The Best Star Trek of the 21st Century Is Streaming Free (but Not for Long)

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All ten episodes of Strange new Worlds Season 1 were added to the Paramount Plus YouTube channel on Monday, and even organized into a handy playlist so that they’ll autoplay one after another for fans who want to binge-watch them. On YouTube or Pluto, they’ll play with ad breaks, but fans who like what they see will have to subscribe to Paramount+ to watch more, including Season 3 airing week-to-week.

Strange New Worlds is a prequel series set in the years immediately preceding Star Trek: The Original Series. It’s about the travels of the USS Enterprise under Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), the predecessor of Kirk. That means many of the most beloved and iconic characters are already onboard, and the exploratory mission leaves room for the same kinds of one-off adventures that the series is best known for.

At the same time, Strange New Worlds is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, and it’s closely related to the other franchise’s other streaming-era series. It binds these two parts of the continuity together well, and it makes the whole setting feel more densely populated than ever. The show has been praised for its “genre-hopping” style, and it has promised to continue that trend as it heads towards its conclusion.

Strange New Worlds Season 3 was severely delayed by the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes, and while it was on hiatus, it was renewed for a fourth season, which is in production now. Last month, Paramount announced that the series was renewed for a fifth season as well, but that will be its last. Season 5 will end the show with just six episodes, but due to its popularity, there is already talk of spinoffs and sequels. Whatever the show evolves into, it’s clearly a climactic time for the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 is streaming now for free on YouTube and Pluto TV, as well as on its usual home on Paramount+. Season 3 debuts on Thursday, July 17th with two episodes, and continues week-to-week after that.