Do Henry’s ends justify the means? Oh fun, we have a pair who made one of my most hated episodes of last season – I wonder how this goes. Directed by Sharon Lewis, you may remember her from “What Is Starfleet?” Since then, she’s done a lot of crime drama – Law & Order, Saint-Pierre, and Ginny & Georgia. Meanwhile, the writing this week comes from Halloween 4 and Star Trek: Discovery writer, Alan B. McElroy. Yep, him for which “What Is Starfleet?” and “Valles Marineris” came from, but we also got “Terrarium.” So, you know, swings and roundabouts.

Oh no, we have our newly introduced Cadet with Captain Pike on an away mission into a cave; nothing bad happened the last time we did that. Pike, Una, Uhura, Christine, and A’Sha are all attending to a distress call. Meanwhile, as Captain Shaggy-a-lot-of-aliens drops by like he is the Captain of the Enterprise or something, we also get Admiral Henry Deacon on board after he has been tracking a cloaked ship which had destroyed a Starfleet colony recently. Commandeering the ship, the great war Captain, Admiral Simon Reeger, played by Joe Morton, just straight up takes the ship while Pike is away.

With the upper half of Command currently being, shall we say, indisposed with Currie Graham’s Andorian Turr, and with Spock only being the wettest of our characters, Paul Wesley is the new Number 1. If only there were some kind of history for these characters to share and we could play on. As it turns out, Admiral Reeger served as a Captain during the Klingon Cold War but ended up indisposed himself, so Lieutenant George Samuel Kirk, Sr. stepped in to command. However, as Reeger puts it, James T. Kirk’s dad never had the stones for command, couldn’t quite cut it, if you will.

A tighter, brighter, and more cohesive script could be better, but better than a great episode for this season would be near perfect here. Which, if we’re completely honest, is itself a great anomaly that must be investigated in great detail. Let’s also point out that I typically hate James T. Kirk on principle because… yeah, he’s the original Captain for a lot of people, but asking me to care about James T. Kirk simply because he’s the first is like asking me to love William Hartnell before Christopher Eccleston. Not happening! Even if Paul Wesley’s Kirk is really good.

So, as I say, the away crew is off investigating an SOS. Sadly no Agnetha Fältskog for us, though, just the Futuristic zone of the Crystal Maze and a shootout with some Andorians who capture our away crew. Not for wanting to jump ahead and actually make some sense to my editor, or indeed you, beyond references and wordplay; this is little more than a B-plot to get our command structure and other characters out of action. Or rather, to give one character often underserved a chance to shine. We’ll get back to that.

On the Enterprise to shag his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s beard, James T. Kirk stops off for an informal visit and medical check-up. That’s until The (fabulous) Brother from Another Planet drops in to take control of the ship, run away with it, and require a First Officer to stand there and look pretty for him. This is where I am a little wanting of Onitra Johnson to take a pass through with a red marker, work with B. McElroy, have a bit more of a chat with Lewis, and just tighten up the whole production.

The longest episode of the season and well deserving of it, “Orders of Magnitude” puts forth a brilliant sci-fi Cold War submarine action-drama that, if I might gently tease a spoiler, plays on Hugo Grimaldi and Arthur C. Pierce’s 1965 film starring William Leslie. It is a character piece. It is good acting. It is emotion. It is action and reaction. And it is set up and paid off well enough; it is a proper Admiral Star Trek episode. As I say, to improve it is to make it near perfect. Though I also don’t know if it is because I’m starving for it that makes this meal taste so delicious.

As I say, while trying not to spoil too much, the good Admiral comes aboard with all the pomp and circumstance of a great war Captain of a now higher rank. He also explains his reason for being here, quite simply: A mysterious, almost ghost ship wiped out a Starfleet colony of over five million people. The first thing to note is that it is over there, just off-screen, happening in a different section of space we’re not exactly in.

Taking command of the ship, the Admiral becomes acting Captain as we track the cloaked ship’s residual energy. Indeed, a tactic used quite often in later Star Trek series, but keep in mind we’re hardly 100 years on from the NX-01. We track the ship back to a planet, but to get close to where we are told the trail leads, we need to heavily disable an intergalactic garbage truck. Sure thing, Admiral. Anything you say, we’ll blow it out of the sky and into a billion little pieces so you can maintain your cover here, tracking this ship we haven’t seen to a planet we don’t see the surface of.

No wait, hold on. Yeah, I’m smelling a load of Pike’s “pony thingy” fecal matter. It is about this point where, if you haven’t gotten it, maybe the good Admiral who is heralded as this great war hero and savior of the universe isn’t exactly all there or in the right frame of mind. We’re doing the proper Star Trek thing, and I am saying this about a James T. Kirk episode. This is very rare for me!

Not only is Kirk doing it, but we as viewers are given the go-ahead to question the authority of this old man who is known for his participation in a bloody and cruel war. Is he mentally there? Is it dementia? Then we finally get it. General Order 24: The destruction of the planet we are told the ship is now on, and all of its inhabitants. Henry Deacon, you are not the messiah – you can’t give and take life as you please – you’re just a very naughty boy. What has come over me? Liking a Kirk episode and referencing Monty Python – I truly have gone mad.

Though speaking of godly creatures and messiahs, there is something that instantly stood out to me as questionable to begin with. Towards the end (I’m trying to be vague for spoiler reasons), you have Reeger shouting “as God as my witness.” If you’re a long-term Star Trek fan, you’ll know how rare it was for Star Trek to really acknowledge religion in such a way. Yes, you can point out the complexity of Roddenberry and L Coon’s “Bread and Circuses,” but equally, “The Return of the Archons” effectively demonizes faith as control over lesser people. Kai Winn and the Bajorans are probably the most complex spirituality you’ll find in Star Trek.

