Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3

On first viewing, this season falls flat, to the point of making you wonder whether the show lost one of its essential writers. It fares better in a second viewing, but the flaws don't fully fade. Not enough uhura or number one, and a season-opening clank of epic proportion.

-Hegemony, Part II **

Tight and dark ensemble work, as the ship is alone deep in gorn territory, scrambling to prevent a full-scale invasion of Federation space. The solution is a forgivable re-use from STARGATE: ATLANTIS...but far less pardonable is the image of pike praying over a doomed comrade. We cringed when kira did it, but this is far less justifiable.

-Wedding Bell Blues ***

Chapel shows up with new beau roger corby...and suddenly the crew is preparing for spock and chapel's wedding! Corby is the only one who knows reality is wrong, but he can't convince anyone of that fact...especially the puckish wedding planner, who turns out to be our very own...Q! Or trelane, if you will. And we will! Impishly propelled by rhys darby (FLIGHT OF THE CHOCHORDS, OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH), the episode resolves when spock is jarred by corby into an emotional outburst, and regains his senses. The icing on this cake is the voice of john de lancie as trelane's father.

-Shuttle to Kenfori **

The gorn DNA in captain batel (melanie scrofano - WYNONNA EARP, LETTERKENNY) reactivates, forcing pike to take the ship into the klingon neutral zone, for a floral cure. It's a deal with the devil which will make the gorn DNA permanent. Not bad, but the zombies and vengeful klingon feel a bit uninspired.

-A Space Adventure Hour ***

La'an is assigned with testing the experimental "holodeck", and finds herself locked into a 20th-century murder mystery with the safety protocols disabled until she solves the crime. A love letter to the show's history, as she plays a 1969 Hollywood detective investigating a campy sci fi show modeled after TREK itself. The cast stretch their chops, playing very different characters (including another fine turn by paul wesley, sending up the kirk persona). Directed by jonathan frakes, it's thoroughly charming and damn near four stars.

-Through the Lens of Time ***

An archaeological mission under the guidance of corby encounters deadly disaster, as they unknowingly awaken an ancient, malevolent non-corporeal alien who inhabits the body of nurse gamble. This triggers a body-snatching transformation in captain patel as well. The away team must navigate an extra-dimensional maze to return to safety.

-The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail ***

Enterprise races to the aid of the Farragut, which has been crippled by an outsized, unknown scavenger ship. When the ship returns, spock, chapel, uhura, and scotty are trapped aboard Farragut as the Enterprise is swallowed. Kirk is thrust into command, and reacts with recklessness and crippling uncertainty. Pelia uses 20th-century phones to re-establish ship communication. The triumph is perhaps too easy, but a fine character study foreshadowing a crew to come.

-What is Starfleet? ***

This one bangs harder on the four-star door than any other entry this season. Ortegas' civilian brother is aboard, creating a documentary. His angle is adversarial, as he questions whether the Federation is just a colonizing empire. This is a fair question, especially as nick meyer, one of the most influential creators in TREK history, willfully pushed the franchise in a "gunboat diplomacy" direction.

-Four-and-a-Half Vulcans ***

An away team has their DNA temporarily altered to become vulcan, to save a pre-warp planet where vulcans have already broken the prime directive. Using vulcan logic, the team decides to remain vulcan (though la'an feels rather more romulan than vulcan). A curious vulcan katra expert (patton oswalt - MAGNOLIA, CAPRICA), who has a steamy history with number one, is enlisted to assist. The writers went for it boldly...and it was almost great.

-Terrarium ***

Ortegas crash lands alone on a gas giant moon, on the other side of a wormhole. Its climate is hellish, and the only other castaway is an injured female gorn pilot. They must work together to survive...then the gorn is killed by la'an and a rescue team. This one is almost epicly good...it might have been four stars without uhura's cringeworthy prayer on the bridge.

-New Life and New Civilizations **

The capper to a season-long story about a race of evil aliens imprisoned for millennia, one of whom escapes, while batel has her DNA altered to become the galaxy's protector. Ancient temples, slavish fealty, epic battling...not bad, but i'm not sure what any of this has to do with science fiction. Pike sees (or "lives, a la "Inner Light") a timeline in which he and she live to old age...well, it ain't awful.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 2

(Come on, SNW, break that four-star barrier! And what's going on with uhura's makeup?? We haven't seen anything this anti-feminist since ORVILLE!)

