Star Trek has always been chock full of men who love and respectfully lust after women. I’m talking about your Captain James T. Kirks, your William T. Rikers—even Spock had to go back to Vulcan for his pon farr. These men respect the women around them but also do have a lot of sex aboard the Starship Enterprise. That’s always been a part of this franchise; sex wasn’t a taboo thing in this utopian future that Gene Roddenberry dreamt of. So it is wild to say this but the most shocking thing about Strange New Worlds for me is how horny the show is.
Star Trek has always cared about the personal lives of its characters. We would check in with Kirk and Spock during the original series and a lot of The Next Generation was about how each of the crew of the Enterprise was handling things on a personal level. But there is something different about how Strange New Worlds approaches the topic of sex.
It’s really refreshing to see Spock (Ethan Peck) being awkward about the topic of sex with his fiancée or having characters like La’an (Christina Chong) dreaming about a life and love with her own version of Kirk (Paul Wesley). Also, look, I don’t call Anson Mount and Ethan Peck “Hot Pike” and “Hot Spock” respectively for my own health. This show is just all-around hot.
A horny Enterprise is a great one
Here is the thing about the Enterprise: Generally speaking, this is the only way anyone on the crew can meet people. It’s why T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) and Spock didn’t end up working out. Sure, part of it was because her parents hated that he was part human but a big issue was T’Pring clearly trying to connect with him on a sexual level while he was off on the Enterprise. There are moments in properties like Star Trek Beyond when we see how deep the hook-up culture of the Enterprise goes but I do love that Strange New Worlds goes out of its way to make it clear that these are all adults who do want an active sex life while still being Starfleet officers.
The horniness of Pike’s Enterprise is pretty fun to explore. It’s not what Starfleet is about but it is nice to see the series recognize that these are all consenting adults trapped together on a ship without a way to meet other people. So there will be sex scenes and flirtations and hopefully, as the show goes on, hook-ups that we see on the Enterprise. We love you, horny Star Trek.
(featured image: Paramount+)
