Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Review: A Grab Bag Of Sci-fi Delights

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The beauty of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has always been that the series, above all else, recognizes that "Star Trek" means something different to each fan. Poll a dozen Trekkies about their favorite element of the franchise and get a dozen different answers. Some gravitate toward the hard science fiction. Some appreciate the action, adventure, and general sense of derring-do. Some talk about the characters, and their dynamics and relationships, as if they're real people. And yes, it's hard to appreciate "Trek" without an appreciative nod toward its silliest episodes and most ridiculous elements.

"Strange New Worlds" wears the chaos of "Star Trek" as a badge of honor. That hasn't changed in Season 4, which sees the series rebounding from a weak Season 3 finale by doubling down on doing what it's good at: Trying to be everything for every flavor of fan.

The six episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4 provided to press for review are, in turn, action-packed and thoughtful, deadly serious and goofy, subversive and sincere, boundary-pushing and as comfortable as your favorite pair of slippers. Not every episode is a total success (and those different flavors of fan will react differently to each of them, one imagines), but each wild swing is always appreciated. Few shows go as hard as "Strange New Worlds" on the "here's something you haven't seen before" front.

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Like with past seasons, the return of "Strange New Worlds" requires little baggage from the viewer. Some storylines do span the season, and key moments from the past are brought up, but each episode tends to be fully standalone, introducing a space problem and solving it just in time for the credits to roll. The Enterprise ensemble, led by Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike, has been together long enough to feel comfortable and familiar. Not quite the A-students of "The Next Generation" or the tortured souls of "Deep Space Nine," but genial colleagues who thrive on creative solutions to bonkers problems.

Any combination of characters generally results in a good time, and the season exploits this to fullest by tossing different subsections of characters into wild sci-fi scenarios that range from apocalyptic to, well, stoner comedy. And I'll just say it: the stoner comedy episode had me, a lifelong "Trek" viewer, howling with laughter even as I knew it would be controversial among other fans. I was not prepared to witness Ethan Peck's take on Spock under the influence, and neither are you.

The resulting whiplash is part of the package with "Strange New Worlds," which asks you to understand that it's on-brand for this show to grapple with a noir-flavored thriller (shot in black and white, no less) about resisting fascism and turn the cast into literal puppets for an hour and go full "Event Horizon" for the gnarliest episode of "Trek" since Picard and Riker blew up that guy's head with the phaser in TNG's "Conspiracy."

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The biggest issue with this approach is that "Strange New Worlds" also reveals how much "Star Trek" craves longer seasons. 10 episodes is simply not enough to fully indulge in this grab bag of ideas and tones, and it's easy to feel hungry for more even after a binge. These short seasons mean there can only be so many heady science fiction conundrum episodes, only so many two-fisted pulp adventure episodes, only so many high concept comedy episodes that feel cooked up by writers without enough sleep and a serious case of the giggles.

By being everything a "Star Trek" fan could possibly want, "Strange New Worlds" is also incapable of delivering a full serving of each flavor. It leaves you wanting more, at all times, a feeling that is both satisfying and annoying all at once. If you watch "Trek" for specific reason, this season will cover that base ... just not often enough. There's just not enough time. 

When I reviewed "Strange New Worlds" Season 3, I based my initial rave review off the first five episodes made available for critics, unaware that the show would hit its first true creative lull in the back half of the season. So while I cannot promise that Season 4 won't follow a similar trajectory, the six episodes I've seen represent a show re-finding its footing. And when it does stumble, you can feel it stumbling on its own terms. And is it really "Star Trek" if it's not gorgeously inconsistent? We've been fighting about the quality of this universe for 60 years. It would be silly to stop now.

/Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4 premieres July 23, 2026 on Paramount+.