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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 8: Four-and-a-Half Vulcans

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3, and Discovery Season 3.

Last week, Strange New Worlds surprised me with an episode styled like a documentary. I approached Four-and-a-Half Vulcans much more keenly aware of the kind of story I was getting into… and I set my expectations accordingly. For the kind of light-hearted episode that it was, I think Four-and-a-Half Vulcans was, as Mr Spock might put it, adequate. There were actually some genuinely funny scenes and lines in the mix, and I laughed more than I expected. This was not the total cringe-fest I feared it would be.

However, it’s also an episode I’m in no hurry to revisit, and I’d probably rank it in the lower half of the Strange New Worlds episodes that have aired so far. Comedy has been a part of Star Trek since the beginning, and I’m not opposed to episodes and stories which firmly place themselves in that genre. However, a light-hearted tone and a comedic premise do not cover up any and all flaws; “it’s just a comedy episode” is not a good enough excuse for dodgy writing, weak characterisation, or hand-waving away one of the most significant elements of one of Star Trek’s most well-explored and understood races.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Captains Batel and Pike. — Captains Batel and Pike.

I’m going to start with the positives this week.

Four-and-a-Half Vulcans genuinely made me laugh. Like… out loud. Multiple times. A lot of the comedy, even though some of it wouldn’t usually be “my thing,” stuck the landing thanks to a combination of clever writing and creative performances, backed up by some well-planned staging, solid camera work, and even editing. Spock and La’an’s battle-come-dance sequence at the end of the episode, in which they moved through different areas of the ship, was incredibly well-executed, and that’s just one example.

Though this was an undeniably silly premise for a story, the way everyone involved really threw themselves into it made Four-and-a-Half Vulcans feel earnest in a way that not every Strange New Worlds comedy episode has done. But that’s the double-edged sword, and, for me, part of why Four-and-a-Half Vulcans doesn’t feel so special: it’s repetitive. Strange New Worlds has used a very similar premise several times already. If this were the show’s first comedy episode – or even the first Vulcan comedy or Spock comedy episode – I think it would’ve felt stronger, or at least more original. When I saw the promo photos and the teaser clip, I was already rolling my eyes and getting ready to complain because of how overused this core idea has been in a series that still hasn’t reached the thirty-episode mark.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing four humans transformed into Vulcans. — Vulcan comedy… again.

And that side of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans was very much a let-down. Strange New Worlds’ writers seem utterly fascinated – borderline obsessed – with the idea that “Vulcans are stuck-up, rigid, and unemotional… isn’t that hilarious?” There hasn’t been a single straight-laced Vulcan story in the show so far. We now know that cancellation is coming, and Strange New Worlds has actually passed its halfway point. I really, sincerely hope that if the show revisits the Vulcans in Seasons 4 or 5… we’ll get a different kind of story.

Because for all of its genuinely funny and engaging moments, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans was weighed down by that sense of repetition. We’ve been here before – more than once, and in all three seasons. We’ve done the whole “what if Vulcans were hilarious,” “what if Spock had emotions,” and “aren’t these autistic-coded aliens just a hoot” things so many times… I’m beyond over it. That didn’t stop me laughing at some of the episode’s well-played jokes and genuinely fun moments. But it drags it down several notches. More than anything, I hope Four-and-a-Half Vulcans will be Strange New Worlds’ final attempt to go down this road. And hey, if the writers have zero other ideas for what to do with Spock and the Vulcans? Just don’t use them. That would honestly be better, at this point, than another attempt at “Spock comedy.”

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Spock. — Spock.

Sorry, this was meant to be the “positives,” wasn’t it?

Anson Mount is funny. He has good comic timing, and I enjoyed his weird and quirky take on a human-who’s-not-quite-Vulcan. A character like pseudo-Vulcan Pike would be absolutely awful to watch week in, week out… but as a one-off and a change of pace? I liked it. And Mount’s performance was a big part of that, I think. I can see just by watching the scenes he had in sickbay and in Pike’s quarters that it must’ve been a ton of fun to perform.

However… we’ve had Pike the cowardly courtier in The Elysian Kingdom. Pike without his memories in Among The Lotus Eaters. Pike the singer in Subspace Rhapsody. And earlier this season? Pike the holo-TV producer in A Space Adventure Hour. That’s four episodes in which Captain Pike isn’t Captain Pike… in what we used to call “the Captain Pike show,” back when Strange New Worlds was little more than the target of a fan campaign. As with “Spock comedy,” I’m kinda done with the whole “let’s turn all our characters into totally different people!” premise. Strange New Worlds isn’t the only Star Trek show to have done this. But it is the only Star Trek show to have done it so often in such a short span of time. These aren’t twenty-five episode seasons of a show that’s gonna run for seven years. Forty-six episodes of Strange New Worlds are all we’re getting. And in several of them, Captain Pike isn’t himself. Again… I’m kind of over that premise. Let Pike be Pike!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Vulcan Pike. — How about a Captain Pike episode in the Captain Pike show where Captain Pike… gets to be Captain Pike?

Sorry, sorry. Positives.

I liked Kirk and Scotty’s burgeoning bromance. I was surprised to see Paul Wesley back as Kirk so soon after his big turn in the captain’s chair. But building on his new friendship with Scotty was a fun angle, and it was actually one of the few elements of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans that was played pretty straight. Yes, Kirk and Scotty found themselves in a weird situation with Vulcan/Romulan La’an… but their friendship continues to grow. Paul Wesley and Martin Quinn genuinely work well together. Kirk is beginning to come into his own as the captain we remember, but Scotty still has an edge of nervousness or a lack of confidence that comes from youthful inexperience. There’s a cute vibe to how they interacted, this week… and I really liked it.

Kirk and Scotty got what was one of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans’ most over-the-top storylines, with La’an plotting and scheming her way to a multi-front war. I think the boys’ side of things was the better one, and certainly the most grounded. Two stellar performances kept things focused mainly on the younger versions of these characters, despite the shenanigans happening around them.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Scotty and Kirk clinking glasses. — Scotty and Kirk make a pretty good team.

Since I mentioned La’an, let’s talk about her next. I haven’t really had the chance to discuss this very much… but La’an’s connection to iconic Star Trek villain Khan has been, for me, almost a complete waste so far. Only a couple of episodes have so much as touched on La’an’s ancestry and the potential lingering effects of augmentation, and to be blunt, that’s not been good enough from Strange New Worlds. There are ways to use a character like La’an to talk about things like collective guilt, the dangers of eugenics and genetic engineering, or generational trauma. So far, we haven’t got much of that… making me feel, as time has gone by, that La’an should’ve probably been created as an original character without that connection to Khan.

However, this storyline did belatedly address some of that. It wasn’t a huge part of it, with La’an’s famous relative and augmented DNA only being referenced right at the end. But that explanation made sense to me and seemed to account for La’an’s changed persona when in Vulcan form. As an admittedly small and easily-overlooked nod to this under-utilised aspect of her character, I liked it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Scotty stopping La'an. — La’an being zapped.

The scene between Pike and La’an in their Vulcan/Romulan guises was pretty funny. And I liked that Strange New Worlds linked up these two characters – both of whom are, as far as we know, the only people in Starfleet at this point in time to be aware of the connection between Romulans and Vulcans. The fact that they both had to cover this up to comply with the Temporal Prime Directive was alluded to, and added a lot to the scene. Obviously Pike came to learn about the Romulans in the Season 1 finale, and La’an did last season in her team-up with an alternate timeline version of Kirk.

The implication of this is interesting, though, if we take a step back. La’an basically turned into a Romulan, not a Vulcan, and Spock seemed to suggest that her augmented ancestry played a role in that. Is that a clue about the split between Vulcans and Romulans? Enterprise showed us our most comprehensive look so far at Vulcan history – including the Time of Awakening, after which the proto-Romulans left Vulcan. But it’s interesting, at least, to get this hint at genetic manipulation possibly playing a role in either the early history of the Romulans, or even in their society in general.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing La'an and Pike. — La’an and Pike.

Or perhaps the story wanted to highlight how thin the dividing line is between Romulans and Vulcans. That’s also an interesting idea, especially in light of Discovery’s far-future Ni’Var storylines. At any rate, I liked the idea that there could be some kind of augmentation at some point in Romulan history – and I felt that idea expands our understanding of the Romulans without treading on the toes of previous storylines.

Given how other parts of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans really leaned into the idea of “logic,” La’an’s transformation was a refreshing change of pace. Christina Chong can take a villainous turn remarkably well, and her performance – while no less over-the-top than any of the others this week – was still a lot of fun to watch. Again, this seems like an episode that would’ve been a blast to work on.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Kirk, La'an, and Scotty. — La’an becoming a Romulan, not a Vulcan, was a fun idea.

So let’s talk about the other Vulcans, then, and their transformations.

Though there was an attempt to address why Pike, Chapel, and Uhura were so emotionally repressed and logical, I felt it was a pretty flimsy way to hand-wave away an incredibly important part of Vulcan lore and history. Vulcans are not, by nature, stoic and logical. It takes a lot of effort and work on their part to box up their emotions the way they do, and just being physically Vulcan should not bring with it the decades of training that Spock went through to reach his more mature and logical state.

This was a narrative hurdle that I was really worried Four-and-a-Half Vulcans would trip over. And while we can say that the episode avoided the most flagrant violations of canon on a technicality… I’m still not sure that I like the result.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing three characters partway through their Vulcan transition. — The transformation process doesn’t look very pleasant…

Regular readers will have heard me talk about internal consistency before. I believe internal consistency is one of the absolutely foundational components of suspension of disbelief when engaging with any work of sci-fi or fantasy. Once it’s been established that magic, fictional technologies, or alien races behave a certain way, that’s gotta be something subsequent storylines stick with. If Star Trek was constantly changing how warp drive worked, for example, it would soon erode the core of one of the franchise’s key technologies. And when it’s been established that Vulcans are intensely emotional people who have to train for years to keep their emotions in check and present a logical face to the world… future stories have to stick with that.

However, by showing the flaws and weaknesses in each of the transformed characters’ applications of logic, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans actually does something genuinely interesting with this idea. It’s more than just cringe humour, and while I maintain that it feels like something that’s dangerously close to crossing the line into an outright violation of canon, there was at least somewhat of a point to it. And more nuance than I’d been expecting.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Pike at his desk. — Captain Pike was… illogical.

Pike, La’an, Chapel, and Uhura were completely unprepared for what being a Vulcan would feel like. And they found it impossible to adhere to a genuinely logical pattern of behavior, with all of them crossing lines and behaving like, as Spock put it, jerks. In that sense, I think we did actually learn a little more about what it must be like to be a Vulcan, and how intense their training and education must be to keep a logical lid on some truly illogical impulses and desires.

This was more than just pure comedy, and breaking it down, we catch a small glimpse at what being a Vulcan might feel like – something that, if you think about it, we haven’t seen much of outside of Enterprise. Parts of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans seemed to build on T’Pol’s storylines from Enterprise in an interesting way. Whether that was the intention or not… that’s how I read it. And perhaps I’m reaching, trying to find positive glimmers amidst a storyline I generally didn’t like. But I think that interpretation is there, and stepping back to Enterprise gives context to some of these scenes.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Spock and Chapel in sickbay. — The episode explored a bit more about Vulcans.

Pelia is legitimately one of my favourite characters on Strange New Worlds, and almost every scene she’s in is just… delicious. She’s so funny, she adds so much light-heartedness to the show, and even in an episode like this, where comedy was the focus, her scenes still stood out. It was also a change of pace to put Pelia with a different combination of characters. We saw her with Ortegas, Dr M’Benga, Spock, and Una, and I honestly can’t remember many (or any) times she’d really spent time with most of them. She’s the chief engineer, and though we do now have Scotty as a junior officer, the chief engineer role on a Star Trek series is still an important one.

What I got from Pelia’s scenes, more than just a good laugh, was how she is genuinely friends with the rest of the crew. They like her, and she likes them. Because of how little screen time Pelia tends to get, and how inconsistent her appearances are – with her disappearing for multiple stories in a row, sometimes – there’s been less of an opportunity to show that. This week, with everyone hanging out in her quarters, I felt like she was a fully-fledged member of the crew. And I liked it. Oh, and Pelia’s quarters being shielded from the ship’s sensors? Love it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Pelia in bed. — Pelia is so funny. I love her.

Though Chapel and Uhura got arguably the less-interesting Vulcan storylines, both had their moments. Uhura trying to solve problems with mind-melds and forcibly “brainwashing” Beto was… weird. But it was nice to welcome back Mynor Lüken on this side of the story. I still think Beto and Uhura have good chemistry, and giving the younger Uhura a romantic interest is – if done well and explored more in future – a solid idea I can get behind.

Chapel’s single-minded focus on work was also interesting, especially as she began severing relationships and friendships in the name of efficiency. I felt a little of Seven of Nine in this characterisation, as Chapel prioritised doing as much work as possible ahead of everything else. Bringing back Dr Korby in the closing moments of the episode rounded out this storyline quite well.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Uhura meditating. — Uhura in her Vulcan form.

If I might nitpick… Dr M’Benga and Una both said that they couldn’t force Pike and the others to return to their human states. And Una was unwilling to remove Pike from command, despite his erratic behaviour. But surely on medical grounds… the affected officers could have been relieved of duty. When it became clear that Pike could no longer effectively command the ship, and was issuing nonsensical orders like 45-minute shift changes, or when La’an was rigging the ship’s weapons for all-out war… intervening at that stage was definitely an option. In fact, it should have been mandatory.

In previous iterations of Star Trek, we have seen officers relieved from duty for less! I can appreciate why, in the beginning, Una and Dr M’Benga might’ve taken a “wait and see” approach, rather than trying to force Pike and co. to return to their human states. But when it became clear that they were being adversely affected by their transformations, steps would surely have been taken by a competent commander and medical professional to, at the very least, take them off duty for a while.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing the crew chatting in Pelia's quarters. — These characters could (and arguably should) have intervened before things went too far.

Doug was an interesting character, but in a busy episode, I don’t think we got enough time with him to really explore who he is or what he was even doing. He and Una made a fun pair, but we never really understood why they have such an unstoppable effect on one another. “Pure lust” doesn’t seem like something Una would experience, to be blunt about it, and even if she did… even if Vulcans and Illyrians have some kind of effect on each other… surely two grown adults are capable of behaving themselves long enough to have a serious conversation. It was a silly aspect of an already silly story… and one that was too over-the-top for my taste in an episode which had no shortage of such moments.

I was also disappointed that, after all the buildup to Doug’s arrival, we didn’t actually see him do anything of consequence to the plot. The writers and producers chose to show Doug – played by wonderful guest star Patton Oswalt – flirting with Una, sharing an awkward drink with Spock, and then doing whatever Vulcan magic he did entirely off-screen, before reuniting for one final flirty scene with Una. “Show, don’t tell” is something they teach every budding writer in their first ever lesson… and with Doug’s Vulcan katra magic being the climax of the episode’s story… it felt wrong that it happened entirely off-screen. Was it really straightforward? Did Doug just… snap his fingers, putting everyone to rights? Or did it take him a week of intense study, meditation, and working in a lab? We don’t know because we saw zero seconds of any of it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, 3x08, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans showing Doug. — Doug.

Four-and-a-Half Vulcans was funnier than I expected, and a better episode all around than I feared it would be from the photos and promo clip. But it wasn’t fantastic, it still has some significant weaknesses and contrivances, and above all, it relies on a premise that Strange New Worlds has thoroughly burned out. Please… please… let this be the last “Vulcan comedy” episode we get in this show. I can handle more light-heartedness, and I’m fine with more episodes that use overtly comedic premises and styles. But not another one where the focus is Spock and the Vulcans. We get it: Vulcans can be funny. But that’s enough for now. Try something else with the Vulcans, perhaps. Or give Spock a storyline that isn’t either slapstick comedy or depicting him slowly sleeping his way through every female member of the Enterprise crew. If you can’t think of anything that fits the bill… sideline Spock for an episode or two and do something else. Because I am thoroughly, utterly, and completely done with these kinds of stories at this point.

So that’s all for now, I guess! I didn’t hate Four-and-a-Half Vulcans. I didn’t even dislike it as much as I half-expected, half-worried that I would. But I did find it repetitive, perhaps a little too silly or over-the-top in places, and its strengths – like a genuinely good storyline for Kirk and Scotty – couldn’t outweigh its weaknesses. The result is an episode I probably won’t watch very often in the future.

Next week, we have Terrarium, which I know absolutely nothing about at this stage. The name doesn’t give very much away, and there haven’t been any photos or clips released ahead of its premiere yet. Maybe that’s because there’s some big secret being kept? “Terra” could hint at the Mirror Universe, perhaps – though I hope that’s not the case, to be honest! Or a “terrarium” could refer to an enclosure, perhaps suggesting Pike and the crew will become trapped. Those are total guesses, though. I guess we’ll have to tune in to find out!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance and/or Paramount. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 7: What Is Starfleet?

Fri 22.08.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Minor spoilers are present for Picard Season 1, The Original Series, and Deep Space Nine.

Strange New Worlds remains a fun, episodic, and eclectic series. Just in Season 3 so far, we’ve had a zombie episode, a noir mystery on the holodeck, and a dimension-bending away mission. So when this week’s episode was presented in the style of a Panorama or PBS Frontline documentary… yeah. That tracks!

What Is Starfleet was incredibly creative and well put-together. It draws clear inspiration from modern documentary films and investigative journalism, splicing action with interviews, and the way it unfolded made it a genuinely interesting watch. It could also feel intrusive and more than a little frustrating, particularly as the action would cut away from what was unfolding to focus on another interview or clip that didn’t seem to move the main story along. The overall result? An episode I have mixed feelings about, I’m afraid.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the documentary title card. — The documentary’s title card.

