So, Shub-Niggurath eats the USS Enterprise after devouring Klingons and beyond, and now we have the TOS’ crew together. Directed by Valerie Weiss, Weiss previously directed “Ad Astra Per Aspera” as well as Netflix’s Julie Bowen-led coming-of-age teen drama thing, Mixtape. While the writing is a shared effort with David Reed returning after “Wedding Bell Blues” and, of course, previously doing “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” Co-writer on the episode, Bill Wolkoff, returns after “Shuttle to Kenfori,” as well as working on “Those Old Scientists” and “Ghosts of Illyria.” So, a familiar crew behind the camera, what about in front?

The return of Paul Wesley to SNW is certainly a thing that I’m not bored with yet, but I won’t say I’m excited to have acting Captain James T Kirk on the bridge. With the USS Farragut on a mission to observe a rather unstable planet, Captain V’Rel looks for a simple day without any of James’ nonsense, only for the planet to be destroyed by The All Mother and the ship swatted aside like a fly bothering you in summer. Red alert, USS Enterprise to the rescue, our TOS crew and La’an beamed on board, info exchanged, and people beamed back to Enterprise… and the ship eats the USS Enterprise.

I’m not even joking, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, and Chapel are on the Farragut with Sir Shags-a-Lot, while Pike and co are being stripped for parts like they are at TSA. Oh, and Pelia is racking up the phone bill on the Enterprise with these Gen Ws (I think I’m right), looking at her like she’s mad for having a landline. You kids with your Wi-fi, back in my day, your internet came through the phone line and made funny noises. I can make light here or there, but it isn’t really a funny episode; it isn’t one of those “Fun” episodes I spoke about last week, it is a very serious one.

It may be a little heavy on nostalgia that I don’t have, and I don’t think a large number of those who are watching Strange New Worlds do either. James T Kirk, to me, is epitomized by his arrogance and that ’60s male status symbol that America loves to promote but never achieves; someone considered just and right by any measure, no matter what he does. Moreover, establishing it all with what is effectively going to become one day, his crew, whether he knows it or not. Despite that, Wesley nails the character and actually tries to make him likable.

I’ve basically summed up the episode’s plot in whole already, but it is a character piece. This isn’t a story about the Enterprise or her captain, it isn’t about her crew either, it is about this kid called James learning the responsibility of command, the importance of it, and how it will weigh on you when that day comes. I said it isn’t a fun episode, but I didn’t say anything about it being good or bad, simply because “that’s not how we measure success.”

With the Farragut in tatters after the attack and the Enterprise in the belly of the beast, the crews have what is effectively a great naval combat film or book ahead. Das Boot, Alistair MacLean’s HMS Ulysses, and Horatio Hornblower as obligatory mentions of good naval/nautical fiction. With the crew of the Enterprise in the massive ship, Pike and company are trapped, harpooned, and boarded by these strangers from a strange land. You’re right, neither Heinlein nor James was too great.

So the Farragut and her crew of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scott, and Chapel, as well as her actual crew, have to stage a rescue mission. Just one problem, the ship is a bit… to say what Scotty wouldn’t say, buggered. Ramrodded, goosed, shafted, and many expletive-ladened descriptors of just how terrible the situation is for them, and like Deanna Troi once said, “Help us Commander Adama, you’re our only hope.” Look, it is a grim and quite dark theme of an episode, let me bring a little bit of levity before you start shouting about who said what and what series they are from.

No warp, no weapons, limited crew, as the others are dead or in the sickbay, the ship is dead in the water, the Enterprise needs rescuing, and something else the TOS crew figures out, this monster ship is heading for an inhabited pre-warp colony on a far-off planet. When you talk to someone about what Star Trek is, this is what they think of. So why am I just a little bit “ehh” on it? Don’t get me wrong, the suspense and action is great, the whole idea of trying to save our proper crew and the colony, the navy war film theming, that’s all great.

