# Star Trek Strange New Worlds season three {summer 2025} **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [April 2, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541 "2025-04-02T21:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/141 "2025-09-03T01:29:26Z")
They both have eccentric deliveries, but Cage seems different to me. I think Nick Cage and Colin Farrell have similar deliveries, but Colin does it with an Irish twist. Shatner is not that different from some other 50s/60s series leads like Robert Stack in the Untouchables. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/142 "2025-09-03T01:36:07Z")
I really don’t mind Shatner’s delivery, and probably wouldn’t have noticed it if people didn’t make fun of it, but it reminds me of the way classic movie stars acted back in the day. The only thing that really stands out is the contrast between this sort of classic delivery on Shatner’s part and what I would call the realism on Nimoy’s part. And that kind of surprised me because I expected the original Spock to kind of play it up like he was some kind of automaton, and instead he seems really wise and grounded, and thoroughly believable. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/143 "2025-09-03T06:14:19Z")
You know, I’m the contrarian on this episode. I liked it, and I’ll tell you why. As aliens in full costumes go, it wasn’t bad for it’s time. I had no trouble with its looks. I was a TOS fan from the early 70’s (wasnt’ quite born early enough for the original run), so I had no trouble with somewhat marginal effects anyway. I thought the Gorn race was interesting and genuinely possible, unlike the weird xenomorph mash-up of the current Gorn. It’s not hard to imagine a strong but slow-ish lizard race, particularly if it was functioning in a cooler-than-normal environment. We don’t know how hot their native planet is, so it could have been operating in the equivalent of a Midwest winter. I enjoyed Kirk being stripped of modern tech and having to depend on his wits to overcome a stronger, implacable opponent. That’s the essence of every TOS conflict anyway: They don’t gadget or technobabble their way out, they come up with clever or sneaky ways out. The source of the conflict was morally ambiguous. The Federation was just doing their normal thing, but they accidentally built an outpost in an area the Gorn considered theirs. In this scenario, the Federation meant no harm, but you could see where a powerful foreign entity building bases in their territory could be seen at a dangerous threat to the Gorn. A far cry from the modern day Gorn that want to fucking EAT us. _Now,_ _I_ _don’t want to get off on a rant here,_ but I got grievances with the clown-show that is the modern-day Gorn, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t take this opportunity to subject you all to them. 🙂 1. How in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy does the modern Gorn make ANY goddamned sense as a species? They’re an intelligent, technological species that HATCH ON A PLANET AND ARE LEFT TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES? They’re just left to kill whatever they find, including indulging in cannibalism, all the while learning nothing of speech, writing, math, the empathy and cooperation that a functioning society requires to. . .well, BE a society and not a battle royale? 2. And the adult Gorn, instead of populating said planet with a domesticated beast like Gorn cattle, or combative but easy-to-breed non-sentient creatures like Gorn dogs, cats, etc, seek out sentient, technological races to feed to their young, thus making them a target of EVERY OTHER SPACE-FARING RACE IN THE GALAXY? 3. At some point, they come back to the planet, scoop up the unsocialized, cannibalistic little psychos, and begin to socialize them? Teach them language, cooperation, how to use technology and sit up straight at the table? HOW? They’re supposed to teach them all this while, somehow, not being eaten? What does a Gorn grade-school look like, with the teacher explaining multiplication tables whilst trying not to be eaten by a zerg rush of students? 4. How were the Gorn race FIRST taught language, agriculture/animal husbandry, math, socialization, the wheel, fucking FIRE? Who was the first group to pick up the juvenile cannibals and teach them everything needed to live in a technological society? If this is their life cycle, how did this first group of sentient socialized Gorn develop while living on the last-Gorn-Standing planet, and then leave the planet? They just didn’t try with this race. It can’t be a thing, it can’t ever have evolved to this point. It makes no logical sense. There’s a lot of info out there about Vulcans, Orions, Andorians, etc. Have they attempted to logic their way into how this race could have evolved in any reality? Say what you want about the original Gorn species in, “The Arena”, they could actually have evolved into what we saw. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/144 "2025-09-03T07:07:27Z")
