snw s4 review – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode Review – Season 4, Episode 7: Like Chronitons Through The Hourglass

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Final Frontier, and The Next Generation.

At the start of 2026, I wrote that Strange New Worlds’ fourth season was almost certainly a top contender for my coveted “TV Show of the Year” award. But now that we’re seven episodes in, I can put my hand on my heart and say that, honestly? I’ve really only enjoyed two of them.

And, as you might’ve guessed, Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass ain’t one of the two.

I’m kind of in two minds about the episode – and, as we go along, I’ll talk about one way that I think its story could’ve been salvaged, because there was a genuinely emotional story for Captain Pike that I think should’ve gotten more attention. On the one hand, the deliberately melodramatic soap opera stuff was so tacky and awful that I’m left scratching my head as to who thought it was a good idea. (As well as who keeps allowing writer Dana Horgan to remain employed). But on the other, Pike’s arc had merit – at least in theory – and I’m disappointed that this story of grief, loss, and mental health wasn’t explored in more depth and in a better way.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing the fake title card — Yep. We’re really doing this.

I’ve said this before, particularly with Discovery and Picard, but modern Star Trek has been shockingly bad with its depictions of mental health. There have been some genuinely well-intentioned ideas; storylines involving our favourite characters and their struggles that absolutely are worth exploring. But in almost every instance, the execution of these character arcs and narratives have been, in a word, atrocious.

And so it was in Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass with Captain Pike.

It was a good idea to revisit what happened to Pike at the end of Season 3 and explore how losing a partner – and mourning the life they could’ve led – was causing him pain. This is something Star Trek has always done: looking at real-world issues through the lens of science-fiction. In this case, Pike *literally* saw and experienced that alternate life, but if you take it as a metaphor, many, many people have gone through loss, grief, mourning, and reflecting on the possibility of a different outcome and a different life.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike and Juliet — Captain Pike with his daughter.

Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass lets us see this from a different angle with La’an and Spock, too. Captain Pike is literally in mourning; grieving the death of not only Captain Batel but the nonexistence of his daughter, Juliet. La’an, though, is metaphorically “grieving” the end of her romantic relationship with Spock, understanding that their breakup was right for both of them, while still feeling that sense of emptiness and wondering what could’ve been.

Those storylines, had they taken place in a stronger, more grounded narrative framework, were absolutely worth examining. There was a point to be made about loss and grief, and how the end of a relationship can be devastating – even if it was the right decision. For La’an, as she potentially gears up for an exit from the Enterprise (in keeping with the season’s idea of “boldly going one step closer to where it all began”; i.e. moving characters into place in time for The Original Series), that could mean stepping away from the ship to help her move on from Spock (and Kirk, I guess). And for Captain Pike… well, we saw a tiny glimpse at the very end of the episode of how he’s still emotionally wrecked by what happened.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike in therapy — Captain Pike is still reeling from the death of Captain Batel, and the loss of their daughter, Juliet.

The soap opera story, though, completely ruined any chance of those narrative arcs being successfully explored, and I’m genuinely left feeling shocked at the stupidity of the show’s writers and producers – not for the first time this season, I should say. Did they *genuinely* think that this kind of overly-melodramatic soap opera spoof was the best way to examine complex themes of mental health, mourning, grief, loss, and more? What do they think this soap opera stuff added to the story? Could they not recognise that the tone of such a story is in complete contrast to its serious themes?

There are a couple of ways an episode like Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass could’ve been made to work. One would’ve been to lean fully into the soap opera stuff and treat it like a comedy story. Strange New Worlds has done several episodes with overtly comedic premises, and some of them have worked better than others, admittedly, but when they get it right, it works. Look at Human Best Friend earlier this season as an example: it leaned fully into its “Dude, Where’s My Car” and “The Hangover” inspirations, and what resulted was a genuinely fun, light-hearted story.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing four character cards — The soap opera plot detracted from what could and should have been the episode’s core themes.

Alternatively, if the focus of the story was to be on such serious things for two of the show’s main characters, then the soap opera stuff could’ve been limited to short vignettes; we could’ve gotten a taste of Trelane’s meddling but without turning nine-tenths of the episode into a tonally jarring mess.

For me, I think themes as serious as grief and loss really need a dedicated storyline – one that *isn’t* wrapped up in the trappings of Strange New Worlds’ latest genre parody. And I feel the consequences of both modern Star Trek’s cut-down, ten-episode seasons as well as the show’s imminent cancellation in the way two completely, fundamentally incompatible concepts were forced together. The result was a mess; an episode that didn’t know whether it wanted to be silly or serious, tried to be both, and ended up succeeding at neither.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Ortegas — Ortegas.

Two groups of writers and/or producers clearly had competing ideas. One was to revisit Captain Pike’s family from the end of Season 3, and explore these themes of loss, mourning, and how Pike’s imagined reality could be a metaphor for people in the audience who are going through similar grieving processes. And the other idea? “Let’s do a silly soap opera parody with all the dramatic musical stings, close-up shots, and overblown lighting! Won’t that be fun?”

And then, somehow – perhaps because the show only had a few episodes per season, or because cancellation loomed – some utter, abject*moron* decided to put both ideas together into one single episode. Is it a coincidence that both Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass and Level-Five Transporter Accident, with its appalling ending, share a writer? Hmm.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Trelane in the booth — Trelane watches his masterpiece unfold…

If I’d been Strange New Worlds’ showrunner, and two groups of writers had approached me with these ideas, I’d have picked the more serious one. That isn’t because Star Trek can’t be silly, Star Trek shouldn’t do comedy, or even because I don’t like genre parodies. All of those concepts can work in Star Trek, have already worked in Star Trek, and can be a lot of fun. But having already had several overtly comedic stories across the show’s run, *and* with several other “big swings” into different genres already on the books just in Season 4… I think I’d have said “no” to the soap opera and insisted on doing a more in-depth look at the themes on Pike and La’an’s sides of the story in a more straight-laced setting.

There *can* be value in contrast; in juxtaposing a serious idea against an inherently silly setting. But doing that successfully requires finesse, and frankly, it requires a level of production and writing quality that I don’t think either Strange New Worlds or indeed modern Star Trek as a whole have demonstrated themselves to be capable of. Ambition is great! We should all endeavour to be ambitious in our writing and with our creative ideas. But there comes a point where ambition runs into the brick wall of reality, and for me… I think some of the show’s producers and writers need to recognise their own limitations.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SNW 4x07 — Behind-the-scenes during production.

Maybe a really exceptional writer-director-producer combo could’ve pulled this off. But clearly, no one in the Strange New Worlds writers’ room or on the production side is at that level.

This episode’s writers *certainly* weren’t.

I’m also hyper-aware of the fact that this is now the *second* episode this season – after Level-Five Transporter Accident – where the bulk of the story didn’t “really” happen. Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass’ ending isn’t as bad as “but it was all just a dream” (though let’s be honest: nothing could be as bad as that), but despite leaving the characters with most of their memories of what took place… it still scrubs those events from the show’s internal reality.

Again: that’s pretty fucking weird, isn’t it?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing the USS Enterprise — The Enterprise is now back to normal.

Maybe there’s supposed to be a point about making emotional connections through fiction, and how the emotions we feel when reading a book or watching an episode of television are no less real just because it was fiction that elicited them. That might be an idea worth exploring – but again, such a concept would require higher-quality writing, a planned narrative arc, and less of a tonal clash between the soap opera silliness and the characters’ real lives.

In a way, I like this idea a lot. My website exists because I find value in fictional worlds like Star Trek; spending more time in those worlds, with those characters, is fun for me and always will be. And I don’t deny the power of all forms of media to evoke strong emotions. The emotional reaction we have to an episode of Star Trek, a movie, a book… those are *real*, even if the stories and characters aren’t. And there’d be value in an exploration of the idea of exploring that kind of emotional connection.

But that isn’t what Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass was going for – and even if it had been, it didn’t work.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Dr M'Benga — Dr M’Benga.

I feel rather sorry for Anson Mount. After being functionally absent for most of Season 4, his first real spotlight ended up being a tonally muddled episode where two clashing ideas just couldn’t be forced together cohesively. That means that what is objectively one of Mount’s best – and certainly his most emotional – performances in the role of Captain Pike came in an episode that’s honestly better left forgotten, for the most part.

Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass managed to hit the right emotional note with Pike… at the tail end of the story. And seeing him break down, expressing those emotions he’d been holding onto since the end of Season 3 genuinely hit me. But they didn’t hit as hard as they might’ve if the rest of the episode had been stronger and more grounded, and because Pike’s moment of emotion came right at the end of the episode, just as the credits were about to roll… I just don’t think it landed as hard as it should have.

If Strange New Worlds wanted to do this kind of story, examining Pike’s mental health and his emotional state after losing Captain Batel and Juliet, then it realistically needed to be part of a completely different narrative framework. Trying to squash genuinely complex emotional storytelling for the man who’s (allegedly) the show’s main character up against this bizarre and over-the-top genre parody didn’t work.

What’s more, it should’ve been obvious from the *concept* stage that these two ideas couldn’t work together, which is why I stand by what I said above: the people who came up with this idea, turned it into a complete script, and greenlit it for full production are stupid, idiotic people who shouldn’t be working in this industry! It was *painful* to watch parts of Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass because of how cringe-inducing it was… and that would be bad enough on its own, but when you add into the mix that there was an actual, genuine story worth telling that the soap opera pastiche shat all over? It’s unforgivably bad, to be blunt.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike (side angle) — There was a story worth telling for Captain Pike (and La’an) that got buried by an unnecessary and over-the-top spoof.

I’m in favour of Star Trek trying new things. And I’m in favour of Star Trek trying out stories in radically different genres and with completely different tones. Part of the franchise’s appeal, at least for me, is its episodic nature, and that the Enterprise can warp away to a new planet, new aliens, a new adventure, and a new kind of story each and every week. I’m not saying “don’t do these kinds of genre stories,” and I’m not saying “Star Trek has to be 100% straight-laced and serious every single time.” That wouldn’t be fun.

But what I am saying, at least in this case, is that the genre parody fundamentally could not work with the more complex themes that the other side of the episode wanted to address, and by trying to force these two diametrically-opposed ideas together, what resulted was neither a successful homage to soap operas nor a clever and relatable exploration of themes of loss and grief. And frankly, that should have been obvious to all involved well before the episode even had a finished script.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing La'an with fake Sybok — La’an with Sybok. Sorry: “Sybok.”

Uhura’s story, seeing Pike as her father (for inexplicable reasons) was little more than a piss-take of similar soap opera plots over the years. And I mean… I get it. Two totally unrelated characters, who viewers have known for years, are suddenly revealed to be father and daughter or mother and son or long-lost conjoined twins. I get it. It’s a soap opera trope. But did it need to be such a big part of Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass? And what was the point of it for Uhura?

For Pike, this story tracks insofar as it set up his arc of confronting what happened to his family in the life he led and lost. But for Uhura… what are we supposed to get from this storyline? Am I missing something? She sees Pike as an important mentor figure in her life. Great. We knew that already. But given where Uhura is in her character journey – and the season’s stated aim of moving characters “one step closer to where it all began” – what are we gaining by putting her, of all people, into this soap opera plotline with Pike? I know it wasn’t real (and it was obviously not supposed to be real), but still. This was such a big part of the episode – and not just from Pike’s perspective – and yet we gained basically nothing from it.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike and Uhura — What was the point of this story for Uhura?

I’m not from the United States (and I’m not a viewer of American soaps), so I confess that I didn’t know who actress Deidre Hall was when she was introduced as Counsellor Eleanor Chivers. If you’re in the same boat as me, Hall has played one of the main characters on the American soap Days of Our Lives since 1976, so bringing her aboard for an episode with this soap opera style was a genuine coup for Strange New Worlds. If you’re British, like me, I guess this would be akin to bringing William Roache (Ken Barlow on Coronation Street) on board for a guest-starring role.

Outside of the soap opera pseudo-reality, we didn’t get to spend too much time with Chivers. I liked her outfit, which I felt drew a little on TNG’s Dr Crusher for inspiration, being a similar length and colour, but obviously a bit more elaborate with its collar and the way it fastened. And I think it’s interesting that, at least in this era, the Enterprise has a counsellor on board.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Chivers — Doctor (or Counsellor?) Chivers.

However, given last week’s (re)introduction of Dr Boyce – who, as the ship’s former chief medical officer, served as kind of unofficial counsellor to Captain Pike… well, bringing Counsellor Chivers into the mix as well might arguably complicate things. I thought, at first, we were going to learn that Chivers was one of Trelane’s creations, a fictional character he invented for the sake of his dramatic production. But Chivers is, apparently, a fixture aboard the Enterprise.

I think you could argue that it makes sense for Pike to seek out an *actual* counsellor, given where he’s at emotionally, instead of trying to talk to someone like Dr Boyce, Una, or Dr M’Benga, so it’s not necessarily a *bad* thing. And starships having counsellors is clearly not uncommon for Starfleet in this era; I think there was someone in that role aboard the USS Discovery, or at least I remember it being mentioned.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike and Chivers — Funnily enough, I had Pike’s expression on my face for almost the entire time I was watching *Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass*.

I would’ve definitely liked to have spent more time with Pike and Chivers outside of the soap opera sequences; Pike’s breakdown in her office had all of the ingredients to be the kind of hard-hitting moment that his storyline needed more of, and Anson Mount genuinely gave an exceptional performance in that scene. It was just cut too short for an episode that wanted to do other things.

Within the soap opera reality, though, I don’t really know what to say. Chivers was – surprisingly, perhaps – the least-offensive of the soap opera fluff. Deidre Hall wasn’t hamming it up in the way that most of the show’s regulars were, leaving her character to feel like simultaneously the most-grounded and least-likely to be real at the same time. An odd mix… but then again, that’s Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass in a nutshell, eh?

Season 1’s The Serene Squall reintroduced us to Spock’s half-brother, Sybok – albeit only briefly – and ever since, I think a lot of Trekkies have been wondering whether Sybok would be back before Strange New Worlds comes to the end of its run. And as I was saying above with Pike and La’an and their complex storylines… I would not have chosen to bring back “Sybok” in this form, if I had been in charge! In this case, though, that’s for a different reason.

Pike’s story (and La’an’s too, to a lesser extent) needed to be more grounded and serious if the messaging was going to stick the landing. But Sybok, because he’s such a uniquely interesting character within the broader lore and canon of Star Trek… well, I think he deserved to be handled better. Being reduced to essentially a joke; a gag parodying the “evil twin” cliché from bad soap opera storylines… I mean, I think even Sybok – who was a part of what is usually considered the weakest film, at least of The Original Series era – deserved better than that.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing fake Sybok — The illusory “Sybok”.

Moreover, there was a chance for Strange New Worlds to explore the feud between Sybok and Spock – and perhaps between Spock and his father, Sarek, too – in more detail than we ever got in TOS or The Final Frontier. If I were making a list of potential characters and stories to return to for a potential “Captain Pike show,” I’m not sure I’d necessarily have picked Sybok. But having teased the character back in Season 1, I can see the value in revisiting him, expanding on his backstory with Spock, and going into more depth about their conflict.

