I’ve never been a huge fan of time travel Star Trek stories. Sure, you occasionally get a truly great one like “City on the Edge of Forever” in The Original Series, but more often than not, they end up like this one. A device to twist a historical moment in time into something that our intrepid explorers were responsible for. And making the Enterprise responsible for, even indirectly, the evolution of Earth? And telling that story earnestly and not with one’s tongue firmly in one’s cheek? That’s quite the choice – a choice that really didn’t work for me at all. Especially for a season premiere.
As soon as I saw those dinosaurs on the mysterious planet, I started rolling my eyes. Because really? The writing for the planet section tried to get a bit too cute with, well, everything. La’an shooting first and asking questions later (although I was happy to see her more stoic side – even if I really don’t care for the continuing Spock-La’an relationship*). Una managing to subdue a dino in the most dangerous way possible. The really strange war of words between Ortegas and Scotty – which, hopefully, isn’t going to turn into a strange romantic connection because those two should not mix. Combine those flat character moments with the dinosaurs and it was a B-plot with almost no consequences or actual stakes.
*Easily the most intriguing element of the episode was the revelation – from another ridiculous moment, punching a dinosaur – that La’an has started noticing her latent augmented DNA seems to be activating. She’s stronger, more coordinated, faster, and no longer feels pain. Now, should this pay off the way the show wants us to think it will – that she’ll continue becoming more obviously augmented over time, and thus more obvious to Starfleet – it could go a long way toward explaining just why she isn’t on board the Enterprise in the future. We know that Starfleet and the Federation don’t allow augmented individuals – something that remains true for several more generations – and if La’an can no longer hide it, she’s not going to be able to remain in Starfleet. Something to keep an eye on as the season goes on.
The introduction of the Martians was a bit better – creating a shockingly powerful antagonist and pulling the rug out from under our expectations to tell us that millions of years ago, there were advanced civilizations in our own backyard who ultimately destroyed themselves with war. Not a bad message, just one that gets overshadowed by the whole “The Enterprise is the reason Earth exists” revelation. A reveal that wasn’t remotely earned and one that just felt silly in an episode that wanted us to really accept how hard the choice to stay back and not get involved was for Pike and the crew.* You can’t ask us to accept the emotional stakes of an episode and then throw in an utterly ridiculous revelation that we’re supposed to take reverently on board as well.
It’s a decent premise: the Enterprise is forced to make a choice between helping stop a terrorist attack and allowing it to go on, because doing so will set us on the correct course for the future. I mean, it was a great premise in the aforementioned “City on the Edge of Forever.” But the stakes here were so low. We knew nothing about either of these civilizations. We didn’t understand the real choice Pike was being asked to make until the bitter end of things. And the only real choice was the one made – in this case, the death of a species we don’t know doesn’t impact us the way the death of a woman Kirk loved does. The execution of the revelation was the flaw that made the story not work at the level it was shooting for. And it didn’t help that the revelation of what the Enterprise actually accomplished with their actions was laughable.
I had hoped that Strange New Worlds would come roaring out of the gate after the long delay between seasons, and instead it came out slow without much oomph. Hopefully future stories are significantly stronger than this one – a story that someone thought was strong enough to start out an entire season.
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