Beto is not a totally brand-new character, having been built up over several earlier episodes. That should be a saving grace for What Is Starfleet, because we’ve at least started to get to know Beto, and we’ve seen him interacting with and getting to know some of the characters on the show already. But… the way this documentary was presented felt intrusive to practically all of the other characters. And because they are our real protagonists and have been for two-and-a-half seasons already… we’re on their side more than on Beto’s, even when naked plot contrivances seemed to be painting Starfleet and Captain Pike in a less flattering light.

It was obvious that the only two characters who were even potentially interested in being interviewed were Uhura and Erica Ortegas – and both of those come with caveats. Captain Pike, Dr M’Benga, Spock, Una… none of them were okay with this. They were complying because they’d been ordered to, but they really weren’t game for having their personal and professional lives exposed and dissected on camera. And again, because they’re the people we care about more than Beto, a significant chunk of What Is Starfleet felt uncomfortable, like it was being presented from the wrong character’s point of view.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Dr M'Benga. — Most characters – like Dr M’Benga – were unwilling participants in the documentary.

Maybe that’s supposed to be part of the point. Some films and TV programmes want you to feel uncomfortable, want to show off negative or less-positive traits from some of their characters, and this documentary format is particularly well-suited to doing that. But if that was how it was meant to come across, then I question both the intent and the execution. What would be the point, in a series like Strange New Worlds, of trying to light up in neon some of the main characters’ ambiguities and questionable backstories? What do we gain by that? Because it feels like something that was contrived for the sake of being an uncomfortable experience… not to lead to any kind of character growth or narrative payoff.

And we aren’t just considering this documentary within the confines of Strange New Worlds – but in the context of 950+ Star Trek stories over almost six decades. Impugning the character, values, and overall decency of Starfleet, as Beto seems to aspire to do in the beginning… it doesn’t sit right.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Dr M'Benga's war record. — Dr M’Benga’s wartime record.

This side of the episode also horribly mixed its metaphors. Though I question whether it could be successfully pulled off, presenting the Federation and Starfleet as akin to an “empire,” ruthlessly expanding, using questionable weapons of mass destruction, threatening non-members… there could be real-world parallels there. It’s the distinction between how the United States likes to see itself – a paragon of virtue, extolling democracy and freedom – versus how the country can be seen by other countries around the world. Asking us as the audience to consider, even for a moment, whether non-Federation members and non-Starfleet personnel might see these organisations in that way has potential. It worked in Deep Space Nine with stories about Bajor and especially with the Maquis.

But the ending completely undermines all of that. Beto goes from making a hard-hitting investigative piece, complete with implicit accusations of war crimes and empire-building, to making a puff piece; basically pro-Starfleet propaganda. Though I don’t think this story, told in this format, had the kind of complex morality that would’ve lent itself to a discussion of Starfleet as a tool of imperialism… if that’s the angle you want to go for, you kind of have to commit to it. What Is Starfleet didn’t, resulting in an ending that felt abrupt and tonally wrong compared to everything that led up to it.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Pike holding a wine glass. — The end of the episode came across like a puff piece – or a recruitment commercial.

In an episodic show, you get contrivances sometimes – it’s part of episodic storytelling. In order to get to the main event, sometimes you have to brush aside an important point or sideline a character. It’s never great, but it’s a compromise of the medium. Even with that context, though… Starfleet’s off-screen orders for the Enterprise to work with this alien race and deliver their biological weapon felt incredibly flimsy. It was clearly set up to be as dark and negative as possible, so that the episode (and Beto as the filmmaker) could imply as many bad things as possible.

And again, contrivances are a hazard of episodic TV. There are many instances in Star Trek where the Enterprise has been ordered somewhere “just because,” jump-starting the events of a more interesting storyline. But there really aren’t that many episodes I can think of where the reasoning behind Starfleet’s orders is so deliberately obtuse.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Pike and Una conversing with Starfleet Command. — There was no reason for Starfleet to be so annoyingly secretive other than “because plot.”

There was scope for a potentially interesting conversation about the “Nuremberg defence.” If you’re unfamiliar with that term, it refers to the expression “I was only following orders,” something many of the defendants at the Nuremberg trials after World War II would go on to claim. In the context of this story, Starfleet basically ordered Pike and the crew to transport a pretty terrifying weapon – a weapon created by interfering with a sentient life-form. The secrecy and “need-to-know basis” for the information pertaining to the mission at least suggests or hints at Starfleet’s higher-ups being aware of what they were doing.

But What Is Starfleet doesn’t do that. It flips things around, showing how Starfleet is “just us, the good people who serve,” and that kind of ignores a massive in-universe point about the nature of orders, who’s giving them, and what outside agendas might be involved. We didn’t get a satisfactory explanation for why Starfleet was inserting itself into this war between two non-Federation worlds, nor whether they knew of the capabilities of this sentient, genetically-modified weapon of mass destuction. “I was only following orders” is not an acceptable defence today, in the modern world, for something like the trafficking of sentient beings, let alone transporting weapons of mass destruction to one side in a war your state is not a participant in. So why would that be okay in the 23rd Century?

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the Jikaru. — The episode sets up an interesting and morally complex idea – then dumps it right when it could’ve mattered.

What Is Starfleet could’ve posed those kinds of questions – but when it came to the crux, the episode’s writers and director baulked. They teed up these questions about Starfleet inserting itself into someone else’s war, not as a peacemaker but as a gun-running, human trafficking ally, and about how the chain of command operates. But then, after an admittedly emotional chat with Uhura about his personal agenda and ulterior motive, Beto does a complete 180 and turns his documentary’s final act into a celebration of all things Starfleet that’s so sickeningly upbeat that it comes across like propaganda or an enlistment ad.

And so… from both an in-universe perspective, and for us as the audience, Beto’s documentary feels fundamentally unsatisfying and tonally wrong. It’s as if you’d sat down to watch what you thought was a hard-hitting episode of PBS Frontline or Panorama about the war in Iraq, the lies that led to the war, and the criminal actions of the military… only for the film to end with a feel-good story about camaraderie and friendship, and an ad to join the army at your nearest recruitment station. Starfleet is – as the documentary points out – the Federation’s military, after all, so when the episode and the documentary end with this kind of puff piece… that’s how it comes across to me, at any rate.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the dinner party. — This didn’t feel like the right ending.

A couple of weeks ago, Pelia was one of the most fun and engaging characters when dealing with Beto and his camera. She seemed to relish in hamming it up, almost hoping for her turn in the spotlight. That could’ve added a small amount of levity to what was a quite heavy story this time, and What Is Starfleet could’ve looked at the connection between Pelia and Beto, as well as, perhaps, how a filmmaker might deal with an overly enthusiastic participant. But, for no discernible reason, Pelia was entirely absent.

Given the Jikaru’s energy/electromagnetic abilities, and the damage sustained to the ship and shuttle, there was scope to bring in an engineering character, but neither Scotty nor Pelia appeared. If I had to choose just one of them, I’d have picked Pelia – I just think she brought something completely different to the table when dealing with Beto. It would’ve been fun for us to see him having to deal with her antics, but she could’ve also had a role in the story. Not only could we have seen her attending to the Enterprise’s shields, and perhaps Beto struggling to keep his composure during an interview, but Pelia could’ve also helped Pike deal with the intrusion of having a camera in his face. I’ve felt her absence in several stories this season – but none more so than this one.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing an engineer reparing damage to the Enterprise. — Where were Pelia and Scotty during all of this?

All of this must make it sound like I hated What Is Starfleet. I didn’t. I liked the creativity. I liked that, after 950+ episodes and films, Star Trek can still break new ground and try different things. I liked that, hidden underneath the documentary format, there was a classic Star Trek story which felt like it came straight out of The Original Series or Deep Space Nine. And I liked many of the character moments – particularly Pike’s conversations with Una, and Uhura’s with Beto. I just think that some of the episode’s goals weren’t clear, and that maybe there was a bit of story meddling which ultimately led to quite a jarring shift in tone.

This was a non-linear approach to storytelling – the narrative was broken up by interviews and vignettes, but underneath it there was a classic Star Trek episode. I’d still have the same complaint about Starfleet Command’s unnecessary secrecy and obtuse orders without the documentary format, but on that side of the story, that’s pretty much the only weak link. The tale of an alien race corrupting a life-form for its own selfish purposes, and Starfleet intervening, coming down firmly on the side of protecting sentient life? That’s a classic “morality play” right out of The Original Series. And the idea of Starfleet potentially investigating this kind of weapon, inserting itself in a foreign conflict? The same kind of morally challenging storytelling was on display in Deep Space Nine.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the main viewscreen showing the Jikaru and the Lutani warship. — The Jikaru and the Lutani warship.

I think the core story at the heart of What Is Starfleet would’ve made for a perfectly entertaining episode in its own right. And maybe, without the documentary trappings, it might’ve even been a bit more fun! I like when Star Trek gets into these morally grey areas – why was the Enterprise ordered to help this non-Federation member with Klingon ties? Did Starfleet Command know that the Lutani were illegally enslaving a sentient species to serve as weapons of mass destruction? Seeing Pike and the crew coming to that realisation was great… but without the unique format, I can’t help but feel it might’ve worked even better.

Because the interviews didn’t really expand our knowledge or understanding of any of the featured characters, basically just re-telling things we already knew, like Uhura’s family, Ortegas’ injury, Spock’s half-human side, or Dr M’Benga’s war record, there’s a strong case to be made that they… got in the way. And that what could’ve filled that space had they not been present was a more in-depth look at the Lutani, their unethical experiments on the Jinkaru, and Captain Pike’s realisation that his orders were morally wrong. That version of the episode – one played straight, without the documentary fluff – would have been fun to see.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Pike being interviewed. — Captain Pike.

There are a couple of other in-universe points I want to tackle re. the documentary, then I promise we’ll move on to discuss other parts of the episode!

Firstly, this documentary idea leaned on something modern Star Trek has done that I’ve never been particularly comfortable with. In short, the idea of making a documentary about the crew of the Federation flagship means that, to the ordinary Federation citizen, Captain Pike and at least some members of his crew are gonna be akin to celebrities. The implications are that either people knew who they are already, or that the documentary is going to raise their profiles and make them famous, for want of a better word.

I’ve never really liked that idea. In some Star Trek stories, it could work. When Enterprise did it in Season 4, turning members of its crew into heroes, there was a narrative purpose – but when we’ve seen similar attempts, such as in Picard’s premiere episode, or with Boimler in Lower Decks fangirling about certain Starfleet officers, it just felt weird and uncomfortable. I like to see the characters in Star Trek as everyday folks doing their jobs in this fun future setting. Some of them are exceptional, yes, but part of that is because they live in a post-scarcity future where “exceptional” is becoming the norm. They aren’t meant to be their world’s equivalent of celebrities, so this idea of a documentary all about them – making them famous people in the 23rd Century – just isn’t sitting right.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Uhura and Spock on the bridge. — Uhura and Spock.

Then we have an interesting in-universe question: would a documentary like this actually make it to air? Would Starfleet be okay with a documentary implying one of its senior medical personnel is a war criminal? Or that showed a sensitive mission involving a non-Federation member, a weapon of mass destruction, and classified orders? If this was an independent production, maybe. But the whole idea behind Beto’s work is that he’s been commissioned by Starfleet to make this film – Pike and the crew are basically under orders to work with him and let him observe them, otherwise you can bet Pike wouldn’t have allowed him on the bridge. With that context, would Starfleet be okay with this film?

Starfleet Command would undoubtedly like the ending – how could they not? It’s basically pro-Starfleet propaganda and a recruitment ad rolled into one. But the rest of the film really does portray the organisation and several members of the crew in an extraordinarily negative light, so the idea that the people at Starfleet HQ who originally wanted this documentary to be made would give it the green light is ridiculous. And, also from an in-universe perspective, I’m not sure I buy the idea of Starfleet declassifying all of this footage of its operations, broadcasting it to all and sundry. Maybe that’ll become an issue in another episode – perhaps the Klingons watched Beto’s documentary, figured out some weakness in the Enterprise, and are planning an attack. I doubt it, but it could at least be a way to incorporate the documentary into a future episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the bridge of the Enterprise. — Might the Klingons have watched Beto’s documentary?

Okay, that’s enough about the documentary for now.

So I guess Strange New Worlds isn’t going in the direction I thought it was with Ortegas and her hinted at PTSD-like condition. Her scenes in the documentary this week, in which she discussed her injury and recovery, seem for now to be the culmination of that storyline, and I don’t really see how, with three episodes remaining this season, this storyline can come back in a significant way. It was understated and not what I expected, but I can respect What Is Starfleet for the undramatic and mature way it approached this storyline.

I confess I’d been expecting more of an ending, though. I don’t think it feels unsatisfying, but Ortegas’ storyline had been set up right at the start of the season, then we got her big blow-up with Una in Shuttle to Kenfori, and I’d been sort of waiting ever since for this unnamed PTSD-adjacent mental health condition to return. With Ortegas never having gotten a major storyline of her own, this could’ve been her turn in the spotlight. I think there’s value in a storyline that basically says, “yeah, I was struggling, but with determination and time I’m doing better.” I wish we’d seen a bit more of it over the course of the season, though; Ortegas seemed to go from struggling badly to snapping out of it in between episodes, where recovery and coming to terms with trauma is a process, not an instantaneous thing.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Erica Ortegas smiling. — I wish we’d gotten a bit more time with Ortegas this season to explore her mental health – but this ending was solid in an understated way.

Uhura was at the heart of What Is Starfleet, and her connection with Beto was interesting. However, there was a moment towards the end where Uhura seemed to go from “I can’t believe you’re recording this, leave me alone” to “I’m having an invasive medical procedure, bring your camera” in no time at all. Conflict between characters is great; it adds to the extension in a situation like this. And I get that Uhura was absolutely the right character to call out Beto on his agenda and potential conflict of interest. But I think we needed at least one scene in between their blow-up in the ready room and Uhura’s visit to sickbay to sell that they’re still on speaking terms.

That being said, Beto’s realisation that he was compromising his work and coming into it with an agenda was played incredibly well. I liked how the camera lingered on Beto – picking up on his line a couple of weeks ago about the camera being programmed to follow the strongest emotions in the room – as he sat with the idea that he was projecting onto Starfleet his anger and fears after what happened to his sister.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing a close-up of Beto, looking emotional. — Beto.

The scene was also incredibly well-written, and it built on Uhura and Beto’s established relationship particularly well. I think we were getting to a point where, in theory, anyone *could* have called out Beto for his anti-Starfleet agenda, but if it had been Pike or Dr M’Benga, for example, it wouldn’t have packed as much of a punch. It took Uhura to see through Beto – not only what he was doing, but why he was doing it and why he felt the way he did. It was a great way to build on a fun character dynamic from earlier in the season, taking the pair in a more serious and dramatic direction.

Has it killed any possibility of an Uhura-Beto romance, though? After she called him out like that, and after Beto had been pushing his agenda the whole time, I can see both of them not wanting to take things any further. Maybe that’s a reach – or maybe Beto will be gone after this episode, now his documentary is over – but I liked the idea of giving this younger version of Uhura some kind of romantic entanglement. Spock can’t be the only one who gets to have that kind of storyline, after all!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Beto and Uhura. — Beto and Uhura made for a fun pair earlier in the season.

One thing I really liked about Beto, and I admire about the character on a personal level, is how he left all of that in the documentary. He could’ve said “cut!” and left out the part where Uhura basically calls him out on his own show for his bias and anti-Starfleet sentiments. But he didn’t. It added to the feeling that this was the kind of “warts and all” investigative piece that What Is Starfleet’s writers were drawing inspiration from. And I think it (belatedly, perhaps) paints Beto in a positive light. For all his flaws, he was dedicated to the truth more than to his own image.

I felt echoes of Jake Sisko in this side of Beto. In the DS9 fourth season episode Nor Battle To The Strong, we see Jake and Dr Bashir diverted to a warzone – where Jake fails to distinguish himself in combat. Jake writes up his experiences for the Federation News Network, including his cowardice, his abandoning of Bashir, and the sheer dumb luck for which he was hailed as a hero. Beto, in What Is Starfleet, does something similar by allowing his conversation with Uhura – and by extension, the agenda he had going into the documentary – to make it into the final cut. Both men exposed their own flaws and vulnerabilities. As I’ve said before… Star Trek doesn’t copy itself, but sometimes, story beats just rhyme.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Beto lost in thought. — Like Jake Sisko in *Nor Battle To The Strong*, Beto kept his documentary open and honest, even about his own flaws.

I’m not sure that this was a particularly good episode for Captain Pike. I don’t mean that in terms of screen time, but characterisation. Pike went hard on the “need-to-know” aspect of his orders, which made sense in the context of the story, but didn’t do wonders for a man who’s supposedly on friendly terms with his crew. There was a bit of broken trust there, I felt, and it begs the question of how much Pike knew about the Jikaru and what the Lutani had been doing to them before the mission got underway.

It was nice to see how Pike – eventually – came around to the idea that the Jikaru was sentient, and that interfering with it was morally wrong, even if it was within the scope of his orders. But it took him a while to reach that conclusion, even after Uhura and Spock had pressured him about it. And it doesn’t account for what he may or may not have known about the mission and the circumstances surrounding the Lutani and their unethical experimentation on a sentient life-form. Sometimes less is more… but here, we needed to know from Captain Pike, firsthand, that he was as surprised as everyone else about what was going on.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Pike, Una, Uhura, and M'Benga in the ready room. — Pike with Una, Uhura, and Dr M’Benga.

