Strange New Worlds Season 3 - Trailer Breakdown!

[00:00:00] Hey folks, this episode of Open Pike Night was originally recorded as a video, so if you'd like to watch along with us, with the added benefit of visual aid, head on over to patreon.com slash openpike and become a patron at any level. Thanks of course to all of our patrons for their support, and thank you, the listener, for sticking with us. We really appreciate it. Alright, let's get into this.

[00:00:34] Is this thing on? Hello? Hello?

[00:00:37] Welcome to Open Pike Night, the podcast where your personal logs are the prime directive. Patrons, we've missed you. We know it's been a while, but you know what? We thought there's a new teaser trailer for Strange New Worlds Season 3. Who better to talk to about this than you?

[00:01:09] Hell yeah. This is gonna be a lot of fun. You guys, I don't know that I've ever had to pay more attention to like a 90 second teaser in my life. Like, there is a lot happening in this teaser and we are gonna break it down. Not frame by frame, but there are definitely some scenes that we have picked out here that I want to go through with you guys. I'm... There is more happening here than I expected. Would be really cool if we had gotten a release date. I mean...

[00:01:37] Even Nintendo Switch 2 gave out a release date, but like... It says summer? Does that mean like... Do they really not know? After June 21st? They absolutely know. And I was like, okay, maybe it's because CinemaCon is happening and they want to announce it there, but they haven't done that. First Contact Day is coming up and dropping this trailer before that kind of means like, what are you gonna do for First Contact Day, if anything?

[00:02:03] But I could absolutely see a world where they announce the release date on First Contact Day. If you've been in the Discord, you've seen some speculation around that where it can be hard to trust Paramount's marketing arm, among other things. But hey, summer. Like, I can handle summer, okay? Yeah. That's slightly more specific than we've had up until this point for two freaking years.

[00:02:30] So, I'm gonna try my best to keep these in basically chronological order from this teaser, but I did not name them that way. I just named them by what they are in. For example, I have a still named Spock and Chapel Pillows, so that's not gonna help me remember what order it was in, but I've seen this teaser more than once. So, you guys, let's... You said 90 seconds. It was 62 seconds. See? Even there. I'm like, I don't know... Was it? I thought it was a minute and a half.

[00:02:59] It's not very long. Was it? I thought it was just over a minute. It's a minute. It's just over a minute. You're 100% right. Yeah. It is not the longest trailer in the world, but we do open with this very 70s, maybe late 60s style nurse chapel with the double curler look going on. Okay. And a hell of an outfit. Good work, Bernadette. Absolutely. You guys, I cannot wait to get her back on the show to talk about season three. We gotta get her back.

[00:03:29] Like, there are so many questions. And my first question is, so this is paired with like a narration where they're talking about what kind of show this is? Mm-hmm. So what is this? Is this an alternate universe where they know they're on a TV show? Mm-mm. Well, I was trying to pinpoint the voice of the first woman we hear. British voice, right? Yeah. I think it must be an Alien of the Week. Because at first, I assumed this was going to be whatever Rye Starby ends up being, whether it's a Trillane or a Q.

[00:03:57] I was like, okay, he's going to like flash them into this. Hmm. But now I'm thinking it's, I think it's a Galaxy Quest situation. Yeah. Because she's saying, we do this. We reflect our culture in them so they can learn, you know, science fiction. And then it's one of our people's response like, what are you talking about or whatnot? So yeah, I definitely think it's going to be an Alien of the Week. It kind of ropes them into this. My question is, where's Anson? Why is Kurt captaining this starship? Did they... Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:25] Is this the Farragut that they redecorated? Did they kidnap this crew and Anson, or Pike, I suppose, I should say, is coming to rescue them? Like, yeah, what's going on here? And I, like, is it going to be... I don't want to even speak this into existence, but is it maybe a dream? Like, that Pike is having where he's not the captain and, you know, wakes up like, I just had the weirdest dream. Oh, man.

[00:04:53] I trust these writers not to do that. Right. But to your point, this might be... This is really strange and kind of difficult for me to deal with. Okay, I love the big tactile knobs and levers on the bridge. So many big levers. Oh, man. I love the tape reels. I love all the patterns on the screens and everything. The visible circuits on the walls. Yeah. Yeah. And the old school, like, 70s orange plastic on everything.

