Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-3. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek series: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, and Picard.
So this is it, then! Strange New Worlds Season 3 draws to a close after nine weeks. Perhaps in the days ahead we’ll take stock of the season overall, because there have been some fantastic episodes… and a couple that I was a lot less keen on! Season 4 has already wrapped, with production now underway on what will be Strange New Worlds’ fifth and final season, so there’s more to come – even though we are now, sadly, past the halfway point of the show’s run.
But all of that is yet to come! Today, we’re talking about New Life and New Civilizations – the dramatic and emotional final episode of Season 3. I’ll give you the lowdown, but first comes my usual caveat. This review is the subjective, not objective opinion of one old Trekkie. If you enjoyed the episode more than I did, completely hated it, or just don’t like my take on things… that’s okay. There’s plenty of room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and polite disagreement, and I share this review with my fellow Trekkies in that spirit.
Was New Life and New Civilizations a good episode? I would say yes. Was it a perfect episode? That’s a much higher bar to clear, and I’m afraid I have to say no. I think the episode got a lot of things right, building on story threads from across Season 3 in a way that made sense – while also having time for a genuinely unexpected twist. However, there were issues with the way large parts of the episode were paced, resulting in moments that were too short or where more debate and conversation were needed, as well as quite a bit of jumping around. I also felt that, of all the ways Kirk was brought into stories this season, the excuse here was the flimsiest – even though at least part of the result was positive.
While there were some imperfections, some of which admittedly straddle the line between legitimate criticism and nitpicks, New Life and New Civilizations had heart, and managed to successfully build to an emotional climax – particularly for Captain Pike. This was once known to fans as “the Captain Pike show,” and I’ve noted more than once in recent episodes that Pike himself seems to have taken a back seat. So it was good to get a story that brought him in in a big way, while connecting to the themes of destiny and inevitability which have arguably defined this incarnation of the character.
The first thing I wrote in my notes after the credits had rolled was that New Life and New Civilizations felt like a series finale. The final sequence on the bridge with Pike and the crew reminded me of Kirk at the end of The Undiscovered Country, Picard after All Good Things, and even Burnham in Discovery’s final episode. After the main story had wrapped up, and we’d been treated to one of the most emotional moments in the entire series so far with Pike and Una, that closing scene felt almost eerie. I wonder if, behind the scenes, there was no guarantee of a fourth season, so the decision was taken to wrap everything up and write an ending that could’ve – if necessary – served as a series finale. If that was the objective, I think it worked! Though I’m glad it doesn’t have to be the finale; I’m not ready to lose Strange New Worlds just yet!
Deep Space Nine and Voyager probably got the most comprehensive finales in the franchise, with DS9’s crew going their separate ways and the USS Voyager finally making it back to Earth. But the way this closing scene was scripted and shot was definitely giving me a “series finale” feel. Compared to last season’s cliffhanger, it’s a noticeable change of pace. It was neat, after almost every other Star Trek show of the last few years had told single-season stories, to get that kind of continuing story last time. I could certainly entertain the argument that a two-part version of New Life and New Civilizations might’ve had more room to breathe! But I think it’s noticeable, at least, that this episode seems to have been deliberately crafted in such a way that it could’ve wrapped up the entire show if it had been called upon to do so.
In the run-up to this week’s episode, it felt pretty likely that the Vezda – who appeared in the thoroughly excellent Through the Lens of Time earlier this season – would be making a return, if for no other reason than to tie up that dangling narrative thread. And I saw some fans speculating online about the Vezda’s “true identity” – as I’ve done here on the website with other new additions to Star Trek, like Picard’s super-synths and Discovery’s Species 10-C. But you know what? I’m glad that the Vezda are new to Star Trek, and given the way the franchise has often tried to tie in new storylines to pre-existing alien races and factions – even when they don’t exactly fit the bill – I think it was the right call.
