First of all I would like to give a friendly warning to people who have not seen this episode yet. Mostly it is exciting, but sometimes it is scary, and sometimes it is also sad. It could be said that episode 9, ‘All Those Who Wander’, is an ‘emotional roller coaster’ of sorts.
The first of a surprisingly large departure list of characters, regular cast members who are soon to disembark the Enterprise and perhaps their regular roles in this series is revealed. Cadet Uhura’s field assignment is over, she has finished her training aboard the Enterpise and is excited to be going back to Earth to visit her Grandmother. What an *amazing* cadet experience she has had aboard the Enterprise! Now riddle me this… if she was male, would she have been granted a field commission to a higher rank or even Captain after all she had done and contributed to the Enterprises mission so far? I think that she was more deserving of a field commission than James T Kirk was in the JJ Abrahams movie reboot. Maybe something was holding her back which stopped her from being noticed, but if I was Pike I would not have wanted to lose this valuable member of the crew who performed just as good if not better than any other crew member. Regardless, Uhura is looking forward to travelling back to earth where she can spend time with her grandmother… it would be a *serious* missed opportunity if Uhura does not appear again over the duration of the series with a special guest appearance of Nichelle Nichols starring alongside her as ‘grandmother’. If this does not happen then there really is no love for true legacy characters any more when we have perfect opportunities to shoe horn them in to episodes in a logical and respectful way… this would be one of the most amazing ‘passing of the torches’ ever in Star Trek, especially if this particular Uhura actress, Celia Rose Gooding, goes on to star in a spin-off back on the flagship under the command of James T Kirk one day.
We learn that the Enterprise is on it’s way to visit space station K-7… this space station will later appear in the episodes ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’ and ‘Trials and Tribble-ations’… I wonder if we will have a Tribble themed episode of Strange New World’s next season? That would be cool.
Captain Pike grounds himself and his crew in his ready ‘steady cook’ room using his ‘chef’ persona yet again, rustling up an amazing breakfast for his senior leadership team during a briefing room discussion relating to the downing of a
faaaaaaaaaake Constitution class ship otherwise known as the Sambra Class USS Peregrine…. literally Constitution in all but name. Perhaps it was made in China instead of San Francisco?
The Enterprise continues on it’s mission to space station K-7 to deliver the supplies, whilst Pike decides that he will take a shuttle craft with several senior members of staff and cadets to go on the even more potentially dangerous mission of investigating the Peregrine’s demise and the fate of it’s crew. I’m sure that 100+ potential survivors could fit on two small shuttlecraft if need be…
The shuttlecraft descends through the alien planet’s atmosphere to the Peregrine crash sight, the rock formation’s and alien vista are gorgeous, true planetary eye candy for those who are susceptible to this form of CGI visual stimuli. Kudos to the visual effects department once again, especially as we are shown the stunning visuals of the downed Sambra class starship which looked awesome though at the same time quite foreboding. Seeing a mighty Federation Starship crashed like this is quite unnerving. I’m sure that the ship could be salvaged though and given a refit, or at the very least it could be used for spare parts.
Our Landing party are behaving in a very light hearted manner, partaking in casual banter as they approach the crash site, these character interactions are fun to watch. As mentioned before though, they are also seemingly under equipped for such a mission of the magnitude of that which lays before them. Why was the Enterprise and/or other ships not diverted off their missions to investigate this *massive* incident? A Starfleet ship has crash landed and all communication has been lost… so let’s send a shuttle craft full of cadets?! We know that this is *definitely* a scenario which cadets are *not* ready for as we see next see a scene which would not look out of place in a horror film… our landing party find a corpse with a seemingly ‘exploded’ chest.
The landing party investigate further, making their way on to the USS Peregrine itself through a hull breach. The corridors and consoles are smeered with blood… we can tell that something terrible has happened here. Pike fails to adhere to Starfeet protocols which La’an specified to Uhura earlier this season in ‘Lift us Where Suffering can not Reach’ aboard the downed Majalian ship by touching potentially sabotaged computer consoles ‘willy nilly’ without care, they could have been booby trapped and he should have scanned them with his Tricorder first as per Starfleet protocol. The gore levels intensify further as we see blood further smeared across the ground in what is obviously a throwback to La’an’s flashbacks to her experience with the Gorn… therefore we recognise this butchery as that of this deadly species. There are also similar scenes in Final Fantasy 7 in the Shinra Headquarters when Jenova is on the loose, perhaps another Final Fantasy nod. I think that the writers of Strange New World’s might like this computer game series.
We learn that the Peregrine crew have indeed been inpregnated with eggs and used as ‘breeding sacks’ by the Gorn. This is *not* a typical reptilian trait, though the Gorn definitely do look a lot more insectoid as well as lizard like in this visualization of the species. This could all be argued as being a confirmation that this episode is indeed an ‘Alien’ homage of sorts. But I also thought about this connection back in
Momento Mori.
A *super cool* looking alien stumbles on to our screen, the costume and prosthetics are top notch and the CGI facial enhancements make this one of the most alien looking aliens I have seen on Star Trek. Very well envisioned indeed! Well done to the production staff and creative team for a job well done with this alien of the week design. This alien passenger, species unknown, is protecting yet another ‘Newt’ like girl from the Gorn, a little girl named Oriano who has survived the Gorn onslaught aboard the Peregrine, not unlike how our very own La’an once did.