Such a storyline could have set up the events of The Final Frontier, or at least leaned into Sybok’s “share your pain” philosophy that would be so important to the events of that film. And I’m left lamenting, really, that Strange New Worlds took nothing but this character’s name to do a very silly (and far too long) gag or bit with it. Once again… what was the point?

Still frame from Star Trek V showing Sybok. — Sybok in *The Final Frontier*.

That last question – “what was the point?” – could really apply to 90% of the episode, to be honest. Previous genre parodies have (usually) made the case for themselves; even if I didn’t personally like the finished product, I could at least see what the writers and production team were going for. But in this case, I’m really struggling to see what the intention was in doing a soap opera spoof other than… to do a spoof.

And is *that* a good use of the show’s time when there are a mere nine episodes remaining, and fewer than fifty in total?

If this was Season 1 or 2, with Strange New Worlds potentially looking at a six-, seven-, or eight-season run, I still wouldn’t *like* this episode, but I think it might’ve felt less offensive. However, we’re now nine episodes from the show’s finale, and I just don’t think there was time to waste on a genre parody or spoof that not only didn’t have anything to say in and of itself, but that also ended up actively detracting from what should’ve been a powerful, emotional, and relatable arc for two of the show’s main characters.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Pike — Captain Pike.

With the exception of Anson Mount, who did well with Captain Pike’s emotional torment, the only other performer I could really single out for praise is Rhys Darby, who reprised his role as Trelane from Season 3’s Wedding Bell Blues. We’re sticking with the idea that Trelane is a kid, and Darby brought almost a sense of childlike wonder to the character, despite having phenomenal powers and abusing them to toy with the emotions of the crew.

I also found it interesting that Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass introduced another member of the Q Continuum as Trelane’s teacher/advisor. I wasn’t wild about the Q-inspired costuming, though: the judges’ robes that Q wore in The Next Generation were meant to be a copy of something from Earth in the mid/late 21st Century, and I felt that leaning on that idea for inspiration kind of misunderstands or muddles that. A very minor point, admittedly, and one that you might say is a nitpick. But I like Star Trek to be consistent with itself, and for me, this other Q wearing an outfit clearly at least partially inspired by those judges’ robes wasn’t right.

Oh, and if you missed it last season: yes, Rhys Darby’s character is the same Trelane as Kirk will encounter in The Original Series, and he’s a member of the Q Continuum. Spoiler alert for Wedding Bell Blues, I guess!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Trelane (post-credits) — Rhys Darby is great as Trelane.

There were a couple of funny moments in Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass that successfully won a chuckle, or at least made me smile. Dr M’Benga having a disease as ludicrously-named as “space madness” was one of them, because it was just so utterly absurd and silly.

And it was also a funny bit to see Trelane and his teacher munching on buckets of popcorn as they watched Captain Pike wrangling with the memory of his daughter; neither of them expected that “storyline” in Trelane’s fantasy world, I guess. It was a funny moment, in any case.

But that’s really all the praise I have for this… well, this disappointing mess.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Trelane and his Q mentor eating popcorn — This was an admittedly funny visual.

Do I need to tell you, for the fourth or fifth time this season, that I can respect the commitment to the bit; that fully and whole-heartedly embracing everything about a genre in this kind of genre parody is, in some ways, commendable? Because I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot, of late!

Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass is the first episode, really, where I feel that everyone involved should’ve known that the core concept and storylines wouldn’t work. The hammy over-acting, the ridiculous dialogue, and the attempt to blend a full-throated soap opera pastiche with complex themes and long-running storylines for main characters was a genuinely bad idea. And I’d actually quite like to know how this concept made it all the way through the production process. How is it that no one – not one single person from this pretty accomplished group of television writers and producers – didn’t stop for a second and say, “yeah, this ain’t gonna work”?

Like Chonitons Through the Hourglass is saved from the title of “worst Strange New Worlds episode” by the existence of Subspace Rhapsody and the “but it was all just a dream” ending to Level-Five Transporter Accident. But that’s it. That’s the best I can say about it… and I guess that makes it the third-worst episode of the series.

Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass isn’t just a disappointment because its soap opera parody was over-the-top, hammy, and silly. Those things made me roll my eyes, sure, but as someone who isn’t a soap fan, perhaps that side of the story would never have been “my thing,” and that’s okay. Not every episode is gonna be a ten-out-of-ten for every viewer, especially with such narrative and genre diversity on display. But because the episode’s other side had an important and potentially powerful and emotional message about grief and loss… the failures of the soap opera fluff feel infinitely worse.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing Una and M'Benga — Dr M’Benga and Una.

I would’ve been down for an episode exploring Pike’s grief, either through a sci-fi lens or just… by playing it straight. And I liked the attempt to draw a comparison between Pike’s grief and La’an’s feelings about her second heartbreak. But those ideas got precious little time and attention in an episode that wanted to be something else – something fundamentally incompatible with those loftier ideas. The choice should’ve been to either massively reduce the soap stuff to a few small vignettes, drop it entirely, or else abandon the serious themes and lean fully into the parody.

I know what I’d have chosen, if I had the option.

Star Trek’s sixtieth anniversary is in just a few days’ time, and we’re going into the anniversary with *this* as the most recent episode. That… would not have been my preference, I’m not gonna lie. And now that Strange New Worlds Season 4 is three-quarters done, there are still only two episodes that I can say I fully enjoyed and didn’t find glaring flaws in. It’s such a shame that this show – which I’ve said repeatedly has been my favourite of Star Trek’s modern revival – just isn’t on top form at the moment.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x07 showing fake Sybok pointing a phaser at La'an — Did you know I’ve met both Ethan Peck and Christina Chong?

Next week, we’re going to get Orders of Magnitude – an episode which promises “an alien pursuit that grows far beyond its original orders.” Maybe that’ll be a better, more grounded, or more interesting story. Maybe it’ll be *orders of magnitude* better than a soap opera parody or an episode that ends with “but it was all just a dream.” We can but hope, I suppose.

Thanks for joining me for this review. I really don’t like being so negative about Star Trek, and especially about Strange New Worlds when there are so few episodes remaining. But… here we are, I guess. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for better things next time.

I’ll be writing something celebratory on the 8th for Star Trek’s official sixtieth anniversary, so I hope you’ll join me for that. And earlier in the year, I wrote up re-watches of Where No Man Has Gone Before, which was TOS’s second pilot, The Royale, which was my personal “first contact” with the franchise, and a few other pieces, too, like my encounter with William Shatner, some “what-if” scenarios, and some fascinating fan theories that I found! I’ve also reviewed Season 1 of Starfleet Academy and the video game Across The Unknown, which is based on Star Trek: Voyager. I hope you’ll check out some of those pieces if you have the time. You can also find the rest of my Strange New Worlds reviews by clicking or tapping here. As always… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. Days of Our Lives is the copyright of NBC/Corday Productions/Peacock. 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 4, Episode 6: Off-Hour

Sat 29.08.26Dennis

After last week’s absolute travesty, Strange New Worlds needed a win. And while the bar for success after Level-Five Transporter Accident was so low that it had melted through the basement like Chornobyl’s elephant’s foot, I’m pleased to say that Off-Hour was a massive improvement – and, in my subjective opinion, of course, the second genuinely good episode of the season.

Note that I said “good” and not “perfect,” though – because, despite being infinitely better than last week’s abomination, Off-Hour dialled up some of its drama just a tad too high for my liking, and when I make the obvious comparison – to The Next Generation’s stellar episode Disaster – I find it to be the lesser offering for that primary reason. We’ll get into all of this in a bit more detail as we go, but I felt the long shadow of Level-Five Transporter Accident hanging over Off-Hour, as I genuinely feared the return of “but it was all just a dream,” or some other kind of pathetic cop-out as the narrative seemed to reach an impossible crescendo.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing the USS Enterprise (cropped) — The Enterprise is about to experience a disaster!

There was also, I felt, a bit of a missed opportunity presented by Off-Hour’s unique narrative framework – something that, again, TNG did better some thirty-five years earlier.

None of this is to say that Off-Hour was in any way a “bad” episode; it’s probably my second-favourite of the season so far, and would easily crack a “top ten” for Strange New Worlds as a whole. I also appreciated several well-written callbacks to past iterations of Star Trek in this anniversary year – from The Cage to Court Martial and even a deep cut to That Which Survives, from The Original Series’ third season. Star Trek’s official sixtieth anniversary is in just over a week’s time, and I have to imagine that the writers and producers were at least aware that Season 4 would arrive sometime around then. Given that Skydance-Paramount as a whole doesn’t seem to be going overboard with the celebrations, it’s nice to get little references like that within the show itself – and we’ll talk about those in a bit more detail momentarily!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing "Jettison Pod" — Who remembers *Court Martial*?

I would also be remiss not to tell you that this is the first Strange New Worlds episode I’m reviewing since meeting Ethan Peck and Christina Chong (Spock and La’an) at a recent Star Trek convention here in the UK. I haven’t written up a full piece about this year’s event; much of what I had to say would’ve felt repetitive, to be honest, after I wrote about my experiences barely twelve months ago. But if you join me later in 2026 for my annual “year in review,” I expect I’ll talk a bit more about Destination Star Trek then.

For the purposes of this review, well… it means I’ve personally met and shaken the hands of *three* of the principal cast, now! I met Martin Quinn (Scotty) last year, and it never ceases to be a strange feeling to look at someone on the screen and think to myself, “huh, I’ve met them!” But I’ll try not to let such things interfere with my analysis of Off-Hour – or, indeed, any future episodes going forwards.

And if you want to see what I made of 2025’s Destination Star Trek event, click or tap here! My thoughts haven’t really changed much after this year’s visit.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Spock and La'an's mind-meld — I got to meet both Ethan Peck and Christina Chong last weekend.

Okay, enough boring chit-chat about what I got up to at the weekend! Let’s get into Off-Hour.

When The Next Generation premiered the fifth-season episode Disaster, the writers and creative team took advantage of the chaos aboard the Enterprise-D to bring together character groups and pairings that we didn’t often get to see. What’s more, the story then plunged several of those characters into situations way outside of their usual roles or areas of expertise – and what resulted is genuinely one of my favourite episodes from the show’s entire run.

We got to see Worf delivering a baby. Geordi and Dr Crusher spent more time together than… well, practically any other story I can call to mind. Deanna Troi took the conn, and had to wrangle with Ro Laren and Chief O’Brien as the ranking officer on the bridge. And Picard got stuck in his own personal hell: trapped with three young children!

Four stills from Star Trek TNG 5x06 showing Picard, Worf, Crusher and Geordi, and Troi — *Disaster* made creative use of *TNG’*s main characters.

Off-Hour could’ve used its setup to do something similar, but the only “unusual” character pairing we got was Scotty and Cadet A’Sha – and, really, *any* character pairing with A’Sha would be out of the ordinary because of how little screen time she’s gotten across the season so far! I don’t dislike the scenes we got with Uhura and Ortegas on the bridge, Una, Spock, and La’an in the lounge, or Chapel and M’Benga in sickbay – but given the unique premise of the episode, *and* the addition of characters like Dr Boyce to add another medical officer… well, I can’t help but lament, in a way, a missed opportunity.

When we look back at Strange New Worlds’ run to date, how many times have we seen Ortegas and Dr M’Benga interacting? Or Chapel and Scotty, Spock and Una, or Pike and Pelia? There were so many possibilities for pairing up or creating groups of characters who don’t usually spend any time together, and this kind of story provided the *perfect* narrative framework for doing so. But the characters mostly stayed in their established pairings and groups, and when I compare that element of Off-Hour to The Next Generation’s similar offering… I just feel like full advantage wasn’t taken of this concept.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing A'Sha and Scotty — A’Sha and Scotty formed the only uncommon character pair.

Partly, I’m afraid, the reason for that is that Off-Hour – like several Strange New Worlds stories (and many others in Discovery, Picard, and even Prodigy in recent years) dialled up the drama and stakes just a little too high. Dr M’Benga’s gruesome injury is the main culprit here, but the danger posed to the ship by the “warp slingshot” or “neutrio wormhole” or whatever we’re calling it is a big part of that, too.

And again, TNG’s Disaster is a great point of comparison. That episode had stakes and tension; there were injured characters and others were in mortal danger. But the way it communicated those storylines was ever so slightly less… melodramatic. Because of that, the story opened up, and it meant it was absolutely possible for an injured character like Picard to be stuck with some scared kids, or for Troi, on the bridge, to have to wrangle with potentially fatal decisions without the support of other senior officers. Dialling things back just a couple of notches worked wonders for Disaster, and it allowed the story more freedom to shake up TNG’s characters in fun and creative ways.

If any part of Off-Hour was lacking… well, there it is.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Dr Boyce's padd — Dr M’Benga’s injury as shown on a padd.

Since I mentioned Dr M’Benga’s injury, let’s head to Sickbay next.

I’m sorry if this is going to sound crude or facetious, but when Dr M’Benga was almost bisected by the rolling table, I could only think of one thing: the parody of Signs from the beginning of the 2003 “comedy” film Scary Movie 3. I know, I know… cringe millennial humour, right? But honestly, when Chapel revealed the scan of Dr M’Benga’s injury… that thought almost made me laugh out loud. Does that say more about me than Off-Hour? I mean, probably.

Perhaps a more casual audience isn’t aware of this, but Dr M’Benga is a minor character on The Original Series, making I think three appearances on the show alongside Dr McCoy. What that means, for those of us who did know that, is that Dr M’Benga is basically immortal in Strange New Worlds. And that fairly typical “prequel problem” robbed this storyline of much of its dramatic tension, unfortunately. Plenty of stories can still be thoroughly enjoyable even when you know how they end, but because of Strange New Worlds’ place in the timeline, any TOS character is an odd choice to place in mortal peril. Compare M’Benga’s injury in this episode to Ortegas’ injury at the start of Season 3 as a case in point; Ortegas could have been killed off, just as Hemmer had been in Season 1. But M’Benga is unkillable – and that knowledge detracted from this storyline, at least a little. And maybe that’s why my initial reaction was to recall that dumb scene from a pretty awful early 2000s spoof movie instead of being gripped by the tension that the episode was going for.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Dr M'Benga bisected — Half of Dr M’Benga…

The preamble to M’Benga and Chapel’s story saw them get into an argument. And while friends having disagreements and arguments is something that happens every day… this one felt just a little bit forced. It worked in the sense that it gave Chapel an extra motivation to stay with Dr M’Benga after he was injured; she didn’t want to prove him right by walking away, as he’d called her out for having “one foot out the door.” But if we stop to think about that… did Chapel need that as an extra reason to stay by her friend’s side? Aside from Spock, and the complicated romantic relationship there, Dr M’Benga is by far Chapel’s closest friend on the ship. They have a history that extends way back before the events of the series, and we’ve also seen Chapel as being dedicated to her patients on numerous other occasions. I just don’t think the argument and the conversations they had about which of them might be leaving really added much to *this* specific storyline.

However, given that Strange New Worlds is in the process of shuffling some of its characters around ahead of next season’s finale, talk of Dr M’Benga potentially stepping away from the chief medical officer role is noteworthy. This episode (re)introduced Dr Boyce – the Enterprise’s very first CMO from The Cage – and we also know that Dr McCoy has been cast for at least one Season 5 episode. As I said above, Dr M’Benga would serve aboard the Enterprise during Kirk’s time – but not in the chief medical officer’s role, so some kind of exit, or partial exit, seems to be on the cards, and I think we’ve seen the beginnings of that here.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing M'Benga and Chapel — Is Dr M’Benga really going to leave the Enterprise?

