Star Trek Strange New Worlds Episode 7 Recap: The Serene Squall

This was the second most fun alternative episode premise you could hang a Spock/T'Pring episode on.

The opening of the book reveals that Spock and T'Pring are still learning about one another. After sharing their katras in "Spock Amok", it's time for T'Pring to make Spock uncomfortable by telling him all about their long distance relationship. It's a fun moment, but it sets the stage for what's going to be the heart of the episode--Spock still trying to reconcile his nature as half-Vulcan and half- human, and his struggle with feelings all over the place isn't helped

The goal of the meeting is to help a group of Federation colonists out on the border of the utopian civilization's space, where things are not as utopian as the Federation's ideals would like to think they are. While working with an independent aid relief worker named Dr. Aspen, the Enterprise learns it is suddenly on less of a relief mission and more of a rescue mission.

This is once again a straightforward narrative for Strange New Worlds, and it is all the better for it. We know what the Enterprise is up against from the beginning, and we also know what the audience is made of: you have your Space Pirates, you have your Spock/T'Pring emotional drama, and away you go. The strength in this simplicity is enhanced even further by Jess Bush's Nurse Chapel, who finally gets plenty to do this episode and really sells the personal conflict between herself and any leftover feelings she has for Spock, setting the stage for some of the eventual relationship status.

Not to compare this week and last week too much but what did work? Instead of three negating each other, this episode has one twist. The pirates beam aboard and begin taking over the ship after the away team tries to find the colonists. After some fun action of the crew repelling the invaders, it has been revealed that Dr. Aspen is not the real leader of the crew. Keitel was already having a lot of fun in her role, but with the reveal of Captain Angel they came to the fore as perhaps the best guest star Strange New Worlds has had so far. She was dressed in a sort of sci-fi punk pirate lacing jumpsuit, but still felt like a threat to Spock and the captured crew because she was playing this camp pirate queen.

This fun is matched aboard the Squall too, when the captured away team decides to lean into the comedy as well and play dumb in an attempt to get the remaining pirates to stage a mutiny against Angel. It's a rare opportunity that Anson Mount has had on the series so far to just kind of be a goofball, and yet it's an incredibly charming turn, balancing a fine like between feeling like you're watching people have a ton of fun, but making the stakes This is the crew of the Federation's flagship vessel, and as clever as Angel is, their crew is still a bunch of greedy pirates. The cockiness and general humor on display feels earned by the team because they know they can dance around these people.

When Angel reveals that they don't want the Enterprise, they want Spock, and that they can use his life as a prisoner exchange with T'Pring, it all comes to a head. Spock stopped T'Pring from giving into her feelings for him with a hell of a ploy, which broke off their engagement. Things are eventually revealed as a hoodwink even if Sandhu in particular does a really great job of at least layers in a feeling that T'Pring is genuinely hurt by this moment, including watching an extended makeout scene on the bridge between Spock and Chapel. She deduced the ruse at the end of the show, which adds to the drama between herself, Spock, and now Chapel.

Without that layer, this could have felt like a strange retread of "Spock Amok," and in some ways it is, because you know where all this is going to go. Even if it isn't as effective at mining the Spock/T'Pring relationship, it still works because it's fun and effective. That, and once again, it cannot be overstated just how much the fun of this episode works because ofJessie James Keitel just having a total blast with her performance.

With the day saved and the Enterprise out of the pirate's hands, Chapel may still have feelings for Spock, despite his renewed relationship with T'Pring and their conversation about remaining very good friends. The final moments of the episode, narrated by Spock, take us back to T'Pring's work at the V'tosh ka'tur rehab facility on Vulcan, where it was revealed to us through Spock.

So much. It is very funny that Star Trek in its current form cannot save itself from Spock's Secret Siblings, which is on Discovery. It is a deep cut move for Spock's story on Strange New Worlds. People don't want to remember Star Trek V at the best of times, but there is a chance to revisit the character in the wake of Spock's relationship with Michael.

The strength of Strange New Worlds in this debut season is in the fact that it is on to the next thing. This needs to be something we revisit again. It felt like a hint that the show was laying down some continuing roots to go alongside its episodic explorations when it was back into Spock and T'Pring's relationship immediately after "Spock Amok". I want more chances to laugh at the idea that Spock kept his half-brother a secret from Kirk and Bones because he was stupid. We can, but we can't.

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