Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 3 is the third instalment of an American scifi space opera television drama created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet for the streaming service Paramount+. A spin-off of the Discovery series, Strange New Worlds features the USS Enterprise captained by Christopher Pike and set a decade before the events in the original Star Trek TV series. Arguably, Discovery’s second season – which introduced Anson Mount’s version of Pike – has been the best so far, so it’s no surprise that this series is now a reality.
S P O I L E R S
Entitled “Ghosts of Illyria”, Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 3 has the Enterprise crew threatened by an unknown viral disease and the only solution may have to come from 1st Officer Una Chin-Riley’s deepest, darkest secret. In any case, that is the premise in a nutshell. As mentioned before in previous episodes, this new series presents itself as classic Trek i.e. episodic in nature, resolved in the end usually with a character arc determined and highly reminiscent of The Original Series and The New Generation series mainly.
READ OUR ANALYSES OF STRANGE NEW WORLDS.
Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 3 focuses on Chin-Riley, with Captain Pike and Mr. Spock not quite hogging the attention. Apart from the virus theme being too close to home for a world still trying to emerge from this pandemic, the message of prejudice and discrimination rings true. But instead of racial or religious prejudice, it is one that revolves around the issue of genetic modification.
It is this very issue that has prevented the Illyrians from being accepted by the Federation, a policy birthed by the Eugenics War, led by Khan Noonian Singh – a ancestor of Enterprise security officer La’An. In a twist of irony, we discover that Chin-Riley is in fact Illyrian herself and her augmented immune system ultimately leads to a cure and the salvation of Enterprise.
And that’s Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 3 – everything nicely tied up in a non-serial bow which probably pleases the diehard Trekkers but can be a little too ‘old-school’ for viewers demanding edgier scifi TV fare. Can this series find the right balance?
Now streaming on Paramount+.
… still there’s more …