Pike and crew to return in new Strange New Worlds series!

Wishes have been answered; CBS have heard the call for a Pike TV show, following the immense success of bringing back Pike, Spock, Number One and the USS Enterprise in Discovery, and have today announced a new spin-off series, Strange New Worlds.

The series will bring back Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock, with the promise to "explore new worlds around the galaxy" "in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise", and Anson Mount declaring the series "a classic Star Trek show, that deals with optimism and the future".

The three main cast members made the announcement in this uplifting video:



The series premiere has been written by Akiva Goldsman, from a story by Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Goldsman, Kurtzman and Lumet will all be executive producers, alongside Henry Alonso Myers, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth, and co-exectuive producers Aaron Baiers, Akela Cooper and Davy Perez.

On the announcement Alex Kurtzman commented:

When we said we heard the fans’ outpouring of love for Pike, Number One and Spock when they boarded STAR TREK: DISCOVERY last season, we meant it. These iconic characters have a deep history in ‘Star Trek’ canon, yet so much of their stories have yet to be told. With Akiva and Henry at the helm, the Enterprise, its crew and its fans are in for an extraordinary journey to new frontiers in the ‘Star Trek’ universe.

Akiva Goldsman noted:

This is a dream come true, literally, I have imagined myself on the bridge of the Enterprise since the early 1970s. I’m honored to be a part of this continuing journey along with Alex, Henry and the fine folks at CBS.

And CBS All Access's Executive Vice President and Head of Programming Julie McNamara said:

Fans fell in love with Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck’s portrayals of these iconic characters when they were first introduced on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY last season. This new series will be a perfect complement to the franchise, bringing a whole new perspective and series of adventures to ‘Star Trek.’

The series will of course be coming to CBS All Access in the US, although it's not clear how far along in production this is yet; if for instance it might come before the Section 31 spinoff previously announced? At this early stage international distribution hasn't been announced beyond "the series is distributed worldwide by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group", although I believe Netflix has rights to direct Discovery spinoffs, so my expectation would be it goes down that route.

Also unknown at this point is who else might feature in the series, with much of the expanded Enterprise crew already introduced in Discovery and Short Treks, I'm sure plenty of other actors will be keen to return too. Plus there's the possibility of other 23rd century characters returning such as Harry Mudd and the Klingons from Discovery, or any TOS characters they might recast.

We get a taste of those possibilities in the comic series Aftermath, which has already told us the story of the Enterprise right after the end of Discovery season two with a very enjoyable continuation of the Klingon arc. For more from Disco-Enterprise we also have the Discovery prequel novel The Enterprise War, set before season two, and the handful of Short Treks episodes. I live in hope that the CBS production team have come across the superb Early Voyages comic series from the 90s, and incorporate some elements of that version of Pike's crew too!