If you’re watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds time-shifted — a la not live — then bail now because I’m throwing out spoilers. I mean that, because I’m talking specifics here.

I just finished watching the most recent episode — S3 E6 “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” — and the effect was profound. It’s no secret to any Star Trek fan how this series is going to suss out. While it’s been a hot minute since the show has addressed Pike’s inevitable fate, the series has been making small course corrections to put it on a trajectory to intercept The Original Series. While we still have at least 2 1/2 seasons to go before the projected cessation of SNW and the start of TOS, this latest episode has moved the ball further than any other, and I suspect — and maybe even hope — that this is not the last to do so.

In this episode, the U.S.S. Farragut is out performing a routine analysis of a planet. When a planet-destroying event occurs and sends the captain to sick bay, Second-in-Command Kirk finds himself in charge during his first crisis situation. Ultimately, the enemy makes themselves known just as the U.S.S. Enterprise arrives in response to the Farragut’s distress signal, but is “ingested” by the enemy vessel while the Farragut is left to drift. The enemy vessel warps away towards another target, forcing Kirk to make decisions that he’s never had to make before.

Before the Enterprise is stolen, Uhura, Spock, Chapel, and Scotty are beamed aboard the Farragut to help with their situation. With Kirk in command, this compliment makes up about 75-80% of The Original Series crew, reimagined in the prequel. To say that this is a powerful understanding is an understatement; Star Trek means a lot to a whole lot of people, and while all of the “Nu-Trek” treatments have respected and leaned into the “Trek-ness” of a more compassionate and encompassing future, TOS will always represent the pinnacle of that sentiment for many people. We all knew that the ultimate form of SNW would be the TOS crew, but seeing the formation of the “Dream Team” — even knowing the price that Pike has to pay — in real time both is encouraging and bittersweet.

SNW is going to end with five seasons, according to Paramount. That seems like a criminal act considering that it was fan sentiment that pushed for it to branch off from Discovery. Of course, we all knew that Pike’s tenure was limited, and that the series would come up against a hard wall at some point. Five years seems to be THE limit to what many series consider to be a “good run”; even Battlestar Galactica only had four planned seasons, and that may have been the impetus for show-runners to get out while the getting was good lest they run into issues of foundering that plagued Lost and Game of Thrones at the end. The good news is that we do have TOS to roll into, although there might be some discordance between the modern treatment of the property and the original, low-tech version.

I suspect that the SWN showrunners will end with what we know as “The Menagerie”. I also suspect that they will do this because SNW is Pike’s story. However I would not be upset if they rolled a little into TOS territory for a simple reason: leaving us with very little Trek after SNW would be criminal. We do have Starfleet Academy coming up, which Paramount has said would not be a “teen drama” despite what off-the-cuff impressions may lead some to believe, and leaving SNW with the possibility of a reimagined TOS crew for a new series would not just be a Good Idea, but also a Slam Fucking Dunk for Paramount.

Thing is, Star Trek is on a roll right now. First and foremost, it’s brother from another mother Star Wars has basically shit the bed. I’m admittedly not a Star Wars fan, but aside from Andor — the most un-Star Wars treatment that Star Wars has ever received, which is probably why I liked it so much — Disney has run it straight into the ground by oversaturating the market with series and movies and merchandise in a bid to keep Star Wars in front of people 24/7. Since Disney apparently understands this and has pulled back on the reins of Star Wars, losing Star Trek as well is a gut punch to sci-fi fans everywhere. Second, Star Trek is just ramping up with it’s big-name onboarding. We got Carol Kane in SNW, and are getting Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti (as well as the return of Robert Picardo, Tig Notaro, and Mary Wiseman, of course) in Starfleet Academy. I’m curious about who they could attract for another Star Trek property, post SFA. If Star Trek can be sold as the “hot property”, it could draw a whole lot of name recognition, not that the Star Trek brand can’t bring the heat on it’s own; adding additional heat would always be welcome.

That, of course, is putting a target on my back for suggesting that SNW roll into a “The New Original Series” by keeping the same actors on after SNW’s cessation. Really, this isn’t as bad as it sounds, since J.J. Abrams rebooted TOS in 2013 with a shot-in-the-dark “alternate timeline”. SNW is the Prime Timeline, and offers continuity that I think would be palatable to those die-hard TOS fans who might be unsettled by the 2013 reboot which cold-cocked everyone with new actors and new arrangements without precedent. At least with a new TOS built on the back of SNW, viewers will have had time to come to terms with a new Kirk, and will have already formed a bond with a new Uhura, a new Spock, a new Scotty, and others.

I’m very excited for the inevitable introduction of the new McCoy, Sulu and new Chekov (though I’m horrified to think of the implications for the characters they replace) because you know that they’ll come into the picture before SNW wraps up. Hopefully they’ll have an opportunity to start their own five year missions properly and won’t just be added at the 11th hour to round out the fan service.

I spent more time on a preamble than I thought I would, but the fact is this: I will be very, very sad and upset to see Strange New Worlds go off the air with no successor in sight. All of this well-wishing is my way of appealing to Paramount to continue the momentum of SNW by rebooting The Original Series with the cast they have assembled for SNW. We need more Star Trek these days, with it’s optimistic messaging of light beyond the darkness, and having no Trek would be like snuffing out the last candle in a very, very dark cave.

Barring that, though, we as fans can take up the torch. I’m heavily contemplating going back to my abandoned idea of using the Captain’s Log rulebook from Star Trek Adventures as a substrate for storytelling, turning the dice rolls into prose rather than a game of consequence. Even without evidence I know that I am not alone in this; it’s easy to strip away the “Trek-no-babble” of a typical Star Trek episode and be left with it’s most solid foundation of a better future for humanity. That means something to people and while I could immortalize the sentiment in my own offerings, or which others can immortalize by keeping the flame of Star Trek burning in their own ways, there’s something about having something official, something comforting from official sources that just feels like the right decision to make in our own current dark times.