It is nitty-gritty bits like that where the line could be tightened up, or something else could be done to achieve the same thing. I’m not asking for a wholesale rewrite like I am with the majority of the season, just simply pointing out that it could have been tighter. The Admiral literally has a young woman follow him around, mind you. She could have been plot-relevant, but she’s not. I guess spoiler: Ewa Wolniczek’s Yeoman Vanek, who doesn’t speak, isn’t really important to the plot in any way. I guess a young woman following around an old man as an assistant could show his mental state, but still.

Little bits here and there – the line about God, the woman that’s just in the background, and the little details could have been tightened up into something even better. However, as I keep saying, to still be seeking better on what is already one of the best episodes of the season is like asking for perfection. The only reason I am saying “one of the best” is because I don’t rightly know in this moment which I prefer more. I love “The Griffin Incident,” I adore “Off-Hour,” and I cherish “Orders of Magnitude,” but the latter might just be due to Joe Morton.

Anyway, back in the cave, you have our away crew of Pike, Una, Uhura, A’Sha, and Chapel imprisoned by Andorians looking to commit piracy and murder. Showing how “powerful” he is, Currie Graham’s Turr breaks off one of the crystals in the cave and stabs A’Sha; the crystals here have a poisonous quality to them. So once again there is urgency to the situation. However, it also gives us Uhura becoming protective.

I don’t really want to jump into spoilers simply because it is one of three episodes you should be watching this season. However, it does lead to Uhura setting a trap with the comms unit she’s ordered/offers in exchange for help to set up, but instead she starts shooting at the Andorians. I say there are only three episodes this season to watch because I don’t think the torture she suffered in “A Case of Chiaroscuro” really sets up for this. I’m not doing the usual internet complaint “bad ass woman does bad ass thing = grumpy man is grumpy;” I just wonder where it is coming from.

Honestly, sitting here again with the idea of doing minor rewrites, I wonder if she could have asked for Una as an “assistant” just to tighten up validity with a senior officer doing action too. Again, it is nit-picky rewrites or tightening up that I’m looking for more than anything. There are other complaints you could have with it, especially if you think Star Trek is a show about following rules and command structures all the time, but I’m smart enough to know that’s never been the case.

I am going to spoil one thing though, simply because I think it needs to be spoken about. Cadet A’sha is a waste of time, energy, and effort. Unsurprisingly, the day is saved, and the ship is returned – Status Quo is an English rock band. Give it a minute; the extremely dense are still to get that joke. The point is, Cadet A’sha is alive by the end of the episode, and she tells Uhura, “Ah mate, this ain’t for me. I’m Outty!” you know, like Vulcans do. So, what’s the point?

She’s in “Vales Marineris,” where she’s that type of “rude” that is just very autistic-coded for TV in that Bones/The Good Doctor way. I honestly can’t remember what she did in “A Case of Chiaroscuro.” In “Off-Hour,” she was kind of helpful, and here, she’s stabbed and leaves the ship. If she shows up as a demonic hell beast trying to kill our crew in “Tomorrow’s Enterprise,” I don’t know why. Her character, her purpose, has been to make Uhura feel like crap because she doesn’t feel like she did enough. I just don’t get it.

I get that I was the one saying at the start of this, “trust the process.” When the process feels like it is relieving itself on your leg, there is a hint of questioning the process in the back of my mind, though. Is this just a story to give us Uhura standing up, pushing some sense of authority, and for her to learn that with authority comes disappointment in your abilities? If so, that’s a Strange New Worlds problem, not a young Uhura problem.

Part of me thinks this story, thus far, is just to correct some of the complaints we’ve all had where Uhura feels secondary. Who could have guessed with a showrunner who shags Spock’s leg like an ugly little dog? My complaint about the writers aside, much like “A Case of Chiaroscuro” being an outing for Una this season, this story feels like an outing for Uhura simply because the creative team thought it was an obligation. My thought right now: Why bother?

Next time out we’ve got a pretty dress fantasy thing (odd numbers this season, ya know), which leaves us with one serious episode, then whatever season 5 is with its six episodes. I need to stress that a bit more: Six more episodes to wrap up Pike’s story after fake therapy and Q-ish last time out, give Una a place to go, hand the ship over to James, and do we dare introduce a Sulu? We’re also missing our McCoy, Chekov, and Rand if we’re fully setting up for “The Man Trap.” Which I think is a gay bar on Argyll Street in Oban.

That is where I think I, and a lot of fans, feel “let down” by Strange New Worlds. We’ve once again spent more hours exploring Spock’s existence, a romantic relationship with Pike, or the fact that Spock is apparently shagging the Nurse, the Security Officer, and his future Captain. I think, on count, we’ve encountered one strange new world in the pilot episode. We’ve had mention of Pike’s future and the effects it has, but mostly through the lens of a now-dead cosmic partner. Now here we’re (spoiler) getting an admiral threatening genocide on a planet and swearing god as his witness to end someone.

Honestly, I’d like to say that I am happy, excited coming out of this episode completely, mostly because I do think “Orders of Magnitude” is another “very Star Trek” episode where there are so few. Yet I’m also cautious about the fact that we did get it. That we’re able to have these episodes that, no, don’t hold up to “The Measure Of A Man” but certainly offer more than “Level-Five Transporter Accident” ever could.

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SNW "Orders of Magnitude"

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Joe Morton.
• Odd to say, but James T. Kirk is likeable.
• Such a good "question authority" story in a season of dross.

Cons

• Could have used a bit of tidying up.