Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Kirk, paul wesley, star trek, strange new worlds, The Original Series

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Paul Wesley on His Favorite TOS Episode

Star Trek: Stange New Worlds star Paul Wesley explains why The Original Series episode "City on the Edge of Forever" is his favorite.

Captain James T. Kirk is probably one of the most grounded characters in science fiction, and it's largely thanks to creator Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek: The Original Series star William Shatner. While Chris Pine reminded franchise fans of his youthful exuberance and stoicism in the Kelvin Timeline Universe films starting with the 2009 cinematic soft reboot Star Trek, Paul Wesley is the true torch bearer on the television front playing the pre-Enterprise Kirk on Strange New Worlds on Paramount+. While he's a lieutenant on the U.S.S. Farragut, the new Kirk already has interactions with the current crew headed by Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). Wesley, who has a recurring role in the series, spoke to Instyle about his favorite Star Trek episode and why it resonates with him.

Paul Wesley on Why He Loves Time Travel in Star Trek

"My favorite episodes, in general, are the ones where they time travel or go to Earth," The Vampire Diaries star said. "There's one specific episode that I love, 'City on the Edge of Tomorrow.' I love that episode. I love Kirk's moral dilemma of meeting somebody who he can't sort of take with him when he goes back to his timeline and the world that he lives in. I thought it was a really powerful episode. And also just something about Kirk and Spock being fish out of water in the past or on Earth. [There] was just something really special about breaking free from being on the Enterprise and going to Earth. And we actually did a little bit of that in season 2 of 'Strange New Worlds.'"

The plot of "City on the Edge of Forever" finds Bones (DeForest Kelley) in a drug-induced state traveling in time to alter Earth's history. Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) have to travel back to stop him thanks to the Guardian of Forever, not knowing the subject who has to die is someone Kirk falls in love with. We have already seen Wesley's Kirk time travel in an alternate reality with the Enterprise chief of security in Christina Chong's La'an Noonien Singh, who finds her present altered in the episode "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." After finding a dying time traveler, he leaves her with his device as it becomes the means for the two to travel back to the 21st century to prevent the murder of her relative, the infamous Khan Noonien Singh, in Toronto. For more on Wesley's life and career, you can check out the interview here. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

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