Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ first two episodes to air on CBS for Star Trek Day

Earthdate 9.08.23 marks the 57th anniversary of the pop culture phenomenon of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry’s revolutionary series saw a future where humans live in harmony and conflict and politics come into play as we extend our relations to the rest of the beings in the cosmos. Paramount+ continues the legacy following the J.J. Abrams film reboots, and television is seeing the run of not one, not two, not three, but four Star Trek shows on the streaming platform. Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek: Lower Decks take the reins.

CBR.com reports that this year, on Star Trek Day, Paramount’s legacy broadcast network, CBS, will be airing the first two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, an iteration of the property that aims to merge the modern day sensibilities of Trek with the retro aesthetics along with the effort to recapture the optimism and light-heartedness of the original 60s series. CBS is slated to air the episodes “Strange New Worlds” and “Children of the Comet” in back-to-back time slots, which will start at 8 p.m. ET/PT on September 8.

Strange New Worlds is set around a decade before the original series and follows the Captain of the USS Enterprise prior to James T. Kirk’s service, Captain Christopher Pike. The synopsis for the pilot episode “Strange New Worlds” reads, “When one of Pike’s officers goes missing while on a secret mission for Starfleet, Pike (Mount) has to come out of self-imposed exile. He must navigate how to rescue his officer, while struggling with what to do with the vision of the future he’s been given.” The pilot was written by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

The synopsis of the following episode “Children of the Comet” reads, “While on a survey mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise discovers a comet is going to strike an inhabited planet. The crew tries to re-route the comet, only to find that an ancient alien relic buried on the comet’s icy surface is somehow stopping them. As the away team tries to unlock the relic’s secrets, Pike and Number One (Romijn) deal with a group of zealots who want to prevent the U.S.S. Enterprise from interfering.” This teleplay was penned by Henry Alonso & Sarah Tarkoff.