Though we didn’t spend much time with the Lutani, I enjoyed the two characters we got to see. The first scientist died in a pretty gruesome way, succumbing to her injuries in sickbay. The second Lutani, the commander of their warship, got a one-on-one with Captain Pike, and I liked this character. There was a desperate edge to him; pleading for this unethical super-weapon his people had developed as it was, in his view, a last line of defence.

The actor, Shaun Majumder, reminded me of DS9′s Armin Shimerman in terms of how he spoke, and that was kind of fun to listen to! The Lutani are probably going to be among Star Trek’s many one-time-use aliens; I don’t expect we’ll see them coming back in a big way. But they had a neat design – the silver-grey colour at least helps them stand out from other “nose and forehead” humanoid aliens. Nothing to write home about, perhaps, but a solid and pretty nuanced antagonist for the story they were a part of.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing the Lutani commander. — The Lutani commander.

Ever since Discovery debuted, live-action Star Trek has used a cinematic “letterbox” aspect ratio… and I hate it! Okay, “hate” might be too strong a word, but c’mon… what’s wrong with a standard widescreen ratio that actually fits properly on most people’s TV screens? It feels like every episode has content cut off; like I should be seeing more of the action. What Is Starfleet finally ditched that – and it was consistent in using a 16:9 aspect ratio for the entire episode, unlike A Space Adventure Hour, which only used it for its show-within-a-holdeck-programme-within-a-show segments.

I admire Strange New Worlds’ producers for going all-in with whatever ideas they have. We got the animated ending to Those Old Scientists in Season 2. We got the a cappella opening theme in the musical episode. We got a 16:9 aspect ratio this week, mimicking those TV documentaries and investigative news pieces that the episode drew inspiration from. Long may this experimentation continue!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing a hand reaching for a phaser. — A phaser pistol in the armoury.

It was a ton of fun to see the shuttle Galileo again. The Galileo was made famous in The Original Series episode The Galileo Seven, and a shuttle bearing the same name has been a mainstay in Strange New Worlds since Season 1. Maybe I’m misremembering, but I felt the design of the shuttle that we saw this week was much closer to that TOS presentation than to earlier Strange New Worlds episodes – it felt a lot more familiar to me, at any rate.

The sequence aboard the shuttle was one of the most tense in What Is Starfleet, with Spock attempting a long-range mind-meld with the Jikaru. I’m not sure how we went from “Spock’s the only one who can do this because of Vulcan telepathy” to “anyone can thanks to this gadget,” but I guess that’s a minor point. The danger of the shuttle mission was well-established, and as the camera lingered on Pike, you could see how worried he was for the safety of the away team.

Concept art created for Star Trek: The Original Series showing the interior of the shuttle Galileo. — *The Original Series* concept art showing the shuttlecraft interior.
*Image Credit: Matt Jeffries via Forgotten Trek*.

I’ll continue to compliment Strange New Worlds for taking a step back from Spock’s love life. When Chapel joined the away mission (why not Dr M’Benga?) I was a little worried that they’d drag that up again, but I was pleasantly surprised. There’s so much more Strange New Worlds can do with Spock than either comedy or romantic storylines, and I’m glad we got to see him in that kind of role this week. What Is Starfleet leaned into Spock’s role as the Enterprise’s science officer, but it also allowed him – in his own words and at his own pace – to touch on his half-human heritage.

This continues a trend from Enterprise (and really, as far back as The Original Series) of Vulcans being a pretty prejudiced lot. Despite their lofty claims of enlightenment and aloof nature, Vulcans are just as prejudiced as humans when it comes to race and racial purity. Enterprise took a deep dive into this side of the Vulcans, but it was always present. I remember Sarek’s line of Spock being “so human” in The Final Frontier, just as one example. Considering that next week’s episode is titled Four-and-a-Half Vulcans, calling attention to Spock’s heritage in What Is Starfleet might prove to be some clever foreshadowing. Or just a timely reminder.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Spock's training. — Part of Spock’s training/meditation.

Alright, let’s start to wrap things up.

What Is Starfleet was a creative idea for an episode. Beto’s earlier appearances this season built up to it, meaning the idea of a full-blown documentary episode didn’t come from nowhere. The writers, producers, director, and editors clearly had a lot of fun researching documentary films and investigative news pieces, and the resulting episode emulates that style incredibly well. There were also great moments of characterisation for Beto and Uhura in particular, with Mynor Lüken and Celia Rose Gooding putting in incredible performances to bring their characters to life.

However, there are some flaws that keep What Is Starfleet from really soaring. I really felt the absence of Pelia, as her chaotic energy and previous run-in with Beto could’ve added a lot. I can’t help but feel that a more traditional episode, playing the story straight without the documentary style, might’ve been a better fit for this story of the Jikaru and Lutani, and would’ve allowed a bit more time for characters like Pike to shine. And, unfortunately, the documentary itself feels quite jarring, with a massive tonal jump from “investigative hit piece” to “recruitment ad” right at the end.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S03E07 "What Is Starfleet?" showing Spock in away team armour. — Spock.

A bit of a mixed bag, then. Nothing was out-and-out bad, and I will happily watch What Is Starfleet again. It’s a self-contained episode, one that doesn’t require a lot of background information from earlier stories to shine. Ortegas’ storyline is probably the most reliant on what came before, but I think it’s explained well enough within the documentary itself – and particularly through Uhura’s conversation with Beto – that even that aspect can be understood without much prior knowledge. I’m a little underwhelmed by this apparent resolution to Ortegas’ story, but at the same time I can respect Strange New Worlds for going for a more realistic and less drama-laden ending to her struggles.

We caught a glimpse of Captain Batel in the dinner party sequence right at the end, but this is now the second week in a row where her deadly, near-fatal illness and unconventional treatment haven’t been mentioned. As above, I love episodic television, and I don’t want Strange New Worlds to turn into a serialised show like Picard or Discovery. But… sooner or later, we have to pick up this storyline, right?

Next week, we have Four-and-a-Half Vulcans. I’ll level with you: I’m not looking forward to another “Vulcans are so stuck up, let’s use that for laughs!” story outline. Strange New Worlds has scope to do so much more with Spock and the Vulcans, yet almost every time they’ve appeared it’s been in a comedy story with a flippant tone. I hope I’m misjudging Four-and-a-Half Vulcans, and I’ll do my best to go into it with an open mind! But I’m concerned at this early stage. I guess we’ll find out, though!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 6: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail

Sat 16.08.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Minor spoilers are also present for Star Trek: The Original Series.

When Strange New Worlds was first announced over five years ago, I wrote that, were I in charge, I’d plan ahead for the series finale. The final episode I envisioned would’ve seen Captain Pike handing over the Enterprise to someone we’re all familiar with: Captain James T. Kirk. Kirk’s arrival on the Enterprise’s transporter pad would’ve been his first on-screen appearance… and the final shot of the series. But ever since the end of Season 1, where a younger version of Kirk appeared, it’s been clear that Strange New Worlds’ writers want to bring in the character in a much larger way. We got to see that this week, in what was in large part a Kirk episode.

The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail was interesting and, for the most part, an enjoyable romp. We got to see the first mission Kirk undertook with several members of his iconic crew – Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Chapel. And it was set against the backdrop of a massive villainous starship that was simultaneously terrifying and ridiculous in its appearance. Most of this side of the episode stuck the landing, but it was also a busy story with a lot going on. That meant the villains weren’t as well-developed as I’d have liked, and a couple of characters aboard the Enterprise drew the short straw in terms of screen time.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Ortegas and Mitchell on the bridge. — Ortegas and Mitchell.

I think I’ll start with the negative points and criticisms before moving into the positives. The design of the scavenger ship was just plain silly. Its “face” with a gaping, monstrous maw was supposed to be intimidating or frightening – but it absolutely failed, and the visual impact of this floating mouth made the whole thing look ridiculous. At the beginning of the episode, when the scavenger ship went unseen, the reactions from Kirk and others definitely sold the illusion that they were seeing something terrifying. But when we saw the ship for ourselves… it just looked really bad.

The best way I could describe the design of the scavenger ship would be to say it’s the kind of thing a seven-year-old might draw if you told them to make you a picture of a “space monster.” It was equal parts cliché, over-the-top, childish, and silly – leading to one of the absolute worst starship reveals that I can remember in any Star Trek story. The design of the scavenger ship ended up detracting from some genuinely great performances; I could scarcely believe that the likes of Kirk, Scotty, and Uhura would be frightened of this ship because of how amateurish and silly it looked.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing the scavengers' ship. — I found the visual impact of the scavenger ship to be pretty weak and silly.

Star Trek stories often have a broader point they want to make, and aliens or villainous factions can be seen as metaphors for events, issues, and even people out here in the real world. For the most part, The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail was a story about Kirk – about how he had to come to terms with firing the shot that killed thousands of people. And that part of it genuinely worked and stuck the landing; we’ll talk about it more in a moment. But I felt the episode’s writing was very muddled with the revelation that the scavengers were humans. What was the point the writers wanted to make – except that Kirk needed more of a reason to feel bad?

If we’re returning to the well of environmentalism, climate change, and the state of the world today… then I’m afraid this really didn’t work. The scavengers’ ancestors may have left Earth because the environment was suffering and they felt the need to lead humanity to the stars, but that doesn’t explain how, over the intervening centuries, they became twisted into genocidal murderers. Nothing in the story explained this transformation – and the episode didn’t really know what it wanted to say, either. Is the point that well-meaning people can end up doing awful things? Is it that we shouldn’t take the “Elon Musk” approach of fleeing Earth in a spaceship and instead try to fix the climate crisis? Is it that humans are, fundamentally, absolute trash without a strong government to guide us? I genuinely don’t get what – if anything – the scavengers are meant to represent, other than a reason for Kirk to sulk.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Kirk looking at the debris on the main viewscreen. — Who were the scavengers, and why are we supposed to care?

There are plenty of aliens or villains in Star Trek who only appear once, but still manage to feel believable, fleshed-out, and real within the confines of a single episode. Whether we’re talking about the First Federation, the Sheliak, or the Abronians, there are literally hundreds of one-off aliens or adversaries who still manage to feel real and well-rounded. Because The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail didn’t have a lot of time to explore who the scavengers were or what their driving force might’ve been… the end result was that they feel pretty flat, one-dimensional, and just not very interesting.

I absolutely adore how Strange New Worlds has largely returned Star Trek to a more episodic format. But for me, these scavengers fall into a trap that can sometimes hamper episodic storytelling: we just don’t know enough about them to feel much of anything. The big reveal – that they were actually humans all along – didn’t land as hard as it should’ve because we just hadn’t spent enough time with them, heard any of them speak, or come to know them at all. They were your bog-standard aggressive monsters for basically the entire story, so the revelation at the end didn’t really feel as impactful as I think the writers wanted it to be.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing the Farragut and the scavengers' ship. — The Farragut and the scavenger ship.

Episodic storytelling is by far my favourite, not just in the Star Trek franchise but on TV in general. But not every episode ends up feeling as strong or as well put-together, and for me, the scavengers in The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail just don’t really stand up to even other one-off villains in past iterations of Star Trek. And it’s such a shame, because I can see most of the pieces to build such a faction hiding just beneath the surface – and a more focused episode could have done a lot more with the scavengers, making the ending hit harder.

Some of the dialogue dedicated to setting up the scavengers felt like naked exposition, with characters claiming they’d heard rumours of something deadly and dangerous in this part of space. This setup felt pretty weak. It isn’t easy to establish a villain, show how dangerous they are, and come up with a plan to take them down all inside of forty-five minutes – and I get that. But that kind of storyline has been done before, and done way better, in other Star Trek shows.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Pike, La'an, and Una on the bridge. — This scene felt quite heavy-handed with its exposition.

There is something uniquely frightening about an incomprehensible enemy. This is what made the Borg so scary in their initial appearances in The Next Generation – they weren’t someone you could reason with or dissuade; they saw the Federation as a resource to be acquired, and nothing more. The scavengers, with their single-minded desire to harvest resources, could have leaned into that. But it would have required a different ending to the episode, and almost certainly a less-silly starship design, too.

In short, by trying to explain that the scavengers were human – but not having enough time to properly dissect the implications of that, nor really consider why the scavengers were acting in that way – The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail gets the worst of both worlds. It removes any ambiguity or mystique from the scavengers, but what replaces it isn’t strong enough in the way it was handled – and didn’t get enough screen time – to balance that out. The ending of the episode, while really well-played from a character standpoint, ends up feeling pretty muddled as a result. And for us as the audience, the revelation that these nameless scavengers – not one of whom did we actually meet, let alone get to know – are humans… it just didn’t have much of an impact.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing a photo of the scavengers' ancestors. — The scavengers’ 21st Century ancestors.

Then there was Pike and La’an’s run-in with the scavenger boarding party. This part just felt under-developed, as Pike seemed to sense hesitation in the scavenger when he had the upper hand in their fight. So… why didn’t the scavenger fire? Is it because he recognised Pike as human? In a galaxy populated by humanoid aliens (some of whom, like Betazoids, are completely indistinguishable from humans) would they even make the connection? If this was supposed to set up the ending of the story, adding to Kirk’s feelings about what he did… then shouldn’t Kirk have found out about the scavenger’s hesitation to fire? Was that supposed to set up a storyline about a possible peaceful resolution?

A lot of Star Trek stories are about communication and connection – finding a non-violent solution, even when an enemy or alien seems to be impossibly aggressive. Perhaps The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail wanted to make a comment on that – either that some enemies can’t be talked down or reasoned with… or that Kirk and Pike didn’t even try. But this idea wasn’t in focus for long enough to matter, and I can’t even tell what – if anything – the writers were going for here. The sequence at the end – where Kirk and Pike found out about the scavengers – was cleverly edited and put together, though, and I liked seeing them both come to the realisation at the exact same moment.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Pike reaching for the helmet of a dead scavenger. — Pike with the dead scavenger.

Earlier in the season, Strange New Worlds threatened to give Lieutenant Ortegas a significant storyline for the first time. After her injury in the season premiere, Ortegas seemed to be suffering from some kind of PTSD-like condition related to her Gorn captivity and near-death experience. That was a great setup, and I was keen to see it progress. But this is now Ortegas’ third appearance since being relieved of duty for misbehaving where none of that was even alluded to. It’s reaching a point where, if Ortegas’ mental health ever does come back into play, it’ll feel like a significantly weaker story.

Although we haven’t spent a ton of time with Ortegas in recent weeks, she’s been present – and most importantly, she seems to be doing okay. No one’s asked her how she is, the story hasn’t lingered on how she’s feeling or what she might be going through… she just gets on with the job. The danger here is that, if the writers remember their earlier setup in a future episode, it won’t land in the same way any more. There are definitely stories to tell about how people put on “the mask,” as I used to call it, and pretend to be okay while they’re suffering on the inside. But do we think that’s what Strange New Worlds’ writers are going for? Or is it just a case of Ortegas being put on the back burner so we can get stories featuring Kirk, Spock, and other TOS characters?

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Ortegas on the telephone. — Season 3 is running out of time to pick up the dangling threads of Ortegas’ story.

This is, I admit, less to do with this week’s episode. And it’s absolutely possible that Ortegas’ mental health/PTSD story will come back and absolutely nail it. I’m rooting for that to happen! But it’s at least notable that Strange New Worlds set up this storyline for Ortegas but hasn’t returned to it for several episodes in a row. And her appearance here – taking her job seriously, working well under immense pressure, and basically saving the day with her piloting skills – risks detracting from that kind of story if what the writers want to do is show Ortegas struggling with her mental health.

The Farragut’s captain (whose name I had to look up because of how generic and forgettable she was) didn’t wow me in this week’s episode. There are plenty of ways to create memorable secondary or one-off characters, but this Captain V’Rel didn’t leave much of an impression. As a minor character I guess you can say that’s okay, but her command style was supposed to be something Kirk was butting heads with, and it just didn’t really seem to matter all that much. Also, given the unimportance of this character (at least so far), was there a lot of point in making her a Vulcan? Part of the fun of Kirk and Spock’s friendship was that it transcended that particular cultural divide; seeing Kirk paired up with another Vulcan a few years prior risks detracting from that, I fear.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Captain V'Rel. — Captain… Whatshername.

Although I felt the exposition was handled pretty poorly, the scavengers and their ship were supposed to be a kind of “boogeyman,” prowling this region of space and frightening everyone from the Gorn to the Klingons. So… does it make sense that their extremely powerful ship could be blown up so easily right at the end? The badly-damaged Farrgut – with no warp drive, a skeleton crew, and an array of damaged systems – fired three torpedoes, and that was it.

This ship was supposed to have been haunting this part of space for centuries, preying on even strong and powerful vessels like Klingon battle-cruisers – and had the capability to devastate entire planets. I know that Scotty and Kirk came up with a great plan to lure the scavengers in and disable their defences… but even so. Three torpedoes was all it took to take down this supposedly legendary ship.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing the destruction of the scavengers' spaceship. — The scavengers meet their end…

Okay, I think that’s enough negativity.

When you boil it down, The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail is an ensemble episode – which I love – and a character piece with a focus on Kirk. Both of those elements work well, and it was nice to see most of the main characters in action. At the climax we had three different storylines on the go at once: Pike and La’an on the Enterprise’s lower decks, Pelia and Ortegas coordinating the ship’s sensor-less escape, and Kirk and the away team attacking the scavenger ship. All three stories came together magnificently, and it took all three groups of characters to aid in the Enterprise’s escape and the scavengers’ ultimate defeat.