Imagine if, in The Next Generation, we never got to meet the Borg or the Cardassians, because the Romulans and Klingons kept coming back to fill those roles. And instead of meeting, say, the Sheliak or Ux-Mal, we’d gotten episodes with the Tholians or Metrons. Star Trek would feel… smaller. The franchise needs to introduce new alien races, sometimes, in order to grow, and while it can be fun to speculate and theorise about who or what a new faction might be connected to… in this case, I think making the Vezda a brand-new race was the right call.
It was also a huge shock to see Chris Myers again – reprising his role as the Vezda-possessed Ensign Gamble. Or perhaps we should say the Vezda who assembled a Frankensteinian-transporter-clone of Gamble? I genuinely wasn’t expecting this, even though the Vezda being seen again seemed likely. It was properly hidden ahead of the episode’s premiere, and Myers did an exceptional job in the role – as he had in Through the Lens of Time.
And I think an episode like New Life and New Civilizations needed someone familiar in that villainous role. This is a story we’ve been building to, in different and not-so-obvious ways, perhaps, all season long. It didn’t have to be Gamble from a narrative point of view; the Vezda could’ve cloned someone else, or beamed itself off the Enterprise and possessed a random alien’s body. But having Gamble there, with that extra link to Dr M’Benga and the others – as well as being a familiar face for us as the audience – it added a lot and made this side of the story feel more complete.
Let’s talk about the main issue I have with New Life and New Civilizations – its pacing.
In short… this feels like a two-part episode that’s been torn and crumpled to fit into the runtime of a single story. And the result of that is that some scenes were too short, characters seem to jump to wild conclusions incredibly rapidly, Pike and Batel’s fantasy life was raced through, and perhaps most crucially, Batel’s climactic showdown with the Vezda was over far too quickly. We’ll address each of these points in turn, but suffice to say that I don’t think this episode needed another ten minutes – it really needed another forty-five to truly reach its potential.
Two points stand out where characters appeared to make completely wild and almost nonsensical leaps in logic without enough information or buildup. The first was when Dr M’Benga, having read one line above the doorway, decided that this pretty vague and ambiguous statement just had to be all about him and his life. (Even though it referenced an event we’d never heard about before, let alone seen on screen). The second was Captain Batel, when talking with Pike and the others in the science lab, immediately deciding that it was her destiny to defeat and imprison the Vezda for all eternity – while claiming she had all the knowledge she needed to do so.
To be clear: I think both of these story ideas can be made to work. But the pacing is throwing me off. Captain Batel went from “I’m ready for a new assignment as head of Starfleet’s legal division,” to “well obviously I’m the guardian/prison warden who saves the universe from these monsters” in one short conversation, and there just wasn’t enough time dedicated to exploring this idea, what it really means for her, for her relationship with Pike, and the kind of sacrifice it entails. There also wasn’t nearly enough time to explain how or why she feels capable of doing this.
Batel declared, partway through the meeting in the science lab, that she possesses “all” of the knowledge of every species to ever fight the Vezda. But that’s bullshit. She possesses at best the genetic information of two-and-a-bit species – human, Gorn, and, at a stretch, Illyrian. But part of the conversation framed the Vezda as a kind of “ancient evil” that every race and culture in the galaxy had faced in the distant past. So how can having the knowledge of three of them mean she’s qualified to stand up to them? That wasn’t explored at all, and it seems to be at least a worthwhile counterpoint that a longer conversation here could’ve considered.
This whole preamble just seemed to race by. Scotty realised the transporter had been used to clone Gamble. That took all of about a minute. Then from Pike being summoned to sickbay through the entire science lab conversation? Five minutes. It’s just not enough time on a setup that effectively “kills off” a major recurring character and the love interest of the series’ protagonist. We needed these scenes to last longer, particularly the conversation in the science lab. Other possibilities needed to be considered, and a more solid foundation built for Captain Batel’s sacrifice.
