Spoiler Warning: Beware of spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation Seasons 3-4, Deep Space Nine Seasons 4-6, and Discovery Season 5.
After a frankly ridiculous two-year wait, Strange New Worlds is back! Hegemony, Part II is the conclusion to last season’s excellent cliffhanger, picking up right where we left off with the Gorn attack on the non-Federation planet Parnassus Beta. And, as always, I have a lot to say – so buckle up, this could be a long review!
The tl;dr is this: Hegemony, Part II wrapped up its key storylines… but perhaps didn’t have quite enough time to do so flawlessly. The episode was good, unquestionably, and I think the two parts of Hegemony form one of the show’s strongest and certainly most explosive and action-packed offerings. But as the credits rolled and the Enterprise set course for Earth, I couldn’t help but feel that an extra ten minutes or so would’ve been necessary to really achieve what this episode’s writers and director wanted. There were a few moments that were just a little too short, that needed a bit more explanation, or where we could’ve spent just a tad longer lingering on key characters. Maybe a fifty-five-minute cut of the episode would’ve been better than the forty-five-minute version we ultimately got.
Before we go any further and get into the meat of the review, I’d like to give my usual disclaimer! Everything we’re going to talk about today is the entirely subjective opinion of just one Trekkie. If you detested Hegemony, Part II and think I’m rating it far too highly, or you love it more than I did and you feel I’m being unnecessarily harsh… that’s okay. There’s plenty of room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and polite discussion. I share this review with the online Trekkie community in that spirit.
We waited two years with the cliffhanger ending to Hegemony, and a massive part of that was the question of what would happen to Captain Batel. Would she survive her Gorn infection… and what would it mean for Pike if she couldn’t be saved? Batel was a great character to endanger; as a brand-new character, she could easily be killed off, and as someone so closely connected to Pike – whose future is set in stone – their relationship is doomed one way or another. We also saw, in Season 1, how deadly a Gorn infection could be with Hemmer’s untimely death. So again, to reiterate that: it was a fantastic storytelling decision to place Captain Batel in this incredibly dangerous position.
So why, then, did the absolute fucking morons who’ve somehow managed to waddle into Paramount’s marketing department completely spoil Captain Batel’s survival weeks ahead of Season 3’s premiere? It completely ruined that storyline, undermined some genuinely tense sequences, and rendered some great performances by Anson Mount, Jess Bush, and Ethan Peck completely impotent. Thanks to her appearance in two trailers and photos released ahead of Season 3, we could tell that Captain Batel was going to survive. And while I concede that for a more casual audience that would be less of an issue (folks who don’t follow Star Trek on social media would’ve been less likely to see these spoilers) I still don’t think that excuses it.
This cliffhanger had been simmering away for two years, and while we knew Melanie Scrofano would be back as Captain Batel in Hegemony, Part II… her status in the rest of the season could’ve easily been kept under wraps. As soon as I saw her in those trailers, I knew she was going to survive, because those clips were clearly taken from after the Gorn conflict. And the photos released for subsequent episodes just hammered that home even more. There was absolutely no reason for this; there were other clips that could’ve been chosen, or Batel could’ve even been edited out of the clips in which she appears. Why go to all the bother of setting up this otherwise fantastic and engaging storyline, which was performed beautifully and emotionally by all involved, and keep it under wraps for almost two years… only to blow it with a few weeks to go? Paramount is utterly useless, which is why Star Trek as a whole is probably going to be disappearing before the end of the decade. But things like this are such incredibly basic mistakes that I cannot fathom how they were allowed to happen. Knowing Captain Batel would survive significantly harmed my enjoyment of this storyline in Hegemony, Part II – and there was just no need for that to have happened.
The sad thing about all of this is that, episode-ruining spoilers aside, Captain Batel’s storyline gave us the episode’s best and certainly most emotive performances. We got some fantastic moments with Anson Mount, as he beautifully portrayed Pike struggling with Batel’s condition, and Jess Bush, who took us through Chapel’s strengths and vulnerabilities when facing a traumatic situation. Ethan Peck showed off a softer side to Spock, here, too, picking up last season’s relationship with Chapel. We’ll get into that a bit more later – because Spock and Chapel have kind of run their course for me – but again, it was a solid performance and a new situation for Spock.
