STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season Finale Review — "Hegemony"

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season Finale Review — "Hegemony" • TrekCore.com

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Combining well-paced action and medium-to-high stakes with emotional depth, “Hegemony” ended up being better than I expected. That foundation was a good base upon which to build an insightful fleshing out of the Gorn — beyond just ‘monsters’ — undercut only by a classic Trek cliffhanger that leaves half the story in the air.

The following contains major spoilers from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season finale!

We open with the USS Cayuga’s crew on planet Parnassus Beta, helping to support the colony with logistical and medical needs. While Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) has tagged along in trade for a ride to Dr. Korby’s internship, Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) loses comms, gets distracted by a falling shuttlecraft, and then watches as a large Gorn warship descends on her position — all within a matter of moments.
 
While Captain Pike (Anson Mount) is worried for Batel’s safety, Enterprise rushes to their aid… only to discover the wreck of the Cayuga strewn across orbital space.

The crew monitors the situation. (Paramount+)

It’s a good, punchy, high-stakes start to the finale. The next act is a little slower, as the gang try and figure out what’s happened — all as the writers set up the hurdles that will make everything a lot harder to do. While a Gorn-created dampening field around the planet prevents transporters, sensors, and comms from reaching the surface, the reptilian race has also claimed the planet as part of their territory (and their warships are watching the Enterprise like a hawk).

Starfleet honors the Gorn territorial demands, so it’s up to Pike’s usual disregard for regulations to save the Cayuga crew from the colonists. Thankfully, his own crew shares those sentiments, so Pike whips out a box of super-secret anti-Gorn weaponry — most of which conveniently look like their regular arsenal — and he leads a landing party to go, uh, bug hunting.

Honestly the visceral tone towards killing the Gorn (especially from scientists and healers like Spock, Sam Kirk, and M’Benga) is really grim. It’s clear, perhaps, that it’s being done on purpose — especially from the way that Pike tells April that sometimes “monsters are just monsters” — so there is clearly a reckoning coming. But it still comes across as a little shallow that our Starfleet heroes have embraced “We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill” to a level that is no longer amusing.

We do, however, finally get some good moments from she-who-flies-the-ship, Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia). With the Gorn monitoring all orbital activity, our helm officer suggests floating a strike team aboard a shuttle disguised as the Cayuga’s wreckage –which is a cool suggestion, and is immediately followed by an incredibly slick sequence involving a sneak past a Gorn Hunter… before crash-diving through the atmosphere at high speed, showing how much Ortegas likes her job instead of just telling us about it.

They finally made Ortegas cool! With character! It only took 2 seasons!

La’an (Christina Chong) in Starfleet tactical gear. (Paramount+)

Planetside, the strike team — consisting of Pike, Ortegas, Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte), M’Benga (Babs Olosunmokun) and La’an (Christina Chong) — make their way through the abandoned town, where their new weapons work well on the young Gorn infesting the colony. With signs of survivors nearby, the team sets out to find a lone biosignature among the seemingly-deserted town…

…which turns out to be decoy trap set by none other than one Lieutenant Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn)! The intrepid Aberdeen pub-crawler was aboard the stellar study vessel USS Stardiver (great name, by the way) in a nearby system when it was attacked by the Gorn, and he made his way to Parnassus in that crashing shuttle seen earlier.

I can understand why some might be irritated at the introduction of another legacy character from the Original Series; we’ve had a lot of Jim Kirk this season, and with this addition, we’re already halfway to the iconic Enterprise crew in someone else’s show. (Which, fair.)

However, this is Montgomery Scott we’re talking about — the man who knows Enterprise better than Jim Kirk himself! If it were me, I’d have had him on the Enterprise from day one, but I will absolutely take this introduction to the character, especially as in this thankfully-unspoiled surprise.

Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and Pike among the survivors. (Paramount+)

Back on Enterprise, Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Pelia (Carol Kane) crack the location of the Gorn jamming device, and the crew devise a plan to use the Cayuga’s saucer to destroy the Gorn transmitter on the planet — but it requires that Spock (Ethan Peck) spacewalk over to the floating wreckage to attach special thrusters.

Spock’s just really here to worry about Chapel, which is fine, but I’d have preferred him to pretend otherwise for a bit longer than he actually does. These sequences are a slightly annoying (but plot-necessary) distraction from the action on the ground, where Pike and the team link up with the remaining survivors under the command of a weary Captain Batel — who is just as mad to see Pike as she is happy to see him. How nice, I guess.

With no way to evacuate everyone by shuttle alone, Batel and Pike decide to use Lieutenant Scott’s fake Gorn transponder as way to move people secretly. Well, no, that’s not right: it’s more of a contrivance that Scotty can’t build them a new one, so Pike decides to go alone to the engineer’s crashed shuttle — but he gets caught by both Batel and Scotty before he leaves, so they go as a trio.

Aboard the Cayuga, the camera ventures slowly into the mangled and dead saucer section to find Nurse Chapel alive and alone on the floating corpse, struggling to save herself as she sees the Enterprise — and then Spock — coming to her rescue. While Spock is busy placing thrusters to push the Cayuga into the planet, Chapel decides to don an EVA suit to find him. What’s the worst than could happen?

