Enlarge / Tawny Newsome (left) and Jack Quaid reprising their roles as Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler... but in real life this time. (credit: Paramount)

The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , much like the first one , has been fun at least partly because the show itself is not all that new or strange.

The characters and visuals and specific plot constructs are new, but at its heart the show is a painstaking reconstruction of The Next Generation formula from Star Trek 's 90s-era creative and commercial peak: ensemble cast, primarily episodic storytelling with lightly serialized character development and recurring arcs, and a willingness to mix high-concept sci-fi with just the right amount of silliness. It's also very good at taking old Star Trek tropes—the transporter accident, the disease-on-the-ship, the talky courtroom thriller about the nature of humanity —and making them feel fresh again.

Episode 7, which went up early this weekend to coincide with a Comic-Con screening, exhumes and expertly executes yet another shopworn trope, something we haven't seen on Star Trek since the days when Quark might show up on the viewscreen of the Enterprise-D : the crossover episode. And despite the wide gap between Strange New Worlds and the animated Lower Decks , the blending of the two shows' disparate styles comes together better than any gimmicky attempt at cross-promotion has any right to.

Enlarge / Tawny Newsome (left) and Jack Quaid reprising their roles as Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler... but in real life this time. (credit: Paramount)

The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , much like the first one , has been fun at least partly because the show itself is not all that new or strange.

The characters and visuals and specific plot constructs are new, but at its heart the show is a painstaking reconstruction of The Next Generation formula from Star Trek 's 90s-era creative and commercial peak: ensemble cast, primarily episodic storytelling with lightly serialized character development and recurring arcs, and a willingness to mix high-concept sci-fi with just the right amount of silliness. It's also very good at taking old Star Trek tropes—the transporter accident, the disease-on-the-ship, the talky courtroom thriller about the nature of humanity —and making them feel fresh again.

Episode 7, which went up early this weekend to coincide with a Comic-Con screening, exhumes and expertly executes yet another shopworn trope, something we haven't seen on Star Trek since the days when Quark might show up on the viewscreen of the Enterprise-D : the crossover episode. And despite the wide gap between Strange New Worlds and the animated Lower Decks , the blending of the two shows' disparate styles comes together better than any gimmicky attempt at cross-promotion has any right to.

Enlarge / Tawny Newsome (left) and Jack Quaid reprising their roles as Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler... but in real life this time. (credit: Paramount)

The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , much like the first one , has been fun at least partly because the show itself is not all that new or strange.

The characters and visuals and specific plot constructs are new, but at its heart the show is a painstaking reconstruction of The Next Generation formula from Star Trek 's 90s-era creative and commercial peak: ensemble cast, primarily episodic storytelling with lightly serialized character development and recurring arcs, and a willingness to mix high-concept sci-fi with just the right amount of silliness. It's also very good at taking old Star Trek tropes—the transporter accident, the disease-on-the-ship, the talky courtroom thriller about the nature of humanity —and making them feel fresh again.

Episode 7, which went up early this weekend to coincide with a Comic-Con screening, exhumes and expertly executes yet another shopworn trope, something we haven't seen on Star Trek since the days when Quark might show up on the viewscreen of the Enterprise-D : the crossover episode. And despite the wide gap between Strange New Worlds and the animated Lower Decks , the blending of the two shows' disparate styles comes together better than any gimmicky attempt at cross-promotion has any right to.

Netflix has a mixed track record when it comes to adapting beloved Japanese anime series into live action formats. I liked 2021's Cowboy Bebop more than most diehard fans—just for the pitch-perfect casting alone, despite the fact that the fight choreography left a lot to be desired. It was certainly better than the live-action versions of Fullmetal Alchemist (another of my personal anime faves ), but Netflix opted not to renew Cowboy Bebop . So we'll never know if it would have worked out its issues, although the cameo appearance tacked onto the finale of a particularly grating version of Radical Ed didn't bode well.

Given that checkered history, one could be forgiven for feelings of trepidation about the streaming platform's forthcoming live-action series adaptation of One Piece , a hugely popular manga and anime series created by Eiichiro Oda. Who doesn't love pirates? The first trailer debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, and honestly, the live-action series looks great. Then again, so did the trailers for Cowboy Bebop .