I also feel that the old “show, don’t tell” adage is a bit of a problem on this side of the story. The Vezda, since showing up in Through the Lens of Time, have killed precisely one named character: Ensign Gamble. Pelia made an elaborate speech about how evil they are, and this week even the logical Spock leaned into this idea of the Vezda as an unstoppably powerful “prehistoric evil.” But, for all the talk, we didn’t really see the Vezda do a lot of damage – and thus we don’t fully grasp the stakes involved. Sure, if the Vezda break out of prison, it won’t be great for the pre-warp citizens of Skygowan. But… so what? What, precisely, are the Vezda going to do to them? And what are they going to do to Starfleet and our heroes?
The Vezda are not akin to the Gorn – or to invading aliens from other iterations of Star Trek, like the Dominion or Borg. They don’t even possess spaceships, and if the ones we saw in the prison are all the Vezda that exist… I mean, one photon torpedo from orbit would be all it would take to end their entire civilisation. They’re talked up as being hugely powerful, unstoppable, and evil – but we don’t actually see a ton of that on screen. We’ve only met one Vezda – the one who possessed Gamble. And for all we know, he could be an outlier.
My point is this: this moment needed more time on screen. Captain Batel makes a life-changing decision based on the very un-Starfleet ideas of fate and destiny in way too short a span of time, without really listening to or considering alternatives. And the reason why she makes this decision – to stop the Vezda and keep them contained in a prison – is based on information which is incomplete at best. Surely Starfleet – an organisation dedicated to, y’know, seeking out “New Life and New Civilizations” – would want to study the Vezda, learn more about them, and then come to a conclusion about whether to pursue this kind of conflict. Instead, Batel and the others simply declare them to be “pure evil” based on one interaction with a single individual.
Then, during the away mission, we have Dr M’Benga deciding that a random inscription – which was pretty vaguely-worded – can only be about himself. No time was taken to consider alternatives, or to come to this realisation at a more reasonable pace. This part of Dr M’Benga’s backstory was also, as far as I can recall, not even known to us as the audience ahead of time. Why not, for example, use Dr M’Benga’s murder of the Klingon defector from last season’s Under the Cloak of War to set up this story point? It would’ve at least been a callback to something we’ve seen for ourselves.
I liked the idea that Gamble needed Dr M’Benga to open the doorway; that there was a narrative reason for the inscription and for Gamble to have to wait. I just felt, as above with Captain Batel, that the pacing of the way M’Benga arrived at the realisation was simply too fast, and that it doesn’t make sense in-universe. If it had used his name, for example, or even if it was just worded less ambiguously, I think it could’ve been stronger. But several factors came together to make it feel rushed and less impactful than it should’ve been.
“A young boy was not yet a man, but his time had come, to kill or be killed; a knife in his hands.” That’s the full line that Dr M’Benga read before deciding that this vaguely-worded and poetic line could only be referring to himself. And no one else stepped in to say “uh, hang on a minute there, Dr Self-Centred, it’s a pretty ambiguous statement, don’t ya think?” Taking just an extra couple of minutes on this sequence, with the other members of the away team considering possible interpretations before Dr M’Benga interjected with that fact about himself would’ve done a lot to sell me on it. And if we’d known already about Dr M’Benga’s childhood, or connected this line to something we’ve already seen on screen, such as his Klingon War service, that would’ve improved things a lot.
This is what I mean about pacing: we can use the same words and get to the same conclusion… but if the route is too quick, it undermines what the story wants to say. Dr M’Benga finding a statement carved in stone on an alien world that’s all about him is, in theory, an interesting idea that ties into the episode’s story about time and linearity, and contributes to the idea of the Vezda as being significantly more powerful than the Federation. But if you rush it, you botch it. When this fact about Dr M’Benga’s past was brand-new, and the wording that led him to that conclusion was so vague… we needed to spend more time here. Or the reference needed to be more overt: “The portal only opens for the one you call… M’Benga.” There. Fixed it.