Chapel (Jess Bush) alone aboard the Cayuga wreckage. (Paramount+)

The next bit jumps around a lot in perspective, something that Strange New Worlds has been doing a lot this season — whiplashing viewers from a Gorn-does-Alien³ encounter in Scotty’s shuttle to the equally terrifying shots of Chapel running into an adult Gorn in a full spacesuit aboard the Cayuga. Freaky! But, more importantly, a spacesuited Gorn is a good signpost that the whole “they’re just monsters!” thing has been a planned bait and switch the whole time.

The sequence on Cayuga’s bridge, where Spock and Chapel team up for a very “Arena”-esque slow-motion battle — this time in zero-G — was a good fight scene, and not overly complicated like some of the other action pieces this Strange New Worlds has thrown at us this season.

The way the adult Gorn fights — and how it horrifically dies when Spock breaks the seal on its helmet — definitely speaks to a more nuanced and intelligent understanding of Gorn worldbuilding than before… at least, I hope so. I certainly like the idea of the Gorn scouring the carcass of a starship for enemy intelligence and sealed records more than I do them using their children as biological weapons.

Speaking of Gorn younglings, Pike suspects there is something more to their organized behavior, especially after Scotty’s talk about solar activity influencing the creatures. But while that’s a supposition, it’s a fact that there’s something odd with Captain Batel’s behavior — as we find out that she’s been implanted with Gorn biologicals, much like poor Hemmer last season.

Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) reveals her infection. (Paramount+)

Just in time, the Cayuga’s crashing saucer smashes into the Gorn transmitter, knocking out the dampening field. Hooray! With sensors, comms, and transporter locks restored, the crew waste no time in beaming Spock, Chapel, Pike, Batel and Scotty aboard. Batel is rushed to sickbay with Pike and Scotty… who has a mortifying (and amusing) reunion with his former professor, Pelia.

With Gorn ships closing in on Enterprise and Starfleet ordering Pike to withdraw, it’s high time to hit the road — except the colonists and half of the Enterprise landing party (M’Benga, La’an, Ortegas, and Sam Kirk) got beamed aboard one of those Gorn ships when the dampening field went down.

As Pike must decide whether or not to go after his captured crew, the Gorn ships are set on tearing the Enterprise to pieces — leaving Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to end Season 2 with its first “To Be Continued” cliffhanger ending.

GIVING IT ALL HE’S GOT

Martin Quinn’s take on a young Montgomery Scott is fantastic. He walks and talks like Jimmy Doohan, but brings aspects of both Simon Pegg’s Kelvin Timeline performance to the role, along of course with his his own unique characterization.

There are elements of Scotty’s affable, unflappable engineering genius underneath the nervous junior officer’s stress of being in an unfamiliar environment — especially when he catches the Enterprise crew in his Gorn trap.

There are a lot of things about Strange New Worlds I don’t like, but they have yet to drop the ball when they’ve taken on the daunting task of recasting Original Series characters… and I didn’t have to try very hard to see Scotty in Quinn’s performance.

Martin Quinn as Montgomery Scott. (Paramount+)

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• The colony town’s midwestern United States design is a clever cover for the use of a contemporary Toronto filming location — and a fun nod to the often-reused city backlot sets used in the Original Series.
• Batel’s close encounter with the Gorn baby on Scotty’s shuttle is a clear homage to the Alien series — perhaps too clear a nod for my taste.
• Cayuga’s saucer crash has definite echoes to the crashing Enterprise saucer in Star Trek Beyond.
• Scotty says “Lieutenant” with the correct English pronunciation (“lef-tenant”), as opposed to that strange colonial pronunciation that everyone else uses in the franchise.

“Hegemony” is the best of the series’ three Gorn episodes to date — the stakes are high, but not they’re not galaxy-ending high; we learn a little more about Gorn biology and culture; we see how much Pike cares for Batel; we get some finality and normalcy between Spock and Chapel — but no conclusion to any of their stories.

It is in many senses, the archetypal Trek cliffhanger episode, and one that is going to last for a long time. With production on Strange New Worlds Season 3 on indefinite hold — since the show can’t proceed until the WGA and SAG-AFTRA union strikes reach a conclusion (solidarity forever, by the way) — it will be at minimum a full calendar year until the series returns, leaving this open story to become nearly as notorious as the summer following “The Best of Both Worlds.”

Spock (Ethan Peck) and Chapel escape the crashing saucer. (Paramount+)

I think I would be more forgiving of this Gorn arc (and of the various character arcs in general) if this had been the end of a 20-episode season. As much as I like the slow serialisation in Strange New Worlds, would it kill them to finish a plot arc within one season?

Granted, the show was green-lit to a two season order, so the producers and writers knew how much runway they had a head of them… but this Gorn arc is so lengthy, and only now are we getting the nuance that all Trek adversaries deserve, something we deserve as a generally-intelligent and curious audience. It was an exciting episode, and I definitely enjoyed it more than I expected, but between the cliffhanger and the frustration that only now are the Gorn getting an ounce of depth… I’m not totally pleased.