Melanie Scrofano spent a lot of Hegemony, Part II lying asleep on a table or bed, but when she was awake – both before and after her experimental surgery – she also contributed to some of the story’s most heart-wrenching moments. Asking Chapel to “take her out,” if there was no solution, and in those final scenes with Pike, we saw Captain Batel at her best and her most vulnerable simultaneously. That’s not an easy thing to communicate, especially with limited screen time, but it was utterly fantastic. It’s such a shame that this entire storyline was spoiled ahead of time for no good reason.
In The Original Series, there was a suggestion that Nurse Chapel had “a thing” for Spock. Strange New Worlds took this bare-bones idea and really expanded upon it, pairing them up in a romantic way. However, if Spock is to continue his character arc – one which should bring him more in line with the character we’re familiar with – then I think this relationship has run its course. And in Hegemony, Part II, I didn’t feel this side of Spock and Chapel’s story really added very much. It wasn’t as bad as anything Discovery did with its forced drama, but there were moments that came close, as Spock and Chapel seemed to lose focus on the task to talk about their relationship. I don’t think this otherwise-interesting story needed to be interrupted by relationship drama, and both characters seem to be on different trajectories right now. That’s for the best, and while their entanglement was occasionally fun and could be called back to in the future, keeping them as friends will, in my view, work a lot better going forward.
With Dr M’Benga missing in action, it fell to Spock and Chapel to perform Captain Batel’s life-saving treatment – and this was interesting. We could absolutely nitpick and say surely a ship the size of the Enterprise has at least one other doctor (as evidenced by Dr M’Benga’s original appearance alongside Dr McCoy in The Original Series), but for the sake of the story, I think it worked well! Spock and Chapel made a good pair in this kind of environment, tackling a problem neither of them was fully-qualified to solve and being forced to think outside the box. The callback to Una’s Illyrian heritage was good, and a creative way for the episode to technobabble its way to a resolution by relying on something which been set up all the way back in Season 1.
If you recall the episode Ghosts of Illyria, where we learned about Una, we also discovered that the Illyrians’ penchant for genetic engineering left their people particularly resistant to disease and infection. I love that Star Trek – and Strange New Worlds within its own story – has this depth of lore. A technobabble miracle could’ve always been found to save Captain Batel, but referencing events and characters from earlier in the show’s run strengthened this significantly, and gave Spock and Chapel’s plan a truly solid narrative foundation. It worked great – and it connected to Una’s backstory in a way I’ve been hoping Strange New Worlds will continue to do.
The only part of this that I felt was rushed was the surgery itself. While Chapel’s hand was literally on the scalpel (alright, the weird techno-device with blinking lights), Spock intervened and suggested changing their entire plan. That’s already a bit flimsy, in my view, and it came without much setup. A longer episode could’ve dedicated just a minute or two more to Spock and Chapel working out ideas, and stretched out this moment a bit longer, which I feel would’ve strengthened it. The idea of flipping the problem around was creative, but the explanation just felt a bit rushed in the moment, and I would’ve happily enjoyed seeing them actually enacting some part of their new plan.
Speaking of things that were rushed: Scotty and Pelia’s explanation of how the Enterprise could fly into the binary stars. It felt like Scotty came on the bridge, sat down, and worked out this incredibly complex plan in the span of just a few seconds, when he hadn’t been briefed or known anything about what was going on just a moment earlier. The prior sequence with Scotty and Pelia was great, and it did something I really hoped Strange New Worlds would do – give Scotty room to grow, showing us that he isn’t quite the miracle-worker from The Original Series just yet. That was communicated incredibly well, and I really hope we get more with Scotty and Pelia, building on their difficult history together and their somewhat antagonistic working relationship.
