Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has finished its second season on Paramount+ and has been a hit with critics and fans alike since it premiered in 2022. While Paramount+ is full of Star Trek series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brought the franchise back to the roots of the 1960s original series with bright candy-colored costumes, a hopeful optimism, and a return to stand-alone episodic television in contrast with the wider franchise’s move to serialization.

Set after the events of season two of Star Trek: Discovery and roughly a decade before Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows the adventures of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his reliable crew, including science officer Spock (Ethan Peck), first officer Una Chin-Riley aka Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), chief security officer La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), helmsman Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak).

Update September 8, 2023: In honor of Star Trek Day, this article has been updated with even more great moments from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, including episodes from season 2.

Through the course of its first two seasons, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has introduced and fleshed out its core cast, setting up long-term series arcs for many of the characters while adding new dimensions to classic Star Trek icons. The series has also had fun over its ten-episode first season, paying homage to classic Star Trek episodes and playing around with the formula of the various series that have come before it, mixing and matching their different thematic approaches for one all its own, all while being a perfect entry point into the Star Trek franchise for more fans. Season two ended with a major cliffhanger, and fans are waiting to see how it is resolved. With that in mind, these are the best moments from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Credit To Your Species
Paramount+

While the first two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds make for an incredible introduction, it is the third episode where the series truly has its first great moment. In episode three, “The Ghost of Illyria,” it is revealed that Number One is secretly Illyrian, a species of alien who are banned from the federation due to genetically engineering themselves. It is due to her genetic enhancement that she is able to save the entire crew from a rare disease, and she opens up to Captain Pike, who accepts her and tells her that he will keep it a secret from Starfleet. Yet it’s the next moment that is far more revealing.

“You defy every stereotype the Federation has about Illyrians,” Pike tells her, meaning it to be a compliment. However, it’s more of a backhanded compliment, one that informs not only Pike’s own biases but also ones reflective of many members of the United Federation of Planets and the Star Trek franchise as well. The series has always grappled with genetic modifications, from how the villain Khan informs the internalized self-hatred of his descendant La’an Noonien-Singh, to later entries in the franchise with the villainous Borg. The idea of genetic modification is rooted in the Federation’s history, but also one they need to grow beyond, as not everyone enhances their genetics for domination but instead to simply survive. They want a better tomorrow but still refuse to invite everyone to the table based on their own prejudice.

Related: Here’s How Star Trek Represents the Highest Ideals of Humanity

When Number One is by herself in her room, she asks herself, “What would he do if I wasn’t a hero, one of the good ones? When will it be enough to just be an Illyrian?” It’s an incredibly powerful, moving moment, one that is reflective of many minority groups who feel like they have to be the best version that represents everyone who looks like them instead of being allowed to just exist as a person. Star Trek as a franchise has always been political, and one that touches on real-world biases, prejudices, and fears in a high-concept way, and this episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showed the series was committed to examining its franchise history and how it still needs to improve.

Nurse Chapel Reimagined
Paramount+

Less a single moment in the series and more like two episodes, particularly episode five (“Spock Amock”) and episode seven (“The Serene Squall”), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finds a way to drastically reimagine Nurse Chapel into a far more interesting character than she ever was in the original Star Trek series. While part of the original series, Chapel was in many ways an afterthought, and she was reduced to a cameo role in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and has been completely absent from the Kelvin timeline films. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds uses this to their advantage, with actor Jess Bush reinventing Chapel from the ground up and redefining her character as a more outspoken, forward-thinking, compassionate, sexually liberated individual. In many ways, she feels like the most accurate human as depicted by the rules and history that the Star Trek franchise has laid out.

What is most interesting is the dynamic at play between Chapel and Spock throughout the series. Chapel serves as a great foil for Spock, as he is someone who attempts to shut down his emotions, but she is more of a free spirit. What starts out as a friendship in episode five, where she helps him with his relationship problems has grown more flirtatious as the series has gone on, culminating in episode seven, where the two must perform a fake kiss to sell a deception, but it appears to have sparked something between the two.

However, by the time of the original series, these two are not in a relationship, so that means this chemistry between them, one that hints at a deep shared connection, cannot last. Fans got to see this relationship play out in sesaon two, and there were hints of a tragic end. The two still care for one another, but they cannot truly be together.

