Summary
The following contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Strange New WorldsThe cliffhanger ending of theStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 2 episode “Hegemony” shocked many viewers. However, it turns out that this method of storytelling was in the cards for a while, but it was also inspired by a specific classic moment from a previous and belovedStar Trekseries.
Strange New Worldsseason 2concluded in the middle of a botched rescue mission by the Enterprise, with Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his officers attempting to rescue a planet of human colonists from the terrifying new iteration of the longtimeStar Trekantagonist race, the Gorn. The fate of the colonists, and several Starfleet crew members from another ship, rests in balance as Pike struggles to decide his next move. Unfortunately, now fans have a while to wait with the timing of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike suddenly making the cliffhanger’s impact all the more poignant. But aside from the strike, that’s what series co-showrunner Henry Alonso Myers and the rest of the team wanted.
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In an interview withVulture, Myers explained how this heavy cliffhanger was intended as a callback. “The entire intent of doing this episode that way was that we were thinking about the great [Star Trek: The Next Generation] two-parter, ‘The Best of Both Worlds,'” he revealed. “It’s a fantastic end of the season, and it shocks the hell out of you, like, ‘I have to wait until the next season to see the next part!’ That’s all we were trying to do. It was just, let’s surprise everyone, and have this be a ‘Best of Both Worlds,’ let’s hold ourselves up to that level. We wanted people to be shocked and delighted, because I remember experiencing that when I was younger, being blown away and loving it.” The episode in question ofThe Next Generationsaw the Enterprise crew battling the Borg, who have assimilated Captain Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) as their emissary. It featured a similar season-crossing cliffhanger.
That idea has paid off in terms of audience engagement, despite much ofStrange New Worldsavoiding taking inspiration from iconicStar Trekelements. One way they wanted to keep things original was in their depiction of the Gorn, now depicted much differently from previous appearances. Myers further explained, “we wanted to approach the Gorn as they would be done today, which is big, expensive, and complicated. It took a long time to get it right. We designed them in season one, but it’s one of the reasons the Gorn episode fell near the end of that season, because we were doing design work for the whole season to work on it. We knew it would take six to ten months, it just takes forever. And I want to credit our visual-design folks at Legacy Effects because it’s a lot of work and it takes a long, long time.”
However, they still took cues from classicStar Trek, even as far as the big fight betweenEthan Peck’s current iteration of Spockand a Gorn attacker on a derelict Starfleet ship. “It was partly practical, because there was a guy in a Gorn suit,” Myers said of the scene. “We would use a little bit of digital work to add a bit of a snarl to his face, but our people who did the design work were really phenomenal, and the actor who played him was great.” So just like the infamous first appearance of the Gorn in the originalStar Trekseries, it all boils down to some dude in a costume.
Strange New Worldsdoes many things its way, from its depiction ofJames Kirk’s brother Samto an actual full-fledged musical episode. But the show’s roots run deep through theStar Trekfranchise’s history. That’s one reason why fans have been so enamored with what it’s been doing and why they’re so heartbroken over waiting for the next season. Here’s hoping the striking workers have their needs met soon.
Star Trek: Strange New Worldsis available to stream on Paramount Plus.