That isn’t an easy thing to pull off. The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail was a busy episode, but its main story arcs all felt like they mattered. In order to escape, the Enterprise needed a distraction and damage to the scavengers’ ship, which the Farrgut and away team provided, it needed the fuel-siphoning pipe thing disabled, which La’an and Pike managed, it needed communication between the thruster control panels and the bridge, which Pelia set up with help from M’Bena and Una, and it needed someone on the bridge to fly out – which Pelia and Ortegas managed with help from Mitchell. Practically everyone got something significant to do at the episode’s climax, and it takes some skill to pull that off in a short runtime.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Dr M'Benga on the phone. — Dr M’Benga firing the thrusters.

Of these storylines, obviously we spent the longest with Kirk and the away team. Though this was clearly pitched as a Kirk-Spock story, I genuinely enjoyed the rapport Kirk built up with the others, too. This was his first canonical meeting with Scotty, and I liked how it wasn’t a smooth start for them. If Strange New Worlds plans to follow this up and develop Kirk more with the episodes remaining, there’s a foundation for the Kirk-Scotty relationship to build on.

They may not have gotten off to the best start, but Kirk genuinely tried to make up for it later on, and we got a storyline full of technobabble that felt like classic Star Trek in the best possible way! All that talk of anti-protons and making the Farragut a tempting target for the scavengers felt like something straight out of The Original Series, as did Scotty’s earlier line about pushing the wrecked ship too hard. These characters do genuinely feel like younger versions of the people we remember, and that’s not always an easy feeling to conjure up. I wouldn’t have suspected Kirk’s first mission with Scotty would’ve been so high-stakes – or would’ve gone so awry – but it was really fun to see them working together in this way. It expands our understanding of both men and the bond they had during the events of The Original Series.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Kirk speaking with Scotty, who is in an access hatch. — Kirk and Scotty didn’t exactly get the best start to their friendship.

Uhura also called back to the events of Lost in Translation, which saw her first encounter with Kirk. That was a good way to bring in Uhura’s empathy and sensitivity, setting the stage for Kirk’s rehabilitation after suffering a loss of confidence. The idea that his colleagues – who would later become his friends – were able to pull him out of that moment was impactful, and again, I think it sets the stage for how they relate to one another during The Original Series.

I’m glad that, on this side of the story, the writers chose to drop the whole “Spock love triangle” debacle. When La’an, Kirk, Spock, and Chapel were all together early in the story, I genuinely worried we were gonna get some kind of forced drama between them, like we’ve seen in prior entries this season. So I’m really glad that, for once, Strange New Worlds managed to step away from that and focus on something else. It was a blast to see this early mission of Kirk and some of the members of his crew; complicating it with that kind of romantic angle wouldn’t have added anything to what was already a busy episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Kirk, Spock, and La'an. — Kirk, Spock, and La’an.

Speaking of romance… are you familiar with the term “Spirk?” Also known as “Kirk/Spock,” this is the fan theory or head canon idea that Kirk and Spock were or are engaged in either a sexual or romantic relationship. Personally, I’ve never been interested in that idea. I felt TOS established quite early on that Kirk at least prefers heterosexual encounters, and Spock – aside from his pon farr – is basically asexual! But one of the nice things about Spirk as a theory was that it always seemed plausible for fans who wanted to believe it. Even if we never saw anything on screen… fans could, if they so chose, read between the lines.

With all of Spock’s romantic entanglements in Strange New Worlds, I can’t help but feel that the writers are almost deliberately trying to erase Spirk as a viable fan theory. They’re much more interested to give Spock female romantic or sexual partners, as if to say “no, you’re wrong, there’s nothing queer going on here!” And I just think that’s a bit sad. I’m not saying I wanted to see an 18+ sex scene with Kirk and Spock! And I really didn’t want or expect the series to lean into the romantic side of their relationship – if such a side even exists. But I think it’s a bit of a shame for fans who did like the Spirk theory that Strange New Worlds is so intent on taking steps away from it. I like a good bromance as much as anyone else, and for me, Kirk and Spock have always felt more like besties than lovers. But having that possibility there, existing just out of sight, for fans who wanted it has been a part of the Star Trek fan community since the ’60s, and I don’t think I’d have chosen to walk away from it like this if I’d been in the writers’ room.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Spock and Kirk (Spirk). — Spock and Kirk.

Am I right in saying that Strange New Worlds no longer has a main engineering set? I’ve wondered about its absence a few times this season, but The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail had multiple stories that could’ve featured engineering – but didn’t. I felt this most with La’an; she was sent to retrieve some baryons from engineering, but did so entirely off-screen. Pelia seemed to very quickly wave away Pike’s efforts to reach engineering, with the room being flooded with dangerous gas. Combined, those two things felt like Strange New Worlds barricading main engineering and telling us to go away!

The science lab set, which was used in this episode and which we’ve seen a few times this season, seems to be replacing engineering. But with two engineers on the show, now – Scotty and Pelia – I can’t help but feel that might be an odd decision! How are we meant to see Scotty growing in his engineering prowess if we don’t have, y’know, main engineering? It doesn’t have to be the main setting for most episodes, but in some stories – like this one – a visit to engineering feels almost compulsory!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Scotty on the bridge. — It might’ve been nice to see Scotty in engineering.

I felt this week’s take on Spock was much closer to the man we remember from The Original Series. Spock was much more straightforward and logical – stoic, even. There’s still wiggle-room in Strange New Worlds’ take on the character, and ways for him to grow and change. And I think next week or in a couple of weeks’ time we’ve got a Vulcan episode where “Spock comedy” could be back on the agenda! But speaking for myself, this version of the character – who we might call “classic Spock,” for want of a better term – is far and away what I prefer to see.

It was fascinating to see Spock’s first one-on-one with Kirk. Spock was the one to give him a much-needed pep talk after the Farragut’s engines gave out, and that entire sequence could’ve been lifted almost word-for-word from The Original Series. It really was a powerful, well-written storyline, and both Paul Wesley and Ethan Peck excelled at bringing these younger versions of the characters to life in a way that felt real, believable, and in keeping with past iterations of Star Trek.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Spock approaching Kirk in the ready room. — Spock approaches Kirk in the ready room.

Kirk’s story of struggling under pressure was well-written. We saw glimpses of a classic Captain Kirk: bold, adventurous, and willing to break the rules because he can get away with it. But we also saw the vulnerability that comes with youth and inexperience; Kirk broke the rules, as he’s done before, but hit the wall when his rule-breaking didn’t pan out the way he’d hoped.

I liked Kirk’s log, too; it makes perfect sense how an officer like Kirk would be phenomenally bored if all he could do was conduct survey after survey of dull planets from orbit. Someone like that needs adventure – but, as in many classic novels and stories, the adventure-seeker got much more than he bargained for! Catching this glimpse of Kirk’s early career, though, without time-travel, alternate realities, or contrived ways to bring him aboard the Enterprise… it was pretty special. We got to see Kirk as the Farragut’s first officer, serving on a bog-standard survey mission aboard a less-important ship. There have always been these kinds of vessels in Starfleet; not everyone can serve aboard the flagship on a mission of exploration! But putting Kirk in that position – and showing how much it grated on him – was a genuine change of pace.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing the USS Farragut. — It makes sense that someone like Kirk would be bored on a mission like this!

Despite my misgivings about the scavengers as an antagonist (and the design of their ship), the reveal at the end hit Kirk hard, and Paul Wesley did a great job conveying that. The scene between Pike and Kirk was touching, too, and it was a bit of fun to see Pike’s influence on the younger Kirk before he assumed command. I can see Kirk taking those words to heart, particularly about regretting a decision but making it anyway. Knowing what’s in store for Captain Pike, that line was pretty impactful – and carried extra weight.

This moment felt like it was consciously setting up Kirk for the captain’s chair. Though Kirk would famously claim that he doesn’t believe in no-win scenarios, there are going to be impossibly difficult decisions to make when in the captain’s chair, and this felt like a bit of a trial by fire for the future Enterprise captain. Coming to terms with what he did – and why he feels so bad about it – is an important stepping stone between the younger, less-experienced officer we’ve been spending time with and the character we’re familiar with from The Original Series.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Kirk in command. — Kirk in the captain’s chair.

This is the kind of story to tell if you’re gonna do a prequel featuring familiar characters. Spock, Uhura, and Chapel felt very similar to their TOS presentations in this story – but Kirk and Scotty didn’t. They butted heads over engineering issues, Kirk tried to push the ship too hard, and Scotty – the future miracle-worker – wasn’t able, in the end, to keep the ship flying. I think that shows how both men have room to grow – Kirk in terms of his leadership abilities, and Scotty with his engineering miracles!

A storyline like this makes way more sense to me than one showing Spock shacking up with different members of the Enterprise’s crew. What we got in The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail was a genuinely interesting look at the younger days of some of our favourite characters. Most of the pieces are there – they’re a stone’s throw away from how they will be in The Original Series. But whether it’s youth, a lack of confidence, inexperience, or some combination thereof… they aren’t quite there yet. That’s genuinely fun and interesting to see, and it expands our understanding of these characters instead of just throwing them into random situations and hoping romance or drama will be enough.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing several characters on the bridge of the USS Farragut. — Spock, Scotty, Chapel, and Uhura… with an empty captain’s chair.

I really do like Pelia. She’s such a fun presence on the show, and she can be a complete change of pace from other, more straight-laced and stoic Starfleet officers. I think we got to learn Pelia’s age here – she’s over 5,000 years old. Her quarters are just pure hoarder-y chaos, and I love that! And her collection proved invaluable to the crew as they were able to wire up a handful of old telephones around the Enterprise – Battlestar Galactica-style – to coordinate the emergency thrusters during the escape sequence. The whole thing was a ton of fun.

Pelia was also, I guess, the ranking bridge officer during the escape sequence. That was kind of interesting for her, and a bit of a change of pace from her usual secondary or advisory role. We didn’t see her giving a lot of orders or anything like that, but she was a fun presence on the bridge with Ortegas and Mitchell during the escape.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail showing Pelia in her quarters. — Pelia in her quarters.

The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail was a solidly entertaining Star Trek episode. It was held back from reaching the top tier by a pretty flat antagonist with a silly spaceship design, and that did ultimately impact how I viewed parts of the story – the ending in particular. But as a character piece about Kirk, seeing him growing in confidence as he’s on the path to become the captain we know and love, it was genuinely well-written. Kirk’s first outing with some of the members of his iconic crew was, by and large, a lot of fun.

I also appreciated that The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail gave the rest of the characters things to do at the climax of the story. It took everyone working together to save the Enterprise – and the inhabited planet – and that’s not an easy thing to pull off within the runtime of a single episode. It did come at the expense of a couple of characters who felt less-developed or who got a bit less attention than they otherwise might’ve, but that’s okay.

Next week we have the curiously-titled What Is Starfleet? I’m really not sure what to make of that one – but I guess time will tell.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 5: Through the Lens of Time

Fri 08.08.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series Season 1, The Next Generation Seasons 5 and 6, and Discovery.

When Star Trek uses an episode title like “Through the Lens of Time,” it certainly makes it sound like time travel is gonna be on the agenda! Since time travel stories are usually not my favourites in the franchise (or in sci-fi in general, really), I went into the episode with a little trepidation. But Through the Lens of Time was absolutely not what I was expecting – and I really do mean that in the best way possible.

There were some weaker parts of the story this week, sure. And we’ll get into them in a moment, don’t worry! But despite that, I honestly found Through the Lens of Time to be incredibly creative and just a ton of fun. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s the highlight of Season 3 so far, eclipsing both the zombie episode a couple of weeks ago and the cliffhanger-resolving premiere. I was on the edge of my seat practically the entire time, and I genuinely did not know what was going to happen next every step of the way. After more than 950 Star Trek stories across almost six decades… the fact that the franchise can still feel fresh, creative, and new is nothing short of astonishing. Episodes like Through the Lens of Time are why I love modern Star Trek so much – and I’d challenge any “nu-Trek” avoider to give it a try.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing the away team outside the alien ruin. — The away team.

So with all of that said… where to begin?

I guess we’ll get the negative or less-positive points out of the way first, then we can spend the rest of the review gushing about just how awesome Through the Lens of Time was!

I’ve said this before in both my pre-season commentary and other episode reviews, but I’m not keen on the whole “Spock relationship drama” stuff. When it was just Spock and Chapel it was more tolerable, but this whole love triangle/love quadrangle that he’s tangled up in with Korby and La’an too… it’s too much. It’s too soap opera-y, too similar to what Discovery tried to do (with very limited success) and I’m just not into it at all.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Nurse Chapel and Spock in the turbolift. — I’ve had enough of this.

Furthermore, I think this “Spock in love” idea has well and truly run its course. Between episodes involving T’Pring, Chapel, and now Korby and La’an, Strange New Worlds has dedicated a significant amount of its runtime across three seasons to Spock and his love life. It’s come to the end of the road as an interesting or funny story idea, and I really hope that the writers will drop it – soon.

Past iterations of Star Trek could be static in the way Vulcans were depicted, showing them as rigid, emotionless, and some might say stuck-up! But even with that underlying concept of the Vulcans, we got episodes like The Next Generation’s Sarek, or The Andorian Incident in Enterprise, showing off different sides of the Vulcans and how they could be more complex. In short: we don’t need episode upon episode showing Spock getting jealous, grumpy, or pissed off to understand that there’s more to Vulcans than just a lack of emotion. And for Spock’s own character journey – an arc which should be bringing him closer to his Original Series persona as the series has now passed the halfway point – what do we gain by a second “Spock love triangle” or “Spock’s jealous of Korby” storyline? At some point, enough is enough. Right?

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Spock and Dr Korby on the away mission. — We did a Spock-versus-Korby episode just a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t think any of this fundamentally damages Spock’s character or makes him harder to root for as a protagonist. But we’ve tried out these same story outlines too much at this point, and I’d like to see Strange New Worlds do something different with Spock now; something besides “Spock comedy” or “Spock in love.” And if the writers can’t think of a better use for Spock… give him a scientific puzzle. Or sideline him for an episode or two and let other characters share the spotlight. This isn’t the Spock show.

The sequences with Chapel speaking to La’an and later to Spock were just unnecessarily cringeworthy; the kind of thing we’d have expected to see in Discovery with Burnham. And unfortunately I don’t mean that as a compliment. There’s room in Star Trek for these kinds of storylines, don’t get me wrong – I don’t think Star Trek should be just action and science with no love or relationships. But when one character seems to get 90% of these kinds of storylines – especially when that character is not naturally well-suited to them – it starts to wear thin. And for me, storylines about Spock’s love life ran out of steam somewhere near the beginning of Season 2.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing La'an and Chapel talking. — La’an and Chapel chatted about Spock.

A couple of weeks ago, I said that I felt Ensign Gamble might not be long for this world – and that prediction was born out this time. This isn’t a criticism exactly, because I liked what earlier episodes did to build up Gamble to be more than just a typical Star Trek redshirt. But that being said, from the moment he was assigned to the away team… it seemed pretty obvious that his fate was sealed! Or at least it did to me. The manner of his death was still awfully shocking, though.

Despite making a reasonable guess at Gamble’s fate, I think Strange New Worlds did better with him than Discovery did with the likes of Airiam – or than Picard did with basically all of its non-legacy characters! We got to know just enough about Gamble over the span of several episodes that his death really did hit hard. Perhaps not quite as hard as it might’ve if he’d been part of the show for an entire season, or he’d gotten a few more scenes, but hard nevertheless. And even though I felt it was predictable from the moment he joined the away team… the manner of his death, and how gruesome it was by Star Trek standards, was still a genuine shock.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Gamble holding a glowing orb. — First rule of away missions: don’t touch the glowing orbs.

One aspect of Through the Lens of Time reminded me of Power Play – a fifth-season episode of The Next Generation. That story also involved an alien prison where inmates were kept in non-corporeal form, and also saw some of them escape by taking over the bodies of some of our heroes. This wasn’t meant as a callback, obviously, but sometimes Star Trek episodes just… rhyme! There are huge differences in who the prisoners are, the kinds of powers they possess, how they were imprisoned, how many of them were able to escape, and so on. But there were echoes of that older story, and when I realised we were looking at a prison, that was the first comparison that sprang to mind!

At this stage, I can’t tell if the Vezda alien prisoners will be revisited. I have to assume that the captive aboard the Enterprise will be at some point – I mean, they have to be, surely. The flickering screen at the end of the episode, and the fact that we got no real closure on who they are or what they might want, definitely hang over the ending of Through the Lens of Time. But the rest of them? Unless Strange New Worlds plans to make these aliens some kind of ongoing antagonist, I think we probably won’t be back to this planet or the interdimensional prison.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing the alien text on the flickering screen. — Surely we haven’t seen the last of this alien visitor…

Speaking of the Vezda alien held captive aboard the Enterprise: modern Star Trek loves its transporter pattern buffers, doesn’t it? Discovery has used the pattern buffers to store people, Strange New Worlds did it with Dr M’Benga’s daughter – who was name-checked in this week’s episode – and then we saw Scotty do it with the malevolent alien right at the end. When this idea of using a transporter for storage was first broached – in Relics during the sixth season of The Next Generation – it was presented as a kind of janky, improvised solution when Scotty had run out of options. In Strange New Worlds, it basically seems like the transporter has a separate compartment just for storing all of the missing children and random aliens that the crew want to bring along for the ride!

Jokes aside, I don’t think this is some kind of henious “violation of canon,” or anything like that. And it was a somewhat creative way to trap this mysterious and powerful alien. One thing I think this moment missed, though, was showing the broken orb-like container before Scotty swooped in. When Gamble was injured, it looked like a glass container which had shattered. When Scotty grabbed it and trapped the Vezda alien, it looked like it had broken neatly into two pieces. If we could’ve gotten just one close-up shot of the broken container, this moment might’ve felt a tiny bit better. And yes, I know that’s a bit of a nitpick.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing the Vezda alien leaving Gamble's body. — The Vezda alien leaving Gamble’s body.

