# Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

34 Hacker News commenters recommended Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its classic Star Trek feel, self-contained episodes and better writing than other recent Trek shows. The common caveat is too many gimmicky or goofy episodes, and weaker drama in later seasons.

## Why people recommend it

- Feels like classic Star Trek (6 comments): "Strange New Worlds is the closest to one of the classic shows out of the new ones" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47418354)) "Strange New worlds has had that old school trek charm personally." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49664348)) "Strange New Worlds was the best thing that ever happened to trek" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704997))
- Better than other recent Trek (4 comments): "Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Starfleet Academy are vastly better shows than Discovery or Picard." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47395643)) "SNW an Academy had probably the best two season 1 performances of any Star Trek shows ever produced" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47393248)) "Lower Decks and SNW corrected hard on earier NuTrek transgressions against the utopian future." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49989034))
- Fun, optimistic and experimental (5 comments): "hopeful sci-fi movies and TV are more common, like the recent "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49691463)) "Strange New Worlds has shown it's willing to do some pretty wild things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50330330)) "I also enjoyed Strange New Worlds (including the musical episode)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367336))
- Self-contained episodic stories (2 comments): "the episodic story telling allows to explore, well, strange new worlds" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46439649)) "each episode is also a self-contained story" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46431624))

## What people warn about

- Too many weird or gimmicky episodes (6 comments): "this show was just feeling itself way too hard if they thought they could get away with like a musical episode in season 2" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735696)) "these recent episodes are far goofier and more nonsensical than that TNG episode" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49717870)) "The problem isn’t too many “weird” episodes, it’s not enough “normal” episodes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50314416))
- Writing and drama declined in later seasons (3 comments): "The writing on that show is lousy, but the sets are some of the most beautiful work in the franchise" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46425748)) "Strange Worlds started so strong but season 3 and 4 really took a nose" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987023)) "But the last couple of series was so bad for the drama." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296428))
- Weaker characters than classic Trek (2 comments): "I greatly enjoy SNW, but the characters and their relationships with each other are in no way as substantial as in DS9" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164584)) "Was hoping Strange New Worlds would be more TNG like but with ethical dilemmas of our time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590231))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Halt and Catch Fire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/halt-and-catch-fire.md): 166 recommend
- [Babylon 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/babylon-5.md): 86 recommend
- [Silicon Valley (TV series)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/silicon-valley.md): 52 recommend
- [Andor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/andor.md): 52 recommend
- [The Wire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wire.md): 39 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", https://hackerapproved.com/p/star-trek-strange-new-worlds/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).