“Good leaders know when to listen and when not to.”
This is one of several lessons that acting Captain James Kirk learns in an hour that goes heavy on Strange New Worlds‘ status as a prequel series, but which manages to eschew the negative baggage that so often entails as we learn how Captain Kirk got his mojo.
When the USS Farragut and its captain take significant collateral damage from a powerful scavenger vessel’s resource extraction of a nearby planet, Enterprise answers their distress call. But when the Enterprise itself is captured by the mysterious scavengers, Spock, Uhura, Chapel, and Scotty are forced to rely on Farragut’s inexperienced First Officer James Kirk’s questionable leadership to save both ships.
On paper, a Captain Kirk origin story sounds like a bad idea. It conjures up flashbacks of the Han Solo origin film Solo: A Star Wars Story — though, to be fair, I don’t think that was quite as terrible as its reputation. And of course, this is already somewhat well-trotted ground as the 2009 JJ Abrams movie Star Trek also devoted a significant portion of its runtime to Kirk’s origin story, albeit in the alternate “Kelvin” timeline that began diverging from the “Prime” timeline of all the Trek TV series on the day of Kirk’s birth.
“The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” doesn’t just work despite the trappings of being a prequel origin story but because of them. Writers David Reed and Bill Wolkoff show a deft understanding of who Captain Kirk is, or at least how the character is most understood today, the version retroactively redefined in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and henceforth after that, as the bold risk-taker who refuses to accept defeat and will always find a creative solution when confronted with a seemingly no-win scenario. They even cleverly nod to the famous “Risk is our business” speech from The Original Series when Kirk, while trying to persuade Farragut’s Captain V’rel into authorizing an unnecessary away mission to the planet surface asks: “Risk is why we’re here, isn’t it?”
This profile of the man who will one day inherit the Starship Enterprise from Christopher Pike examines both the positive and negative attributes of Kirk’s approach. It’s no accident all the Enterprise crewmembers left behind on the Farragut are legacy characters from The Original Series destined to serve under Kirk. With each of them, we see either Kirk influencing them, as in his pushing Scotty towards his future status a “miracle worker,” or them influencing him as when Spock relay’s Sam Kirk’s image of his brother: “He says you are not afraid to throw your weight around no matter who’s in front of you.”
There’s more to love in this episode beyond Captain Kirk though. The subplot revolving around Pelia’s unorthodox solution to the internal communications jam — needed to solve the larger problem of Ortegas having to essentially fly blind — is wonderfully goofy while not breaking our suspension of disbelief in a franchise that has occasionally presented sillier solutions. It’s moments like this that play to Carol Kane’s comedic strengths while allowing those around her to shine comedically as well. Melissa Navia’s delivery when an amused Ortegas examines the shape of the unfamiliar object she’s been handed and suggests it’s a personal massager makes the scene. And the commitment of the rest of the cast to play these telephone sequences totally straight keeps the whimsical tone from dipping too much into farce.
Carol Kane as Pelia in season 3 , Episode 6 of Strange New Worlds streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Marni GrossmanParamount+
But my favorite element of the episode is its final revelation and how that impacts our heroes. Almost as if responding to my criticism of Pelia’s speech from last week that essentialized evil, here Strange New World‘s returns to Star Trek’s more humanistic view of the enemy as just another legitimate party with their own wants and needs with whom we ought to pursue peaceful coexistence.
I do wish the episode had further explored the larger story of these descendants of Earth’s best and brightest and how they became brutal marauders. Perhaps that mystery will be revealed in time. Or maybe it’s besides the point because their fundamental humanity had value whether we fully understood their story or their goals or even if they hadn’t been human at all. Kirk’s failure was not seeing in his enemy an opponent with whom he could identify. It harkens back to the words of the defeated Romulan commander in The Original Series episode “Balance of Terror,” who would tell Kirk, “You and I are of a kind; in a different reality I could have called you friend.”
“The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” presents a multifaceted look at the captain who first defined Star Trek. We see glimpses of the Captain Kirk who can “turn death into a fighting chance to live,” but we also see how his rashness risks undermining the very principles that form the foundation of The Federation. Ultimately, it’s Spock destined to become the diplomat, not Kirk. The aforementioned nod to Kirk’s “Risk is our business” speech here isn’t mere fan service but rather highlights the danger of following the gambler is sometimes they lose.
Kirk later acknowledges that had Captain V’rel granted her bored first officer’s request the away team would have been killed. And discovering the nature of the enemy as well as the scale of its casualties teaches the future Enterprise captain a harsh lesson in humanism. Captain Pike’s final exchange with his future successor speaks to the heart of what Star Trek is all about, and it’s a lesson our world today desperately needs to hear now perhaps more than ever: “All I can say is having empathy for your adversary is part of the job … The next time you’re in that chair you’ll remember we’re often not that different from our enemy.”
New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds release Thursdays on Paramount+.
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