But whenever this show comes back — more Scotty, please!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will return for Season 3 sometime after the resolution of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes; production on the next round of episodes has not yet begun.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns to Paramount+ on September 7, with a two-episode Season 4 premiere.

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLD Review — "Subspace Rhapsody"

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLD Review — "Subspace Rhapsody" • TrekCore.com

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After months of hints, and a formal announcement at San Diego Comic Con, Star Trek’s first full-on musical episode has arrived — and if you are a musical fan you’re going to find a lot to love in this episode. The last two episodes represent two of Strange New Worlds’ biggest swings yet, and they are both wildly different; the universally well received crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks “Those Old Scientists,” and the dark and thoughtful war drama “Under the Cloak of War.”
 
And in what will be remembered as perhaps Star Trek’s most experimental season to date, the show switches things up once again and delivers a joyous musical episode that dives deep into the characters and their relationships in meaningful ways — in addition to all the singing and dancing. While Star Trek has had plenty of musicality before, “Subspace Rhapsody” is the franchise’s first true musical, and the episode leans hard into the structure, tone, and some of the tropes of traditional musical theater.
 

The Enterprise crew sing and dance. (Paramount+)

You likely have to be a fan of the musical theater genre in order to connect with “Subspace Rhapsody” — but while this episode is not going to be for everyone, I strongly believe that all fans should applaud Strange New Worlds for undertaking this venture.

When Star Trek takes risks, it creates opportunities for unique experiences and episodes that allow the franchise to try new things and connect with its audience in different ways. A musical might not work for you, but the courage it takes for the franchise to decide to create a musical episode may then make possible another experiment that does. And if this experiment does not work for you? Well, you still have nearly 900 other episodes of Star Trek to enjoy.

“Subspace Rhapsody” works for me. In addition to being a full-on musical complete with big songs, dance numbers, and grand finales, this episode is also a deep character episode that continues, and in some cases concludes, character arcs from season two to this point. It is not a throwaway triviality of a Strange New Worlds episode, but one that is integral to the threads and relationships that have been cultivated across the first two seasons. And it’s fun that so much of that comes to a head through song.

While investigating a naturally-occurring subspace fold — in the hopes that it will unlock the secrets to real-time subspace communication across the Federation — the Enterprise accidentally dislodges a “quantum uncertainty field” that creates a new reality in which people sing uncontrollably.

Dancing redshirts in the corridor. (Paramount+)

Obviously, there is going to be some element of contrivance in order to maneuver a Star Trek episode into a musical, but you know what? This one works for me. It’s technobabbly, it’s connected to the era of Strange New Worlds and the canon of Star Trek — why yes, real time subspace communications would be great! — and it opens the door to a lot of fun.

The ten original songs of “Subspace Rhapsody” — written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce — range from solos (“Keeping Secrets”) to ensemble numbers which feature the whole crew (“We Are One”). Each has something to like about them, though a few are more forgettable than others. My personal favorite of the whole episode is the opener (“Status Report”), primarily because it blends the unique language of Star Trek with actual music in a way that I personally enjoyed a lot, but Uhura’s big number (“Keep Us Connected”) and Chapel’s song (“I’m Ready”) are also real standouts.

And while the episode potentially feels a little smaller than many fans would have expected from a Star Trek musical as there are not a lot of big choreographed set pieces, that actually feels appropriate for me for this big character episode that focuses more on individual relationships rather than the ship as a whole.

“Subspace Rhapsody” is, at its heart, a character episode. It brings the Spock/Chapel relationship to its apparent conclusion, and provides some exceptional material for La’an and the emotional fallout from her relationship with the alternate James T. Kirk.

Chapel (Jess Bush) is excited. (Paramount+)

When Chapel gets accepted into a fellowship for archeological medicine run by Doctor Roger Korby — who TOS fans knows has some importance in Chapel’s life — this seems like it is the end of the road for her dalliance with Spock.

It is rewarding to see her make decisions that are for herself and not related to Spock, and after what we learned about the character’s experiences during the Klingon War in last week’s episode, it’s tough not to feel like Chapel deserves the happiness (and the career potential for her future career) that she is currently feeling. Chapel’s song is also one of the standouts of the episode, with the most advanced chorography of any of the songs and a really great musical performance from Bush.

And for Spock, it appears we have reached the end of his short-lived experiment with indulging his emotions. Chapel’s decision to leave the Enterprise for three months, which probably means bringing her relationship with Spock to a halt, drives the Vulcan science officer back to pure logic (“I’m the X”) in an effort to cure a broken heart.

Strange New Worlds has added a rich layer of complexity to the Spock/Chapel relationship from the Original Series that I have enjoyed, but everything about it has felt a tad rushed — a consequence of having only ten episodes to tell their (and all of the characters’) story.

One of the advantages of a longer season is that shows had more breathing room to allow things to develop, rather than barreling through the story before time ran out for the year. Despite that, I still think the Spock/Chapel relationship has been a rewarding arc — and I’m thinking there will be more story to tell whenever Season 3 rolls around.

