Anybody who has even visited this blog knows how I feel about Star Trek. And as much as I love Lower Decks, Discovery, Prodigy and Picard (though don’t even get me started on how much season three is blowing my mind!!) Star Trek: Stange New Worlds – Season 1 had me completely enraptured.

While the series still allows for season-long thematic and character arcs it returns to the episodic format of The Original Series, The Next Generation and Voyager. After introducing the new versions of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck) in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, the characters spun off into their own show set aboard the USS Enterprise ten years before Captain Kirk takes command.

We are introduced to new characters, at the helm, Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), for security, there’s La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong), yes that Noonien Singh – he was part of her extended family, the Aenar engineer, Hemmer (Bruce Horak), Kirk’s brother, only glimpsed in Operation: Annihilate! George Samuel Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) as well as legacy characters Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Chapel (Jess Bush), M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Kyle (Andre Dae Kim).

There are plenty of nods and Easter eggs, but the series very quickly makes this version of the Enterprise their own. Anson Mount’s interpretation of Pike is one of my favourite Trek portrayals ever, he’s a captain wrestling with knowledge of his own fate, and how that affects every decision he makes, and how he confronts life.

Each member of the cast gets plenty of moments to shine, truly making it an ensemble show, and if one part didn’t work, it would make for a glaring fault, but everything works. It pops, it’s incredibly watchable and embraces the big ideas of Trek while delivering the human adventure.

And now, it’s available on physical media from Paramount Pictures, DVD and Blu-ray. It’s available to take home and explore. The new release is a glossy three-disc set that delivers gorgeous pictures and sound ( I love this version of the Enterprise!). Everything is vibrant, and sleek, forming a bridge between what we know to expect from The Original Series, and the modern take on the time period we’ve been introduced to with Discovery.

And then, of course, there are the extras. I love the behind-the-scenes stuff, seeing how things came together and are created, and this collection doesn’t disappoint. The first episode of the season, aptly titled Strange New Worlds features a commentary by Anson Mount and creator Akiva Goldsman. Yes, please!

A number of episodes feature deleted scenes that are accessible in the episode menu, and then there are the bonus features like Pike’s Peak, a fifteen-minute tag-a-long with Anson as he takes us through his personal journey through the first season. Mount is likeable, professional, and seems like the perfect guide to this new Enterprise.

Then there’s World Building which introduces us to production designer Jonathan Lee and the use of AR Walls to extend sets to create all the strange new worlds, and parts of the Enterprise herself that it would not have been cost-effective to have built. It’s a stunning advancement for television and film production and levels the entire franchise up.

And finally, there’s the completely engaging Exploring New Worlds, an hour-long exploration of the season, the storylines that filled it, the character arcs, and the actors who brought them all to life. All of the cast and crew take their obligation to the series, and the franchise with a lot of honour, but, equally important, with a sense of fun, embracing the adventure they are on.

The collection also includes as an extra The Original Series episode, Balance of Terror, I won’t tell you why if you haven’t seen the series yet…

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a fantastic entry into the ever-expanding universe of Star Trek, and I loved it all. I can’t wait for season two, and can’t wait to see how the series and this crew of the Enterprise boldly goes…

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available now from Paramount Canada (now if only they could get me on set, to sit in THAT chair). Check it out!