Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Bosses Want a Harry Mudd Episode and Are Still Trying to Get Shatner

Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale, "New Life and New Civilizations." 

Even with all 10 episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' third season at last available to the Star Trek faithful, the mission continues for executive producers Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers: Season 4 has already been shot and is in post-production, and production on the fifth and final season commences on Sept. 15. But the showrunners were able to squeeze in a debriefing session with TV Guide just before showing the season finale episode on the big screen before a live audience. 

And what a debriefing it was: Not only did they break down the finale, they looked back on the long and occasionally Bridge-rattling course that comprised Season 3, offered some tantalizing teases for Season 4, and hinted at a desire to bring back a familiar character from franchise lore. And then Goldsman launched a photon torpedo, noting that hailing frequencies have been tentatively opened for one of the greatest Star Trek icons of all time to maybe, just maybe, if the cosmos can ideally align, beam back into the Final Frontier.

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Closing Out Season 3

The Season 3 finale episode "New Life and New Civilizations" proved to be the most poignant installment of the season, bringing a moving conclusion to the long-developing love story between Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and Marie Batel (Melanie Scrafano), allowing the couple to experience a lifetime as a happy couple with a bucolic family life until, in a bittersweet parting, Batel's new cosmic duties required her to serve as an ever-vigilant eternal sentry in an alternate dimensional plane.

"Part of what we were trying to do with Pike was, what can we express about a romance that is different for a captain on the show?," said Myers, referencing the standard-bearing episode from The Original Series. "'The City on the Edge of Forever,' obviously this is a deep, incredible, heartbreaking romance. And the thing that was challenging for making a show in that era was that the episodes felt more like one-offs. And one of the things that we tried to do is find a perfect level between a one-off and the fact that we can do things in serialized fashion, so we can follow a romance and let it grow and see where it goes and explore things through it and have the characters learn things about each other."

"We ended the previous season on the idea that he's faced with losing someone," Myers continued. "And what he has expressed a lot of emotion about was he assumed that he was going to be the person whose life was going to be over, and he never projected that onto someone who he would be with. And so we wanted to show him struggling with that. Batel and Captain Pike had such a terrific romance that we were sort of like, 'How far can we push it? How can we give these two more time and more scenes together, because they're really great together, and how can we make it so that they learn something about their relationships? How can we make them learn something about their own lives and each other?' That's really what we wanted to show on screen."

"It's an interesting thing, Pike, right?" mused Goldsman of the character's foreknowledge of the tragic, disfiguring accident that looms in his future. "Because if you cut to Pike at 70, then you have clearly entered a different timeline, so we understand that the duration of his life as we know it is limited. So the idea of creating this inflection point where he could have a life within the lifespan… it's like we use [the much-admired Star Trek: The Next Generation episode] 'The Inner Light' notion to create a different set of experiences that then he can bring to Season 4."

The Third Year Mission

Goldsman admits that the third season was easily the most challenging to date, due to disruptions and interruptions caused by COVID and the lengthy writers and actors strikes. "It was a lot of stop-and-start and there were staffing changes as a result of that," he said. "So there was less continuity in the creation of it, and that's sometimes a little more draining." However, as the direction of the season coalesced, even with Strange New World's typically genre-hopping nature, some throughlines emerged.

"We were sort of looking at the idea of monsters from within and without," Goldman revealed. "And as we sort of crescendo into the climax of the season, there's been that sort of runner in the background of there are the monsters we know, and then they're the monsters that have existed before us." 

The show even entered Lovecraftian territory in both the mid-season episode "Through the Lens of Time" and the finale. "Let's get a little Cthulhu in here!" said Goldsman. "Let's get into the idea of what constitutes the world behind the world, even in a high-tech environment and science fiction environment. Not to spoil Season 4, but we're sort of edging a toe into horror, in a way that is informed by some more traditional horror values."

It was by design that, unlike previous Star Trek shows where the captain is typically centered in nearly every episode, the third season continued its trend of offering expanded spotlights for each character and each actor.

"We are pretty firmly committed de facto to the cast and the excellence of the cast," explained Goldsman. "It has always been an ensemble show in a way that is counterintuitive, which is we don't typically try to service everybody; we always try to give people different opportunities to be the lead." While Pike and Spock may vie for the most fronted episodes, Goldsman says, "We try to give everybody one if possible — that's, I think, just the point of the show."

