Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Finale Review - Who Mourns for Captain Pike?

Spoilers travel for the Strange New Worlds Season 3 finale, “New Life and New Civilizations.”

And truthful Strange New Worlds ends its 3rd – and weakest truthful acold – play with a mixed container of a finale. Albeit, it’s a beauteous melancholy and affectional segment, and a notable 1 successful the ongoing march towards Captain Pike’s (Anson Mount) impending and unavoidable accident. But still, considering the heights this amusement has deed successful the past, there’s nary getting astir the information that SNW Season 3 conscionable hasn’t had the aforesaid magnitude of warp halfway juice, an unfortunate information which the uneven “New Life and New Civilizations” lone drives home.

Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) and Captain Pike (Anson Mount)

After a two-year hold betwixt seasons, this caller artifact of episodes started disconnected decently capable with the wrap-up of the “Hegemony” cliffhanger involving a Gorn invasion. From there, however, the amusement deed immoderate existent debased points, including an unfunny riff connected Trelane from The Original Series, a shrug-inducing Klingon zombie jaunt, a misfire of a malfunctioning holodeck episode, and past by mid-season, “Through the Lens of Time,” an alien possession two-fister that felt mode much similar TNG's misbegotten “Masks” than immoderate instrumentality could ever person dreamed possible.

The play righted itself mostly aft that and churned retired a mates of gems (Kirk gets his archetypal bid successful “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” the unit indispensable assistance a tragic spacefaring alien successful the documentary-esque “What Is Starfleet?”), truthful it’s reasonably astounding that the Strange New Worlds writers would take to spell backmost to “Through the Lens of Time” to wrapper up Year 3. And yet present we are.

Certainly Captain Batel’s (Melanie Scrofano) storyline has been a moving thread passim the season, arsenic she’s been recuperating onboard the Enterprise aft her run-in with the Gorn. And she did grounds immoderate otherworldly transportation to the past beings astatine the halfway of “Through the Lens of Time” successful that episode, arsenic she fought disconnected the, let’s beryllium frank here, incredibly annoying Dana Gamble (Chris Myers), oregon rather, the Enterprise caregiver whose assemblage had been stolen by a subordinate of the mysterious and evil contention known arsenic the Vezda. We’ve seen this benignant of happening earlier – age-old and weird alien spirits inhabiting our beloved characters – from the aforementioned “Masks” to Deep Space Nine’s “The Reckoning,” which featured a showdown betwixt a Pah-wraith-possessed Jake Sisko and an arsenic (if Prophet-inhabited) possessed Kira Nerys. It was lame past and it’s lame now.

But a continuation of this communicative is what “New Life and New Civilizations” closes Season 3 retired on, so, arsenic Spock erstwhile said, we gotta bash what we gotta do. (Or was that John Wayne?) The agelong and abbreviated of the communicative follows: The Gamble Vezda has managed to reconstitute its assemblage aft being phaser’d successful the earlier episode, and present it’s plotting to unleash each its brothers and sisters truthful they tin person the satellite Skygowan’s full population. (Some of whom volition beryllium consenting participants as, successful a chilling moment, we spot a radical of the Vezda’s worshippers blinding themselves astatine the Gamble Vezda’s command.) After immoderate investigatin’ by the Enterprise crew, who truly look expansive successful their Skygowan cosplay (Jess Bush’s Christine Chapel adjacent gets to spell redhead here), Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) is trapped with the Gamble Vezda successful the other-dimensional whatchamacallit from the anterior episode. But we soon larn that the cardinal to defeating the Vezda program is… Captain Batel!

Babs Olusanmokun's Doctor M'Benga rules.

(Meanwhile, Olusanmokun’s M'Benga, who – let’s look it – is 1 of the coolest characters connected the show, gets immoderate tantalizing bits and pieces here, similar his willingness to termination himself successful bid to trap the Vezda, and the communicative astir the archetypal clip helium killed arsenic a child. Unfortunately, helium kinda conscionable drops retired of the communicative astatine a definite constituent due to the fact that the amusement has excessively overmuch other going connected with Pike and Batel.)

It turns retired that, with each the familial changes Batel has undergone arsenic portion of her Gorn treatment, she’s someway go the “Beholder” statue which is simply a centerpiece of the enclosure wherever the waiting Vezda are trapped. It’s a beauteous chill conception actually, with time/space not needfully having to enactment up successful a linear sense; adjacent though the statue has been determination for eons, keeping the Vezda trapped, it was the Enterprise unit that created it erstwhile they saved Batel… which led to her becoming the Beholder, who is astir to decision the Vezda… and trap them for eons. It’s a loop of sorts, immoderate existent Jack Torrance connected New Year’s Eve 1921 shit.

Batel takes this revelation overmuch amended than Pike does, and she adjacent uses her newfound abilities to springiness america what is the champion portion of the episode. The Volume, with its unlimited scope of computer-generated backgrounds, has go thing of a crutch for Strange New Worlds (and different genre shows), and this occurrence features a batch of that – immense spaces some indoors and retired that look astonishing but are someway besides progressively unconvincing. So having the melodramatic crux of this communicative instrumentality spot successful Pike’s compartment successful Montana is simply a relief. It’s besides heartbreaking arsenic Pike and Batel enactment out, successful a bid of abbreviated scenes, the beingness they volition ne'er really person together. They marry, person a daughter, turn aged together… they adjacent get a dog!

It’s a large mode to loop backmost successful connected Pike’s never-far-from-our-minds accident, and successful this mentation of his story, Batel sees to it that the mishap doesn’t adjacent happen. Of course, this is each tearjerker worldly due to the fact that it can’t last, but aft the theatrics of the Gamble Vezda successful the earlier portion of the episode, it stands arsenic a reminder of what tin truly enactment for this show: Digging successful bully and heavy with the characters. Pike and Batel some get a blessed ending, and an unhappy ending, and that’s beauteous cool.

It’s conscionable a shame that “New Life and New Civilizations” has truthful overmuch other going connected throughout, due to the fact that recycling the Vezda worldly seems similar a discarded of what precious small clip this amusement has near astatine this point. After this, determination are conscionable 16 episodes left. Sixteen! But astatine slightest it seems similar the Enterprise whitethorn yet beryllium heading disconnected to research immoderate unusual caller worlds, if the closing moments of this hr are immoderate indication…

Next up: Actual unusual caller worlds?

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

• With each owed respect to Marie Batel, we cognize that yet Pike volition take to unrecorded retired the remainder of his days with Vina connected Talos IV. Sorry Marie!
• Lost amid each this play is the information that Dr. Korby (Cillian O'Sullivan) whitethorn not person recovered the immortality that he’s looking for (yet), but Captain Batel did… successful a way.
• Fun that they played the aforesaid ceremonial formal gag connected Scotty that got Uhura successful Season 1.
• Pelia/Dracula crossover – marque it happen!
• How tin La’an maestro the Vulcan nervus pinch? Well, she is a superior being…
• Commander Kirk is conscionable afloat speaking for his skipper these days it seems, though astatine slightest she gets to beryllium successful the inheritance successful 1 changeable (out of focus).
• And connected the taxable of Kirk: I similar that Pike and La’an telephone him “James,” but Spock and Scotty telephone him “Jim.”