The “Star Trek” universe is filled with interstellar menaces prowling the spaceways: there’s the cloaked Klingon Birds of Prey; that awesome Reman battlecruiser, the Scimitar; a weaponized Romulan mining ship named the Narada; and even those pesky, hive-minded Borg Cubes.
But nothing quite compares to the shock and awe of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”‘ latest cosmic boogieman seen in this past week’s new episode, “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail.”
Here, in this “Trekiest” chapter of the entire series so far, director Valerie Weiss pulls off a powerful entry in this third season by dispensing with the lighter genre episodes and plunging straight into the signature core of what has made the beloved franchise so special for nearly 60 years. The Sehlat in the title refers to a bipedal, bear-like mammal indigenous to Vulcan and a pet Spock once owned as a child (a fact explained in a sad episode from “Star Trek: The Animated Series”).
Weiss has been aboard “Strange New Worlds” since 2022 and helmed the highly-praised courtroom drama episode from Season 2 titled, “Ad Astra Per Aspera.” Her natural talent for extracting maximum dramatic tension balanced with dynamic action scenes made her the ideal choice for showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers.
“I think they were so happy with ‘Ad Astra Per Aspera,'” she tells Space.com. “That was an episode all about empathy. And in this episode’s final scene between Pike and Kirk, Pike has this great line where he says, ‘Empathy isn’t conditional.’ You don’t get to pick and choose who you have it for. Akiva believes that stories are the ultimate empathy generators.”
Warning: You are now entering the spoiler zone!
In this new gem, the USS Farragut is on a planetary survey of Helicon Gamma when a shark-like scavenger spaceship appears and obliterates the planet. The Farragut’s Captain V’Rel is injured due to the resulting shockwave and second officer James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) takes command. The USS Enterprise arrives to assist but is swallowed whole by this parasitic machine that is the stuff of superstitious legend. La’an even refers to the deadly salvage craft in whispered tones as the “destroyer of worlds” and Lt. Mitchell recalls rumors of a nightmarish lurking craft often called the “monster past the edge of the map.”
The plot unfolds as Spock, Chapel, Uhura, and Scotty beam aboard the Farragut to assist Kirk and the survivors. Then they must try to help rescue the USS Enterprise before this resource-sucking beast drains the life out of Pike’s flagship vessel. Kirk faces a crisis of conscience and doubts his leadership skills when Spock intervenes and slowly guides him back to baseline where his command skills begin to be forged under fire.
It’s also the first time in “Star Trek” history that most of “The Original Series” crew is aboard a ship captained by James Kirk, creating a genuine never-seen moment. It’s a compelling episode, wonderfully crafted by Weiss and her ace director of photography Benji Bakshi (“Bone Tomahawk”) whom she worked with on “Ad Astra Per Aspera.”
“We talked a lot to Akiva about ‘The Original Series,'” she adds. “This is the first time the original crew is together on a ship, and it’s the Farragut not the Enterprise, but this is historic, this is setting canon. He said the more you can reference the feel and vibe of “The Original Series,” the better. For my director’s cut I put in some music from “The Original Series” and I could tell that the amazing composer, Nami Melumad, updated it for the show. We were trying to harken back to that era. Even my split-screen when they’re all on the phones has a retro quality. So I wanted it to feel fresh and modern, but really evoke the timelessness of the entire franchise.
“This question of leadership, which is at the heart of it, is important to me as a director, because you only learn on the job, just like being a captain. It’s an evolution of being able to learn to be in charge and to listen to your crew and experts around you, and that’s Kirk’s journey.”
The mutant scavenger ship design is a fantastic creation several magnitudes larger than any Starfleet ship. It looks, in some ways, like those fearsome predator fish living in the deepest darkest corners of the ocean, with a massive maw studded with gleaming teeth and equipped with intimidating appendages and claws to grab its prey.
In a startling revelation, the crew members aboard this intergalactic garbage scow turn out to be the descendants of American astronauts launched 200 years earlier during humanity’s pre-warp, post-World War III days. Those intrepid scientists gave up on Earth and blasted off into the stars in search of a more promising world. What happened to them on their long journey, how they de-evolved into weird cyborgian entities, and why they didn’t recognize humans remains a mystery.
“The visual design of these guys was embedded in this idea of being scavengers and the theme of sustainability,” says Weiss. “This idea that you leave and you’re supposed to be the protectors of the Earth and you succumb to more consumption in a way that gets unhealthy instead of living by your principles, was really reflected not only in the ship, but also in their costumes. We didn’t want to trick the audience. They still are bi-pedal and they carry weapons but we didn’t want anyone to guess they were human until that specific moment.
“Something I love about ‘Star Trek’ is that it asks these essential questions. Kirk says to Pike and his crew, ‘How did they go from that to whatever it is they became?’ Which is really what the whole franchise is about. What makes us who we are? What is our place in the universe? I feel like those themes are very strong in this episode.”
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Season 3 streams exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes airing each Thursday.
