While season 2 waited an episode before addressing season 1’s major cliffhanger — Number One’s imprisonment for lying about her true identity — there seems no way around addressing the Gorn in the room when the show finally returns, including the fate of Captain Batel and the captured members of Starfleet. But the Gorn aren’t the only thread season 3 will have to pick up. For example, where do Spock and Nurse Chapel go from here after their heartwarming reunion in the finale, and how will T’Pring feel about all this? What about La’an and Kirk (and Carol Marcus)?

Scotty’s arrival on the Enterprise also gets us one step closer to The Original Series crew. Now that Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Scotty are accounted for, does this mean a certain doctor is next up in season 3?

And with the Klingons popping up several times throughout the season, in the same way the Gorn did in season 1, are they poised to become a bigger part of the series going forward, too? There’s always the chance that the war on two fronts that Admiral Robert April feared could finally break out…

If all that’s not enough for you, we know the Federation’s Department of Temporal Investigations is also running around protecting the timeline from Romulan time travelers. Strange New Worlds‘ looser approach to continuity leaves a lot of room for many more timey-wimey adventures!

Strange New Worlds Season 3: What We Know So Far

But getting back to Pike’s big Gorn dilemma, it’s been a long time since Trek fans had to wait for the resolution to a two-parter. Like many shows pre-Peak TV, Star Trek series would sometimes close a season on a cliffhanger, forcing the audience to wait months for the conclusion of the story in the next season premiere. The most famous example is The Next Generation season three closer “The Best of Both Worlds, Part One,” which ended with Riker commanding the Enterprise to fire on the Borg Cube containing Captain Picard, now transformed into Locutus of Borg. Adding to the episode’s tension were ongoing contract negotiations between Patrick Stewart and producers, leading to the very real possibility that Picard would die in the attack.

“Hegemony” doesn’t quite have those same stakes. We know things will ultimately turn out alright for the Enterprise in season 3 and that most (if not all) of the characters will survive the Gorn attack. But another real-world dispute does raise questions about the future of the show. Since Paramount and other studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) refuse to properly compensate the writers and actors on shows like Strange New Worlds, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are now on strike, meaning season 3 of the Star Trek series can’t move forward until the matter is resolved.