I could appreciate, though, that Chapel got one of her best stories of the show so far – and that Jess Bush really got a chance to show off her range and put in an exceptional performance with this incarnation of the character. Even if the idea of Chapel being a bit “flaky” in her commitment to serving on the Enterprise felt less-than-developed as a premise, her dedication to saving her friend’s life when he was in danger was admirable, and we went through a range of emotions with her as she refused to confront what should’ve been a guaranteed death for Dr M’Benga.

The technobabble macguffin that saved both M’Benga and the ship was, perhaps, a tiny bit lacking in explanation; we got some fun lines between Chapel, Pike, Scotty, and Pelia, but it felt a bit lightweight given the scale of what these “super-neutrinos” were capable of doing. Perhaps a stronger story would’ve used the neutrinos for one role, but not both – and found an alternative way to either save Dr M’Benga or refuel the ship. Again, that comes back to my point about the stakes and tension being cranked all the way up; in a story with marginally lower stakes, the magical neutrinos wouldn’t have needed to do *everything*.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing a padd with neutrinos — These neutrinos sure are useful, eh?

Sticking with characters that Off-Hour endangered who, realistically, we knew were never in any danger… we also have Spock.

Again, as with Dr M’Benga, Spock was just a really odd choice for this kind of storyline. I appreciated the callback to Court Martial with the ion pod and how it could be jettisoned; that isn’t the issue. When the story really wanted us to feel that a main character was genuinely in danger of losing their life, the writers chose literally the only character from that group who couldn’t die. Dr Boyce, Una, or La’an could all have taken on Spock’s role in heading for the ion pod; there was nothing about it from either an in-universe point of view or for Spock’s character arc that meant it *had* to be him. And any of them – or the likes of Ortegas and other non-TOS characters – would’ve felt in danger in a way that Spock simply never did.

There were some creative visuals on this side of the story – Spock and La’an’s slow, painful climbs across the hull were both impressive-looking and tense. The animation work used to represent the wormhole and the neutrinos was fantastic. And on the practical side, Spock’s painful radiation burns were particularly gruesome, as was the visual of him spitting up blood. But the show’s status as a prequel, and the decision to put the one character who we know couldn’t be in any real danger into this situation, rather worked against this part of the story.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing La'an in a spacesuit on the hull — La’an climbing over the hull.

La’an said it best herself: she’s “expendable,” at least in a narrative context! And given her concerns earlier in the season about her latent augment DNA, some kind of exposure to super-neutrinos or outer space radiation could be something that we follow up on in subsequent stories. Given that La’an had to go after Spock anyway, and her scene climbing over the hull was very similar to the one we’d just seen with Spock… I can’t help but feel that maybe other choices could’ve been made to make this storyline a bit more tense. Sending both characters out, one after the other, maybe even felt a tad repetitive – though I didn’t really notice that on my first viewing of the episode, to be fair.

La’an and Una had some great moments together in earlier episodes – particularly Season 1’s Ghosts of Illyria and Season 2’s Subspace Rhapsody, and I read their conversation here as a bit of a follow-up to that. That “big sister-little sister” dynamic hasn’t been as present with them lately, but it seemed to be back in play here. If – as I’ve repeatedly theorised this season – La’an may not be long for this world (or may be about to depart the Enterprise in some other way), then taking a moment to remind us of her friendship with Una is no bad thing.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing La'an and Una — La’an and Una.

Is Strange New Worlds paying Anson Mount by the line, or something? Is that why Captain Pike has been such a small part of the show this season? On its own, Pike’s relatively small role in Off-Hour wouldn’t be noteworthy. He spent a good chunk of the episode unconscious, but he got a good moment of self-sacrifice as he risked his safety to activate the Enterprise’s deflector screens, and then got a moment later in the story when he had to make the tough decision to jettison the ion pod. But given how Pike’s roles across the season so far have been pretty minimal… I dunno. I continue to hope for more Captain Pike in what we used to call “the Captain Pike show,” I guess.

On its own, it wouldn’t matter. Off-Hour had good storylines for Scotty, Chapel, and M’Benga in particular, and Star Trek has *always* done episodes where some characters were more in focus than others. It just feels like we’ve now had five in a row where Pike’s role has been fairly small, and given that the original appeal of Strange New Worlds – the reason fans like myself were clamouring for more from this version of the character after his appearance in Discovery’s second season – was Anson Mount’s wonderful performance… well, it’s become noticeable. And I’d hope that we’ll get to spend a bit more time with the Enterprise’s captain between now and next season’s finale.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Pike — We don’t seem to be spending as much time with Pike this season.

Pelia has been one of my favourite characters in Strange New Worlds since she arrived back in Season 2, and I’m so glad to see her in the kind of mentoring role that this younger version of Scotty needs. Although I wouldn’t call Pelia and Scotty a “rare” or “unusual” pairing in the way I described above, they’ve had precious little time together since Scotty came aboard the Enterprise, sadly, and I’m glad that Off-Hour went some way to remedying that deficiency. The whole point of doing a prequel story for characters like Uhura, Spock, or Scotty is to show how they grew to become the people we’re familiar with, and given where Scotty started – and his existing relationship with Pelia – that’s something I’ve felt Strange New Worlds hasn’t really done enough of.

But Pelia got a genuinely enjoyable storyline this time, guiding Scotty less on the technical side and more in terms of boosting his confidence – and that’s *exactly* what this younger version of the character needed. I liked Scotty’s callback to the USS Stardiver (the ship he served on in Season 2, before he joined the Enterprise) and how his conversation with Pelia gave him enough of a boost to play a role in saving the ship.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Pelia in her quarters — Pelia’s just fantastic, isn’t she?

The only downside to this part of the story, really, is that Pelia’s confidence-boosting didn’t really lead to Scotty actively *doing* anything differently. He’d already made the adjustments to the ion pod and to the bussard collectors; all he really had to do was have faith that the ship would hold together despite passing its safe limits. And that was important, don’t get me wrong – we saw the genesis of Scotty the “miracle-worker,” willing to push the Enterprise and squeeze every last bit of juice from her engines! But what I mean is that, for all of Pelia’s nice words, it didn’t really change anything that Scotty *did* – with some slight changes, Scotty could’ve listened to something Pelia said and that might’ve given him a final boost to… I dunno. Technobabble something about an extra ounce of power to the deflectors; something to help the ship when it passed that threshold.

But that’s really just a nitpick. This Pelia-Scotty storyline was fantastic, and it’s something I’ve been waiting to see from Strange New Worlds for basically a season-and-a-half at this point! Scotty, since coming aboard, has kind of eclipsed Pelia in several engineering stories, and because she’s such a fun character, that’s been a little disappointing. So I’m really glad to see her in that senior role this time. It was also fun to revisit Pelia’s cabin and see some of the random nonsense she’s accumulated over such a long life! That will never cease to be a fun space to spend time in.

Pair of still frames from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Scotty and Pelia — This moment at the end of the episode was incredibly sweet.

A’Sha has been a bit of a non-entity so far this season. After what could’ve been a strong start in her initial scene with Uhura, she faded into the background quite quickly. But given the Strange New Worlds writers’ proclivity to put Vulcan characters into either slapstick comedy stories or soap opera-level romantic plots, it was a breath of fresh air to get a Vulcan who behaved… well, like a Vulcan, for once. And A’Sha’s scenes with Scotty this week were a lot of fun.

Even as the ship was in danger, A’Sha kept her head. She helped Scotty where she could, even coming up with the idea to turn off life support to non-essential areas of the ship, and later beaming him to just the right place to be able to make the modifications to the ion pod. I’m hoping there’s more to A’Sha than just being a “glorified redshirt,” like last season’s Ensign Gamble, but whatever may lay in store for the character, her scenes this week were pretty good – and by far her biggest outing of the season to date.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing A'Sha opening the turbolift doors — Here’s A’Sha!

I wasn’t a huge fan of the 24-inspired clock or countdown on the screen. It did hammer home that (most) of the episode took place in real-time, which could’ve been fine, but after the first couple of appearances it just began to feel a bit gimmicky, to be honest, and I don’t think it really added a lot. The episode was already tense and dramatic – arguably just a little too much! And adding a ticking clock didn’t really do much for me to ramp that up much further.

What I liked a lot better, though, were the 24-inspired split-screen sections. Some of these were better than others, admittedly; a few of them were little more than just side-by-side close-ups of characters. But when they worked, they really worked, and it’s a creative technique that we don’t often see in Star Trek. The moving “wipes” from one character to another, and how the screen wasn’t always a perfect 50/50 split were also fun visual effects, and that kind of thing definitely helps Off-Hour stand out.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Chapel and Pike on a split-screen — One of the split-screen moments.

We mentioned Court Martial and the ion pod, and that was a fun callback. But one reference I never would’ve expected in a million years was to the TOS third-season episode That Which Survives. I don’t mean to be unkind, but is That Which Survives an especially memorable episode for you? Because it isn’t for me! So it was a ton of fun to get a deep cut to a random minor character from that episode: Lieutenant Rahda.

Rahda takes over the conn for the Enterprise’s beta shift (an earlier episode this season mentioned alpha and beta shifts, if I’m remembering correctly), and she’s the one who initially notices the problem of the warp-wormhole (or whatever we’re calling it). In That Which Survives, Rahda takes over for Sulu at the helm, so she kind of plays a similar role in both stories. It was a totally unnecessary callback – this could’ve been a brand-new character and she would’ve served the exact same function. But I love that Strange New Worlds went back to Star Trek’s past and pulled out a minor character like Radha for a moment like this. It adds depth to Star Trek’s world, and makes the franchise’s newest outing feel even more strongly tied to its first. In the sixtieth anniversary year… well, I love to see things like that.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Rahda and Pike — Rahda appeared in a Season 3 episode of *The Original Series*.

As the story unfolded, and especially as it seemed like both Dr M’Benga and the Enterprise were in mortal danger, I’m afraid I felt the hideous spectre of Level-Five Transporter Accident’s ending looming ever larger. If you read my review of last week’s episode, you’ll know that I felt the “but it was all just a dream” ending is probably the worst ending to an episode in the entire six-decade history of Star Trek, and when Off-Hour seemed to be writing itself into a corner, well… I began to fear the worst.

I didn’t think for a second that we’d get another identical “dream” story, but I did wonder whether – through some technobabble, perhaps – these super-neutrinos might rewind time or undo much of the episode’s story. Star Trek has done similar things on occasion, so it wouldn’t have been totally unprecedented. But after last week’s episode had so thoroughly shit the bed, I couldn’t *bear* the idea of another story being erased in any way, and as the tension ramped up and we got closer to the explosive conclusion… it was a real, genuine worry. The stench from Level-Five Transporter Accident’s ending will take time to dissipate, apparently.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing the USS Enterprise in a wormhole — The Enterprise in the wormhole.

When Strange New Worlds was first announced, and before we knew anything about who would or wouldn’t be joining the cast, I wondered if we might see a new version of Dr Boyce. Boyce was the Enterprise’s doctor – and Pike’s counsellor of sorts – in The Cage, but obviously the Strange New Worlds team chose to adapt Dr M’Benga instead. So it was a real surprise, then, to see Dr Boyce in this episode – and to learn that he’s apparently playing second fiddle to Dr M’Benga after returning to the Enterprise from a different posting.

I gotta be honest: this version of the character seemed a lot harsher and less personable than the Dr Boyce from The Cage, to such an extent that they almost don’t feel like the same individual. I think it’s possible that Dr Boyce might reappear either later this season or next season, so maybe we’ll get to spend a bit more time with him and reestablish that softer or more personable side, or there could be a conflict looming with Dr M’Benga. Given that M’Benga might be on his way out… Dr Boyce could have a role to play in facilitating that, perhaps.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Dr Boyce — Dr Boyce.

I did like Dr Boyce’s no-nonsense approach, though. He was calm and professional, even under pressure, and although he might’ve seemed quick to dismiss Chapel’s pleas to try to save Dr M’Benga, that came from an understandable place. M’Benga’s life was only saved by magical nonsense, if you think about it, and Dr Boyce had other patients in need of treatment, so his attitude makes sense. I still think that he didn’t have quite the same charm or bedside manner as he did in The Cage, but given the stressful situation, I could understand where it was coming from.

Again, as with the ion pod and Lieutenant Rahda, this was a fun callback in this big anniversary year. It was also nice to get some (admittedly belated) explanation as to why Dr Boyce was no longer the Enterprise’s CMO after the events of The Cage, as that filled in a little bit of backstory in between events we’ve already seen on screen. As above, this character’s role in Off-Hour could’ve gone to someone brand-new, but returning to someone from Star Trek’s past – someone quite important, in this case – worked well and was a fun little callback for Trekkies.

Still frame from The Cage showing Dr Boyce — Dr Boyce, as he appeared in *The Cage*.

Speaking of callbacks, the damaged engineering being sealed off reminded me of a similar moment in Generations, shortly before the destruction of the Enterprise-D’s stardrive section. The engineer who sealed the room also had some pretty painful-looking radiation burns (and I have to assume that he, along with several of his colleagues, won’t have survived if they were sealed inside the irradiated engine room). This character was functionally little more than a redshirt, I guess, but it was nice to see engineering so lively and populated at the start of the episode; we’ve hardly spent any time in main engineering, really, even after Scotty joined the show, yet it’s such a fun space.

One thing that confused me was Dr M’Benga’s line about the temperature outside Sickbay being “-400 degrees.” Is that a Fahrenheit thing that I’m too non-American to get? Star Trek has (usually) used metric measurements in the past, and the temperature of outer space is famously -270° C. It just seemed like a very odd thing for Dr M’Benga to say – either he was exaggerating, delusional from his injury, or just… I dunno. It felt like a bit of an oddity, though.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Dr M'Benga frozen — A Dr M’Benga popsicle.

So that was Off-Hour. A good episode, but perhaps one that didn’t take full advantage of its unique premise.

Jess Bush and Martin Quinn were, for me, the standout performers this week. Both ran the gamut of emotions, taking their characters through very difficult and complex situations and journeys, and Scotty in particular has taken a massive step closer to the man we remember from The Original Series. There were several fun callbacks to Star Trek’s past, helping Off-Hour to feel just a little bit celebratory with Star Trek’s big anniversary right around the corner, and the episode put together a strong story… albeit one where the drama was just a notch or two too high for my personal taste.

Still, it’s one of the best episodes of the season without a doubt, and as things stand right now, I’d happily put Off-Hour in a hypothetical “top ten” of my favourite episodes from the entire show. After last week, Strange New Worlds desperately needed a palate-cleanser, and I’m pleased to report that Off-Hour successfully delivered on that.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x06 showing Uhura — Uhura.

I hope this has been interesting… and you aren’t *too* jealous that I’ve now met Christina Chong, Ethan Peck, and Martin Quinn! I definitely felt that there was a low bar for this week’s episode after *that* ending last time, but even with that in mind, I think Off-Hour was good.

