SNW · SEASON 44×01

Valles Marineris

NOMADIC PICK · FUN PICKDinosaurs, Martians and a time-travel twist.

FIRST SHOWN (US): 23 July 2026
ON: Paramount+
STARDATE: Unconfirmed
DIRECTED BY: Chris Fisher

WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Akiva Goldsman & Henry Alonso Myers; story by Henry Alonso Myers & Alan B. McElroy

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Pike weighs up a promotion as the Enterprise dives into a violent interstellar storm to answer a distress call, and ends up somewhere, and somewhen, nobody expected.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS

Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS

Admiral Robert April offers Pike a promotion to commodore, but Pike asks for time to decide. Answering a mayday from inside a Category 10 interstellar squall, the Enterprise is crippled and thrown 65 million years into the past, above a prehistoric Earth. A landing party searches for iridium to restore the ship's power, dodging dinosaurs and finding the wreck of a ship belonging to the insect-like Dol'Drm. Meanwhile a Martian warship seizes the Enterprise. Its commander, Cassell, is at war with the Dol'Drm, whose crash once scarred Mars. Pike tries to steer her towards peace while protecting the timeline, but Cassell learns the future from the ship's computer, steals antimatter and destroys the Dol'Drm world. Debris from the blast becomes the asteroid that wipes out the dinosaurs, clearing the way for humanity, and its energy carries the Enterprise home. Pike turns down the promotion, and Una earns one of her own.

DID YOU KNOW?

01The title refers to the vast canyon system on Mars, which the episode explains as a scar left when the Dol'Drm crashed on the planet.
02Bianca Nugara appears as A'Sha, a new Vulcan cadet aboard the Enterprise.
03Director Chris Fisher is also an executive producer on the series.

SOURCES WE CHECKED