Filmed October 2, 2026

Transcript for Thoughts on Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Sitty Chatty

 Welcome back to another Sitty Chatty with Amelia Desertsong. Today I wanted to talk about Strange New Worlds, the Star Trek show that has been going for four seasons on Paramount Plus. I really don’t subscribe to streaming services anymore. I basically have decided that YouTube is the only one I’m willing to pay for because that is both my videos and my music service that I use.

But thanks to Walmart Plus, I had three free months of Paramount Plus, so I decided to catch up on seasons three and four of Strange New Worlds. I am not really the biggest fan of NuTrek. I don’t hate it like a lot of other people do. I ended up watching that Section 31 movie. I didn’t think it was atrocious or anything, but it was Guardians of the Galaxy-like, and it was just very corny.

I feel like they had some good concepts. I think that it wasn’t even a bad movie. It’s just like Rowan Coleman said, who talks about a lot of sci-fi stuff, “Who was this movie even for?” It’s just weird. Star Trek just doesn’t have an identity anymore, and it’s kinda sad. I really do like what they’ve done with Strange New Worlds.

Season one was really good. Season two was very up and down, and I did not like the way they treated the Gorn and turned them into these animorphs. I really didn’t like that Season three had ups and downs too, but I’m gonna be honest, I think the sillier episodes were actually the best episodes of season three and four.

There were a couple episodes I didn’t care for. There was one horror episode, I can’t remember if that was season three or four, that I really didn’t like, and it just got really extra gruesome for no reason. Then in season four they had the storybook episode … If you hadn’t seen the first season, the storybook episode was awesome, but the second one, it was like they did a sequel that didn’t need to be made, and that episode I actually fell asleep.

That’s how much it bored me and how stupid it was. And there were just a lot of other episodes where it’s like, people’s lives in danger that you know aren’t gonna die, and it’s just … One of the things I really hate about just series in general these days is that there’s always people in peril that you know they’re not gonna die.

It’s just this false dilemma, and I really hate that. I don’t like that in television shows. Unless there’s some purpose and some lesson to be learned from it, and in many of them there isn’t any lesson to be learned. Whereas the funny thing is the fun, more fan service episodes are actually the better ones,

so I actually do have some notes about this. I was talking about how I have always really liked Anson Mount as Pike, and I’ve always really liked Ethan Peck as Spock. But we’re also at a point now where there can only be one more season of this show because they kind of wrote themselves into a corner.

And there will be a fifth season, but it’s only gonna be six episodes. They apparently were gonna just do a two-hour movie and just call it quits, but yeah, they’re gonna end up doing six episodes instead of a two-hour movie. I don’t know that I’m gonna keep subscribing to Paramount+ though.

The way that the Walmart+ thing works is you get three free months and then you basically have to pay for it again, and then every three months you pick a new service, and Peacock is the other service. So I’m not really that interested in Peacock. I know there’s a lot of interesting stuff on there, but I don’t like having all these streaming services.

Basically if I can’t get it on YouTube then I just don’t care about it or I’ll just get it on DVD or rent it through YouTube. But yeah, it’s just there’s nothing really on there. I can watch old Star Trek, but it’s just when I watch older Star Trek now, I just get sad because the older stuff is just so much better written.

The thing is, I actually really like the cast of the series. I really like Ortegas. Her character’s really grown on me the last couple seasons. I really like her. Jess Bush as Christine Chapel is just– She is just gorgeous and a very artistic and very bright person.

I’ve always really liked Jess Bush. Celia Rose Gooding has really come into her own as Uhura to the point where I actually hope that they bring Paul Wesley in to be Kirk full-time, James Kirk full-time, and continue the adventures of the Enterprise. I know it might seem a little strange, but I think that Paul Wesley and Ethan Peck have great chemistry.

I can see them going forward with that. Even if they don’t make a series, and they just make like little TV movie type things, that’d be cool. And as I said, Celia Rose Gooding has just really ran with the role of Uhura. I was fine with her the first couple seasons. The last couple seasons, though, she’s really grown into the character to a point that Nichelle Nichols would be really proud of.

