Strange New Worlds S3E7: What Is Starfleet?
A prequel can’t help but be self-referential. We’re not just seeing Ethan Peck’s Spock as a character who solves outer space mysteries and flirts with his colleagues, we’re also seeing him as a precursor to Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. We’re not just following Captain Pike’s Enterprise on its adventures, we’re watching the pieces fall into place for Captain Kirk’s Enterprise to exist in the original iteration of the franchise. Strange New Worlds isn’t just a Star Trek show, it’s a show about Star Trek.
Never moreso than this week, with the meta conceit that we’re watching Beto Ortegas’ documentary, filmed while aboard his sister’s ship. Along with that, we get an episode title that makes no attempt at poetry and instead asks a very pointed question that’s been hanging over Star Trek since its inception: What exactly is Starfleet? It’s a military organization, with ranks and weapons aplenty (based on original series creator Gene Roddenberry’s time in the Air Force); it’s a humanitarian outfit, giving aid to aliens in need; it’s a research outfit, studying the galaxy and its myriad wonders; it’s an anthropological study, attempting to understand and protect alien cultures.
Starfleet is, in short, whatever the show needs it to be from one week to the next, and while that makes perfect sense from a storytelling perspective, it’s always rankled the kind of fans who love to dig into continuity and expect everything written across a 60-year franchise to add up and make sense. But it also poses an obvious ethical question at the center of the franchise — if we’re on a peaceful mission, then why all the phasers and photon torpedoes?
Beto takes the angle that Starfleet’s high ideals are just a happy face painted on the military-industrial complex, and they crew are all “just following orders,” maaan. It’s a cute conceit that even in the 24th century, 20-something aspiring filmmakers go for the edgy take.
But hearing the crew tell Beto that violence is sometimes necessary isn’t that interesting, when we’ve seen it firsthand every week. Last week’s episode was a marvel of storytelling efficiency; this one really takes its time to get going, and it follows a satisfying conclusion to the main story with a fluffier ending to the meta story.
It helps that the main story is a good one. We join a mission-in-progress to help the Lutani, who are badly losing a war with a domineering neighbor. (The Lutani are also allies to the Klingons, who are not allies to the Federation. It’s complicated, in ways the crew aren’t allowed to acknowledge to Beto’s camera, but clearly aren’t happy with). They have to escort a giant creature that can exist in open space from another planet to Lutari. Everything seems to be going smoothly when a small Lutani ship shows up to shoot at the creature, which quickly lashes out and cripples the ship. (Spock also gets a flash of some psychic connection with the creature during its outburst.)
Enterprise beams the badly injured pilot to sickbay. Before she dies, she tells them using the creature is a mistake. Spock, Uhura, and Chapel think the creature can be communicated with. Pike and Una want to subdue the creature per their orders, even if they have misgivings. But when they try, the creature attacks the Enterprise, damaging the ship. So they put a risky plan in motion, sending Spock in a shuttle to mindmeld with the creature (reminiscent of Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
As far as the space-adventure side of the show, it all works really well. It comes down to the crew trying to find the best outcome to a tragic situation with no easy answers, which is one of the best varieties of Star Trek episode.
But the framing device really falls flat from start to finish. Of course Beto’s cynical view of Starfleet is corrected, valuable lessons are learned, and whatnot. It all feels very self-congratulatory. A Star Trek show about Star Trek is one thing, a show that feels the need to tell us how great Star Trek is is another. (As opposed to Lower Decks, whose love for the franchise bleeds off the screen so strongly it never needs to waste any time explaining to the audience that Star Trek is great.)
So what is Starfleet? We don’t get any insight we didn’t already have. Just more questions about why Strange New Worlds keeps hamstringing itself with gimmicks when a straightforward episode could have been terrific.
Stray tachyons:
• Even the part of the episode that works — a spaceborne creature asserting its independence — is something we’ve already seen before in two Next Generation episodes, the middling series premiere “Encounter at Farpoint” and the excellent Season 3 episode “Tin Man.”
• We get quite a few personal interviews as part of the documentary. The only one that really hits home is Spock opening up about anti-human racism he experienced as a child, and how he can balance his human and Vulcan sides on the Enterprise in a way he wouldn’t have been able to had he stayed on Vulcan.