After being absent since the season premiere, it was lovely to welcome Pelia back to Strange New Worlds. Through the Lens of Time is a great example of how a story can use both Scotty and Pelia, even when engineering isn’t the main focus of the episode. There is room for both characters to coexist, and I hope we can spend more time with Pelia across the next few episodes. Scotty is great, don’t get me wrong, and Martin Quinn is doing a fantastic job bringing this younger version of the character to life. But Pelia is still the ship’s chief engineer – and what’s more, she’s a quirky and incredibly entertaining presence, as we saw in the briefing room this time. I said last week that her absence was noticeable, so I’m glad she’s back.

Pelia got some fun banter with Pike and Beto this time, particularly surrounding Beto’s camera and documentary work. I’m glad that Strange New Worlds brought back Ortegas’ brother for another outing – he has great chemistry with Uhura, and I think we saw this time that there’s potential as he mixes with other characters, too. I don’t know if he’s going to be a recurring character going forward… but why not? Pike seemed to suggest that Beto might be sticking around for more than just one mission, and if he does, I hope he gets another encounter with Pelia!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Pelia in the briefing room. — Pelia.

Dr Korby’s second outing felt a lot stronger than his first. I liked that Through the Lens of Time really leaned into his work, showing how he operates just outside of the Starfleet chain of command. Because he was the co-lead on this away mission, and because this was his area of expertise, we got a much more rounded and interesting portrayal. I could see Strange New Worlds’ writers had watched and understood Korby’s Original Series appearance, and there seemed to be a conscious effort to lean into that, using the events of What Are Little Girls Made Of? to inform his research and his enthusiasm.

This was something I argued we didn’t get very much of in Wedding Bell Blues – and I’m glad to see we got more of it this week. Cillian O’Sullivan, who plays Korby, did a fantastic job presenting a multi-faceted character – someone driven and passionate about his work, but who also has time to build a genuine relationship. I would’ve preferred, perhaps, not to pair him up with Spock for such a long time, as I felt we got enough of that in Wedding Bell Blues, but Korby was a much more engaging and interesting character than he had been in that earlier episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Dr Korby and Nurse Chapel. — Dr Korby looks back at the artefacts he had to leave behind.

Gamble’s injury was horrifying, and the prosthetic makeup used to bring it to life was very creative. It was a huge shock to see Gamble not instantly killed (in the style of past redshirts), but rather maimed in this way. It really was a stunning and quite horrifying visual effect, and the execution of this moment was pitch-perfect. As I said earlier, I felt Strange New Worlds had been rather “fattening up” Gamble for the slaughter earlier in the season, so I definitely viewed his assignment to the away team with that in mind! But even so, I wasn’t expecting something quite so horrific.

I wondered at first if Gamble’s blinding was going to lead to some kind of Geordi-like visor being created for him. That could’ve been a fun connection to The Next Generation era, even if it had only been mentioned instead of being depicted on screen. The device Dr M’Benga placed over his eyes didn’t really look like a visor, but it wasn’t a million miles away, either. Given that Gamble isn’t going to stick around, maybe it could’ve been a fun little easter egg if, instead of talking about re-growing bio-engineered eyes, Dr M’Benga had said something about a new wearable visor that could help him see. It would’ve been a tiny reference, sure, but a fun one.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Gamble in sickbay with a visor. — Gamble with the eye-growing machine.

The episode seems to have implied that Gamble died instantly, and that the entity that took control of him was using his residual thoughts and memories to inhabit his body and pretend to be him. That’s how I interpreted Dr M’Benga’s comments on Gamble’s brain death, and Pelia saying that he “isn’t in there.” There’s obviously more going on here with the malevolent alien entities – but I don’t think they can be from a familiar Star Trek race.

The Vezda aliens obviously aren’t Gorn – otherwise Captain Batel’s Gorn DNA wouldn’t have kicked in in the way that it did. Yes, we seemed to see a Gorn-like figure when we saw Spock’s point-of-view, but I don’t think that explains it. Other noncorporeal aliens come to mind: the Prophets, the Organians, various nebula-dwelling life-forms, like those seen in Voyager, and even the Q… but I don’t think any are the right fit. So these are, in my view, gonna be a new species… unless they’re connected, somehow, to something like the Mirror Universe (yes, all that talk of other dimensions made me go there!)

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Spock's vision of the Vezda alien. — Who are these Vezda aliens?

Pelia described these as very ancient, and the Vezda alien possessing Gamble referred to Pelia – the oldest Enterprise crew member at several hundred years old – as a “child.” But these Vezda aliens clearly have some kind of connection to the Gorn, too, as we saw with Captain Batel. Maybe Pike will have to ask the Gorn for help! Who knows? But I like that we’ve got a genuinely engaging mystery out of this episode, and with the life-form stored aboard the Enterprise… I think we’re prepped to find out a bit more about who these Vezda aliens are.

Captain Batel’s arc moved along. I think all the talk of “re-absorbing” the Gorn DNA and “hybridising” it definitely left room for this kind of story, where the Gorn DNA could somehow take over. There wasn’t a ton of time dedicated to this idea here, but it’s obviously going to be picked up in the next episode (or later in the season), so we definitely haven’t seen the last of Batel’s Gorn woes.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Captain Batel. — What do the Gorn know about the Vezda aliens?

As an aside: there’s a theory doing the rounds that Captain Batel’s infection is going to lead to her being transformed into a Gorn-human hybrid… a creature which will look and behave just like the Gorn in Arena. Some have even suggested that Batel could be the Gorn captain from Arena. I… I cannot express how profoundly I hate this idea. Strange New Worlds has reimagined or reinterpreted the Gorn. Great. That’s fine. Now have the balls to stick with it! We don’t need another “Klingon-augment virus” storyline to explain why the Strange New Worlds Gorn and the Arena Gorn look different. Maybe some fans feel that the differences demand an on-screen explanation, but I really don’t. I noted when I re-watched Arena that the building-blocks of Strange New Worlds’ Gorn are all present; the only real difference is that the Gorn captain in Arena spoke to Kirk.

When Enterprise introduced the Klingon-augment virus in its fourth season, I felt it was silly, convoluted, and unnecessary. And if this is the route Strange New Worlds intends to take, I’ll feel the same way. This just isn’t something that needs an on-screen explanation, and I’m quite happy to watch both versions of the Gorn in their respective stories. I love that fans speculate and theorise – and I’ve done more than my fair share of that over the past few years here on the website! But I really hope this is one theory which doesn’t pan out.

Still frame from Star Trek: The Original Series S1 "Arena" showing the Gorn captain. — This better not be Captain Batel…

To get back on topic: the alien prison was incredibly creative, and it showed off how much Star Trek can do with a fairly straightforward set – and the AR wall! It felt almost like a level from a video game in some respects; an ancient tomb with puzzles to solve just gives me like Tomb Raider or Uncharted vibes – though Jedi: Fallen Order might be a better point of comparison. Having to think in a totally non-linear way – because the same room existed in different states in different dimensions all at the same time – was exceptionally fun and different. Separating the characters (albeit in pairings I wouldn’t have chosen) also made for a very tense away mission.

I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around the whole “time can be non-linear” thing, and using a paradox as a way out when the story has been written into a corner is often something that irks me. But in this case, having to cross an apparently empty space to activate the bridge was played just right. Spock’s explanation about effect coming before cause was pure technobabble, and I could absolutely feel the emotions of Chapel, La’an, and Dr Korby as they prepared to take a leap of faith. It was a well-constructed moment, and the temporal paradox was actually the hook for some genuinely great and emotional storytelling.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing the away team preparing to escape. — The away team prepares to take a (scientific) leap of faith.

It was interesting to get a look at an away mission with diplomatic hurdles, and I felt it was set up quite well at the beginning of the story. Obviously this was done to explain why the away team couldn’t have been larger, and to manoeuvre characters into position! But because it was established at the beginning that Vadia IX and the M’Kroon were not Federation members, when that issue reoccurred later in the script, it made perfect sense. It was kind of neat to see Pike and the crew having to navigate that kind of issue when the stakes were so high.

This is the kind of thing I like to see in Star Trek. Moments like this flesh out the world and make it feel more lived-in and real. Having to deal with ambassadors and governments while trying to resolve a dangerous situation is a complication, but it’s an understandable one given the setting. It just helps the Star Trek galaxy feel like a real and complex place.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing a close-up of Pike. — Pike had to jump through diplomatic hoops.

Uhura and Beto continue to make a fun pair. Mynor Lüken and Celia Rose Gooding have great on-screen chemistry together, and giving Uhura this kind of cute “crush” works well for a younger version of the character. There’s absolutely room for this to grow in future episodes, and I hope we haven’t seen the last of Beto. But at the same time, I don’t think Strange New Worlds desperately needs to take this relationship a lot further. It can be fine as a cute “crush” and a bit of flirting. It was a bit of a shame that Erica Ortegas couldn’t be present anywhere on this side of the story, though, as her reaction to Uhura and Beto was part of what worked so well last time.

One thing that was great about Uhura’s storyline was it showed how much she’s grown. Uhura came aboard the Enterprise in Season 1 as a cadet, and it took her a little while to find her feet and grow in confidence. One of the highlights of Subspace Rhapsody last season was that story’s demonstration of how far Uhura has come – and Through the Lens of Time doubled-down on that with Uhura’s scenes with Beto. It fell to her, as the experienced Starfleet officer, to remain calm, offer comfort, and work to find a solution. Beto wasn’t a complete damsel in distress, but pairing him up with Uhura for this portion of the away mission was a great narrative choice.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing Beto and Uhura in the alien prison. — Uhura and Beto.

Captain Pike hasn’t been as present in Strange New Worlds really since the end of Season 1. There have been quite a few moments in a bunch of episodes where I felt this absence. While Pike wasn’t all over Through the Lens of Time by any means, I wanted to highlight a couple of appearances where he made a big difference. Obviously, we have his moments with Captain Batel. Batel does a lot to bring Pike down to earth and really humanise him, giving him an emotional anchor. Her condition is also a massive problem that Pike can’t just instantly solve, so seeing how he deals with that has been interesting.

Then we have Pike’s one-on-one with Dr M’Benga. I could’ve spent a bit longer on this chat, and seeing Pike do more to comfort Ensign Gamble, but I really liked seeing the moment he and Dr M’Benga shared while discussing Gamble’s condition. It’s a reminder that Pike has friends among the crew – not just underlings or coworkers. We got a lot more of that in Shuttle to Kenfori, but this week we definitely built up more of the M’Benga-Pike relationship, which was great to see.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 "Through the Lens of Time" showing M'Benga and Pike in sickbay. — Dr M’Benga and Captain Pike.

Through the Lens of Time was fantastic. It’s the best episode of the season so far, and one of the highlights of the entire series. We got a very creative adventure in an ancient ruin, some advancement of Captain Batel’s mysterious condition, and plenty of fun moments with most of the main characters. Ensign Gamble’s demise – while arguably signalled ahead of time – was incredibly shocking thanks to its gruesome nature. And maybe we’ve picked up an interesting new alien faction to explore in the future. Set aside the “Spock love quadrangle” stuff, and there’s really not much to complain about!

So I had a great time with this week’s outing. What started as an interesting jaunt to an alien ruin quickly turned into something a lot darker, and arguably teed up Dr Korby’s Original Series role, too. There was some great set design and clever use of the AR wall, some shocking special effects, and even a couple of jump-scares and startling moments. Through the Lens of Time is definitely going to be seen as one of the highlights of the entire show, I have little doubt about that.

Next week, we’ll have The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail. A Sehlat is a Vulcan animal, so could this be a Vulcan story? Or is the title referring to a fable or parable that will be referenced in a different kind of story? The latter is my guess – but you never know.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 4: A Space Adventure Hour

Fri 01.08.25Sat 02.08.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for: The Original Series Season 1, The Next Generation Season 2, and The Undiscovered Country.

After last week’s horrifying zombie story, Strange New Worlds completely changed direction in A Space Adventure Hour. There were elements of comedy and drama, as well as a light-hearted pastiche of Star Trek: The Original Series which, I suspect, will have worked better for some fans than others. Star Trek legend Jonathan Frakes returned to the director’s chair for the first time this season, and while I wasn’t wild about the story at first… it grew on me over its runtime.

A Space Adventure Hour deliberately ignored almost all of the season’s ongoing storylines: Captain Batel and her illness weren’t mentioned, Ortegas was reinstated with a hand-wavy line of dialogue, and the story really zoomed in on two characters: Scotty and La’an. I generally enjoy Strange New Worlds’ episodic nature, so I don’t mind when an episode does something like that. But at the same time, I hope we’ll return to the aftermath of the Enterprise’s run-in with the Gorn before too long. Setting it aside was fine on this occasion, though.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing one of the fictional aliens. — A horrifying monster from outer space!

Before we go any further, let’s just say this: I fucking loathe Paramount’s ridiculous “America First” attitude. It’s self-defeating and stupid. A Space Adventure Hour was made available for free on YouTube and Pluto TV – but only in the United States. We can debate whether this was the right episode to try to use to entice new viewers (I don’t think it was, by the way) but why – why?! – does Paramount insist on this pathetic “America First” fetish? It isn’t the 1960s any more – Star Trek, and really all of Paramount’s shows – have a worldwide audience. That’s why Paramount+ exists in other countries. Why offer something like this to a tiny fraction of that audience but nobody else?

We’ve seen this time and again with Paramount and the Star Trek franchise, and it’s got to stop. In this case it was a “freebie,” but it’s not just that – it’s marketing. Offering a free episode on YouTube is a marketing stunt to try to draw attention to Strange New Worlds and the broader franchise. But why only do that in the United States when the internet is one massive, global, interconnected space? Strange New Worlds is only available on Paramount+ in countries and regions where Paramount has actually bothered to launch the service, so there’s no argument about who has the rights to broadcast new episodes. It’s just so stupid to have these big marketing stunts only to ruin them by cutting off fans from the rest of the world. As it happens, it wouldn’t have made much difference to me as I have a Paramount+ subscription. But the whole point of doing something like this is to attract new eyes to the show. So why only offer that to folks in America when there’s an entire world watching and waiting? Star Trek might be owned by an American corporation, but the fanbase is global and the franchise’s name is known all over the world. A Space Adventure Hour streaming for free could’ve sold new Paramount+ subscriptions from Tierra del Fuego to New Delhi. If only Paramount’s executives weren’t “America First” morons.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a blooper from the credits sequence. — A “blooper.”

Alright, rant over.

A Space Adventure Hour looks like it would’ve been a ton of fun to work on for the cast and crew. Getting to step out of character and try something new is always going to be enjoyable for folks working on long-running productions. But at only twenty-four episodes in (i.e. the equivalent of one season of Star Trek a few years ago) I’m… I’m not quite sure that Strange New Worlds has earned an episode like this just yet. Especially when we consider episodes like The Elysian Kingdom already did something very similar in Season 1… to say nothing of last season’s Subspace Rhapsody. There’s absolutely room for episodes like A Space Adventure Hour… if we were talking about a series that was gonna run to 170+ episodes over seven seasons. But with the recent cancellation news, I’m acutely aware of Strange New Worlds having a time limit. While there absolutely were interesting ideas and elements in the mix here, I just don’t think this is the kind of story I’d have personally chosen to greenlight if I was in charge!

That being said, I didn’t have the almost visceral, bowel-churning hatred of this episode as I did for last season’s musical outing. There were fun elements in the narrative, and on the “real world” side of things – outside of the story taking place on the holodeck – we got some interesting tidbits of lore.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the main holo-characters. — The holograms in La’an’s murder mystery.

I’m a little disappointed that Strange New Worlds seems to be shoving Pelia aside in favour of Scotty. I feared this would happen when Scotty emerged at the end of Season 2, and while it’s interesting to catch a glimpse of Scotty’s younger days… I’m just concerned that it’s coming at the expense of first Hemmer, and now Pelia.

However! I’m glad that A Space Adventure Hour continued the theme of Scotty having room to grow. In this case, he wanted to solve everything completely by himself, to such an extent that he didn’t even tell the Enterprise’s senior staff about the problems he was having. We saw glimpses of the more familiar Scotty – the self-reliant, confident miracle-worker from The Original Series. But mixed in was an intensely vulnerable man, someone struggling with the loss of his previous ship. I don’t think his comments about the Stardiver somehow explain everything about Scotty, but it was interesting to learn a bit more about why he feels so hesitant to ask for help and why he tries to shoulder all of the burden himself.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty at work. — Scotty working on the holodeck.

It was genuinely fun to see Scotty in the science lab, trying to desperately balance the needs of the holodeck with the rest of the ship. We got a real mix of both TOS Scotty – with his incredible engineering prowess – and a younger, less confident version of the character, who was clearly feeling overwhelmed. It made for an interesting presentation, and Martin Quinn managed to walk the line exceptionally well.

What we’re really seeing is how Scotty’s raw, unrefined talent is being honed. And that’s where I felt Pelia’s absence. Instead of saying “oh, she’s on shore leave,” why not have Pelia be the one to set up the holodeck, but then get called away for some other emergency, leaving Scotty to pick up the pieces? At the very least, Pelia could’ve come in at the end of the story to coach Scotty on what he did right and where he went wrong. Those roles ultimately fell to Una and Uhura, which was fine in theory – and getting some interaction between Scotty and Uhura was definitely fun to see. But if the idea behind bringing Scotty into Strange New Worlds is to show how he has room to grow, and how he can take his undeniable talent and hone it into something more practical… we need his mentor to be present for at least part of that.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty with Una. — Scotty with Una – but where’s Pelia?

So… Spock’s just gonna romance his way through the Enterprise’s female crew members, I guess. First it was Chapel, now it’s La’an… who’s next? Una? Uhura? Pelia?