[00:05:17] This is absolutely like, you know, if your grandmother's kitchen were a starship bridge. But, like, look at Paul Wesley's Kirk in this chair. Wait, wait, wait. Like, I see Melissa. I see Jess. I see Jim Carrey. Who am I looking at? I was going to say, John, this is strangely, simultaneously, the most Shatner Paul Wesley has ever looked and the most Jim Carrey that he has ever looked. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:05:47] I don't know how they crammed that into one frame. But, like, the over-the-top shaking bridge and them falling out of their chairs in this scene is so delightful. And I think, to Cameron's point, it's Galaxy Quest, right? This is Star Trek. I just realized it's reverse Galaxy Quest. It's them taking a real starship crew and saying, you need to be in a TV show. Ah. Right. But it's like, it's the Galaxy Quest tone, right?

[00:06:16] Where they're lovingly making fun of this thing that they so clearly are enamored with. Well, the fashion, I mean, they perfectly blended, like, 1920s Buck Rogers with, like, 60s, 70s original series style. And it's its own thing, but also very reminiscent of everything it's pastiching. Yeah. So it's great. It's great. Good stuff, guys. Absolutely. Is pastiche a verb? It is. We do.

[00:06:46] Verbing weirds language, as Calvin famously once said, in the same frame as Hobbes. Now, we do also have this very quick blink and you'll miss it scene where there's some kind of blue star, maybe a white star, I don't know, going on. But if you look in the very foreground there, that seems to be a crashed shuttle. Sure does. On whatever is going on in this scene. This is like a three-frame scene and I don't understand the context.

[00:07:16] I don't know if this is from the Gorn episode. I don't know if this is from a later episode. I have a lot of questions about it. That is a shuttle. That's not the top of an A cell, right? That's a shuttle? It's definitely a shuttle. Okay. It's marginally clearer in full motion, but I did go, again, I rewound this like nine times to be like, is that a shuttle? And I think it is a shuttle. We do get like a shot of the space station. We're assuming it's probably the one that orbits Earth.

[00:07:46] And within that, possibly, we get another scene of the Spock and Chapel relationship. Now, I know there are going to be people out there very excited to see that Spock's chest hair has returned. I thought of that. Cannon has been restored. But this just looks weird to me, right? Well, he's smiling a little bit. And she's happy. Yeah. Like, this is not where we left them.

[00:08:14] Well, we left them with him risking his life to save her and them embracing and floating away. So, I kind of feel it is where we left them. You think they have a Keanu Reeves speed relationship going on? This could be the thank you sex. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you sex. Any Ariana Grande fans out there? And Wicked. But yeah, for me, again, I still haven't seen Wicked. There's a whole thing about that movie in my house.

[00:08:42] This, to me, feels like it is not reality. Like, if there's anything, you know, there's a lot of hints in this teaser that what we see may not necessarily be what we get as far as, like, official reality of the episode. If there are any episodes where we see something dreamlike or a glimpse at a possibility, I feel like this could be that. Because it just, like, yes, they had a moment. He saved her.

[00:09:11] But, like, these people are very grown up. Are they just going to literally fall back into bed together because they had a stressful day? I don't know. I don't think I vibe with that. But I'm interested to see why these two are in bed. You know. And why Spock's been hitting the shoulder raises so much with the barbells there? Well, it's because his last name is Peck. That's true. Look, if I'm going to have a trademark.

[00:09:40] But we do also, speaking of Vulcans. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait. What else is in this picture? He's got woman sheet. She's got man sheet. Oh, that's true. And this is clearly from the Christopher Pike school of spooning, right? Because the last time we saw Pike spooning, it was the same thing. And he had the sheet covering up the nips. And he was the little spoon.

[00:10:06] But I, yeah, to me, this just feels weird. Like, and not in, like, I don't like Spock and Chapel. But in, like, a, are we really just going to go directly back to will they, won't they with these two characters? Like, it's possible. If Strange New Worlds ends with him waking up in the asylum from Disco Season 2, I'm going to be really disappointed and also kind of impressed. It's like, wow, you just undid so much Star Trek. Yeah. I'm going to be begrudgingly impressed.

[00:10:36] Yeah. But, yes, speaking of Vulcans, we have a single shot of Patton Oswalt. Man. Appearing to be arriving to court someone, maybe? He's got this cool, like, wreath around his neck. He's got roses. There's some kind of golden thing. Are we sure he's not a Romulan? I was just going to ask. It's certainly possible, right? Because he doesn't have a bowl cut.

[00:11:03] Now, part of that could be because it's not possible for Patton Oswalt to have a bowl cut at this point in his life. But... Give me the shoulder pads, man. The shoulder pads are very Romulan. They're incredibly pointy. They're very wide. The other thing, you guys know me. My instinct is to assume any Vulcan we see is somehow related to a Vulcan we know. So I'm thinking, like, Tipring's uncle. Or, you know, he heard there was a thing. And he's like, I got to show up there.

