Here we go with another week of Strange New Worlds and some familiarity is coming together. Captain Pike has been promoted to fleet captain, though mostly in charge of a project to accumulate ship fuel in a nebula. The Enterprise is helping get the station ready, but Uhura is hearing a strange noise and not getting sleep. She begins to hallucinate about dead close friends and family, including former Engineer, Hemmer. After an examination, nothing is wrong except for lack of sleep.
Meanwhile, the Farragut has approached the area to assist, and Lt. James Kirk has come aboard the Enterprise to visit his brother, Sam. Sam is upset at how brazen his brother is at getting promoted in so short a time. Kirk finds Shura after the fight and tries to befriend her, but Uhura hallucinates and punches Kirk thinking he’s someone else.
While that is happening, on the station, Number One and new Engineer, Pelia, get into arguments over Pelia’s ways of handling of protocol. They find a station officer that seems to be hallucinating too. When beamed aboard, he attacks Dr. M’Benga and runs to a nacelle. It’s too late to save the sabotage he does when Kirk and Uhura find him, and they get out before it blows up. They find that the officer’s language center was almost completely damaged and Uhura speculates that there are invisible aliens trying to contact her. Kirk suggests seeing Sam, who is a zenobiologist, and he concludes that as well. Uhura figures out the hallucinations are the vocabulary of the message and deduce that somehow taking and then processing the fuel is killing the beings inside of it all. They can’t shut down the station but can evacuate and blow it up. It does save the aliens and they leave Uhura alone. As Number One and Pelia head back to the ship, Pelia points out that Number One isn’t over Hemmer’s death and sees Pelia badly because of that. They have an understanding as they get back.
The episode concludes with Kirk and Uhura enjoying some drinks, and Sam coming up to bicker with Jim again. As Sam walks away, Spock comes up and states that even he is annoyed by Sam. Kirk invites him to join them and we get a trio of original characters together for the first time.
And now our thoughts…
Music
Mr. Daps: “I thought this week was a solid week musically. The music fit with what was going on with the story. More than that, it enhanced the storytelling that was happening. While it wasn’t as iconic as some Star Trek musical themes, it was still solid.”
Murray: “This episode seemed to balance well a tense music score with some almost romanticized music in appropriate scenes. It was quite the back and forth, but worked very well.”
Design
Mr. Daps: “I thought this week’s design really was solid. There were a lot of scenes that were visited and designed throughout the course of the station. This included the interior of the nacelle on the Enterprise, the station, the visions that Uhura was having, and more. I thought all of the design choices made on this episode were solid. I would have loved to have seen the Farragut too, though!”
Murray: “I was most impressed by the nacelle exploding. Also that there was a scene of them opening up to collect the fuel. We haven’t seen that in any Trek episode before. I did like the design of the station, however it reminded me a lot of the collector in Star Trek: Insurrection. It should be very different technology, especially that the collector in the movie is developed by a more advanced civilization. Still some great effects and designs within this story.”
Story
Mr. Daps: “I really enjoyed this week’s story. This was a very pleasant surprise as I worried that it was going to be a fairly shallow story with lots of jump scares when I was seeing the previews for the episode. However, this was not what happened at all. Instead, this was a story that had a lot of character and relationship development throughout. There were so many good choices here that shared backstories, origins, and foundations of things that have implications not just for current Star Trek events but also events in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.”
Murray: “This was really packed full of storylines, but it worked so well. Not mentioned in the recap, but still something addressed, was Chapel and Spock’s relationship. It fit within what has been happening overall, and it connected to the main story too. Then there’s the relationship between Pelia and Number One and that weaved with the main story. Everything came together well and character’s stories came in and out of scenes almost like the stories were actors on a stage. I know that’s an odd analogy, but to do a bit of describing of how separate but intricate the episode was.”
Hit or Miss?
Mr. Daps: “This episode was a solid hit for me. I found it to be completely engaging, interesting, and I loved how it addressed the larger Star Trek story and continuity. I liked the choices that were made in the script that helped develop the origins of relationships that Star Trek fans have known for years. I liked the development of characters that we already know, and some that we don’t yet. Overally, I think this episode was balanced and did a great job of connecting Strange New Worlds with The Original Series. I also like how it did this without making it feel like it was just doing fan service. It was done by telling a good story. I can’t wait to see where this story continues moving forward!”
Murray: “If you couldn’t tell from how I gushed from the story, this is a hit! I loved how this provides a backstory of how Spock, Kirk, and Uhura become friends. And it really was a great Trek trope of discovering a new alien race, but also that it takes on character growth and how finding a new alien can affect them. If there is any bit of complaint I have is that Paul Wesley playing Kirk isn’t quite the Kirk we know. This episode had him fitting the character more, but it’s different than TOS and that’s taking me some time to get used to. Still, a stellar episode that might be the best of the season so far!”
