Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was hot and quiet. Originally I was going to talk about Star Trek Fandom and the two documentaries, Trekkies and Trekkies 2 today, but I had a conversation with my friend, Aaron, about season 3 of Strange New Worlds and the possibility of more Original Series characters being introduced, given that we've already got Uhura, Spock, Chapel, and M'Benga on the main cast, and Kirk and his brother, Sam, in recurring roles, with Scotty having been introduced in "Hegemony", at the end of the second season. With season 3 premiering on Thursday, I figured that today would be the perfect time to talk about this topic instead. Especially since there's a rumour going around that McCoy is going to be introduced in this season, alongside Scotty. So, let's get into it.
Strange New Worlds has been the most fun I've had with any Star Trek series week to week since I was five years old watching reruns of The Next Generation on CHRO back in 1992. I love Voyager, I enjoy Deep Space Nine and I appreciate what Enterprise was trying to do in the 2000s, but both Discovery and Picard had a rough start, I have a complicated history with Lower Decks, and Prodigy's biggest issue is that Paramount allowed Nickelodeon to have a part in getting the show produced. Strange New Worlds is the Star Trek series that I've consistently been the most excited for, not just season to season, but episode to episode as well. So, last night, when Aaron posed the question of how I think the writers were going to incorporate the remaining Original Series characters that we haven't seen on the show yet, I'd already been thinking about my answer because I'd also heard the McCoy rumour.
Besides McCoy, the main Original Series characters we haven't seen on Strange New Worlds up to this point are Sulu, Chekov, and Janice Rand. Chekov is sort of a take it or leave it character for introducing into the current show, just because that really does depend on whether or not Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers feel like bringing in Chekov as a way to leave the door open for explaining why Khan mentions in The Wrath of Khan that he recognized Chekov even though Chekov wasn't in "Space Seed", since he wasn't introduced until season 2 of Star Trek.
Sulu is wide open for bringing him into Strange New Worlds because he was in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". In that episode he was the head of the astrosciences department, but by the next episode that was produced, "The Corbomite Maneuver" Sulu was at the helm, where he remained until he finally got promoted to captain and given command of the Excelsior in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. So, they can bring Sulu in pretty much anytime they want since there isn't anything saying he couldn't've been on the Enterprise prior to Kirk taking command. As long as they don't try to place him at the helm in any season of Strange New Worlds they introduce him in, if they do it at all.
Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney in the original series, can pretty much be brought in anytime as well. Even though she doesn't get introduced until "The Man Trap", according to the airdates of the show's first season though chronologically she was introduced in "The Corbomite Maneuver", being that Janice was a yeoman during her time on the show, she can easily be placed on the Enterprise or the Farragut or even whatever ship Captain Batel ends up commanding once she's recovered from the events that began with the destruction of the Cayuga at the beginning of "Hegemony" last season. If she doesn't end up dying in the season premiere, "Hegemony, Part II".
In 1985, comic book writer, Mike W. Barr wrote a story called, "All Those Years Ago..." for Star Trek Annual #1. While the framing story took place between The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, the main story takes place when Kirk takes command of the Enterprise and the crew sets off on the five year mission which the TV series is set in. The story disregards "Where No Man Has Gone Before" by having McCoy on the Enterprise as CMO even though he doesn't come onboard until sometime between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Corbomite Maneuver". It also has Sulu as the ship's navigator rather than astrophysicist as he is in the episode.
In September 1986, Paul Kupperberg wrote a story called "Uhura's Story" for Star Trek #30 which also takes place prior to "Where No Man Has Gone Before" while Memory Alpha doesn't give many details, Memory Beta, the Wiki for Star Trek novels, comics and other extra material, says that McCoy is in the main story as is Sulu, though both Lee Kelso and Gary Mitchell are mentioned as being helmsman and navigator. That same month the novel Enterprise: The First Adventure, written by Vonda N. McIntyre, was published and she thoroughly ignored everything about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" by having McCoy as Chief Medical Officer, Sulu as the helmsman and Chekov as the ship's navigator, even though Chekov was either a Lower Decks officer or not even on the ship at that point.
The Autobiography of James T. Kirk by former Enterprise writer, David A. Goodman, which was published in 2015, is a bit more faithful by keeping Doctor Piper as Chief Medical Officer on the Enterprise and placing McCoy's mission to Capella IV, as seen in the episode, "Friday's Child", during the beginning of Kirk's five year mission as captain of the Enterprise.
I mentioned all of this to say that having Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, and Janice Rand, in addition to already having Uhura, Chapel, and M'Benga on the ship in Strange New Worlds isn't a huge problem when it comes to Star Trek canon. In fact, it's the perfect time to introduce these characters in whatever capacity the writers see fit as long as it doesn't interfere with established continuity.
We already know that Kirk and McCoy have been friends since before Kirk took command of the Enterprise. And with Paul Wesley's role as Kirk being expanded in the third season, I see no reason we won't see McCoy during this season or even at some point during season 4 or season 5. With Janice Rand as well, we easily could see her show up at some point before Strange New Worlds ends at the end of season 5. I don't think introducing Sulu in season 4 or 5 will be a problem either. Simply because we never got that much background about Sulu in the original show, so anything the writers on Strange New Worlds do with the character is wide open, as long as he's where he's supposed to be when we first meet him in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
Honestly, I'm really excited for season 3 of Strange New Worlds to start on Thursday. Not just because we finally get the resolution of the cliffhanger that we got at the end of the second season, but because I can't wait to be back with Pike and the crew and see what hijinks they're put through this season. Also, I love the poster they have for season 3. It's like a combination of the posters they had for seasons 1 and 2.
That's all I wanted to talk about today. Like I said, this was a last minute change in the topic I was going to cover this week. But, it's an apt one since the third season of Strange New Worlds starts this week. I've got some movie related topics coming up over on Josh's Geek Cave in the next few weeks, as my friends on The VHS Club Podcast are covering some awesome movies on the show over the next month. I'll be appearing on the podcast to talk about Batman Forever, and then on August 14th, I'll be on the show to finally talk about A Goofy Movie. So, I'll be talking about Batman Forever on Josh's Geek Cave this week, and over on The Star Wars Journal, I'll be talking about something. Then, join me back here on Saturday for my review of the first two episodes of season 3 of Strange New Worlds. So, until then have a good evening and I will talk to you all later. Live long and prosper!
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