[00:11:30] But I'm also like, why would he bring roses if he were related to Tipring? That doesn't make sense. This is Cybok, actually. Yeah. Finally, Pat and Oswalt is Cybok. I would absolutely accept Pat and Oswalt as Cybok. That's legitimately possible, actually, Cameron. Now that I know he's older than Spock. I'm not hating it. Yeah. Damn. I don't know. I mean, there was the weird romance between him and Angel. Maybe that's who he's bringing the roses for. It could be.

[00:11:58] But why would Angel be on the Enterprise again? Yeah. Now. You know what I mean? Why is Kirk going to be on the Enterprise, like, five goddamn more times this season? Because he's Captain Kirk and the Enterprise is where people know him to be. I don't disagree with your premise. But, like, my point being, like, the character of Angel the last we saw them was not on good enough terms probably to be hosting some kind of dinner on the Enterprise. I think. That's my opinion.

[00:12:26] It's obviously not a fact. We didn't know Patton also was going to be in this season, did we? Is this news here? I don't think so. I don't remember. I think this is, like, a breaking piece of information. Yes. Now, there's a lot still to talk about here. And I'm going to bring this next one up because I have to know if you guys know about the Adosians from the animated series. Do not. No. Do not. Is that a four-handed bartender right there? Three arms, three legs.

[00:12:55] There is no Chekhov in the animated series. I don't know if the reasoning behind that has ever been discussed. I would imagine it probably has somewhere. But one of the bridge stations is handled by Eriks, which is a completely new alien they made up just for the animated series. And he is this kind of alien. Okay.

[00:13:20] And they are obviously celebrating the centennial of the Federation at some point this season. So that's good. Yeah. So if they are, do we think? Why are we saying that? Look at the sign. So behind him it says. United Federation Planet Centennial. Well. By Centennial. Okay. C-E-N-T-E-N. Yeah. Okay. But that's T-E-N-A. So maybe Centenary. Yeah. But point being, this could also be another ship.

[00:13:48] But if it is the centennial or centenary celebration, this could be where we finally get to see a Star Trek Enterprise character. Probably only T'Pol. Because the rest of them are humans, you know. Porthos. It'll be Porthos. Porthos, Phlox, and T'Pol will show up. I feel like I heard you guys are tearing up the floorboards here. Tearing. Oh, nice. Yeah.

[00:14:15] But I'm, again, I'm just beside myself to see another animated series character brought into, or, you know, species brought into live action. Now that we don't have lower decks to bring back callbacks to TAS, I'm glad that that doesn't mean it's just over. Yeah. And this person is making so many drinks. There are going to be a lot of drinking on this episode. Now, here's the big one. The one that's causing all kinds of discourse all over the internet.

[00:14:44] Why do they have a holodeck? Look how excited La'An appears to be for this little exercise. I have questions here, gentlemen. What are your questions? My first question is, is this a straight across holodeck episode? Or is this the, let's go test out the first holodeck ever and something goes wrong? Or is it just, we're going to test out this holodeck and we're going to do a murder mystery? Yeah. I don't know.

[00:15:14] Because it's a very TNG holodeck. Like. Yeah. Because there's a holodeck in the TAS, right? But it doesn't look like this. Is that right? I haven't seen the episode. It's a, yeah, it's a little bit more like generic and vague. And I think Enterprise suggested Klingons had holodeck technology. But again, it didn't look like this. No, it looked like a big rainbow room. Yeah. Yeah. I know that you could have a holodeck, but this is very like the Enterprise D holodeck.

[00:15:42] And yeah, they better be doing something because it's like, guys, I mean, you're doing a prequel. You've got certain toys to play with in the prequel sandbox. Stop stealing sequel toys. Okay. If you want to do, if you want to play with a holodeck, you do lower decks and make a sequel. I mean, personally, like we already know they had holograms going on all over the place in Disco Season 2. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And Pike did order all of that technology ripped out of the Enterprise.

[00:16:10] But for me, like this could absolutely be a holodeck on a Starbase, right? Like this doesn't have to be on the actual Enterprise. This could be their Shore Leave episode. Let's go to the Starbase. They've got a cool new thing we heard about. Or, yeah, they're visiting with, yeah, and like it's a tech expo. Yeah. Maybe it's being shown off at the Centenary Party. Like, hey, here's a proof of concept type thing. Yeah. Yeah, but they've shown, and this is clearly going to be their Elysian Kingdom episode.

