Star Trek history was made and Strange New Worlds barely cared (which is great)

polygon.com:

[Ed. note: This post contains material from an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike against the AMPTP went into effect.]

In the closing scene of Thursday’s new episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a group of Starfleet officers socialize in the mess hall of the USS Enterprise, unpacking the events of their latest adventure. In the course of a relatively uneventful conversation, Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) takes a moment to introduce her new friend, Lieutenant Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), to her shipmate Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck). It’s an entirely casual encounter, far from the monumental event that one might imagine from the first meeting of two people with a lifelong friendship ahead of them.

That, however, may be exactly the point. Ever since these new interpretations of Kirk and Spock debuted on Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Discovery, respectively, they have been permitted to establish themselves as individual characters, complete people rather than components of some prophesied “one true pairing.” By denying Kirk and Spock the expected cosmic meet-cute, viewers can be treated to something far more satisfying: organic growth befitting a real, lasting relationship.

While the Star Trek canon has never previously specified how and when Kirk and Spock came to know each other, the idea of spinning their first encounter as a grand adventure has always been an easy sell. The notion has inspired two licensed novels (Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre in 1986 and Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens in 2007), but more notably became the centerpiece of the 2009 film reboot, set in its own alternate