: the following has some minor spoilers.
New episode 2 images
The second episode (arriving June 22) is titled “Ad Astra per Aspera,” the motto meaning “to the stars through hardship” from the original Earth Starfleet. It will deal with the trial of Una Chin Riley who was arrested in the season 1 cliffhanger for hiding her genetically modified background. A clip from the trial was released recently. Now we have the first official images from the episode, including more from the trial.
Rebecca Romijn as Una in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera” (Paramount+)
Yetide Badaki as Neera and Rebecca Romijn as Una in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera” (Paramount+)
That second image shows Yetide Badaki playing Neera, Number One’s lawyer. In another image, she can be seen meeting with Pike, while he is holding a data chip and a breathing mask. Another picture features Pike with Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano), a romantic interest of Pike’s from season 1 who was tasked with arresting Una in the season 1 finale.
Yetide Badaki as Neera and Anson Mount as Capt. Pike in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera” (Paramount+)
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike and Melanie Scrofano as Batel (Paramount+)
And there are a couple more shots of characters in the USS Enterprise lounge.
Melissa Navia as Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga and Ethan Peck as Spock in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera”(Paramount+)
Melissa Navia as Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera” (Paramount+)
Anson Mount as Capt. Pike in episode 202 “Ad Astra per Aspera” (Paramount+)
New episode 3 images
The third episode (arriving June 29) is titled “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” and it is a time travel episode focused on La’an and James T. Kirk. Both trailers show the pair in contemporary Toronto, which just happens to be where the series is filmed. This first new image shows Kirk and La’an in what looks like a Toronto alley, with Kirk looking particularly surprised to be there. Notably, Kirk is wearing a captain’s uniform but not the usual Starfleet badge.
Christina Chong as La’an and Paul Wesley as Kirk in episode 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” (Paramount+)
The other two images from the episode show La’an and Kirk in contemporary clothing and it appears they are meeting with Pelia (Carol Kane), who plays the new USS Enterprise engineer, joining the ship in episode 1. Pelia is also in contemporary clothing, but it’s unclear how she is also in the past.
Carol Kane as Pelia and Christina Chong as La’an in episode 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” (Paramount+)
Paul Wesley as Kirk, Christina Chong as La’an and Carol Kane as Pelia in episode 203 “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” (Paramount+)
Cast and crew hint at season 2
Today Paramount+ released a new social media promo featuring the SNW cast hinting at what’s to come.
the cast of #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds gives us a hint at the exciting things to come in season 2! pic.twitter.com/Itdv1mIDek
— CBS Studios (@CBSTVStudios) June 13, 2023
Season 1 recap
Do you need to catch up, here is a video to get you sorted.
Ready for Thursday?
Here is more to get you ready for the return of Strange New Worlds on June 15 on Paramount+.
- TrekMovie.com early review
- TrekMovie Interviews: Anson Mount & Rebecca Romijn. Ethan Peck & Paul Wesley, and Celia Rose Gooding & Melissa Navia.
- London Comic Con panel report
And here again is the trailer…
And the new season 2 sneak peek with the cast (from Special The Ready Room sneak peek)
Season 2 will premiere Thursday, June 15 on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The second season will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in South Korea, with premiere dates to be announced at a later date. Following the premiere, new episodes of the 10-episode season will drop weekly on Thursdays.
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Really looking forward to episodes 2 and 3. Probably more so 3 because I’m a huge sucker for time travel stories. :)
And actually I think I know why we see Pelia in present day Earth. It has to do with the character herself. I would say it but I guess it would be considered a spoiler? IDK. It’s only a few more days.
I saw this too. I think fans will like the solution.
I think it’s an interesting premise to explore, and Pelia could resolve some other more dubious timey-wimey things.
Yeah I think Pelia will be very interesting. But I am seeing a lot of mixed reviews on her. Some seem to really like how fun and comedic the character is. Others think it’s a little too much. I guess we’ll see what the masses think soon.
Dating myself, but the most prominent I remember of her was when she played the ‘ghost of Christmas present’ in the movie Scrooged, with Bill Murray back in 1988. She had a pretty decent role in ‘Hunters’ recently though, on Prime.
I remember her from Taxi. Now that’s dating myself. Also, Valerie (I’m not a witch I’m your wife!) from The Princess Bride
A prediction is never a spoiler. Go for it. :)
Not a prediction in terms of her character, someone mentioned it in a review. But you know what, it WAS a review so yeah it should be fine to print it then. But basically she is a new alien in Trek who has lived for at least a thousand years. She’s older than Guinan.