Aspen Is Angel
Paramount+

Episode seven, “The Serene Squall,” begins with the introduction of a new character, Dr. Aspen (Jesse James Keitel), a Starfleet Counselor who is working with the crew of the Enterprise on a mission to stop a group of space pirates from attacking a space colony.

At the episode’s halfway point, it is revealed Dr. Aspen is, in fact, the villainous space pirate Angel who assumed the identity of Dr. Aspen and left them stranded on an uninhabited planet. The reveal is a great twist, given how the character has helped Spock grow in his own binary viewpoint of needing to be human or Vulcan instead of both.

Keitel gives a great performative shift when the shoe is dropped, switching to a far more scenery-chewing villain role with a swagger and menace not often found in the new Star Trek series. The best villains are the ones that force the protagonist to grow through opposition, and in this episode, Spock is faced with an enemy who makes him question his own sense of identity, giving the character a rewarding existential crisis. This, combined with the reveal that Angel’s lover, the person she is trying to free from a Vulcan prison, is none other than Spock’s brother Sabak (the main villain from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), makes them a villain that the series desperately needs to revisit.

A Story Redefined
Paramount+

Episode eight, “The Elysian Kingdom,” very much plays around with the Star Trek formula, reimagining the set of the Enterprise as a fantasy story and dressing the cast in over-the-top period costumes that feels akin to the days when, in an attempt to save money, the Star Trek series would borrow costumes from one another. There are a lot of great moments here, particularly allowing the cast and crew to act outside their normal roles, with Anson Mount’s Pike cast in the role of a treacherous coward while the tough-as-nails security chief La’an Noonien-Singh is cast in the role of a princess.

While playing around with genre is always a fun exercise, and seeing Star Trek through the fantasy layer is always entertaining, the best moment in the episode comes near the end, when the central character of the episode, Dr. Joseph M’Benga, must let go of the daughter he has been trying to save throughout the season. M’Benga has been trying to cure his daughter Rukiya of a rare disease and has been keeping her in stasis thanks to a Transporter buffer on the Enterprise. The same lifeform that is causing the fantasy also can keep Rukiya alive but only in the nebula, and the Doctor is given the difficult choice: hold onto his daughter in hopes of one day finding a cure, or let her go and let her live a life apart from him, but one where she is happy.

Related: Star Trek Movies in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date

He lets her go, after which Rukiya appears to her father as an adult, having experienced time rapidly, and is able to get a proper goodbye. M’Benga is given a difficult choice for any parent, but while he is not able to save her he is able to watch her grow up and make sure she is safe and happy. It is a bittersweet but touching ending for this story arc.

The Gorn Get An Upgrade
Paramount+

The Gorn is one of Star Trek’s classic alien foes, made famous in Star Trek: The Original Series season one, episode 18 (“The Arena”), where Kirk must do battle with the Gorn. The cheap effects of the series’ limited budget are often a source of unintentional comedy, but it has made the Gorn one of Star Trek’s most famous alien species. The Gorn have been referenced several times and was realized in live-action once more in Star Trek: Enterprise. However, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the species is given a new threatening presence, first in episode four (“Memento Mori”), where they are spoken of but never shown, making the species seem more dangerous.

Episode nine (“All Those Who Wander”) shows the Gorn realized in a new way, now a much quicker and deadlier species, heavily inspired by the Xenomorphs from the Alien film series. The Gorn are shown as a true threat to the characters, as they are not only instrumental in the backstory of La’an Noonien-Singh but also end up causing the death of chief engineer Hemmer, one of the series’ main characters, showcasing that the series is not afraid to kill off one of the key crew members. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was visually and textually able to realize the Gorn as the threat the original series wanted to showcase but did not have the budget to accomplish.

Season 2 stayed away from the Gorn, at least until the season finale. “Hegemony”, which showcased not only a full-grown Gorn but also the true might of the species. The season cliffhanger was a great way to end the series, and certainly, fans are waiting to see how the conflict is resolved.

Enter Captain Kirk
Paramount+

All throughout season one of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the inevitable future of Christopher Pike hangs over the story. This is where the character will end up, and even with knowledge of the future, it is known he cannot change his fate given how Star Trek will eventually play out. The season one finale has fun with this concept, where Pike almost changes history and is shown what his actions will lead to. Pike is transported seven years into the future and finds himself in the middle of a conflict with Romulans, but not just any conflict; what’s depicted is a reimagining of the classic Star Trek episode “Balance of Terror.” With Pike as Captain of the Enterprise, he receives help from the Captain of the USS Farragut, captained by the one and only Captain Kirk, played by Paul Wesley.

