Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ fourth and penultimate season is warping to its conclusion. It’s going to conclude with a bang in “Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” a season finale that sees the USS Enterprise of the present and future in collision. The episode will premiere exclusively on Paramount+ on Thursday, September 24, but before that stardate, Collider is proud to present an exclusive sneak preview clip from the episode, as we see the future Enterprise crew begin to take shape.
Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the Trek show that begat them all. It features the familiar Enterprise, and some familiar crew members, like Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Spock (Ethan Peck), Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (Martin Quinn), but under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), whose ultimate destiny is well-known to Trek fans, and to Pike himself. As the series goes on, the crew who’ll serve under James Kirk (Paul Wesley) are starting to come into focus.
That’s showcased in our exclusive sneak peek of the finale, which is apparently set in the show’s future. Kirk now commands the ship, stalking the bridge with a William Shatner-ian ease as he discusses the results of last week’s poker game with Spock, Scotty, and Uhura; the latter is now sporting a hairstyle very similar to that worn by Nichelle Nichols when she originated the role. Also present is Dr. Phil Boyce (Brian Markinson), who eagle-eyed Trek fans will recognize from a key moment in the franchise’s history. The ship is about to conduct an experiment that will require some fancy flying, and Kirk’s called in someone he calls “the best pilot in Starfleet.” That raises two questions: is the show about to introduce another Trek legacy character? And if so, what happened to the Enterprise‘s previous ace pilot, Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia)? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Who Is Dr. Phil Boyce?
Dr. Phil Boyce was played by John Hoyt (Spartacus) in “The Cage,” the original pilot for Star Trek, which takes place before the events of Strange New Worlds. “The Cage” was rejected by the network, and Boyce was replaced by Dr. Mark Piper (Paul Fix, The Rifleman) in the show’s second pilot, and then by the familiar Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) for the rest of the series. However, Boyce did appear in the two-part episode “The Menagerie,” which was made by combining “The Cage” with new footage. Sixty years later, Boyce returned on the Strange New Worlds episode “Off-Hour,” having transferred back to the Enterprise from his previous posting, the USS Sunita.
“Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” the Season 4 finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, premieres on Paramount+ tomorrow, September 24. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