Generally, I like “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail;” it is a good episode with some decent character work and good acting from Wesley in particular to sell you on this James Kirk kid. Maybe he’ll get his own ship one day, and maybe he can have a crew just as good as this. I think what actually “bothers” me for this one isn’t the broader stuff but rather the nitpicky things that you feel grow as you think about them. The things that don’t harm the episode itself, but have you questioning things.

A great example of this would be the insistence of Scotty just about swearing as he fiddles with something, but gets cut off. Indeed, “ha, ha, ha,” and such, but it has been about 3 times now, can we either do it or get off the pot? I think the problem there is the problem I’ve had with Scotty as a character all along, playing him up as a wavering stereotype to some degree and making that the entire character. With one step forward to me liking him, the writing team will occasionally take a step or two back, getting absolutely nowhere like that.

Similarly, on the nitpicking is something I have against most shows that do this sort of story, a myth coming true and wreaking havoc on our people. Absolutely correct me if I’m wrong, but have we ever had mention of this sort of mythological tale even spoken about to children? A myth of a ship to fear and scare the young, so we’re told, something some believe and some don’t, but here it is in the flesh. Maybe it is a world-building nitpick, or maybe it is a writing nitpick.

However, I have to ask, why do shows finally have these episodes with the myth? Multiple crew members know it, but this is the first time we’re hearing about it as viewers. Sure, it is to establish an epic-ness to it, but a second of thought puts a pin-prick in that idea. I won’t spoil the ending, but even then, you’re digging deep to really make connections between this massive ship made of scavenged and repurposed parts and that of the lore of prior shows like Enterprise and TNG in some way.

If it were tied back to this sort of thing with a myth we’ve heard once in an obscure episode, I wouldn’t mind it so much. It is the idea that is established, but we’re only just finding out about it after 50+ years of the franchise, multiple films, hundreds of books, several different shows in different time periods, and no one mentioned it? The size of the thing is grand, the idea of it is grand, but if you’re going to say the myth of it is also grand, you need to bloody well show that too.

This is the thing, though, it is a good episode with little bits and pieces to scrape at like flaking paint, and that’s when the exterior starts looking a bit worse than it initially did. The imperfections don’t make “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” disastrously worse, far from it in fact, but it stands out more when so much of the episode is that heavy emotion and well-done work all round. Maybe a line or two could have “saved” the myth part, and the Scottish stereotypes are something I and maybe 5 others actually care about.

Without trying to say too much about the final third of the episode, this is clearly an episode that is trying to humanize and de-20th-century-ify the character of James T Kirk. Is it perfect? No, there are bits in there where the faux-suave macho nonsense peaks through, and I get that this is part of the character, but we do get more of his actual human, empathetic side. There is a point about 22-ish minutes in, resolving 8 minutes later, that makes me want to grab him and shout “Wind your neck in, ya di—”

I like the TARDIS, despite the fact the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through those doors, and believe me, they’ve tried. I also, if I haven’t made it clear enough, quite like “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail.” Good enough to be excited about the rumored prequel series “Star Trek: Year One?” If I could include my laughter before simply saying “No” like Bugs Bunny that one time, this review would be half an hour longer to read. Cynically, that’s what it is, a back door pilot for a show three people who’ll be dead by next January are excited about.

Ultimately, there is a solid TOS character piece with lots of big, bombastic action throughout “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail,” albeit with some of the latter third spoilers I’ve avoided and minor complaints pulling it back from its ultimate potential. If you’re looking for a serious episode of Star Trek from this season thus far (as I saw complained about for “Wedding Bell Blues”), this is probably where you’re getting it. Not the best episode of Star Trek, I’ll jump you off at the pass on that claim, but certainly a solid top 200, maybe? It’s certainly not the worst of Star Trek or Strange New Worlds.

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SNW "The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail"

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Paul Wesley giving a Kirk that isn't hateable from the jump.
• A solid naval-combat style story.

Cons

• Feels a bit scared to say the thing it wants to say.
• Buried too deep in nostalgia for TOS to make me care sometimes.