This is a spoiler-free preview of the first five episodes of season three.

Of that equation, though, the deep emotion is missing from Season 3 of “Strange New Worlds,” as is the mirror — even despite a character literally saying in one episode that sci-fi can make us look more closely at our own world.

When Strange New Worlds began in 2022, it was billed as a return to old school Star Trek values: episodic space adventures on the Starship Enterprise, with a Captain pulled from the original series, Spock on the bridge,