Fans are wondering when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes place in the timeline. The upcoming series is visiting an uncomfortably packed section of the canon, with there being only ten years between Discovery and The Original Series. So, we have to wonder what year Strange New Worlds takes place.
In what year does Star Trek: Strange New Worlds take place?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 takes place between 2258 and 2264. This places it between Discovery and The Original Series in the timeline, which has fans worried. The series is set on the original USS Enterprise during Captain Christopher Pike’s command and ostensibly will fill in info about a period of Star Trek history we’ve seen little of before.
Knowing that James T. Kirk will be a part of season 2 doesn’t help pinpoint things on the timeline too much. We know from promo shots that Kirk’s rank on the show will be captain. There’s only one explanation since the Enterprise is Kirk’s first command, which he assumed upon promotion to the rank of captain. I’d hate to think they’d retcon The Original Series, so season 2 almost has to be set in the latter part of Kirk’s first five-year mission. The Original Series was canceled after season 3, which means we only saw three years of Kirk’s first voyage as captain on screen. So, I’d guess Strange New Worlds Season 2 takes place sometime during 2269-2271.
Of course, all the above assumes that the showrunners care about Star Trek’s canon at all. Discovery has already shown that franchise runner Alex Kurtzman isn’t opposed to arbitrarily adding and removing things from the Star Trek universe at will, so who knows. Given the fact that Discovery already gave Spock an adopted sister we never hear about again, anything could happen in Strange New Worlds, so prepare for retcons and wacky new character relationships. Oh well, at least we have Star Trek: Resurgence.