But my prediction is she will just be living on Earth when they come across her similar to how Picard came across Guinan in season 2. And most likely is La’An and Kirk already knows who she is and ask for her help.
Interesting theory! What do you base that on? Just curious.
It looks like one of the photos they are meeting her in a house so I assume she is living there; but it could be something else entirely.
I’m assuming they know her if she is introduced on the ship in the first two episodes. But maybe they first meet her in the past and she ends up in the 23rd century as someone posted below. That would be even more interesting.
lol u crack me up buddy!!!!
Lol thanks!
welcomes!!!
Actually my first thought was that she was an El-Aurian like Guinan but Trek does have long living entities so who knows or she could just be a new long-lived species.
Actually me too! But pretty cool she’s a new alien.
A trick we’ve already seen with Guinan and the crew of the 1701-D.
Could Pelia BE from the present?
That would be kind of lame, you’d expect the Chief Engineer to have not only gone to University but to have some starship experience as well.
Ugh, so tired of the lame time travel stories. If I wanted modern era, I’d watch Law and Order, Yellowstone and a million shows set in that time. Hell, if I want time travel done right, I’m watching Quantum Leap, not a show that should be exploring the galaxy.
Hey, for all we know she could be an El-Aurian or some other sort of alien from the 21st Century. But making her a native who gets taken to the future would be much more interesting.
I agree with you. Also, Star Trek totally ignores time travel paradoxes. Voyager’s finale is one such incident. Once Janeway time traveled to give Voyager the tech to get home quickly there was no longer a reason for her future self to time travel. And I don’t like using parallel timelines as an answer. Imo, that way lies madness as everything happens and so nothing happens.
Yeah you’re right about paradoxes, it’s hard to make them work on a logical level. Voyager has always confused me but that’s what makes Star Trek weird lol.
And I get you don’t like alternate timelines, but that’s why the 09 movie worked so well in that regard and it was able to ignore that paradox. But then people said they basically wanted to reset it even though they knew it was in another universe. So people complain about the reset button but the second you DON’T do it like that movie, others complain more.
There are examples of time travel paradoxes that are resolved logically. Babylon 5 for instance. I believe they used a causality loop (if I have the right term) to resolve it. I.e., it happened this way because it happened this way. A small cheat perhaps, but one I can accept.
I doubt it, but that would be pretty cool. We’ve had modern-day characters like Gillian relocating the the future, but we’ve never gotten to really see much of how they’ve assimilated beyond a single episode.
Exactly. That would make her stand out.
I DON’T think this is the case, but it would be interesting. But she’s a lot more than what see seems, I guess that’s the best way to put it.
The reviews coming in suggest Paramount may have a winner here…..
I agree.
The review here, while definitely positive, was one of the relatively cooler ones.
It’s almost as though the dedicated Trek sites are doing their best to sound balanced ( or it could be that they’re more deeply shaped TNG / Berman-era Trek in their expectations).
Most of what I‘ve seen go up from more mainstream or General cinema pros is unabashedly gushing. TVGuide, Slash Film and Inverse couldn’t be more bold in badgering people to watch.
Yeah the reviews so far seem to match season one. And if you liked season one, this is a great sign.
That’s a fair take. The reviews pretty consistently say S2 is in line with S1 with no sophomore slump.
I’ve been reflecting that SNW, like Picard, is attracting mainstream critics’ praise is a sign that it successfully reaching a more casual fan audience no matter the critiques of segments of the core fanbase.
Yes, it will be a favourite of a niche of longtime core fans, and have elements that are off putting to others, but the big news overall is that Trek is finally pulling a broader audience.
It will be interesting to see the Nielsen’s.
We shall see if it hits the top 10 streaming chart like Picard season 3 did.
I hope so but I’m positive at least the crossover episode will!
It’s definitely a winner. I liked them more than Picard.
Making the point again just in case anyone at Paramount social media is tracking…
It’s totally uncool and offside your global business strategy to have failed to get the special SNW preseason Ready Room posted region-free in the StarTrek.com site.
Each time Paramount gets another SNW post up on the Official site while not addressing this just reinforces that the US based team isn’t getting it.
It just empathises that Paramount+ has no global future. I don’t think it will survive the next 5 years.
I’m a bit more positive than you Mr party pooper, I’m betting it can make it 6 years! 😎👍
Maybe by then Paramount will finally announce another movie before it’s cancelled 9 months later.