Next week, Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass promises to trap the crew inside “a soap-opera reality.” So… Star Trek: Discovery, then? Jokes aside, I’m not sure if I like the sound of that premise, to be blunt. We’ve already seen episodes like A Space Adventure Hour and The Elysian Kingdom doing these kinds of “what if Star Trek… but different?” ideas, and they haven’t all worked as well as I’d have liked. However, I shall endeavour to go into it with an open mind, and if nothing else, I like the idea of Captain Pike potentially taking centre-stage again.

So hopefully you can join me next week for that review! Thanks for checking out my thoughts on Off-Hour, and if you missed them, you can find the rest of my Strange New Worlds reviews by clicking or tapping here. And maybe, sometime soon, we should return to TNG’s Disaster for a re-watch! Until next time… and Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. 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 4, Episode 5: Level-Five Transporter Accident

Fri 21.08.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation Season 6, Into Darkness, Lower Decks Season 2, Discovery Season 3, and Starfleet Academy Season 1.

Well… uh… where to start?

Last week, I began my review of A Case of Chiaroscuro by telling you that I always try to keep in mind what an episode of Star Trek was intending to achieve – and how well it measured up to its ambitions – when writing my reviews. That doesn’t mean I’m being “objective” in any sense of the word, but rather than just telling you whether I personally liked an episode or not, I think it’s important – *especially* in a series like Strange New Worlds, which regularly dips its toes in different genres and styles of storytelling – to try to gauge what an episode wanted to be rather than merely make a snap judgement about the final product.

But I gotta be honest: I’m having a hard time doing that with Level-Five Transporter Accident.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing puppet Pike — It’s Captain Pike…

The Muppets, upon which the episode draws inspiration, is inherently silly. And if there’s one word I’d use to describe this week’s episode, it would be “silly.” I mean that in an almost entirely negative way, unfortunately, because while I can respect that Level-Five Transporter Accident knew exactly what it was doing and just went for it in the most honest yet unhinged way… the finished product was, to be blunt, a complete mess.

For a lot of Trekkies, and whatever wider audience might still be watching Strange New Worlds, this will undoubtedly be seen as the moment where the series “jumped the shark,” if it hadn’t already done so after episodes like Subspace Rhapsody.

As I said last week in response to the “film noir” black-and-white episode: I can respect the commitment to the bit. The writers, the director, the designers, the cast… everyone involved knew what kind of story they wanted to tell and they whole-heartedly embraced the silliness. There was even an *attempt* at a message, I think… about trauma and stress, the importance of talking it out, and, perhaps, how leaning into the absurd can be helpful. That messaging, however, was lost in a bumbling, childish mess of an episode, and an ending that utterly ruined whatever could’ve been salvaged.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock's video call with T'Pring — There could’ve been a story about trauma, stress, and burnout.

When I write these reviews, I try not to come across as one of *those* Trekkies – the ultra-nerdy folks who hyper-fixate on the tiniest minutiae of “canon,” who can’t accept that Star Trek has a sense of humour, or who refuse to acknowledge that the franchise changes and evolves over time. I don’t want to gatekeep the fandom, rain on anyone’s parade, or sound like I’m insisting that Star Trek should always be uptight and taking itself 100% seriously. Episodes like that can be great, sure, but part of the franchise’s appeal has always been its light-hearted moments and its sense of humour, and the last thing I ever want to be accused of is taking Star Trek “too seriously.” There’s a place for comedy, joking around, and completely unscientific absurd premises in Star Trek… and there always will be for as long as the franchise exists.

But… even with that in mind, and even having appreciated the genuine successes of the likes of Human Best Friend a couple of weeks ago, or some of the more overtly comic offerings in Lower Decks, I’m afraid that Level-Five Transporter Accident was, for me, a bridge too far. There were a handful of interesting ideas in the mix – and I promise we’ll cover them as we go along – and in terms of the way the puppets themselves were designed, operated, and brought to life… I don’t really have much to criticise. But the story just didn’t do it for me at all, and any potentially salvageable moments were completely expunged by what is literally the most clichéd, “avoid-this-at-all-costs-even-if-it’s-your-first-time-writing-anything” ending.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock with the T'Pring puppet — The episode’s ending was probably the worst in the entire franchise to date.

I mean… “it was all just a dream.” Seriously? Is that the quality level we should accept from Strange New Worlds? Or *any* big-budget streaming series? If that’s the best thing this group of writers could come up with to end the story, then thank god Strange New Worlds is almost at the end of its run. I’ve talked before about the potential upsides to Star Trek getting a bit of a refresh in the years ahead, and that kind of absolutely pathetic, awful, clichéd way to end an episode absolutely hammers home the need for new producers, writers, directors, and creatives. I hope the new Skydance-Paramount team is planning to have a proper clearing of the decks.

I will return to discuss the ending a bit later on, but for now… let’s get into the weeds with Level-Five Transporter Accident as best we can.

This was the first Strange New Worlds episode where a big part of the premise – i.e. the Orions’ attempts to capture the Enterprise – felt derivative. Not just because we’ve seen this in Discovery with the Emerald Chain, or as far back as The Next Generation with Starship Mine… but because Strange New Worlds itself literally did a “pirates are taking over the ship” story back in Season 1. The Serene Squall had a very similar setup, minus the puppets, and again, as I said above, if we’re at a point of recycling pretty basic narrative ideas because no one can come up with anything better… it’s time to let someone else take the helm, you know?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing the Orions — Haven’t we already seen this story?

The Serene Squall also put Spock in a comparable position as the pirates’ captive, one of the only main characters aboard the Enterprise able to do anything, and talking about his personal life with one of his captors. It was just derivative and repetitive all around to see so many of those same points re-used this time. And that wasn’t the only “Spock recycled” aspect of Level-Five Transporter Accident, sadly.

It’s been clear for a while that Strange New Worlds’ writers have latched onto this idea that “these autistic-coded Vulcans are all stuck-up, stoic, and weird… isn’t that just hilarious?” And they seem to want to throw Spock (and other Vulcan characters) into one of two situations: slapstick/cringe comedy or soap opera romance. And both of those were present in Level-Five Transporter Accident. As I said last season (I think it was in my review of Four-and-a-Half Vulcans): if the writers don’t know how else to use Spock, or what other storylines could work for this incarnation of the character… just don’t use him in a major role. It’s okay! Star Trek is sixty years old, and between Discovery, Strange New Worlds, The Original Series, the movies, The Next Generation, and the Kelvin timeline, we’ve spent plenty of time with him! Instead of doing another tired, overused, pretty boring “Spock comedy” or “Spock love triangle” plot for the eighth or tenth time, respectively, just… don’t. Level-Five Transporter Accident would genuinely have been a better story if another character – La’an, Una, Chapel, Dr M’Benga, or even Scotty – had taken over Spock’s role.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock captured by an Orion pirate — Spock is taken captive by pirates. Again.

Spock’s break-up with La’an – or rather, hers with him – was fine, I guess, and not unexpected after events earlier in the season. It does seem to stack more evidence in the “La’an might not be long for this world” column; a theory I’ve been toying with since La’an (clumsily) brought up the question of her latent augment DNA in the season premiere. Giving Spock a romantic interest has – as I said above – completely run its course for me as an interesting storyline, and seeing Spock sleep his way through the Enterprise’s female crew complement hasn’t been the best part of the show by any stretch. So I’m fine with this relationship coming to an end.

Season 4’s tagline/motto is: “boldly go one step closer to where it all began.” And I think we can see Spock and La’an’s break-up through the lens of the show moving its characters around to get them closer to their Original Series roles. Other aspects of Level-Five Transporter Accident arguably work against that for Spock, but this break-up, and the way both of them handled it, was far from the worst part of the story. Did I roll my eyes when it looked like we were about to get another “Spock in love” or “Spock’s heartbroken” storyline? Yeah, a little. But the positives probably outweigh the negatives, and I did appreciate that both characters referenced the events of The Griffin Incident, noting that what happened aboard that derelict ship has been weighing on them. Whether that’ll set up something more for Spock, La’an, Kirk, or all three, I’m not sure – but I’m glad, at least, that such a traumatic experience wasn’t simply locked away, never to be mentioned again. If this conversation is all the follow-up we get, at least we can say we got *something*.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing La'an breaking up with Spock — La’an and Spock have broken up.

Level-Five Transporter Accident was known as “the puppet episode” for more than a year, I guess, ever since we caught a glimpse of one of the puppets in a pre-season teaser clip. If Star Trek is gonna do an episode featuring puppets, it’s important that the puppets themselves look good – and I gotta say that they really did.

Paramount worked with The Jim Henson Company – famous for its work on The Muppets, Sesame Street, The Dark Crystal, and other puppet-focused projects. And this was a genuinely good choice; The Jim Henson Company is light-years ahead of any other puppet shop in the industry when it comes to creating something like this. And that partnership paid dividends – at least in design and aesthetic terms. All of the puppets – yes, even Pelia’s – looked fantastic, they all resembled the real-life versions of the characters they were supposed to depict, and the way they moved and (for want of a better term) emoted was exaggerated, but mostly in a fun way.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing the puppet shop — A puppet-maker creates the episode’s puppets.

The puppets themselves are not the problem with this story – and I know that sounds a bit weird, given everything we’ve talked about, but let me try to explain what I mean.

I felt that the puppets themselves looked fantastic, they moved well, were well-articulated, and although prone to exaggerated expressions and movements, that kind of thing *could* work if it had been part of a stronger story. Most of the main cast put in solid voice performances – though I would say that Christina Chong and Celia Rose Gooding in particular seemed to over-exaggerate just a bit too much for my ears. But a combination of great-looking puppets and a cast who’ve inhabited these characters for three-and-a-half seasons was generally pretty good.

They were let down, though, by a story that was just too wacky and silly.

What might’ve worked better is if the *entire* episode had been done with puppets – Spock included, and any villains or aliens, too. And, just like last week with the black-and-white, or like Human Best Friend with its “atmosphere that makes you drunk,” some hand-wavey line of technobabble could’ve explained why everything looked like that. Or… maybe it didn’t even need that. Maybe just play it straight: do a regular Star Trek episode, just… with puppets. That would’ve almost certainly been better than what we got.

I almost feel like there’s no point in dissecting Level-Five Transporter Accident’s main narrative because of the absolutely pathetic “it was all just a dream” ending. But I suppose we should, if only to criticise what didn’t work, eh?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock, the Enterprise, and a shuttle cockpit — I liked this shot of the Enterprise from the shuttle’s cockpit…

Star Trek has done silly “the transporter done goofed” storylines before. Crossing over to alternate dimensions, fusing two characters together at the molecular level, and perhaps the most apt comparison in terms of both narrative and comedic tone: when The Next Generation turned Captain Picard, Guinan, Ensign Ro, and Keiko O’Brien into children. That premise is not a million miles away from what we got in Level-Five Transporter Accident, with the de-aged characters having to fight off a Ferengi invasion of the Enterprise-D. And the resulting episode is genuinely enjoyable; it was a fun premise that was well-executed.

I had Rascals in my notes ahead of Level-Five Transporter Accident because I wanted to use it as a point of comparison to show that Star Trek has always had this comedic side, and that similar premises have worked well in previous incarnations of the franchise. And when I read the blurb for this week’s episode, it was literally the first thing that came to mind. I thought it could be a fun comparison, but also a reminder to some of *those* Trekkies – the “nu-Trek” haters who seem to insist that Star Trek always has to be straight-laced and super serious – that the franchise has always done similar absurd ideas… and generally made them work.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Ortegas, the helm console, and transporter beams — Plenty of “transporter accident” stories have worked well in the past.

But I think Rascals now serves as a different kind of comparison: it shows how that kind of story, using a very similar setup, can work well in Star Trek… if you have the writing quality to back it up. And for me, Level-Five Transporter Accident absolutely did not.

I’m saying all of this because I really want two incredibly important points to come across in this review. One: I wanted to like Level-Five Transporter Accident. I wanted to enjoy the comedy, the inherent silliness of the premise, and to get a fun, light-hearted adventure with Pike and the crew. And two: I really gave the episode a chance to impress me. I went into it with an open mind, not pre-judging it or thinking I’d end up disliking it, and I’d even prepared, in my notes, points of comparison from Star Trek’s past to – for want of a better term – defend its honour against some of the lines of criticism that I could tell were going to come from certain corners of the fan community.

The tl;dr? I *really wanted* to come away from Level-Five Transporter Accident having had a whale of a time, and I hoped to be able to tell you that this silly idea, despite what some naysayers might think, had just plain *worked*. But I can’t. Because it didn’t.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing puppet Pelia — Pelia was great, though. She’s always great!

There was enough of a technobabble excuse from Scotty, who had concocted a long-range beaming scheme, to make the core “everyone’s a puppet now” idea believable enough within our understanding of the Star Trek galaxy. Is it unscientific to a ridiculously silly degree? Sure. But so are a ton of things in Star Trek – from brain-stealing aliens and god-like tricksters to time-loop paradoxes and sexy ghosts – so I think we could have overlooked that in a stronger story.

I also felt, on Scotty’s side of the story, that his transporter-range-extension plot made sense. We know, thanks to Star Trek Into Darkness, that Scotty eventually developed something known as “transwarp beaming,” a way of massively extending the range of transporters that enabled someone on Earth to beam all the way to Qo’noS – a distance of dozens of light-years. So, if we look at the season’s core premise – moving these characters closer to their original incarnations – we know that Scotty’s work on long-range transporting is something that fits with his character. And after emerging from transporter suspension in the late 24th Century, he’d continue to work on it.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Scotty — There was a believable enough core to Scotty’s story which this episode could have tried to build on.

That technobabble, and Scotty’s obsession with outdoing an old Academy rival, could have set the stage for a believable (or believable enough) “the transporter done goofed” story. And in addition, an episode of Lower Decks’ second season also saw a character turned into a puppet, only to have that process reversed so he could continue to serve aboard the USS Cerritos. So if you wanna be technical, we’ve already seen this kinda thing before. In “canon,” puppets can exist in Star Trek, and being turned into a puppet is not necessarily a death sentence!

But… all of that would’ve needed the main thrust of the story to be better, stronger, and more engaging.

And not to be undone with seconds to go right at the end with the “but it was all just a dream” cliché.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Scotty, M'Benga, T'Pring, and Chapel as puppets — Several of the puppets.

After being puppet-ified, we get into the repetitive “pirate attack” and “Spock’s been captured” storylines from Season 1… only worse. The Orions were so one-dimensional, slapstick, and just plain *stupid* that they were impossible to take seriously as a threat to anyone, and while I can recognise that the way they were written is clearly drawing inspiration from the same slapstick comedy as The Muppets… it just didn’t work in this context. Even going back to the episode to re-watch it, knowing that it’s all just a dream and that they aren’t real people… they just don’t work as villains.

I’ve said a few times, when Strange New Worlds has done one of these “big swings” in terms of genre, that I can respect the commitment to the bit; that fully and whole-heartedly embracing the tropes of whatever genre of style of storytelling the show’s trying out is, in some ways, admirable. Even if I didn’t like the finished product, I can at least acknowledge that the writers and creative team totally went for it, and they jumped in head-first to this kind of Muppets-inspired slapstick comedy.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing puppet La'an and an Orion — Puppet La’an beating up an Orion pirate.

