When Strange New Worlds began in 2022, it was billed as a return to old school Star Trek values: episodic space adventures on the Starship Enterprise, with a Captain pulled from the original series, Spock on the bridge,

Of that equation, though, the deep emotion is missing from Season 3 of “Strange New Worlds,” as is the mirror — even despite a character literally saying in one episode that sci-fi can make us look more closely at our own world.

The structure is episodic, but the character growth is rich From the beginning of its 2022 launch, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds offered a different approach compared to previous entries in the franchise.