The Logic of Vulcan Love Stories

The showrunners were pleased that one overarching element that felt at one point like a fairly big swing, the developing romance between Spock (Ethan Peck) and La'an (Christina Chong), proved quite popular with a major faction of the audience. When the idea was first broached, Goldsman said, "Everybody, even the studio, was like, "What?" So yeah, it was good that it worked."

Even in The Original Series era, the cooly logical Spock as played by Leonard Nimoy had a potent sex appeal that enthralled many a fan, and Strange New Worlds had frequently tapped that romantic allure with his younger, more emotionally volatile incarnation played by Ethan Peck in his relationships with his fiancé T'Pring, his star-crossed fling with Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and now an unexpected but undeniably steamy situationship with La'an.

"The idea if somebody were to say to you, 'And really the romantic lead of your show is Spock' is very counterintuitive," laughed Goldsman. "And some of that — a lot of that — is really Ethan, who just brings to it this brooding element. And he's very good, and he has his grandfather's voice. The Chapel thing was kind of a fun no-brainer. Where did that come from in The Original Series and what was that weird longing and the gauze through which Majel [Barrett, the original Chapel actress] was always shot as she looked at Spock longingly. But we started to really inhabit, as the actors did, the idea of these relationships, and things started to evolve."

Myers said it was an opportunity to throw a challenge at Peck and Christina Chong, as well as give some much-deserved happiness to the character of La'an, whose backstory is filled with pain. "The tears that she put in Season 2 were so heartbreaking," he said. "Part of me is like, 'This is a character who deserves something good.' We've shown what she has survived and what she has dealt with — let's show her experiencing something completely different." The coupling, he said, made a certain, well, logic: "A character who is very solid and difficult and doesn't want to reveal how she really is, and then someone who puts a clear wall in front of how he feels. To have that come out of each other felt like a great interesting area for us."

Bending Vs. Breaking Canon

Myers said the story-breaking process on Strange New Worlds constantly veers between finding inspiration in different genre styles and reimagining traditional Trek storytelling. "We spend a lot of time thinking about what are the movies that we haven't seen in Star Trek, or what are things that we've seen on Trek done but not done today that we can try."

In that vein, they have not shied away from reviving and both prequelizing and sequelizing elements from The Original Series, notably, in this season, the Gorn and the petulant cosmic-powered man-child Trelane, revealed to be an offspring of the Q. "Trelane was a big one for us, because most Star Trek shows have a character like that — he's a classic character," revealed Myers. "We wanted to be like, 'How can we bring that character in in a way that is surprising and has a slightly different vibe from what he was before, but also is distinct and specific to the show, but also to our era?'" 

"I think continuity is the devil we know," said Goldsman. "And so we're always trying to, as you saw in [Season 3's "Terrarium"], we do a lot to then do some resetting of awareness of the Gorn and how we can start to drive towards the time of 'Arena' [The The Original Series episode that introduced the alien race] and nobody having seen a Gorn, apparently, before Kirk in that moment. So we are always aware of that, despite that there are folks on the internet who are like, 'Just acknowledge it's an alt-timeline and stop worrying about it!' But we don't. We like to try to stay in the Prime Timeline in our imaginations."

Goldsman said some of their reference points are even more arcane that they appear on the surface, such as the experimental holodeck in "A Space Adventure Hour." "It's funny because people say, 'Oh, you went back to Next Gen for the holodeck episode, but we went back to The Animated Series – that's actually where the prototype exists! So we were sort of doing a different kind of well-fishing."

The writers and production have whole checklists of callbacks, Easter eggs and out-of-the-blue nods to Trek canon — even a sly reference to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. "Akiva has been coming up with an excuse to find a way to put whales on the ship, and we also know that that doesn't make any sense," laughed Myers. "But we have this incredible set in the science lab that we built, because it has water running through it. And so there's a moment when they're in our ["Four-and-a-Half Vulcans"] dream sequence and I was like, 'We can do the whales. We can absolutely do the whales!' And we put the whales in there, and they look great."

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Future Tense

The series' unusual production schedule throughout its run has meant that the Strange New Worlds cast and crew have shot each new season of the show before viewers have even seen an episode of the preceding one, leaving the producers with no way of knowing how not just each storyline but the entire season has gone over with its audience. "Actually, I didn't really mind that we hadn't seen the audience's reaction to [Season] 1 when we made Season 2," said Goldsman, but "I would've liked to have seen the audience's reaction to 3 before we made 4."

But even flying a bit blind at warp speed, Goldsman has strong feelings about the pending fourth season. "I think it's some of the very best work we've done. I really do. I think it's just very assured. I think, really, people are all playing their A-game."