But committing *so hard* to any “bit” means you import all of the genre’s weaknesses and flaws. Last week, that meant Strange New Worlds didn’t just get the black-and-white, the soft-focus close-up shots, and the smoke-filled alleyways of film noir, but the cardboard cut-out secondary characters and unnecessary melodrama, too. And this week, it means that the episode was plagued by ridiculously over-the-top slapstick baddies that came right out of children’s television, a paper-thin, repetitive story that the show has literally already done, and the most pathetic cop-out ending that would earn you a grade F even in a primary school creative writing class.

There were *some* positives and creative ideas, though – at least until the ending ruined all of them.

Pike’s assertion that the crew had to “think like puppets” if they were going to help Spock and retake the ship made sense in context, and I clocked pretty early on that the best way for the apparently immortal puppets to outmanoeuvre the Orions would be to turn off life support. The way it was executed – i.e. the slapstick fight on the bridge – went on a bit too long, but they got to the right answer even if it dragged out a bit.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Pike floating at the window — Captain Pike floating in space.

There was creative potential in the “the puppets are basically unkillable” idea that parts of Level-Five Transporter Accident took advantage of. Pelia being sliced in half was simultaneously brutal and kind of funny, the unnamed navigator getting a hole blasted right through him (and then just staying like that for the rest of the episode) was also neat, and there was a genuinely beautiful – if admittedly absurd – moment as the puppet-ified crew floated in space, taking full advantage of their puppet forms to do something they’d never be able to do otherwise.

Star Trek, from its inception, really, told stories that had real-world parallels or messages that could be important. And I can appreciate Level-Five Transporter Accident’s attempt – however flawed and ultimately disappointing it may have been – to showcase how trauma and stress can impact even the most disciplined mind. This was the arc intended for Spock – to show how he’s been struggling, and how piling too much work on one individual, even if there seems to be a good reason for doing so, can lead to burnout and mental health struggles. We can debate whether *Spock* was the right character for this kind of storyline, but I think that’s all pretty much a moot point in light of the way the story ended.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock with puppet Pike in the background — A better story could’ve made more of the stress and burnout angle.

But as a broader point, I’ve always tried to support the Star Trek franchise’s examinations of real-world issues through the lens of sci-fi, and there were some ideas in Level-Five Transporter Accident that a stronger core story could’ve made more of. Spock isn’t just suffering because of workplace stress, but he’s still unsettled by what happened to him aboard the USS Griffin – a traumatic incident – and then, on top of that, his girlfriend dumps him. That sets the stage for Spock to be feeling down and just not at his best, before the stress of being the only one on the ship capable of operating anything at all pushes him over the edge.

A more grounded story could’ve taken a different approach to stress, burnout, and mental health, and what resulted would’ve certainly been more impactful with its messaging. I guess you could argue that the ridiculousness of the puppet dream is part of the point; a character like Spock would only ever have such an absurd dream *because* of the mental health struggles he was going through, and that the way he was forced to play every role on the ship when everyone was puppet-ified was a manifestation of how he’d been feeling. But… well, a story like that needed stronger, more down-to-earth writing if that was the intention, and while I can respect the core idea, and I think there’s merit in Star Trek looking at issues like workplace stress, burnout, and so on, this way of communicating it was poor.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing the puppet tower and cloak — A tower of puppets…

What can I even say about “it was all just a dream,” though?

Literally *any* good points that Level-Five Transporter Accident might’ve been able to claim to have had simply evaporated; they went up in smoke as soon as Spock woke up. I had in my notes that there were some positive ideas in the mix, even if the story’s slapstick comedy and childish tone worked against them most of the time, but when the episode’s final scene revealed that none of it was even real? I was genuinely stunned by the sheer *audacity* of whoever wrote that, whoever approved that story beat, and Strange New Worlds as a whole.

If I’d been the show’s executive producer or showrunner, and you were the writer who showed up with *this* way of ending the story? You’d have been fired on the spot. This is the kind of narrative cliché that literal primary school children are warned to avoid. To see it as the honest-to-god ending to a brand-new Star Trek story in 2026 is… I mean, I don’t have the words for it.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock and T'Pring at the "but it was all just a dream" ending — Who in their right minds would’ve written an ending like this?

Actually, I lied. I *do* have the words.

Pathetic. Creatively bankrupt. Shoddy. Awful. Amateurish. Childish (though that actually feels like an insult to children, many of whom could write better than this). Appalling. Shockingly bad. Disgraceful. A sacking offence. Feeble. Worthless. Lame. Revolting. Disgusting. Lousy. A festering pile of absolute dog shit.

I want a refund on this month’s Paramount+ subscription. Paramount literally owes me my money back after presenting *that* ending as if it were a genuinely serious way to close out an episode of one of its flagship big-budget streaming shows.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock and T'Pring on the bed — Paramount, I want my money back.

This episode was co-written by Dana Horgan (whose other credits include Subspace Rhapsody, A Space Adventure Hour and Four-and-a-Half Vulcans) and showrunner/executive producer Henry Alonso Myers. And I *never* like to call out individual creators by name, but in this case I’m making an exception because of how shockingly awful that ending was. Unfortunately, Strange New Worlds has already wrapped production on both Season 4 and Season 5, so we can’t take their pens or laptops away from them. I just hope to god that neither of them was trusted to write another *line of dialogue*, let alone an entire story, after this absolutely pathetic abomination of an ending.

I shouldn’t need to do this, but let’s briefly recap why “but it was all just a dream” is such an atrocious way to end a story, for the benefit of both Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers – who evidently slept through that lesson when they were in primary school.

This episode was co-written by Dana Horgan (left) and Henry Alonso Myers (right).

Firstly: it’s a played-out cliché. It’s arguably the *most* clichéd cliché to ever be a cliché in the realm of creative writing. Secondly: it’s a cop-out. It’s a cheap, nasty way to end a story when an incompetent, sub-par writer realises they don’t know how to get out of the narrative corner they’ve painted themselves into. Third: it completely undermines and invalidates *any* points in the story, because if it was “all just a dream,” why should I as the reader or viewer give a shit?

Fourth: it renders any advancement of character arcs or long-running storylines completely dead, because nothing we saw or read actually happened in the characters’ real lives. Fifth: it’s a complete betrayal of the audience’s trust. We were asked, in this case, to get invested in a silly story about puppets, but the ending comes across as *laughing at the audience* for believing it was real. It’s mean-spirited. And finally: none of the characters, Spock included, learned anything, grew in any way, or even experienced anything of consequence. Most dreams fade away within minutes of waking up, and none of the other characters even experienced these events.

So Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers? Please don’t write another Star Trek script (or anything else, for that matter) until you’ve gone back to primary school and sat through that English lesson.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing Spock at the "but it was all just a dream" ending — Me when I realised that they were really doing the “but it was all just a dream” cliché…

Look, I know how this review comes across. And if this is your first time reading any of my reviews, I want to assure you that I’m not usually this negative about Star Trek. Please go back to earlier seasons of Strange New Worlds to see that, or to my reviews of Picard, Discovery, and Lower Decks. I’m not a hater, I’m not a “nu-Trek” avoider, and I’m not someone who thinks that comedy has no place in Star Trek, or even that the franchise’s modern incarnation is substantially worse than Star Trek was during The Next Generation era. I genuinely wanted to have a good time here, and even when the episode felt too slapstick and silly for my taste… I could at least appreciate the earnestness with which it approached this absurd premise.

Until the ending robbed Level-Five Transporter Accident of any value it could’ve conceivably had.

I think I’d better wrap this up. Truth be told, returning to Level-Five Transporter Accident to take notes and map out this review was not a fun experience, and writing such a negative review just… well, it makes me sad, to tell the truth. There are only a handful of episodes left before Strange New Worlds – my absolute favourite series of Star Trek’s modern revival – will come to an end, so to get one like this that I so utterly detest… it’s just unfortunate.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing puppet Pike and the puppet crew — Pike and the crew arrive to re-take the bridge.

I don’t know what the Trekkie consensus, the critics’ opinions, or a wider audience’s take on Level-Five Transporter Accident is going to be. I never read other reviews or expose myself to others’ opinions before writing my own reviews if I can possibly help it, and based on my track record across Season 4 so far, I think I’ve been in the minority in all four episodes! I liked stories that others didn’t, and I criticised episodes that others seem to have enjoyed. So… could Level-Five Transporter Accident surprise me by being everyone’s pick for the best of the season? I mean… who even knows any more!

If you did enjoy this episode more than I did, or if you feel my criticism of its slapstick comedy or its ending are unfair or unnecessarily harsh… that’s okay. All of this is subjective, at the end of the day, and there ought to be room within the Trekkie community for differences of opinion when it comes to what makes for a good or enjoyable story. I share my thoughts with you in that spirit, and it’s not my intention to stir the pot, start an argument, or add to the toxicity that exists within certain small corners of the fandom.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing the puppet navigator with a hole shot through him — It couldn’t possibly be a visual metaphor, could it?

And hey, I hope you liked Level-Five Transporter Accident. I hope *someone* did, anyway! I want Star Trek to succeed because I want Star Trek to stick around, or at least to be resurrected sometime soon if a hiatus is coming up. The best way to guarantee that that can happen is if fans share their enjoyment and their love for this franchise, and I’m happy to acknowledge that some fan-favourite episodes – going all the way back across most of the franchise’s various shows – haven’t always been “my thing.” And conversely, that some episodes fans really don’t enjoy are fun for me!

At the end of the day, we’re still talking Trek. And maybe, just maybe, a wacky, wild, unhinged episode like Level-Five Transporter Accident will bring new eyes and new attention to Star Trek at a time when the franchise’s new corporate overlords are still deciding what to do and where to take it. That *could* be a positive thing. But… maybe that’s a little too much positivity after an episode like this one, eh?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x05 showing puppets of Pike, Una, and M'Benga — Not my favourite episode…

Next week, Strange New Worlds will premiere Off-Hour – an episode which promises a “warp emergency” and “pushing the Enterprise to its limits.” Level-Five Transporter Accident certainly pushed me past my own limits, but I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that, after two weeks on the trot of generally unenjoyable episodes – and, to be blunt, four out of five so far this season that were weaker than I hoped for or that came with glaring narrative flaws – Off-Hour will be a return to form. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Star Trek’s landmark sixtieth anniversary is only a few weeks away, and throughout 2026 I’ve been writing all about the franchise to celebrate that milestone. In addition to my Strange New Worlds Season 4 reviews, I reviewed Starfleet Academy’s first season, and talked about the Doctor’s role in that series, as well as an unexpected storyline involving another character from The Next Generation era. I also reviewed Across The Unknown – the new video game based on Star Trek: Voyager, and wrote up re-watches of Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Original Series’ second pilot, and The Royale, which was my personal “first contact” with the franchise all the way back in 1991. Also this year, I got to meet William Shatner in person, and I’ve had a bit of fun talking about fan theories and some what-if scenarios. Click or tap any of those links to check out those pieces.

Thanks for joining me for this review. Here’s hoping next week’s won’t be anywhere near as negative. As always… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. The Muppets and associated properties are the copyright of The Jim Henson Company and/or The Walt Disney Company. 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 4, Episode 4: A Case of Chiaroscuro

Fri 14.08.26Dennis

A Star Trek-themed spoiler warning (black and white)

I think I ought to start this week’s review with a bit of an explanation of how I try to approach new episodes of Star Trek. On the one hand, I’m obviously going to tell you whether I personally enjoyed the story, the character moments, the presentation, the score… all of that *subjective* stuff. But I also try to keep in mind, when writing a review, what an episode was aiming for and how well it measured up to those objectives.

That’s why I can look at an episode like last week’s Human Best Friend and say that I truly enjoyed its sense of humour, its pastiche of films like The Hangover, and its genuinely well-written character moments – and why, conversely, I’ll tell you that the otherwise outstanding horror offering The Griffin Incident came with a glaring narrative flaw. I’ll even admit – however begrudingly – that Season 2’s Subspace Rhapsody was competently made, musically solid, and even had some solid characterisation… even though I will literally never watch that absolute travesty ever again!

Stylised promo photo from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing a vintage television set — I considered doing all of the still frames like this… but don’t worry, I thought better of it!

Why did I start my review of A Case of Chiaroscuro with that explanation-come-caveat? Well, the truth is… I *really* don’t like watching black-and-white films and TV shows. I realise that’s a horrible generalisation, and there are some exceptions – Christmas films, like Miracle on 34th Street, for instance. But, generally speaking, I just struggle to get immersed in black-and-white media, and *modern* productions which deliberately use black-and-white – as A Case of Chiaroscuro does – almost universally feel gimmicky and silly to me.

Again, this is a *subjective, not objective* take – but I wanted to be up front about my bias here, because my general dislike of black-and-white has undoubtedly coloured (pun very much intended) my thoughts on A Case of Chiaroscuro.

A Case of Chiaroscuro was a faithful recreation of the kind of ’30s and ’40s noir movies that inspired it. Not only in terms of its use of black-and-white, but the entire episode’s visual style and presentation all drew from that source, as did its score. Narratively, A Case of Chiaroscuro also leaned heavily on noir and melodrama from a bygone era. And regardless of whether I *liked* that in a personal sense… I respect the commitment to the bit.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the shuttle — A shuttle in black-and-white.

However, more so than any other story so far this season – and really, any other story in Strange New Worlds, save, perhaps for Subspace Rhapsody – A Case of Chiaroscuro felt like “a bit.” Its noir inspiration was *so* omnipresent in everything from the set design and music to the soft-focus close-up shots and narrative melodrama that it feels less like an actual story within the Star Trek universe and more like a pulpy television serial. It was hard to take A Case of Chiaroscuro as seriously as I wanted to – because, by turning the dials all the way up and not just drawing inspiration from film noir but actively copying as many aspects of it as possible, the episode imported all of what I’d consider to be the genre’s flaws.

By choosing to employ an outdated kind of storytelling – not just the black-and-white, but a melodramatic narrative with over-the-top twists and turns and cardboard cut-out secondary characters who didn’t feel like real people – A Case of Chiaroscuro feels… vintage. But that isn’t a good thing in this case, if we’re talking about an episode of Star Trek that I want to watch and enjoy. Most of the episode didn’t just look dated, but it also *felt* out-of-date; TV serials and movies like this were past their prime even sixty years ago, when The Original Series was on the air. And while there absolutely are interesting points in A Case of Chiaroscuro that I can wholeheartedly say that I enjoyed… the final product is simply too gimmicky for my personal taste.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the collaborator — The collaborator.

I concede, though, that A Case of Chiaroscuro knows exactly what kind of story it wants to tell, and sets out to tell it earnestly and successfully. I can absolutely see this being considered a highlight of the season – and perhaps even of Star Trek as a whole – for Trekkies who have a fondness for these kinds of mystery-thriller noir stories. And, as I’ve said before, it’s to the credit of the former Paramount corporation that the executives were willing to greenlight a project like this, to spend a not insignificant amount of money on scripts and sets, and to – for lack of a better word – allow Star Trek to be “weird.” I can’t think of many other big-budget streaming productions that would’ve so wholeheartedly embraced the kind of genre-shifting that Strange New Worlds has done… and, for all of the many, many flaws and failings of the old Paramount, I think they deserve at least some kudos for giving the thumbs-up to a story like this one.

