Television: Check Out Strange New Worlds

Credit: Paramount.

Tonight is the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If you are a Trekkie, then there is nothing strange about Captain Pike and the earlier adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise. We have been waiting for the rest of the story since Star Trek appears in 1966.

You probably already saw Captain Pike in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, but now it will be all Pike all the time. The most recent trailer is proof that you an expect a return to the fun early days was more like James Bond than the more serious captains that came later. The actors engaged with this series are top notch: Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.

Yes, there are multiple Star Trek series now playing on Paramount, as one could also say about the Star Wars series on Disney+. And yet, with Star Trek each one has its place and time that makes plenty of sense without any overlapping confusion. I am not sure whether we really needed a movie on the origins of Han Solo, but the original adventures of Captain Pike seems like a void that needed to be filled.

I would even forgo more Star Trek movies as long as we can have quality television series. Beside, the movies blew apart the time line (creating the Kelvin Timeline), so I have less interest in what they have to say these days even though that bastardized timeline has infected the timeline in Star Trek: Discovery. Don’t get me started.

Image (Credit): The pre-Kirk crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. (Paramount)

Pic of the Week: Comet Over Stonehenge

Image/(Credit): Comet Neowise as seen flying over Stonehenge. (James Rushforth)

This week’s photo is from photographer James Rushforth who caught Comet Neowise over Stonehenge. The comet was discovered by astronomers on March 27, 2020 during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope

Mr. Rushforth’s photo was one of about 4,500 photos entered into the 2021 annual Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomy photography competition. His image above made the shortlist. You can see other shortlisted entries here. The winning entry, announced last September, is shown below.

Image/(Credit): Titled “The Golden Ring,” the image shows an annular solar eclipse taken in the Ali region of Tibet on June 21, 2020. (Shuchang Dong)