But the moment on the bridge needed more. We needed to see Pike, Pelia, and Scotty slow things down and figure out their plan at a more reasonable pace. Pacing of these technobabble ideas in many Star Trek episodes can feel rushed, so this isn’t a unique issue by any means. However, that doesn’t make it less of a problem here, and considering this scheme was the lynchpin of the entire operation to stop the Gorn… I just think we needed to arrive at it a bit more slowly to allow it to sink in. Could you even explain what Scotty’s idea involved? It was so rushed that I don’t think I could off the top of my head.
As the apparently-final act in Strange New Worlds’ multi-season Gorn conflict story arc, I would’ve liked to have spent a bit more time on this moment. Planning, scheming, coming up with different ideas… kind of like we saw Rom, Dax, and O’Brien doing in the Deep Space Nine episode Call To Arms. That episode saw the characters trying to come up with a way to stop Dominion reinforcements coming through the Bajoran Wormhole, but the scene was just the right length, and we saw the characters talking through several different variants of the plan before settling on the one they ultimately chose to enact. The circumstances of the conflict are different in Hegemony, Part II, but the complexities of the situation involving Gorn hibernation rituals, stellar flares, and the engineering challenges of the Enterprise’s shields and hull still require some discussion and debate.
After I’d written in my notes that Strange New Worlds was doing exactly what I wanted to see with Scotty – showing that he isn’t perfect, that he has room to grow – this scene kind of undermined all of that. Scotty leapt into action, coming up with the perfect plan on the spot in a matter of seconds. And the plan was creative and interesting! I liked that Strange New Worlds, once again, is connecting back to story threads that had been set up in earlier episodes with the Gorn using light to communicate and having sensitivities to light. But again, I feel a fifty-five-minute episode could’ve communicated this at a better pace.
Speaking as we were of Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War, I felt echoes of another fantastic episode in Pike’s desperate attempt to stop the Gorn. Sacrifice of Angels sees Captain Sisko, on the Defiant, making a last stand against an encroaching Dominion fleet, and Pike’s attempt to warn Starfleet and stop the Gorn invasion as their ships swarmed definitely reminded me of that moment. When Pike gave the order to open fire, and Una replied incredulously, reminding him they’re facing an entire armada… again I felt echoes of Sisko and Dax on the bridge of the Defiant. It was really impressive moment – in both episodes!
And we can kind of compare the resolutions to those stories, too. The Prophets intervened in Sacrifice of Angels, removing the Dominion fleet. Pike and Scotty’s solar flare plan to “put the Gorn to sleep” likewise averted the attack without actually turning it into a large-scale battle or a wider war. Star Trek has a knack for finding technological or engineering solutions, even to what seem on the surface to be military problems, and that’s been a core tenet of the franchise going all the way back to the beginning. Using the knowledge they’d gained about the Gorn in this way, the crew was able to turn back the tide and avert a wider invasion. That’s kind of a neat idea, even if parts of the buildup to it weren’t flawless. You could also compare this plan to Picard and Data putting the Borg to sleep in The Best of Both Worlds.
In my review of the Hegemony, Part I, I noted what I consider to be a particularly significant plot hole, and unfortunately, Part II doubled-down on it. In brief: Admiral April asserts that the Federation doesn’t want to become involved in a wider war with the Gorn, effectively ceding Parnassus Beta to the Gorn Hegemony. Because Parnassus Beta wasn’t a Federation colony, and April was choosing to prioritise Federation worlds, that was a sacrifice he was okay with making. But that doesn’t make sense in-universe.
The attacks on the USS Cayuga and the USS Stardiver by the Gorn are, in effect, declarations of war against the Federation. Parnassus Beta may not be a Federation world, but those starships are both Starfleet vessels crewed by Federation citizens. April’s argument makes no sense when he has that information, and the losses of the Cayuga and Stardiver were known to him by the time he boarded the Enterprise to debrief Captain Pike. Everyone was acting as if the only attack was on Parnassus Beta – but the attacks on not one but two Federation starships prove the Gorn’s wider militaristic intent. I could have happily entertained a storyline about appeasement, about not reacting emotionally when provoked, or anything along those lines. But for April, Pike, and everyone else involved to just ignore what happened to the two ships, and not even mention those attacks as a reason for or against taking certain actions… it rubs me the wrong way. I don’t think it makes sense based on what we know of April, of Starfleet, or even of Captain Pike himself. While I didn’t really expect Part II to completely change this angle based on what we saw last time, I’m a bit disappointed that the writers doubled-down on this mistake. It makes Admiral April look either uncaring to the point of sociopathy or totally incompetent, and I think Pike’s failure to bring up the attacks on Starfleet ships to support his case doesn’t do wonders for his characterisation, either.
