2 Ups And 7 Downs From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.7 — What Is Starfleet?

Praise should always be due for at least trying new things in the end credits, already done with far less subtlety this season for A Space Adventure Hour. In this case, it was a bright enough idea — the 'Star' in 'Star Trek,' via the message in the freeing of the Jikaru.

Visually stellar, yes, but it was all still a little dull, monotonous even. As the image continues and the names go by, the realisation hits. We've been short changed. What Is Starfleet? is barely forty minutes long. A not insignificant portion of that is just CGI of a star.

The Original Series made its end credits iconic with a series of still images (and a momentous theme). More recently, Star Trek: Picard's third season provided us with sweeping visuals for its end titles, and variations on First Contact as a theme. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been pleasantly creative with its opening credits. What changed here?

Was this not the perfect opportunity to show what Starfleet is, what Starfleet will be, in a less allegorical manner? The episode had just concluded with 'it's all about the people'. That was hardly a bright idea either, but some sense of coherency might have meant actually including more of said people. Tacky clip show aside, a good montage of Starfleet's finest, past, present, and future, would have sufficed.