tv_talk | TV Talk Rec Fest: SciFi/Fantasy

Various color glass balloons captioned TV Talk Rec Fest

Welcome to day 4 of Rec Fest! Today please recommend shows which could be considered science fiction or fantasy. These may come in a variety of genre formats but are likely centered on supernatural or futuristic events, worlds other than our own or different versions of our world.

Please include in your recs the following information:

Show Title:
Audience Rating: Young Children/All Ages/Teen and Up/Mature Content
Warnings: (Could include gory content, raunchy situations, explicit sex, offensive content, etc.)
Length of Episodes: (30 minutes/1 hour/Other)
Length of Series: (Number of seasons or number of episodes)
Why you recommend it: (What draws you to it? What niche does it fill/mood is it good for?)

You can copy and paste the following code into your comment.

Feel free to include any other information you’d like, such as what year(s) the show was originally broadcast, standout cast members, or what other shows it may connect to or be like. You can also include outside links to Wikipedia, Fanlore, IMDB, your favorite review etc. which contain more show information.

If someone else has already recced a show you were planning to rec, please include your own rec as well! People have different takes on shows and it can also help people if they see a number of people find a show to be a must-watch.

If you have questions about what to post or how the Rec Fest will run, please ask them at this link, not in comments below

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Show Title: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Audience Rating: teen and up
Warnings: None that come to mind but I guess there's some gore/violence in some episodes when they're battling aliens.
Length of Episodes: Officially 1 hour, but there are ad breaks, so more like 45-47 minutes
Length of Series: 2 complete seasons (10 episodes each) have aired, it has been renewed for seasons 3 and 4 and it's expected that season 3 will start some time in 2025.
Why you recommend it: Because Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW) is simply THE BEST of all the Trek franchises, and an excellent show even outside of the Trek universe.

If you're at all familiar with the Trek universe, SNW is about the USS Enterprise when she was captained by Christopher Pike, before command was transferred to James T. Kirk. So it's sort of a prequel to TOS. Many critics have lauded it for its return to Star Trek's original episodic format, but it does still have on-going background stories. The episodic format does allow for more focus on character development. The show has everything -- great writing, great casting, great production, etc. They've had super serious episodes, fun episodes, scary episodes, a musical episode (which was actually great and I usually find musical episodes total cringe), and even a cross-over episode with an animated series (Star Trek Lower Decks). It gets bonus points for having an episode largely set in Toronto with Toronto being Toronto and not a stand-in for some random US city (the series is filmed here in Toronto). There is nothing negative to be said about this series, IMO. Even if you're not generally into Trek, you'd probably still enjoy it. It probably does help a bit to have at least some passing familiarity with the "big names" from the original series (e.g. Spock, Uhura), but I think it can be fully enjoyed without that -- I'm not a big fan of TOS and have never watched it in its entirety (because so much of it is so bad), but that hasn't affected my ability to totally get into SNW. As I said, it's simply the best Trek yet, and just a damn fine show in general.

In Canada it's on Crave and the Sci Fi network (new seasons only). Elsewhere, I guess Paramount+???

Star Trek Strange New Worlds (SNW) is simply THE BEST of all the Trek franchises

Couldn't agree more! And in the musical episode, Ethan Peck wrecked me! I also love Melissa Navia (the new Chekov!).

TV Talk Rec Fest: SciFi/Fantasy

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