I have enjoyed Paul Wesley’s take on Kirk since he first appeared in the Season 1 finale. Most of Kirk’s appearances have made sense in context… but of all the excuses to bring Kirk into Strange New Worlds, the one this week felt the weakest. I’ll try to explain what I mean. Firstly, Captain Pike reached out to the Farragut… but didn’t speak directly with Captain Whatshername (the Vulcan). Instead, for some reason, he speaks with the first officer. That was already a bit… odd.
But then, later, Spock decides he needs to mind-meld with someone in order to coordinate this “two ships firing phasers at the same time” idea. But… why? The crew could reasonably infer Gamble’s intention: that he wanted to go to Vadia IX and free his fellow prisoners. And Pelia, in another disappointingly weak and underdeveloped scene, confirmed that one of the “interdimensional ley lines” from Skygowan led directly to Vadia IX. So… why did Pike and Batel need to open the portal when they could’ve just warped there in the Enterprise? It’s not like getting into the Vadia IX prison was complicated; all it needed was a pinprick, and Captain Batel is dead set on staying there anyway. So all of this mind-melding and phaser coordination just felt like a totally unnecessary narrative diversion. In a stronger, better-paced episode, perhaps it would’ve been less noticeable. But in an episode where the main story was desperate for more time on screen, it’s a particularly egregious waste of time.
In The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail, I said that I really liked seeing Kirk and Spock’s burgeoning bromance. After Uhura had been the one to introduce them, their friendship seemed to be growing and developing really well. But… does New Life and New Civilizations at least imply that the reason they’d become such good friends is because they shared a mind-meld? If so… how do we feel about that? I said earlier in the season that Kirk serving under a Vulcan captain – especially when she’s such a nonentity that I’ve forgotten her name – comes a bit close to treading on the toes of his friendship with Spock, and how the two of them worked to overcome the cultural differences between humans and Vulcans in The Original Series. But now… is this episode not saying that at least part of why they’re such good friends by the time of TOS is connected to the mind-meld? If so, I’d argue very strongly that it detracts from their friendship and from one of Star Trek’s most important and iconic character duos.
Any prequel needs to tread carefully. And speaking for myself, I don’t really like the implication in New Life and New Civilizations that Kirk and Spock’s friendship was, at the very least, accelerated or enhanced by a mind-meld. To me, it seems to take something away from the organic and natural chemistry they’ve always had. As I’ve said more than once when discussing Star Trek’s various prequels: not everything demands an on-screen explanation down to the finest detail. Kirk and Spock are friends – perhaps more than friends. There doesn’t have to be a reason; people can just like each other and develop strong bonds.
Given that this setup felt pretty flimsy, and that I don’t like the implication of the mind-meld for Kirk and Spock’s friendship… I actually felt their scenes together were pretty great. Set aside whether the story actually needed them to fire phasers exactly in sync, and whether Pike should’ve talked to Kirk’s captain first. The Spock and Kirk scenes themselves were a lot of fun. I particularly liked Kirk calling their meeting a “date,” or at least implying that it could be – whether jokingly or not. I noted a few weeks ago that, with Strange New Worlds’ writers apparently set on making Spock sleep his way through all of the female members of the Enterprise’s crew, they seemed to be going out of their way to erase any possibility of “Spirk” in canon. (“Spirk” referring to the fan theory/fan-fic that Kirk and Spock were romantically involved). This “date” line definitely puts that back on the table for folks who want to see or believe in that – and I was pleased to see it.
It was also undeniably cool to see Spock and Kirk making those perfectly in sync movements. And the CGI on this side of the story – putting the Farragut and Enterprise together in a kind of “ballet in space,” was a really cool visual effect. It reminded me of both Picard’s linked-up fleet in the 25th Century and the Klingon ships during last season’s musical episode, which also seemed to be “dancing” with the Enterprise.