So… another “big swing” in Season 4, then! Adventure, horror, comedy, and now film noir… and we still have the puppet episode yet to come. I think this season will go down in the history books for just how many different ideas the writers brought to the table – and I can appreciate the diversity, the semi-episodic storytelling, and the willingness to go to places Star Trek hasn’t always gone before. Even if the results, on this occasion, weren’t “my thing.”

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the city from above — The city on Mat’Aar XII.

Let’s concentrate on the part of the episode which I liked… or at least the part I felt wasn’t as weak as the main story.

Back aboard the Enterprise – but still in black-and-white – we have La’an’s investigation of a mysterious signal. The probe – little more than a macguffin to kick-start the episode’s two main storylines – may have been tampered with, or at least La’an believed so.

I liked the way that the episode framed this, and the way the story convinced us as the audience that what we were seeing was nothing more than La’an overreacting. Even the little recap at the beginning of the episode, which went back to last season, showed how La’an might be succumbing to paranoia. And, as her storyline unfolded, A Case of Chiaroscuro tried very hard to convey to us that La’an was seeing things that weren’t really there.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an's padd — La’an investigated some missing data.

This made the ultimate reveal – that the probe *had* in fact been meddled with – hit a bit harder. I still don’t think that this storyline was executed perfectly; both Spock’s dismissal of La’an’s concerns and Chapel’s confession felt rushed. But that’s a consequence of this being the B-plot of an episode that had its attention elsewhere. Had we not already got a major La’an storyline already this season, I might’ve said I’d have liked to see this B-plot fleshed out into its own episode. But, that limitation aside, I liked this storyline.

Firstly, the Vulcan cadet – I’ve now learned her name is A’sha – finally got something plot-relevant to do after her introduction in the season premiere. Maybe it’s this episode’s noir tone and double- and triple-crosses, but I can’t help but wonder if A’sha is going to turn out to be a spy or something! But maybe that’s too much of a reach based on her limited screen time. In any case, it was nice to see her on the bridge and for her to get something to do. Modern Star Trek hasn’t always handled its secondary characters especially well, but it’s nice to get *some* conversations and interactions outside of the main cast; it populates the Enterprise and makes the broader world of Star Trek feel more lived-in and real.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an and A'sha — La’an with Cadet A’Sha.

I wasn’t wild about the speed with which Spock dismissed La’an’s concerns – though, in a noir-style story, it made me question whether *he* might’ve been complicit in… whatever may or may not have been going on, so I guess that’s not all bad. I do wonder, though, what recent events – including last week’s argument in the bar and now this dismissive reaction – might mean for La’an’s relationship with Spock.

We also got a bit of a follow-up to last week’s episode as Ortegas and Scotty were seen hanging out together. I wondered, when they seemed to be in the same quarters, whether this might be another hint at some kind of romantic relationship, but La’an stated they’re “friends now,” at the end of the episode – and I think that’s how we’re meant to read it. In any case, it was cute to see them together after their adventure, and I appreciate how Strange New Worlds retains these character relationships and moments that it develops.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Scotty and Ortegas — Scotty and Ortegas are friends now, after last week’s adventure.

Scotty gave us a great line of technobabble about how he was keeping tabs on the Klingon ship, and that was both fun and very “Star Trekky,” for want of another term. I felt Dr M’Benga’s line about why everything was in black-and-white was a bit hand-wavey earlier in the episode, as technobabble goes, but Scotty’s was definitely more in line with what we’ve seen before. Not sure why he was keeping it a secret from the ship’s security officer, of all people, but I guess it worked as an excuse for La’an to chase leads and catch up with other members of the crew.

One thing I didn’t really like, though, was Scotty’s line about being “trapped in a transporter buffer;” a reference to his ultimate fate and the TNG episode Relics. If this had been a one-off, I wouldn’t have minded (I think), but so far this season, La’an has called back to The Search for Spock and Dr M’Benga made another reference to Relics just last week. Occasional callbacks to past iterations of Star Trek – or calls forward, I guess, to these characters’ fates and ultimate destinations – are okay, but they really ought to be *occasional*. Otherwise they come across as heavy-handed and overwhelming… and it just isn’t necessary and stops being fun. A single line like this is great; a nod and wink to long-time Trekkies. Too many just feel like navel-gazing, self-referential fluff… or just a plain lack of originality, I guess. And because we’ve had several of these lines in earlier episodes – one of which already featured Scotty – this one was a bridge too far. On its own? Totally okay. But after seeing several others already this season, I felt it crossed that invisible line between being a playful in-joke and becoming excessive.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Scotty — Don’t call it “foreshadowing”…

The conclusion of this storyline sees Chapel confessing to being the one who interfered with the probe and deleted its data. Though, as I said, this felt kind of rushed, it was nice that in this kind of storyline, the ending was difficult to deduce and there was still time for a twist. I think both Chapel and La’an got good moments of characterisation here: Chapel didn’t just let La’an think paranoia was overtaking her, instead confessing even though doing so could’ve had real consequences for her, and La’an chose loyalty to a friend over following the letter of the law.

For both characters, those are positive things – and while not “out of character” by any stretch, it’s still good to see both of them doing the right thing and choosing friendship, not blind rule-following. Chapel’s decision to delete the incriminating data felt understandable, even though I wish we’d gotten a longer scene explaining it, and La’an’s choice to keep the issue between them said a lot about her character. If, as I’ve theorised, we could be seeing the beginning of the end for La’an – either aboard the Enterprise or, y’know, alive – moments like this will be all the more important.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing La'an and Chapel — Nurse Chapel with La’an in Sickbay.

La’an got this week’s secondary story, with the main focus of A Case of Chiaroscuro being on Una. But these two stories were thematically linked, and that made these two otherwise disconnected parts of the episode feel a bit closer together. La’an had to wrangle with her own paranoia and consider whether she was imagining things, or whether there actually was an issue with the probe. But the end of this story saw her choosing to do the right thing by a friend, even if that ment bending the rules.

Una’s story ends in a similar way. She chooses to bend the rules – in this case actively, whereas La’an’s was more passive, I suppose – to facilitate the rebels’ plan on Mat’Aar XII. But both characters had to deal with intrigue, mysteries, and ultimately, both had to decide whether to do the right thing – or what the “right” thing even is when faced with complex and nuanced situations.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una and M'Benga — Una’s storyline was similar, in thematic terms, to La’an’s.

Before we get further into the main thrust of the mysteries on Mat’Aar XII, I want to talk briefly about the Klingons.

A Case of Chiaroscuro wasn’t really a Klingon episode. The Klingons were present, sure, and they played a significant narrative role – but the bulk of the story was focused on the main characters and the intrigue on Mat’Aar XII. But the episode did something for the Klingons that I think is kind of important – and that I approve of!

I’ve said, on the record, that I felt Enterprise’s “Klingon-augment virus” storyline was one of the show’s weakest, and that the change in prosthetic makeup for the Klingons in between TOS and The Motion Picture simply did not need to be called attention to nor given an in-universe explanation. Thankfully, modern Star Trek has walked away from that idea, and we’ve already seen Klingons in Strange New Worlds with the more familiar design. That continued here – even with the character of Kor. Kor is a Klingon who tangled with Kirk in The Original Series and returned in three episodes of Deep Space Nine, too.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Kor and three Klingons — Kor with his band of Klingons.

In Kor’s TOS and TAS appearances, he sports the original Klingon aesthetic, but this was updated for DS9. So if you want to be fussy about it, now we have a contradiction! But I don’t really see it as a contradiction at all. Just as when Kor appeared in DS9, prosthetic forehead and all, Star Trek was kind of drawing a line under TOS and updating things without drawing attention to it. And I read this prequel version of Kor in much the same way. Some parts of Star Trek… well, they can (and should) be ignored. Some stories didn’t work, some aesthetic changes could be made as new technologies and higher budgets allowed, and this is the result.

And hey, if you want to be picky and make everything in Star Trek fit? Let’s just say that Kor contracted the virus in between his posting to Mat’Aar XII and his run-in with Kirk!

I felt that Demore Barnes’ take on the character of Kor was one of the best parts of this weaker side of the story. Barnes – who you might recognise from Supernatural, Hannibal, or Twelve Monkeys, among other high-profile TV roles – was absolutely excellent in this villainous role, showing us a nuanced take on a Klingon leader that didn’t just rely on anger, aggression, and murder. In this kind of noir-inspired story, that’s how a villain should behave. Was bringing Kor into the show a bit of cheap nostalgia bait for Trekkies? Well… maybe. And I could entertain the argument that *this* version of Kor doesn’t fully line up with the way the character behaved in TOS and DS9. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the performance or Kor’s role in the story!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Kor — I enjoyed this new take on the established character of Kor.

The Klingons, in their original incarnation some sixty years ago, were famously meant to be metaphorical stand-ins for the Soviet Union, with the Federation representing the United States or the broader western alliance. And A Case of Chiaroscuro called attention to the “cold war” that exists between the Klingons and Federation in this time period. That little connection was neat, and the lines referring to it were well-delivered.

But in this story, the Klingons felt less like 1960s Soviets and more like 1940s Nazis with the way their occupation of Mat’Aar XII came to life. Roving gangs of collaborators, uniformed soldiers, symbolic armbands, and propaganda messages being broadcast all linked up to create a really unsettling feel to the entire city; even seemingly “safe” spaces like the bar or the office felt like they could be raided or interfered with at any moment.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una in her doppelgänger's office — Una in the doppelgänger’s office.

The sets and stages used to create Mat’Aar XII were genuinely very well done. I got a “Paris in World War II” kind of vibe; that this city was very much under occupation. The ’40s-style barrage balloons, the spotlights, and the art deco-style architecture (which was mostly seen in CGI establishing shots) all added to this sensation, as did the claustrophobic street set with its archway checkpoint. The white steam or smoke – another hallmark of films from this era – was well-used, too. As I said above, every aspect of A Case of Chiaroscuro leaned into this film noir style, and that extends to the way the sets were designed. The city was undeniably atmospheric.

Parts of A Case of Chiaroscuro reminded me a little of A Piece of the Action from TOS – the “gangster episode” where Kirk and co. visit a planet whose inhabitants were inspired by a book about 1920s Chicago. Some of the costumes, sets, and vehicles – all inspired by the first half of the 20th Century – gave me that feeling, and even the Klingons’ disruptors seemed to resemble Tommy guns! Obviously, A Piece of the Action was, itself, drawing on stories from the ’30s and ’40s for inspiration – G-Men, Invisible Stripes, and others – and there’s a difference between the kind of noir story present here and the simplified gangster/crime drama of that older episode. But, as I’ve said before, it can be nice when Star Trek stories… rhyme.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the city on Mat'Aar XII — I liked these establishing shots of the city, and how atmospheric they felt.

The main storyline’s central conceit was that Una is the exact doppelgänger of Mat’Aar XII’s resistance leader. And… I gotta be honest: I hated this and the stupid way it was “explained.” Basically, Dr M’Benga says that “well, space is big so we all have doppelgängers,” and that hand-wavey line is the only explanation offered for this really contrived setup. I admit that I don’t see an easy narrative pathway to tell this exact story without having Una share the exact same look as the resistance leader, but the way it was handled left a lot to be desired.

As I said in my review of The Griffin Incident: this is Star Trek. And in Star Trek, we like our technobabble explanations! You don’t have to be 100% scientifically accurate. You can make something up and then invent fancy-sounding technical words to fit. But in Star Trek stories, I don’t think it’s too much to ask that major narrative points receive more of an explanation than we got in A Case of Chiaroscuro. It was just a weaker narrative setup than the story deserved.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the doppelgänger's corpse — The doppelgänger’s corpse.

Once you got that out of the way, though, A Case of Chiaroscuro was a good episode for Una’s character journey. Her story intersected with her Illyrian heritage – something that we learned about in Season 2 – and gave her an arc about “doing the right thing” even if that meant breaking the rules. For a character who’s usually portrayed as a by-the-book kind of officer, this was a turn – albeit one that makes sense in context.

One thing I didn’t really follow, on this side of the story, was whether the Prime Directive should’ve been applied to Mat’Aar XII and its inhabitants. The planet’s own technology looked like it was from the 20th Century, with only the Klingons in possession of what might reasonably look like 23rd Century tech. But, despite being undercover the entire time, none of the away team mentioned the Prime Directive even once. Does it cease to apply when a planet meets another interstellar power, maybe?

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Una and Dr M'Benga with the bartender — So I guess the Prime Directive doesn’t apply…

To get back to Una, there was a lot of noir-style intrigue on this side of the story, as Una’s doppelgänger appeared, at first, to be a collaborator, then a rebel leader, and the episode did a reasonably good job of making it difficult to know who she could fully trust. Most of the Mat’Aar XII inhabitants felt fairly two-dimensional – which, let’s be honest, is kind of a hallmark of many films of the era A Case of Chiaroscuro is mimicking – but the question of which one of them betrayed Una’s doppelgänger still felt like an open one as the story progressed.

One thing I don’t really like in Star Trek – and *especially* in modern Star Trek – is just how many alien races are literally identical to humans! There aren’t enough “alien-looking” aliens in Star Trek’s galaxy, and while this was a contrivance during the early days of The Original Series with all of its budgetary and technical limitations… it’s something I wish modern Star Trek would dump. On this occasion, given that Una needed to be an exact lookalike of this rebel leader, I guess you can say the story wouldn’t have worked. But the episode itself even referenced this, with Uhura wondering aloud what the native population of Mat’Aar XII look like. It’s just something that, in older shows – and TOS in particular – I could overlook, but I don’t think it really fits modern Star Trek or a modern sci-fi setting any more, and I’d rather see the franchise invent more aliens who look truly otherworldly and different. With a few changes, we could’ve said that Mat’Aar XII was a human colony under occupation, or… something.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Mat'Aar-ians — Mat’Aar-ians.

That issue also extends into Uhura’s storyline. After being arrested by the Klingons for not showing her ID, Uhura was taken to a Klingon facility to be tortured. But despite having access to 23rd Century scanners, tricorders, and some kind of brain-alyser, the Klingons never found out that she wasn’t actually a Mat’Aar-ian. How’s that possible? Even human-looking aliens, surely, have different DNA or other identifying markers? That’s how sensors and tricorders across Star Trek are able to differentiate between different races.

As an aside, though, I actually really liked the design of the Klingon torture device. It was a retro throwback – and, in this case, I mean that as a positive thing! I suspect that, if the episode was in full colour and trying to employ a more modern visual style, something like that would’ve looked dated and out-of-place, but in this kind of story, the brain-alyser looked pitch-perfect! There’s something about its simple design that just felt like the perfect TOS throwback, and it looked great.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the torture machine/brain-alyser — The brain-alyser.

To wrap up Una’s story, I thought the ending was pretty predictable; I clocked what Una had done – planting the macguffin bomb thing on the collaborator – long before the episode revealed it. But at the same time, it says something about her character that she’d get so involved in this planet’s cause and crusade for freedom. Una bent (or broke) the rules in order to help the people of Mat’Aar XII in their fight against the Klingon occupation, despite knowing that doing so could have massive consequences. She took a risk, but it always felt like a calculated risk.

