After a rescue mission gone wrong, half the crew have been captured by the Gorn, the Enterprise is on the wrong side of the border, Captain Batel has been fully aliened and the order to retreat and regroup has come through and in the middle of it all stands Pike, pacing his way through a season break and a writers strike to finally answer his first officer asking for orders.
Writers: Davy Perez & Henry Alonso Myers
Director: Chris Fisher
Opening right where things left off – with Pike realising his noble plans had turned to chaos – there’s really no hesitation in the action. There’s camera twirling, snap decision making and even giving Mitchell some day saving ideas as Pike plucks the best ideas Picard style to figure out his next move. From there it’s a three story show that balances out fairly well.
On board the Enterprise, Pike has to face April to give the Admiral an ethics lesson. Unable to beat the Gorn, the best idea was to escape and find their missing officers later thanks to a dud torpedo buried into the Gorn hull as a tracker. From there it’s all hands on deck with that thread holding everything together. Playing some more on the Gorn’s light-reliance and visual limitations, Enterprise hides in plain sight as they follow the Gorn into a binary star system. That turns out to be the staging area for a full blown attack on the Federation and more scrambling for ideas. The tension throughout the whole thing was nice as everything just moved nicely from one bad situation to the next crisis. Though it was nice to have Pike kind of in the back seat relying on everyone else to share the stage. Compared to other captains, Pike is at his best at his most vulnerable, and they have Anson Mount plenty to play with between feeling responsible for his missing crew, being up against an entire Gorn armada with no support, and all with one eye on monitoring his dying other half in sickbay.
From the initial tag of the missile right up to the end, there was a nice pace of action and pressure that built up. Mostly with Pike, but Pella playing with Scotty a little and putting him under pressure to perform was a strangely nice fit in there. Especially as she kept nudging Scotty to help build on Pike’s Gorn-busting idea. Uhura had already confirmed the Gorn were reactive to the stars, their hibernation cycles controlled by solar cycles, so turning the ship itself into one big lighting rod of solar energy was set up to be a brilliant visual treat. Even if it was a convenient way to get the Gorn out the way for the rest of the season, forcing them into hibernation until their next encounter.
Below decks, Chapel and Spock’s own relationship ending tension worked well as a backdrop to trying to solve the Marie mystery and save Batel while ramping up the tension for Pike on the bridge. Of course the day is saved thanks to some Spock genius and Illyrian blood – but it worked well to keep pushing that humanity button on Pike who, through sheer desperation, even starts to pray at her bedside.
As a flip side to the sickbay side story, we also get a glimpse into the Gorn ship as La’an managed to wake up some of the main cast to save the colonists from inside. Which, well, wasn’t as good to be fair. In contrast to the camera work and visuals throughout the episode, the practical set for the Gorn ship felt a little dated and a bit more like Stargate Atlantis than a modern Trek production. Most of the escape also happening off screen was a little underwhelming and felt like we’d skipped to the end for convenience. Though that may not be a bad thing as ten minutes of shooting Gorn would be dull, and the most interesting part was Ortegas flying them to safety while decorating the consoles with her insides.
Overall, the pacing kept the story alive for an exciting return for the show. But as always, it was the humanity that pulled it all together. Not just Pike’s shattered confidence as he struggles through the day while failing not to think about his personal life, but Chapel and Spock’s scenes set up where they are now rather nicely. Mainly with Chapel again being the emotionally intelligent lead by politely pointing out they were broken up, while Spock pretended he wasn’t crying on the inside.
The Gorn solution is also fascinating. From a visual perspective, the Enterprise turning itself into a sleep enduing solar flare was lovely, especially with the camera work and focus helping to show the stress and strains on the ship inside. But with them being the big bad guys for two seasons now, how long will they stay asleep?
Highlights
- Pella tricking Scotty into finishing the shield modifications was a nice touch to highlight their history a little better than before. It's a safe bet that she'll be the one to set him up for taking her job as the season progresses.
- Pike giving some masterful justification in taking risks with 'Just turn it off before we blow up' amused me more than it should have.
- Nice to see them playing the heroic death trope with Ortegas in the end. Though they need to give her some better dialogue....
All Connected...
Pike’s prayer was a nice call-back to the story he told Burnham about his father. If you missed it, the short version is Pike’s dad is a man of faith and raised Christopher in the Church. Little Chris was even an Alter Boy. But their relationship broke down and, as mentioned last season in Strange New Worlds, they parted on bad terms. We’ve had a hint in SNW so far about their past, but the ‘You win, dad’ line works best in full context and is one of the rare moments that human religion is shown in context and the most overt since Ben Sisko calling out his dad for quoting the bible.
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