We next get to see some good character building scenes, more flirtation between Chapel and Spock being the most notable due to it’s implications on his relationship with T’Pring. Hemmer and Uhura get to share some nice scenes together, with Hemmer being a positive encouragement to her… this will be made all the more touching later in the episode as a terrible and tragic chain of events unfolds for this fan favourite character, who is also *very* popular amongst the crew. We also have a throwback to last weeks episode ‘The Elysian Kingdom’ where M’Benga shows that Rukiya is still on his mind when he accidentally refers to Oriano as his daughter. Oriano encourages La’an to think of Oriano and her future as they have had very similar tragic childhood experiences, this will lead up to yet another sad departure at the end of this weeks episode.
I am also starting to think back to my theory that the Gorn are nothing more than a Metron ‘trial by combat’ test, this time though the Enterprise are dealing with the aftermath of another starships encounter with the Gorn and this ‘test’ rather than taking part in it themselves. Obviously both the Peregrine crew and the Gorn failed the test yet again. The Gorn seem far too primitive to be a space faring species in their own right, I won’t waffle on about this again but my theory is laid out in the
Momento Mori episode review thread if anybody is interested. Perhaps La’an and Hemmer alone pass the Metron test this week? We shall see…
In the Peregrine sickbay, Oriano notices odd behaviour from the cool looking blue alien, something that she has seen before. This terrifies Oriano so she hides… just in time for another alien homage as three Gorn burst from the poor blue alien. The baby Gorn scuttle around like Gremlins with Predator vision causing many screams and chaotic mayhem; they are trying to bite everyone in the room!
This is when the big ‘Alien’ movie like guns come out as these creatures need hunting down. It’s a shame that the crew did not attempt to capture and domesticate these Gorn - a missed opportunity to study one or more of this species. This could have been a good way of opening up diplomatic channels if this is indeed actually possible? The baby Gorn could be educated in a Federation school, perhaps taught by Keiko O’Brien and then returned or used as an Ambassador like how Worf had a similar role with the Klingons? Hopefully the Gorn would not want to kill the said Gorn upon return to them though as we know that they are quite aggressive. This iteration of the Gorn is definitely a cross between a Gorn, an insect, an alien from ‘Aliens’ and Velociraptors from Jurassic park. We also learn that they are immune to or protected from psychic manipulation, detection and communication.
Our away team decide to trick the Gorn by super cooling the entire ship, forcing this cold blooded species in to a contained ‘warm’ area. The guns keep on getting bigger, as do the Gorn themselves… their bites are becoming even nastier and they are now also starting to spit venom… a venom which also impregnates hosts with eggs. It is a good job that the Gorn in ‘
Arena’ only used rocks to attack Captain Kirk with and had the manners not to spit.
This episode definitely does a good job of making space seem dangerous and perilous. These Gorn are very scary indeed. We also get some flashbacks where it looks like the Peregrine crew are wearing uniforms very similar to that of the first season of Discovery… not quite the same though.
Team ‘Hemurha’ are still going strong, but sadly these scenes lead up to the tragic demise of the Hemmer character. A Gorn spits on Hemmer, we shall later find out that he has been infected with Gorn eggs, but more on this later. Why didn’t M’Benga suggest putting Hemmer in the ships buffer to preserve him until the eggs can be removed? Could they not have frozen him? Maybe there quite simply is not enough time…
Again, how on earth did this species get such advanced tech when they are nothing but mindless dinosaurs? Perhaps the Metron’s failed first contact and the resulting left behind ‘gifted’ technology.
Our heroes continue to battle the Gorn, La’an is back in true Ripley form this week and faces off with a Gorn. Her fight to the death is quite impressively directed and we can see her rage as she smashes the frozen Gorn with all of her pent up might! That was also a cool special effect as the Gorn shattered even if it was a little gory and gratuitous.
The final scenes of this episode are very sad and I admit to tearing up a little, Hemmer realised that he can not be saved and if he does not take action more Gorn will be released as they are ‘birthed’ from him. This character is/was so damned cool and I can not believe that they are getting rid of him so soon in the series! What a waste of potentional character development over the coming years. At least Hemmer passed with the beautiful imagery of Andoria before him… Hemmer was going home. His death will make a lot of people angry though, me included. Uhura will not be happy, La’an will want even more revenge and Spock has an emotional breakdown of anger and rage and who knows where that will lead? These Gorn have a lot to answer for, the Peregrine crew and now Hemmer. Hemmer is given a wonderful send off though by the Enterprise crew, and I believe that he inspired Uhura to come back to the Enterprise one day when she has finished her training as he knows that she will find a home there one day amongst it’s future crew.
Spock as mentioned takes the whole situation *really* badly, but luckily he is comforted by Chapel. Chapel has a genuine love for Spock, and is struggling to keep it platonic. I think that Spock will be struggling with this relationship dynamic as the series progresses over the coming years considering that they will have to spend an awful lot of time together on this five year mission.
La’an also departs, she has a worthy cause though in looking after Oriano as a mother figure, helping her to recover from her trauma with the Gorn. I can’t remember what else she said she was going to do but I assume that she has not left Starfleet permanently.
This week we quite sadly say goodbye to Hemmer, Uhura and La’an, at least for the time being. We shall miss you all but hopefully will see some of you again in the future. We know that we will see at least one of them though!
This definitely felt like a season finale, but we have one more episode left this season. Perhaps next weeks episode will be like an ‘epilogue’ to season one, as I believe that this episode was perhaps the ‘spectacle’ of the season. Maybe next weeks episode will be quieter and more of a personal story, perhaps character arc based with a sci fi ‘B’ plot?
I rate Star Trek: Strange New World’s episode 9, ‘
All Those who Wander’, 13/10. 1
0/10 for the sake of the grading thread scale.