I am noticing that Baklish is making the changes necessary to make Paramount a truly global company.
It’s not moving swiftly, and while he was previously their international VP before becoming CEO, Paramount and CBS were both excessively American-centric media companies. Changing the mindset hasn’t been working as well as it might. Instead, 20% of US domestic staff are being laid off while the firm is growing elsewhere to be better in tune with other markets.
I noticed that Paramount has 3% of the European market, which is interesting.
Indeed. I’m going to check Paramount+ on Friday, but if I don’t find it there, I’m going to download it. I’m not waiting around indefinitely. Suffice it to say, I’m not going to restart my Paramount+ subscription if I don’t get to watch SNW there.
Am i exaggerating when I say “waiting around indefinitely”? Maybe, maybe not. As far as I’m aware, there’s still no place for me to stream the second season of Short Treks – and that was released years ago. I haven’t been following, though. And the reason: I already downloaded and watched it. I don’t care about where to stream it anymore.
Similarly, if I have to download SNW on Friday, I’m not going to watch it on Paramount+ later on. This is not a delayed income for Paramount that they can cash in when they feel like releasing SNW to my region. This is a lost income.
You won’t find most Trek, including SNW on Paramount+, in Canada as far as I know.
I did see that Picard and Lower Decks, which have dual international distribution on P+ and Amazon Prime in other countries are also on P+ in Canada, but I wouldn’t expect SNW to be.
BellMedia has had the exclusive licence for a long time, broadcasting Trek on the CTV Sci-fi channel and streaming on Crave. It’s interesting that this exclusivity hasn’t been rolled back. It seems that whatever agreement CBS made with Bell is very longstanding.
Are Kirk and La’an not from the same time? And that’s why he’s a captain, and also why she expresses…interest…when he beams aboard? (Because she knows him but he doesn’t know her…)
That might be too interesting.
One review says Kirk is from a different timeline. All very timely wimey to quote another franchise. 😁
Oh so it’s their way of having Kirk without screwing things up.
I was thinking the same. That could cover the plot hole with Kirk not knowing anything about Khan. Maybe La’an and Prime Kirk are never formally introduced.
I’m calling it now: Pelia is Chekov’s ancestor, and she comes with them from the past, totally violating every rule Star Trek has made about time travel.
[Insert GIF of perturbed Temporal Investigation agents here]
LOL this is an interesting theory too. And yeah she’s probably related to someone if they are only using one name. That said, now that we know she’s an alien, she could just have one name like Guinan, Neelix, Q or the other Q. ;)
Chekov’s Phaser is still out there on the nuclear vessel “Enterprise”. ;-)
It’s uncanny how much Ethan Peck is channeling his grandfather in interviews. He has that same gravitas and tone of voice that makes everyone pay attention.
Wow! I didn’t realize he was Gregory Peck’s grandson. Awesome. One of my favorite mainstream movies is To Kill a Mockingbird. He was brilliant. I think Ethan inherited some of his granddad’s talent.
Here is wild bit of trivia: Gregory Peck’s last ever acting role was playing in the 1998 miniseries version of Moby Dick where the title character was of course played by our very own Sir Patrick Stewart.
I noticed it as well.
Either it’s intentional, as it is with his incorporation Nimoy’s resonance, pronunciation and cadence when playing Spock, or some family speech patterns are surfacing more. Ethan has said that he had very little direct interaction with his grandfather as a child.
This series just keeps getting better and better! They have hit the mark with this one as the Trek we have been longing for. All I ask of the Show Runners/Producers is to keep this series on track like you have been doing and you will have the biggest Trek hit of all time!
I saw the first 2 episodes!! The screening in NYC was really great, and I was sitting two seats away from Akiva Goldsman. I think people will really like the second episode especially.
Ok, can I tell you the pet peeviest nitpick that I know is ridiculous and yet bothers the hell out of me every time? Whenever they shoot in a real location (as opposed to a constructed set) that they’ve redressed to be futuristic, they never take any pains to cover obvious present day things. Case in point – the photo of Pike and Neera, which was clearly shot on location someplace – the door behind them has a present day lock and automatic close arm (or whatever you call it) on the top. They did this with one of the gorn episodes in the first season where it looked like doors from a mall or some office building. I totally get that they can’t build a set for everything, and shooting on location is a reality, but seeing things like that really takes me out of it. Nerd nitpick over.