With Captain Pike and Captain Batel, the writers of New Life and New Civilizations clearly had a lot they wanted to do. Unfortunately, because this story really needed to be a two-parter, I don’t think either of the main ideas worked as well as they should’ve done.
Captain Batel’s climactic fight against the Vezda was over in… what? Less than two minutes. That’s all the time it took her, after the end of the fantasty-life/alternate timeline sequence, to use her magic Gorn-Illyrian powers to defeat and imprison them, then turn herself into a statue. It didn’t feel like the war of good versus evil that it was set up to be… because it was over in a flash. If you stepped away from the screen to grab a glass of water, you’d have missed the whole thing.
Then we have the fantasy sequence itself. Obviously something like this is going to be jumpy – you can’t condense a lifetime into a short runtime without skipping over years or decades. But really, if what the writing team wanted to go for was something comparable to The Inner Light from The Next Generation, this needed to be basically an entire episode all by itself. This is where I’d have made the biggest change to New Life and New Civilizations. Half of “Part One” would’ve been taken up reaching this point, then the second half and the entire first half of “Part Two” would’ve been just the fantasy sequence. It needed room to breathe and, because it had to be packed in with everything else in the story… it didn’t get it.
I’ve said before that I’m not a particularly big fan of The Inner Light. But compared with that story, this premise actually feels a lot stronger. We’re seeing Pike and Batel living their lives – a fantasy version, at least. A world in which Pike doesn’t get injured, in which he and Captain Batel get married, have a daughter, and grow old together. Compared with the disconnected story of The Inner Light, which took place centuries in the past and didn’t involve anyone from The Next Generation save for a version of Picard, that’s a really strong and incredibly emotional idea.
And to be clear: we got a lot of that emotion in New Life and New Civilizations. I just don’t think we got all that we could’ve. If we’d spent more time with these versions of the characters, perhaps seeing Pike’s relief at not becoming disabled, spending more time with the younger version of Juliet, watching her grow up… there were a lot of opportunities that were missed to really ramp up the emotional side of things because this entire sequence could only last ten minutes. Again, when you compare it with The Inner Light – or just consider what a forty-plus-minute cut could have looked like – it doesn’t have the same impact. It comes up short, which is a real shame, because the bare bones of the idea work so well and there’s so much potential here.
The point of the fantasy sequence was for Batel to show the sacrifice she was making, but also for Captain Pike to catch a glimpse of the life he could have led. Given Pike’s impending fate – which, again, is set in concrete and cannot be altered – that’s such a cruel tease. He got to see the daughter he’ll never have, marry the love of his life, go through the elation of avoiding a debilitating condition that he thought was guaranteed to happen… then it was all ripped away from him. As we saw with Picard after The Inner Light, I expect we’ll see at least some kind of follow-up to this story next season. But… that follow-up isn’t going to be as impactful as it might’ve been if this sequence had been longer and stronger.
Did Pike experience his entire fantasy life in real-time… or did he only see the moments that we as the audience also got to see? That was left totally up in the air by the time the credits rolled, and I think Strange New Worlds had an opportunity to take the basic concept behind not only The Inner Light but also stories like Deep Space Nine’s Hard Time and really expand upon it. The idea of someone living a full life in this kind of fantasy world, then being dragged back – unwillingly – to the real world and having to face the consequences of that… it’s an interesting story idea that past iterations of Star Trek, being wholly episodic, could only take so far. And I really do look forward to seeing how Pike handles this experience in Season 4, and to what extent it will have an impact on him. I just wish the sequence itself had been longer and more fleshed out in this week’s episode.
There’s a lot to love in the fantasy-life sequence. And I think it achieved at least some of what it was supposed to in terms of ramping up the emotional nature of Batel’s sacrifice, and keeping the focus grounded on two characters and their lives, rather than straying too far into lofty ideas about “pure evil” and “saving the galaxy.” Given the weaknesses on that side of the story… New Life and New Civilizations benefited from this change in focus.
