Strange New Worlds S4E3: Human Best Friend
This week’s opening sets up a mission to a new planet, something about Pike negotiating a treaty in a civil war, tense, delicate, yadda yadda yadda. But the real civil war is between Ortegas and Scotty, who are engaging in an escalating battle of annoying each other by proxy, as she flies recklessly and he adds increasingly intrusive warning lights to scold her for doing so. (At one point, she duct tapes over the warning light, Homer Simpson style.)
They’re not the only ones at each other’s throats. As established last week, Pike’s been working the crew hard without a break, so Number One suggests a little downtime at a nearby resort planet. The resort’s alien pitchman (Kids In the Hall‘s Dave Foley) promises an “intoxicating atmosphere”, which is literal — the air makes everyone feel a little drunk all the time. Nurse Chapel’s medical opinion is, “best shore leave ever.”
So this is a crew-gets-into-shenanigans episode, which Strange New Worlds is overly fond of despite the mixed results. But this one works, in part because the fun the always-game cast is having is infectious, and party because “Human Best Friend” is also classic Trek mystery episode. The mystery in question? Exactly how much of a good time did they have?
Rather than see the crew cut loose, we jump ahead to the aftermath: a hungover Ortegas, in a trashed hotel room, with a cast on her arm, punching out what at first glance appears to be a Yeti, but turns out to be Scotty in a Halloween costume. Neither of them remember anything, but Ortegas has sobered up and has to get an urgent message to Pike, while babysitting a still-very-drunk Scotty, and figuring out what exactly she and the rest of the crew have been up to, The Hangover style.
What follows is a shaggy dog of an episode, with each crew member taking a turn getting into some mischief or other, Ortegas getting increasingly frustrated as the only sober person at the party, and the mystery solved much earlier than usual, so we can segue from The Hangover into Dude, Where’s My Shuttle?, before our heartwarming and silly resolution.
The episode’s story rambles all over the place, it has plot holes big enough to transport you to the Gamma Quadrant, and yet, it also somehow hangs together. Strange New Worlds still isn’t nearly the pitch-perfect show it was in its first two seasons, but “Best Friend” still manages to do what those early episodes did consistently — take a big swing and connect.
Stray tachyons:
• Let’s be honest here, the main thing that makes the episode work is that Melissa Navias is tremendously entertaining as Ortegas. After fading into the background for much of seasons 2 and 3 for personal reasons, it’s always a welcome turn when she gets to carry an episode, and peeved, sarcastic Ortegas is something we can never get enough of.
• Spock repeatedly apologizing for his “clearly inebriated state” while acting as dry as ever is a terrific running gag. He also hallucinates that he’s playing 3D chess with Kirk (the Human Best Friend of the episode title), because we have to wedge Kirk into every episode now, and hallucinates that Scotty and Ortegas are plants — the Ortegas cactus with a cast on her branch is a very dumb joke that nevertheless lands every time.
• Uhura only gets a few quick scenes, but Celia Rose Gooding is a delight, as she plays drunk very convincingly (something a lot of actors can’t manage to do).
• In general, Rebecca Rojmin has the thankless job of playing the uptight straight woman to her more colorful castmates, so it’s nice to see her cut loose a bit, belting out a Klingon karaoke version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
• By contrast, Christina Chong has had plenty of opportunities to show off her acting chops, but lately they can’t seem to find much for her to do beyond “La’an is ruthless and violent.” Which is played here for laughs, but it’s a joke we’ve heard before and it’s starting to feel a little one-note.
• We’re mostly just running down individual cast members because the only other way to break down the episode would give away either the plot or the jokes.
• A commercial for the resort planet includes imagery from Star Trek: The Animated Series, although if any of the crew recognize Spock in the clip, they keep it to themselves.