La’an (Christina Chong) laments her loneliness. (Paramount+)

But while the Spock/Chapel breakup is probably some viewers’ biggest character moment in the episode, for me La’an has the most fulfilling emotional arc of this episode. She begins the episode wanting to shut down any singing because of her fear about the emotional release it creates — but by the end of the episode, the security officer has opened herself up fully to her emotions for the first time, and reached out for connection to those around her.

“Subspace Rhapsody” also lobs a bit of an unexpected curveball which dovetails really nicely with Star Trek canon — because while Kirk feels the same connection that La’an does, his current relationship with Carol Marcus, and her pregnancy with his son, make any exploration of that connection impossible.

Ultimately, falling into bed with Kirk is not the obvious route the episode chooses to take, and consummating the romantic connection between the characters is not where the emotional benefits of this experience lie for La’an. This version of Jim Kirk is not her Kirk, but this experience has allowed her to understand that it is possible for someone to see La’an as herself — and not just part of Khan’s legacy.

We already know from the Original Series that La’an was never going to end up in a forever romantic relationship with Kirk, but the events of this episode might make such a thing possible for her with someone else. That’s very smart writing, because it creates a greater depth for the character and thinks beyond the cheap thrill of giving Kirk a romantic liaison on the Enterprise crew — and it is backed by a terrific, emotional performance from Christina Chong, an accomplished singer who threads the musical and dramatic moments of this episode together wonderfully (“How Would That Feel”).

James Kirk on the bridge. (Paramount+)

Jim Kirk’s role this week was a wonderful one — both with La’an, and his first-officer bonding time with Una (“Connect to Your Truth”) — but it feels like the show is running out of plausible reasons to get him aboard the Enterprise. I like how Paul Wesley is portraying the future starship captain, but after four appearances in the the last two seasons, it’s time to let Kirk have his time on the Farragut.

• The soundtrack for this episode is available through many streaming services.
• The reference to the crew poofing into bunnies appears to be a wink to perhaps the most well-known musical television episode, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “One More With Feeling.”
• Captain Batel finally gets her first name, Marie, spoken aloud this week; it previously appeared on a screen graphic back in “Ad Astra per Aspera.”
• Kirk mentions his sometimes-relationship status with “Carol,” who of course is Carol Marcus, the Project Genesis scientist seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — and her yet-to-be-born child is Kirk’s son, David.

• The Klingon ships seen this episode were called “K’t’inga-class battlecruisers” — introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture — instead of the more period-appropriate D-7 designation.
• Spock’s diplomacy with the Klingons, which began in “The Broken Circle” and is picked up on here — and it nicely foreshadows the critical role he will play in the two civilizations’ peace process in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• It’s nice to get another look up the Jeffries Tube shaft, using current-day visual effects to let us see the rest of the tube in the way that The Original Series could only hint at.
• The Klingon general aboard the boy-band warship was played by Bruce Horak, who portrayed Hemmer last season (and again in this year’s “Lost in Translation”)

Bruce Horak returns as the singing Klingon captain. (Paramount+)

“Subspace Rhapsody” is Star Trek at its most experimental, and it is to be applauded and enjoyed and supported for that. The cast and crew clearly had a blast making this episode, and their infectious joy seeps through the whole episode to make it a rewarding affair.

Coupled with some compelling character work, a few very catchy songs, and boy band Klingons, this musical outing is a triumph. I don’t think a reprise of this format would work as well as the first, but I hope Strange New Worlds never stops taking risks.

900 episodes of Star Trek later, the franchise continues to find new ways to tell stories.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 concludes with “Hegemony” next Thursday, August 10 on Paramount+.

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Review — "Under the Cloak of War"

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Review — "Under the Cloak of War" • TrekCore.com

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The thing about “Under the Cloak of War” is that I should like this episode. No, that’s incorrect, I should love this episode.
 
It’s got everything I want: an exploration of the aftershocks of the Federation-Klingon War; an exploration of what war does to people, how they deal with it — and how they don’t; Klingons, of course; even a space version of M*A*S*H.
 
And yet… I thoroughly dislike this episode. It drags (despite a noticeably shorter runtime than other episodes this season), the constant flashbacks are disjointed, there’s a reasonably tensionless plot on the Enterprise, and — most frustratingly — they take the worst aspect of M’Benga’s character and make it his whole identity.
 

Dak’Reh (Robert Wisdom) boards the Enterprise. (Paramount+)

Enterprise is passing through the Prospero system, where she is scheduled to pick up a passenger for Starbase 12: Ambassador Dak’Rah (Robert Wisdom), a defecting Klingon general who now serves as a representative of the Federation. Dak’Rah is a very interesting character — he’s a soft-spoken, pleasant Klingon atoning for his martial sins, an absolute tack away from traditional portrayals of most Klingons.

Dak’Rah’s persona is refreshing in many ways, but the bristling attitudes of Ortegas (Melissa Navia), M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), and Chapel (Jess Bush) are less so. Certainly, for M’benga and Chapel, their discomfort comes with rounded nuance, but for Ortegas? At this point the character is basically 50% quips and 50% veiled Klingon bigotry, which is not barely a foundation for a character at all.

