‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Builds Spock and Kirk’s Friendship
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is largely the story of Christopher Pike’s captainship. But season 3 moves us towards Kirk and Spock.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds does not fit perfectly into the continuity of Star Trek: The Original Series. But like that meme where all the blocks technically fit into square hole, the shape is exactly close enough to squeeze in. Pike will go onto his melty doom. Uhura is a communications officer. We have know things about Spock’s love life which don’t negate what we knew before.
And of course there’s James T Kirk, first officer of the USS Farragut. Technically, he only meets Pike when Pike is a Fleet Captain. And in “Lost in Translation” that is technically the first time (in the main universe) that Pike and Kirk team up.
Whether or not SNW fudges with continuity beyond that remains unknown. However, even if Kirk and Pike have no face time for the remainder of the series, there’s still room for Kirk to connect with other Enterprise crewmembers. We know he supports Uhura. He also seems to have some romantic vibes with La’an.
But Kirk’s biggest historical pairing is with Spock. There’s a reason the O.G. slash ‘ship is those two. They love each other. Something Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has the chance to do is tell the origin story of that love.
And it turns out, that’s exactly what the creative team plans to do.
Courtesy of Paramount Plus
Paul Wesley Speaks
At this year’s STLV (a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas), new Kirk actor Paul Wesley dropped by for a panel. In addition to talking about past roles on shows like The Vampire Diaries, Wesley also revealed some new information about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. And during the panel a fan asked Wesley about the future of his Kirk and Ethan Peck’s Spock.
“Yeah, it’s a slow burn,” says Wesley. “It’s nice to have the characters slowly get to know one another, because that friendship is so important to this series. It’s really nice to [get] sprinkles and hints of what’s to come. Hints of how connected they will be, even though they could not be more opposite. Kirk and Spock are very yin and yang in a good way. But we explore that. The short answer is yes. We very much explore that in season 3. But I think we intentionally let it slowly build.”
In the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds we do see some connection with Spock and Kirk. Most notably at the end of the episode “Lost in Translation” we see Spock, Kirk, and Uhura all hanging out together. We’re already seeing this blossoming relationship and it sounds like we’ll see even more in 2025 when SNW’s third season drops.
There is, however, one other interesting factor to consider…
Courtesy of Bad Robot
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Vs. The Kelvin Timeline
In the main continuity we know a lot about Kirk and Spock from a certain point in time onward. But the only time we see how they meet is in the Kelvin Universe. And what’s interesting about that is the nature of that introduction—they hate each other.
If you haven’t seen the 2009 Star Trek movie in a while, the way it connects Kirk to Spock is by having Kirk break Spock’s Kobayashi Maru test so Kirk can win. And then Spock gets Vulcan angry. In fact, Spock gets angry, period. There’s even a point where Kirk antagonizes Spock on purpose until Spock freaks out and screams in front of the entire bridge crew of the Enterprise.
Yes, over the course of three Bad Robot era movies, that relationship grows into a friendship, but what’s relevant is that this version of Kirk and Spock begin as mutual antagonists. Will Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follow a similar tactic on the road towards chosen brotherhood? Might they fight before they friend? It’s possible.
We’ll find out when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts its third season in 2025.
