Exploring Emotions: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Revisits the Past

The subsequent article reveals plot details for the movie “Lost in Translation.”

Late last month I got off my bike and hit the edge of my head in a pretty dramatic accident. It left me with a concussion, a bruised face and quite a bit of memory loss, including everything about the event itself. Four weeks later, I’m still struggling, and while I’m getting better every day, it’s a slow process to recovery.

So it’s fitting that this week’s Strange New Worlds touches on this relationship with our memories. The episode asks if memory is tied to empathy, and if we can only feel compassion for others if their pain invites our own. I may not be completely clear all the time right now, but it sure feels like the smartest episode of Star Trek I’ve seen in a while.

Enterprise and Farragut are on their way to a new facility that is overdue, a deuterium extraction base. Starfleet has built a huge “gas station” inside the nebula at the edge of Gorn space to help fuel a new age of space exploration. And, you know, be a good strategic location for the already well-planned war with the Gorn, which is coming at some point soon.

Uhura, who has been more involved in this mission than the others, feels the excitement of all the work. He has trouble sleeping and has been watching videos that Hemmer recorded for him to teach him how to do basic engineering work. In the fog, he begins to hear the noise of Transformers and experiences flashbacks of the accident that killed his family.

Instead of keeping these problems to herself, Uhura wisely goes to Dr. M’Benga for help, but he prescribes rest. The crew believes he is suffering from deuterium exposure, as hallucinations are a common side effect. But the visions worsen, and he begins to see Zombie Hemmer—a welcome, if brief, return to the much-missed Bruce Horak.

The gas station should have been active a long time ago, so Pike sends Una to scavenge and Pelia to borrow expertise. There is tension between the couple, Una behaves like a hard-charging CEO who ignores Pelia’s soon-to-be-proven opinion. One of the station’s crew has sabotaged things and is seeing the same traumatic visions as Uhura.

Although the crew sympathizes with the couple’s plight, they still feel that deuterium poisoning is the cause. The only person willing to explore the second option is “Special Guest Star Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk.” He has left Farragut for reasons, but quickly forms a bond with Uhura, trusting her instincts that something strange is going on.

INCLUDING: The reason was that Anson Mount was on paternity leave for part of Strange New Worlds’ second season. The crew greatly reduced his workload, and you notice how little Pike has been present in many episodes. As much as Mount is the star of the show and a wonderful presence, his reduced visibility here has been a boon to the series as a whole. More and more bands have been given more time in the spotlight, and while the limited episode order makes this expansion difficult, it’s great to see a more democratic take on the show.

There is also a touching scene where La’an and Kirk talk about their different childhoods and the absence of their parents. George Kirk (still alive in this universe) was largely absent from Jim’s childhood, wandering the universe to save others; La’an, meanwhile, was one of the people who was saved. It’s a neat little reminder of why Starfleet exists and why so many people in the fictional world of Trek sign up for its mission.

In the episode’s only depressing moment, a rogue station crew member breaks out of the infirmary, turns off the lights, and tries to sabotage the Enterprise. It almost felt like a note from the studio to break up the pace of the episode with an “action” sequence, albeit one that could be filmed with standing sets. The group stumbles for a moment in the darkness of the Enterprise corridors before Kirk rescues Uhura from the explosion.

After a long investigation, it turns out that the gas station is built to house extradimensional aliens hiding in deuterium. Their only way to communicate is to find a sympathetic brain and evoke memories of grief, loss, trying to explain their predicament. Both the station and starships seek deuterium for fuel and grind up countless alien lifeforms for energy.

Uhura and Kirk go to Pike, who wastes no time in burning down the station rather than allow unnecessary deaths. Uhura can sleep well again, and even Zombie Hemmer has been transformed into Normal Hemmer with an approving smile. Jim only has time to meet Spock for the first time before we start working on the works.

“Lost in Translation” is full of great writing, as it might sound like Bill Hader’s impression of Alan Alda. The creditable script by Onitra Johnson and David Reed is smarter and more subtle than some recent Trek episodes I could name. While some episodes of Strange New Worlds can sometimes jump to unintended conclusions when exploring a big idea, it works perfectly here. And I have to say, it’s a wonderful sight to see Pike decide to burn down the station because it’s clearly the right thing to do. As much as we miss the chat room episodes of golden age Trek, isn’t it nice to see people doing things that align with their values instead of spending 35 minutes discussing it beforehand?

This is an exploration of empathy and how some people get it and the help that comes with it, while others are left to suffer their shame. It tells us that we lack a general sense of empathy in public life, as many characters strive to outdo each other in their cruelty. So is memory the key to grace? Can those who were brought up in eternal comfort feel less sorry? If it’s the former, it’s a deliciously subtle comment that those with short memories – often encouraged by a political and media culture that values forgetting – are forever doomed to make the same mistakes.

SECOND FINLAND: A recurring theme in the second season of Strange New Worlds is the function of memory, and not in the way you might expect from the prequel. Instead of adding nostalgia bait, the show instead explores how memory informs and shapes our society. One of the downsides of “Among The Lotus Eaters” was that one episode simply couldn’t contain a deeper exploration of its perpetually amnesiac society.

So yes, I’m a fan.