Serene Squall lets the Enterprise crew have some fun as pirates take over their ship, and they inspire a mutiny to free themselves, but it also has ties not only to The Original Series, but to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, tying those narrative threads together to make a cohesive tapestry.

Written by Beau DeMayo and Sarah Tarkoff, this episode debuted on 16 June, 2022.

Pike (Anson Mount) is approached by a former Federation counsellor, Aspen (Jesse James Keitel), to help rescue some colonists who were captured beyond Federation space. This ends up plunging the Enterprise into danger when they encounter the Serene Squall, a pirate ship that has designs on the Enterprise and its crew.

But that’s just the beginning as Aspen reveals their true nature, and is planning on using Spock (Ethan Peck) as a bartering chip to get his fiance, T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) to release a prisoner from the rehabilitation centre she works at.

While Pike, Una (Rebecca Romijn) and the rest of the crew work to inspire a mutiny on the Serene Squall, Spock starts a gambit with Chapel (Jess Bush) to safeguard T’Pring, and keep her prisoner out of Aspen/Angel’s hands.

As the episode closes, Spock confides in Chapel about who he believes Angel was working to release from the rehabilitation centre. It seems his father had another child, a half-brother, whom we get a glimpse of from behind as the episode ends. Sybok!

I love that Pike is able to start the mutiny, has a lot of fun doing it, and it all initially starts with his cooking!

The Elysian Kingdom is arguably the weakest episode of the first season, but even this one is fun. Written by Akela Cooper and Onitra Johnson, it first debuted on 23 June, 2022.

This episode wraps up the M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun)/Rukiya (Sage Arrindell) storyline.

The Enterprise is charting a nebula as M’Benga still works on a cure for his ailing daughter, but something from the nebula is aware and sentient, and has reached out to the ship, changing it, and its crew into the characters from the book that M’Benga reads to his daughter.

This is fun in that it allows all the actors to play different characters, and some of them are definitely having fun with it.

As the fairy tale world unfolds before M’Benga, who has taken on the role of the king, he and Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who remains unaffected by the changes, work to discover what is behind this fantasy realm and work to restore their reality.

It plays out nicely, if sometimes a little silly (it is based on a children’s book after all), but Olusanmokun gets to finish off his parental arc beautifully and learn that he’s done the right thing by his daughter.

It seems there’s an entity in the nebula, one that can alter reality, and it offers a choice to M’Benga that is heartbreaking and hopeful, and it’s nice to see that everything worked out fine. It also layers out the character nicely.

I love the pairing of Olusanmokun and Horak in this episode, they make a great duo, and Hemmer’s praising the magic of science is sure to be a rallying call for fans.

And for a deep cut, look up who wrote The Elysian Kingdom.

I’m loving my rewatch of Strange New Worlds: Season 1, and Paramount Canada has done a wonderful job on its representation on physical media, it’s available on DVD, Blu-Ray and an absolutely beautiful 4K version. It’s available now, boldly go…