Star Trek Strange New Worlds Recap: “Lost in Translation”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is anything but a growing pains show — as we’ve said many times, it’s the first season landed with confidence of what it wanted to do in a few ways star trek debuts ever. But it’s a show where growth is inevitable: it’s a prequel about Kirk Pursue before Kirk gets thereThat is why we are constantly prepared for the steps into this future. But that won’t stop Strange New Worlds from examining what that growth means for everyone involved.
On the surface, “Lost In Translation,” the sixth episode of the season, comes to a conclusion Strange New Worlds“Two elements of the sophomore debut that have been missing so far: a focus on Celia Rose Gooding’s current Ensign Uhura, who hasn’t had as much of a spotlight since the series.” second episode everand a tinge of horror that detracts from the series’ script already used effectively in his encounters with the Gorn. As the Pursueheads a task force that includes the USS Farragut, goes to a deuterium Starfleet-established mining station on the edge of Federation space – ostensibly a resting place for explorations into the farthest reaches, but actually a fortress on the edge of Gorn space should tensions flare up further – Uhura, overburdened and overwhelmed in her busy work as The Youngest A member of the ship’s bridge crew reflects on the past and, most notably, the loss of leaders in her life that brought her to this moment.
After taking it upon herself to play around with it PursueWhen she hears a strange noise at her bridge station, Nyota’s comms turn on. In doing so, she uses a video she has of the late Hemmer (a lovely, surprising return for Bruce Horak’s fallen Aenar) and guides her through the process as a cadet, as Nyota suddenly finds herself making her way back to the bridge of ambushed by a terrifying vision of a zombie inhibitor But as Uhura’s condition deteriorates and the situation in the fog grows worse — the station’s number one away team, including Hemmer’s replacement as Chief Engineer Pelia, discovers that a similarly tormented, vision-stricken officer has been maniacally sabotaging the facility — The episode borrows, albeit not as strongly, from the chilling horror tropes that characterized season one’s Gorn episodes, which is fitting given that it meant Uhura lost Hemmer as a friend and mentor in the first place .
While there is something inevitable about the outcome – Uhura worries, justifiably, that she might suffer the same fate as the stricken mining officer who ends up being catapulted into space during a manic episode after his condition worsens -, there is still something There is a lot of suspense to be squeezed out of “Lost In Translation”.“full of short, sharp, unsettling tremors and plenty of his visions for Uhura and the mining officer blurring the lines of surreality. But the creepiness isn’t at the core of the episode – the message is about acknowledging Uhura’s own evolution and the need to overcome many of the traumas she experienced in her young life, not only Hemmer’s death but also the shuttle accident, which took her family’s life away – the reason why she accidentally was headed towards a career in Starfleet anyway.
And while Gooding is absolutely the star of the episode – giving us a raw vulnerability to Uhura coupled with the seeds of the confident woman she will become – there’s an intriguing balance that they absolutely strike – it’s that need, Acknowledging the growth and transformation of a number of our characters is the very essence of the episode. We see this addressed in Spock and Chapel’s budding relationship as both try to figure out who they want to be for each other and who they want to become while exploring that connection. We see it playfully between Pelia and Una as the latter shows some frustration with the lai of the formersssThe z-fair attitude towards command protocols she ultimately reveals stems from a course she took with the long-lived Lanthanite as her tutor at the Academy, and even shorter with Pike than he jokingly but sincerely shared with the short ones , but deals with increased demands As a fleet captain, he knows exactly which path he will take one day.
But perhaps most intriguing here on Uhura’s own journey of acceptance and recognition is another character: the return of Paul Wesley’s lieutenant James T. Kirk, now the First Officer of the Farragut. I’ve said it in the past with Wesley’s performances as the Legendary hike hero that Strange New Worlds Given the shadow he drastically looms over the series, credit is due for his skillful use of Kirk in a limited, detached role. That wasn’t the case with the Kirks we’ve had so far Really had been Kirk – alternate timelines, altered realities, the half-Kirks that let the show play with the legend but not make him seem quite as menacing and in turn let him make him his own character beyond what we’ve heard of know that one day he will become. That’s how it is with me some apprehension that Kirk-The Jim Kirk, the authoritative article, enters the halls of , albeit fresh-faced and early in his leadership career Pursue here seriously. But Strange New Worlds is a smarter show than its nostalgic, borderline flattering appreciation often lets on hikeis the classic format of , and Lost In Translation is no exception.
Kirk comes on board Pursue doesn’t feel like a necessary nostalgia piece, an invention more for the audience than our characters. It’s also important that he doesn’t overwhelm the story he’s being thrust into, even though he does become Uhura’s crucial catalyst – a nice nod to their future relationship. To the people on board the PursueAside from Pike and La’an (who saw their “own” alt-kirk mentioned above), Jim is just… well, he’s just a little guy. No one treats this lieutenant any differently than any other lieutenant, save for a knowing meeting between him and Mr. Spock towards the end of the episode. The shadow that Kirk portrays never gets a chance to emerge, and that’s largely because he, too, explores the themes of growing up and overcoming past regrets.
We see this not only in the way he helps Uhura navigate her way and ultimately figure out what the mysterious visions that plague her are about – there are microscopic organisms in the Deuterium Nebula that have been created by the Federation’s mining operations in the Essentially being tortured – but more importantly we see it in his relationship with his brother Sam, a heady, testy mix of sibling rivalry and regret that humanizes Both really good, despite the brevity of this particular narrative. In fact, when Sam and Jim started their hang-After digging into their respective career paths in Starfleet at the end of the episode, Spock and Kirk’s aforementioned brief meeting feels less like a cutesy nudge and more like a deserved sentiment: these are all characters who always have each other still evolve as humans, regardless of their future destiny from time to time Pursue.
They still have to learn to move out of pain and loss, to move into their future, and to meet the people they will one day be – but they are all still on the way there. And even in a story about misunderstandings Strange New Worlds makes it clear that this journey is worth exploring on your own.
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