After a much shorter season break than last time, the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has begun. Tonight’s premiere episode is entitled “Valles Marineres“ and sees the USS Enterprise crew scavenging across a planet inhabited by dinosaurs. All the while, the Enterprise is dealing with alien intruders that threaten the future of the Federation. Can the crew get through this in one piece? And is this a strong opening adventure to the latest season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds?
“Valles Marineres” is directed by Chris Fisher, with the story credited to Henry Alonso Myers and Alan B McElroy. Meanwhile, the episode’s teleplay is credited to Myers and fellow showrunner Akiva Goldsman. More writing credits than most episodes of Strange New Worlds, but also not inherently a cause for concern. There’s some real talent in there, which was reassuring as I sat into the episode.
WARNING – Spoiler discussion below for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 1 “Valles Marineris”
The Next Mission
The episode opens with Pike (Anson Mount) on the verge of burnout. Some fifteen missions down, all of which were fairly routine. He’s in need of excitement, a reason to stick around as the Enterprise’s Captain with the looming promise of promotion. After horseriding through the desert didn’t do it, he chases the next high. Despite the horseriding scene looking great, the show immediately pivots to piloting through a space storm and accidentally getting launched millions of years into the past.
Visually it’s all quite striking. The CGI through the storm is a little excessive, but the rotating camera does help add tension and urgency. What surprised me in this section was the growing relationship between Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and Scotty (Martin Quinn). Constantly bickering with one another, while also very nearly flirting with one another the whole time.
With the series’ penchant for romance, this isn’t particularly surprising. It’s one of those things that’s worth keeping an eye on over the rest of the season. As Scotty seems to have a bigger role in the series than last year, it makes sense to build out his relationship with the rest of the crew. Although of all the side characters, this week it was Pelia (Carol Kane) whose ramblings I enjoyed the most. Her having a potential connection to Doctor Who fits her weirdly perfectly.
Jurassic Era
The Enterprise loses a lot of power from the trip to the distant past, needing to recover some Iridium to effect repairs to the ship. Thankfully, there’s one on a planet nearby! Although it is a planet inhabited by giant dinosaurs, which does make navigating on foot a little dangerous. With the effects at the shuttle’s landing site being a little dodgy, especially compared against the series’ relatively high production value, prehistoric Earth is not realised particularly convincingly. The digital backgrounds aren’t too convincing, with some distracting flaws.
On one hand, it affords Number One (Rebecca Romijn) a chance to shine in conducting her own away mission. From the end of the episode, this looks to be something the show is teeing up more of. Of all the characters in the series, hers is by far the most in need of fleshing out. On the other hand, the writers ignored the less-than-hospitable climate of the Jurassic Era. With higher temperatures and CO2 levels, stepping out of the shuttle would be a waking nightmare.
While scientific accuracy has never been a necessity, the fact that the dinosaurs amount to set dressing rather than a genuine obstacle makes it all the more questionable. Through cramming in the other story, they even missed out on dedicated bonding time with the show’s more underused female characters. Instead, like the decision to ignore planetary conditions, it’s just designed to look pretty more than anything rather than earnestly develop anyone’s story.
Invaders from Mars
While dinosaurs are being contended with, the Enterprise has a run-in with some aliens from ancient Mars. Cassell (Saffron Burrows) is a decent foil for Pike and the Federation, with an understandable worldview shaped by the uncaring universe surrounding her. It’s also reassuring that they didn’t try to play with Romulans, as my first impression of her character had me worried. The idea that Mars was once populated isn’t unheard of, and is definitely quite cool.
However, much like the dinosaurs before them, the episode refuses to sit with the Strange New Worlds that they’re actually discovering. There’s this obsession in this episode with running into the next thing, as if it were designed as two separate episodes. But instead of complementing one another, it’s an ultimate detriment to both stories. By the time she betrays Pike, I felt like we’d basically just met her, which seriously lessened the impact they were going for.
The only points of real interest on the Enterprise come in the medbay. First, as Chapel (Jess Bush) explains the beauty of the interconnected Federation. It’s one of the few moments that feels connected to the franchise’s actual ethos. Second, as La’an (Christina Chong) fears her Augment DNA may be surfacing. It seems that this season will be explaining her absence from The Original Series. I only hope it’s a more grounded goodbye than Batel (Melanie Scrofano) got last year. This seems to be the story thread to be watching.
Predestination
The episode’s ending is among the laziest in any time travel story. Pike’s inspired inaction goes on to act as a giant reset button for the story. The Enterprise, in responding to their own 65 million-year-old buoy, was always meant to be there. Their antimatter always destroyed Sol V, the debris from which killed the dinosaurs and set Mars closer to the sun. Three whole planets devoid of life in an instant so that the Federation might live. It’s kind of bleak.
In an episode where the characters’ exploration of Earth was so limited, or the shallow depth afforded to the vaguely evil Dol’drm, hearing that none of it ultimately mattered was a little disappointing. Predestination strips characters of agency we assume they have. So it follows that a twist that strips them of that agency leaves the episode devoid of stakes or rewatch value. Especially for the standards of a high-budget science fiction series, it’s a low bar of an ending.
In all, it’s an unimaginative ending to a largely undercooked episode. Perhaps thirty years ago, the novelty value of the dinosaurs would’ve saved this. Instead, the show continues the trend of dragging the Enterprise into historical events that feels lazy. By the end of the episode, characters were celebrating their big adventure, despite the whole point being their inactivity saving the day.
Conclusion
“Valles Marineris” is a fairly soft start to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth season. A combination of what could easily have made up two episodes, clashes, and ends up feeling undercooked. Despite a strong guest performance from Saffron Burrows, “Valles Marineris” is a cliche-ridden affair that left me wanting more. Not a bad episode or even a particularly aggravating one, just especially flawed for a season opener.
With the sheer amount of trailer moments that found their way into Episode 1, the possibilities for the season’s future directions are endless. Word is that next week’s “The Griffin Incident” is leaning into horror. It’s a genre that Trek has something of a mixed track record with, to say the least. I’m certainly hoping for some more original episode concepts that are less derivative of standard genre tropes and even previous Star Trek episodes. Quite how that’ll go over the next nine weeks remains to be seen, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 is streaming weekly on Paramount+ in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. It’s also available on SkyShowtime in other European markets, and on TVNZ in New Zealand. It premiered on July 23 2026, and will air weekly on Thursdays until September 24. For all the latest Star Trek news, reviews, lore discussions, and more, be sure to follow the team here at Trek Central.
More From Trek Central
🔥 – LEGO Star Trek: The Original Series Bridge Set Revealed!
📰 – Star Trek Universe Returns to SDCC To Celebrate 60th Anniversary
🔎️ – Everything We Know About Star Trek: Across the Unknown
Join the Star Trek conversation via our social media platforms:
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TrekCentral
- Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/TrekCentral
- Instagram – https://instagram.com/TrekCentral
- BlueSky – https://bsky.app/profile/trekcentral.net
- Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral
- YouTube – https://youtube.com/TheTrekCentral
- Discord – https://discord.gg/fF2heMbfW8