[00:16:37] They can do this without a holodeck with the Elysian Kingdom. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see what justification they come up with. Well, and to be 100% honest, like for me, I don't need a justification. We know they have holograms from the season of Disco that takes place before this. And it's like when we saw Elysian Kingdom, we're like, oh, they wanted to do a holodeck episode, but they didn't. They like worked around it this way.

[00:17:02] So, like as a, I don't know what the word is, like an effusive Star Trek fan, I'm like, I'm okay with them just saying, what if we just did a holodeck episode? Like I have no personal problem with that. But I can see why people are wondering about it as far as the canon goes. But I'm also like, hey, if it's going to be fun, do it. And Cameron, look at Carmen LaAndiego. Yes. How are you not excited for this? I'm very excited for this episode. I think everybody in this episode looks amazing.

[00:17:32] Yes, they do. Yeah. Mbenga with the Jimi Hendrix headband and hairstyle. Uhura with like the 70s just flowy gown going on. And I got to say, it feels like Ortegas is like a police lieutenant or something in that outfit. Like she's got the leather jacket. Oh, yeah. She's there for the, she's the, she's the action hero of the murder. Well, I do like that.

[00:17:58] It's La'an who's obviously leading the investigation because as the security officer, she is being the detective in this. Yes. So it is, you know, is this, are they trapped in the holodeck? Is the holodeck trying to kill them? What are the parameters of this? That is all a question. Is the murder an actual dead person? Is the murder a guest star? Is the person who's been murdered a cast member or a guest star? Lots of things to ask about this.

[00:18:25] Like everybody in this scene looks amazing. It looks to me like it's shot on location. Like, obviously that's getting harder and harder to tell these days, but I kind of want to go to this house if it is a real house. And you can just, you just barely see Anson Mount's Elliot Gould impression back there behind La'an's hat. Like this episode is going to be a riot. I'm very excited to see. What do you guys think? Is this going to be episode five?

[00:18:55] Like where we slot our funny episodes in? Well, but that's a, it's got to be a Vulcan funny episode, right? It's a Vulcan episode. Oh, you're right. Yeah. And we know that's coming. So this could be episode seven before things get real. This feels like a seven or an eight. Yeah. Eight. Yeah. I could absolutely see that. It is interesting. We don't seem to see anything from the Vulcan episode in this trailer. I honestly wonder if they were like, people did not like that. Let's go ahead and not include that. Or, you know, we've already teased that. Why do more?

[00:19:25] I do wonder, I mean, it doesn't look like, we know they have Yahtzee in this future. So maybe this is a legit clue holodeck program. It doesn't look like it's a one for one, but there definitely does seem to be some color coordination with the characters. So I wonder if it's like future clue. Plum, greens, carlet, mustard. I mean, they're there. It's professor mustard, though, it seems we have instead. And yeah. So in two reds, because both Laan and Erica. But we'll see. We'll see.

[00:19:54] Two episode title guesses here. Strange Clue Worlds, or they'll just call it Murder Most Foul. I hope so. Oh, God, please. Yeah. Like, Faith said it was a classic. Like, embrace it. Fully embrace it. Don't give us some weird philosophical title. Yeah. I mean, seriously, we're about to talk about Perpetual Infinity on our disco coverage, and I'm like, those two words mean the same thing. Yeah.

[00:20:22] We've had a whole discussion about it in the Discord, and I promise we will talk about it when we talk about that. But right now, what we're here to talk about next, I think we should probably talk about Reese Darby, right? Yeah. Now, so many things here. This, to me, is so absolutely, definitely 100% Trillane from TOS. Because look at this comparison. Here's his outfit. He's got the medals.

[00:20:52] He's got the sideburns. Okay? He's got the cravat. Yeah. I don't know. Kind of. He's still got, yeah. Then you jump back to Reese Darby. Mm-hmm. He's got the outfit. He's got medals. Yeah. He's got sideburns. But he is doing the cutest finger snap I have ever seen in my life. Mm-hmm. I would be very interested if they plan to merge these two concepts. Mariner comments on it in Lower Decks. She's like, well, they had kind of a Trillane thing going on, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:21:21] So it's, I mean, either way, I'm happy. But this is the second thing that is making people ask, like, what are they doing with the canon here? Because Trillane specifically mentions that he hadn't encountered humans before in his episode. And I, you know, Trillane also has a little bit of Melvar syndrome going on from the Futurama episode where his parents get mad at him partway through and they're like, let these people go.

