And there we have the end of the second season of Star Trek – Strange New Worlds reached. It happened way too fast again and we feel queasy at the thought that we will probably have to wait quite a while for season 3 due to the strike in Hollywood. As of now, we can hardly imagine that we will get new episodes in 2024. Which is particularly annoying given the ending to this season finale, which gave us a real cliffhanger that we’ll probably have to wait until at least 2025 to unravel.
Before we not only give our opinion on this tenth episode, but also draw a season conclusion, let’s first take a look at what actually happened in this finale.
Review of “Star Trek – Strange New Worlds” Season 2 Episode 10: Hegemony
Captain Batel is in orbit with the Cayuga on the colony planet Parnassus-Beta, just outside Federation space. You help the colonists with goods and, among other things, necessary vaccinations, which is why Chapel is also involved in this mission. Batel is also tasked with convincing the colonists to join the Federation.
While Chapel is beaming back to the Cayuga and the Captain receives a call from Captain Pike, communication suddenly breaks down. In the distance, a Federation shuttle is seen crashing and suddenly a large spaceship appears in the sky.
A distress call from Batel is received aboard the Enterprise, informing them that the Gorn have attacked the colony. Pike is immediately put through to Admiral April, who urges Pike not to risk a war with the Gorn, despite his personal feelings about Batel, since Parnassus-Beta is not a Federation colony and Starfleet has no jurisdiction over it. Also, on the way to the colony, Starfleet received a message from the Gorn that contained only one image: it showed a newly drawn border between the Federation and the Gorn, and the colony was just beyond the border on the Gorn side.
Once at the colony, the Enterprise sided with the Federation and the Gorn sided with them. Due to an interference field, the Enterprise cannot scan for signs of life and the transporters do not work either. They also find out that the Cayuga has been destroyed and there is a debris field in front of the planet. Even the Cayuga’s saucer section was partially destroyed.
Pike does not want to simply abandon the colonists and Stenenfleet personnel who were on the planet during the attack, including Batel. Ortegas comes up with a plan to fly a shuttle disguised as debris through the debris field past the Gorn and land on the planet. Pike also takes La’an, M’Benga, and Sam Kirk with him. In fact, Ortegas manages to land near the colony.
Once there, they discover a Gorn technical facility, which is the source of the interference field. First they go in search of survivors and actually meet a young Starfleet engineer who introduces himself as Montgomery Scott. He was not part of the Cayuga’s crew, but was part of the Stardiver studying nearby solar flares when the ship was attacked by the Gorn. Mr. Scott managed to escape with a shuttle and was also able to tinker something that makes his ship virtually invisible to the Gorn. However, the shuttle was damaged and he had to make an emergency landing on the colony. He brings Pike and the others to other survivors, including Captain Batel.
While Spock searches for signs of life on the Enterprise and still hopes that Chapel survived, meanwhile Uhura and Pelia devised a plan to destroy the disruptive field on the planet without committing an act of war. They would use the Cayuga’s half-destroyed saucer section to drop it in a controlled manner onto the jamming field. However, this would require rudder missiles to be attached to the Cayuga’s hull, a task Spock undertakes.
Meanwhile, at the colony, Pike, Scott and Batel make their way to Mr. Scott’s shuttle to retrieve the device he built. After catching the shuttle, Pike learns that Batel has been infected with eggs by the Gorn. While Pike still has hope of saving her, Batel assumes he won’t survive.
Meanwhile, the ruined Cayuga Chapel awakens to consciousness. Through a window she sees that the Enterprise is nearby and first tries to draw attention to herself with a flashlight. When she sees Spock flying towards the Cayuga in her spacesuit, she finds one herself. However, she discovers that she is not alone on board: an adult Gorn, the first we see in the series, is also here.
Meanwhile, Spock places the missiles on the outer hull and finally one last one on the bridge, which is exposed to space due to the damaged hull. There, Spock meets the Gorn, who attacks him immediately. However, Spock receives help from Chapel and together they manage to kill the Gorn. As they launch into space together, the Enterprise activates the missiles and crashes the saucer section onto the planet, directly into the jamming field.
While still in Mr. Scott’s shuttle, the three see the disruption field being destroyed. Pike immediately contacts the Enterprise and orders all survivors to be beamed aboard. On the Enterprise, Chapel immediately goes to the infirmary to stasis Batel so the eggs inside her cannot hatch. Mr. Scott, meanwhile, turns out to be in Engineering with Pelia, his Academy instructor, to connect his device to the Enterprise.
