HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

The Strange New Worlds season one finale, “A Quality of Mercy,” finally addresses the Time Crystal-shaped elephant in the room by giving Pike the opportunity to live the consequences of changing his future. Pike comes face to face with the reality of his future in a way we haven’t really seen before when he encounters Maat Al-Salah, the boy who will die in the accident that destroys Pike’s body. This puts Pike in the position of actively having to choose whether he’ll try and avert his future and thereby save the boy’s life or accept his fate as well as the boy’s. The writers cleverly ground Pike’s choice by making a full-scale allusion to one of my favorite TOS episodes, “Balance of Terror,” and demonstrates that sometimes, even the most well-meaning of people can make the wrong choice. “A Quality of Mercy” writes a love letter to existing Trek canon while still embracing that Pike has more adventuring to do just yet.

Plot Ahoy!

Starfleet sends the Enterprise to bring supplies and aid in retrofitting Outpost Four, which is located on the edge of the Neutral Zone between the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation. While speaking with the outpost’s commander, Pike meets the man’s son who happens to be one of the two cadets who will die in the same accident that will so grievously injure Pike. Pike flees the encounter to go back to his quarters to write a letter warning the boy of his future when a version of him from the future interrupts, offering Pike the opportunity to see just how making the change affects the future.

Initially skeptical, Pike touches the time crystal and finds himself seven years in the future, some time after the accident that would have “ruined” his future occurred. He finds himself in the middle of performing a wedding for crewmembers he doesn’t recognize. A red alert sounds, bringing him to the bridge, and Spock, who is now first officer, informs him that Outposts 2, 3, and 4 have been attacked. Only Outpost Four returns hails with Commander Al-Salah seeming to be the sole survivor. An unknown ship decloaks suddenly and destroys the outpost before disappearing. Pike sets Spock to analyzing the information.

Meanwhile, the Farragut arrives, under the command of one James T. Kirk, as backup. Spock figures out how to track the ship, and Uhura tracks a transmission that they can put up on the viewscreen. It reveals Romulans, who look shockingly similar to Vulcans, prompting Ortegas to say some inappropriate things about Spock. Pike and Kirk decide to mirror the ship’s movements and form a pincer movement to try and paralyze the ship.

Unfortunately, the ship discovers them and engages in its own maneuvers, so the ship manages to score a serious hit on Enterprise and destroy the Farragut. Kirk and the remaining crew successfully escape the ship, and the Enterprise scores a hit on the Romulan ship, damaging its engines. Pike negotiates a two hour cease fire with the Romulan, and Kirk heads off on an unknown mission.

After the two hours are up, an entire Romulan armada, called by a mutinous subcommander, appears on the edge of the Neutral Zone and demand Pike’s surrender. Kirk reappears with an armada of unmanned mining and hauling vessels in an attempt to bluff the Romulans. The Romulans call the bluff, and the Enterprise warps out of the area while the Romulans declare war on the Federation. Pike goes to check on Spock, who was repairing the damaged phaser array, only to discover that he was grievously, likely fatally, wounded. Pike goes to his quarters where Future Pike explains that Spock has fate of the galaxy things to do, but he disappears when Kirk comes to check on Pike. The two captains sit down to get to know each other. After Kirk leaves, Pike touches the time crystal, making his choice.

Pike returns to the bridge, having made peace with his future. However, Captain Batel beams back aboard the ship with security forces to arrest Una Chin-Riley for her violation of the anti-genetic modification laws. Pike tries to intervene, but Una tells him to stand down, having also accepted this fate. Pike swears that things aren’t over just as Una transports away.

Analysis

There’s almost no way to discuss “A Quality of Mercy” without discussing “Balance of Terror” because “A Quality of Mercy” puts Captain Pike in the events of “Balance of Terror” down to the wedding that gets interrupted. The point the story wants to make to Pike is that he’s the wrong captain to be in the Big Chair on the Enterprise during these events, not because he’s not a good captain but rather because he’s a captain that would make different choices in the same situation. Looking back on Pike’s attempts to communicate with the Romulans, they’re far from bad choices. In fact, they’re directly in line with what we’ve seen of Starfleet thus far. Pike relies on diplomacy over brute force, and we’ve seen that strategy work over and over and over again throughout every iteration of the Star Trek franchise. We even get a solid glimpse of the same tactical craftiness that “wins” the actual encounter in the original episode with Kirk’s brilliant idea to use the derelict mining equipment to trick the Romulans.