Dr M’Benga referenced his service in the Klingon War – something that’s become a defining trait of his character, especially in more recent seasons. The show’s writers clearly like this idea of “the doctor who’s also a special forces killer,” and they’ve really latched onto that. I would like to see Dr M’Benga in different storylines, though, as I feel his arc with the Klingons and his backstory from his war days has been reasonably well explored, and with limited time remaining to do anything else… well, time’s a-ticking, sadly.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing M'Benga — Dr M’Benga.

That being said, Dr M’Benga was a great choice to involve in a story like this, not least because of the Klingon element. He managed to be a mentor to both Una and Uhura at different points, offering advice, making note of how the Mat’Aar XII resistance was operating, and kind of serving as an exposition device for us as the audience, too! His war service felt like a natural thing for him to bring up in the context of the story, and while there were some contrivances – like how he could instantly recognise Kor, for example – they’re minor enough to not be bothersome.

Dr M’Benga guided Una, keeping her from making too many mistakes, but this was still Una’s story first and foremost, so we didn’t get any gratuitous scenes of him massacring legions of Klingons, or using his special forces background as an excuse to take the lead. Again, given the kind of story this was, and who it was centred around, that worked pretty well. From an in-universe standpoint, Dr M’Benga has told us many times that he wants to leave his past behind him, so again, his taking a back seat makes sense, too.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Uhura and M'Benga — Uhura and Dr M’Benga.

Celia Rose Gooding put in a great performance as Uhura this week. This younger version of the character is still, in some ways, finding her feet – and this mission took her far outside her comfort zone in more ways than one. Uhura’s friendship with Dr M’Benga was on full display, and the two characters played off one another exceptionally well in those supporting roles for Una and the noir-intrigue story.

However, I didn’t really feel like Uhura was ever in any real *danger,* even when she was literally facing the Klingons and their torture machine. Partly this is because Strange New Worlds is a prequel, and we know, in the backs of our minds, that Uhura will make it off-planet, back to Starfleet, and resume her career (relatively) unscathed. However, for a storyline involving literal torture… I think the episode could’ve made more of it. Perhaps Uhura will reference this experience in a future episode; I didn’t get the feeling, though, that this was an “Ortegas with the Gorn” or a “La’an’s DNA” type of situation, where a character’s storyline in one episode is clearly being set up for something more. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that front!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Uhura being tortured by the brain-alyser — Will this storyline lead to anything more for Uhura?

A couple of final points before we wrap things up.

This is at least the second Strange New Worlds episode where ships (or a shuttle, in this case) have literally been within visual range of one another, but – for no other reason I can discern than “because plot” – the adversary’s ship doesn’t notice or detect our heroes. In this case, a Klingon battlecruiser just wasn’t aware of either the probe or the shuttlecraft until the shuttle passed through the planet’s sensor grid. I know that, in prior Star Trek stories, the range at which sensors are effective can vary a lot depending on the needs of the story… but even with that in mind, this feels like a real stretch.

For the third episode in a row, Captain Pike had very little to do. I think I said this last season, too, but one of the main appeals of “the Captain Pike show” that fans – myself included – were clamouring for back in 2019 was Anson Mount and his incredible take on this character. We’re now a mere twelve episodes away from the end of the show’s run… and I kind of want to get a few more stories with Pike before the curtain falls. Star Trek has always done spotlight episodes where one or two characters are in focus – and this episode was very much an Una story, with supporting roles for Uhura and M’Benga, and a B-plot for La’an. And that’s great! But with limited time remaining, I’d like to spend a bit more time with the Enterprise’s captain.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing Pike — Captain Pike hasn’t had much to do for several episodes now.

As the dust settles, I’m left with one feeling more than any other: A Case of Chiaroscuro just isn’t an episode I’m in a rush to revisit, and as and when I return to Strange New Worlds in the future, it’s an episode I’m more likely to skip than sit through. Despite its earnestness and the way it fully embraced its film noir and mystery inspirations… it just wasn’t for me. Partly that’s the black-and-white; a gimmick that felt, well… nothing more than gimmicky. But it’s also, at least in part, due to some outdated and two-dimensional tropes among the secondary characters, the melodrama that the episode imports directly from its source material, and the simple fact that this genre is quite a niche thing nowadays.

That being said, I tried very hard to give A Case of Chiaroscuro a fair shake, and not pre-judge it based solely on the fact that it was going to be in black-and-white. And, as I said above, I respect both Strange New Worlds’ creative team and the leaders at Paramount for creating a story like this and getting it across the line in a way that stayed largely true to the kinds of stories that inspired it. It’s something very few other franchises would attempt, and – at least in that sense – it’s a very “Star Trekky” thing!

Still frame from Star Trek SNW 4x04 showing the yard set with vehicles — *A Case of Chiaroscuro* stayed true to its noir inspirations.

Next week, Strange New Worlds is going to serve up a Level-Five Transporter Accident – the (in)famous “puppet episode” that was teased in pre-season marketing. I honestly don’t know what to expect from that one; I like that they went to the Jim Henson Company to get proper puppets made, and there’s a potential tie-in, I guess, with an episode of Lower Decks that could be interesting. It’s certainly going to be another “big swing” after this week’s noir-style story.

I hope this has been interesting! As I often say: please keep in mind that all of this is just the *subjective, not objective* take of one old Trekkie. If you liked A Case of Chiaroscuro a lot more than I did, feel it’s irredeemably awful, or just don’t agree with my take… that’s okay! There’s plenty of room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreement.

Thanks for joining me for this review, and as always… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. 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 4, Episode 1: Valles Marineris

Mon 27.07.26Mon 27.07.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4. Spoilers are also present for the following Star Trek productions: The Next Generation, Voyager, Generations, Discovery, and Starfleet Academy.

And we are back! Strange New Worlds’ fourth season has officially landed on Paramount+, so it’s time for a review of the season premiere. Unlike last time, Season 4 didn’t begin with a double-header, so there’s only one episode to get things started. I think I prefer it this way; Star Trek can be a binge-worthy franchise, but I personally prefer to give new episodes a bit of room to breathe.

As I did for Seasons 2 and 3, I’ll be following along with Strange New Worlds for weekly episode reviews, so I hope you’ll join me over the next couple of months.

As always, an important caveat before we get into the meat of the review! Everything we’re going to talk about today is the *subjective, not objective* opinion of just one old Trekkie. If you hate my take, think I’ve missed something important, or don’t share my opinion of either Valles Marineris or Strange New Worlds as a whole… that’s okay. There’s enough room in the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and polite disagreement.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing a transporter control panel — A new season of Star Trek is beaming in…

The start of a new Star Trek season always feels like a cause for celebration, and there are definitely aspects of Valles Marineris that I can say that I enjoyed. But I’m afraid that I didn’t really think that this episode was an especially strong one, narratively speaking, and that’s really for one main reason: there were too many ideas, too many characters, too many storylines, and too much going on at once. The episode simply didn’t have enough runtime to do justice to, frankly, *any* of the main things it brought to the table. And that’s a pretty big disappointment.

I’ve said this before in several of my Star Trek episode reviews, so I’m sorry for repeating myself! But the disappointing thing about Valles Marineris isn’t that the ideas, concepts, storylines, or character moments were bad… it’s just that none of them really got an adequate amount of time on screen to be fully explored. As a result, we got an episode of Star Trek which felt bitty and scattered, and which left way too many things unsaid or on the cutting-room floor. There were several genuinely fascinating ideas in the mix, but because the writers threw *all* of them into this one single episode, none of them had enough time to shine. And the result? Well… a bit of a mess. A disappointment. An underwhelming start to the season. Take your pick.

Photo of some of the Strange New Worlds cast on a barge at a Star Trek promo event — L-R: Celia Rose Gooding, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, and Paul Wesley on a barge at a Star Trek promo event in January 2026.
*Photo: Paramount*

Let’s start with Uhura and her new Vulcan cadet. I’m sure this character (whose name I don’t think we even learned in the episode) will be back in subesequent episodes, and we’ll get to spend a bit more time with them then. That’s at least potentially interesting – and as I said in one of my Season 4 previews, I like the idea of Uhura getting this kind of character arc across the series as a whole – growing from the unsure cadet we met in Season 1 to a teacher and a mentor by Season 4. That’s a positive thing, and I’m happy to see it… at least, in theory.

But because this standoffish Vulcan cadet, and Uhura’s reaction to them, was such a nothing-burger in Valles Marineris, I can’t help but feel like this entire storyline could and should have been moved. Perhaps introducing this cadet next week, or in another episode where they’ll be more plot-relevant, would’ve been the better decision. It could’ve freed up a few absolutely vital minutes of screen time this week that other storylines were desperately lacking.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Uhura and a cadet — Uhura with the cadet.

Again, for the sake of clarity: this storyline isn’t bad – or, at least, it isn’t off to a bad start. It’s just that this episode in particular already had so many other things going on that these moments between Uhura and the nameless cadet would’ve been better spent elsewhere. I have to assume that the cadet is going to be part of at least one significant storyline later in the season – and even if not, I like that their presence adds flavour and depth to the wider Star Trek universe. Seeing cadets on assignment like this is like seeing a random Andorian or Caitian in the background; it reminds us that Starfleet is bigger than just our main hero characters. And that’s a positive thing because it helps the Star Trek universe feel lived-in and real.

But on this occasion, Valles Marineris wanted to have storylines about time travel, dinosaurs, the concept of cosmic fate and destiny, Pike coming to terms with what happened to Captain Batel last time, Pike’s promotion, some kind of burgeoning conflict-slash-inevitable romance between Ortegas and Scotty, and brand-new additions to the history of Star Trek’s galaxy. There wasn’t time for everything… not at all. And I’m afraid that, in order for the episode to get across the *main* themes and story ideas that the writers wanted to convey, something should’ve been cut or adjusted. And if I had to pick one place to start cutting? It would be the scenes with Uhura and the cadet, as they were totally disconnected from everything else.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Pike, Sam, Uhura, and Cassell — This was a busy episode with a lot going on.

There were two big ideas on the go in Valles Marineris, and while they could – and arguably *should* – have been able to work together… they didn’t. The first was something that we saw teased in pre-season marketing material: Star Trek’s first-ever “dinosaur episode.” And the second was a time travel story about fate, destiny, and the need to allow a horrible catastrophe or crime to take place in order to secure the “correct” version of the present day.

Going back to dinosaur times to set up this kind of story was a creative idea. But the way it was handled in Valles Marineris meant that we neither spent much time with the dinos, having a fun Jurassic Park-inspired adventure, nor was there sufficient time to consider the real ramifications of everything on Pike’s side of the story. We learned, in brief, that: Pike and the Enterprise are literally responsible for the asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs, and by extension, humanity’s existence, that there used to be two other sentient alien races (besides the precursors to the Voth) in the Sol system, that some kind of “fate” or “destiny” exists in Star Trek at the macro level, not just for individuals like Pike, and that a race of humanoid Martians from millions of years ago had some kind of role in seeding the galaxy with their DNA. That’s *a lot* for any story to incorporate, so it’s no wonder that basically none of these points got time to be sufficiently explored.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing an asteroid approaching a planet — So, uh, Pike (indirectly, I guess) wiped out the dinosaurs.

If you’ve read my review of Discovery’s fifth season, you might remember me saying something similar, but I don’t really like when Star Trek gets into the weeds with massive questions like “where did we come from?” or “who created the races in the galaxy?” because I think it robs the setting – and, by extension, us as the audience – of one of the franchise’s most fundamental building-blocks. We *don’t* always know why certain things happened – like the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs – and we don’t *need* to know. There doesn’t have to be a single in-universe reason for why humanity evolved… and it certainly doesn’t need to be tied to some of our hero characters. Those kinds of things are best left unexplained.

This was, in a nutshell, the Discovery Season 5 problem. By going all-in on the Progenitors, the seeding of the galaxy, and so on… the show tried to answer questions that never needed to be asked, let alone given an in-universe explanation. And this side of Valles Marineris suffered the exact same fate. What do we, as the audience, gain by learning that the Enterprise caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? That was never the point of Star Trek; it was never a story that set out to ask the question “where did we come from and why?”, and because Strange New Worlds is still a semi-episodic project, the massive in-universe implications – for humanity at large and for our characters on the show – almost certainly won’t be addressed in a big way.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Pike — Captain Pike.

The appeal of Star Trek, to me, is that the Enterprise encounters different aliens, different planets, and goes on different adventures every week. There’s plenty of room in that framework for things like time travel, and even for encountering humanoid races in the distant past. I think both of those concepts could have been made to work. But by doing the Discovery-esque thing of making it this massive, fundamental, history-altering thing – let alone a time-loop paradox that’s hand-waved away with the old “destiny” excuse – I’m afraid that Valles Marineris didn’t stick the landing.

Going all the way back to The Lost World (not the Jurassic Park sequel; Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel), dinosaur stories have been all about adventure. Conan Doyle imagined a remote plateau in South America where dinosaurs still walked the Earth, Jurassic Park depicted mad scientists bringing the long-extinct creatures back to life to turn a profit… but there’s always been that adventurous tone. Valles Marineris offered the opportunity for Star Trek to have its very own dinosaur adventure… but an overladen episode didn’t have the time for that. The moments we got with the away team were fun – almost certainly the most fun I had with the entire episode. But they were so painfully short that the idea of “Star Trek meets the dinosaurs” fell pretty flat.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Una and a T Rex — I had high hopes when I saw the trailers…

Perhaps it’s because “the dinosaur episode” had been so prominent in Season 4’s marketing material and promos, but I really feel this promised episode didn’t live up to expectations. I liked the idea of seeing, for example, Spock using his tricorder and meticulously scanning and categorising different dinosaurs. But, of course, Spock didn’t even join the away mission. The away team encountered precisely *two* dinosaurs: a T. Rex, which they shot and stunned, and some kind of feathered velociraptor, which La’an punched. That’s it. Two dinosaurs. In the dinosaur episode.

There were the beginnings of a fun story here. I like the idea, for instance, of an alien shipwreck on Earth in this era, and a stronger story could’ve considered what that might’ve meant for the history of life on Earth. And I liked the idea of the crew landing on a strange M-class world, without understanding where or when they are because of technobabble. Concealing the truth like that… it could have been a creative way to introduce this story and set up the kind of dino adventure I was hoping to see. But it turned out to be a disappointment, because the episode had too much to do elsewhere.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing a shipwreck — A wrecked spaceship on the surface of prehistoric Earth.

I will say, on a more positive note, that I liked the way the dinosaurs looked. It was nice to see a feathered dinosaur; since Jurassic Park’s premiere some thirty-odd years ago, palaeontologists have discovered that a lot more dinosaurs had feathers, and I’m glad the designers were able to incorporate that. The T. Rex, too, felt like it could’ve walked straight out of Jurassic Park! And even the plants and trees of prehistoric Earth looked pretty great.

Star Trek’s creative team have clearly gotten a lot more comfortable with the AR wall since its introduction. There are still some occasional misfires; the hideous CGI whale in Starfleet Academy’s premiere, for instance. But for the most part, sets built around the AR wall have looked pretty good, and I think the recreation of prehistoric Earth looked great here. There was some fantastic CGI and animation work to bring this place to life. I just wish we’d had the chance to spend a bit more time hacking through jungles, climbing volcanoes, and dodging dinos with the away team.