The final part where I think a slightly longer episode might’ve been beneficial was with La’an and the captured members of the away team. This is less important than Captain Batel’s treatment or Scotty’s plan, as I felt these scenes were generally pretty great. But spending an extra minute or two, spread across those sequences, might’ve allowed for a couple of things – Ortegas having to figure out how to pilot the Gorn ship and La’an taking a bit longer to locate the Gorn warship’s transporter codes. Both of those points seemed to be blitzed through quite quickly, and while they didn’t not work, I think they could’ve been improved with a slightly slower pace.
Think about it: you’re hacking into a totally alien computer system for the first time ever. And Strange New Worlds has gone out of its way to really emphasise the “other-ness” and truly alien nature of the Gorn, with no universal translator or even any real communication at all. So you hack into this computer, and just instantly scroll to the transport frequencies like you were finding your favourite song in Spotify. It took me ages to get the hang of Windows XP after I’d been used to Windows 98… do you really believe La’an is gonna hack the Gorn in an instant? She’s a security officer, not even an engineer or tech expert. I just think this could’ve benefited from another few seconds, even, showing her scrolling, taking wrong turns, or getting locked out and having to work around it.
Likewise with Ortegas. Ortegas’ story at the end of Hegemony, Part II is basically summarised in the line she repeats to herself: “I fly the ship.” But… it’s not a familiar ship. It uses a weird interface (that reminded me a little of Mr Garrison’s bike invention in South Park (if you know, you know)), it’s in an alien language, and frankly… “I’m a pilot, so I can pilot anything” is a bit of a flimsy excuse when you’re dealing with a totally different kind of technology. I would’ve liked to see her struggle, just for a moment, with figuring out the controls – and that could’ve actually added to the tension as the away team attempted to escape the Gorn while under fire.
I don’t think either of these are particularly egregious, but since we’ve been talking about moments that felt a little cut down or where we could’ve seen things expanded, I felt it worth including them.
Sticking with Ortegas for just a moment, Strange New Worlds really succeeded at convincing me that she was in danger. When the adult Gorn attacked her as the away team made their escape, I genuinely feared for her survival in a way that I didn’t with practically any of the others. I mentioned this in Part I in relation to Chapel; I tried to explain that Chapel was an awful choice for the kind of “death fake-out” that the story went for because she’s a familiar character and this is a prequel series. Ortegas has no known future – so the thought that she could genuinely be killed off was right there, front-and-centre.
Obviously I’m glad that Ortegas seemingly lives to fight another day! We haven’t spent that much time with her, one-on-one, across both seasons of the show so far, and I think there’s a ton of potential in her character as a really enthusiastic pilot – something Star Trek doesn’t always have in its helm officers! But the way Hegemony, Part II signalled that she was in danger was done incredibly well. This is a series that has already killed off one main character, something Discovery and Picard refused to do, and I just think that adds to the stakes. Putting these new characters in danger, when they aren’t guaranteed to survive, ups the tension and drama and keeps me on the edge of my seat.
The injuries to the away team – and Ortegas in particular – were pretty gruesome and horrific, at least by Star Trek standards. I was reminded of Mass Effect 2′s “Collectors” in the depiction of the Gorn prison/feeding chamber, and the acid dissolving their skin, Ortegas’ injured hand, and the general slimy and grotesque feel of the place all added to that sense of the Gorn being totally otherworldly and alien. Star Trek’s depictions of humanoid aliens – the “nose and forehead” types – don’t always convey how truly different alien life might be, but this new take on the Gorn really does – and I like it!
