It’s made up for by the tense scene when the ship gets trapped in an electromagnetic laser net (which viewers may recognize as apparent Tholian technology), and Spock has to pick the right asteroid to target to save the ship.

It’s a little bit wooden perhaps even forced, and at worst is rather filler-y. While the Enterprise searches for the colonists, Spock and Aspen engage with each other, with the counselor teasing more and more personal information from the Vulcan along the way. With the threat of Federation citizens ending up in chains, Pike chooses to take the Enterprise out into unclaimed territory, beyond the reach of any help from Starfleet. The lack of survivors among the wreckage seems to suggest that the pirates were after the colonists themselves for slave labor - a grim callback and reminder of the casual native of galactic slavery that was discussed repeatedly in both Enterprise and the Original Series. Aspen (Jesse James Keitel), a guest who boarded the Enterprise to assist in a search for three colony ships lost outside of Federation space.Īpparently, the ships are being threatened by a pirate vessel called the Serene Squall, which doesn’t seem to concern Captain Pike (Anson Mount) very much - at least, not until La’an (Christina Chong) reports that two of the three colony ships have been found… in pieces. Putting Tropic of Cancer aside for another day, Spock connects with Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) on the way to head to dinner with Dr. (Paramount+)īy the standards of Star Trek’s usual discourse on mixed-race identity, this is somehow above average - barely. It’s played for humor, but there’s a slight seriousness to it as well - in the sense that Spock isn’t ready to face the raw, external image of his identity that T’Pring’s research literature discusses.

Spock (Ethan Peck) is rather taken aback by his fiancé’s headfirst dive into human sexual literature, and while he admits his appreciation for her efforts to understand his human side, it clearly makes him uncomfortable. Unexpectedly, we begin the episode with T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) hard at work at the Ankeshtan K’tilk Vulcan Criminal Rehabilitation Center - she refers to it as a ‘retreat,’ but it seems just like a fancy prison - where outside of her official duties, she’s been researching ways to ‘spice up’ her relationship with Spock… by reading Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying, and Maggie Wilson’s The Argonauts. While not entirely remarkable, “The Serene Squall” is a fun, enjoyable episode with some good added lore - and who doesn’t love pirates? Beyond that though, it doesn’t really tread new ground for either Strange New Worlds, or the Star Trek franchise as a whole.

Absolutely Eric by Erica Pike