To me, it feels like Strange New Worlds’ writers have latched onto two story outlines with Spock, and don’t really know what else to do with him. We have the “Vulcans are stuck-up and rigid, so let’s use that for laughs” that we’ve seen in basically every Vulcan episode so far, and now we have the “Spock has no emotions, but what if he fell in love?” that we’ve seen with Chapel and now apparently with La’an too.

Spock can be a fun character, and putting him in situations that aren’t identical to what he went through in The Original Series is absolutely worthwhile. But… I can’t help but feel we’ve taken the “Spock in love” story outline as far as it can reasonably stretch. With T’Pring and Chapel, we’ve already explored this side of Spock. And with Strange New Worlds on the clock, if the aim is to bring Spock closer in line with his TOS version ahead of the show’s finale, we need to see more movement in that direction. A new relationship won’t help.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an and Spock kissing. — La’an and Spock.

Spock and Chapel’s relationship evolved kind of naturally from TOS foundations – particularly Chapel’s apparent “crush” on Spock. While I felt we caught a glimpse of… something, between La’an and Spock in Wedding Bell Blues, where they danced together, I’m just not sure that this is the right way to go for either of them. I guess you could frame it as a “rebound;” for La’an after getting her heart broken by Kirk, and for Spock after his relationship with Chapel fell apart. And there could be something to gain from a “Spock on the rebound” story, I guess. I just don’t think this has the legs to go much further, and I don’t think it’s a storyline I’d have chosen to include.

Maybe this is because I’m asexual, but I don’t really think a show like Strange New Worlds needs this kind of relationship drama to be entertaining or engaging. There have been relationships between characters in past iterations of Star Trek – Troi and Riker, Worf and Dax, Trip and T’Pol – but again, those shows were longer, and the relationship stuff took up comparatively less time. Of the twenty-four Strange New Worlds episodes so far, three have included T’Pring, and four have included Spock’s relationship with Chapel in some way. Now we have another episode – and presumably at least one or two more to come – that will feature Spock and La’an. It’s just kind of a lot, especially for a character who had previously been so famously unattached – aside from his brief Pon Farr infatuation!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an and Spock dancing. — How many romances is Spock gonna have?

Here’s a question: did you guess A Space Adventure Hour’s big twist? I half-guessed it! It seemed pretty clear to me that the “Spock” La’an was talking to on the holodeck was, in fact, a hologram – but I didn’t go quite so far as to pin him as the murderer. In that sense, I think this side of A Space Adventure Hour was pretty creative, and it used the holodeck exceptionally well. We’ve had plenty of “the holodeck done goofed” stories in Star Trek before, but none quite like A Space Adventure Hour in terms of its twist. The story took the same core premise as the one from Elementary, Dear Data – but did something quite different with it. It was creative, and a great way to include this staple Star Trek technology in a new and fun way.

Speaking of the holodeck, it was a lot of fun to see the technology’s origins. It’s a bit of a timeline stretch, perhaps, to say that the holodeck was developed in the 23rd Century but wasn’t widely used nor installed aboard starships for basically another 100 years, but it’s still really interesting to delve into the history of how holodecks developed. Seeing Scotty as one of the early holodeck pioneers is a fun little tidbit, too. I don’t think it really clashes with Relics, where Scotty encounters a 24th Century holodeck, either – though I can see that being a bone of contention for some Trekkies, I guess!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an entering the holodeck. — La’an on the holodeck.

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy when Star Trek takes the time to explore its technologies in a bit more detail – and I think we got an interesting exploration of the holodeck here. Seeing how the holodeck was wired into the rest of the ship could explain how some stories in The Next Generation era unfolded, particularly ones where a malfunction occurred! After the holodeck debuted in The Next Generation, we just kind of accepted that it’s something starships have – even though it could go wrong, sometimes.

Seeing the early development of this technology was fun. But it also presented an opportunity for Strange New Worlds to talk a little about renegade computer programmes – something that’s definitely relevant in 2025 as artificial intelligence software and large language models continue to improve and grow. I don’t think the episode kept this side of things in focus for very long, but the idea of a computer programme being smarter than the people who think they’re in charge of it, and using its generative technology for the purposes of deception? Those are very real and very valid points to touch on!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an about to exit the holodeck, with holo-Spock disappearing. — La’an with holo-Spock.

Where do we draw the line between a funny, self-referential parody or pastiche and something mocking and mean-spirited? I don’t believe that the writers intended for their “Last Frontier” segments to come across as rude, offensive, or mocking The Original Series, William Shatner, or Star Trek fans… but I’m not gonna lie, part of me feels like that’s exactly how it landed. Paul Wesley channelled his inner Shatner to deliver a very on-the-nose impersonation, and other parts of those segments included exaggerated set design, cinematography, and even writing. It felt like something you’d get on a comedy sketch show. And… I don’t think that’s a compliment.

Self-parody is already a difficult thing to pull off. Make one wrong move and it comes across as either masturbatory self-congratulation or a very niche in-joke that only hard-core fans are likely to understand. Both of those problems are present in parts of A Space Adventure Hour, but also… some of those sequences didn’t feel respectful. The tone felt almost aggressive or mocking, as if the writers were saying “look at how silly your stupid little space show is,” and by extension, “you’re idiots for enjoying this crap.” It’s almost like Shatner’s infamous “get a life” skit back in the 1980s – but worse, somehow, because it’s so earnest.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the fictional USS Adventure. — The “USS Adventure.”

There is room in Star Trek for this kind of light-hearted take, and for episodes or storylines that call attention to some of the franchise’s weirder or less serious elements. That’s a big part of what Lower Decks did, if you think about it. But they have to be handled with at least some degree of sensitivity so they don’t come across as mean-spirited or looking down at Trekkies. For me, parts of A Space Adventure Hour strayed uncomfortably close to that line – and I already know some fellow Star Trek fans are gonna absolutely despise what this episode did with this parody.

As I said, I don’t think this was intentional. At least, I certainly hope it wasn’t! But it’s surprising to me that nobody involved in the production of the episode suggested… I dunno. Toning it down a notch or two? I can take a joke; I’m not some kind of stuck-up old fusspot who insists that “Star Trek should be 100% serious all the time!” Just look at my coverage of other episodes with comedic premises; I like comedy in Star Trek and there’s definitely a place for it. And I can see a version of A Space Adventure Hour where this kind of idea worked better. But the way it came across in the finished product… I think it was too much. It was too harsh, too aggressive, and where it could’ve been a funny little nod and wink to fans, it came across as laughing at us rather than laughing with us.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a blooper of Kirk breaking his chair. — What did you make of the parody?

There were things to appreciate with the “Last Frontier” parody, though. Parts of the sets felt silly and exaggerated – the levers on the bridge in particular. But in other ways the sets were reminiscent of that kind of mid-century sci-fi series; the coloured lights reminded me very much of The Original Series, as did Kirk’s chair and the other console to one side on the bridge.

Though I didn’t really like Paul Wesley’s Shatner impression, it took a lot of skill to pull it off, and I can respect that. The soft filter on the camera, the way lighting changed, and the use of dramatic close-up shots were also all drawn from The Original Series, and added something to this pastiche. Holo-Kirk’s comment about a “female first officer” harkened back to The Cage, “Number One” being a woman, and Pike’s comment about women on the bridge of his ship. Or at least, I felt that it did.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing the Kirk/Shatner parody from the opening sequence. — There were some creative ideas here, but the tone let it down.

The rest of the holodeck adventure was a ton of fun. I think there were some pretty tropey over-acted performances from, well, pretty much all of the main cast as they took on these new roles, but that’s not necessarily a negative in this instance. It’s basically what the script called for – and these kinds of mid-century murder mystery stories (I’m loathe to call it “noir”) were populated by wildly exaggerated characters. For the kind of story A Space Adventure Hour wanted to be, the tone was pretty good.

It was also neat to see La’an in this kind of informal environment, as well as learning a bit more about her. La’an can be rigid and formal, though Kirk certainly helped break down her emotional walls! But until now, we hadn’t really gotten to know much about La’an as an individual, and some of the things she likes outside of her work in Starfleet. Season 3 already introduced us to dancing, which is apparently a hobby of hers, and now we’ve gotten to see these “Amelia Moon” detective stories. It was a nice inclusion, and a way to expand her character with something a bit less formal – and dare I say even a little childish – while still being in keeping with what we know about her role as a security officer.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing La'an on the holodeck. — This was a good episode for La’an.

The conversation between La’an and holo-Uhura about fandom was also not lost on me. If the earlier “Last Frontier” parody had been a bit too much, this conversation did succeed at bringing things back, and I appreciated what the writers wanted to say about Star Trek inspiring generations of viewers. I know Star Trek has inspired me – and if you’re reading this, I assume you’re also a fan and that Star Trek means something to you, too. I’m glad that the writers didn’t just leave the parody to speak for itself, but also included this conversation about how this fictionalised version of The Original Series could inspire people in the future.

For La’an, this hit especially close to home because of her connection to the Amelia Moon stories. I interpreted that as kind of a Nancy Drew or Famous Five type of children’s book, not necessarily something as grown-up as Sherlock Holmes! Speak of Holmes, did you notice Spock’s claim to be a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle? I think the writers thought they were resolving a decades-old “plot hole” with that one! If you don’t recall, in The Undiscovered Country, Spock quoted Holmes and referred to the character as “an ancestor of mine,” which led to discussions in the fan community about what he meant, whether Sherlock Holmes was a real person in this setting, and so on. Strange New Worlds seems to have clarified that Spock was referring to Conan Doyle – and perhaps claiming that he’s an ancestor of Spock’s mother, Amanda? I don’t think it’s the kind of thing which needed clarification, but it’s interesting to note that Spock’s Sherlock Holmes connection goes back a long way!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing a close-up of La'an. — La’an on the holodeck.

After the opening parody sequence was over, and we settled into the story with La’an, holo-Spock, and Scotty, I felt things improved a lot. The murder mystery looked tropey and silly at first, but then it kind of clicked for me and I found myself getting more invested in it. And on Scotty’s side, while I missed Pelia and felt she could’ve added a lot, it was undeniably a lot of fun to see the origins of the holodeck. Scotty played a big role in the development of that technology, which is certainly interesting!

Strange New Worlds is an episodic show. It remains a lot of fun to shake things up, try new things, and really push the boat out, sometimes. For me, parts of A Space Adventure Hour stuck the landing and showed why episodic Star Trek is still the best kind of Star Trek! Others… didn’t land quite as well as I’d have hoped. Overall, the episode was a bit of a mixed bag, then, but because the least-enjoyable parts were mostly out of the way within the first few minutes, I’d say the episode picked up as it went on, and by the time it ended, I was feeling a lot happier.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 "A Space Adventure Hour," showing Scotty having a conversation with Uhura. — Uhura and Scotty.

I would say, though, that this was a truly stupid choice of episode to offer for free if the goal was to bring in new viewers on YouTube and Pluto TV. It’s a very self-referential, navel-gazing, “meta” episode of Star Trek, and it wouldn’t make for a good first contact either for Trekkies who want to get started with Strange New Worlds or for a more casual viewer looking to try Star Trek for the first time. In that sense, I don’t understand why Paramount would choose this story – of all the Strange New Worlds episodes we’ve seen so far – for this kind of marketing stunt. But then again, I don’t understand why the morons in Paramount’s marketing department make basically any of the decisions they make. The sooner the Skydance team takes over, the better!

So that was A Space Adventure Hour. I didn’t hate it. Well… most of it. And there were some interesting ideas and character moments in the mix. I continue to appreciate that Strange New Worlds is an episodic project, even when some of the episodes veer into narrative or thematic territory that doesn’t do much for me personally!

Next week, we have Through the Lens of Time, which I hope is gonna be a ton of fun. Time travel stories (which I’m assuming this one will be) aren’t always my favourites in Star Trek, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and let’s hope Pelia can make a return to the show soon, too!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 3: Shuttle To Kenfori

Thu 24.07.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3.

By my reckoning, Shuttle to Kenfori marks the halfway point of Strange New Worlds’ run. We learned ahead of Season 3’s premiere that the series will be cancelled after a cut-down fifth season, clocking in at forty-six episodes in total. With this being the show’s twenty-third outing… that’s it. The halfway point. Does that change how we approach Shuttle to Kenfori? It shouldn’t… but it seemed like something that was worth mentioning before we get started.

Going into Season 3, the “Klingon zombie episode,” which had been teased in one of the trailers, was definitely one of the stories I was most curious about! I’m not the world’s biggest fan of horror, but there have been some fun zombie flicks over the years, and after more than 950 episodes and films… I like that Star Trek can still try new things and surprise me! We’ve had horror-themed episodes before, from Empok Nor to Strange New Worlds’ own All Those Who Wander, but this is Star Trek’s first fully-fledged zombie episode. And while I don’t think it was perfect, Shuttle to Kenfori showed why it was worth trying out this kind of story.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing a zombie attacking a Klingon. — Zombies! Aaahhhh!

Let’s get a couple of negative points out of the way first, then we can gush about how great other parts of Shuttle to Kenfori were!

Firstly, the episode’s opening act was too short and too abrupt. We went from “everything’s fine, Captain Batel is getting her own command” to “she has days to live” in a heartbeat. Compounding that was how curtailed the scene in sickbay felt with Pike, Spock, Chapel, and M’Benga. We would later learn that Captain Batel, Spock, and the medical duo had discussed her condition off-screen, but that didn’t make the scene feel much better. In the moment, watching the episode unfold, this foundational sequence needed much longer to play out.

In a matter of seconds, Dr M’Benga and Spock laid out that Captain Batel’s infection was back and that they happened to know of the only plant in the galaxy capable of curing her. Then we got a very short discussion of where the plant might be found… and that was it. It kick-started the story, sure, and the subsequent revelation that the rest of the characters had discussed it off-screen kind of helps, but it still felt very rushed. Going from “the infection’s back” to “but we already have a cure in mind” to “let’s undertake a dangerous off-the-books mission” in less than two minutes just… it’s poor pacing.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Spock, M'Benga, Chapel, Batel, and Pike in sickbay. — This sequence needed to be longer.

I get that this moment isn’t what Shuttle to Kenfori is all about. But we’ve gone from Captain Batel being cured and ready to take command of a new ship to being days or even hours away from a Gorn-induced death in practically no time at all. All of Shuttle to Kenfori’s story arcs hung off this moment in the opening act… and it was just way too short. Past Star Trek stories would’ve lingered here for several minutes, scanning Captain Batel, realising her infection has returned, throwing out half a dozen technobabble cures then shooting them down… heck, we could’ve gotten an entire montage of Chapel, Spock, and M’Benga running through different possible ideas before settling on the flower. It wouldn’t have needed to last more than, say, five minutes… but it would’ve given the rest of the story a much stronger foundation.

While I wouldn’t say that the rushed opening act soured me on Shuttle to Kenfori from the beginning, I was definitely left with a sense of “wait, was that it?” as the episode’s main storylines got underway. I also felt that these problems of pacing and perhaps a slightly too-short episode were present in Hegemony, Part II last week – so I hope this isn’t going to be a running theme throughout the season. I’m all for stories that are bold and try to do a lot with their runtime, don’t get me wrong! But when the opening act is blitzed through too fast, there can be implications for the rest of the story, no matter how strong it might be.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing the LCARS display of the flower. — The plan to acquire this flower was arrived at very quickly.

The second major critique of Shuttle to Kenfori is its Klingon storyline. In short… there was a lot going on when Pike and Dr M’Benga touched down on the titular planet, and I’m not convinced we needed this additional villain and complication. It made the zombies themselves – which, surely, should have been the episode’s fear factor and main antagonist – kind of secondary, especially towards the end, and there just wasn’t any need for it.

Narratively, I liked Dr M’Benga’s involvement with the Klingons – we’ll get into that later when I talk about some of the things I liked about Shuttle to Kenfori. But as a concept, in an episode that was already busy with several characters competing to be in focus? I think it was a bit of a misfire, to be honest. Star Trek’s first ever zombie story should’ve done more with the zombies – zombies that were genuinely frightening and must’ve taken a ton of work in the makeup department! Instead, the zombies were relegated to background status pretty quickly, literally looking in from the outside behind an impenetrable narrative force-field as Dr M’Benga’s Klingon adversary took centre-stage.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing M'Benga and Bytha engaged in ritual combat. — This episode didn’t need a second antagonist. The zombies were more than enough on their own.

I was kind of reminded of later seasons of The Walking Dead with how this played out. If you know me, you’ll know I’ve said more than once that The Walking Dead – AMC’s zombie apocalypse TV series – should’ve ended after perhaps three seasons, because it wore out its core premise and its zombies stopped being the main focus. The Walking Dead’s writers switched things up and started finding human antagonists for Rick Grimes and his group to deal with, most of whom in the later years were pretty repetitive and basic. That show needed to do that because its core premise – the zombie apocalypse – was itself tired and worn out. But Shuttle to Kenfori is brand-new and its zombies have literally never been seen in Star Trek before. We just didn’t need a sentient antagonist when the undead monsters were already filling that role.

For me, I’d have preferred Shuttle to Kenfori if Pike and M’Benga were trapped in the zombie-overrun research facility with no Klingons present. And then, in another episode, Dr M’Benga could’ve gotten his Klingon enemy and ritual combat, because I genuinely liked what Strange New Worlds did with this storyline. I just feel that smooshing them together into one didn’t let either the zombies or the dishonoured Klingon Bythra truly shine. If we were three seasons into a Star Trek zombie show, and the zombies were beginning to wear out their welcome, then I could see why you’d do a story like this – it’s what The Walking Dead has been doing since about Season 4 of the main show and in most of its spin-off projects. But this zombie idea was so creative and new that having a Klingon antagonist just wasn’t necessary – and I wish we’d gotten to see more of Pike and Dr M’Benga taking on the zombies.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing a zombie being stabbed. — Captain Pike killed a zombie.

