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

[Jayson1]

So this is what would years later inspire Starfleet engineers to put in a joystick in the Enterprise-E.

 

[aquova]

I think this is likely my favorite episode of the season, but still not without its faults. The juxtaposition between Pike (who I've felt has almost been too docile at times) and Kirk was really well done. Pike has been in these situations before, and all of his movements were decisive and to the point, while Kirk's felt misguided until the end. Kirk did straddle the line of being too green for me, given that he's considered such a hotshot prodigy first officer, but I think it worked for me in the end. I typically like this portrayal of Scotty, but he felt rather out of line at times (even if he was correct). He was ready to mutiny and have Kirk declared unfit for command much too eagerly.

The glaring plothole in this episode is that the TOS Enterprise famously only had wired wall panel communication stations, which the episode seemingly doesn't address at all. I was half expecting another moment from Pike at the end where he exclaims "well from now on all Starfleet ships should have communication panels" like he did with the holograms. I continue to have really mixed feeling towards Pelia, a 5000-year old character just seems like such a weird choice. I like the idea that her quarters are a complete rat's nest, but showcasing an Atari and the cat clock felt a bit out of place.

As for the twist at the end, it was an interesting one. I kept thinking about the Doomsday Machine, and I assumed this was going to tie into that episode (and provide a contrast to how Kirk behaves in that episode compared to this one) but I think V'Ger is almost the better comparison, or maybe one of the scavenger ships we saw in Enterprise or Voyager. I'm not sure if making them human really introduced the moral complications that Kirk seemed to think it did, as I think the answer to the question of "how did they become like this" is simple "their kids suck". I honestly thought they were going to reveal this was the ring-ship Enterprise as shown in TMP at first, but they just used the ship designation system.

 

[Yistaan]

So this is what would years later inspire Starfleet engineers to put in a joystick in the Enterprise-E.

Riker: It's the Pelia maneuver.

Geordi: Her Academy class is the worst.

 

[eschaton]

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.

 

[aquova]

Yeah, I think the scavenger ship should have survived and fled. I think that would have been better than destroying it with a couple torpedoes. It was too easy. In fact, I almost chuckled a bit when they destroyed the scavenger ship so easily with torpedoes. Why did they not think of that sooner when they first noticed the phasers were not doing anything?

I had the exact same feeling. Now that the Gorn have been put into hibernation, this seemed like an opportunity to introduce a new recurring enemy for the show. They kept building up the strength of this ship -- the Klingons couldn't do anything, the Enterprise and Farragut couldn't do anything, and I wondered if they were going to self destruct the Farragut to finally defeat it. Instead, Spock's big suggestion to Kirk at the end... just use three photon torpedoes.

 

[Tuskin38]

Starbase One in the Farragut's ready room, but it's using it's DSC design without the terrariums

There's a Romulan Bird of Prey, I think, in the Farragut's sensor scans of the scavenger ship

Possibly a warp ring from a Vulcan ship, or a Jedi Starfighter got very lost

The Farragut has the goose neck viewers from 'The Cage', you can also spot them on the Alt-Future Farragut in the Season 1 finale.

Possible VFX Error/inconsistency. Might just be the angle obscuring it, but the pylons appear to be missing in this shot. Farragut only ejected the nacelles, not the pylons as well.

 

[Tuskin38]

I had the exact same feeling. Now that the Gorn have been put into hibernation, this seemed like an opportunity to introduce a new recurring enemy for the show.

Pretty sure that's what the aliens from last week are going to be.

 

[thribs]

They didn’t. They stated in dialogue that they’re taking their victims’ ships apart and building up with the materials. It’s grown into this monster ship, it didn’t start that way.

I meant starting off as 7000 people. It was worded weirdly that I thought they left Earth with that many people. I assume the ship we saw here was some other species. From Galactus’ race I assume.

 

[Tuskin38]

I meant starting off as 7000 people.

The show didn't say that, re-watch the scene. That was the number of their descendants.

When they're looking at the remains of the ship after it blows up, you can see several bodies floating about. Grim.

