The second half of the second season of Strange New Worlds begins with a callback to an Original Series episode, The Devil in the Dark. But in Lost in Translation, instead of the misunderstood intelligent creature the Horta killing to protect its brood, we have intelligent life forms in a nebula causing crewmembers to hallucinate in their attempt at communication. This is where Star Trek shines, in general. When confronted with a life form doing harm, Starfleet finds a way to resolve the conflict peacefully. It turns out that the creatures living in the nebula are harmed by the deuterium refining and the Enterprise ends up destroying it to preserve their lives.
In the episode, we follow up with James T. Kirk making another appearance, as he visits the Enterprise, greeted by his brother, Sam. Kirk is visiting from the USS Farragut, which has a particular place in Kirk’s TOS history. It was the ship he was serving on when half the crew (including the captain) were killed in his past, detailed in the episode, Obsession. Sam gives him a tour of the ship, which ends at the bar, at Kirk’s request. We get a taste of their sibling rivalry, as Jim is about to become the first officer of the Farragut, while Sam feels that he has disappointed his father by being content with being a scientist. We also discover that Pike has been given a temporary promotion as Fleet Captain, which comes with its own special delta insignia. He is commanding both Enterprise and the Farragut in regard to the mission at hand, completing a deuterium refinery in Bannon’s Nebula. This is a weak attempt to make good on a singular line in the TOS episode, The Menagerie part 1, in which Kirk recalls that he met Pike after his promotion to fleet captain. This is one of the problems that Strange New Worlds suffers in this second season. They appear to be trying to shoehorn TOS characters into the show, and it feels forced. As the show ends, Kirk and Uhura are having a drink in the Port Galley, and Spock joins them, and we’re once again beaten over the head with a TOS introduction of a cameraderie that will last years.
This really could have been a strong episode, but it was weakened by the shoehorning. They are really trying to put James T. Kirk on this ship. La’an and Kirk share a moment in this episode, following La’an’s communication with this version of Kirk in episode three, and there’s much more to come, it’s clear.
The seventh episode, “Those Old Scientists,” was the episode I was not looking forward to. It’s a crossover with the animated Star Trek series Lower Decks, which is not my favorite. It’s a show played for laughs, which is fine, and just full of references to all of Star Trek’s previous characters and events. I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull this off, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how they did. Of course, there is a random time-travel relic on a planet that resembles the Guardian of Forever without being the Guardian of Forever. That discovery will be reserved for the TOS episode, City on the Edge of Forever. But for all intents and purposes, it is the same thing. When Ensign Boimler inadvertently finds himself at the feet of some of his heroes, we discover some fundamental truths about how important these characters are in the future, and that’s touching, especially in the case of Una, because her testimony in episode two of this season is shown to resonate even into the 24th century, as her image and motto Ad Astra per Aspera is used for recruitment. Even when surrounded by humor, there are touching character moments that make the series great. Sure, there are highjinks, and in a ten-episode season, it could be argued that there is not enough time to have so much comedy. But this episode really works well.
Under the Cloak of War, the eighth episode makes up for all the comedy of the previous episode by going dark. And I mean, really dark. When a federation ambassador turns out to be a former Klingon general named Dak’Rah, Dr. M’Benga’s memories of the war come bubbling to the surface. It provides an interesting contrast in the different members of the Enterprise crew, as some of them fought in the war, while others were off exploring on a five-year mission. We get the full backstory of how Christine Chapel meets M’Benga, and we learn how their bond was forged–under fire. Even more than M’Benga, who was really nothing more than a guest character on TOS, Christine Chapel is really becoming a nuanced, deeper character thanks to Strange New Worlds. But we do learn a whole lot more about M’Benga. We already knew he was a combat expert, but he stands toe-to-toe with Rah in Klingon Jiu Jitsu, and eventually kills him under, shall we say, mysterious circumstances.
At this point of the season, though, we really start to see that the show is becoming more like The Next Generation. They really haven’t gone to many strange new worlds. They’ve boldy gone to many places they’ve already been, and Enterprise has become less a vessel of exploration and more of a symbol of the Federation in its everyday routine.
Until the next episode, which deserves its own post!
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