TL;DR – This could have been a very silly episode of Star Trek, but there was some real heart and design that helped elevate the story.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service used to view this series.

End Credit – There is a mid-credit scene

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

It feels like this season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been all about the curveballs, and today’s entry is no exception. It uses sci-fi technobabble to explain why a whole episode is broadcast in black and white. But as silly as this sounds, it is a choice that I can’t help but love seeing played out.

So, to set the scene, the USS Enterprise is on a secret mission near the border of Klingon Space. The Angelo-1 probe lost power and slipped past the border near the Mat’Aaran system, which could reignite a war if found. Una (Rebecca Romijn), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) have slipped across the border in a shuttle hidden because the local sun puts out energy that affects visual receptors and makes things hard to spot on scanners. But that scanner issue can cut both ways, and the shuttle is forced to hide on Mat’Aar XII, an occupied Klingon planet, to avoid a D7 battle cruiser. The crew must blend in with the local population until a window of escape can be found. But Una discovers that she might be wrapped into the fabric of this world more than she expects. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.