[00:21:48] So, you know, mind wipes, timelines, alternate realities, all of these things are possible explanations. Again, personally, I don't need one. I'm happy to just see a mischievous alien doing mischievous things. Like, I'm here for that. And putting him behind the bar really feels like a Q choice. Like, he would show up. I know, everything except the fact that his Trillane feels like Q in this shot. Mm-hmm. I'm going to show up, I'm going to make myself a drink, and we'll go from there.

[00:22:18] But yeah, I do wonder also if he's going to have more than one episode. I could see this being the source of the, like, 70s Trek pastiche that we looked at first. I have a lot of questions. I'm very happy, very excited. How are you guys feeling in general? I was going to ask, did they say, I feel like, did they mention that he was going to be a recurring character? I meant to look this up before we got on. It may have just said guest star. Yeah. But his IMDb lists a single episode. Okay.

[00:22:48] Hmm. And I, now, I don't know if IMDb is completely accurate right now for a lot of reasons. Yeah, you say it's not leading into the season, yeah. Yeah. But it does list his episode as episode one of the third season, which I'm like, well, that's probably not the case. I think everybody who's in the season, I think it lists until the season drops. Yeah. They're listed. They did that with season two also. Okay. And it wouldn't make sense because, like, obviously episode one is going to be the hegemony episode.

[00:23:16] So I'm, you know, I have my doubts, but still personally very excited. Now, speaking of the Gorn, we do get some hot Gorn action. Yes, we do. In this episode. And before we get to that one, I do have to ask, do you guys think that this shot is from the Gorn episode?

[00:23:42] Because to me, this looks like the Enterprise using its shields to modulate the light in an attempt to communicate or use the light to trick the Gorn or something. Hmm. Because we know the Gorn react to light. Right. This is definitely the Enterprise being used as a channel for energy for something. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. They also look too beat to hell yet in this shot. Like, there's not a lot of battle damage I'm seeing.

[00:24:10] Yeah, this could be, like, the first attempt or, you know, they do have to retreat and then they come back and they give this a shot sort of a thing. That's one thing I'm definitely wondering. Like, they have been ordered to retreat. Will they retreat and then come back and just assume everybody survives? We do get some shots later of them on a Gorn ship on a full-on extraction mission. Yep. But I just, to me, this was the only shot where I was like, I think I can place the context

[00:24:37] for this because every other shot in space, I'm like, I don't know what that is. And I don't know what that is. I'm very intrigued, but I don't know what they are. It's a good guess. Yeah. But yeah, this absolutely screaming Gorn face. I was going to say- I'm so stoked. This trailer has a severe lack of Sam Kirk, but is that Sam Kirk right there? It could be. In the foreground? Yeah. I hope not because whoever it is, it's probably about to get their face eaten.

[00:25:07] I personally, I'm sort of hoping for, was that a predator thing where the predator roars at somebody and then they yell? No, it's the mummy. The mummy screams in Brendan Fraser's face and then he goes, ah, back in the mummy's face. Like, I'm kind of hoping for that. I'll take it. But it does seem like this might be slightly more dramatic and less comedic than that. But I'm just glad to finally know, yes, this is going to get resolved quickly. Yes, we're going to see the Gorn.

[00:25:36] It's going to be a thing. And then my guess would be that after this, we don't see the Gorn the rest of this season. What I was going to ask is all the Gorn stuff all from the first episode? I think so. I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not like they have to destroy all Gorn everywhere and now we don't have to talk about it. It's like maybe this is where the truce gets decided before the Gorn episode in TOS, that kind of a thing.

[00:26:03] But yeah, you guys, the armor, the ship, the gunfight, I'm so completely ready for this. I'm on record as enjoying the new Gorn. I don't care how much they remind people of the aliens from Alien. I'm happy to have it. And now for something completely different. Who is this? Yes. So that's not, it's not, you know, Chapel's fiance, right? It's not that actor.

[00:26:33] No, I don't believe so. I'm pretty sure not. I mean, he's only got a few pictures online, but it's not him. Oh, sorry. The actor announced as Chapel's fiance. This is absolutely not him. Right. Okay. At first I thought it was Angel when it was just flashed by. But obviously stopping it's not. Do we think, much like the title card suggests, this is a romance between him and Uhura? What if that's Chekhov? Oh my gosh, John. That could be Chekhov.

[00:27:01] Isn't Chekhov supposed to be a lot younger right now? But yeah, I think he would. Well, this character looks young. Yeah. It does look young. It could be, but I'm not. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not personally ready to make that call, but if you look at just a little bit later during what appears to be Thanksgiving dinner, same character in the background behind Spock. And I will note here that Laon has completely, what? Food cubes. I know.

