The Big Picture

• Ethan Peck's Spock examines a strange lifeform in a new lab set on the USS Enterprise, in the first image from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3.
• Jonathan Frakes returns to the director's chair for Strange New Worlds, and calls one episode the "best episode" he's ever done.
• Season 3 will feature the classic Star Trek character Scotty, who made an appearance in the Season 2 finale.

Star Trek fans may have a while longer to wait for the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to air, but we have a first glimpse of the upcoming season, which is currently filming in Toronto, Ontario. The new image, courtesy of Variety, shows Spock (Ethan Peck) clad in a full-body environment suit, examining a strange lifeform in the new science lab set of the USS Enterprise. In the impressive new set, the translucent floor covers a four-foot pool of illuminated water, while the walls are bedecked with six viewscreens displaying live graphics.

Star Trek mainstay Jonathan Frakes, who will return to the director's chair for Strange New Worlds' third season, also teased a bit of what we can expect. The third season will feature one episode structured like a Hollywood murder mystery that Frakes calls "the best episode of television I’ve ever done." This may be connected to a recent filming update from star Anson Mount, who noted that the upcoming season will feature something he's never done before.

What Can We Expect From Season 3 of 'Strange New Worlds'?

The third season of Strange New Worlds will continue to chronicle the 23rd-century voyages of the USS Enterprise and its crew, including Captain Christopher Pike (Mount), Spock (Peck), Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun).

Presumably, it will open with the conclusion of last season's cliffhanger finale, which saw the crew imperiled by the hostile reptilian Gorn aliens on all fronts; not only is the Enterprise under attack from a Gorn fleet, but Pike's fellow captain and love interest Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) has been implanted with Gorn embryos that will kill her when they hatch. The third season will likely also incorporate classic Trek character Montgomery "Scotty" Scott into the cast. The crew encountered him for the first time in the Season 2 finale, as played by Martin Quinn.

The water in the new science lab set may simply be for effect, or it may allude to an occasionally-referenced part of Star Trek lore that wasn't seen on-screen until the second season of Star Trek: Lower Decks: Cetacean Ops, an area of some Starfleet ships that features a large aquarium and is staffed by various intelligent whales and dolphins.

The third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is currently filming and does not yet have a release date. You can stream the previous seasons on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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