Not to mention that the whole message of “the Arena” is, “Those aliens are just like us, even though they look kind of scary, and we’d get along if it were not for meddling godlike beings”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/145 "2025-09-03T08:27:37Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > They’re just left to kill whatever they find, including indulging in cannibalism, all the while learning nothing of speech, writing, math, the empathy and cooperation that a functioning society requires to. . .well, BE a society and not a battle royale? There are a few aliens in science fiction who only develop sentience after puberty. The whole “Leave the kids alone to fend for themselves until their brains start working” notion isn’t new to SNW. Using planets of neighboring intelligent species who possess world-destroying weapons as their breeding grounds is kind of new, though. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/146 "2025-09-03T08:28:59Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > You know, I’m the contrarian on this episode. I liked it, and I’ll tell you why. I don’t think you are the contrarian in the episode, I think the condiment mustelid is. At least, I had always assumed that _Arena_ was a generally well-liked (if campy) episode. It is definitely one of the most famous, most recognized ones. Inspired one of the most quoted lines in _Galaxy Quest_ [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QQzg1vpxnnY/maxresdefault.jpg "Guy's Rudimentary Lathe") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQzg1vpxnnY) He has a cameo on TBBT [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ArNYAMb2yYQ/hqdefault.jpg "no gorn no that's where i sit") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArNYAMb2yYQ) It really is an iconic episode. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/147 "2025-09-03T08:44:15Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > There are a few aliens in science fiction who only develop sentience after puberty. The whole “Leave the kids alone to fend for themselves until their brains start working” notion isn’t new to SNW. I knew I had mentioned intelligent species with r-strategy reproduction here before, it turns out that was about the Gorn, too: > [@Star Trek Strange New Worlds trailer and now begins Streaming 2022/05/09](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-trailer-and-now-begins-streaming-2022-05-09/960804/347): > > Behavior patterns for the young can be different from those for adults. This type of thing isn’t unprecedented in real [r-strategy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory) (or semi-r-strategy) species. Sharks, for example, eat each other in the womb, but that isn’t normal for the adults. In fiction, similar behavior is used by the [Prador](https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Prador) in Neal Asher’s Polity books, the [Martians](https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/stranger-strange-land/analysis/martians) in Stranger in a Strange Land, and [Harry’s species](https://residentalien.fandom.com/wiki/Harry_Vanderspeigle%27s_species) in Resident Alien, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/148 "2025-09-03T13:11:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I knew I had mentioned intelligent species with r-strategy reproduction here before, it turns out that was about the Gorn And there are other types as well. In the [Legacy of the Aldenata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Aldenata) series, the Posleen are mostly semi-sentient, with only a relative few developing higher cognitive abilities as they get old enough. The older Posleen just keep the kids in pens until the smart ones develop the outward signs of intelligence. Scott Sigler’s [Galactic football league series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rookie_(novel)) has one species that always has multiple births, about 8 per birth, but birth order determines their relative status. The first born becomes the guy in charge, because he selectively cannibalizes bits of their siblings. Like, the next few are castrated, and become warrior types, and then a few are made into drone worker types, and they’re all hormonally attracted to following the leader, who is the smartest among them. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/149 "2025-09-04T14:52:24Z")
This week’s was very predictable and boring until the very end. But then even that was a retread. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/150 "2025-09-04T16:31:03Z")
Definitely not one of the light episodes! Part Arena, part Darmok, part Enemy Mine. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/151 "2025-09-04T16:34:19Z")
From the second we saw it was a Gorn, it was clear exactly what was going to happen. My main complaint is that giving your captain false information, risking the ship and thousands of other lives, is a big deal. Tolerating that without major consequence? No. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/152 "2025-09-04T20:11:38Z")
I am unfortunately increasingly disappointed with this season. Good it’s not another goofy ep. But it also is not one with any fresh ideas or new things to think about. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/153 "2025-09-05T04:47:33Z")
