‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Team Talk Genres, Puppet Episode

The team behind “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” took the stage at 92NY in New York on Tuesday to delve into what fans can expect from Season 4 of the Paramount+ series.

Series stars Anson Mount (Capt. Pike), Celia Rose Gooding (Ensign Uhura), Melissa Navia (Lt. Ortegas), and Carol Kane (Cmmdr. Pelia) were joined by co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman in a conversation moderated by Variety‘s Joe Otterson. The full conversation can be found below.

After fans got a special sneak peak at the Season 4 premiere, Goldsman said that Season 4 features episodes that play across a number of genres (similar to how the show pulled off that musical episode in Season 2).

“There’s a cadence between kind of classic ‘TOS’ sci-fi thriller and then the thing that actually makes us ‘Strange New Worlds’…which is our worlds are genres,” Goldsman said. “Those are our strange new worlds. It’s the lens that allows us to tell stories in a way that typically, or at least consistently, hasn’t been done in ‘Star Trek’ before.”

Mount said that it was a remarkable experience to have Goldsman and fellow showrunner Henry Alonso Myers ask the cast what kinds of genres they’ve always wanted to act in and then actually let them do it.

“It got to the point where we went from ‘What can they do?’ to ‘What can we give them they can’t do?’” Goldsman said. “And it became a kind of extraordinary circus of the imagination, and everybody was game.”

And while Goldsman said he did not want to spend too much time talking about the show’s upcoming final season, he promised that it delivers a “more singular” and thorough goodbye to the show for fans.

But speaking of genres, it has already been revealed that this season will feature an episode in which the crew of the Enterprise are transformed into puppets. Yes, puppets, made by none other than the iconic Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Gooding said getting to use the puppets was “such a gift as someone who grew up watching all of the puppets that came out of that studio.

“To have our characters immortalized in that same way. It’s wacky, silly, but also incredibly serious and heartwarming,” she said. “It’s so nostalgic but futuristic, which is what ‘Strange New Worlds’ has done from Season 1.”

All onstage also agreed that turning Pelia into a puppet was largely “redundant.”

Speaking of Kane, a living legend across TV and film, she had famously said upon joining the show that she had seen no “Star Trek” series or movies prior to joining “Strange New Worlds.” When asked if that has changed, she carefully said, “I’ve seen…some, but not all. But enough to get a sense of the fact that I’m extraordinarily lucky to be a part of this world.”

“People really care about the tales being told,” she said. “And the tales being told all have hope at the base of them and it’s so hard in our modern world to feel hope. So I’m so grateful to be part of something that — it’s not easy, it’s not pretty, blah blah blah, but there is some hope and heart as the foundation. Because there’s no future without that.”

Mount and Gooding also touched on the fact that there characters are well-established in “Star Trek” lore, but yet they and the writers are still trying to break new ground so as to not simply retread what was done with them before.

“What’s weird about the character is there’s so little of him but he’s so revered in canon,” Mount said of Pike. “But it was great being able to come in and a weird challenge. I’ve never had a character where we know the first act, we know the third act, but not the second act. And I got to come in and flesh that out and it’s been a tremendous amount of fun.”

Gooding again paid tribute to original “Star Trek” cast member Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura across three seasons of the original show and six movies. “We, as a loving audience, know who Uhura is going to become but she doesn’t and we get to watch her find out. And we get to watch her have these canon experiences that establish her as the person she’s going to become and my job was just to fill in the blanks.”

Then taking questions from the audience, the cast were asked what quality of their characters they would like to see more of in the world.

Navia said that she wishes to see more love of aviation and exploration, and that one of her joys working on the show is getting to meet real pilots or those who have become inspired to be pilots after watching.

“I’ve started to dive really deep into the history of aviation and we get to be in collaboration a lot with members of the space community,” she said. “I’ve gotten to work with NASA. I’ve gotten to do some very cool things and when you look at the way aviation started, it was all about people who were taking risks. They were taking risks and collaborating…We were actually talking about this the other day, our friend, an astronaut, Dr. Sian Proctor, she always says, ‘When you solve for space, you solve for Earth.’”

Gooding said she would like to see more “joyous curiosity.”

I think Uhura has a really beautiful way of embracing the unknown with joy and curiosity as opposed to fear and division,” she said. “I think we need a little more joyous curiosity in the world right now.”

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 4 premieres July 23 on Paramount+ with new episodes dropping weekly.