Trivia / Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

• Acting for Two: Anson Mount plays both Pike and a future version of himself in Episode 10.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • The writers used Anson Mount's own leadership style on the series as a way to help write Pike's character.
  • The dog that La'an/Princess Thalia carries around in "The Elysian Kingdom" is Christina Chong's own; Chong had suggested including her in the episode considering its reality-bending nature, and the "character" was written with the same name as the real pup.
  • Rebecca Romijn is a real-life Gilbert and Sullivan fan, having performed in a number of operettas when she was younger. This is incorporated into Una's character.
  • Babs Olusanmokun is a champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Season 2 has him showing off his skills by giving M'Benga some fight scenes.
• Actor-Shared Background: Martin Quinn, a native Scot, plays the famously Scottish Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, marking the first time the character has been played by someone of that nationality (as James Doohan was Canadian and Simon Pegg is English).
• Approval of God:
  • Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in the Kelvin Timeline movies, was very happy with Ethan Peck's portrayal of the character, which he expressed to Peck during Star Trek Celebration in Las Vegas.
  • William Shatner was shown Paul Wesley's take on James T. Kirk during an appearance at San Diego Comic Con 2022 and was very pleased with it.
  • Chris Doohan, son of the late James Doohan, gave his stamp of approval over Martin Quinn playing Scotty, taking over the role his father made famous.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • "Strange New Worlds": Spock and T'Pring confirm something that the Expanded Universe and fanon have gone back-and-forth on for quite a while: Vulcans are still perfectly capable of having sex even when not in pon farr. (Based on official dates, Spock is likely scheduled for his next cycle sometime in season 3, which will likely be Leila Kalomi from "This Side of Paradise".)
  • "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow":
    • While Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home established that Kirk was from Iowa, it didn't give an exact birthplace. The city of Riverside declared itself as such (with approval from Gene Roddenberry himself), but this episode is when it's officially confirmed.
    • The idea that the conflicting dates of various Star Trek historical events, like the Eugenics Wars, aren't just Series Continuity Errors but were caused by time travelers screwing things up has been around in fanon for many years before this episode.
• Casting Gag: Kirk being punched by Uhura is possibly a homage to another universe's Kirk being battered repeatedly.
• The Cast Show Off: "Subspace Rhapsody" gives the entire cast the chance to show off their singing chops, as many of them do have extensive background in theater.
• Dawson Casting: Paul Wesley is 39 playing a younger James T. Kirk - but Kirk was only 32 when he assumed command of the Enterprise (becoming, famously, the youngest captain in Starfleet) so Wesley is in all likelihood playing a character at least a decade younger than he is. In fact, Wesley is five years older than William Shatner was when he began playing Kirk. Fortunately, Paul Wesley is very much Older Than He Looks.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: The character of Hemmer is from the Aenar subspecies of Andorians, who are blind. His actor, Bruce Horak, is himself blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. This also carries over to his Klingon character Garkog, who wears an eyepatch over his right eye.
• Dueling Works
  • Taking the place of parent series Star Trek: Discovery, Strange New Worlds faces Star Trek homage The Orville, now revamped with a Big Budget Beef-Up and the subtitle New Horizons. Comparisons are further raised with this series returning Star Trek to a tradition episodic format focusing on exploration and diplomacy with the cast once again led by The Captain, whilst The Orville relaxes the comedic elements which defined its launch as it moves from network television to streaming.
  • With Obi-Wan Kenobi, a prequel/interquel set a few years before the start of each franchises' respective starts focusing on fan favorite actors reprising their roles from previous entries in the franchise, and having been made thanks to fans requesting a continuation of their characters' journeys. While Kenobi was released during the 45th anniversary of Star Wars, SNW came out a few weeks early on, ironically enough, May 5th (or "Revenge Of The Fifth").
• Fake Nationality:
  • Babs Olusanmokun is Nigerian; his character, Joseph M'Benga, is Kenyan.
  • Similarly, the New York-born Celia Rose Gooding plays Uhura, who was established as having been born in Kenya.
• In Memoriam: "The Broken Circle" is dedicated to Nichelle Nichols, the original Uhura, who passed away in 2022.
• The Other Darrin: A necessity given that many of the character's original actors have passed on or are too old, but a few TOS characters will have new actors in this series, after Pike, Number One and Spock were originally recast in Star Trek: Discovery.
  • Babs Olusanmokun replaces Booker Bradshaw as Dr. Joseph M'Benga.
  • Celia Rose Gooding takes over the role of Nyota Uhura from the late Nichelle Nichols.