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has played around with reimagining classic Star Trek episodes before this, the season one finale (“A Quality of Mercy”) instead opts for essentially remaking a classic episode with a new captain to see how the story plays out. While this could be simple fan service, the series uses it to look at a classic episode in a new light and showcases the various styles between Captain Pike and his eventual successor, Captain Kirk.

In many ways, the episode is a metatextual conversation about the real-life Star Trek pilot process, with the more stoic and thoughtful Captain Pike essentially replaced by the more swashbuckling man of action, Kirk. The series shows that while Pike is a great captain, the galaxy (and the series) will eventually need Kirk and also Spock, whose larger arc in the franchise ties in with the revelation of the Romulans. Pike’s fate might be predetermined, both because of fate and the rigid rules of canon. Yet Star Trek: Strange New Worlds shows that Pike can still do some good with the time he has left, and knowing he has limited time means he needs to work hard to make a difference and protect those he cares about.

A Tragic Love Story
Paramount+

In episode 13 (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”), La’an is accidentally transported into an alternate dimension where the Earth is ravaged by war, and the Enterprise is a military vessel for Earth. She encounters an alternate version of Captain Kirk, and the two then find themselves stranded in the past that led to this alternate future.

The episode is great for a number of reasons, including when La’an has to come face to face with her ancestor, the iconic villain Khan, as nothing more than a young child. Yet what makes the episode stand out is the relationship that develops between La’an and this alternate timeline, Kirk. They fall in love with one another, and she opens herself up to happiness, only to have it stripped away and then told she can never talk about this or risk destroying reality. This becomes a major subplot over the rest of season 2 as La’an must navigate her feelings for the alternate timeline Kirk while interacting with Kirk in the Prime timeline. They look the same and are similar, but they do not share the same history. It’s an incredibly beautiful character arc and one of the most emotionally devastating in all of Star Trek.

Spock Gets Emotions
Paramount+

While Star Trek is often considered a serious science fiction series that tackles complex themes, it is also a franchise that is not afraid to get silly and have fun with itself. After all, this is a franchise that has an entire film where the Enterprise Crew has to travel back to the 1980s to save the whales. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has plenty of great light-hearted episodes, but the best is certainly episode 15 (“Charades”).

Related: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Biggest Surprises and Twists in Season 2

In it, an accident with a powerful alien entity accidentally wipes all the Vulcan DNA from Spock, forcing him to become fully human and truly embrace his human emotions. Viewers get to see Spock deal with being angry, happy, and even aroused in some extremely humorous ways. The episode also sees Spock needing to pretend he is still Vulcan to impress his future in-laws. It is a great send-up to the classic misunderstanding sitcom plots that were popular in the 1950s and 60s that viewers would have seen airing at the same time as the original Star Trek. Ethan Peck also gives an incredibly funny performance that makes it a highlight for the entire series.

Lower Decks Crossover
Paramount+

Premiering at San Diego Comic-Con, episode 17 (“Those Old Scientist”) was the highly anticipated crossover episode between the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks and the live-action Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The episode was released on Paramount+ early, and it was the ultimate delight for fans.

Not only did it feature Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsom playing their Star Trek: Lower Deck characters in live-action, but the episode also featured a fun final segment with the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crew in animation. The entire episode is a love letter to the rich history of the franchise, as it explores the rich legacy of the franchise and how it impacts characters both in the universe of the series and the real world. It’s funny, lighthearted, and a nice change of pace from some of the more heavy episodes in season 2.

Subspace Rhapsody
Paramount+

Easily, the best episode of the entire series goes to episode nineteen (“Subspace Rhapsody”). The first full Star Trek musical, this episode did whatever great musical should do. It featured great original songs that were catchy but also progressed the storyline of the entire series and the character arcs. It can be enjoyed by casual fans as a fun standalone musical episode but is also important to the plot of various character subplots.

The episode pulls off the musical structure in a classic Star Trek way, as the crew of the Enterprise is hit with a wave from a nebula that forces everyone to sing what is in their hearts. To save the day, they must also sing the biggest final closing number to hit the right frequence and stop the entity. This episode features everything that nobody knew they wanted until they got it, from a Klingon boy band to a power ballad by Spock about being broken up with. “Subspace Rhapsody” is a winner from start to finish.