As I said either last season or in my write-up of Season 1, Strange New Worlds’ depiction of the Gorn is clearly influenced by the likes of the Xenomorphs from Alien – with a dash of Jurassic Park’s velociraptors thrown in for good measure! The acid, the slime, the ooze – all of that really adds to the kind of monstrous presentation of the Gorn that the show is going for, and it feels like a real masterstroke to take this under-explored alien race from classic Star Trek and reinterpret it, while also going into way more detail. I recently re-watched The Original Series’ Season 1 episode Arena, where the Gorn made their first appearance, and while the two shows have very different takes on the Gorn… I don’t think they’re a million miles apart. The DNA of Strange New Worlds’ Gorn is still present in Arena, and while there are different designs and there are clearly limitations to the older portrayal, the core concept of a reptillian monster remains.
Click or tap here to check out my write-up of Arena, if you’re interested.
Last year, I criticised Discovery’s fifth and final season for some pretty slapdash and amateurish uses of Paramount’s expensive AR wall! There were several places in that season where the AR wall was just not well-integrated with the physical props around it, and the effect looked cheap. Not so in Hegemony, Part II, where the AR wall stage was thoroughly transformed to become the Gorn prison. It was such a horrifying setting, and the AR wall helped bring it to life in a way that a static background arguably wouldn’t have. It’s one of the best uses of the AR wall I’ve seen so far, and proof that – at least sometimes – Paramount does know how to properly use the things it spends all its money on.
Another area where Hegemony, Part II excelled in the visual department was its presentation of the binary stars. The CGI for the stars was fantastic, but what was even better was the cinematography at the episode’s climax, showing Pike and others on the bridge as they flew close to these binary stars. Parts of that reminded me of the film Sunshine (co-starring a certain Michelle Yeoh) which depicted a mission to the sun. Well worth a watch if you’ve never seen it, by the way! But that film also had characters in close proximity to a star, struggling with the radiation and bright light. For my money, Hegemony, Part II did a great job here.
The visual of the infant Gorn growing in Captain Batel’s body was also gruesome – and also inspired, perhaps, by Alien. The wriggling, pulsing creature under her skin was a horrifying thing to see – and I think it was so much better done as a physical prop than it would’ve been if it had been CGI. CGI is great, and it’s better today than it was when, say, Enterprise used it to create its take on the Gorn some twenty years ago! But I still enjoy physical special effects, especially in a franchise like Star Trek, so this proto-Gorn/Gorn foetus… thing was so much better for being created that way!
I will be curious to see whether Strange New Worlds follows up La’an’s story from this episode in future. She was clearly struggling with being back in Gorn captivity, having flashbacks to her childhood. I don’t think we need a Discovery-style “let’s all sit around and talk about our feelings” kind of thing, but if La’an is meant to be suffering with PTSD from her Gorn experiences, I hope the show doesn’t just completely drop this idea going forward. If we have truly seen the last of the Gorn in Strange New Worlds, she might not have to come face-to-face with them again, but there could and arguably should be some kind of follow-up to what she went through.
La’an and Una have established a strong bond, so perhaps Una could be the one she turns to at first, if indeed she’s struggling. There is value to good and well-written depictions of mental health, and while modern Star Trek hasn’t gotten this right a lot of the time, I’m willing to give the franchise another chance. At the very least, there’s a strong foundation for that kind of story to build on if the writers want to take La’an down that route in the future.
Captain Pike is also seemingly not at his best, with the toll of command and stress about Captain Batel clearly weighing on him. It was agonising for Pike to have to entrust Batel’s treatment to Spock and Chapel while he remained on the bridge, and you could see that etched on his face. His moments of hesitation also hammered home for me how he might be struggling – and feeling the heavy burden of command is something we know Pike feels. His first introduction – in The Cage – shows him talking to Dr Boyce about this very issue. Perhaps the Gorn conflict has exacerbated that for Pike, or maybe it was just the stress of Captain Batel’s condition. Either way, I think we got a complex and nuanced depiction of Pike in Hegemony, Part II, as he seemed to waver and hesitate, perhaps second-guessing himself, while also having moments of firey passion and intense vulnerability.