This is okay for the Strange New Worlds writers however, as they’re willing to use her as a foil when Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) defends Dak’Rah’s diplomatic record on the bridge, allowing our intrepid helm officer basically call him a war criminal to his face. She’s lucky the ambassador is more impressed by the size of the viewscreen, even if he then gets let down by Spock’s (Ethan Peck) inability to make a raktajino at the right temperature.

The tour group descends to sickbay, where M’Benga — somehow unaware of the presence of the Klingon ambassador aboard — has to leave before war trauma gets to him. And boy, is that trauma… traumatic! In the first get the first of several slightly-disjointed flashbacks, we watch Chapel and M’Benga’s first meeting — during their time at a Starfleet forward operating post on planet J’Gal.

(I might not like this episode; but I love me bit of Starfleet M*A*S*H, especially if we’ve got Clint Howard in the mix as as Space Hawkeye. It’s not a bad concept; hell, I’m irritated it didn’t think of it first!)

M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Pike (Anson Mount) in sickbay. (Paramount+)

The constant jumping between time periods doesn’t help the flow of the story, but soon we’re back in the present where Captain Pike (Anson Mount) informs M’Benga and Chapel that he’s got orders from Starfleet Command that — in an insane bit of logic — veterans of the Klingon War must interact with the ambassador to build a diplomatic bridge to peace.

The pair psych themselves up for the nightmare dinner party of the year, which goes just how you might think: Dak’Rah is endearing and delightful, which eventually drives the trio of veterans to leave (led by Ortegas’ inability to keep her cool). The main problem with her outburst -– as justified as it might seem to be — is that we’ve simply just had so little character exploration from Ortegas that we can’t really tell if this is unrestrained behavior or not. When M’Benga does it, you can feel how much he’s holding back, even as he lets some of his anger slip through; with Ortegas it’s just kind of there.

Back in the past, an Andorian Special Ops officer tries to convince M’Benga kill General Dak’rah and end the Klingon’s reported war crimes — or, at the very least, hand over the space methamphetamine that M’Benga once formulated. (I have yet to figure out why exactly they decided to make the doctor into some kind of Jason Bourne super-soldier.)

Later, M’Benga confronts the reality of war with a young ensign. It’s some of the typical typical “why we fight” kind of stuff, which Olusanmokun sells well, and is the strongest portion of the flashback story.

Ortegas (Melissa Navia) is not happy. (Paramount+)

Following the dinner party, Spock tries (in his way) to support Chapel during the stressful time. Her dismissal of Spock’s help should work, and it makes a decent point about combat stress and a veteran’s experience, but it just doesn’t have the tension to drive it home.

I can see how Chapel’s remarks “that those who haven’t been to war can’t understand the experience” tie thematically into the visuals of battlefield casualties arriving on the transporter pad, but at some point, there are just too many cuts. The drama is still good, however; the disastrous attack on Klingon lines has been met with a vicious counterstrike, and the wounded — both Starfleet and civilian — pour in to the aid camp, as M’Benga is forced to make grim choices to protect lives even as those he’d previously save are put into body bags.

This is, of course, then cut off by a return to the present, so we can watch M’Benga and Dak’Rah verbally and physically spar in a round of ‘full contact mok’bara.’ The Klingon claims that he wants to work with M’Benga — enemies turned allies would be a powerful diplomatic tool — but the doctor is deeply disinterested, pressing the ambassador on how he supposedly killed his own men to prevent a further massacre.

This would be nice to dwell on, but instead we go back to the war, where M’Benga decides to go full Terminator and kill everyone in the Klingon encampment with his own two hands — and a couple of Klingon blades.

Chapel (Jess Bush) and M’Benga discuss his one-man mission. (Paramount+)

I can’t be the only person who finds this show’s obsession with turning its healer characters into action heroes and drug-fueled killing machines deeply off-putting, right? Watching M’Benga suit up for war and then be told to “take as many with as you can” by Chapel is really macabre. We know the Klingons are bad in this era — evil, perhaps — but the idea that the solution is for our doctor to go full-on killing machine is tonally dissonant with almost everything else Star Trek does.

Back in the present, Pike and Una (Rebecca Romijn) agree to cut short the cruise to Starbase 12 before the deeply-predictable onboard tensions cause even more diplomatic harm. This tension, though, isn’t really there in the story — everyone’s unhappy that Dak’Rah is here, but that’s not plot tension. There’s no active threat to his presence at all, or stakes in getting to the end of this mission beyond “crew morale is not good,” something that, once again, we’re only told about. The dinner party scene has made it clear that (within the senior staff at least) exceptions to Dak’Rah’s presence are the exception, not the rule.

Instead, we get Dak’Rah going to M’Benga with one last offer to join his diplomatic efforts, in which the ambassador undiplomatically refuses M’Benga’s insistent efforts to be left alone… before the doctor exposes the truth: Dak’Rah did give the orders to kill civilians and prisoners, but it was really M’Benga who killed all the Klingon soldiers, and Dak’Rah just took the credit.

