SNW delivers gut wrenching, heart-pounding action

SPOILER ALERT

 

They kill off a character, send another one packing and put us through a gripping mash-up of the TOS episode “Galileo Seven” and the classic sci-fi movie Alien.

 

Are the creative team between Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (SNW) trying to kill us?

 

With “All Those Who Wander”, the SNW folks prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they can deliver drama with the best of them. They did it in “Memento Mori” and they do it again in “All Those Who Wander”, the ninth episode of season one.

 

Episode 9 is crazy tense, with enough action, suspense and drama for an entire season. The fact that writer Davy Perez manages to slip some significant character development into the mix just makes it even better.

 

But it is the loss of two major characters at the end of the episode that really hits us hard. I really want to complain about the fact that they killed off Hemmer, the enigmatic engineer played by Canadian actor Bruce Horak, but they do it so well, so strongly in keeping with the character they worked so hard to develop, and in such an important moment of the episode, I really can’t.

 

I’ve been waiting, hoping that they would let Hemmer develop into a full-fledged character, that they would let us get to know more about his past, his culture, his path that brought him into Star Fleet at a time when Andoria was just starting to become a part of the Federation.

 

But… if they had to kill him off, they did it right. He died in accordance with his values. Seeing no hope of a cure for what ailed him (a forced Gorn pregnancy, basically), Hemmer chose to sacrifice himself quickly, cleanly (and hopefully painlessly) for the sake of his crew, his colleagues, his friends.

 

And then there’s Noonien-Singh, another of my favourite characters, who apparently chooses to leave Enterprise to return a little refugee – Gorn prison planet survivor – to her family. Again, I’m not happy with this development: the security officer was an awesome counter-balance to Pike and Spock’s slower pace and tendency to over-think situations. She was fun and she was tough and you could count on her to get you out of a tight space almost before you realised you were in it.

 

But, if for some reason Noonien-Singh (or actor Christina Chong) really needed to leave Pike and crew, then this decision, this reason to leave Enterprise, makes sense. She needs to do this to wrestle to the ground some of her own personal demons.

 

My hope is that the departure of these two major characters will create room for Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Ortegas (Melissa Navia) to get more screen time. Ortegas continues to be under-utilised, perhaps not surprising considering their role on the ship and the size of the principal cast, but could do so much more. We’ve seen hints of their character but… maybe now we’ll get to learn more.

 

And I have never understood why Chin-Riley (Number One) so often plays only a small role in each episode. As second in command, she should be front and centre. But the part she plays in “All Those Who Wander” seems typical – early in the episode, she and Ortegas take Enterprise back to Starbase K7 to deliver much needed equipment and don’t reappear until the very end of the show.

 

Maybe there are contract or availability issues with Navia and Romijn – I don’t know – but I would love to see them take on more central roles in future episodes.

 

And last… let’s talk about the Gorn. Clearly, the creative team for SNW have decided the Gorn are the perfect enemy for their series – like the Klingons and Romulans in TOS, the Borg in TNG, the Cardassians and later the Jem Ha’dar in DS9, the Gorn have assumed the central antagonist role.

 

And, as presented in SNW, they present as frightening and seemingly insurmountable a problem as the Borg. It’s great dramatically (“All Those Who Wander” is as effective as it is because the Gorn seem so completely overwhelming) but it doesn’t jive with the Gorn of TOS.

 

When we met the Gorn in “Arena”, they were big, lumbering, intelligent reptiles on approximately the same stage of social, cultural, technological and intellectual development as humans, Vulcans and the rest of our allies. They were an unknown and, until the end of that classic TOS episode, we had no idea what their motivation was for attacking the Federation outposts and then the Enterprise.

 

When Kirk finally learns their motivations, he recognises a kindred species and decides not to kill his counterpart, even if it put his own ship at risk.

 

In SNW, the Gorn appear to be technologically advanced but socially stunted – they are a hunter species and see no issue with luring other beings into traps to serve as incubators for their own young. They do not communicate with their prey and are fast-moving, fast-thinking and absolutely merciless.

 

And they are very much a part of the Federation universe, even if they continue to occupy space on the edges of Federations space.

 

How did the Gorn go from the SNW version to the TOS version in just 10 years?

 

That being said, if the creative team at SNW had simply called them “the N-Rog”, I would have no problems with them as the antagonist on SNW. As re-imagined in this latest iteration of Star Trek, the Gorn are awesome enemies.