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 0

AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.7

The Broken Circle ***

Fast-paced excitement, as spock and crew steal the ship to respond to a distress call from la'an, while una is jailed and pike on leave. They discover a klingon mercenary plot to re-start the war, using a Federation ship cobbled from parts. The plot holes are the unlikelihood that spock would violate orders so egregiously (and everyone would go along), and the ease with which the klingon captain forgives all. We might have been able to overlook those, were the episode not so action-based, to the detriment of story and character. The wounds from the abrams era are too fresh for that to fly.

Ad Astra per Aspera ***

Pike recruits a reluctant illyrian lawyer to defend una. A classic TREK trial episode, with the case being argued that in coming to Starfleet, una was seeking asylum from the persecution she and other augments received on their home colony. There are many conceits of serial television that inhibit the creation of genuine drama. We KNOW una is going to be the rap. Despite that, the second time i watched this, i almost cried.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ***

A dying time agent appears on Enterprise, and la'an is thrust back into the 21st century with james kirk, to foil a timeline-erasing romulan plot. Unfortunately, they don't know the nature of the plot and don't quite trust each other, having never met. They fumble around Toronto, and...fall in love. He dies, and she saves the world by preventing a child khan from being killed (a fascinating twist on "The City on the Edge of Forever"). Back aboard Enterprise, she's told by another agent she can never discuss it. She calls kirk, who has no idea who she is. A lot works in this one, and i'm not sure what that missing fourth-star element would be.

Among the Lotus Eaters ***

Enterprise visits a pre-warp planet unknowingly contaminated years earlier, on an away mission that went fatally wrong. They discover that one of their crewmembers survived, and used Federation tech to become emperor. Radiation on the planet constantly erases the memory of its inhabitants, except those living within the protected walls of the palace. P'ike, m'benga, and la'an lead an insurrection, while Enterprise suffers from the effects of the radiation as well.

Charades ***

While investigating a trans-dimensional portal left from a civilization that transcended corporeality, spock accidentally has his vulcan DNA erased. Back aboard Enterprise, he must participate in a pre-marriage ceremony with his in-laws-to-be. The crew teaches him how to lie, while he deals with a hurricane of emotions (including laughter and his attraction to chapel). Yes, these are TREK tropes...but done well. I even almost cried. And perhaps most notably, we see the first-ever TREK away mission of more than two people, with NO males. Pardon my binary pride, but...wonderful.

Lost in Translation ***

Uhura has hallucinations that turn out to be communications from an alien species being unknowingly massacred by Starfleet industrialization. A visiting james kirk (paul wesley - WOLF LAKE, EVERWOOD) befriends uhura. Tropey but well-done.

Those Old Scientists **

Unleash your shatnerian "NOOOOOOO!", as characters from the animated series LOWER DECKS are stranded on this Enterprise, via a time portal accident. Yes, it's appalling corporate overreach. Does the dialogue descend to the melodramatic condescension of LOWER DECKS? A bit...but on the road to "Sub Rosa", it becomes almost watchable. Skip it and you're fine...but it's not a complete disaster.

Under the Cloak of War **

Enterprise transports a klingon defector turned peace advocate...but is he a war criminal? No, m'benga turns out to have been the actual "butcher of J'Gal"...but he kills the klingon anyway. Gritty and dark, but the plot doesn't achieve contrivance-escape velocity. Oh well, clint howard's back!

Subspace Rhapsody ***

A damaged quantum probability field causes the crew to break into song any time they get the feels...and the effect will spread to the entire quadrant if they can't stop it. Forget the plot holes and inconsistencies, it's almost brilliant. The singing klingons feel achingly short-changed.

Hegemony ***

The gorn massacre a colony that has trade relations with the Federation. Survivors, including Starfleet officers, hope for rescue. Against daunting odds (and with the help of a stranded engineer named scotty), Enterprise finds a way through the blockade. In a wrecked ship in orbit, spock and chapel tangle with a space-suited gorn. A hair's breath away from four stars...again!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 1

(Why is this the real deal, where "Picard" and "Discovery" fall short? It took three tries to shake off abrams' toxic shadow? Regress klingons to "evil subhumyns", DSC? Violence porn of seven committing murder, PIC?? Perhaps it's because SNW is more story and issue-based. Certainly it's because this show found the humor that DSC and PIC misplaced.)

