HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

This week’s entry comes two weeks late because every computer I own decided to spontaneously combust at the same time, requiring that I factory reset one to have something on which to write this article. For the other one, I haven’t even been able to get it to reset, so that’s been a new and fascinating adventure in information technology. As a result, I am now three episodes behind in my reviews–Picard’s season finale and the first two episodes of the new series Strange New Worlds. If I want to have a prayer of keeping pace, I’m not going to be able to go episode by episode, so for that, I highly recommend that you visit the Trekker’s Delight podcast links that I post every Tuesday.

Mostly, I want to spend this week discussing the particular through line we’re getting from Current Trek because I think looking at where we’ve been gives us an idea of where Strange New Worlds might go. I covered extensively how Discovery’s fourth season explored interesting themes about connection and community, with Michael Burnham and her crew ultimately saving their quadrant with diplomacy. First, she and president Rillak brought together the Federation with other Alpha Quadrant powers to decide on a single, collective course of action. Then, they reached out to 10-C, sharing their collective experience with 10-C and thereby not only convincing the 10-C to stop the DMA but also to open themselves up to the greater intergalactic community by bringing down their literal and metaphoricald walls.

Prodigy has been developing a similar set of themes; Dal and his extremely motley crew must learn to work together, again collectively, in order to protect themselves and the other Unwanted from the Diviner. Significantly, the Diviner’s entire purpose, we discover, is to secure his people’s supremacy by isolating them from the Federation, turning their society’s backs on the offer of friendship and community. The Diviner weaponizes isolation by denying the Unwanted the ability to communicate with each other, but Dal and his crew not only undo that damage but use the means by which the Diviner enforced that separation to restore communication and thus community to their former compatriots.

In Picard, connection remains a significant season-wide theme, but the execution begins to flag. Agnes Jurati does manage to secure a sense of community by merging with the Borg Queen, but the season finale episode “Farewell” provides a much narrower focus for that connection. Q informs Picard that he was willing to jeopardize the historical development of the entire galaxy in order to convince Picard to love himself enough to believe himself worthy of another person’s love. The second season therefore focuses on romantic attraction and love as being the most important source of connection. We see that in Rios’s bizarre decision to remain in 2024 as well as in the renewal of the bond between Seven and Raffi. Picard returns to his own time, having learned to forgive himself and can now accept Laris’s love, because apparently one Romulan played by Orly Brady is fungible for another. The show flirts with the idea that other types of connection exist, both via the aforementioned Borgati fusion and with Picard saying that Q does not go into death alone since he’s sacrificing his last bit of power to return Picard et al to their appropriate time. However, the season’s deeply flawed focus remains fixated on romantic love and how it benefits one man.

Strange New Worlds, I would argue, also seems to be building toward an exploration of the theme of community, but in this case, the show appears to be framing the discussion more along the lines of “the good of the many.” In the pilot, “Strange New Worlds” reminds us that Pike is a man wrestling with a vision of his own future that terrifies him. We know he’s fled Starfleet, but the risk to his Number One, Una, brings him back well ahead of schedule. Pike rescues not only Una but also the future of the war torn world on which she was held captive. He forces the Kileys to face the horrific potential of self-annihilation, pointing out that they must come together not only to avoid this fate but also to accept an invitation to be a part of a much larger community.

Where Strange New Worlds begins to diverge from the other franchise installments is in its focus on both responsibility and choice. The Enterprise crew determines that the Kileys developed their weapon based on their observations of the battle with Control, meaning that the Federation served as the catalyst. Thus, Pike and his crew are duty-bound to offer aid to the Kileys. Pike also wrestles with responsibility in “Children of the Comet,” as he begins to weigh what duty he owes the cadets he will save at the cost of life as he knows it. Pike must directly confront whether the good of the many–the cadets–outweighs the good of the one–Pike. My guess is that the resolution of this particular plot point will come down to the issue of choice.

Choice also pops up as significant to the other characters in “Children of the Comet.” Uhura must choose whether she will find her place within the community of Starfleet or will leave it. In the wake of the events on Mhanit, Uhura must decide whether the potential gains she may accrue as a member of this community will be worth the risks to her own safety. In a sense, her choice provides a different perspective on the one facing Pike. She can either embrace Starfleet and the unique contribution she can make, or she can leave.

“Children of the Comet” rather bothers me because rather than stick to this particular gun, the story undercuts the significance of these choices by flirting with predestination. The addition of M’hanit’s prediction is clearly intended to throw Pike’s ability to make a choice into question, and it doesn’t quite work in a Trek context or even in the context of Pike’s sacrifice. I can’t help but wonder if this particular feint will become a recurring conceit throughout the rest of the season. I hope not, mostly because exploring the ultimate cost of membership in this community would be an interesting direction in which to take a Trek show. Yes, Trek strongly advocates for the importance of community and collective action, and clearly, I agree with those values. However, Trek only rarely offers us a glimpse of the difficulties underlying making that same choice over and over again without offering a deux ex Genesis Planet to undo the consequences nearly immediately. Consequences give the choice meaning, and I’d hate to see the season take away that significance.

Overall, though, I have high hopes for Strange New Worlds, if for no other reason than that it provides a significant palate cleanser for the often-frustrating second season of Picard.