This post contains minor spoilers for Star Trek: Picard season two.
The upcoming Star Trek ongoing Strange New Worlds is all about making the familiar seem new and interesting. The series stars Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, the predecessor to the U.S.S. Enterprise’s most famous skipper, James T. Kirk. He’ll be joined by other updates to well-known Trek characters, including Rebecca Romijn as first officer Una Chin-Riley aka Number One and Ethan Peck as science officer Mr. Spock.
With that in mind, a recent conversation between Mount and his podcast co-host Branan Edgens is much more than the usual small talk. Broadcast via Instagram, Mount and Edgens chatted about the next season of their podcast The Well, a series of interviews about the nature of creativity. As the two hosts vamped through technical difficulties, Edgens asked his friend about recent happens with the show.
“It’s really good,” Mount responded, sharing that he and his wife had watched the first three episodes and found it as exciting as he had hoped. Mount goes on to indicate bits of news sure to reassure Trek fans, such as the strong friendships formed among the cast members and the smooth production within Covid protocols. The actor noted that he and other members were doing “pick-ups” – reshoots of extra material to smooth out episodes during editing
But the most tantalizing reveal occurred when Mount talked about the episode he had not yet watched. He excitedly shared with Edgens that he and his wife planned to watch episode four later that evening, the one of which the creators are most proud.
“I’ve been hearing amazing things [from] the network, fellow directors,” Mount enthused; “Everyone has been saying episode four is really special.”
Mount wouldn’t say more about that episode. However, some hints may have slipped through the rest of his conversation with Edgens. In particular, Mount mentioned some Star Trek-related interviews he did for The Well, including one with Brent Spiner.
Spiner would be a perfect guest star for Strange New Worlds. After all, the actor reprised his role as Data for the first season of Star Trek: Picard and is playing Adam Soong in season two. While Picard takes place in the 25th century, Strange New Worlds is a prequel to The Original Series, set in the mid-23rd century. But that time disparity certainly doesn’t rule out a Spiner appearance. Thanks to interference by Q (John de Lancie), Picard season two sends Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) and his team across time. It stands to reason that Data or Adam Soong would also be thrown into the time stream, maybe dropping by the early Enterprise crew.
Likewise, Spiner could always play an ancestor to Data’s inventor Dr. Noonian Soong, as he did in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “Borderland.” And of course, if Data’s head can be in a cave with 19th-century artifacts, as it was in the Next Generation episode “Time’s Arrow,” then the lovable android can certainly appear with Captain Pike.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Paramount+ on May 5.