Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x06 - "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail"

[thribs]

What a coincidence that every crew member stuck on the Farragut would later join Kirk’s crew.

 

[Turtletrekker]

What a coincidence that every crew member stuck on the Farragut would later join Kirk’s crew.

Actually, Kirk joins their crew.

 

[fireproof78]

What a coincidence that every crew member stuck on the Farragut would later join Kirk’s crew.

Kirk was assigned the Enterprise and opted to retain experience personnel.

 

[Yistaan]

What a coincidence that every crew member stuck on the Farragut would later join Kirk’s crew.

Kirk: Dr. McCoy, what a surprise to see you here on the Enterprise to relieve Dr. Piper!

McCoy: I didn't really have a choice, Captain V'Rel kicked me off the Farragut after I made one too many xenobophic jokes about Vulcans. She said something about picking on people too logical to take it personally and to take my unfunny anti-Vulcan humor to a half-Vulcan who'd give me what I deserve.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Certainly an intersting episode though it does make one wonder how they were able to build an interstellar generational ship during the post-atomic horror when it seemed like such a colossal undertaking to make the Phoenix.

Pelia once again is the star of the show but this episode despite ostensibly being focused on a guest star showed off the whole ensemble pretty well.

Loved when Scotty called the clumpthulhu Nessie

 

[Jayson1]

Easily, and far and away, the best episode of the season. A showcase of the best Trek has to offer.

The core of this episode is the character journey of Jim Kirk during his first captaincy, and it succeeded here in spades. Kirk starts the episode gloriously flawed - in some ways greener than what we saw of him last season. But he learns hard lessons through the disaster of his acting captaincy. I enjoyed the choice that it was Spock that needed to break him out of his funk - that Kirk's success as a captain in TOS in part relied upon Spock's counsel. Though the decision to have all the TOS characters (Spock, Chapel, Uhura, Scotty) could seem a little contrived, this could also be seen as something of a forging of what's to come - the beginning of a connection which means when Kirk takes over for Pike, he asks for them to stay, or they wish to stay on.

But, like a lot of the big disaster episodes of Star Trek, this is mostly an exercise in collaborative problem solving - in this case times two, as we have both the Farragut and Enterprise crews trying desperately to defeat the scavenger ship. Considering how fragmented all of this was across various subplots, from La'an and Pike in combat to the scavengers, to Pelia's insane plan to manually wire the ship (her having rotary phones for centuries honestly pushed past suspension of disbelief for me) it's surprising that it all hung together. The technobabble didn't really bother me either, perhaps in part because the solutions they were coming to were tangible, rather than just throwing more technobabble at things while staring at a screen.

I'm seeing some mixed feelings about the last-minute reveal that the scavenger ship was crewed by humans, but I loved it. The choice gave depth to an episode that would otherwise be a fairly conventional disaster tale. It's very Trekkian to eschew uncomplicated villains, after all. I like ending on the mystery of how after the cultural drift of centuries, the best and brightest of humanity turned into something unrecognizable and evil. I also like that it gave Kirk a taste of ashes in his mouth, as a simple victory would leave him with only a single lesson learned. Leadership is often hard, and every choice has a consequence.

I don't think the episode was perfect. I think Pelia's phone idea was frankly unneeded narratively. It might have made sense to have included Sam Kirk here, though I'd prefer he stay onboard the Enterprise. But it's as close to perfect as SNW has accomplished to date, and clearly in the top five of the show as a whole.

I do think they should have had Sam Kirk in this episode as well. Makes me wonder why they didn't use him in it.

 

[Lone Iguana]

Certainly an intersting episode though it does make one wonder how they were able to build an interstellar generational ship during the post-atomic horror when it seemed like such a colossal undertaking to make the Phoenix.

The Phoenix was built by a couple of people in the middle of Montana, the generation ship was an international effort led by the one of the only remaining functioning countries, according to Pelia.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

The Phoenix was built by a couple of people in the middle of Montana, the generation ship was an international effort led by the one of the only remaining functioning countries, according to Pelia.

Of course the international effort slapped an american flag on it. Although the struggle to find the resources to make the Phoenix could be because so much got scavenged and hoarded for this project.

 

[Lone Iguana]

Of course the international effort slapped an american flag on it.

That I assume was the "one of the few nations left standing" that Pelia mentioned. She also said they "scoured the world for a crew."

 

[Detached Nacelle]

That I assume was the "one of the few nations left standing" that Pelia mentioned.

Not the entirity of it evidently

 

[Yistaan]

Of course the international effort slapped an american flag on it. Although the struggle to find the resources to make the Phoenix could be because so much got scavenged and hoarded for this project.

I think some eagle-eyed fan already pointed out that the flag has 50 stars, although TNG: The Royale said that the US flag got 52 stars in 2033. That means that the ship launched before 2033, yet Pelia says it launched in the aftermath of World War 3, which would put the launch in the late 2050s or early 2060s.

