TL;DR – An episode that wears its heart on its sleeve and leaves very little room to misinterpret the moral lesson it is exploring.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

If there is one thing that Star Trek has always been is political. They were not subtle with it, given Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, to say the least. It has also been full of episodes based around trials that speak for their time, like The Measure of a Man. It is time for Strange New Worlds to take its take, and what a take it is.  

So to set the scene, back in Season One, we discovered that Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) is actually an Illyrian who cannot serve in Starfleet due to their extensive genetic modifications. In the season finale, A Quality of Mercy, she was arrested. Sent to prison, she has been offered a deal that includes dishonourable dismissal. In The Broken Circle, Captain Pike (Anson Mount) has travelled to a planet in the Vaultera Nebula, where only Illyrians can live to meet with Neera Ketoul (Yetide Badaki) to be her lawyer. A last-ditch chance to save Una’s career. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

This is not a subtle episode, not in the least, with the trial about genetic modification being a substitute for a whole range of issues. However, it gets much more specific with conversations about being able ‘to pass’, not wanting to live a lie, and being able not to serve openly. It is hitting with a sledgehammer, but that is what you sometimes need. The episode does not hide its political drive. In fact, it leads with it, making it clear what it wants by reminding people that “you are not born a monster”. None of this is accidental, of course, given when the episode was released and the current climate where these issues are being explored.

As this is a trial episode, the question then becomes how does the episode work on that line. Going into this episode, we know from the timelines that Una would succeed because she ends up back on the USS Enterprise. I think that is where the timelines play out. But even with that, I found myself drawn into how the case was preceding because it felt insurmountable. Yetide Badaki provides the power you need as a defence attorney, especially going into the lion’s den. Then there were the legal torpedoes that were fired by both sides, creating a fascinating back and forth. The character witness sequence being a particularly powerful moment.

While the trial was the main feature, I liked many of the little moments throughout the episode that helped tell character stories. Like Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) standing up to La’an (Christina Chong) about what is right, which would not have been easy for a new ensign to do. Or Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) trying to help Pike from being in a position where he might perjure himself. Also, in what was a serious episode, we got a perfect Vulcan outburst. Add to all this, a continued excellence in set design and visual effects, and you have an episode that sings.  

In the end, do we recommend Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Ad Astra per Aspera? Yes, we do. Now this is obviously a very political episode, and its timing during the year could not be more explicit. Which may or may not be frustrating to you. But I found the trial to be engaging. The resolution fit within the Star Trek framework it was working in, allowing for some amazing performances. I hope the rest of this season continues to excel. Though RIP to the poor person that had to go through Memory Alpha and update all the Latin episode title page references.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Directed by – Valerie Weiss
Written by – Dana Horgan
Created by – Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet
Based On – Star Trek Created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – CBS Television Studios, Roddenberry Entertainment, Secret Hideout & Paramount+
Starring – Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Celia Rose Gooding, Melissa Navia, Babs Olusanmokun & Rebecca Romijn with Yetide Badaki, Adrian Holmes & Melanie Scrofano and Jim Annan, Catherine Black, Anna Claire Beitel, Eugene Clark, Nicky Guadagni, Graeme Somerville, David Benjamin Tomlinson & Alex Kapp