These podcasters hereby are vindicated for their intuitive observational skills: Strange New Worlds is officially stepping outside of the familiar bounds of classic Star Trek and stretching into new territory. This episode took a particularly steep left turn and dipped into the science fiction/horror genre, more specifically grounded in material created in the 80s.
Listen to our latest episode below as we explain…
Listen To This Episode:
Synopsis Of “All Those Who Wander”:
The U.S.S Enterprise crew comes face-to-face with their demons – and scary monsters too – when their landing party is stranded on a barren planet with a ravenous enemy.
There is a rich history of 80s sci-fi/horror and it’s arguable the writers chose the two most popular franchises to pay homage to Alien and Predator. This revelation most likely isn’t news for most of the Star Trek-loving internet, but we’re going to talk about it nevertheless.
It’s unprecedented for a Star Trek show to pay homage to any outside franchise. There isn’t an example that these podcasters can think of where any kind of pop culture is referenced, except for it falling within science fiction itself.
There might be those who argue the references are unintentional, that any time there’s a monster that impregnates its eggs into a live humanoid host after which the young explode violently and fatally out of said host that there are always going to be resemblances to the Alien franchise.
These podcasters choose not to take that stance in this instance. The young of the Gorn look almost exactly like the alien from Alien(s).
Then there’s Predator. The point-of-view of the young Gorn portrayed in this episode is too close to be considered unintentional, with the quasi-thermal vision and the deep, guttural repetitive breathing the Gorn exhibits. To defend this aspect of the show as original is laughable at this point.
Please know these podcasters aren’t complaining. In fact, we’re encouraging impulses like this. It could have ended up as trying too hard or overly corny, but they hit the nail on the head in evoking the style. Every element of the episode was fantastic to watch. They nailed it. Again, it’s strange seeing stretches this drastic this early in the show’s run. If someone said it was sweeps, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Keep it up Strange New Worlds!
