No, Strange New Worlds is not a book. It is, in fact, a TV show. But I pay the bills ’round these parts, so I reckon’ I’ll write about what I want. The long dead period of onscreen Trek was not made better for me by the Abrams verse and early offerings like Dicovery and Discovery, but then came Strange New Worlds and I fell in love with onscreen Trek again. I watched season 1 in 2022 with wonder and rapture, and I’ve just finished watching season 2 and am offering spoiler-free reactions. In general, this was a stellar season, and I am genuinely impressed by the creativity, the fanboy flourishes, and the balanced attention on each character. I genuinely can’t pick favorites among the SNW crew, Pike aside. La’an is the character I’m watching most carefully now given her development this season.

S201: “The Broken Circle”. Chief La’an Noonien Singh, who took a departure to take care of a young girl the Enterprise crew rescued from some hellish aliens in season 1, sends a distress call to the Enterprise. She’s out in the boonies — boonies controlled by the Klingons despite not being part of the Empire — and has discovered a plot to reignite the bloody war between the Federation and the Klingons. Solid intrigue and action.

S202: “Ad Aspera ad Astra”. The first of season 2’s “The One Where ____________”, deliberately channeling show-types reused in the previous serials, this is “The One with the Courtroom Drama”. At the close of season 1, First Officer Commander Una (aka Number One, from “The Cage”) was arrested and accused of being genetically modified. “Ad Aspera” sees her defended by a civil rights attorney, exploring the limits of the law. There’s a twist in the midst, and the episode leads to an emotional connection later in the series.

S203: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”: Security Chief Singh randomly encounters a dying man in a corridor, and he thrusts a device into her hands that throws her into an altered timeline. She and the alter-Kirk (who is the captain of the United Earth Ship Enterprise in this timeline) investigate and are thrown further back into time, to …..Canada. Exciting, funny, and moving towards the end. Solid emotional drama when Singh realizes the nature of the timeline’s alteration. Could possibly be regarded as SNW’s “The One Where They Visit Present Day Earth For Some Reason” episode, like scattered episodes of TOS, DS9, and VOY.

S204: “Among the Lotus Eaters”: Enterprise discovers evidence of cultural contamination on Rigel 7 and investigates, but both the ship and landing party are effected by radiation that wipes their memories. Has one wondering how they’re going to get out of this, but the ending gives Erica Oretgas (she flies the ship) a nice moment.

S205: “Charades”. Here we move to brilliance. Spock is involved in an accident, and mysterious aliens ‘fix’ him by…..removing his Vulcan DNA, so we get to see Ethan Peck playing a version of Spock that has his memories and learned habits, but who is wholly subject to human senses and whims. It’s thoroughly hilarious, especially after he discovers bacon, but made tense by Spock having to take part in a Vulcan ceremony that will decide his future marriage to T’Pring.

S206: “Lost in Translation”. A Uhura episode that’s very “Devil in the Dark”, shall we say? Also features Jim Kirk, who is serving aboard the Farragut, and acting as his captain’s liason aboard the Enterprise. Classic Trek mystery, and George Kirk gets a rare moment to shine.

S207: “Those Old Scientists”. The long-awaited Lower Decks | Strange New Worlds crossover. After salivating over the idea that he’s standing where Spock once stood, Ensign Brad Boimler accidentally engages (well, technically Rutherford did) a long-dormant portal that spits him from the 24th century into the 23rd, from cartoon Trek into real Trek, landing in front of Captain Pike, Spock, and Commander Una. Although Boimler tries to behave, the manic energy and — shall we say poor disicpline? — of the Cerritos crew come out in a big way, especially after Mariner tries to come to Boimler’s rescue. It’s hilarius seeing Cerritos antics on the same stage as serious-intense Strange New World writing. I enjoy Lower Decks, making this rival “Charades” as a runner up favorite. There’s a lot of intermixing of Lower Decks and SNW here, so that the show opens with the Lower Decks title sequence, but using Enterprise instead of Cerritos, and ends with a LD-animation scene of the SNW crew.

S208: “Under Cloak of War”. The arrival of a Klingon ambassador to the ship forces Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel to confront their trauma from the Klingon war. Definite shades of “The Siege of AR-558”, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”, and a dash of “The Wounded” — that O’Brien scene, anyway.

S209: “Subspace Rhapsody”. IT’S A STAR TREK MUSICAL EPISODE. IT’S SO GOOD. WATCH IT MULTIPLE TIMES.

S210: “Hegemony” One villain Strange New Worlds has given new life to is the Gorn, who are no longer just lizard-monsters but Predator-like horrifying antagonists who reduce intelligent viewers into teeny tiny little mice-mammals, nervously snatching snake eggs and looking everywhere for imminent scaly death. “Hegemony” opens with an independent-but-Fed aligned colony being invaded by the Gorn, and the Enterprise has personal stakes in going against Starfleet orders because both Nurse Chapel and Pike’s captain-girlfriend were on the ground when things went sideways. Stirring end to the season.