Star Trek’s ‘Strange New Worlds’: In defense of episodic TV

High-end TV today is all about intricate story arcs, deep serialization, a requirement for sequential viewing and a serious attention span. That’s a lot of commitment, even for a binger. And that’s what many “Star Trek” shows today are, too. So what’s a planet-of-the-week fan of the original series and its episodic aesthetic to do? The answer is “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” which is chronicling the voyages of the USS Enterprise before Kirk became its captain. Led by Capt. Christopher Pike, the show is essentially a workplace drama in deep space. It’s the intergalactic equivalent of visiting some really cool people at the office and getting varied tastes of what exactly it is that they do.