[00:27:31] Food cubes in the background. I spotted that. Food cubes. Some kind of alien turkey. Yep. I really hope someone brought that to like Pike's Thanksgiving. It's like, here, I brought something and everyone's just like, oh shit. And there's a scene where he's like, that will not be on my table. Yeah. Just put these over here. Thank you very much. I love the continuity of the same apron. Yeah. Um, I love that Laon is fully embracing her casual identity as the wine aunt. That makes me very happy. That's a giant glass.

[00:28:01] Yeah. She's, she may be a couple glasses in, but yes, this young character back here, he is in this scene and we know that he's flirting with Uhura. So I have a very, very like, I don't know, out there, uh, baseless, whatever you want to call this theory. Mm-hmm. What if this is Ortega's brother? Mm-hmm.

[00:28:27] Because we know, well, we don't know, but when we last spoke with Melissa Navia, she said the word home. Yep. And then she was very quick to clarify that could mean anything. Yes. But usually when you go home, you see family members. And if this is Thanksgiving, it would stand to reason that family members would be invited to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, I don't know that it's necessary for this to be her brother for me to like the

[00:28:53] character, but I'm incredibly intrigued that they teased this character and gave us literally nothing about this person. Like, I don't know who this is. Well, we do have reason to believe that Ortegas has a sister. At least. Not to mean that we are right about that or that they could have changed it to a brother or that she has both. You're right. Right. Right. I'm very interested to find out who this person is. I would imagine that this is not a first episode thing.

[00:29:21] This could absolutely be at the celebration party. I feel like I'm seeing some Admiral dress uniforms there in the background. In the back, yeah. Lots of shininess. I believe in the reverse shot of this, you can see some of the Enterprise crew in their dress uniforms. Now, do we think this character's in Starfleet? He has like ribbing on his shoulders there. Yeah. That's just a fancy. That's like Underworld style. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I don't see a badge to your point. So very, very interesting.

[00:29:50] And yes, what a romantic drink. And look at the charisma on the smile. Okay. So this next one might be Cameron's favorite shot. Well, first let's talk about the Klingons. Let's talk about an order that it comes. So first we see a Klingon with the whip. I'm wondering, is it a Ferengi whip? Ooh. Can you steal it from a Ferengi and start using it on it? I mean, not that we should see Ferengis yet, but that's what it made me think of.

[00:30:17] And then there's a shot of a Klingon that looks zombified. And I was like, that Klingon looks like a zombie. But I was like, well, it's a Klingon. It's a really fast shot. Hard to say for sure. Maybe he's just getting blasted. Maybe he's an injured Klingon. But then right after, and I blinked and missed it the first couple times, but I happened to freeze it on this frame, Jesse. And this is 100% a legit zombie episode. We are getting a legitimate full-on zombie Star Trek episode.

[00:30:47] Bingo running from a zombie, bursting through a door. He's in a hoodie. Like, everything about this is amazing. Is this Starfleet showing up and saying, Joseph, we need your help. There's a problem on a Klingon planet. We're going to send you because of your expertise. This, that, and the other thing. No, he's got to go clean up some mistakes. He's got some sins of the past he's got to make up for. Oh, okay. Starfleet will disavow all knowledge of your actions.

[00:31:14] But I could absolutely see him volunteering for this, to your point, Cameron, to make up for his past. Oh, man. What if they have to do the Rambo thing and ask Pike, do I get to win this time, sir? You know? If they don't give... I know they won the Klingon war, but yeah. But if they don't give Mbenga some one-liners in this episode, I'll be a little... Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:42] As soon as I saw this, like, immediately, Cameron, I thought of you. There are some things that make me think of you instantaneously. And zombies in Star Trek is absolutely one of them. All right. So, let's see. What do we have up next? Okay. So, we also have this very cool, like, retro situation going on with some of the technology. A touch of analog, the title cards tell us. Yeah. And...

[00:32:11] And it took me a while to realize what was happening here. Pellia clearly is, like, has a collection of old phones. Yes. Right? Like... In her room full of, like, old paintings and wooden crates from, like, the 18th century. Yeah. And we've got multiple eras of handsets here. Oh, yeah. Like, there... It's clearly, you know, phones through time. Yeah. 70s, 80s, 90s phones. We're looking at right now.

