Star Trek: Strange New Worlds had its first serious misstep with “The Serene Squall” written by Beau DeMayo and Sarah Tarkoff and directed by Sydney Freeland, whose other credits include Rutherford Falls and The Walking Dead: World Beyond (and I thought both of those were terrible!). Once again the episode was slightly derivative – that old group of ragtag pirates pillaging the galaxy and the villain infiltrating the good guys. More jarring than all that, however, was the casting of Jesse James Keitel as Dr Aspen/Angel. Her performance ranged from unimpressive to unwatchable. How long did it take you to realize that she was in on the whole thing? I mean the pirates were fun and introducing Sybok has some interesting possibilities, but if Angel is supposed to be an on-going villain? Please, just NO!
About the only thing saving this episode was Anson Mount as Captain Pike. He’s deliciously not pompous as a Captain! I loved the banter between him and Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and how much she clearly really loves her job – and flying manually. Pike making dinner for the pirates to win them over was ridiculous, but I was willing to more or less go with it. There’s good chemistry between Una (Rebecca Romijn) and Pike too. And of course, even if she was skeptical, Pike manages to start a mutiny on the pirate ship.
The episode also continues the exploration of Spock’s (Ethan Peck) difficulty in reconciling his human and Vulcan sides. It’s also clear that T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) and Chapel (Jess Bush) are more certain of his complete loyalty to T’Pring than Spock is himself. Because, really… that kiss? However, one is left to wonder was that a dream come true for Chapel or just more torture? Bush gets to shine in this episode again as we see how resourceful she is in taking out a couple of pirates and getting pretty far in regaining control of the Enterprise.
It’s clear that we will see more of Sybok – I mean, how could we not after that tease? But please, lets make it about revenge as quickly as possible by killing off his girlfriend when she tries to rescue him again??? Of course, the absolute BEST thing about this episode was Pike talking like a pirate… What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