I’m glad, “Terrarium” (I somewhat regret that the name wasn’t, “Terrorium” 🙂 )wasn’t a silly episode, which I don’t have a problem with, EXCEPT I think now we’re up to around 25%-30% of them being silly. I liked that that Erica was stranded on a really alien-looking moon and not Vasquez Rocks. It’s nice to have a budget, but it’s a shame that, with 10 episodes a season, they’re recycling old sci-fi plots. If they were going to do this one though, Erica was the right character to do it with. Only La’an would have been as interesting, or more so, in that situation. Maybe Captain Batel, but she’s not a core character. One of the things that made, “Enemy Mine” work was that the two pilots were stranded for a long time. I think it might have worked better (to me, at least) if they had left Erica to deliver the vaccine, then came back for her. Give them a couple weeks. The timeline was somewhat fuzzy, I thought(I think it was left deliberately vague, except for the occasional, “We have to help the colonists!”), but it seemed like a couple days. It occurred to me the TOS benefited from the golden age of pulp and sci-fi periodicals that took place in the decades before the show premiered. All this seasoned, honed sci-fi talent like Harlan Ellison, Robert Block, and Jerome Bixby, eager to finally tell their stories in a visual medium. Nowadays, it’s harder to be original, and the talent is diluted among many, many more shows. . .and it seems like many writers take the job because it’s a job, and not out of love of sci-fi. I feel like that’s where we get sci-fi with ‘Rule of Cool’ stuff rather than sci-fi that stands up to examination. Finally, back to my earlier Gorn rant in another post, I don’t think the fact that the, “let the kids fend for themselves awhile” plot has been used in other fiction addresses my argument that it’s not a viable strategy to develop a sentient, technological race. I suppose I’m thinking too much about it, and I should repeat to myself, “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.” Rule of Cool and all. . . ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/154 "2025-09-05T05:49:23Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Robert Block, Gah! That’s obviously “Bloch”. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/155 "2025-09-05T08:53:40Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > This week’s was very predictable and boring until the very end. But then even that was a retread. > [@DSeid](#): > > I am unfortunately increasingly disappointed with this season. Good it’s not another goofy ep. But it also is not one with any fresh ideas or new things to think about. > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Nowadays, it’s harder to be original, and the talent is diluted among many, many more shows. . .and it seems like many writers take the job because it’s a job, and not out of love of sci-fi. Let’s all pause for a moment, center our katras with a cleansing breath, and reassuringly repeat to ourselves, “At least it’s not Discovery.” ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/156 "2025-09-05T14:00:41Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Nowadays, it’s harder to be original … Your points are well made, but let’s face it, most of our stories have been told before. They can still be covered in creative new ways. Lots of great early sci fi was cribbing storylines from … the myths, Shakespeare, Westerns, so on. This show is just limiting itself to related genres and Trek lore. > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > strategy to develop a sentient, technological race And FWIW that I don’t mind. There can be many different ecologies than earth’s. It really is not that difficult to imagine one in which this very alien one makes could result. High birth rate. Long life span for those fewer who make it past the early development phase. Feeding on potentially competing civilizations or species in earlier evolution preventing them from reaching as much of a threat. But coupled with dormancy cycles like locusts. They just aren’t so interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/157 "2025-09-05T14:11:56Z")
If I had to rank all of the episodes of SNW, this may well be last on the list. Monologuing isn’t easy for any actor, but the actress who plays Ortegas is particularly unconvincing at it. And is there anybody who’s seen the TOS Gorn episode who didn’t guess the identity of the lights in the distance and what they were up to? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2025, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/158 "2025-09-06T12:38:53Z")
There was a reference in this episode to something called Division 12. The implication is they investigate paranormal stuff. As far as I know this is the first time it was ever referenced in Trek before. I wonder if this is a set up for some kind of X-Files type Star Trek show? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/159 "2025-09-07T02:31:30Z")
I didn’t - I even had read the spoiler above and it didn’t quite dawn on me. For one, why would they need to appear as ‘lights’ at all? I liked this version of the Metrons alot less - I did like that their power was well demonstrated (unlike in the aforementioned Arena) - but in Arena, they just wanted to be left alone - this time, they set up a test because they were curious. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541/160 "2025-09-07T03:37:11Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > There was a reference in this episode to something called Division 12. The implication is they investigate paranormal stuff. As far as I know this is the first time it was ever referenced in Trek before. I wonder if this is a set up for some kind of X-Files type Star Trek show? Interestingly (for certain definitions of “interestingly”), the Division 12 line of dialogue was omitted from the closed captions. That’s some strange phenomena right there. Maybe Division 12 was a last minute add that someone thought of late in production. Or maybe whoever does the captions just fucked up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-three-summer-2025/1016541.md?page=9)