And for Captain Pike, whose future is still predetermined, it’s such a rug-pull that it feels cruel. Pike got to see what his life might’ve been like under different circumstances – having a wife, a daughter, and remaining in good health – and then it was taken away from him again. Depending on your outlook, having had a taste of something, only to lose it, can be worse than never having experienced it at all – and so it may be for Captain Pike. Obviously we aren’t going to spend Season 4 with Pike sulking in his quarters, and I think the end of New Life and New Civilizations at least tried to set up that Pike is back in the captain’s chair and ready to resume his mission. But… dealing with the lingering emotional consequences could be an engaging storyline next time, if handled well.
Taking all of the above into account, particularly the problems with pacing, the overstuffed story, and the need for this particular episode to have really been split into two parts… where do we stand?
In my opinion, New Life and New Civilizations has a lot going for it. It’s a lot better than, for example, Four-and-a-Half Vulcans or Subspace Rhapsody. But it’s also the weakest of the three season finales that we’ve seen so far – A Quality of Mercy and Hegemony are significantly better, more tightly-focused, and a lot more enjoyable.
But there are things to appreciate, and having talked about what I didn’t like, I think it’s only fair to move on to what worked well in New Life and New Civilizations.
Although not as strong or as well-developed as I’d have liked, the fantasy-life sequence was genuinely interesting and emotional. It challenged our perceptions of Pike, and what kind of life he and Batel could have led if things were different, but both characters stayed true to themselves throughout. I’m not convinced that Pike, being aware of what lay in store for him, would have chosen to get married – let alone have a child – but having a rock-solid family life definitely upped the stakes and ramped up the emotional storytelling. I’m working with the head canon explanation that this fantasy-life was created entirely by Captain Batel based on her ideas of what an ideal life would’ve been like, and I think that’s more than enough to explain any apparent discrepancies. It’s also why I’m calling it a “fantasy” as opposed to something like an “alternate timeline.”
We don’t get to see Pike as a nurturing family man very often, and I really liked catching a glimpse of what that could look like. It was bittersweet in the best possible way (if that even makes sense), as we saw Pike living in a beautiful house, with Batel by his side, a daughter, and even a pet dog. If the worst thing I can say about that is “I wish we’d spent longer here and seen more of it,” well… that’s not exactly a damning criticism, is it?
I also liked the idea of Pike and his daughter, Juliet, having such a strong bond that he’d be the first to know about her engagement. I’m not sure making her fiancé Admiral April’s son was necessary, but we got a cute connection between Pike’s family and “Uncle Spock,” which was just really sweet. Pike having perhaps retired from Starfleet is an interesting direction for his character in this fantasy sequence; I like to think that he’d have been worried about making changes to the timeline after the events of A Quality of Mercy.
And for Captain Batel, who I guess knew all along that this was just a fantasy… again, that’s heartbreaking. It was performed incredibly well by Melanie Scrofano, who’s been a wonderful recurring star on Strange New Worlds. I said ages ago that her relationship with Captain Pike had a “time limit,” but for it to have ended this way – prematurely, even, from Pike’s point of view – is tragic. Her final act was one of sacrifice, and even though there were narrative weaknesses with the Vezda that I would argue kept us from fully understanding the nature and necessity of that sacrifice, as a grounded and emotional storyline, it worked incredibly well.
Toward the end of the episode, Pike and Una shared a moment together as he recovered from the loss of Captain Batel. Since Pike went out on a limb for Una back at the beginning of Season 2, we haven’t seen them spend that much time together, so this was a sweet moment. For Una to be the one he’d turn to when at such a low ebb said a lot about the nature of their friendship, I felt.
This closing montage also showed us Sam and Jim Kirk sitting down together, Pelia and Scotty working on something together in the science lab, Ortegas, Uhura, and Una sharing a drink, Spock and La’an meditating, and Dr M’Benga reuniting with Chapel in sickbay. These small clips were cute, and they added a lot to the ending of the story. Again, there’s that “series finale” vibe to this montage, but the individual clips – and the voiceover tying them together – were great.