 

[aquova]

Pretty sure that's what the aliens from last week are going to be.

You're probably right, and if it were up to me I would've swapped it around. We'll see how the handle the Gorn in the end, but a faceless, animalistic enemy doesn't really do anything for me. I would've kept this ship alive but wounded, and maybe don't even reveal it's captained by humans. Bring it back next season, have the Enterprise face humanity's darker natures if forced down that route, while revealing to that crew the existence of the Federation and a different way. I think that could've been a really interesting dynamic, but alas.

 

[Tuskin38]

This piece of debris appears be from the rear of a a Shepard Class. Not sure if that was intentional, or they just meant it as generic debris, grabbing whatever CG model they had on hand, as the shot makes it look huge.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Amazing episode. A preview of what we could get if "Year One' were to be green lit. 10.

 

[eschaton]

You're probably right, and if it were up to me I would've swapped it around. We'll see how the handle the Gorn in the end, but a faceless, animalistic enemy doesn't really do anything for me. I would've kept this ship alive but wounded, and maybe don't even reveal it's captained by humans. Bring it back next season, have the Enterprise face humanity's darker natures if forced down that route, while revealing to that crew the existence of the Federation and a different way. I think that could've been a really interesting dynamic, but alas.

Sometimes, it's best in a narrative to leave things unsaid. I'm thinking back to, for example, the Season 1 ENT episode where they discover an alien race which is just killing aliens and harvesting their blood for some reason. We never find out why they're doing that, but if they did a follow-up where we did, it would just weaken the impact.

Space is vast and strange, in real life and in Trek. Sometimes, imagining all the reasons why something could have happened is more interesting than explaining everything away neatly.

 

[thribs]

The show didn't say that, re-watch the scene. That was the number of their descendants.

When they're looking at the remains of the ship after it blows up, you can see several bodies floating about. Grim.

So they have just been living on that ship, breeding with each other for 200 years? I feel like we are missing some important stuff to this story.

I just wasn’t a fan. Too similar to the Doomsday machine with its planet destroying abilities.

 

[Yistaan]

So they have just been living on that ship, breeding with each other for 200 years? I feel like we are missing some important stuff to this story.

I mean they're violent scavengers who probably captured people and... uh (and I think we can reasonably conclude they did this to both male and female victims). We don't need it spelled out in graphic detail.

Realistically this shouldn't get very far as humans wouldn't be genetically compatible with the alien species they come across, and they did mention without exception that everyone on the ship was human. I guess that means there were a LOT of lost human colonies out there for them to raid. You think this would've been a widely known thing instead of the mythical monster this episode framed them as.

Actually in writing this out, it does feel like the premise of these scavengers falls apart more quickly on analysis.

 

[Trekker4747]

So they have just been living on that ship, breeding with each other for 200 years? I feel like we are missing some important stuff to this story.

I just wasn’t a fan. Too similar to the Doomsday machine with its planet destroying abilities.

Plenty of timed in Trek where we learn of and alien species and don't get the "full story." Part of the wonders of space.

 

[V'Lias]

Scotty: Hey Pelia, ever since they shut down the holodeck do you have anything to game on? Our PADDs just aren't meant for gaming, the usual freemium nonsense where we have to shell out latinum for gameplay advantages and touchscreen gaming just can't match the feel of real buttons.

(cue Scotty, Uhura, and La'an playing "ancient" Nintendo Switch 2, Steam Deck OLED, and ROG Ally X handhelds)

I would laugh, then start trying to figure out how they're getting around the lack of download servers!

 

[Yistaan]

I would laugh, then start trying to figure out how they're getting around the lack of download servers!

Luckily Pelia already had the Steam Deck and Ally X uploaded with DRM-free games from GOG. Now the person playing the Nintendo Switch 2 better hope that the game doesn't try to ping any servers...

 

[fireproof78]

Realistically this shouldn't get very far as humans wouldn't be genetically compatible with the alien species they come across

Sorry, Spock and Lina. You're unrealistic and shouldn't exist.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Pelia is giving me serious Doctor Who vibes.