Pike’s initial strategy of mirroring the Romulan ship’s movements is, in fact, Kirk’s first move in “Balance of Terror.” The key difference occurs because Pike doesn’t make the call to jump ahead of the Romulan ship to attack. Thus, when the Romulan commander doubles back while cloaked, his ship can attack the Farragut almost without issue. Pike does order the Enterprise to engage the ship, but it’s too late for both the Farragut and the timeline because the moment of divergence has already occurred.

We know that had Pike risked engaging the ship rather than aiming to cripple it, the ship would have never returned to Romulus, nor would the subcommander have had the opportunity to contact the Romulan fleet. That subcommander eventually confirms for us just exactly why the Romulans are there, which is to test the resolve of the Federation. Pike’s preference for diplomacy and peaceful negotiation doesn’t work here because even though the Romulan commander is the same man Kirk encountered—down to giving the same final speech—the subcommander and the other Romulans cleave to the idea of conquering the weak. They perceive Pike’s attempts at peace, therefore, as weakness, sufficient to make the Federation a valid target for warfare now that they’ve finished the Reman campaign.

Pike has no way of knowing this, and as I mentioned above, the strategies he employs are pretty much textbook Star Trek. It’s just in this particular instance, Kirk happens to be right when he argues for the destruction of the ship. Those instincts, that also lead Kirk into the Neutral Zone during the “Balance of Terror,” are by sheer chance exactly what the timeline needed in order to progress along the course we all recognize as the “correct” one.

Using “Balance of Terror” this way reflects the relationship Strange New Worlds has with TOS. In one sense, the show can and does show us radically different parts of the Trek universe and lets us get to know different sides to characters we know and love in a way that manages to offer something refreshingly new while respecting the history that brings most of Trek’s audience back to the table year after year. Deep Space Nine’s “Trials and Tribble-ations” does something similar but without actually engaging these familiar faces. Because “Strange New Worlds” occupies a space in the timeline so soon before the events of TOS, it gets to involve these characters; it is necessarily grounded in canon.

However, “A Quality of Mercy” doesn’t shoehorn canon into a story where it doesn’t belong. The episode isn’t trapped by canon in the same way Discovery’s first two seasons were. The entire story relies on Pike’s agency to make choices in order to work, which is perhaps the aspect of “A Quality of Mercy” I like best. Pike, just as he did in “Through the Valley of Shadows,” makes the same choice, but this time, he does so secure in the knowledge that his sacrifice has importance beyond saving the lives of the cadets he does. His sacrifice saves Spock, a dear friend, and someone for whom he cares directly rather than in the abstract. I think that is why Pike can make peace with his fate.

There are elements for which I didn’t care in the story. Exchanging Ortegas for Stiles makes little sense. Ortegas has served with Spock for some time, and we know she’s gotten to know Vulcan culture enough that she’s fought with a lirpa. Her near-xenophobia seems out of character. I make no excuses for Stiles, since he’s definitely a relic of his time, but at least he had his grandfather’s connection to the original war with the Romulans. Thus, her role in the episode came off as jarring and frankly out of character.

I’m also a bit tired of seasons ending by imprisoning female characters. We saw that with Lower Decks and now with Strange New Worlds. While I’m not wild about having Pike fly to her rescue, I suppose it makes some sense. Pike knows he’s got about seven years left of being able to move under his own power, so perhaps he’ll be more willing to pull out all the stops to protect her in a way he perhaps wasn’t when he still sat in the Big Chair on the Enterprise. Regardless, we now know the hook for season two, and I really cannot wait to see what this crew has in store for us.

Rating:

Five Time Crystals

Stray Thoughts From the Couch

1. Y’all, it’s hard to pick out Easter Eggs for this one because the entire episode is an Easter Egg.
2. That said, we do get to hear Scotty, even if we don’t get to see him.
3. In 1966, Tomlinson dies, rather than his fiancée Angela Martine, likely due to standards for treating women at the time. However, in 2022, Martine perishes, leaving a grief-stricken Tomlinson to look up at Pike, doing the same tour around Sickbay Kirk does. That was an interesting change. Maybe to stress equality?
4. Obviously, Pike’s reference to Spock being the best hope for peace with the Romulans refers to the events of “Unification.” Granted, I’d argue that the destruction of Romulus does more for that than his sojourn, but that’s just me.
5. I would have liked to have seen Chapel used as more than an info dump for Pike. C’mon, show, you’ve been building her up all season, and that’s what we get?
6. I’m over the moon that Strange New Worlds gives us an updated version of the Maroon Monster Starfleet uniform. Even if we discover that Pike never changes his hair, ever, I loved the detailing on his uniform. Dirty confession, I have a real love for that uniform. No idea why. I also really appreciated that we get future!Uhura wearing her signature earrings and sporting the neckline from TOS. This is a show that got the details right.