[00:32:38] So, there's a shot, I think, after this where the Enterprise is getting hit by a wave in space, right? Mm-hmm. It's a very subspace Rhapsody kind of thing. And I'm wondering if that knocks out, like, EMP blast knocks out everything in the Enterprise, and that's why they've got to go analog with these phones. Yes. Could be. Yeah. And it seems like the piloting is not working. Right. So, we've got these manual joysticks here that Mbenga and Una are using. Yeah.

[00:33:08] I mean, they are straight up insurrection style in that they look like they were purchased from a Best Buy. Yes. And placed on set. And Una is saying, like, port thruster ready or whatever. So, obviously, she's got one thruster for one side of the ship, Mbenga's got the other. Erika's up in the bridge. Navigating. Having to navigate. Piloting, yeah. And tell them, like, yeah, give them their orders, and they're flying blind. Like, this is amazing. This is an amazing setup.

[00:33:34] And my question is, do we think this is the Mortegas episode? Because she is in almost every shot with Pellia. Like, she's down in Pellia's room. Yeah. It's over her shoulder on Pellia pulling out the phones. I'm thinking this is her episode. She's centered here. This is not an edited screenshot where I was like, oh, here's these three shots. Let's put them together. No, this is the shot from the trailer. Exactly.

[00:33:59] We're getting 90s teenage bubblegum movie cinematography. And I am absolutely here for it. Also 70s political thriller, but yes. Yeah. And that's, like, obviously some of these things show genre explicitly, right? We've got zombie. We've got old schlocky sci-fi. We've got murder mystery. There's a lot of stuff going on here. And this one, I think, is probably, like, the most...

[00:34:31] What's... How do I... It's, like, the most subtle version of showing us the genre bending, right? Like, it's definitely there, but, like, we're still with our characters possibly, probably in our timeline. It's just that for some reason they need to rely on older tech. Yeah. It is interesting. It's another instance of the crew having to problem solve without Pike seemingly around. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:58] It seems at least two episodes, Pike is not around for the big hullabaloo. Yeah. I... And, you know, Cameron, to answer your earlier question, maybe that's why Kirk is here more than once. Yeah. Maybe. We've got to have somebody here who can sit in that chair. Yeah. How many episodes do we think Kirk is going to be in? I mean, clearly at least two. I'm going to say four total. I think four is probably a good guess. I'm guessing three. I was going to say I'll give the Price is Right answer of three.

[00:35:30] And, I mean, to your point, though, we do have this shot of Kirk and Scott. I've got to assume this is Scotch. Drinking together at the bar. Now, you'll notice there's a little bit of a cut on Kirk's lip here. He's got bruising on his face. Yeah, he's been beat to hell. I personally hope that Scott gave him that cut. I don't know why that would happen. I don't understand the setup. But I could absolutely see them getting into a fist fight and then Kirk deciding, I like this person.

[00:35:59] And I think we make a good team. But, I mean, outside of that... He seems to be in the civvies here. That's what I was going to say. Outside of that, he's not wearing his uniform. Like, what is happening? This is the shot that we have probably the least context for. Sure, yeah. It's clearly at the end of an episode, so it could be any of the ones we've seen him in, having gone through some stuff. I bet he had to fight the... I bet this is at the end of the holodeck.

[00:36:27] Scotty helped them out of the malfunctioning holodeck. Yeah. And where he had to fist fight the villain. We're going to get a Kirk fist fight, actually, is what this screen tells us. That's true, yeah. I'm here for it. We better see him throw a double axe handle chop. Yes. If we don't, it'll be a waste.

[00:36:50] So, John, you said in our initial reaction to this teaser trailer that you think this is going to be the best season yet. Do you stand by that? I do. I do. I think... I mean, they're all great seasons so far. I don't think it's going to be a dud compared to the other two, but I think it will... I don't know. There's enough here that I think will capture people the most so far.

[00:37:12] Well, we know from our interviews that they were still a little like, are we going to pull this off with the musical and the crossover, Lower Decks crossover? And I think the successes of those and having written this after the first season aired, unlike the second season, will give them the confidence. Yeah. Because nothing we've seen here is crazier than those two. So, I mean, I think they're going to go into these knowing what they want to do, knowing they can pull it off, knowing this cast can pull it off. Yeah.

[00:37:41] So, I think it's going to be an incredibly solid and fun season. I'm sure some people are looking at this being like, what's all this nonsense? Why so many genres? Clearly, we're only doing two big genre swings, much like we did last season. Yep. And we'll get a lot of fun space antics as well. Yeah. I'm sure there will be a slow political thriller in there for somebody. Yeah. Some moral courtroom-ass arguments going on. Yeah. With zombies.

