I’ve been disappointed by plenty of episodes of Star Trek over the years, because as much as we would like to pretend otherwise, there are some real clunkers in there. But it’s rare that an episode or film actively makes me angry.

This is one of them. And while I didn’t have quite the same negative reaction to the episode this time (probably because I already knew what was coming), there’s so little for me to recommend about it. As such, this may be fairly short, and I will focus on more high-level aspects vs. a scene-by-scene recap.

I will also start out by acknowledging that, from a directing and acting level, the episode is very well-done. And I suppose it was inevitable that, given the conceit of the show in that it would do a fair bit of genre-hopping throughout the season, we would end up with a horror episode. But while I can credit the performers and the production team—the Gorn puppets are excellent, and I applaud the resistance to using CGI whenever possible—I cannot help but feel that this isn’t the kind of Star Trek that I want, nor is it the direction I wanted the Gorn to be taken.

To start with something positive, I appreciate the continued look at Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding)’s journey in finding her place in the universe. But even there, I have some major concerns with that exploration happening at the expense of one of the supposed-main characters of the show (and one who had only just begun to be featured in an interesting way last episode).

The show opens with Uhura attending a celebration for the cadets who have finished up their time on Enterprise. Turns out, there was another cadet on the ship as well, Cadet Chia (Jessica Danecker), and we also take time out to celebrate the promotion of Lieutenant Duke (Ted Kellogg). The fact that these two, never-before-seen characters are also brought along on the mission to find USS Peregrine does not bode well for either of their survival—they might as well have said that Duke was just one week away from retirement.

“Is this going to be a stand up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?”

I suppose any time you stage a story in a decrepit-looking environment where monsters are slowly attacking the crew, you’re going to bump up against ALIENS (1986). But there are so many parallels in this story that it’s impossible to ignore: the young girl who somehow survives; someone takes a maternal/paternal interest in that child because of their own personal loss; monsters that gestate within a host body; the one member of the crew panicking and lashing out at others—Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte, remember him?) in this case; and so forth.

There’s also no real way around this other issue: I don’t like this xenomorph version of the Gorn. Having them gestate within a host and then come bursting out of their bodies, beginning with poor unidentified alien Buckley (Carlos Albornoz), has shock value I suppose, but is that really what people want in a Star Trek episode? I can speak only for myself, but my answer is a definite “no.”

In fact, the Gorn as a species feel like they have been reverse-engineered to fit the story that Davy Perez and co. want to tell. And that story seems to be a body horror/bug hunt, regardless of whether that is consistent with what we saw of the Gorn in “Memento Mori.” I have a hard time reconciling the instinct-driven creatures we see in this episode with ones that fly spacecraft and have a complex light-based form of communication, but perhaps future episodes will help with that1.

Hemmer, we barely knew ye

I’ve danced around this one enough: I hate that they kill Hemmer (Bruce Horak) in this episode. I hate that we saw so little of him in the season overall. I hate that we had just started to see potential in the character last episode only to unceremoniously off him for no reason other than to advance the character arc of someone else, even if that someone else is an amazing character like Uhura.

Mostly I hate the manipulative way it was done. The Gorn infect others with their progeny by spitting on them. From a biological standpoint, I have questions, but we will just go with it for now. Midway through the episode, we see Hemmer spit on, and we later see him being examined in Peregrine’s sickbay with La’an (Christina Chong) present. Yet despite knowing that this is how the Gorn reproduce, she says nothing. Why? Because it’s more impactful to tell the audience this later, when we think the Gorn threat has been dealt with. And with all due respect to Davy Perez, this is bad writing.

Again, I’m not criticizing the actual performances here, because everyone sells the heck out of this moment, and the funeral scene later is absolutely affecting. The actors are completely selling moments that I simply wish were different. It bugs me that Hemmer appears to have been conceived of as not so much an actual character, but a spiritual guide for Uhura.

Partly I place the blame for this on the significant decrease in the number of episodes with so-called “Prestige TV.” Back in the 90s, we would have had 25 or so episodes and at least a couple would have been able to focus on Hemmer. But here, the compressed production schedule doesn’t allow for that. The added factors of Bruce Horak being both very talented and an actor representing those living with blindness makes everything that much more unfortunate.

…it’s the people you love who can mend your heart when you feel broken. That’s what Hemmer’s purpose was: to fix what is broken. And he did…”

Nyota Uhura

Moment of Melumad

Much like the performances, Hemmer’s death scene gets a great cue from Nami Melumad. Starting off with tension as everyone realizes that Hemmer has been infected with Gorn eggs, the cue turns elegiac complete with variations of the Alexander Courage TOS fanfare as he makes his way to the open bay doors and throws himself into the environment of Valeo Beta V.

00:00

Supplemental Logs

• I want Pike to make me breakfast sometime.
• Station K-7!
• Spock needing to let his emotions out to challenge the Gorn is an interesting wrinkle, though I’m not entirely sure why he needed to do it. His borderline assault on Christine Chapel at the end of the episode was legitimately scary, and could have potential for future stories2