As I said above, this was a fantastic performance from Anson Mount. I’ve said this before, but I was sceptical of the decision to bring back Pike when he was announced as a character in Discovery’s second season – but I was so very wrong about that! This complex performance, taking Pike through the wringer as he had to balance protecting his ship, the wider Federation, and Captain Batel… it was a masterclass, truly.
Martin Quinn has also been a joy to watch. Yes, there are issues with Scotty’s way-too-fast plan near the climax of the story, but his earlier conversations with Pelia showed a different side to the character, and Quinn brought that to life in a way I wasn’t expecting. Scotty is suffering after the loss of the Stardiver, and being forced to go toe-to-toe with Pelia again, listening to her berating him for not documenting his work, it was definitely something I think we needed to see. Scotty’s emotional reaction, storming out as he reiterated that his crew and commander are dead… it was heartbreaking stuff.
Here’s a question: does Captain Batel’s treatment and survival undermine Hemmer’s sacrifice in Season 1? Hemmer’s name was mentioned, albeit briefly, in Hegemony, Part I, but in Season 1 his act of self-sacrifice was presented as a brave decision. Not only did he spare himself a horrendous fate, he prevented new Gorn from being spawned and saved his shipmates. But Pike was right: Hemmer didn’t give them a chance to save him. It seems now, based on what we saw with Captain Batel, that there might’ve been a chance to save Hemmer’s life.
This comes just a few episodes after All Those Who Wander (thirteen episodes later, if you’re keeping score). We’ve seen two characters suffer the same infection not that far apart, but only one of them was able to be saved. At the very least, I’d suggest this paints Hemmer as reckless or hasty; at worst, perhaps his death starts to feel like a bit of a waste. I like Pelia, and as a replacement for Hemmer I think she’s been a lot of fun. Her relationship with Scotty is interesting, too, and there’s a lot of potential there for both fun moments and some deeper conversations, perhaps.
But Hemmer was unique. He was Star Trek’s first ever Aenar (or Andorian of any kind) to be a main character, the first since Enterprise to revisit the Andorians and their Aenar sister race. I felt his death came too early in the show’s run; Hemmer had only been present in six episodes before his demise. As a result, we didn’t really get to know him particularly well, nor was there much of an opportunity to explore what an Aenar officer might be like. Hemmer’s visual impairment, pacifism, and even his relationships with most of his colleagues were things the show touched on but never got the chance to really delve into. I’m glad Captain Batel is still around, and having spent some time with Pelia, I think she’s been a fine addition to the cast, too. But this treatment for the Gorn infection, while clearly dangerous and experimental, kind of brought all of that back for me, and emphasised again how Hemmer departed the show a little too hastily.
Okay, enough about poor Hemmer! He wasn’t even in this episode.
Assuming that Hegemony, Part II is the culmination of Strange New Worlds’ Gorn conflict storyline… how do we feel about that? This is something that was set up early in Season 1, picked up steam in the wonderful horror-tinged All Those Who Wander, and that came back in a big way at the end of Season 2. Don’t get me wrong: I love that Pike and the crew found a scientific, non-violent solution to the Gorn threat. But given the buildup and the way it played out in the episode… was it good enough? Or was it maybe a little anticlimactic?
That word, “anticlimactic,” is what I put in my notes about the way this storyline wrapped up. I just can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed that, after two seasons of buildup, scarring backstories, a main character’s death, and a two-year-long cliffhanger, the Gorn basically being sent to bed without any dinner, like they were misbehaving toddlers, is the right way for this story to end. I think it also raises questions about the nature of the Gorn; if they’re really so easily manipulated, how did they invent things like warp drive in the first place? If they’re able to be triggered into hibernation by a few flashes of light… how did they ever make it to the stars? This version of the Gorn seems animalistic, not intelligent, and while we can see that they clearly possess spaceships and technology… I don’t think that gels with how the Gorn themselves are presented on screen. Had there been a different ending to this story – perhaps involving communication – I think that feeling could’ve been averted.
