If war does break out between the Federation and Gorn later this season, this won’t be the first time “Star Trek” has chronicled an ongoing war. The last two seasons of “Deep Space Nine” were taken up by Dominion War, about an alliance of the Federation, Klingons, and eventually, Romulans fighting against the Cardassians and the eponymous invaders from the Gamma Quadrant. “Star Trek: Discovery” also featured a brief war between the Federation and Klingons; that war and its lingering scars are the crux of “The Broken Circle.”
However, both “Deep Space Nine” and “Discovery” were rather dark, serialized series; a war plot fit into the pre-established show. The question then becomes, what kind of “Star Trek” show does “Strange New Worlds” want to be? So far, it’s been back-to-basics; the series is about the Enterprise having adventures on the edge of the galaxy, encountering heretofore undiscovered phenomena along the way. The problem the Enterprise crew faces in any particular episode is what’s important, not the connective tissue between those episodes.
We’ve never seen the Federation and Gorn at war with one another in “Star Trek” before. With what “Strange New Worlds” has been like so far, I’m willing to bet that record won’t be broken — at least not for very long.
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is streaming on Paramount+.