Star Trek: Strange New Worlds just dropped its fourth season. The Paramount+ series hit July 23, 2002, with the first episode. Ten new chapters. All at once. Or close enough.
Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Golds run the show. They call it their finest work yet. They lean hard into genre mashups. Think ‘90s time travel. Think haunted ships. Noir crime. Utopias that aren’t utopias. And yes. Space dinosaurs.
Why start Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 with space dinosaurs?
The premiere episode is titled “Valles Marineris.” It features dinosaurs. Obviously. But also a time-travel hook that feels ripped straight from a VHS tape found in a thrift store bin in 1999.
Myers says they wanted to come out swinging.
“It’s hard to come up through the ‘ which films came out in that era, some which my partner is directly responsible for,” Myers told Space.
He admits the pressure. A premiere needs a premise. It needs to stand alone. But it also needs to set up the rest of the year. How do you do that?
By making something cool.
“We started talking about doing dinosaurs,” Myers says. “We were like, ‘Yeah, let’s figure out how to do that.’ Then it became a question of how to fit all this into the same box.”
They fit it. The episode works as a standalone adventure. It also serves as a gateway to the weirdness ahead.
Is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 scary?
One episode leans into horror. Hard.
It’s called “The Griffin Incident.” It’s gruesome. Unsettling. A ghost story on a starship.
Myers says he watches Akiva Goldsman’s face when they finish a horror scene. Goldsman is the north star for fear on the set.
“I always look to see his reaction if we feel like we’ve hit it,” Myers explains. “Every season we’ve tried to do one… But we haven’t quite done something like this.”
Goldsman loves horror. But he doesn’t watch much of it anymore. Getting older makes the jump scares less fun.
“The older I get, the harder is for me to watch,” Goldsman admits.
Yet he understands the rules. He sees the potential in mixing Star Trek’s open-hearted optimism with something darker. Something Lovecraftian.
There is a cadence to it. A sense that something lives behind the world. Something not so pleasant. They built the episode like a horror movie. Shot it like one. It’s nice and scary.
Which Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 character arcs matter?
The action matters. The scares matter. But the crew’s inner voyages are what keep people watching.
Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura takes center stage here. She started as a new recruit. Now she is in charge. More.
“She manages to risk her life and save in ways we haven’t seen screen,” Myers notes.
He loves her journey. She looks at who she is. She looks at who she was. There is emotional weight there. Real stories about growth.
Goldsman points elsewhere. Sickbay.
He focuses on Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel. Their relationship beats in the back half of the season deepen both characters. Jess and Babs play them beautifully. Goldsman thinks it helps explain where everybody is going.
He is looking forward to it.
The season is out. The dinosaurs are here. The ghosts are real. You just have to press play.
Who is Uhura really becoming? Watch and find out. The ship doesn’t wait. Neither do the horrors waiting in the dark.