At the beginning of the episode, we got another fun sequence with the crew in Pike’s quarters – and Scotty being the latest victim of the “showing up in your dress uniform” prank that Uhura also fell for back in Season 1. I liked Scotty’s flustered reaction, here, it was cute. And Martin Quinn (whom I met at a Star Trek convention here in the UK not long ago) showed off that side of the younger Scotty incredibly well. There was also a Doctor Who reference during this sequence – Pelia mentioned having once known a “time-travelling doctor.” Obviously this was just a little easter egg; a nod and wink to fans of sci-fi. But it was a fun inclusion, and I like to see Star Trek making little in-jokes like that from time to time.
Dr Korby, although his role was smaller this time, made a welcome return. His presence this season has been a thread of continuity, binding different episodes together, and I think his relationship with Chapel is played well by both Jess Bush and Cillian O’Sullivan. Dr Korby took what he’d learned on Vadia IX and continued to pursue it, again in the name of finding some pathway to eternal life. There’s a lot of deliberate foreshadowing here, setting up Korby’s role (and ultimate demise) in The Original Series.
The first away mission to Skygowan (before the crew apparently gave up on the idea of going incognito and, y’know, following the Prime Directive) included some wonderful colourful costumes, and I really liked the way Una, Uhura, Chapel, La’an, and Dr M’Benga looked. Those costumes felt like they came straight out of The Original Series or The Next Generation, which I really do mean as a compliment. I also liked the way the aesthetic of Vadia IX’s prison from a few weeks ago was retained, but given a more lively feel. The use of the AR wall was pretty solid here, too.
Despite some narrative weaknesses on his side of the story, Anson Mount put in a spectacular performance. Particularly towards the end of the episode, I really felt Pike’s grief and the weight of what he’d lost – not only Captain Batel, but the fantasy life that he could have led. This was a challenging role, one which involved putting Pike in old age makeup as the fantasy timeline unfolded, showing him wrangling with the changes to the timeline, gaining and then losing a family, and really going through a range of emotions. Mount did an exceptional job.
Before we wrap things up, I want to talk about one more topic.
Star Trek is science-fiction, and some of its storylines lean heavily on the “fiction” side of that little hyphen! But one area where I’ve felt Star Trek has been more detached and rational in its approach is when it comes to questions like “fate” and “destiny.” Even Captain Pike’s story – with its ending set in stone – isn’t treated as his “destiny,” but rather as the consequences of choices he made. As Pike said in Discovery: “I’m not going to abandon the things that make me who I am because of a future… that contains an ending I hadn’t foreseen for myself.” Whatever we think of “time crystals” and the Klingons on Boreth, the way the story was presented made it clear that it was still Pike’s choice. A Quality of Mercy, with its time-travelling future Pike, doubled-down on that, explaining that Pike does have the freedom to avoid his accident, but that it comes at a price.
This story, in contrast, really went out of its way to lean into the ideas of fate and destiny… and I gotta be honest: I don’t love that for Star Trek. Some stories in fantasy settings work really well with the idea of a character’s fate or the outcome of a battle being predetermined, but I don’t think it’s right for a sci-fi series like Strange New Worlds. I didn’t like it when Deep Space Nine messed about with Sisko’s birth, saying it was caused by the Prophets so he could be their Emissary, and I don’t like it here with Captain Batel, either. It feels, to me, too far removed from the more objective and scientific way that Starfleet officers handle things.
