Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Sends Captain Pike On His Most Heartbreaking Journey Yet
Spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" to follow.
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3, episode 5, "Through the Lens of Time," introduced an all new villain race of "Star Trek" aliens: the Vezda, malevolent extra-dimensional beings locked in an ancient prison on planet Vadia IX. The episode's ending hinted (and the "Strange New Worlds" showrunners later confirmed) that the Vezda would be back.
The season 3 finale, "New Life and New Civilizations," lives up to that promise. The member of the Vezda who possessed Ensign Dana Gamble (Chris Myers) is revealed to have escaped imprisonment and is plotting to free his brethren. The only one who can stop him is Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), but the price is her future with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount).
In the Vezda's prison, the normal rules of time don't apply; the effect of an action can come before the cause. The Enterprise's crew also discovers that the humanoid sentry statue in the temple is a transformed Marie; i.e. she must become the statue in the present, which will have kept the Vezda locked up for millennia in the past.
The episode strains under its twisted internal logic to arrive at this point. The Enterprise crew conclude that, since the Vezda are evil incarnate, they must be the root of every civilization in space having the same shared idea of "evil" and evolving to resist it. Marie, who previously fought off a Gorn infection via Illyrian blood and then a Chimera plant on "Strange New Worlds," is the embodiment of that will to survive.
While it's all rather ridiculous, the show's actors manage to infuse the situation with greater credibility. Moreover, the episode doesn't falter when it comes to its emotional punch. Though "Strange New Worlds" has sometimes played fast and loose with "Star Trek" canon, one thing the series has always stuck to is that Pike's future does not have Marie in it. The episode delivers on the split up fans have been expecting for three seasons, even if no one anticipated it happening quite like this.
Christopher Pike and Marie Batel were never going to get their happy ending
In the first filmed "Star Trek" pilot, "The Cage," Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter) was the lead of the series, not Captain Kirk (William Shatner). The Enterprise visits the planet Talos IV, home to telepathic aliens that hold Pike captive. But "The Cage" was rejected as a pilot and went unaired.
"Star Trek" was picked up after a second reworked pilot, but the show still found a way to incorporate "The Cage." As is now basic "Trek" canon, Pike was captain of the Enterprise before Kirk, and the events of "The Cage" happened several years before "The Original Series." Two-part episode "The Menagerie" revealed that during a training session with some Starfleet cadets, Pike (Sean Kenney standing in for Hunter) was blasted with delta radiation that left him scarred, immobile, and non-verbal. The episode ends with him being brought back to Talos IV to live in a comforting illusion.
Back in "Star Trek: Discovery," Pike experienced a premonition of his future. He was haunted by it throughout "Strange New Worlds" season 1, but he accepted it in the season finale, "A Quality of Mercy," after a visit to an alternate timeline showed him why his destiny needed to happen. Marie similarly accepts her fate in this episode and tells Pike "[He] of all people should understand."
In the temple, Pike and Marie face off with the Vezda-possessed Gamble — then the scene cuts to Pike and Marie back on Earth in domestic bliss. They grow old together, have a daughter, Pike avoids his accident ... but it's all an illusion. When Marie is on her deathbed, they return to the real world and she fulfills her destiny containing the Vezda. It's implied that while the dream happened in the blink of an eye, it felt like years for them. Marie was allowing them to experience a full life together to make letting go of each other easier.
This brings to mind the classic "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Inner Light." Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is zapped by a probe and, in his head, spends 40 years living a life on an ancient world as "Kamin." Only 25 minutes pass in reality.
Marie's ending, locked in an immobile state on an alien planet, mirrors Pike's eventual return to Talos IV. But he's still got a few good years left before that happens. He's sad Marie is gone, but the episode ends with him ordering the Enterprise onto its next adventure. Pike knows how precious each moment he has being "Captain Pike" is, and he's going to make the most of them all.
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is streaming on Paramount+ and has been renewed for a fourth and fifth season.