All Those Who Wander is the penultimate episode of the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and it is determined to make the Gorn the scariest aliens in the Trek universe. Written by Davy Perez, this episode first aired on 30 June, 2022.

The Enterprise, which is on a priority mission, receives another priority call from Starfleet, it seems the U.S.S. Peregrine had to make an emergency landing on a remote planet and the Enterprise dispatches a landing party via shuttlecraft to investigate and rescue any survivors.

Pike (Anson Mount) leads the mission, joined by Spock (Ethan Peck), Hemmer (Bruce Horak), La’an (Christina Chong), Chapel (Jess Bush), M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) and Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), whose rotation on the Enterprise is just about up.

With no way to contact the Enterprise, the landing party is terrified to discover that the Peregrine had picked up survivors of a Gorn breeding planet, and one of them still carried eggs within them.

The party has to fight to survive, and the story feels like a blend of Alien and Predator, as the crew explores dark corners and corridors of the ship to stop the voracious and almost unstoppable creatures.

The episode also takes time to pay off some character arcs, Uhura makes a decision, Hemmer pays too high a price, and Spock confronts the anger within him, and is afraid that he won’t be able to control it, and the connection between he and Chapel grows.

La’an also has to deal with her own past, as they find a survivor who has had the same experiences La’an did growing up, and she takes a temporary leave of absence to help.

It’s a big, full episode with lots going on, from the cooking briefing to the wonderful character moments, this show proves that it is one to watch, and in every way, Star Trek .

The season finished off with A Quality of Mercy which was designed to allow Pike to accept his future, he’s well aware of what fate holds in store for him some ten years down the line. And, of course, there’s the set-up for the next season.

Written by Henry Alonso Myers and Akiva Goldsman, this episode was first broadcast on 7 July, 2022.

When Pike comes across one of the young people he will fail to save in the life-changing event waiting for him, he decides to write letters to all the future cadets to warn them. This immediately causes a change in the future, and Pike is confronted with himself (wearing an admiral’s rank in the monster maroon) who tells him that he’s changed his future and he and the cadets live, but it’s made everything else worse.

With the help of a time crystal (established in season two of Discovery) Pike is afforded a chance to see when the timeline diverged by taking part in it.

And Pike, and the viewer, find themselves in an alternate timeline that follows The Original Series episode, Balance of Terror, in which the Enterprise shadows, confronts, and stops a Romulan Bird of Prey stalking and destroying outposts along the neutral zone.

There are line lifts, musical stings, signature sounds and looks incorporated into the episode, and we are introduced to a new captain, the captain of the Farragut, James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) who isn’t sure Pike’s way of doing things is going to be good enough to stop the cloaked Romulan vessel.

Pike tries to play things out diplomatically, at a horrible cost, and he sees when the timeline changed, and how he affected that change. He understands and accepts his place, and we’ve gotten a glimpse of a timeline that wouldn’t have been so good for the Federation and Starfleet.

The episode ends with Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) arriving to apologize to Pike before security takes Una (Rebecca Romijn) into custody, they’ve learned she’s an Illyrian, and has been genetically modified, something that has been outlawed by the Federation.

Pike promises it’s not over, and looks directly into the camera, which urges viewers to pop out their season one disc, and open their new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 2 set on DVD, Blu-Ray or gorgeous 4k, available now from Paramount Canada, and boldly go!