There was a creditable attempt to explain this, with Spock talking about “effect coming before cause,” and time being non-linear. That throws a scientific bone in the direction of this story about fate. But at no point did it seem as if Captain Batel had a choice or could regain control of her life and her future. Once Chapel established that Batel was the Vadia IX statue, and she’d decided it was her destiny… that was it. Everyone just kind of went along with it. And this isn’t just a question of pacing, though a longer version of this story could have dedicated more time to this debate. But rather it’s a question of whether a story about predetermination and fate – presented in this manner – is right for Star Trek. I’d argue that it’s not. It wasn’t right with Sisko and the Prophets, and it isn’t right with Batel and the Vezda, either.
There are other Star Trek stories which have come close to this line. Daniels and Archer in Enterprise, Picard with Q in The Next Generation, and even The City on the Edge of Forever all looked at questions of destiny and unavoidable fates. But it’s about how these stories are presented, not so much their content, and for me at least, New Life and New Civilizations went too far with the idea of Captain Batel having a predetermined “destiny” in a way that felt closer to fantasy than sci-fi.
Here’s a question: with Captain Batel being written out of the series… does that mean there’s now an open slot for a new recurring character? If so, it’s bound to be someone else from The Original Series, right? Maybe in a future piece we’ll have to speculate about that! I’ll also go into this in more detail another time, but I generally liked what Strange New Worlds did with recurring characters this season. Kirk, Dr Korby, and Captain Batel all had roles to play in some episodes, but not all, and I felt they worked pretty well.
But after Kirk’s first appearance came in the Season 1 finale and Scotty showed up at the end of Season 2, I can’t have been alone in wondering if we might’ve gotten a new TOS character this time! I’m kind of glad we didn’t, though, and I could absolutely entertain the idea of Season 4 not introducing anyone new, but rather narrowing its focus on the characters already in play. Some folks, like Pelia, haven’t had a lot of time in the spotlight, so bringing in someone like Sulu, McCoy, or even a secondary character like Kor to fill the slot vacated by Batel isn’t strictly necessary.
So let’s bring this review to a conclusion.
“Good but not great.” That’s my four-word summary, I guess. In a season where some episodes have been truly fantastic, I don’t think New Life and New Civilizations reached the highest bar. But it wasn’t the season’s weakest offering by any stretch, and my complaints mostly focus on the fact that potentially interesting storylines were cut too short, paced poorly, and not given enough time to shine. I think, if I were in charge, I’d have cut an episode like Wedding Bell Blues or Four-and-a-Half Vulcans in favour of a two-part version of this story.
But that doesn’t mean I hated New Life and New Civilizations. The decision to keep the Vezda as a brand-new alien race was a good one. The sets and costumes were great, and there were some fantastic uses of the AR wall, as well as a beautiful starship “dance” in space. Though Kirk’s inclusion in the story felt particularly flimsy, I liked his scenes with Spock overall, and furthering their relationship was a good choice. Dr M’Benga got an emotional turn with Gamble, and Pike’s fantasy-life sequence could, potentially, set up something for him in Seasons 4 or 5.
So that’s a wrap on Season 3. It was a two-year wait after Season 2 ended, but that was partially due to strikes over in Hollywood. With Starfleet Academy on the schedule for the first half of 2026, and presumably taking up time and resources in post-production, I wouldn’t expect to see Season 4 of Strange New Worlds for at least a year – and 2027 isn’t off the table. So… watch this space, I guess! Having finally reviewed all ten Season 2 episodes – and gotten around to Season 3 in a much more timely manner – I’d like to go back and write up re-watches of Season 1 in the months ahead. I hope you’ll join me for some of those!
And there’s more Star Trek content to come here on the website. Later in the autumn, I’d like to do a review of the Khan audio drama, I’m planning a couple of episode re-watches involving actors that I met at a recent Star Trek convention, and there’s the upcoming Voyager video game that I’m looking forward to, too. And, of course, there’s my usual chatter, previews, and theory-crafting! So even though Strange New Worlds Season 3 is over… don’t be a stranger. Check back from time to time, because I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to say about Star Trek.
Live Long and Prosper, everyone!
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.
Trekking with Dennis 