M’Benga is furious that Dak’Rah used his trauma and suffering to build his reputation. I really liked this confrontation — the idea of co-opting the horror of war to give people “the saints they need” and the redemption arcs they want to enjoy is an interesting one, and the soft-spoken Klingon ambassador is practically pleading with M’Benga to listening to his argument.

I found it very compelling, at least, until M’Benga stabbed him.

M’Benga and Dak’Rah spar. (Paramount+)

Chapel covering up for M’Benga was a lot less compelling, even if Pike was going to try and paper over the event if the doctor came clean about what happened. Apparently, Pike’s moral code allows him to ignore his own suspicions and let the inquiry conclude that M’Benga killed Dak’Rah in self-defense, even when the doctor strongly hints that it was nothing like that?

I think the conversation between M’Benga and Pike — where the doctor points out that Dak’Rah might not have deserved a second chance — is interesting enough in itself, but it’s a point difficult to hear sincerely from a man who violates his Hippocratic Oath so easily. What a wonderful message.

• Archival footage from Star Trek: Discovery’s premiere two-parter — “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle of the Binary Stars” — is used in the opening recap; this includes the now-dropped early-Discovery Klingon makeup design noticeably absent from the rest of the episode.
• New starship alert! The USS Kelcie Mae is a new class of Starfleet vessel we’ve never seen before, with a single nacelle and a graceful forward hull that gives serious ‘luxury cruiseliner’ vibes.

The USS Kelcie Mae. (Paramount+)

• The Boatswain’s whistle used when Ambassador Dak’Rah beams aboard is very similar to the one used in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
• The replicated raktajino Spock and Lieutenant Mitchell (Rong Fu) create is served in a mug designed after the angular Feltman Langer mugs often seen Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• In the flashbacks, Chapel arrives to J’Gal aboard a new design of shuttlecraft; this ‘heavy-duty’ shuttle is also a new design introduced in this episode.
• The Klingon makeup used on Robert Wisdom has never looked more like a helmet than in this episode; perhaps it’s the actor’s head shape but it just looks so artificial on him.
• It’s never stated in the episode, but could Andorian lieutenant’s black special operations uniform mean that’s connected to Section 31?
• In the flashbacks, M’Benga instructs Chapel on storing Lieutenant Alvarado’s pattern inside the base’s transporter buffer to keep him in stasis until help can arrive — the same trick he uses to keep his daughter’s disease from progressing in Season 1.
• The young ensign heart is from “New Angeles,” a city on Earth’s moon.
• The serum used to give M’Benga temporary “super soldier” strength and endurance is called “Protocol 12.”
• M’Benga and the ambassador spar in “full impact mok’bara,” the martial art often practiced by Worf in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
• Clint Howard returns for his fifth Star Trek appearance (seen this week as Lieutenant Martinez), following his role as an Orion in Discovery’s “Will You Take My Hand?,” a Ferengi in Enterprise’s “Acquisition,” a human in Deep Space Nine‘s “Past Tense,” and of course Balok in “The Corbomite Maneuver.”

Chapel arrives to the Starfleet base managed by Lieutenant Martinez (Clint Howard). (Paramount+)

I really, really should have liked this episode. Using the Klingon War to explore how veterans of combat live with their trauma and manage it is a very good concept, and Robert Wisdom and Bab Olusanmokun give it their all, but the plot, pacing, resolution and all just left me disappointed and frustrated.

Certainly, the flashback sequences where Chapel and M’Benga of them dive into the brutal meatball surgery of an aid station under fire were well done, especially liked the sequence where Chapel is forced to pump a man’s heart physically — though mainly because Hawkeye also does that. (Whoever in the SNW writers’ room is watching M*A*S*H? Good on you!) But having M’Benga set off to find new and exciting ways to violate the Geneva Convention and then kill Dak’Rah — even in self-defense? Having the murder happen behind a veil is even more annoying.

There was an even chance of setting his episode up to be the next “Conscience of the King” or “Duet,” where our characters get to come face to face with evil — but instead we end up with something that just felt tonally dissonant and flat. The stakes are basically non-existent in the A-plot, and distracting in the B-plot; where tension exists, it’s forced in ways that don’t make that much sense.

On top of that, Dak’Rah’s true intentions and beliefs are never really explored. Was he genuinely reformed? Did truly he want to atone? We don’t know, and never will, because of M’Benga’s actions. The doctor’s anger and horror at what the war did to him is a goo idea, but this whole super-commando bit just feels wrong. He should be angry, and he should want Dak’rah dead, but wouldn’t the Star Trek thing be to have him rise above that (even if he needs a little help from his crewmates to do so)? The entire thing just undermines the hopefulness upon on which Trek is built.

Joseph M’Benga: the Butcher of J’Gal. (Paramount+)

Strange New Worlds was right try a ‘horrors of war’ episode — it made the right choice to try and tackle issues around PTSD and military experience, and what it means to come face to face with a former enemy off the battlefield — but it could have happened that didn’t make our healer into a vigilante… and one that didn’t make 42 minutes feel like an hour.

