Posted in: Paramount+, TV | Tagged: captain kirk, James T. Kirk, paramount plus, paul wesley, star trek, strange new worlds

Strange New Worlds, Wesley Offer Star Trek Fans a Complicated Kirk

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds digs deep to find new layers to Kirk that, for the first time in decades, go beyond just fanfic hopes.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a show founded on nostalgia and fan fiction, which has been equally popular and divisive amongst fans, who always liked to argue. What the show needs is to find its own feet in reconciling fanfic, the tropes, and structures of classic Star Trek with the current trend for more personal, emotional stories about the cast. This week's episode, "Lost in Translation," finally tackles the matter of properly introducing this continuity's Kirk after the teases from the two alternate timeline versions of Kirk in previous episodes.

You could call this episode "Kirk Begins." As the newly-promoted First Officer of the U.S.S. Farragut, Kirk is the youngest No. 1 in Starfleet and is already on his way to becoming a legend. Paul Wesley plays this younger, looser version of Kirk with a greater air of mischief but a hidden layer of melancholy. The writers of Strange New Worlds found a new depth to James T. Kirk that was always there but never fully articulated. They take as their cue a short speech from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where the older, sadder Kirk (William Shatner) reacts to his son, saying he never truly faced death.  Kirk admits that "I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing…" That speech was written by writer-director Nicholas Meyer, who introduced new emotional depth to Star Trek that every writer since has tried to instill in the franchise to varying degrees of success.

In "Lost in Translation," Kirk may be a maverick, a hotshot hero who likes to win, but his real mission has always been to beat Death. As he tells Uhura, they all know that Death is inevitable, but every time they save people, or themselves is a victory. Kirk's real war is with Death, and that's what drives him to save as many lives as possible. He's a daredevil, a womanizer with the luck of the devil who can steal a save from reading the environment and the odds, but it's his knowing that eventually Death will win that gives this new version of Kirk an extra layer of poignance. This is what good writing does: find depth in a character that can inform them for years to come. His speech to Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) about death is what brings the story together as she, Una (Rebecca Romjin), and Pelia (Carole Kane) deal with the loss of Hemmer (Bruce Horak) via a Science Fiction high concept and Star Trek moral dilemma that unites the themes of grief, loss, and empathy through a Science Fiction high concept and the solving of a Star Trek moral dilemma. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has found some serious footing.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is streaming on Paramount+.

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