Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds “Momento Mori” was written by Davy Perez (Supernatural, American Crime) and Beau DeMayo (Moon Night time, The Witcher, The Originals) and was directed by Dan Liu, whose different credit embrace Kung Fu, Shadow and Bone and The Strolling Lifeless. We get to see Pike (Anson Mount) main in a disaster, inspiring and main his crew. Pike demonstrates his tactical savvy too. It was nice to see some actual motion on the bridge, together with a shot of Spock (Ethan Peck) diving to look into that senso-thingy on his console…
The Enterprise is making an attempt to ship some gear to a Federation colony on their model of Memorial Day – they put on pins to commemorate earlier postings and fallen comrades. Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) is doing a rotation in engineering with the extraordinarily demanding Hemmer (Bruce Horak) – and they’re terrific collectively as she slowly however absolutely wins him over.
The Enterprise shortly be taught that the colony has been attacked by the Gorn – who then flip the assault on the Enterprise. I used to be actually curious to SEE the Gorn – lets face it the TOS episode with Kirk going mano-a-mano with the Gorn is a traditional however the Gorn costume left so much to be desired… Naturally, it’s La’an (Christina Chong) who sounds the alarm to present the Enterprise an opportunity and urges Pike to run. I may have carried out with out her seeing the ghost of her brother – Manu (Cameron Roberts) – all episode.
Pike takes them right into a brown dwarf hiding a large black gap. I really like how Pike simply tolerates Ortegas’s (Melissa Navia) sarcastic – and hysterically humorous – remarks. In the meantime, Sick Bay and the cargo bay are hit. Una (Rebecca Romijn) is badly damage and naturally M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Chapel (Jess Bush) should resort to “barbaric” strategies to assist save her. Hemmer and Uhura are injured and trapped within the cargo bay. Uhura has to get loner Hemmer to behave as a crew – she’s incredible – and Hemmer truly isn’t a foul trainer.
La’an is quickly again to being Quantity One – and Pike has to present her a pep speak about management – no matter her previous and what she may really feel – she has to present the crew hope. Pike himself has to make some actually onerous selections – like sealing the bulkheads. Spock tells Pike it was the logical alternative when Pike is clearly devasted by dropping a crew member, and Spock tells him the choice was made to avoid wasting lives. Fortunately, the strain that began to break down the Enterprise decks destroys the Gorn ship.
Una, after all, wants an operation. Chapel is hysterical when she tells her “it’s like giving start out of your mouth” – clearly Chapel and Ortegas went to the identical appeal faculty – significantly, although, I want these two to have some scenes collectively! When there’s solely on bag of plasma left, Una orders them to present it to a different crew member.
One other nice scene was La’an complaining that Spock by no means spoke in plain English – and Peck is fabulous as he turns a really Spock-withering look on her and provides it to her straight. When La’an affords to pilot a possible suicide mission on a shuttle, Spock doesn’t hesitate to volunteer as her again up. I’m not likely clear on how the shuttle isn’t crushed, however we’ll simply hand wave that…
Seeing the Gorn ships flashing lights at one another, La’an is aware of she’s seen it earlier than, however she doesn’t know what it means. She asks Spock to mind-meld along with her to launch the recollections. He hesitates, however ultimately we get the enduring “my thoughts to your thoughts”…. She remembers that they had been delivered to a breeding colony to be meals for the Gorn hatchlings. Her brother offers her a e-book that decodes the sunshine alerts. Whereas melded, La’an additionally picks up on Spock’s recollections of HIS sister who additionally sacrificed herself for him – good shout out to Discovery!
La’an will get a whole lot of satisfaction by telling the mothership that the smaller one has been boarded and brought over by people, main the mothership to destroy the smaller – they don’t tolerate weak spot! That is actually properly juxtaposed by Hemmer confiding in Uhura that he wished to be a botanist as a result of he loves flora. However he additionally tells her that he gained’t battle for Starfleet however he’ll defend its beliefs – he’s a pacifist however that doesn’t imply you might be passive. Uhura factors out that that may be a matter of perspective. They’ve been unsuccessful of their repairs, and Hemmer tells Uhura they should vent the complete bay into house.
I beloved that Pike makes use of folksy knowledge about ‘possums AND his data of battle to provide you with a plan. I additionally preferred Spock telling him his plan was “mathematically” attainable. When Ortegas questions whether or not the compromised ship’s hull will maintain beneath this elevated pressure, Pike demonstrates give the crew hope along with his personal conviction. La’an is paying consideration and utterly helps his assertion that the Enterprise will maintain.
We get one other nice scene with Hemming and Uhura as they strap in to attempt to survive venting the cargo bay. Hemming concedes that she has impressed him and he’s going to present her excessive marks. He steadies her shaking hand and tells her people fear an excessive amount of about loss of life. His race believes the top solely comes after getting fulfilled your objective. He tells her his was “to repair what was damaged” and clearly this implies not simply the issues in engineering however the pressure between his race and the Federation. She tells him so as to add instructing and being inspiring. Uhura doesn’t know what her objective is and takes hope that meaning she isn’t going to die!
Pike offers the requisite inspiring speech to the crew earlier than telling them to brace for affect and heading towards the black gap. The Gorn ship follows them till it sees the explosion after which leaves. They tease us with a blurry image from the cargo bay and a delay in them answering – however we all know that Uhura isn’t going to be lifeless. Once more, my one criticism of Peck as Spock is that he smiles a bit an excessive amount of – however maybe that’s as a result of he’s nonetheless mastering his human facet?
This was one other really feel good episode that once more intently mirrored the texture of TOS. I believe a number of the “clunky” feeling – cliched? – dialogue is attributable to that really feel of nostalgia. We get much more perception into the characters, particularly Hemmer and La’an. Uhura, Ortega, and Chapel must turn into associates – and go off on a mission collectively – only a thought… What did you consider this week’s episode? Are you creating a favourite character? Let me know your ideas within the feedback under!