I really like Mbenga’s character. I forget who plays him, but he’s really good. I know that we’re not really gonna see him past this series. I am curious to see who they might get to play McCoy. That’d be pretty neat. I actually would hope they bring Karl Urban in, but I don’t know if that’s gonna happen ’cause I really liked him as McCoy in the new Trek movies.

I know that Emily’s favorite character on the show, La’An, who’s played by Christina Chong, who I really like as well. I’d love to see her actually do more music, ’cause she’s a fantastic singer. I really like her too, and I thought it was cute that they had her and Spock kind of have a thing,

like, it wasn’t a serious thing. I didn’t have a problem with that. They didn’t overdo it. There’s also a thing between Uhura and Scotty that was cute, which is something that we saw at, in the later Trek movies, , definitely come to pass. So I’m very curious to see what happens in Season 5. I will just subscribe to it just if I have to, just to see what happens.

So I wouldn’t really call this a review. I just wanted to talk about the fact that this is easily the best of the new Trek series. I like Starfleet Academy. I watched three episodes of it, and it’s fine, but it’s just not holding my attention. I think my problem with it is that it’s set in the 31st century, so it’s in the Discovery timeline, and I don’t know, it’s just, The Burn was such a nonsensical thing when you found out what actually caused it.

And, the concept of The Burn was such a cool idea, and they just blew it. And Starfleet Academy is in competition with this war college, but the way that they run Starfleet Academy is so militaristic that it might as well just be the war college. So to me, it’s like Starfleet Academy is essentially a war college that calls itself Starfleet, but they’re just slightly less assholes than the war college.

I don’t know. It’s just the premise is cool. The idea is cool. I mean, they’ve been talking about doing a Starfleet Academy show forever. But I don’t know. I don’t know if this, this concept’s gonna last. They have a really good cast on there too. I really like Holly Hunter as sort of the, the lead commissioner lady.

She apparently plays someone who’s hundreds of years old. So she’s pretty cool. I don’t know, the show just …  it’s not a bad show. The writing’s actually halfway decent, but it’s just not really for me. So I’m really curious to see what happens with The Strange New Worlds conclusion, because honestly, I think that they have some great characters.

I really would like to see La’An actually be on the new show too. I don’t know how the heck that would work, but I think she’s probably just gonna move on and go into music, which would be awesome, ’cause, you know I love singers. I’m people… I don’t know if you knew that. But yeah, unfortunately that’s gonna probably be the end of her story in season five, so I’m gonna be kinda sad to see her go.

I think Ortegas might end up still being in a future series. I really like the guy, I forget his name, the guy that got to play young Scotty is really cool. Although he’s not really young Scotty because the ti- the timeline as I understand it, this is only like season four is only a year before Jim Kirk takes over as captain, and

Then Pike has his accident. So I’m very curious to see how they end this. I really am. I’m always curious if they’re gonna bring back the alternate universe Trek people. But anyway

My problem with these new Trek shows is a problem that a lot of new shows have, which is they always have to have a big bad, and I hate that. I am totally fine with having character arcs. I actually really like character arcs. I’m totally fine with having serial storytelling , especially on streaming where it’s not really an issue anymore.

It’s not syndicated. But you don’t need to have this big bad every season, and season three’s big bad just made no sense. So I’m really glad that in season four they made it more like traditional Trek where it’s more episodic, but there’s also still little sub-storylines. I love how Kirk and Spock’s relationship has developed.

It’s a little silly, but season four was very fan service heavy, but it didn’t really bother me. It kind of felt like I was watching old Star Trek, but the 21st century version. And I think that Strange New Worlds is the one bright spot of new Trek. There are things I really like about Discovery.

