As a novice Star Trek fan, I knew that the various crews go on weird and bold missions and see odd things. What I never expected was for this episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to be something similar to the 1990s movie (or IDW comic book) Event Horizon.
La'an Noonien-Singh, Spock, and James T. Kirk come across the long-lost Starfleet ship, the U.S.S. Griffin, and obviously, they’re going to investigate. They're hoping to find some of the crew alive or learn why the ship has been lost for so long. Once they’re on board, however, they find out that there’s something disturbing going on, and they can't explain what it is.
Among the weird things is that the ship seems undisturbed. As they continue to try to solve the mystery, a person with an all-white face (who clearly looks dead) appears, then vanishes. Spock says it was like they were never there, but he found traces of negatively-charged ions. Kirk then asks if he (Spock) means ghosts, to which Spock responds: “I mean negatively-charged ions.”
As the episode continues, Spock, Kirk, and La'an experience different things that attack their worst fears. Spock is forced to face his former fiancée, T'Pring. Kirk keeps hearing his son crying because he feels guilty about not seeing him more. Meanwhile, La'an is being targeted by the “negatively-charged ions,” who are manifesting as the ship’s former (and now dead) captain. This entity eventually wins its battle against La’an, which leads to La'an stabbing Kirk in hopes of making him the Griffin's new dead captain.
I kept thinking that La'an was seeing another vision caused by the entity but, alas, I was wrong. La’an actually stabbed Kirk. Luckily, before things could go any further, the trio was beamed back to the USS Enterprise. But this was an adventure that will stay with them... and probably us, too!
Stardate 04.02 review
This was more than just a typical episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4. The creative team went to work creating something special and they succeeded with flying colors. This episode could easily become a Halloween fixture for TV fans or a favorite among friend groups when they want to watch something scary. But within all of the scary goodness, there are a couple of things to note.
First, Nyota Uhura met Kirk after he was healed from La'an's stabbing. Instead of a heavy-handed or overly emotional talk, she checked on him and brought cookies. It was a callback to Kirk saying that refusing fresh-baked cookies is a sign of madness. Once the jokes were over, she told Kirk he’d be okay.
In future episodes, Kirk and Uhura will look back at this moment fondly. It may not be why there’s an attraction in the future, but it’s certainly one of the building blocks of their friendship.
Lastly, in the final moments of the episode, La’an is watching the U.S.S. Griffin be taken by Division 12, and she looks concerned. I thought that she was upset that the ship was leaving, but I was so wrong. In the window is the spirit/negatively-charged ion looking at La’an through the window. The episode closes with it putting its finger on its mouth, telling La’an not to say anything.
La’an already thinks that she’s becoming a cold and unfeeling person. Stabbing someone she cares about and seeing a spirit that people may not believe exists isn’t going to make things better. In the upcoming episodes, this may will be yet another moment people will look back on when they try to find why La’an went Daenerys Targaryen on her crew.
All in all, this episode was an experience for Star Trek fans... and a truly memorable one at that! Strange New Worlds season 4 is not holding back, and we're only two episodes in!
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