[00:38:08] I was going to say, the only other question I had about the mystery party is... Oh, maybe three big genre swings. Yeah, you're right. What better place to bring Neera K'Toole back than a murder mystery? Let's get a lawyer in on this. I just, I would love to see her get to play with the cast. Like, I loved her serious episode. Obviously, she knocked it out of the park. But I'd love to see her have some fun in an episode two. I mean, maybe that, Jesse.

[00:38:34] But maybe what happens is Zumbenga gets court-martialed because of his whole thing with, you know, the butcher of Jagal. He gets Neera K'Toole as his lawyer. They crash land on Zombie Planet and the two of them have to shotgun their way through a bunch of zombie Klingons. I'm here for it. That's what I'm here for. Definitely here for it. What am I kidding? I'm going to watch it all anyway. We're a Strange New Worlds podcast. Well, and to John's point, I think every season has gotten better.

[00:39:03] Like, not to say that the first season is bad, right? It's like they figured out their gears. They're shifting into them every time they sit down in that writer's room. And I'm very excited for this. Like, my hype for it wasn't gone. But I was starting to get, like, depressed. It's been a couple years, man. It's been... Give us anything. Well, yeah. Because by this time, last time, we had heard about the crossover. We had suspicions about the musical.

[00:39:33] So we kind of knew what to expect. With this one, they kind of told us how they're getting out of the end of the cliffhanger. So that, like, excitement was kind of gone. I'm still surprised that that's the teaser. That was, like, the first thing they told us. Yeah. So episode one, we're like, okay, well, we know how they get out of that specific situation. And then there's the Vulcan body swap, which, I mean, I didn't hate. But I'm like, okay, more Vulcan antics. They really like their Vulcan swapping on this series.

[00:40:01] I'm sure it'll be a fine episode, but I wasn't excited for it. I'm excited for a lot of what I see in this teaser. I'm here for it. Absolutely. It definitely feels like this teaser leaned into fun. So what episodes do we know of? We know there's Hegemony Part 2. We know there's a murder mystery. A murder mystery. There's going to be Klingon antics. The 70s pastiche. Yep. 70s pastiche zombie episode. Pretty sure not part of one of those other ones.

[00:40:30] The Vulcan swap. Pretty sure it's not part of any of those other ones. The telephones. The telephone. A drift in space. I'm guessing they're a drift. Like, right? Maroon. Not maroon, but what's the word? Like out of gas. It's an out of gas episode. That's exactly what I was thinking of. Yeah. So that's six. We don't know if the Rise Darby is part of any of those other ones. I'm starting to suspect he's not. Maybe some kind of Federation celebration episode. That could also be this Thanksgiving episode. Yep. Probably. Which I'm only calling it because of the meal.

[00:40:59] I don't know that it will actually be Thanksgiving. So I'd say we know of about six episodes right now. Which means there's kind of four mystery episodes. Maybe one is the Roger Corby. Maybe one's the Trelane or whatever he is. But maybe those are part of the other ones. We don't know for sure. Yeah. It's. I'm completely ready. And I'm really, really glad. Do we think they've got one up their sleeve? They're not. Like, they tried to hide the musical one. Yeah. It slipped out, but they tried to hide that one. I bet they've got one up their sleeve. No, there's sleeve still.

[00:41:29] Which means if this is what they're showing us. Yeah. We've got something big in store. Yeah. But Laon's, Chrissy's one word tease. I meant to look up the other one word teases before this. But hers, I think, definitely ties to that murder mystery. Yeah. Dun, dun, dun. Exactly. I thought that was her being evasive. But now I think that was her being actually completely on the nose. Oh, man. I thought she was just referring to a plot twist or something. But no. Right. That was a great one word tease in retrospect. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:59] And if you want to hear one word teases for seasons of Strange New Worlds that are years away, the best place for you to do that is right here at Open Pike Night. And you know that. Because you're a patron. And we want to thank you so much for your support. Thank all of you. Yes. Does not exist without the audience. And just knowing that there are people out there that want to support this show and help us make it the best that we can is it's the kind of feeling that I never would have expected

[00:42:29] to feel when we started this podcast. And I'm so excited for season three. I cannot wait. And we don't have to wait that much longer, gentlemen. But we don't know how long. Well, it's been a long night. And the Open Pike Night crew has screenshots to obsess over and notes to make for our next disco inferno. So be sure to clean up after yourselves. Be sure to tip your servers. You can go anywhere you want. But you can't stay here.