Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 6 – “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is proof of concept that the prequel’s riskiest spinoff plan starring Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) will work. Directed by Valerie Weiss and written by Bill Wolkoff and David Reed, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” is crucial to Star Trek canon, depicting Jim Kirk’s first mission as a starship Captain.

Along with calling “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” an instant classic Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode, fans also perceived it as a possible backdoor pilot to a Captain Kirk spinoff. As they promoted Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, executive producers and co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers didn’t mince words about their hopes to follow Strange New Worlds‘ ending in season 5 with a new USS Enterprise series headlined by Captain Kirk.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6 placed Acting Captain Kirk in command of the USS Farragut. Kirk led a desperate mission to save the Starship Enterprise from a deadly group of Scavengers. Slyly, Captain Kirk was supported by Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) and members of his future USS Enterprise crew. It worked so well that the foundation laid for a new version of Star Trek: The Original Series was both unmistakable and exciting.

Strange New Worlds Proved Captain Kirk’s Star Trek Spinoff Plan Will Work

Paul Wesley Has Truly Become Captain James T. Kirk

Paul Wesley emerged from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6 fully embodying Captain James T. Kirk, and he rallied lingering doubters to his side. Wesley previously portrayed alternate timeline versions of Captain Kirk in Strange New Worlds while also occasionally dropping by the Starship Enterprise as Lieutenant Kirk, the younger version of the Captain Kirk William Shatner portrays in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6 was Acting Captain Kirk’s baptism of fire, and rather than Jim being already flawless and self-assured, Strange New Worlds intriguingly delved into Kirk’s self-doubt and fears. The result was a complex examination of Captain Kirk’s leadership building blocks, and Lt. Spock was right there to boost Jim in his time of need, the first instance in a lifetime of friendship between Kirk and his Vulcan best friend.

The foundation of Captain Kirk’s testy relationship with Scotty (Martin Quinn), Ensign Nyota Uhura’s (Celia Rose Gooding) unshakable loyalty, and Nurse Christine Chapel’s (Jess Bush) trust in Kirk were all laid in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6. By the end, the vision is doubtless and clear: This is Captain Kirk, and this will be his crew. They will become the legends we know.

Strange New Worlds’ Star Trek: Year One Captain Kirk Spinoff Explained

The Spinoff Would Be New Stories About Kirk’s First Year As Captain

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will end with season 5, and the final six episodes begin filming in fall 2025. Striking while the iron is hot, Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are campaigning to continue their wildly popular version of Star Trek with a Captain Kirk prequel spinoff. Goldsman and Myers plan to end Strange New Worlds within “kissing distance” of Star Trek: The Original Series, and they understandably would like to keep the Starship Enterprise warping through the galaxy.

Goldsman and Myers reportedly dubbed their potential Captain Kirk spinoff Star Trek: Year One, and it would pick up where Strange New Worlds season 5 leaves off, depicting James T. Kirk’s first year as Captain of the Enterprise. Unlike Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1’s finale, which was an alternate take on TOS‘s classic “Balance of Terror,” Star Trek: Year One would tell new stories about Kirk’s Enterprise rather than remake TOS episodes.

Star Trek: Year One‘s cast is already in place on Strange New Worlds, with Captain Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Nurse Chapel aboard. Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) could remain as well before Dr. Mark Piper (Paul Fix) briefly becomes Chief Medical Officer. While Star Trek canon demands some Strange New Worlds cast members must depart, TOS characters like Lt. Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) and Lt. Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) could join Star Trek: Year One.

Will Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Captain Kirk Spinoff Happen?

Strange New Worlds’ Showrunners Plan To Pitch To Paramount-Skydance

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ plan to end the series with season 5 seems set in stone. Strange New Worlds is the flagship Star Trek series on Paramount+ and one of only two on the service, along with the soon-to-premiere Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. With two more seasons of both shows to come, Paramount+ has Star Trek content until 2027, but what happens after that is a new final frontier to be explored.

Meanwhile, Paramount Global has new owners. Skydance Media, under CEO and Star Trek movie producer David Ellision, now run the new Paramount-Skydance, and they have announced their commitment to prioritize Star Trek’s feature film franchise and enhance Paramount+ to compete with top streamers like Netflix and Prime Video. The latter means an opening for new Star Trek content on Paramount+.

Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers said that they intend to pitch Star Trek: Year One to Paramount-Skydance executives. What will become of this pitch is anyone’s guess, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ masterminds have some particularly powerful photon torpedoes in their arsenal: Strange New Worlds‘ overall quality and popularity, and the enthusiastically positive reception to Captain Kirk’s season 3 episode.

Star Trek: Year One isn’t a particularly original idea for a new Star Trek show, and it seemed like an uninspired risk – until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 6 wowed audiences. A Star Trek spinoff series led by Paul Wesley as Captain Kirk commanding the Starship Enterprise now seems viable and full of potential. Hopefully, Paramount-Skydance will agree to take this risk with Goldsman and Myers, and Valerie Weiss will return to direct episodes of Captain Kirk’s spinoff, if it happens.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

9/10

Release Date

May 5, 2022

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman

Directors

Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman

Writers

Onitra Johnson