I actually thought that setting it in the 31st century to begin with would’ve been a better thing to do, because what’s funny is a lot of my ideas that I’ve had about a Trek show set that far in the future are very similar to what they ended up actually doing. So I don’t wanna spoil it, but let’s just say we found out what caused the Burn.

It was stupid. It was very dumb. Very, very dumb. And it just was not satisfying, and it just made me physically ill to the point where I never wanted to watch New Trek ever again. But Strange New Worlds, the way season two ended, I didn’t really care for. I thought that the season three cliffhanger resolution wasn’t very good.

But as I said, I think overall seasons three and four were pretty decent. I think it’s the best television I’ve watched in a long time. I know there’s supposedly a lot of really good shows. It’s just that I’m just not a TV person anymore. I never really have been. But when you put this show up against DS9 and TNG and Babylon 5, and I still haven’t gotten to see The Expanse, or some of these other shows that people really like.

I stopped watching the Foundation series on Apple because I did not like the way they took the story, and I’ve actually read the first five Foundation books. I tried reading one of the prequels, and I just couldn’t get into it. Yeah, I didn’t like the way they went with it. That’s the problem is these new shows, it’s like they’re just trying to do all these things that they think will appeal to broader audiences, and they just make very strange choices.

And let’s just say the choice that they made at the end of season three, I can’t remember if it was season three or season two. But the, the end of that I stopped watching, I didn’t like the way that they went with the villain. Because the way it happens in the book, it’s not very dramatic.

It’s not very exciting. But the way that Asimov wrote it is the way I feel like it should’ve been concluded. And it took one of my favorite characters, actually took my favorite character on the whole show and subverted her in a way that I really didn’t like. So, if you’ve seen the show, you’ll understand what I mean.

I just can’t get into new sci-fi and I, that’s why I just watch YouTube and I just watch video essays and stuff because it’s just… I’m sorry, I can’t get into television anymore. But I really do hope that after Strange New Worlds they continue with Kirk and Spock and Uhura and Scotty and hopefully they find some way to bring La’an into things too.

They could shoehorn her in there I’m sure. It would just be kinda cool to have a new original Star Trek because the people that they have are fantastic and they just have a great cast and the writing has actually gotten a lot better too. I think one of the good things about Paramount getting bought by Skydance is I think they brought some people in that weren’t there before that have made a big difference.

I’m not the biggest fan of Alex Kurtzman, but he does have good ideas. Yeah, I’m kind of hopeful about Star Trek. It’s one of those things that I literally grew up with it. The show TNG came out when I was four months old.

So I literally grew up with TNG and DS9 and Voyager, and I never really got into Enterprise. I’ve tried watching the whole series again, and that series , it never really worked for me. I feel like that Jolene Blalock as T’Pol really got the short end of the stick. It was a very cowboy show, and it worked for some people.

It didn’t work for me. You could say original Star Trek was like that too, but it was just done better. It’s just we live in such a time of so little hope and so little faith in humanity left that, just watching Strange New Worlds made me feel better. And it’s just sad that it kinda has to end because it’s just the way things are set up.

I don’t think they’re just gonna stop it with Season 5. I think they’re gonna have another spin-off series. I really hope they do. And then, of course, it could completely suck, but I have faith. The cast is there, the concepts are there, and it’s the best, it’s the best Star Trek that we’ve had in a long time.

Season 4 of Strange New Worlds is better than anything that Enterprise did other than the Mirror Universe episode. I love the Mirror Universe episode of Enterprise. I just absolutely love that episode. To me, it’s one of my all-time favorite Star Trek episodes. It’s not my favorite, but it’s up there. So yeah, let me know what you think about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or the other shows and what shows are you watching.

Maybe I’ll check ’em out if there’s something that I can watch on Paramount+ especially. I do need to watch the new South Park stuff. I just haven’t really been motivated to, But I probably will. I’d love to hear about your favorite shows. Television is just not really my thing.

But I wanted to make a Sitty Chatty about this because I figured, “Hey, why not?” I have thoughts about it. Why not share them? So talk to you soon.