TL;DR – This week I feel as if we have seen a touch of the endgame of the season, as we suddenly have what might be the first normal episode of the season.  

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

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review Introduction

Today we are looking at a very odd episode, because if we removed it from all the context around it, then we get a solid episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, once we bring in all the context available, it starts becoming odder, as it feels almost more like a reaction to an uneven season. If nothing else, it does make an interesting episode to mark Star Trek’s 60^th Birthday.

So, to set the scene, the USS Enterprise has been patrolling one of the major trade routes of the Federation when a weak SOS has called Pike (Anson Mount), Una (Rebecca Romijn), Chapel (Jess Bush), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and A’Sha (Bianca Nugara) down to some crystalline caves. This puts them out of communication when Admiral Simon Reeger (Joe Morton) arrives by shuttle. He is a hero of the Federation-Klingon War and is chasing an echo of a ship that committed the Vaardan massacre. There is not enough time to wait for Pike to get back, so Reeger takes command of the Enterprise and makes Kirk (Paul Wesley) his number one. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.