TL;DR – An experiment that has its frustrating points but is made better with one of the best performances in Star Trek history.

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

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Introduction –

One of the lingering plot points that has been bubbling away since Wedding Bell Blues is that Beto Ortegas (Mynor Luken) is going to film a documentary. What kind of documentary he’d make has been debated. In a world where ‘following orders’ faces growing scrutiny, it feels like a timely reminder.    

So, to set the scene, the USS Enterprise has been tasked by Starfleet to lend aid to the Lutani, a people that had been previously hostile-adjacent to the Federation, but who are now under attack from the nearby Kasar people trying to lay claim to their home system and all its resources. Millions have died. However, there is a quandary with The Enterprise’s orders; they have to deliver ‘supplies’, obviously weapons, but also help escort the Jikaru, which is an ethical time bomb waiting to go off. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Documentary Technique

There are many styles of documentary out there, and this is a very standard, if sci-fi kind of set-up. We have the voice-over, the confessional, the security-cam footage, and the film crew all knitted together. It is a little jarring at first, especially as the show ditches its usual edifices as a TV Show, with all the titles and credits being jettisoned to the end. But Dutch Angles be damned, because the harsh cuts and in-your-face style of filmmaking draws you in and helps you get over some of the silliness that is inherent in a documentary being made ‘in-universe’ of a fictional show that has also done a musical episode.

In the episode, the person who is guiding the documentary is Beto Ortegas, which should immediately raise some red flags for you about his objectivity, given that his sister Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) also serves on the ship. Actually, it is kind of odd, even in-universe, that they don’t address that upfront. It is also clear that he is coming into work with an apparent angle, posing what feel like neutral questions to the audience, but are actually quite barbed. The episode does eventually address this, which I liked, but the answer that he was mad about his sister getting hurt felt hollow, since it comes out of nowhere.

Characters

While there is this ethical conflict being played out across the episode, what I was far more interested in was the character moments that we got to have. For the first time, we get to see inside Erica’s world, what exists outside of the helm station. Anson Mount gives some of his best work in the show, in extreme close-up, where there is nowhere to hide. I liked how Babs Olusanmokun got to play around the edges of his character and how Christina Chong got to bring a new dimension to her character.

Nyota Uhura  

However, there was one anchor for this episode that tied all of the narrative framework together, and that was Celia Rose Gooding, producing some of the best character work in Star Trek with her performance of Nyota Uhura. All the ethical quandaries she plays out in her performance. She is the beating heart of the episode, and it goes to some raw emotional places. It was hard not to be moved by her performance when she was talking about her family or pulling apart Beto’s biases. Not only is she the emotional heart of the episode, but she is also the emotional throughline for the fictional documentary. With a performance like that, I am not surprised.

Production

Once again, this was a stunning episode of science fiction television. The Jikaru was spectacular with its Mothra vibes intact. We also see this in how they incorporated the documentary focus to show off new techniques, for example, how the radiation affected their security monitors, which was a nice touch. In the attempt to keep us in the world of the documentary, I respect how they held off on using a lot of music, right until the moment when you needed the orchestral swell at the end. They also took the time to create a new alien race that had a fascinating design. It felt familiar in some way, even though it is very different to what the show has done before.

Plot Analysis

Overall, I do think the sort of fake documentary setting for the episode did work. It was clearly very pointed for a reason, but it got its point across when The Federation finally realised just what a mess they had walked into. I will be really interested to see if the Lutani/Kasar conflict comes up again in the show, or if this was a one-and-done deal. However, I do have to point out that occasionally, they would fling out a very loaded term, for example: Coloniser. But they did not do a good job in interrogating what they meant by the term, and hoped the weight of the word would do the heavy lifting for them. Also, to be honest, I did feel that everything was tied up in a bit-too-neat resolution which doesn’t interrogate the notion of ‘following orders’ nearly well enough.    

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – What is Starfleet? Yes, we do. While I am not sure that every element of this episode worked. I have to admit that when it reached its crescendo, I was completely captured by its narrative. I do think that a couple of actors on the show will be using this episode when Emmy/Saturn nomination time comes around. Have you seen Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – What is Starfleet? yet? Drop your impressions in the comments below.

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.

Feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Directed by – Sharon Lewis
Written by – Kathryn Lyn & Alan B. McElroy
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, Martin Quinn & Rebecca Romijn with Melanie Scrofano, Mynor Luken & Shaun Majumder and Steffi Didomenicantonio