This is the second week in a row where my ranking has dropped from my previous list. But unlike last episode, I’m ranking “The Serene Squall” lower this time because I think I like a few other episodes more. That’s not to say this week’s episode is bad. I remember on first watch thinking that it was a ton of fun. And it still is! It’s a wonderfully fun, campy bit of entertainment. But it’s also largely disposable fun, campy entertainment. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as we have had many examples of this in Star Trek over the years.

It helps that we have one of my favorite guest stars in a long time in this one. Jesse James Keitel absolutely kills it both as the subdued Dr. Aspen and later as the deliciously over-the-top Captain Angel1. Her ability to chew the scenery in the latter minutes of the show is incredibly fun as Captain Angel revels in their tormenting of Spock (Ethan Peck) while becoming positively giddy when testing Enterprise’s phasers. Yet I also completely buy Keitel’s earlier performance as the subdued, somewhat troubled Dr. Aspen as they tell Spock the story of their husband and his (completely invented) experience with the Serene Squall.

We first meet “Dr. Aspen” as they sit down to dinner with Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the rest of the crew while discussing the plight of three colony ships that have been lost beyond Federation space. I really appreciated the return to viewing unexplored space as a great unknown that was potentially dangerous. After years spent in the 24th century where distance really had no meaning outside of when it mattered for plot reasons such as the wormhole in Deep Space Nine or the entire set-up of Voyager, its nice to see a return to the days of TOS, where traveling into “unexplored space” was treated as a Big Deal.

Dr. Aspen explains that a pirate ship known as the Serene Squall has been raiding ships in the area, a concern that appears to be backed up when the crew finds two of the three colony ships destroyed. Despite the danger involved in proceeding beyond Federation space2, Pike decides to go after the missing colonists, living up to his “Boy Scout” reputation that Una jokes (?) is in his official Starfleet file3.

Dualism

At this point, the plot really moves in two separate directions: the rescue of the colonists and the exploration of Spock’s (Ethan Peck) struggles reconciling his human and Vulcan natures. For whatever reason, I didn’t really appreciate this second aspect as much the first time I saw this episode. After the heaviness of last week’s episode, I think I let myself get caught up in the “Space Pirates!” aspect of the story and didn’t really key in on Spock’s existential issues.

I’ve also never felt that Star Trek has handled the idea of multi-race identity well, nor for that matter racial identity at all given the number of monocultures we see. This aspect of the story actually begins with the opening scene, where T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) decides to “spice things up” (her words) by reading Human literature, including Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer”, Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying”, and Maggie Wilson’s “The Argonauts.” T’Pring’s choice to mention this to Spock during a FaceTime date is both awkward and extremely Vulcan.

Spock opens up about these conversations with Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) on the way to dinner with Dr. Aspen, and she mentions that one reason she likes being friends with Vulcans is that they are honest, and that Spock, “shouldn’t try to be smarter than the truth.” Of course, we the audience know that she has feelings for Spock—a fact that he is clearly oblivious to.

Later, when Enterprise is briefly trapped in a laser net4, Dr. Aspen picks up on Spock’s lack of comfort in using his “gut instinct” in choosing which of two asteroids to target to disrupt the trap. Later, they visit Spock in his quarters, calling attention to this and asking why Spock has a problem with guessing. This leads to Dr. Aspen telling Spock that perhaps he is neither human nor Vulcan—a statement that he finds nonsensical, and that I find a bit too literal if I’m being honest.

You know, all species put things into boxes. It’s like you’re either this or you’re that, and sometimes we act a certain way to fit people’s expectations. But…that’s not necessarily who we are.

“Dr. Aspen”

Star Trek has often returned to the well of Spock having to choose between his Vulcan and human halves, which Aspen (correctly in my view) dismisses as a false choice, but Strange New Worlds seems to be taking it to an even more literal level that I’m not quite sure works5.

Yo Ho Ho, It’s a Pirate Show

I led off by saying that much of this episode is disposable fun, and that is due to what happens with the rest of the crew and their attempt to free the “colonists” from the clutches of the Serene Squall. Pike, La’an (Christina Chong), and company beam over to the supposed colony ship only to learn that it is, in fact, the pirate ship that they have been pursuing. And despite the efforts of Number One (Rebecca Romijn), Ortegas (Melissa Navia), and the rest of the bridge crew, the pirates also manage to take control of Enterprise6, but not before Number One locks out the computer.