I’m all for non-violence and peaceful conflict resolution! Some of the best Star Trek stories involve diplomacy, negotiation, and compromise. And even after Strange New Worlds reinterpreted the Gorn to be these kinds of animalistic monsters, I still felt it was possible we could’ve sat down with the Gorn leader and hammered out some kind of deal. Captain Pike and Admiral April would’ve been great at that, and I think we could’ve seen a very conflicted Captain Pike trying to negotiate a peace treaty while Captain Batel was fighting for her life. That could’ve been really interesting.
But this trick of the light – using the Gorn’s sensitivity to solar flares against them – I dunno. Perhaps because that part of the puzzle was resolved quite quickly, as discussed above, it just feels a little… underwhelming. Pike and the crew were staring down an invasion fleet one minute, then the next the Gorn just turned around and went home to take a nappy-nap. It… I’m struggling to find the right words, to be honest. I think “underwhelming” and “anticlimactic” are in the mix, though.
Star Trek has always been a franchise that sought out scientific answers, even to the toughest questions. But something about the way Pike and the crew basically tricked the Gorn into abandoning their invasion plans isn’t quite sitting right. And if this is to be the Gorn’s final appearance in the series – which Pike implied it could be as the Gorn retreated – I wonder if that’s good enough. As a resolution to this two-part story, I think it works. But as the ending of a multi-season arc involving numerous characters across several episodes, which has been Strange New Worlds’ biggest ongoing story thus far? Hmm. I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed.
I don’t think Strange New Worlds would’ve benefited from an ongoing war. We’ve seen that in Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Discovery in different ways – and some of those worked well. But for the kind of episodic, exploration-focused show that I’ve loved to see so much, a long-running war would’ve completely changed the tone – and not for the better, in my view. So in that sense, I’m glad Hegemony, Part II wrapped things up with the Gorn. But the pacing of Scotty devising the plan, and even the implementation of this attempt to trick the Gorn into going beddie-byes… it just doesn’t seem to quite fit with all of the dramatic moments that led up to it.
The space battles were tense and exciting, and the way the Enterprise moves in space feels much more responsive and three-dimensional than it did in years gone by. The design of the smaller Gorn ships felt like something right out of The Original Series with its three-spoke design, and it felt like a bit of a cool throwback in that sense. In Arena – the original version, not the remaster – there is no Gorn ship, but if there had been, I can absolutely picture it looking like Strange New Worlds’ Gorn vessel! Oh, and I loved the sequence as the away team escaped – the cutting back-and-forth between their ship and the pursuing Gorn was great, and it reminded me a little of Star Wars’ famous starfighter dogfights and the trench run!
The larger Gorn ships are truly spectacular! The closest thing in Star Trek I could think of was either the huge Dominion battle cruiser from DS9 or the massive Breen warships from Discovery’s fifth season. There was something, again, very “alien” about this design; it seemed like something from another sci-fi property – like Warhammer 40K, perhaps – rather than Star Trek! And I think I mean that as a compliment; this version of the Gorn needs a warship that embodies the same traits and the same design philosophy – and I think we got that both inside and out.
So that was Hegemony, Part II. I think the cliffhanger was wrapped up reasonably well, and if my biggest complaint isn’t actually to do with the story itself, but rather Paramount’s amateur-hour, cack-handed marketing… well, that’s not really the fault of the episode! I stand by what I said, though: a slightly longer cut, giving just a couple of extra minutes each to Scotty, La’an, and Chapel across their storylines would have been to the benefit of Hegemony, Part II.
So… roll on Wedding Bell Blues! It’s a bit of an oddity to see two episodes premiere at once, but it’s not unheard of in the current streaming landscape. With the Enterprise bound for Earth, and a wedding seemingly on the horizon, the next episode seems like it’ll switch things up and be a nice change of pace. I think we need that after two quite intense war stories!
Be sure to join me in the days ahead for a review of that. Until then, I hope this has been interesting!
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.
Trekking with Dennis 