It’s rare that an episode of television can both make me laugh, freak me out with some really great horror elements, and make me tear up – all within the confines of an hour. But that’s precisely what the great “Lost in Translation” managed to do, all while also giving us a great Uhura-centric episode to boot. Sure, we got a bit of fun fan service with the initial meetings between Spock, Uhura, and James T. Kirk (which was certainly a fun button to end the episode on), and we got a small resolution to the La’an and Kirk arc. (Poor La’an, still working through those emotions while our Kirk is none the wiser – anyone think she will betray the Temporal Prime Directive (which I’m thinking doesn’t exist yet?) and tell Pike all that went on during her trip to the alternate future/past?) But, most crucially, we got a chance to see all that Uhura brings to the table as a complete, complex character – as well as just how amazing Celia Rose Gooding can be when she’s provided the chance to shine.
The most gut-wrenching aspect of season one of Strange New Worlds was, without a doubt, the tragic sacrifice of Hemmer. I’ve seen plenty of folks who have recently picked up the series note that he’s one of their favorite characters only to see how crushed they are at his death. And I certainly was among their ranks last year. To see the series finally get the chance to address how the loss of such a beloved crew member is impacting the Enterprise family was pretty great. The fact it took this long to dig into it – not just with Uhura’s own struggles, but to see Una also having a hard time accepting Pelia due to her own sense of grief over the loss of Hemmer – actually was a smart move on the part of the writers. I will admit that I’ve forgotten a bit about the lovely Chief Engineer in the time since season one, so this was the perfect time to remind us that for this crew, that loss remains a real part of their daily lives. It provides character development for both Una (who tends to downplay her own emotional well-being in favor of presenting a cheery front to the world) and Uhura, who gets to dig into her tragic backstory and confront the loss of her mentor all in a single episode that also sees her saving an unseen alien race from genocide. Not bad for a day’s work.
Sure, it was pretty clear from the jump that this was a case of an alien race trying to communicate through Uhura, which made the “reveal” late in the episode a bit anti-climactic, but the performances and the story itself (as a metaphor for how refusing to grieve and confront that which challenges us can lead to our own emotional and mental deterioration) more than made up for that. And getting to see that Uhura isn’t just a brilliant linguist, she’s also not all that shabby when it comes to hand-to-hand combat or convincing captains to listen to her and destroy pricey Starfleet refining stations might have stretched the bounds of credulity a tad (as wonderful a captain as Pike is, I’m not wholly convinced Uhura and Kirk alone would have been enough to get him to give that particular order). But I’ll allow it considering I was wholly engaged throughout the entire episode, absolutely invested in Gooding’s performance, her easy chemistry with Paul Wesley’s Kirk, and charmed by the chance to see Bruce Horak’s Hemmer one more time.
Now, I’m sure some folks will have plenty to say about the meeting between our future Enterprise colleagues, but I’m happy to take it at face value and not try to read too deeply into what it might mean for the future or how it matches up to past Original Series information. It was a fun moment, and let’s leave it at that. We can deduce that Kirk will be appearing again before the season is up – after all, La’an still owes him a drink and Sam and Jim still have some familial tensions to work out before Sam shuffles off this mortal coil – although he has some time still before that occurs, during the Original Series timeline. So, there’s plenty of time for our future friends to meet up again and chat some more. But until then, I’m thrilled that Strange New Worlds gave Uhura and Gooding the opportunity to take the reins and carry an episode. And what a fun, compelling, and emotional episode it was.
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