I will caveat all of that by saying that the Kenfori zombies could return later in the season. There were promotional posters for Season 3 released a few weeks ago, and one of them showed Pelia and Scotty seemingly surrounded by zombies. Scotty was present in Shuttle to Kenfori, but he stayed on the Enterprise, and Pelia was entirely absent. So maybe I’m reaching and maybe it’s a stretch, but could there be a second zombie story in the offing? If so, and if the zombies are the main focus… maybe we can revisit this side of Shuttle to Kenfori and be a little kinder in hindsight.

There were plenty of ways to turn the zombies into the story’s main adversaries. After Pike and Dr M’Benga retrieved the flower sample, they could’ve been confronted and chased by a small group, becoming trapped in the facility. Looking outside, they’d realise their shuttle was cut off by a massive horde of zombies, and that they’d have to hunker down and wait for extraction. Rushing from room to room in the abandoned facility, they’d have to find shelter – all the while Spock and Una would be conspiring to make them wait longer and longer for a rescue, just as happened in the actual episode. We could’ve got more zombie action, more conversation between Pike and Dr M’Benga about Captain Batel’s condition, and – as a nice little bonus – a longer opening act that didn’t feel so rushed! Two birds with one stone, as they say.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing a zombie emerging from an open hatch. — Another zombie.

Alright, that’s enough about that for now. With those two issues aside, I really liked Shuttle to Kenfori. It was a ton of fun to get this kind of Star Trek zombie story, seeing zombified Klingons was somehow even scarier than human zombies, and the zombie sequences at the abandoned research base were pitch-perfect. The sets were decrepit and decaying, the prosthetics used to create the zombies were fantastic, there were some neat uses of the AR wall, and props used to create the Klingon skeleton, the important flower, and the half-eaten leg were all either gruesome or beautiful.

On the practical side of things, Strange New Worlds has been absolutely wonderful. Puppets, prosthetics, and physical props are back – and they’re back in style! CGI can work wonders, sure, but there’s something about physical props and practical effects that – for me, anyway – can’t be beat! They’re part of what makes Star Trek feel like Star Trek, and Shuttle to Kenfori had plenty of prosthetics for the zombies and some absolutely phenomenal props. I don’t think a Klingon d’k tahg (dagger) has ever looked better or more realistic in any episode, we saw a classic Original Series-inspired tricorder, and everything about the research base just screamed “danger.” I love it!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing a close-up of the Klingon dagger. — There were some fantastic props in *Shuttle to Kenfori* – like this d’k tahg.

Star Trek is science-fiction, and while it’s never been “realistic,” Star Trek stories have always gone out of their way to emphasise the science side of things. Even when dealing with wacky and ridiculous storylines, the franchise has always tried to ground those things in its own fictional science. Races like the Q or the Prophets were always perceived as “just another alien,” not some kind of god or deity, for instance, and even the silliest stellar phenomena – like Season 2’s improbability field that caused everyone to burst into song – were presented as having a scientific basis which could be scanned, studied, and understood.

Shuttle to Kenfori does the same with its zombies. They’re the result of an infection of moss spores, not some kind of supernatural entity or undead monster, and I really appreciated that. It doesn’t lessen the fear factor to know where the zombies came from or why they exist, but it keeps the franchise’s scientific tone. There was also kind of a The Last Of Us vibe as a result; these zombies, like the ones from that franchise, are a natural phenomenon caused by plants. The episode clearly leaned on other zombie properties, too: the title is reminiscent of the Korean zombie film Train to Busan, and even the name of the planet Kenfori is derived from actor Ken Foree, known for his role in Dawn of the Dead.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Pike holding a severed leg. — Whose leg is this?

Star Trek has arguably told zombie-adjacent stories before. The biggest example of this, as I’ve discussed before, is the Borg: Star Trek’s own cybernetic zombie faction! But the Borg are also a different kind of villain presented in a different way; there’s something about Shuttle to Kenfori’s mindless, monster-like moss-zombie abominations that’s totally unique. I love that Strange New Worlds has been bold enough to go there – and to tell these horror-inspired stories. We’ve seen it with the Gorn, and now we’re getting this new and creative zombie idea.

If the Borg represent your typical Night of the Living Dead zombies – shuffling around at a slow pace – then the zombies in Shuttle to Kenfori were closer to those from more modern titles like 28 Days Later or the aforementioned Train to Busan. Sprinting at full pelt after Captain Pike and Dr M’Benga, these zombies were truly scary! The jump-scare at the window about made me piss my pants, and the way the horde of zombies tumbled over one another desperately trying to grab our heroes… it was riveting stuff right out of a modern horror film!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing zombies breaking through a window. — These zombies were terrifying – and this was a great jump-scare.

Here’s a question I bet you weren’t expecting: did Shuttle to Kenfori make you think of Tuvix? Voyager’s “meme episode” definitely came up for me, with a flower that can merge DNA seeming quite familiar! I don’t think that means we’re gonna get a half-Gorn Captain Batel at the end of the day, or some kind of horrific Batel/Gorn “Brundlefly,” but it was interesting to hear about this flower and its unusual properties.

There was more to Shuttle to Kenfori than just the zombies – so let’s talk about that next!

Captain Batel’s Gorn infection coming back was something I kind of predicted last week after the opening pair of episodes. There was a lot of talk about her “re-absorbing” the Gorn DNA, especially in Wedding Bell Blues, and I just felt it hinted at there being more to this story than met the eye. In that sense it wasn’t a total shock – though I stand by what I said in my review of Hegemony, Part II: spoiling her survival in trailers and marketing material was a mistake. But I do think it’s interesting that, despite the Gorn themselves apparently taking a little nappy-nap, their influence and impact on our characters is going to stick around.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Captain Batel unconscious. — Captain Batel isn’t feeling too well…

The mind-meld sequence really hammered home how dangerous and unsettling this idea of a Gorn infection truly is. Spock seemed to perceive not only Gorn DNA but an actual individual Gorn somehow inside of or sharing Captain Batel’s body, and that concept is pretty horrifying, if you think about it! The parasitic Gorn eggs draw a lot from the film Alien, where the xenomorphs infect humans in a similar way, and I noted in Hegemony, Part II how truly grotesque the latter stages of that infection looked – brought to life, again, with some fantastic physical special effects work.

The inclusion of Gamble – the new nurse – was also interesting on this side of the story. I said last time that I wondered if Strange New Worlds was teeing him up as either a baddie in disguise or as a secondary character who could be killed off later in the story; when Spock flung him across the room in a Gorn-induced rage, I wondered if that might’ve been poor Ensign Gamble’s end! I like that Strange New Worlds is at least trying to add to its cast – and not just with returning legacy characters. Gamble is still a character I can’t quite place; if he is going to be killed off, fleshing him out and keeping him around in sickbay sequences makes a lot of sense. And if he’s going to take a villainous turn, I think it’s concealed well enough at this stage that the twist will still work!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Nurse Gamble and Captain Batel. — Ensign Gamble with Captain Batel.

The mind-meld also gave us some very creative camera work/CGI. I love the idea that we were seeing things from a kind of “Gorn eye view,” percieving the world the way they might, with distorted colours and sensing things like heat from their prey. I can’t quite remember if All Those Who Wander did something similar… but I think so. Right? Regardless, this effect was creative and fun, and it really hammered home how this alien entity is still – somehow – alive inside Captain Batel. The CGI camera filter, with its hexagonal shapes, also harkened back to the original depiction of the Gorn captain in Arena – with his trademark silver, insect-like eyes.

Spock’s mind-meld also raised the stakes. The infection isn’t just going to kill Captain Batel, but it could spawn another Gorn – or perhaps multiple Gorn. And we saw in Season 1 how even juvenile Gorn and hatchlings can be deadly! So in that sense, Captain Batel’s infection isn’t just a danger to her, but it’s a potential danger to others, too – like the aforementioned Ensign Gamble! If I had to make a prediction or theory, by the way, I’d speculate that the young nurse will be killed in some kind of Gorn incident related to Captain Batel’s condition!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing the mind-meld/Gorn sequence. — A Gorn’s view of the world.

Also on the Gorn side of things, we had Lieutenant Ortegas. I touched on this last time, as she’s clearly suffering from some kind of Gorn-induced PTSD-type condition. Una and La’an noted that she’d passed her psychological evaluation and was deemed fit to return to duty, but there’s clearly more going on. We didn’t get anything as explicit as last week’s Gorn reflection/haunting (I’m loathe to say it was an out-and-out “hallucination” without more evidence), but Ortegas is clearly being reckless and insubordinate due to how she’s feeling.

This has potential, but I think it needs to be handled with care. As a secondary or even tertiary story element in an episode which was largely focused elsewhere, there wasn’t a ton of time to dedicate to Ortegas. While what we saw was interesting and does hint at her mental state not being great… I also feel echoes of some of Discovery and Picard’s half-arsed mental health story attempts. Modern Star Trek has admirably tried to include these kinds of stories… but hasn’t always done so with care. An exploration of post-war or post-captivity PTSD is a genuinely interesting narrative concept, and one that could be heart-wrenching if done well… but it’s also a storyline which needs sufficient time dedicating to it. That doesn’t mean an entire episode, but it does mean more than just a few scenes and sequences.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Ortegas at her post. — Ortegas on the bridge.

Ortegas’ run-in with Uhura kind of encapsulates this for me. At the briefing, Ortegas interjected with her own riskier but faster rescue plan. But when Una opted for Spock’s slower approach, Ortegas seemed to lash out at Uhura for not backing her up. But this lasted all of a few seconds, and didn’t come up again. Ortegas’ main conflict – if we can characterise this kind of thing as a “conflict” – was with Una. This left her interaction with Uhura kind of sticking out; it needed more than just a couple of lines’ worth of setup, and more of a payoff. If that pattern repeats across this storyline… I worry it won’t achieve everything it aims for.

And that would be a real shame. Melissa Navia, who plays Ortegas, was genuinely compelling to watch this week, and after the Gorn attack, it stands to reason that someone would be suffering some lingering effects. Given Ortegas’ background in the Klingon war as well, there’s a real opportunity to talk about post-traumatic stress, grief, fear, and the lingering after-effects of trauma. I just hope that this opportunity will be fully seized and not fumbled – like Picard and Discovery arguably did.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Ortegas in the briefing room. — This Ortegas storyline clearly has room to run.

On a more positive note, I felt Ortegas’ frustration as her plan was shot down. When you’re already on edge, suffering, or just not feeling your best, frustration can boil over – and in a chain-of-command situation, like there is in Starfleet, if your superiors don’t go with your idea, that can absolutely be the kind of thing that sets people off! This side of the story was handled well, and I kind of like the idea of leaning into this and showing Ortegas going rogue, trying to force the situation.

One way or another, this will be resolved. And it’s more realistic than in earlier iterations of Star Trek, where characters would go through some horrible trauma one week and be totally fine the next. I appreciate that Strange New Worlds – which is more episodic in nature than other recent projects – still keeps these ongoing character arcs. It makes people like Ortegas feel more well-rounded; fleshed-out people not just characters. I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping that this PTSD-type storyline manages to stick the landing when it counts.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing the USS Enterprise in the planet's atmosphere. — The Enterprise.

On this side of the story, we got to see Una in command. She’s sat in the captain’s chair before, of course, but this was one of her first real outings where she had to make impactful command decisions; really embracing the role of first officer. Una was clearly taking inspiration from the way Captain Pike runs his ship, but there were enough differences in her approach and the way she handled both the briefing and the Ortegas situation to keep things interesting; she wasn’t just a stand-in for Pike in those moments.

XOs in Star Trek shows have a challenging role: they can’t outshine their captains, but they can’t be too different from them when in command, either. I think we got a great example of how a first officer should behave when left in command in Shuttle to Kenfori – Una was her own person, running the briefing and commanding the ship in her own way. She clearly had the respect of her colleagues – Ortegas’ misbehaviour aside! But she’s also leaning into Captain Pike’s style of command, listening to people, taking suggestions, and then deciding on a plan based on the best evidence available to her. It was a fun sequence, and I’m glad we got to see her taking the reins for a change.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Una in the captain's chair. — Una got a turn in the captain’s chair while Pike was away.

Although I criticised the inclusion of Bytha and her Klingon band, there was a lot to love on this side of the story. Set aside questions of whether the story needed to be told alongside Shuttle to Kenfori’s zombies for a moment and consider it as a standalone thing. We got a callback to Dr M’Benga’s war service, in which we know he was notorious for killing dozens of Klingons. It also connected to the Season 2 episode Under the Cloak of War in a big way, too. But moreover, what we got on this side of the story was one of the most “Klingon” performances in modern Star Trek.

Discovery’s Klingons could feel a bit muddled, sometimes. They were still Klingon, don’t get me wrong, and there are things to admire with that show’s Klingon war arc. But Strange New Worlds has returned the Klingons to a more familiar visual style and also a tone closer to “classic” Klingons, if you take my meaning. Bytha, who was the daughter of Dak’Rah, was very concerned with matters of personal honour and the standing of her family’s house in Klingon affairs – and this felt like something out of The Next Generation era in the best way possible.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Bytha discharging her weapon. — Bytha firing her disruptor.

Bytha was an interesting character, and I liked that her motivation was more complex than just “revenge.” It tied into what we know of Klingon houses and concepts of honour, harkeing back to stories involving Worf, Gowron, and Martok in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Even when surrounded by zombies and with her team dead, Bytha couldn’t stop herself challenging Dr M’Benga to ritual combat in line with Klingon codes of honour, and I found that fascinating and realistic based on what we know of the Klingons.

Bytha’s death was also particularly gruesome! She went out on her own terms, staying true to her beliefs and restoring her honour. I liked Dr M’Benga using honour against her, by beating her and refusing to finish her off. This set the stage for Pike and M’Benga being able to escape, but also gave Bytha an ending to her story that was, if nothing else, fitting. There wasn’t a ton of time to develop Bytha, but we got to know enough about her to understand why she was there, what she wanted, and who she was as a character. Christine Horn, who played the character, did a great job, too – she avoided falling into the trap of going over-the-top or leaving Bytha feeling one-dimensional. Though not in focus for the entire story, I felt she was a compelling villain – even if I’d have preferred to see her in a different episode, perhaps!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Bytha. — Bytha was an interesting Klingon character.

At the end of the episode, we saw Pike and Captain Batel reunited. And this was one of the most emotional sequences in Shuttle to Kenfori. Captain Batel tried to explain why she didn’t tell Pike everything straight away, and there were a couple of pertinent lines in there. “I don’t have the space to worry about how my dying hurts your feelings” is a powerful sentiment, and I think it encapsulates how she’s been feeling and how Pike can react. I don’t think Pike is actually that selfish, by the way, but we’ve seen over the course of his relationship with Batel that he isn’t the perfect partner and doesn’t always know what to say.

There’s also a message about medical consent and terminal illnesses. Pike’s story, going back to Discovery’s second season, has been building up to his own impending accident and disability. With Captain Batel, Pike is the one on the outside having to deal with her worsening health and potential terminal illness, and I think we got a powerful sequence exploring that. The failure of a treatment, an almost desperate, last-ditch attempt to find a new solution, and Captain Batel keeping Pike out of the picture because of how he might’ve reacted. It was riveting, dramatic stuff – but I’m glad that they came back together at the end. I’m curious to see what will come of this treatment – something tells me Captain Batel isn’t out of danger just yet.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x03: Shuttle to Kenfori, showing Captain Pike and Captain Batel hugging. — Pike and Batel embrace.

So that was Shuttle to Kenfori. With the exception of a rather rushed opening sequence and a Klingon villain who, while compelling in her own right, was ultimately unnecessary for the zombie story, I think it was an outstanding episode. The horror theme was present throughout, the zombies themselves were frightening and incredibly well-designed, and we moved along key storylines involving Pike, Captain Batel, Ortegas, Dr M’Benga… and possibly our new Ensign Gamble, too!

Obviously, though, this episode will be remembered for its zombies. While I don’t want Strange New Worlds to spend too long on any one storyline – as its episodic nature has been one of the best things about the series – I’m kind of hoping we revisit the zombies in the future. It seems strange for Starfleet to just abandon the planet Kenfori with its zombie infestation, and I’m sure the scientists would be very interested to learn more about this contagion, how it spreads, the moss that causes it… and maybe if it could be weaponised. That seems like something that the Klingons might be interested in, too – and if Bytha’s statement is anything to go by, the Klingons knew what they were about to walk into. Then there’s the Scotty and Pelia poster I mentioned earlier – is that hinting at a second zombie story later this season?

Cropped promo poster for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 showing Scotty and Pelia surrounded by zombies. — Are more zombies on the agenda later this season?

But that’s all for today. A tense, gruesome, and occasionally frightening episode – but it was a lot of fun! As Strange New Worlds hits the halfway point, I can already tell I’m not gonna be ready to let go of this wonderful series when the moment comes. It really has been the high-water mark of modern Star Trek, returning to the franchise’s episodic, exploration-focused roots – while also being brave enough to try completely new and different things.

Next week we have the retro-inspired Space Adventure Hour, and also the apparent return of Kirk. This will almost certainly be a total change in tone from Shuttle to Kenfori’s horror offering, so if this wasn’t to your taste and you’re hankering for something a bit more light-hearted, I think you’re in for a treat!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 3, Episode 2: Wedding Bell Blues

Mon 21.07.25Dennis

A Star Trek: Phase II-themed spoiler warning.

