Gorn But Not Forgotten; Shuttle to Kenfori. Strange New Worlds S3E3 Review

So far Strange New Worlds has been at it’s best when delving into the darker parts of it’s characters and their passionately kind chief medical officer has a past that’s just too fascinating not to enjoy. Last season we found out that M’Benga had a bit of a split career during the Klingon War. He ended it as a field doctor, but started in black ops missions. So bringing him along for a dangerous mission is always a nice move to remind us that under the smile he’s a stone cold killer, and here we get to see the fallout of his blatant murder of a defecting Klingon warlord.

Though it plays on the stylised episode of the week, SNW is still a show that focuses on character arcs. Here we have three right away. One is Batel’s ongoing Gorn problem. They essentially melted the Gorn inside her, and now it’s taken hold which has in turn put Pike in a more emotionally compromised state where he’s more than happy to just throw out galactical law for the chance of something that’ll save her. That thing is a chimera plant (or, Tuvix Flower), a rare thing that just happens to be found on a disputed planet in the middle of a no fly zone and of course, time is ticking so it’s a now or never scenario.

Not letting anyone else be responsible, Pike heads out himself to get the flower, taking M’benga with him as he’s a special ops ghost and the only one who knows what he’s looking for. What they don’t know is that Klingons are following them; led by the daughter of the man he slaughtered in combat and she’s not best pleased as she wanted to kill him first. It’s an honour thing. Oh, they also dont know that this highly dangerous flower is kinda reasonable for turning what was left on the planet into zombies turning the entire mission into a Day of the Living Dead In Space.

Pike and M’Benga don’t get a massive amount of screen time together. But it was nice to see them hint more about their past friendship again and work together fairly well. It was also nice to have Pike naturally stand by and not be the hero knowing fightings not his strong suit, and even if it was M’Benga is – let us repeat – a stone cold killer. For the most part, despite the zombie movie dressing, it’s all about M’Benga’s life choices. During the war he butchered Klingons relentlessly, after the war he finally killed the general responsible for an unjust genocide and now that general’s daughter is leading an away mission to kill him back.

It was nice to see some of the TNG-level honour play here, especially with the Klingon tradition of mental gymnastics to honour your way back into society. The down side was that the balance between that and the not-zombies kind of left both feeling a little rushed with everything tied up neatly from M’Benga’s strap match to him and Pike just swiftly dismissing his admission of murdering a high profile political figure.

Through the whole thing we learn M’Benga’s plan to save Batel is also a little messed up. With days to live, M’Benga’s not going to cure her. He’s going to Tuvix her into one big happy hybrid. On board the ship, Spock plays mind meld with her and goes a little batshit as he sucks up the inherent Gorn rage buried in her now so that’s going to be fun.. but it highlighted what this episode was here for; background.

Under the chaos on the ground as well as the tension of the Enterprise hanging around in orbit trying not to get the Klingons attention, everything was just setting something up. Even the B plot, all about Erika Ortegas lashing out and looking for a scrap, was just laying groundwork for whats to come later on which let some of the episode down a bit for me.

Another thing chipping away at me is Batel. She seems to be there for Pike’s own saviour complex as he tries to fight against the inevitable – a nice mirror for his own future – but it leaves her all too often sidelined as a character. Not knowing her motivation to willing go through with the treatment makes sense. We’re supposed to be introduced through Pike figuring it out and follow his shock and surprise. But it would be nice to have something form her perspective for a change as it all being about Pike hasn’t really given us much depth to care about her side of things.

Overall it felt a little middle of the road after a relatively strong first week as it suffered form being a transitional episode in the character journey without giving us enough time to focus on any one thing. That said, even I the sequel to Under the Cloak of War wasn’t as strong an episode, it gave more M’Benga, and that’s never a bad thing as he’s fast becoming one of the more interesting characters on the show.