OH NO! Continuity error! WORST EPISODE EVER! Trek is ruined, I tell you, ruined!!!!!

 

[Sakonna]

To start with, I am not sure there exists a premise I would be less interested in SNW tackling than "Kirk's first day in command." I do not think Kirk should be a character on this show at all, and consider his presence SNW's worst creative decision. On top of that, I think Paul Wesley has been a horrendous failure in the role. The only truly bad piece of casting in the modern era.

So, given that I loathe the premise and think the lead actor is not up to the task, I was surprised how effective this episode still managed to be. Aside from some tiny quibbles here and there, I'm not sure there was any better way to execute this idea with this actor. I'd give it a 7, and going in a 2 seemed outrageously optimistic, so... I guess that counts as a winner?

To my utter shock, I found Wesley rather fantastic in his ready room heart-to-heart with Spock. Of course, I was immediately smacked in the face the next scene when he was back to the pushed inauthenticity that always drives me crazy from him. But prior to this episode, Wesley had landed literally zero moments with me, and I'm glad he's finally scored some points on my board.

(I swear, every time he pops up again I try so hard to open my mind and think "maybe this time I'll love him!")

It was crucial how careful they were to keep the SNW characters featured. Until now, the Kirk appearances have undermined rather than complemented our core cast, Pike especially. Not this time.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

The ship wasn't a warp vessel. Was it a sleeper ship?

 

[fireproof78]

I think some eagle-eyed fan already pointed out that the flag has 50 stars, although TNG: The Royale said that the US flag got 52 stars in 2033. That means that the ship launched before 2033, yet Pelia says it launched in the aftermath of World War 3, which would put the launch in the late 2050s or early 2060s.

OH NO! Continuity error! WORST EPISODE EVER! Trek is ruined, I tell you, ruined!!!!!

Could be the aftermath in the earlier part of the 21st century, since the Eugenics Wars/World War 3 was in the 90s.

Certainly an intersting episode though it does make one wonder how they were able to build an interstellar generational ship during the post-atomic horror when it seemed like such a colossal undertaking to make the Phoenix.

Given that Khan and his followers had a sleeper ship from the 90s i imagine some places had more resources than others.

 

[Jayson1]

I think some eagle-eyed fan already pointed out that the flag has 50 stars, although TNG: The Royale said that the US flag got 52 stars in 2033. That means that the ship launched before 2033, yet Pelia says it launched in the aftermath of World War 3, which would put the launch in the late 2050s or early 2060s.

OH NO! Continuity error! WORST EPISODE EVER! Trek is ruined, I tell you, ruined!!!!!

At some point after the Stephen Richey left, America finally realized they only needed one Carolina and one Dakota and merged them together into one state.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The ship wasn't a warp vessel. Was it a sleeper ship?

I didn't use to be a warp ship. That came later. But it explains why the Starfleet ships outclassed it in the warp category even held together by just duct tape.

 

[Yistaan]

Could be the aftermath in the earlier part of the 21st century, since the Eugenics Wars/World War 3 was in the 90s.




Given that Khan and his followers had a sleeper ship from the 90s i imagine some places had more resources than others.

This episode takes place after Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow meaning that the 1990s Eugenics Wars isn't a thing, unless they're shifting back to the Space Seed timeline without telling us. I suppose it's POSSIBLE that Khan launched the Eugenics Wars in the early 2030s and Pelia used the term WW3 to describe it (instead of the war of the 2050s mentioned in TNG and other episodes) considering that they've more or less become the same thing in recent Trek dialogue despite being decades apart still.

 

[kirk55555]

What an awesome episode. This is SNW at its best, if it did more of this without all of the comedy episodes it would go from a very good show to a total classic. I loved the twist, and how it effected Kirk. It felt like a very Trek thing, talking about the nature of humanity/etc, and it totally took me off guard.

I was a bit worried at the beginning that the show was trying to introduce the Doomsday Machine years earlier, but luckily they went without something really cool that doesn't mess with continuity. It actually even kind of ties in to later stuff, if these scavengers were such a well known legend they were probably a bit of (in universe, not IRL obviously) inspiration for the Pakled "Clumpship" ship from LD, which was definitely weaker but had a similar idea behind it.

Overall I loved the episode. 10/10, one of SNW's best.

 

[Campe]

I do think they should have had Sam Kirk in this episode as well. Makes me wonder why they didn't use him in it.

Might be contractual reasons. He might only be able to be used for a certain number of episodes per season.

 

[Yistaan]

Spock: Captain, allowing Mr. Khan access to our computer records and giving him a banquet is highly illogical. Also, I believe our historian is emotionally compromised and cannot be relied upon for information about our guest. We should contact Commander Pelia instead, who actually lived through that timeframe. Also, do you not remember what happened the last time we encountered a World War 3 era ship?

Kirk: Nah, it'll be fine.