The original One Piece manga debuted in 1997, following the adventures of one Monkey D. Luffy, who heads a motley crew called the Straw Hat Pirates. There's swordsman Roronoa Zoro, thief and navigator Nami, sniper and compulsive liar Usopp, and a cook named Sanji. They're searching for the legendary One Piece, a mythical treasure that would make anyone who possesses it King of the Pirates. Monkey wants to be the Pirate King, but so do a host of other pirates with their own ships and crews.

Netflix has a mixed track record when it comes to adapting beloved Japanese anime series into live action formats. I liked 2021's Cowboy Bebop more than most diehard fans—just for the pitch-perfect casting alone, despite the fact that the fight choreography left a lot to be desired. It was certainly better than the live-action versions of Fullmetal Alchemist (another of my personal anime faves ), but Netflix opted not to renew Cowboy Bebop . So we'll never know if it would have worked out its issues, although the cameo appearance tacked onto the finale of a particularly grating version of Radical Ed didn't bode well.

Given that checkered history, one could be forgiven for feelings of trepidation about the streaming platform's forthcoming live-action series adaptation of One Piece , a hugely popular manga and anime series created by Eiichiro Oda. Who doesn't love pirates? The first trailer debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, and honestly, the live-action series looks great. Then again, so did the trailers for Cowboy Bebop .

The original One Piece manga debuted in 1997, following the adventures of one Monkey D. Luffy, who heads a motley crew called the Straw Hat Pirates. There's swordsman Roronoa Zoro, thief and navigator Nami, sniper and compulsive liar Usopp, and a cook named Sanji. They're searching for the legendary One Piece, a mythical treasure that would make anyone who possesses it King of the Pirates. Monkey wants to be the Pirate King, but so do a host of other pirates with their own ships and crews.

Netflix has a mixed track record when it comes to adapting beloved Japanese anime series into live action formats. I liked 2021's Cowboy Bebop more than most diehard fans—just for the pitch-perfect casting alone, despite the fact that the fight choreography left a lot to be desired. It was certainly better than the live-action versions of Fullmetal Alchemist (another of my personal anime faves ), but Netflix opted not to renew Cowboy Bebop . So we'll never know if it would have worked out its issues, although the cameo appearance tacked onto the finale of a particularly grating version of Radical Ed didn't bode well.

Given that checkered history, one could be forgiven for feelings of trepidation about the streaming platform's forthcoming live-action series adaptation of One Piece , a hugely popular manga and anime series created by Eiichiro Oda. Who doesn't love pirates? The first trailer debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, and honestly, the live-action series looks great. Then again, so did the trailers for Cowboy Bebop .

The original One Piece manga debuted in 1997, following the adventures of one Monkey D. Luffy, who heads a motley crew called the Straw Hat Pirates. There's swordsman Roronoa Zoro, thief and navigator Nami, sniper and compulsive liar Usopp, and a cook named Sanji. They're searching for the legendary One Piece, a mythical treasure that would make anyone who possesses it King of the Pirates. Monkey wants to be the Pirate King, but so do a host of other pirates with their own ships and crews.

Enlarge / Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet. (credit: Jason Edwards/Getty Images )

About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40 feet above today’s levels . Around the world, land that today is home to hundreds of millions of people was under water.

Scientists have known for awhile that the Greenland ice sheet had mostly disappeared at some point in the past million years , but not precisely when.

In a new study in the journal Science , we determined the date, using frozen soil extracted during the Cold War from beneath a nearly mile-thick section of the Greenland ice sheet.

Enlarge / Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet. (credit: Jason Edwards/Getty Images )

About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40 feet above today’s levels . Around the world, land that today is home to hundreds of millions of people was under water.

Scientists have known for awhile that the Greenland ice sheet had mostly disappeared at some point in the past million years , but not precisely when.

In a new study in the journal Science , we determined the date, using frozen soil extracted during the Cold War from beneath a nearly mile-thick section of the Greenland ice sheet.

Enlarge / Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet. (credit: Jason Edwards/Getty Images )

About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40 feet above today’s levels . Around the world, land that today is home to hundreds of millions of people was under water.

Scientists have known for awhile that the Greenland ice sheet had mostly disappeared at some point in the past million years , but not precisely when.

In a new study in the journal Science , we determined the date, using frozen soil extracted during the Cold War from beneath a nearly mile-thick section of the Greenland ice sheet.