  • Jess Bush assumes the role of Nurse Christine Chapel from the late Majel Barrett Roddenberry (who also originated Rebecca Romijn's role).
  • Paul Wesley takes over the role of Captain (then Lieutenant) James T. Kirk from William Shatner in Season 2 (though he does make an appearance in Season 1's finale first).
  • Adrian Holmes replaces the late James Doohan, who voiced the character on Star Trek: The Animated Series, as Robert April.
  • Doohan's other more famous role as Montgomery Scott is taken over by Matthew Wolf during the Season 1 finale, albeit under the credit of "Engineer". Later in Season 2, Martin Quinn formally takes on the part of the future Chief Engineer.
  • Gia Sandhu plays T'Pring instead of Arlene Martel.
  • Dan Jeannotte replaces William Shatner as Captain Kirk's brother Sam. Shatner made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance with a stick-on moustache as Sam's corpse in an episode of the original series; here, several years earlier, Sam is alive and well (moustache and all), serving as a science officer on the Enterprise.
  • Several roles from "Balance of Terror" were recast, with Matthew MacFadzean replacing the late Mark Lenard as the Romulan Commander, Ali Hassan taking over from Garry Walberg as Commander Hansen Al-Salah (the ill-fated overseer of Outpost 4), Megha Sandhu assuming the role of Angela Martine from Barbara Baldavin, and Ian Rayburn playing Robert Tomlinson instead of Stephen Mines.
  • Desmond Sivan plays Khan Noonien Singh instead of the late Ricardo Montalbán, although it's justified due to it being a child version of the character.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Jess Bush, who is queer, plays Christine Chapel, who is bisexual.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Mariner's admiration for Uhura and the impact she had on Starfleet is like how Nichelle Nichols paved the way for African-American woman to be represented on television in non-stereotypical roles, which led to her inspiring a multitude of women following in her footsteps (such as astronaut Mae Jemison and actress Whoopi Goldberg, both of whom were featured on Star Trek: The Next Generation).
  • Starfleet's treatment of Una after she's exposed as an augment, and their extremely willingness to throw her under the bus, is not unlike how NBC refused to pick up "The Cage" because they objected to the idea of a woman in a command position. The fact Una is Starfleet's literal poster child by the time of Lower Decks and revered as one of the most important figures in the franchise parallels how she wound up being Vindicated by History, both In-Universe and out of it.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Pike's limited screentime in the first three episodes of Season 2 - he is effectively absent for most of the episodes - was due to Anson Mount being on paternity leave.
• Refitted for Sequel: In a way. "The Cage" was the first pilot episode for TOS, but was passed over by NBC and reworked into "The Menagerie" for a framing device. Now, the adventures of Captain Pike and his crew before Kirk's time at long last came to be seen.
• Sequel Gap:
  • Executive producer Henry Alonso Myers has quipped, "My favorite thing I've read about this show has been that if you think of 'The Cage,' the original pilot, as being the actual pilot [for this show], this is the longest pilot-to-series pickup in the history of television." "The Cage" was produced 55 years before this series was officially commissioned. This is further expanded upon in Season 2, as "Among The Lotus Eaters" is a direct follow-up to the disastrous mission on Rigel VII previously mentioned on "The Cage".
  • "A Quality of Mercy" is an Alternate Timeline revisit to "Balance of Terror", produced and aired 56 years later.
• Similarly Named Works: The name Strange New Worlds was previously used by Star Trek Expanded Universe novel licensee Pocket Books for a series of anthologies of fan-written short fiction.
• Surprise Release: Season 2's "Those Old Scientists" was released several days early on Paramount+ after a screening at 2023's San Diego Comic-Con.
• Throw It In!: Jack Quaid ad-libbed the "Riker!" line where he performed the famous "Riker Maneuver" over Pike's saddle as a tribute to director Jonathan Frakes, who helmed "Those Old Scientists." Frakes thought it was hilarious.
• Troubled Production:
  • To an extent, as the series was subject to the whims of the COVID-19 Pandemic, which prevented Jonathan Frakes from directing episodes of the series like usual, and put off production by a few months.
  • The third season wound up being hit by a double whammy of a delay when both the Writers Guild of America and then the Screen Actors Guild both went on strike within a matter of months of one another, right in the middle of Season 2 airing.
• What Could Have Been: See the franchise page
• You Look Familiar:
  • Clint Howard, whose guest starred on numerous Trek episodes since "TOS'' as Balok, appears in "Under The Cloak of War" as Commander Buck Martinez.
  • Bruce Horak, who played Hemmer in Season 1, plays the Klingon Garkog in "Subspace Rhapsody".

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