Back on the bridge, Pike is told that more Gorn ships are arriving in the system. He orders all the colonists to be beamed onto the Enterprise, but it turns out there is nobody left on the colony. All of them, including M’Benga, La’an, and Sam Kirik, were beamed up by the Gorn. The Enterprise is under heavy fire when Admiral April orders a retreat. Pike is unsure how to act as he doesn’t want to leave the people to the Gorn. And this is exactly where this episode ends with a cliffhanger.
Conclusion episode 10
Stories being told across seasons is nothing new. But here we are dealing with a cliffhanger of the very classic kind. In the end, this aroused nostalgic feelings.
The episode itself finally brings the conflict that has been hinted at since the first episode of this season. But he proceeds as one would expect from a Star Trekseries would actually expect. There’s some action, but that’s not the focus here. Instead, a deliberate approach is taken and non-violent solutions are sought, even in the face of the Gorn.
The fact that we don’t really need to worry about Chapel, who is missing and presumed dead, is certainly a weakness of this episode. Her fate is left in the dark for too long to create suspense and emotion. Unfortunately, that’s the problem when you’re dealing with a prequel and you already know what will become of some of the characters.
A highlight was of course the surprising appearance of the still young Montgomery Scott, played by Martin Quinn. However, his portrayal of the character bothered us somewhat, since this Scott is much more of a Simon Pegg resembles as one James Dohan. And from all the cast of the reboot of J.J. Abrams only Pegg was really criticized for his portrayal as being the least fitting for his character. But the series deserves our trust in the first place. This Scotty is still young and we haven’t seen too much of him yet. Maybe this was just a first impression.
Also, we finally get to see an adult Gorn here. The only time we’ve seen one so far was in the legendary episode “Who’s New Dimensions” of the classic series Star Trek. This Gorn here is much more aggressive in design and also much more reptilian, while the Gorn from the classic series was almost humanoid.
The horror aspect of this episode was also striking. It was already made clear in the first season that things are much darker when the Gorn are involved. Horror is something that isn’t new Star Trek-Universe is. Even the Borg had combined strong horror elements. It seems like the Gorn are being taken to the Borg for Star Trek – Strange New Worlds build up. It was certainly no coincidence that zombie films were briefly discussed on the bridge of the Enterprise. And on the Cayuga, the Gorn performs much like a certain famous cinematic alien, in which we first see the long, pointed tail. A clear tribute to the Alien-Film.
And this isn’t the only tribute we think we’ve discovered. When the Gorn ship appeared in the sky at the beginning of the episode, we inevitably had to Independence Day think.
A good episode, a satisfying season finale that actually only allows for one major point of criticism: we now have to wait an indefinite time for the sequel.
Summary of season 2
It’s safe to say that season 2 was a roaring success, with consistently great episodes. Season 1 already proved that one Star Trekseries can still work in a classic way today if done well. At the latest, season 2 has proved that this first season was no coincidence and we at it Star Trek – Strange New Worlds simply have to do with a really good series.
The second season has done even better, the well-known story of Star Trek, also with everything that still lies in the future, easy to install. Also with certain figures that will become important in the future.
It is particularly noticeable at this point that the future crew of the Enterprise is gradually being introduced under a Captain Kirk. Spock and Uhura have been there since Episode 1. We were allowed to see Kirk himself more often and we even got shown his first encounter with Spock. Now in the season finale Scotty was added. We shouldn’t count on Chekov as he would still be a kid at that time. So the only things missing are Sulu and Dr. McCoy. We would almost assume that there is a plan here to reintroduce one of them every season. If this is true then we would be complete in Season 4. The big question is, of course, whether there will be another series at the end of the plan and whether there will be a series reboot of Star Trek comes.
If you went in the first season relatively classic and rather conservative, has Star Trek – Strange New Worlds in season 2, he also pushed his limits for the first time and even tried some crazy things, especially with the crossover and the musical episode. Both quite successful experiments. It turns out that if something is done well and there is also love and respect for the universe in question, in the end something good actually comes out of it and you can even satisfy the fans. The same goes for the third season, by the way Star Trek – Picard. Looking at its third season and Star Trek – Strange New Worlds on, as a fan you ask yourself: why not like that?
In the end we can only hope that Star Trek – Strange New Worlds many more seasons will be received. After the two previous seasons, it is at least difficult for us to believe that with season 3 or 4 a sudden loss of quality is to be feared. And with any luck we will get along Star Trek – Legacy another good series after the Hollywood strike. We may actually be at the beginning of a new beautiful one Star Trek-Era. May she live long and prosperous.
2023-08-10 20:04:14
#Review #Star #Trek #Strange #Worlds #Season #Finale #Gorn