Next week: it’s time to sing and dance as Strange New Worlds’ musical episode arrives.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns with “Subspace Rhapsody” on Thursday, August 3 on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Trailer

Star Trek: Lower Decks Trailer

Trailer Star Trek : Strange New Worlds

Trailer Star Trek : Strange New Worlds

REVIEW: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”

REVIEW: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”

Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura and Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, streaming on Paramount+, 2023. Photo Cr: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

So how did all these plot elements tie together? Was it ultimately a good episode? Does it follow up on that kiss from last week at all? Let’s find out in this review of the latest edition of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

Spoiler Warning: This is a full review of Season 2, Episode 6 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”, and as such contains spoilers. You have been warned. If you have not seen the episode, please turn away now!

Pike’s Command

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

We had speculated on it previously, but the opening of the episode confirms it outright. Captain Pike (Anson Mount) has become Fleet Captain Pike! Only temporarily, but it’s a cool step to where we know the character will eventually end up. Even though it’s said to be temporary, just until the Deuterium refinery is online, he’s still on the bridge rocking an updated badge. With the updated TOS uniforms in the series, I adore the black background on the badge we see here.

His speech about the refinery, nebula birthing stars, and his temporary command of the USS Farragut is interrupted though. Both by Uhura’s sleepiness, the arrival of Una (Rebecca Romijn), and another interruption from Uhura – this one is an auditory hallucination. This becomes the real starting point of Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”. As far as opening scenes go, this is among the quieter. I like it a lot, also it warrants saying that throughout the entire episode that the shots of the nebula look breathtakingly gorgeous.

They also discuss how the refinery is close to known Gorn space. While they don’t really expand on this, it’s theorized that this is a potential strategic point. This is likely the truth, as we know there’s an operation by the higher-ups of Starfleet to go to war with the Gorn. We saw this way back in the series premiere “The Broken Circle”. For a series with so many plot threads, where most of them are character driven too, it was nice that this one ends up getting touched a little bit.

Hemmer’s Appearance & Other Hallucinations

Bruce Horak as ‘Hemmer’ in Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

Hemmer returns in Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”, though not how you might expect. His first appearance is in a video that he and Uhura recorded about engineering processes. It creates a touching scene. It’s a quiet moment, but the fact we know Uhura likes to multi-skill matches her character nicely. His appearances throughout the episode, when not a zombie, are really touching. His ghost fading away at the end actually brought a tear to my eye, even though it wasn’t actually him, and was just the aliens waving goodbye to their savior.

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

Then there’s also one of the scariest moments I can recall in Star Trek. Hemmer joins Uhura in the turbolift, except he’s a deformed zombie. In many ways, it felt like a jumpscare for the sake of it. But it’s also among the most memorable shots in the episode. It also propelled the plot along, with Uhura’s hallucinations becoming the focal point. Later on, there are dead bodies, moving corridors, and even some smoke monsters in the spirit of Lost. There are loads of creative, well-done visuals that actually end up having meaning.

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

They speculate that it could be Deuterium poisoning from her exposure in engineering, but also she hasn’t been sleeping. I love how the ultimate answer about the Deuterium is right under their noses, but they’re just in the wrong department. I found the ultimate reveal of the Deuterium creatures totally unpredictable and loved the way we got to involve Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte). All the characters’ individual specialties are on full display this week. It’s brilliant.

Sabotage

Unfortunately, this one isn’t by the Beastie Boys (please somebody catch the Beyond reference). Meanwhile, on the refinery, Una’s leading the Enterprise and Farragut teams in repair efforts. The state of the station and the scale of the repair efforts reminds me of the overworking of Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) in Deep Space Nine. Although not is all as it seems, in an investigation mostly driven by Pelia (Carol Kane). As much as I adore Kane, she hasn’t gotten too much to do before this week.

Carol Kane as Pelia from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

This episode changes all of that, as she’s involved quite a lot in the main plot. She’s solely responsible for finding the saboteur, Ramon (Michael Reventar). He’s a Starfleet officer experiencing the same sort of hallucinations that Uhura is. I thought it was a nice way to merge the two plots and even hint further at what’s really wrong with Uhura. It actually makes perfect sense that the creatures within the Deuterium are trying to sabotage the station, but this doesn’t become clear until you rewatch it. Clever stuff.

Michael Reventar as Ramon from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

The fight scene with Ramon, which ends with his body drifting out into space felt like a merging of the old and new episodes of Star Trek. The older episodes of Trek are no stranger to fights in engineering sections, just look at “Court Martial”. Then the newer side of Trek with the big explosions and bodies floating around in vacuums (Lorca, Vadic, etc.). It’s some nasty, brief stuff but I was having the time of my life with it. A real highlight of the episode for me. Ramon wasn’t a huge role, but he was a well-utilized one.

Spock and Chapel

I really appreciated the way they acknowledged the end of last week’s episode. For the last entire week, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Thoughts of canon discrepancies crossed my mind, as well as just being annoyed – Spock doesn’t need a love story. This episode put my mind at ease for the most part. It’s not perfect, but I’m no longer begging for the Department of Temporal Investigations to come in and undo anything.

