There may not be any big casting or casting announcements at San Diego Comic-Con this year, but Paramount Plus found a way to surprise fans. Is releasing the next episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds five days earlier. The episode also happens to be the highly anticipated crossover episode featuring the live-action version of some of the cast Star Trek: Lower Decks. Having already seen this episode, I can confirm that everything is as cool as it sounds.
With the actors on strike, SDCC has been much quieter than in previous years. There aren’t as many star-studded panels and zero big casting announcements. This means that the studios have to rely on something other than the actors’ work to promote their shows, and Paramount Plus settled on this surprising drop.
Episode 7, “Those Old Scientists,” is available now and manages to bring the characters of The lower decka very frenetic animated show, in the more traditional world of Star Trek Strange new worlds extremely well. Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome move seamlessly between the two mediums, and much of their wildness is easily explained because, you know, they’re from the future. Things are just weirder in the future.
The characters of Strange new worlds struggle to match the energy of The lower deck characters, but the actors playing them develop an easy pace that really helps tie the two very different shows together well. Even when it’s extremely stupid, everything looks like Strange new worldsnot like a weird and forced crossover.
This surprised me when I tuned in. I was pre-excited about this episode since it was announced last year at SDCC. I was curious how they would pull it off. A show about a group of extraordinary heroes who travel the stars and save the universe. The other is an often embarrassing comedy about the people who keep the ship afloat while the heroes are out doing heroics. Linking these two tones together could have been disastrous, but Strange new worlds has always been good at transitioning from genre to genre and handling small tonal shifts with aplomb.
Also, it turns out that when you put a bunch of really good, really dedicated actors together on a soundstage, they can do some magic.
With episode 7 airing today, the rest of the rest of the season will air a little earlier than expected. Strange new worlds Episode 8 will air this Thursday, July 27. Episode 9, the musical episode, will air the Thursday after that, and episode 10, the season finale, will air on August 10.