After an explosive and action-packed season premiere, Strange New Worlds opted for a complete change in tone in Wedding Bell Blues. There were some lighthearted sequences, a callback to a fan theory that’s been kicking around for literally decades, and, unfortunately, a bit too much cringe humour for my taste. Despite that latter point, Wedding Bell Blues had its moments, and the apparent confirmation of that decades-old fan theory was worth the price of admission alone!

For me, though, I suppose Wedding Bell Blues is going to be another episode that I don’t revisit very often. This obsession that the show’s writers have with putting Spock in situations that are emotional or just wacky and cringeworthy… it’s overstayed its welcome. And while I will happily admit that there can be humour in that premise… I’m thoroughly done with it at this point. Spock Amok, The Serene Squall, The Elysian Kingdom, Charades, and Subspace Rhapsody all included some kind of “Spock comedy” or “Vulcan comedy,” and I just think that we’ve really reached the end of the line with it. Any joke – even great ones – stop being funny when they’re repeated too often, and this whole “Vulcans are stuck up and rigid, so let’s turn that into comedy” idea wasn’t especially strong to begin with. At this point… well, let’s just say I hope we don’t get too much more of that going forward. And yes, I’m aware that we have Four-and-a-Half Vulcans still to come later this season.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Spock at the start of the episode. — I’m done with “Spock comedy” at this point.

That being said, there were some interesting and entertaining moments in Wedding Bell Blues, and when the episode switched to Spock and Dr Korby trying to undo the damage, things largely improved. Dr Korby made for a fun character, even though his introduction as Spock’s rom-com/Hallmark movie dating rival wasn’t spectacular! Dr Korby originally appeared in The Original Series first season episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? where Kirk and the crew encounter him – after a fashion – on a frozen planet.

It’s been a while since I re-watched What Are Little Girls Made Of?, so my recollections of that story are a little fuzzy! But from what I remember, the “Dr Korby” that the crew – and Nurse Chapel – encountered wasn’t quite the same, either due to the mind-transferring process he went through or, perhaps, because of years in isolation and the traumatic experiences he went through. I’m not sure if Strange New Worlds’ version of Dr Korby is going to appear again after this episode. If he doesn’t, I think we’ll look at Wedding Bell Blues as a bit of mildly interesting backstory. But if he does come back, I think there’s potential to expand the character further, and perhaps show us a glimpse of a darker side, something that might inform his TOS appearance. Because I didn’t really get much of that from Wedding Bell Blues, to be honest. If Dr Korby had been substituted for a brand-new character, it wouldn’t have made any real difference to this particular script.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Dr Korby. — Dr Korby in Spock’s cabin.

We’ll come back to Chapel, Korby, and Spock, because I really want to get into this Trelane and Q connection!

For some background information: Trelane was a character who first appeared in the episode The Squire of Gothos, also from the first season of The Original Series. He was portrayed as a trickster, capturing and toying with Kirk and the crew – before being reprimanded by his parents. When Q appeared at the beginning of The Next Generation some twenty years later, fans immediately made the connection. Q and Trelane felt so similar that “Trelane is a Q” became a popular theory in the Trekkie community. But it was never confirmed, despite Q making repeated appearances in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Even a visit to the Q Continuum itself didn’t confirm it!

The character in Wedding Bell Blues is credited simply as “Wedding Planner,” and John de Lancie – Q from The Next Generation – is credited as voicing “Wedding Planner’s father.” However, ahead of the season we were told that Rhys Darby – who played the “Wedding Planner” – was playing the role of a familiar character, and after Wedding Bell Blues aired, showrunner and executive producer Akiva Goldsman confirmed that the two are the same character. With that in mind, I shall be treating the “Wedding Planner” as Trelane and the other energy life-form as Q.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Trelane playing a trick on Spock. — Trelane with a pint-sized Spock.

I love that Strange New Worlds went out of its way to confirm this old fan theory and really lean into the Trekkie community. Moments like this connect disparate parts of Star Trek together, and while we can argue the toss about changes to the Gorn from one show to the other, Trelane’s appearance here was pitch-perfect. It was right in line with The Squire of Gothos, and the fact that John de Lancie returned to voice Q at the end of the story just made it so much better.

As an aside: have we finally seen the Q in their “true” form? Q has always been able to change his form, but in all of his appearances – and the appearances of other members of the Continuum – we never got confirmation of what the race actually looks like in its native form. I think there’s a case to be made that the energy cloud from The Squire of Gothos and Wedding Bell Blues is what members of the Q Continuum look like when they aren’t deliberately assuming another form. And that’s kind of cool!

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing an energy life-form. — Is this Q’s true form?

So after almost forty years, we’ve gotten an explicit connection between Trelane and the Q! I don’t know about you, but I think that’s exceptionally cool, and a great little wink to fans of both The Original Series and The Next Generation. It was also subtle enough that new viewers who aren’t familiar with any of those shows wouldn’t have been left scratching their heads. The ending to The Squire of Gothos was repeated in a pretty similar way, and the meaning behind it – that this entity was little more than a child, toying with living beings – still works even without any of that prior knowledge of Star Trek. It works just as well in 2025 as it did in 1967!

After such a long time, with fans speculating about Trelane and Q since before there was the world wide web… there were risks to this storyline. And I just love that there was enough boldness in the writers’ room to go there. I can see this point being contentious with some older fans, perhaps; not everyone was on board with the “Trelane is a Q” theory. You don’t have to look too far to find old forum threads and blog posts denouncing the notion! But for me, this storyline was well-executed, it doesn’t really prevent you from enjoying any of the Q episodes or The Squire of Gothos in isolation, and given that Trelane seems to have been in disguise most of the time, we can even argue that Spock, Uhura, and Scotty not remembering this encounter makes sense. Heck, if you need a head canon explanation for that: Trelane used his Q powers to make everyone forget about this by the time of The Squire of Gothos!

Six still frames from a selection of Star Trek episodes. Top line L:R Q in Encounter at Farpoint, Trelane in Wedding Bell Blues, Trelane in his energy cloud form in Wedding Bell Blues. Bottom line L-R: Trelane's father in Squire of Gothos, Q in Picard Season 2, and Trelane in Squire of Gothos. — Trelane is officially a member of the Q Continuum!

Star Trek was one of the entertainment landscape’s first real “shared universes;” pioneering the idea before the name even existed. And it’s nice to get little reminders, now and then, of storylines set in other eras or of fun episodes we remember from older Star Trek shows. There are good ways and bad ways to do this; Wedding Bell Blues, for me, stayed on the right side of the line. There’s enough wiggle-room for people who hate this idea to say that, well, maybe the Wedding Planner and Trelane aren’t one and the same, or that nothing we saw on screen explicitly proves that it was The Next Generation’s Q who showed up at the end. But for fans who’ve bought into the Trelane-Q connection over the years, I think it’s great to see that theory finally confirmed.

Rhys Darby was fantastic as Trelane, too. Informed, perhaps, not only by the original performance of the character by William Campbell in The Original Series, but also by John de Lancie’s Q, I felt we got a complex take on the character. Trelane’s lighthearted, positive energy masked some truly dark impulses and urges, and his total disregard for forms of life he considered “inferior” or beneath him really shone through. There was a distinct creepiness to Trelane, even when he was mincing around, talking about wedding dresses and cake samples. Darby put in a fantastic performance to bring the character to life and make him believable, despite the very unusual situation.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Trelane at the end of the story. — Rhys Darby was great in this role.

Speaking as we were of head canon, here’s one that I think makes some character moments in Wedding Bell Blues flow better! When Spock and Dr Korby approached various characters to explain the “mass delusion” phenomenon, even people who should be receptive to that conversation completely brushed them off. Worse, people like Captain Pike even seemed to ignore or forget what Spock was telling them moments later, and just generally acted out-of-character. When Spock left his own bachelor party, for instance, none of the other attendees – his friends – bothered to go after him or find out what was wrong.

So my head canon is that Trelane’s magic wasn’t just causing the delusion, it was also forcing everyone to react in this way. They were all 100% wedding-focused, and anything that didn’t gel with Trelane’s new scenario was either not retained or pushed aside. That’s really the only way I think we can account for people like Pike behaving the way they do; refusing to listen to his science officer and a prominent, well-respected doctor when confronted just doesn’t fit his character otherwise. For me, this head canon explanation fits pretty well, but I can understand why some viewers might not like the behaviours of Captain Pike and some of the other characters in the episode.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Pike, Kirk, M'Benga, and Scotty in Pike's cabin. — The bachelor party.

The idea that only strong emotions – like anger or love – could break through Trelane’s spell was interesting, and it’s an idea which feels very “Star Trekky,” if that makes sense. It’s a bit of a cliché, sure; love being this supremely powerful emotion capable of saving the day can feel like a worn-out trope. But here, I think it worked well enough. Perhaps if we’d got just an extra line or two between Korby and Spock to technobabble some nonsense about love generating strong brainwave frequencies or something, maybe that would’ve been an improvement. Not essential, perhaps… but an improvement.

Love breaking through the delusion also set up the end of the episode, and Spock being able to get through to Chapel. Calling back to the story about her and Dr Korby climbing a mountain and looking out over the stars was creative and also cute, and despite my overall feelings about Spock being pushed into this love rivalry story that felt like something out of a low-budget Hallmark movie, this moment worked. Spock knew what he had to do; he took a chance on what he felt was the only way to break the illusion for Chapel, and hoped that doing so would shatter it for everyone else.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Nurse Chapel at the altar. — Chapel breaks free from the spell.

In The Squire of Gothos, the crew of the Enterprise arrive at a planet where Trelane is already present. Yet here, in Wedding Bell Blues, it appears as if Trelane has travelled to Earth… and I wish we’d learned a little about that. Why was Trelane interested in Earth, and why did he feel drawn to Spock when he had ten-plus billion people to potentially toy with? I just didn’t feel we got a satisfactory explanation for that, really. Yes, Trelane is a trickster and a child, but at least encountering him where he is – out in space – made a degree of sense. And for Q, he set puzzles and challenges for Picard, Janeway, and Sisko… but they always served some kind of purpose. Trelane is just playing around, which is the point of the story, but even kids who are playing have reasons for choosing the games they play.

One other thing I liked about Trelane, though, is how we can read his story of wanting to help people fall in love through the lens of what we know about Q. If you know me, you know I generally disliked Star Trek: Picard’s second season, in which Q prominently features. But at the end of that story, we learned that Q cares, in his own way, about things like love – and he has some kind of innate desire to help people fall in love. Or at least he does for certain select people! But this kind of connects with Trelane in Wedding Bell Blues; he saw how down Spock was about losing Chapel and he wanted, in his own somewhat twisted way, to “help.” That interpretation is there, even if it’s built on less solid foundations.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Trelane illuminated by red lights. — Trelane’s story can arguably connect to Q’s in *Picard* Season 2.

Love could be blossoming in Strange New Worlds this season. Spock and La’an seemed to share a moment towards the end of the story, dancing together. I interpreted their earlier scenes as purely friendly, with La’an – who apparently has a hidden talent for dancing – helping Spock learn to dance ahead of the Federation Day celebrations. But their moment at the end of the story, with La’an joining Spock as he sat alone, then asking him to dance? Maybe I’m reaching… but in the kind of rom-coms that Wedding Bell Blues borrowed from, those sorts of moments can lead to big romantic entanglements!

In addition, we also have the clearly burgeoning relationship between Uhura and Beto – Lieutenant Ortegas’ brother. When I saw Uhura and Beto in a pre-season promo photo, I thought he might’ve been some kind of villain; perhaps the photo wasn’t a particularly flattering one, but he was giving me a bit of a creepy vibe! In the episode itself, though, we got plenty of flirty banter between the two. Unlike with Spock, Chapel, and Korby, which I found way too cringeworthy, I generally enjoyed this sub-plot. Giving Uhura a love interest, particularly one with a connection to another member of the crew, could be a lot of fun.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Spock and La'an dancing. — They’re just friends… right?

Could Beto’s drone-camera and his filmmaking job become plot points in another story? I wondered if he might’ve had a role to play in Wedding Bell Blues while I was watching the episode; his camera, I suspected, might be able to see through Trelane’s disguise even if no one else could, and that could’ve led to the mystery unravelling. In any case, Wedding Bell Blues set up this hobby/job of Beto’s, and then called back to it to reinforce it, so I can’t help but think we might get something out of it further down the line. Watch this space, I guess.

Uhura got one of the best costumes in this episode! Not at the wedding/Federation Day party… her very 1960s-inspired outfit that she wore to the bar earlier in the story. Strange New Worlds has leaned into a ’60s aesthetic in a way that Enterprise and Discovery never really did. There are still a ton of thoroughly modern trappings, but the show has those connections to The Original Series. Uhura’s outfit was fantastic – but I wouldn’t say it looked out of place aboard this version of the Enterprise. That isn’t an easy line to walk, and generally I think Strange New Worlds gets it right most of the time. Uhura’s new hairstyle, which debuted in this episode, looks fantastic, too.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Uhura, Ortegas, and Beto in casual dress. — I love Uhura’s outfit in this sequence.

After the dust settled on the wedding/Federation Day, there are still a couple of lingering Gorn-related questions. I noted last time that Spock and Chapel’s plan to save Captain Batel didn’t involve removing her Gorn infection, but changing how they approached it so that the Gorn would be “re-absorbed” by her body. That line didn’t stick out too much at the time, but the fact that “re-absorbtion” and Captain Batel’s ongoing treatment was mentioned again here? It raises some questions! Is she going to be suffering some kind of ongoing Gorn-related health issue? And if so, could we see the Gorn return in a future story? Could the Gorn infection ultimately still claim her life?

I was surprised to see La’an so casually brushing off her Gorn encounter. I get why it had to happen for narrative reasons – with Ortegas clearly suffering after her near-death experience, having another character going through a similar Gorn PTSD-type situation might be too much. But La’an is a character who has been thoroughly defined by her encounters with the Gorn, both in the show and as part of her backstory. Yes, there’s a three-month time-jump at the beginning of Wedding Bell Blues, and we can argue that La’an might’ve processed some of what happened off-screen. But something about her line to Spock about the Gorn threat being over now… it didn’t sit quite right.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Captain Batel. — Is Captain Batel in the clear?

However, as mentioned it’s Lieutenant Ortegas who seems to be in focus for a lingering Gorn storyline. Although she seems to have physically recovered, there’s a psychological toll that she doesn’t seem to have addressed yet. She may not have even admitted to anyone that she feels haunted by the Gorn and by her experiences in captivity. This is clearly going to run for more than one episode, perhaps blowing up later in the season in a big way – or conversely, with Ortegas seeking help from someone like Captain Pike, Dr M’Benga, or even La’an. I felt that, if La’an had been the one to get this kind of PTSD-type storyline, she had a great connection already with Una, so she could’ve been someone to turn to.

Ortegas hasn’t been in focus as much across the first couple of seasons, and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that she doesn’t have a “bestie” in the same way as some of the other main characters do! That’s a limitation in some respects, but it also means that she could potentially talk to anyone – so maybe it’s better to say it opens up different possibilities. Dr M’Benga would be interesting both for his medical expertise as well as his own traumatic backstory from the Klingon war. Captain Pike could be very sympathetic, too. And La’an, I think, might make a particularly compelling character for Ortegas to seek out. Not only does La’an have that Gorn experience, but she was the one who rescued Ortegas from captivity, saved her life, and then carried her to the ship they used to make their escape.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing Ortegas being "haunted" by her Gorn encounter. — Ortegas is clearly haunted by her Gorn encounter.

As an aside: Wedding Bell Blues was creative in its use of reflections creative camera shots. We caught a glimpse of Trelane through the window before he first appeared, we saw the view directly from Beto’s camera-drone, and at the end, Ortegas’ feelings of being haunted by her Gorn experience were shown through a reflection in the window.

What do we make of the new nurse? The ensign that Una and Dr M’Benga went out of their way to keep aboard the Enterprise? Is he – as I suspect – going to take a villainous turn? Or is he being set up as a glorified redshirt; a Discovery-esque secondary character with minimal backstory, being fattened up to be slaughtered? Those are my two guesses!

Some of that may come later in the season… or not, if I’m totally overreaching. For now, it’s sufficient to say that I liked some of what Wedding Bell Blues had to offer – but I was less keen on its Hallmark movie plot. Spock and Chapel have run their course as a couple, and I’m glad that the series is finally seeming to put that idea to bed. But I’m not wild about all of these “emotional Spock” and “comedic Spock” storylines. There are other ways to include the character, other ways to demonstrate his growth, and other things to do with Vulcans besides joke about how formal and stuck-up they are.

Still frame from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x02 Wedding Bell Blues showing a new nurse aboard the Enterprise. — Redshirt or secret bad guy?

I’m glad that Strange New Worlds doesn’t double up its episodes every week. Don’t get me wrong: I’d love to pay less for Paramount+, and a shorter season would help with that! But two episodes at once is a bit much; binge-watching some shows is a ton of fun, but for a brand-new season of Star Trek? I like to give the episodes room to breathe. A nice week-long gap is what I need!

So we’ve reviewed both of the Season 3 premiere episodes. They were pretty different, and obviously my preference would be Hegemony, Part II by quite a long way! But I did enjoy the Trelane-Q fan theory being confirmed all these years later, and it was fun to get a kind of Q-ish or Q-adjacent storyline for Spock. Dr Korby, despite a pretty disappointing love triangle story and a weak introduction, was a fun character, and a good foil for Spock as he was forced to team up with arguably his least-favourite human! And we got some fun moments with Sam Kirk, Uhura, Chapel, Ortegas, and her brother, too.

Not my favourite episode, thanks to its cringe humour and Spock-Chapel-Korby love triangle. But an episode with plenty of redeeming features.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform exists. The first two seasons are also available on DVD/Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.