Jess Bush as Chapel in Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

The chess scene was really sweet. We saw Kirk playing it earlier in the season, and now we see Spock in his element. He’s the chess master of the Enterprise. We don’t know if he actually beats Chapel (Jess Bush). However, Kirk points out to Uhura that Spock was close to checkmate, but had become distracted. This was likely by Uhura’s interjection, but Chapel’s metaphor involving Schrodinger’s Cat was mindboggling. At least according to Spock, it made sense to me, but I’m not exactly a scientist.

It’s nice to have some relative closure. They’re choosing to keep their relationship quiet, and don’t know what to do with their feelings. Sure, it was a nice subplot, and it’s nice that it’s not going crazy, but it still feels unnecessary. A lot of this felt like controlling the potential damage from the fallout of last week’s episode. The fact that this, for both characters, is their biggest contribution to the episode is perhaps a sign that there were too many characters to juggle around. Pretty good for what it was though, and a massive relief.

The Kirk Brothers

Dan Jeannotte as Sam Kirk and Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk in Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Photo Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

While we’ve been introduced to both Sam and George Kirk over the course of the series, this is the first time they’ve interacted onscreen. There’s a lot more rivalry between them than I expected. Interestingly, it appears to be down to the opinion of their father, the Captain of the USS Kelvin. I do love that they kept that, in a way, it felt like a small tie-in to the 2009 film. The biggest difference though, is that their father is obviously still alive, or spoken about in the present tense at least. It’s a nice touch.

I’ve been mixed on Wesley’s Kirk so far. Mostly because he’s never been playing the Kirk we’re most familiar with (with the exception of a brief minute the other week). This is the episode where I finally began to see him as Kirk. His stuff with La’an was fine, but his scene with Uhura, where he talks about coping with death, is what finally swayed me. I also applauded when he met Spock. I loved the way they played that. Genuinely cannot wait to see them together more, one of my favorite friendships in Trek.

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

Sam on the other hand I’ve been sold on since day one. That little twist in the pilot episode was amazing, and I’ve loved everything he’s popped up in since. But for the most part, he’s been a lot of comic relief. This was the first time that I felt connected to his archaeological expertise, and him more broadly as full character. Seeing how close he was to his brother also helps to recontextualize “Operation — Annihilate”. Although now I’m actually intrigued as to what pushes Sam into moving away from Starfleet, I don’t think this ‘rivalry’ is over.

Direction

Director Dan Liu (left), directing in uniform for the final day of filming on Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”.
Photo Credit: Dan Liu – via his Instagram.

Dan Liu’s a fantastic director. His work on the vision sequences in particular was nothing short of astounding. He also worked on the episodes “Imposters” and “Bounty” from the most recent season of Picard, and it shows. The darker corridors and action scenes were mind-blowingly well done. His experience with zombies and horror was also on full display, he’s worked on The Walking Dead a few times. The tight scene on the elevator is it at its best, although any of the darker action scenes are applicable to.

There was a lot to juggle here in terms of the spectacle. For instance, plenty of big explosions, and large shots of ships moving around. There were also quieter intimate moments in the bar (speaking of, I love that the TOS characters get their own Ten Forward). Just about all the directorial choices here really hit the nail on the head. Enough shots from this episode have stuck in my mind well after the episode ended that this is worthy of praise. It’s simply a beautiful episode of Star Trek to look at and watch.

Even on a rewatch (which I have done already) it holds up. It’s evident that Liu’s fond of Star Trek, having now directed three full episodes. I really hope he comes back to do more in the future. We know there will probably eventually be another season of Strange New Worlds. Both this and “Memento Mori” (his effort last season) are up there with the best that the current era of Star Trek has to offer. If he’s not back to direct more soon, I would honestly be very surprised. This episode absolutely rocked my world.

The Core of Star Trek

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

The end of this episode, outside of how cool it is to see our versions of Pike and Kirk interacting with each other, answered the core of the franchise. That’s seeking out new life. Like certain forms of new life, it wasn’t one that was usual. This is what’s so great about Star Trek, and perhaps science fiction more broadly. It makes you consider thinking and opens up the mind to all sorts of crazy ideas. It’s like the discovery of the “wormhole aliens” (Prophets) in Deep Space Nine, or communicating with the Ten-C in Discovery.

Still from Strange New Worlds – “Lost in Translation”
Image Credit: Paramount+

Some of them weren’t ready to accept that the Deuterium here had life contained within it. Uhura, the communications officer, didn’t consider until the end that she was being communicated to through the visions. The point is, that when they realize, they’re receptive. That’s what’s so great about Starfleet, as flawed as it’s been portrayed over the last few years. It’s why we as an audience keep coming back as the shows keep breaking new ground.

This was also a really creative way of discovering new life, although I can’t shake the thought that two episodes revolving around inter-dimensional beings in a row might be a bit much. Like Season 4 of Discovery, I love finding fresh ways of communicating. The choice to use the visions was cool, and they look amazing. Also, when you watch the episode again, you can totally see what’s being said the whole time. It’s like an hour of genius writing and directing.