Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3, Episode 7 – “What Is Starfleet?”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 7 examines Starfleet and the USS Enterprise’s goal by the lens of documentary filmmaker Umberto “Beto” Ortegas (Mynor Luken). Directed by Sharon Lewis and written by Kathryn Lyn and Alan B. McElroy, “What Is Starfleet?” is a breathtakingly revolutionary and provocative episode full of ingenious enhancing and distinctive POVs by no means seen earlier than in Star Trek.
Beto Ortegas, the youthful brother of Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), was granted unprecedented entry to the interior workings of the Starship Enterprise and its crew. Beto filmed his documentary all through his prior appearances in Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds season 3. Nonetheless, Beto’s movie, “What Is Starfleet?” casts a harsher gentle on the Enterprise than anticipated.
“What Is Starfleet?” paperwork a difficult mission for the Starship Enterprise. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) is underneath orders to assist the Lutani of their conflict with the Kasar. Complicating issues is the Lutani’s historical past of aiding enemies of the United Federation of Planets, just like the Klingons. Worse, the Lutani intend to weaponize a creature referred to as the Jikaru in opposition to the Kasar.
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3 Episode 7 Ends In Tragedy
The main focus of the Starship Enterprise’s crew shifts to making an attempt to speak with, perceive, and defend the Jikaru. The bioluminescent “house dragon” is revealed to be a sentient being that now not needs to be the weapon of the Lutani. Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck) is significantly injured in his makes an attempt to speak to the Jikaru, as is Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush).
Tragically, the Jikaru decides to take its personal life. The creature flies into the solar and commits suicide. It is a heartbreaking ending that deeply impacts Captain Pike and his whole USS Enterprise crew. As Starfleet’s officers gained better data in regards to the Jikaru, Pike’s mission modified to defending it from the Lutani, however the beast made its personal alternative.
What Beto Ortegas Learns About Starfleet & Why It is Necessary
“What Is Starfleet?” is revealed to be Beto Ortegas’ episode, narratively pushed by his probing questions in regards to the true goal of Starfleet and its flagship, the USS Enterprise. Disturbed by Beto’s questioning and motivation, Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) realized Beto had an agenda. Ortegas was offended and held Starfleet liable for the close to dying of his sister, Erica.
Lt. Erica Ortegas was significantly injured by the Gorn in Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds season 3’s premiere, “Hegemony, Half 2,” and continues to be dealing with trauma from her ordeal.
Nonetheless, what Beto’s cameras uncovered was the standard of the Starship Enterprise’s crew. Captain Pike and his personnel are Starfleet’s finest and brightest; they’re professionals who’re genuinely compassionate people. As seen within the heat dinner gathering in Pike’s quarters, the Enterprise’s crew are a household.
Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley’s personal narration upended Beto Ortegas’ preliminary thesis about Starfleet as “colonizers” and the Federation as “an empire.” Quantity One summed up the true goal of Starfleet and the USS Enterprise, to deliver the Federation’s gentle into the darkest corners of the galaxy. Area is chilly and harmful, and the Enterprise should defend itself when needed, however theirs is a mission of peace.
“What Is Starfleet?” is the primary time since Star Trek: Discovery season 1 that Starfleet was so rigorously examined. The primary season of Discovery tried to deconstruct what Starfleet means to trendy audiences, plunging it by its darkest chapters, till Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Inexperienced) reclaimed Starfleet’s highest virtues in a stirring speech in Star Trek: Discovery‘s season 1 finale.
In the end, Beto Ortegas was heartened that his sister devoted her life to a noble trigger. Whereas Starfleet makes errors, it isn’t outlined by its doctrines or its orders, however by the individuals who put on its uniforms. Starfleet is just nearly as good as its folks, and the Starship Enterprise is crewed by the best and bravest souls the galaxy has to supply.
The place Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3 Episode 7 Leaves Uhura’s First Romance
Beto Ortegas was launched as a love curiosity to Ensign Uhura, and their flirtation continued all through Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds season 3. Nyota and Beto gained a better mutual understanding in “What Is Starfleet?” Ortegas discovered about Uhura’s tragic lack of her household, and Nyota was surprised that certainly one of her solely associates from Starfleet Academy died on the USS Cayuga in Strange New Worlds season 2’s finale.
In flip, Uhura noticed the depth of Beto’s love for his sister, and his interior torment that Starfleet “took her away” and she or he almost died due to her dedication to obligation. Uhura and Beto look to have grown nearer in Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds season 3, episode 7, as a result of they requested laborious questions of one another and got here away with sincere solutions.
Followers of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) recall Lt. Uhura (Zoe Saldana) had a romance with Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto) within the alternate Kelvin timeline. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ Prime timeline, nevertheless, Beto Oretgas is Uhura’s first canonical love curiosity. Unusual New Worlds continues to be growing their relationship, and it stays to be seen if Nyota and Beto will take any subsequent steps collectively.
Dr. M’Benga’s Starfleet Previous Raises Questions
Beto Ortegas’ floating drone cameras and his confrontational questions make clear a number of crew members like Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley and Lieutenant La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), however Beto’s documentary surprisingly probed the previous of Dr. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun).
Starfleet shockingly granted Beto entry to Dr. M’Benga’s information in order that the filmmaker was left with extra questions than solutions. In any case, why have been many of the actions of the USS Enterprise’s Chief Medical Officer within the Klingon Warfare redacted? M’Benga lied to Beto and his cameras, claiming “I don’t recall,” when requested about “The Ghost” and “Protocol 12,” Joseph’s Klingon-fighting tremendous soldier serum.
“What Is Starfleet?” was commissioned by Starfleet, and Beto’s entry was granted by the group, together with Dr. M’Benga’s redacted historical past. It is unknown who the viewers is for “What Is Starfleet” in-universe, however the USS Enterprise’s main doctor distubringly comes off as suspicious at finest, and a liar at worst.
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds could also be additional setting the stage for the eventual elimination of Dr. M’Benga because the Chief Medical Officer of the Federation’s flagship, particularly if solutions to the questions Beta Ortegas’ documentary raised are pursued.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
9/10
- Launch Date
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Could 5, 2022
- Community
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
- Administrators
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Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
- Writers
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Onitra Johnson
