As far as genre-play goes, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 4 is the first foray into horror this season.
Rather than being preyed upon by the Gorn or confounded by a shocking alien cultural practice, Pike is confronted by a past mission that has haunted him, only to lose his memory and identity in a terrifying spiral into cognitive oblivion.
Meanwhile, the ship’s survival relies on Ortegas knowing who she is despite forgetting everything about herself. It’s a true dilemma — can you still have a sense of self without any recall of the details?
Our favorite pilot is very much defined by her role as helmsman. Ortegas is the quintessential hotshot highflyer. She embodies the spirit of Maverick, Han Solo, and Firefly‘s Wash, all rolled into the Starfleet uniform.
She’s a character that knows her worth and recognizes that her integral value to the crew is in her skills.
However, it’s not surprising that someone immersed in her job might want a change of scene.
Of the core crew, Ortegas is the only one who has never been assigned to an away mission. Even Cadet Uhura took part on away teams.
Pilot’s personal log. Stardate 1630.3. I am Lieutenant Erica Ortegas. Most of the time, I fly the ship which is cool but can get boring. Today is different. Rigel VII’s atmosphere’s a hot mess of wind shear, exotic radiation, and heavy particles that jam the sensors on our shuttles. Piloting down takes incredible skill which I have but the best part? I’m with the landing party, something I almost never get to do.
Ortegas
Ortegas’s inclusion in the Rigel VII mission clearly excites her. Like everything she does, she dives in enthusiastically, taking the undercover costuming seriously.
La’an: You’re actually wearing the hat.
Ortegas: Are you kidding? The hat is supreme. We’re Kalarans now. Recon 101.
So it’s a cold slap of reality when Spock brings the data that forces Pike to leave his pilot behind to take care of the ship as it careens through a tricky debris field.
One can’t help but sympathize with Ortegas’s disappointment at missing out on the away mission. But she recognizes where her skills are needed and shoulders the responsibility that comes with being the best.
On the planet, Pike’s concern with cultural contamination is motivated by the issues he encountered on his previous visit. Knowing he lost three yeomen preoccupies him, possibly distracting him from the bigger picture.
So, he’s caught off-guard (again) by Zack’s seeming return from the dead. High Lord Zacharias has made productive use of his five years among the Kalars.
Pike: Whatever you’re going through, we can help. Come back to the ship.
Zack: I armed the locals with Starfleet tech and made myself king. There’s no going back for me.
Pike: Zack, please. Listen to reason.
Zack: Reason doesn’t exist here.
I have some questions as to how he was able to retain (or regain) enough cognitive continuity to formulate a plan and execute a coup. Maybe he stole a helmet?
It also seems like a very lonely position of power. Despite achieving absolute power, Zack doesn’t look super happy about being top dog on Rigel VII.
When Pike returns to retrieve the lost memories, Zack looks almost relieved to be overthrown.
Much of the introspective horror is fleshed out with finesse.
The stages of Rigel VII’s radiation effects- headaches, time loss, fear, anger, forgetting- parallel the very real terror of dementia progression.
For the individuals affected, it begins as unnerving and becomes increasingly confusing and frustrating.
As viewers who care about these characters, we stand in for the family and friends who can only watch helplessly as they struggle. It’s both an uncomfortable and riveting position. Horror is most effective when it is a situation that is both accessible and potentially possible.
The expert steering of this venture can be credited to director Eduardo Sánchez, best known for writing and directing The Blair Witch Project and most recently lauded for directing the chilling Fantasy Island Season 2 Episode 7.
While Pike’s concern for La’an motivates him to double down with determination to work against the radiation effects, and Ortegas reacts with fear, Luq is a fascinating study of what happens when one gives up the fight and accepts an unfathomable condition.
Pike: We need to get back to where we came from.
Luke: You can chase that feeling and never find the answer you seek. The totem says, ‘Let go of before, live in the moment.’
Giving into the oblivion is always an option. For Luq and the other Field Kalar, it is understandably their only option.
Barred from the palace and without their own helmets, they are a cowed and submissive population born into this caste society and knowing no other.
Our work is a blessing. We have purpose. It’s why we’re here.
Luq
In literature, the Lotus Eaters of Homer’s Odyssey are a population who live an idyllic and idle existence, eating a plant that is so pleasurable it takes all motivation for anything else from those that partake.
This doesn’t accurately capture the lives of Field (or Palace) Kalar, but the peoples do share an absence of memory, past, or identity.
Odysseus reported that his men who ate the lotus forgot about the home they were trying to return to. Pike’s crew retain enough of their selves to know that things are not okay.
Luq’s people know they have a history, a yesterday, but have accepted that it is not accessible anymore. They take comfort in the fact the oblivion removes them from the pain of past loss and injury.
M’Benga: He was right. Not having a past. It could be nice for a while.
La’an: I know what you mean, but maybe some memories are worth the pain of others.
M’Benga knows better than most what it is to carry terrible memories. The hints seeded into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 1 foreshadow a future accounting of his experiences during the Klingon War.
However, if cleansing his memory of the war means losing his memories of his daughter as well, it can’t be worth it on the balance of things.
Pike’s resolution to the Rigel VII situation is infinitely questionable.
The asteroid hit the planet thousands of years ago and, by all indications, was a natural occurrence. Arguing that it interrupted the culture’s development — and thus justifying chucking it into the debris field — is so sketchy.
And what does that do for the population now thrust into a civil uprising as Field Kalar rise up to assert the power of their greater numbers and work-strengthened muscles?
Not to mention the Federation tech that the Palace Kalar have been using for the last five years. How does removing the radiation source solve everything High Lord Zacharias has visited upon the planet?
Ultimately, this mission serves as a wake-up call to Pike to break his pattern of behavior in intimate relationships. My favorite scene is Una calling him out on his past bad acts.
Pike: We decided to take some time apart.
Una: Oh, you did that thing you do.
Pike: What thing?
Una: That thing when someone gets too close. It’s tough, so you panic, find reasons to push them away.
Pike: I don’t do that. Do I?
Una: You do that.
Batel’s persecution by Pasalk indicates we haven’t seen the last of the cranky Vulcan Judge Advocate. Could he possibly be a Romulan agent? How will Batel overcome his career gaslighting?
Will Spock and Sarek’s adversarial relationship with Pasalk play into it? A Vulcan showdown?
There are only a handful of people in the galaxy who get what it is to be a Starfleet captain, who aren’t diminished by the fact that our duties come first, our crews come first. It’s a strength, not a weakness.
Pike
Can Batel and Pike make their relationship work? Is this Pike stepping past his knowledge of his future to embrace happiness now despite the pain it may cause Batel? Ooooh, is this the inverse of Rigel VII’s Forgetting, a mindful acceptance of what is to come? #MindBlown
What spoke to you here, Fanatics? Hit our comments with your biggest takeaways, and be sure to catch our new exclusive interview with Ortegas herself, Melissa Navia, dropping here tomorrow!
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond ’til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on Twitter.