Of course, ever since the big reveal at San Diego Comic-Con International that a fourth season episode would involve the Enterprise crew in puppet form, fans have been abuzz with debates over whether such a wild premise could lead to anything from a fresh, rousing success (like the second season musical episode) to the utter ruination of the franchise. The show has tapped the legendary Jim Henson Company to craft the puppets, and Myers is convinced they've found a compelling way to introduce the felt alter egos.

"We've been working with Henson for some time to do construction on the puppets, which has been a really delightful journey," Myers revealed. "The same way we approached the musical is probably the same way we approach the puppets, which is to say: it was really important, we wanted to do a thing that had not been done on Star Trek, and we wanted to absolutely, a hundred percent make it a Star Trek episode. It is a Star Trek episode. If you are familiar with, if you love Star Trek, you're going to be like, 'Oh, they're doing a classic Star Trek episode.' But find a reason within that to do a thing that hasn't been done. That's how we approach it, and I promise you it fits into that."

Myers also points to Pike's Season 4 storyline, which sprang out of having "no idea what's going to go next, because that makes your next season better." Ultimately, he said, "we set up a thing that ended up being a delight to play with in the following season — and by 'delight,' I mean it was genuine emotion that we felt. And by that I also mean that's what we hope the audience will feel, because it's what we felt making it."

Both showrunners remained tight lipped about exactly where the Spock-La'an liaison is headed. "All I can say is there are some great surprises in store that I'm very excited for," Myers demurred. But there's something juicy in the notion that Kirk (Paul Wesley) — with whom La'an had a deeply felt alternate timeline romance with and attempted to spark a connection with, only to discover Kirk was in a relationship with Dr. Carol Marcus — could become a point in a complicated love triangle, given the longing looks he's been casting La'an's way when no one's looking. And Kirk and Spock vying for the same woman's affection would be a Trek first.

"I think there's been forced jealousy, in 'Amok Time,' for example," Goldsman offered. "But the idea of more complex interpersonal relationships and especially certainly sort of male-female relationships, the possibility was always there, but it just wasn't really the grammar and the vernacular of the [original] show." But for Strange New Worlds, he offered cryptically, obviously if they're dating, and now they're dating and everybody's on the same starship, it requires some reaction, both consciously and unconscious."

He also added that the finale episode could be seen as a prelude for a further venture into the horror genre, which to date Trek has only dabbled in. "Today we see science fiction and horror as kissing cousins," he said, and even old school Trek toe-dipped. "[Psycho author] Robert Bloch wrote an episode [The Original Series' "Wolf in the Fold"], but not a lot. And I do think they go hand in hand, and I think space is scary as f**k sometimes."

"Every time we do horror we try really hard to try a different way to do it — different from what we have done before," agreed Myers. "We want it to be interesting, and I promise you there is one that has not been seen in Trek before." 

"I guarantee you there's not an episode next season that is not surprising or different or curious," Myers added. "They're not all funny — but there are many that are funny. And they're not all scary — but there are many that are scary."

Old Foes and Old Friends

Lastly, there are always elements from canon to be considered. Although perhaps not on the table for Season 4, Myers admitted to the writing staff's sneaking fondness for Star Trek's most roguish con artist, Harry Mudd, played in The Original Series by Roger C. Carmel and, as a younger version, on Star Trek: Discovery by Rainn Wilson.

"We've talked about that every season," revealed Myers. "Honestly, there's so many things that we've wanted to do. I mean, we were only doing 10 episodes — and 'only,' I mean, it's actually brutally hard to do those 10 episodes, just to do the prosthetics and the VFX and the builds and the AR wall construction that we do. It's a little bit like doing a feature, so even when you don't get to do a bunch of things, you look back and go, 'Man, that was hard.' But, look, I love Harry Mudd. Love Harry Mudd. Would love to do a Harry Mudd episode."

And then there's the notion — whether it would be for one of Strange New World's fifth season episodes or some other as-yet-unlaunched Trek project — of snagging the biggest get of all. Both Star Trek and William Shatner continue to live long and prosper; could there possibly be a way to bring the OG icon back to the franchise?

"I have tried. I have tried and I haven't finished trying, but it is not for lack of trying," said Goldsman conspiratorially. "And by the way, I think Mr. Shatner has actually been willing and able, and it's just finding the bridge… But I think it's the right question, and I wish I had a better answer. It's still a work in progress."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is streaming on Paramount+.