FOUR-STAR EPISODES: 0

AVERAGE EPISODE RATING: 2.9

-Strange New Worlds ***

After seeing a vision of his future mutilation/death (as portrayed in TOS and DSC), captain christopher pike reluctantly returns to service to save his first officer after a botched first contact. He must convince a warring world which accidentally acquired Federation technology, to not destroy themselves. We meet young spock, chapel, m'benga, and uhura, plus a descendant of khan, an aenar engineer, samuel kirk, and sparky helmsperson ortegas. Powerful and poignant, with great chemistry. Pike accepts a five-year voyage of exploration. The story feels like a metaphor for the humyn species...acquiring power beyond imagination, but lacking the evolved brainpower to control our obscene brilliance. Wrenching.

-Children of the Comet ***

Cadet uhura is thrust to the fore as Enterprise discovers an artificial comet on course to destroy a pre-warp world. Enterprise is imperiled by aliens who revere the comet as a god. Nyota discovers the comet's autopilot tech is based on a musical language. Aside from being a fine meditation on cultural relativity, predestination paradoxes are explored in a way that's surprisingly non-annoying.

-Ghost of Illyria ***

Researching a planet once populated by a genetically-engineered race, the ship fights an infection that renders people mindless slaves to light, while pike and spock are trapped on the surface during an ion storm. They discover the illyrians may have mutated into a benevolent plasma-based lifeform. To save the crew through antibodies in her blood, number one must reveal that she herself is illyrian - and that she lied about her heritage to get into Starfleet.

-Memento Mori ***

After finding survivors of an alien attack, security chief la'an noonien-singh identifies the attackers as gorn...after Enterprise falls into their trap. La'an was the sole survivor of a gorn attack as a child, and has never shaken survivor's guilt. A crippled Enterprise flies close to a brown dwarf, where all four ships become sensor-blind. Gripping.

-Spock Amok ***

During a visit from his fiance t'pring, spock switches bodies with her in a mindmeld ritual gone wrong. His presence is required in delicate diplomatic negotiations. It dances on the too-silly line...but doesn't fall over, just barely. Chapel has some great character-building, and pike a great diplomatic speech.

-Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach ***

Pike is reunited (and reignited) with an old flame on a non-Federation planet. He discovers a child-sacrifice element of their culture, and his cultural relativity/tolerance falls to pieces.

-The Serene Squall ***

Transporting a Starfleet counselor, Enterprise plunges deep into pirate territory in response to a distress call. After Enterprise is boarded and commandeered, the counselor is revealed as the pirate captain (who rather easily manipulates spock's emotions). She demands a prisoner exchange, to release her lover from vulcan captivity. T'pring, a security planet administrator, agrees...but spock and chapel pretend to have an affair, requiring spock to break off his engagement. It sounds corny, but it works, thanks to an understated guest performance by jesse james keitel (BIG SKY, QUEER AS FOLK).

-The Elysian Kingdom **

M'benga's daughter has a fatal disease, and is illegally kept in a sickbay transporter buffer while he searches for a cure. He materializes her occasionally, to read her favorite fairy tale. A non-corporeal nebula alien takes over the consciousnesses of the crew, casting them as characters in the fairy tale. M'benga sees through the ruse, and finally contacts the alien with the help of engineer hemmer (bruce horak - TRANSPLANT, IN THE DARK), whose telepathic abilities make him immune. The alien just wants to protect the child, whom it thinks is being abused. This one might have been three-star if the denouement were psychologically sound. To accept that m'benga would quickly give his beloved daughter to an unknown, VERY alien non-humyn, is too large a pill to swallow.

-All Those Who Wander ***

Enterprise responds to a distress call from USS Peregrine, which has crashed on an ice planet. An away team discovers the only survivors are two refugees, one of whom dies as four gorn hatchlings burst from his body. The team fights the terrifying hatchlings, who are also killing each other for alpha status. The best episode of the season, in part due to the sacrificial death of an infected hemmer.

-A Quality of Mercy ***

Pike meets a child whose life will one day be lost in the disaster that will leave pike mutilated and paralyzed. He decides to change those events, and is visited by a future version of himself, who shows him the catastrophes that will be unleashed by his actions, as he will still be in command of Enterprise during the events of TOS' "Balance of Terror". Those events play out, but war with the romulans is not averted, due to the differing command styles of kirk and pike. Kirk (paul wesley - THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, WOLF LAKE) appears, giving aid as captain of the Farragut. In this vision of the future, spock also dies. Back in the present, Starfleet arrests number one for concealing her illyrian identity.