Spock and Dr. Aspen are able to escape the bridge and, after a short interlude in sickbay where Dr. Aspen explains that they were once married to a Vulcan who was killed by Serene Squall pirates, meet up with Chapel (who has been fending off her own group of pirates) in engineering.

Meanwhile, back on the Serene Squall, Pike quickly clues in that the ship’s captain, Remy, isn’t particularly liked by his crew, nor is his cooking. Sensing an opportunity, Pike offers to cook the crew a decent meal as a means of starting to foment a mutiny via a maneuver referred to as “Alpha Braga IV”7. Pike’s efforts are hindered somewhat though by Spock who, in the midst of attempting to wrestle back control of the ship and possibly blinded by multiple heart-to-heart chats, turns over the ship to Dr. Aspen, who reveals that they are actually the true leader of the Serene Squall, Captain Angel.

With this twist, Jesse James Keitel ups the level of camp to 11, and she is clearly having a blast in these scenes as Captain Angel. I’ve read some criticisms of her performance here, but I think it’s a lot of fun.

We also find out that Angel isn’t interested at all in Enterprise, but they are interested in Spock. Apparently, T’Pring has their husband, a Vulcan named Xaverious, held in the Ankeshtan K’tilk facility, Angel is demanding an exchange.

When T’Pring inevitably shows up to rescue her fiancé, Spock decides that the only way out of the situation is to try to convince her to break off their engagement…by “confessing” that he and Chapel are having an affair and in love. To drive the point home, Spock decides to kiss Chapel, a move that she clearly responds to.

I figured something like this was coming eventually, because of what we know from TOS and that the writers have been setting up that Chapel is developing feelings for Spock (especially with that final scene in “Spock Amok.”). Spock’s apparent obliviousness to her feelings both here, and both Jess Bush and Ethan Peck definitely sell the moment, both with Chapel’s emotional reaction and Spock being unaware of what he just did to her. I don’t love the idea that Spock is messing with Chapel’s emotions here (knowingly or not) but I suppose it’s not the worst way something like this could have happened.

I also appreciate the scene later in sickbay, where Chapel decides to “friendzone” Spock, mostly to protect herself. This is also where she follows up on a comment Spock made earlier about how he had deduced who “Xevarious” is…his half-brother, Sybok. While he hasn’t turned up yet (as of the end of season 2), I remain hopeful that we will see him again.

Moment(s) of Melumad

Two tracks this time.

The first, “Will You Be My Vulcantine?” plays over the scene where T’Pring arrives to complete th prisoner exchange with Angel. The cue features a reprise of the horn-based motif for Spock and T’Pring before giving way to a lush string-based motif as Spock and Chapel kiss8.

The second track, “Won’t You Be My Pirate?” picks up immediately where the previous one ends, as Pike and crew manage to retake control of Enterprise. Aside from the wonderful callback to “Amok Time” in “Spock Amok,” Melumad’s scoring thus far has been fairly light on direct quotes from either the show’s main theme or from TOS themes. Here though, we are treated to fun reprises of both as Pike swoops in standing behind what looks like a giant ship wheel (naturally).

Supplemental Logs:

• Starting the show off with T’Pring’s personal log is an interesting choice. How often (if ever) have we had a non-Starfleet character giving a voice-over log?
• Unless the sequence involving the laser net is a way of quietly introducing the Tholians, it’s more like filler than anything else.
• Loved seeing our crew climbing through Jeffries tubes again!
• Where did Pike get the ingredients for his meal?
• Presumably the Serene Squall crew knows who the real captain is, so why were they so concerned that Remy was going to sell the prisoners to the Klingons? Or perhaps Captain Angel told them that they would be leaving the ship once their husband was returned?
• If it takes two days for a message to reach Starfleet (as Spock says at the start of the episode), how is Captain Angel having a real-time conversation with T’Pring later?
• Stonn sighting