It was bound to happen at some point but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finally ran across an episode that was good, but not great. In fact, the episode felt a bit rushed, which is strange considering that each episode of this Star Trek spinoff are long enough that there's usually plenty of room to jam in plenty of story. It doesn't bode all that well that it only took three episodes for Strange New Worlds to deliver a less than impressive episode, but the show can be forgiven somewhat because even a subpar episode is better than quite a bit of other television these days.
While Captain Pike and company seemed to be offering something that wasn't as good as its first two weeks, it was going up against the season finale of a Halo series that had been pretty good, right up until the last episode of the year. So far, this new show is boldly going where no sci-fi show has gone so far this year and that's to a place where even when a show isn't all that good, it still has something to offer up to the diehard fans of the franchise who have been hoping to see a program that appears very, very close in tone to the original journeys of the Enterprise.
This time around the crew of the Enterprise has been dispatched to try and save a planet of aliens that want to join the Federation but aren't being allowed to because they tend to genetically modify themselves. It's not explicitly laid out but this appears to be a direct reaction to the Eugenics Wars that are well-known canon when it comes to Star Trek. It is, after all that period of time in earth's history that birthed none other than Khan. It's been obvious from very early on that the Eugenics Wars were going to play a part in the show since one of the members of the crew is a descendant of the man that will always and forever be known as the big rival of James T. Kirk. The question has been how exactly they were going to tackle the issue of having a Khan, specifically, La'an Noonien-Singh on the crew.
The way this episode of Strange New Worlds tackled it is likely foreshadowing more to come as the season moves along. If the writers are going to continue focusing on this particular storyline, there needs to be some hope that it's not quite as ham-handed as it was in this particular installment. At the same time, it feels like when the big reveal from Number One comes, there would indeed be some anger from Noonien-Singh but it also felt as if the show didn't have to make it quite that obvious what exactly she was mad about. In fact, a lighter touch there could have been much more impactful both in the episode and later in the season as the audience gets to know the cast members even more.
The idea that an entire culture messed with their biological makeup was the focus of the show for more than one reason as the crew of the Enterprise journeys to the alien race's home planet. However, they soon realize that they can't seem to find any of the people they arrived to help. After the away team, led by Number One was transported back to the ship and Spock and Pike were left on the planet, the episode's story was split into two. Spock and Pike were forced to unravel a mystery that did indeed feel like the old-school Star Trek.
It also felt like a couple episodes of another great old-school science-fiction show in Doctor Who. The scenes where the two men were trying to figure out where everyone went, paired with mysterious creatures that seem to have done something to everyone on the planet felt an awful lot like the episode of Doctor Who where he visits an empty library planet. Considering the two shows are some of the most beloved and watched sci-fi franchises in television history, it's not out of the question that the similarities in this episode were at least a hat tip from the Strange New Worlds writers.
While Pike and Spock are down on the planet aping Doctor Who, the rest of the crew is up on the Enterprise and slowly being taken over by a virus that makes them desperately want to be near ... or in light. If the plotline down on the planet is indeed an homage to another popular science-fiction series then it's almost a guarantee that what is happening on the ship is absolutely a way for the writers to harken back to previous Star Trek episodes. It was both good plain fun to see the show indeed nod towards some of the classic episodes where the entire crew was compromised and a bit sad that this particular approach just felt a little more hollow.
Perhaps the homage was just a bit too close to what Star Trek has done before. Perhaps it was the fact that the disease's outbreak did indeed feel like it was too rushed. There's something to be said for the fact that most of the time, the entire story focused on the crew being taken over. This time around the focus was split. Whatever the driving force behind it, the danger to the crew and the Enterprise simply didn't feel all that real. Just when things started to get really dire, everything was fixed. It also felt like the solve was just a bit too perfect and a bit too easy to happen upon. It was even more contrived when the episode went out of its way to explain the eventual solution could absolutely not be the thing that saved everyone.
The good news is that so far, the worst episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is still an entertaining episode. However, there was a noticeable drop in quality that the show has got to work to avoid making it a habit.