Pair of still frames from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing animated scenery — Two of the CGI shots of prehistoric Earth.

This next part is going to seem a bit nitpicky, so feel free to disregard it if you think it doesn’t matter!

Voyager’s third season episode Distant Origin introduced us to the Voth – the descendants of a race of sentient dinosaurs who left Earth millions of years ago and eventually settled in the Delta Quadrant. The latest DLC pack for the video game Star Trek: Voyager – Across The Unknown even features this race and a mission based on the episode, which is why it’s so fresh in my mind right now! The Voth were believed to have descended from hadrosaurs – a real-life dino species which existed in the Cretaceous period. So… where were the Voth, or proto-Voth?

When we saw an alien spaceship attaching itself to the Enterprise, I felt certain that we were about to encounter the Voth! That could’ve been a fun way to tie in this adventure to dinosaur times with an existing piece of Star Trek lore. Instead, we were introduced to a race of sentient Martians, and their enemies on another M-class planet in the Sol system. And while I don’t dislike that necessarily (at least, not in isolation), it does make me wonder why the Voth weren’t chosen instead. Was it the prosthetic makeup? I note that the Martians were pretty basic in their design, whereas the Voth’s reptillian makeup would’ve been more complicated (and expensive) to replicate.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing a dinosaur — A dinosaur.

I don’t wanna spend too much time on this, and I think there’s enough wiggle-room based on dialogue in Distant Origin to argue that the Voth (or their ancestors) might not have evolved into a sentient species by this point in time, let alone have been a technological or spacefaring people. But it would’ve been a fun callback to Voyager if we’d encountered the Voth or proto-Voth in this episode.

I mentioned above that I don’t dislike the introduction of the Martians or the Dol’drm *in isolation*, so let’s expand on that a little.

The history of Star Trek’s galaxy is already… well, let’s just call it “unnecessarily complicated.” There are the Progenitors, who apparently seeded half of the galaxy with genetic material. There’s the Q Continuum, with all of their time travel shenanigans. Then we have all of the time travel episodes to various periods in Earth’s past (or the past relative to the 23rd and 24th Centuries), which often saw various characters getting a little *too* involved in history!

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Una and Erica — Una and Ortegas on Earth.

In short, if this was the first Star Trek episode to visit the past, or even to touch on events in this exact era, I think I’d be okay with the Martians and the Dol’drm. Their existence adds to our understanding of the Star Trek galaxy. But because Star Trek is some six decades old, closing in on its 1,000th story, and because we’ve had plenty of episodes and storylines dealing with Earth, Mars, human history, pre-human history, and so on… it feels like an unnecessary addition. It complicates elements of the Star Trek galaxy’s fictional history rather than explains storylines that needed to be expanded upon… and I can’t help but feel that the dangling narrative threads that this episode leaves behind will never be addressed.

How, for instance, did the pre-warp Martians manage to travel the galaxy and leave their genetic material in dozens of races? Isn’t that what the Progenitors did in The Next Generation and Discovery, so doesn’t it tread on the toes of that story? And where were the Voth, or the ancestors of the Voth, in an era where we should’ve seen some evidence of them? Star Trek had never before teased the idea of a prehistoric Martian race, nor of a destroyed planet in the Sol system, and while these ideas can be made to work… they’d have worked a lot better if they were painted on a blank canvas instead of having to be shoehorned in between existing pieces of lore from across sixty years of the franchise’s history.

Still frame from the Star Trek SNW S4 trailer showing M'Benga — Dr M’Benga explained that the Martians’ DNA somehow made its way all over the galaxy.

Time travel is not easy to get right. It doesn’t always work well in Star Trek, and even in dedicated films or books where time travel is a major plot point, it’s all too easy for writers to tie their stories in knots with paradoxes, time-loops, and so on. And Valles Marineris falls victim to this. The Enterprise’s direct involvement in the destruction of the Dol’drm homeworld and the Chicxulub asteroid impact is a predestination paradox; a particularly annoying kind of time travel plot hole that the episode tries to just hand-wave away right at the end. Why was the Enterprise there? Because *it was always supposed to be there*, duh. That’s it. That’s all the explanation we’re gonna get.

Even if this was for something small, it would still be infuriating! But the Enterprise is responsible for *literally all of humanity ever existing*, and it’s a fucking paradox! And all the explanation we’re offered is “well, that was supposed to happen. Now shut up and don’t tell anyone, ever.” Doesn’t that piss you off? Because it pisses me off! Throwing out “fate” and “destiny” as ways to get out of a time travel paradox is just so exceptionally lazy. Worse, it’s a massively overused trope; a cliché of time travel stories that’s been seen way too often. Star Trek has done this before, of course, but that doesn’t make it any better. And in a Discovery-inspired “the entire fate of all of history depends on this” storyline? It’s absolutely atrocious, to be blunt about it.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Spock at a viewscreen — Spock explaining the origin of the Chicxulub meteor.

I want to talk about the Martians.

I was underwhelmed, to be honest, by the Martians’ visual presentation. The “humans with painted foreheads” thing really didn’t do it for me; they felt neither sufficiently ancient nor adequately alien, and their design didn’t even do what the Progenitors’ did back in The Next Generation, feeling like it could conceivably be a precursor to humans and other humanoid races. Costuming was also pretty uninspired; the Martians’ costumes looked like they might’ve originally been intended for the Romulans to wear.

Then there’s the question of technology. The Martian ship was easily able to pick up the damaged Enterprise, yet it was immediately assumed by Pike and co. that the Martians must be a pre-warp civilisation. Their visually impressive spacecraft apparently possessed no antimatter, because a single antimatter fuel cell from the Enterprise was able to be turned into a powerful weapon. Given that the Martians seemed to possess technology superior to Starfleet’s in some ways – like phasing through walls or language translation – I had a hard time buying that they were a pre-warp, pre-antimatter society. Heck, we can create actual antimatter here on Earth, today, in the real world. So how could the Martians not have that technology given the power of their spaceship, phasing, and so on? It just felt quite jarring to go from “oh no, this incredibly powerful warship has captured us!” to “the Prime Directive applies to these pre-warp simpletons” without sufficient explanation. “Show, don’t tell” – the old adage from Creative Writing 101 – should’ve been applied here, and if we’d seen for ourselves the limitations of the Martians’ technology, the episode would have avoided this. But, as we’ve already discussed, Valles Marineris was already overstuffed with storylines and content.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Cassell and two guards — The Martians.

If I might nitpick (again), what do we make of a single starship fuel cell being used to destroy an entire planet? I know that antimatter is powerful – both in the real world and in Star Trek’s technobabble. Photon torpedoes use antimatter in some form, for instance, so we know it can be weaponised. But it seemed a bit of a stretch, to me, that an entire *planet* could be destroyed so casually with something that the Enterprise – and, by extension, every warp-capable ship in the galaxy – just uses for fuel. Why are *all* weapons not antimatter? Could a single torpedo blow up a planet?

In this instance, I get the sense that the writers just didn’t have the attention to detail or level of care that a story set in a long-running fictional universe needs. If a single fuel cell, small and light enough to be carried by a couple of people, can be used to blow up an entire planet… I mean, how are *any* planets left standing in the Star Trek galaxy? Surely the likes of the Klingons, the Cardassians, or the Borg would’ve weaponised antimatter in that way centuries or millennia ago. In other Star Trek stories, planet-killing superweapons – such as the unmanned vessel from The Doomsday Machine, or Red Matter from Star Trek ’09 – were assumed to be rare. They’re analogous to nuclear weapons: exceptionally powerful and dangerous, but very uncommon and difficult to create. Valles Marineris is apparently saying that every ship in the fleet is cutting about with dozens or even hundreds of potentially planet-killing superweapons that they do nothing with except use for fuel. And the only reason no one’s out there blowing up planets all willy-nilly is… just because?

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing the destruction of a planet — The Dol’drm homeworld is destroyed.

In the run-up to Season 3, we learned that Strange New Worlds has been cancelled. And a big part of the marketing material for Season 4 has been this idea that the stories this time will take us “one step closer to where [Star Trek] all began” – i.e. The Original Series. As part of that, I have to imagine that we’re going to learn the eventual fates of several of Strange New Worlds’ original characters, the ones who weren’t part of The Original Series: La’an Noonien-Singh, Erica Ortegas, and Pelia, as well as Una Chin-Riley, who was absent after The Cage. I think Valles Marineris started at least one story arc which could tie into that.

Though, once again, it didn’t get enough time on screen or a sufficient explanation, La’an suffered an injury to her hand in Valles Marineris. The conversation she had with Dr M’Benga and Nurse Chapel made reference to her (in)famous ancestry and her “recessive” augment DNA, though it was a massive dump of exposition and a clumsily-worded scene that was probably the worst in the episode. Given that we know La’an had left the Enterprise before TOS, and that modern Star Trek writers have a penchant for taking things to the extreme… I think it’s fair to say that *at least* one of SNW’s original characters is going to be killed off before the end of the series, right? And what we saw this week with La’an could have set the stage for that. Perhaps she’ll go rogue if her augment DNA activates, and someone will have to stop her. Or maybe, as we saw last time with Captain Batel and the Gorn, something’s going on inside her with this DNA that’s going to accelerate the end of her life. In any case… it was a very barebones foundation, but perhaps it’s something to build on.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing La'an with Chapel and M'Benga — Goodbye La’an?

In Season 3, Captain Pike got a complex and deeply emotional story with Captain Batel – their relationship expanded and deepened before her untimely sacrifice. I said after the Season 3 finale that I’d have liked to spend a bit more time with Pike to consider the ramifications of what he went through; he seemed to experience an entire lifetime with her before her sacrifice, and then saw that “perfect” life ripped away. It was not only a life he got to lead with someone he loved, someone he had a family with… but it was also a lifetime in which his debilitating accident never occurred. There was scope, I felt, to consider an age-old question: is getting a taste of paradise, for just a moment, worse than never experiencing it at all?

This time, the Martian commander picked up on Pike’s loss, and snippets of conversations with Admiral April and Number One both hinted at or referenced what happened with Captain Batel. But I don’t think we’ve fully explored this idea just yet, and I’ll be curious to see how much further Strange New Worlds takes Pike’s emotional journey in the aftermath of Captain Batel’s loss. As above with La’an, there’s an interesting framework to build upon, and I’m glad that Season 4 didn’t just try to drop it and move on – something modern Star Trek has done with too many storylines, to be honest! But there’s more to do with Pike and his emotional state, I feel.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing the USS Enterprise caught in a solar storm — The Enterprise.

Then we have Pike’s promotion. This storyline reminded me a little of what we saw with Picard and Kirk in Generations – Kirk advises Picard to stay on the bridge of his ship, and not to accept a promotion to Admiral. Admiral April offers Pike the role of Commodore – a half-step to becoming a full Admiral, and role he may one day accept (depending on how we interpret Kirk’s line about Pike becoming a “Fleet Captain” by the time of The Menagerie), but on this occasion, Pike turns him down – though Una does receive a promotion of her own at the end of the episode, which was nice to see.

I think we’re going to see Pike’s promotion at the very end of the series, with him accepting this new role and having to transfer command of the Enterprise to Kirk as a result. But, again, this feels like Strange New Worlds laying the groundwork for that. Starfleet is sufficiently impressed with Pike as to offer him a promotion, and we know that, sooner or later, he *will* take a promotion ahead of his debilitating accident.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing April — Pike turned down April’s promotion offer… for now.

Before we wrap things up, a few final thoughts.

Is Strange New Worlds setting up a sitcom-y “frenemies to lovers” storyline with Scotty and Ortegas? I don’t remember much interaction between them in Season 3, after Martin Quinn joined the cast, but there was definitely something between them this week. Ortegas complained about Scotty’s safety features and mocked his accent, and the two developed some kind of rivalry between the pilot who flies the ship and the engineer who keeps it flying. Could this arc – if indeed it exists – be tied to Ortegas’ exit from the Enterprise bridge ahead of the season finale? We know, thanks to Paramount’s casting announcement, that Sulu will have some role to play in Season 5… and Sulu will be the Enterprise’s helmsman under Kirk’s command. So where does that leave Ortegas?

Pelia seemed to make a reference to long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, claiming to have seen one of these solar storms before, while aboard “a phone box.” This is a fun little Easter Egg, of course, but it also ties into something that showrunner Akiva Goldsman has said: a crossover with Doctor Who was actively considered by both the Star Trek team and the Doctor Who team, and that it came relatively close to happening. In Goldsman’s words: “Pelia travelled in the TARDIS. Why not?” I don’t mean to say that this reference was intended to tie in with a specific crossover story idea, but it furthers something we saw in Season 3, and it’s another fun little connection between these two legendary sci-fi properties.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Pelia with Pike behind her — It was nice to see Pelia this week.

So that was Valles Marineris. It didn’t wow me, to be blunt about it. And I think, on balance, it’s the weakest of Strange New Worlds’ season premieres, which is a bit of a shame.

However, Strange New Worlds remains a mostly episodic show, and while there are storylines that kicked off this week that will be continued across the rest of the season, there will be a new adventure for Pike and the crew next time – hopefully a stronger, more enjoyable one. I had high hopes for a fun dinosaur-themed adventure when I saw them in the trailers and teasers, but unfortunately, the finished product was a muddled, overstuffed time travel episode with a glaring, overdone paradox at its heart, and an episode that didn’t really have enough time to spend on any of its potentially interesting and fun ideas.

Given that Seasons 4 and 5 were written with the knowledge of the show’s cancellation and ending in mind, I hope this week’s overladen, disjointed episode isn’t a harbinger of things to come. If the writers and creative team have more ideas for stories than there are available episodes… well, we could see more episodes that end up trying to cram in too much content. For me, that would really soil the remaining season-and-a-half, so I’m crossing my fingers that Valles Marineris is a one-off blip rather than an indication of what the rest of Seasons 4 and 5 will look like.

Still frame from Strange New Worlds 4x01 showing Scotty and Ortegas — Scotty and Ortegas… *Strange New Worlds’* next couple?

Thanks for joining me for this review. If you missed them, I have reviews of every Strange New Worlds Season 2 and 3 episode here on the website – you can find them by clicking or tapping here. And as this season rolls out, I’ll be following along with weekly episode reviews, so I hope you’ll stay tuned for some of that! In this big sixtieth anniversary year, I’ve also been writing a few pieces celebrating the Star Trek franchise, and I’ve reviewed Season 1 of Starfleet Academy and the video game Across The Unknown, too. I hope you’ll check out some of those articles and reviews if you have the time.

So Strange New Worlds Season 4 has landed… but not with as strong an episode as I’d have hoped to see. However, there’s still plenty of time for things to turn around, and every season of Star Trek, frankly, has these duds or less-interesting stories. As long as it’s a one-off, I think we can survive episodes like Valles Marineris. And hey, if you enjoyed it more than I did… then that’s great! The Star Trek fan community should be a big tent, and there’s always going to be a range of different opinions on which episodes and films are the best.

See you next week for a review of The Griffin Incident, and until then… Live Long and Prosper, friends!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Seasons 1-4 are available to stream now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The first three seasons are also available on DVD and/or Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including Strange New Worlds and all other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Skydance-Paramount corporation. This review contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.