Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”, Season 3, Episode 6 Recap

Paul Wesley returns as James T. Kirk in this episode. It also has a twisted historical surprise ending. 

First Officer James Kirk is currently on an assignment aboard the Farragut Starship. They are conducting a planetary geological survey of Helicon Gamma, an uninhabited m-class world. It’s bordering on a tediously boring assignment for him. His captain, Captain V’Rei, is in his opinion too cautious. He finds her performing everything by the rules and regulations annoying. He’d rather make things more interesting and exciting by not following the book. Captain V’Rei is commanding a science exploration ship, what does he expect? The crew is focused on details, scientific data and just meticulously triple checking and recording every finding.

They assume this m-class world outside Federation Space is uninhabited, and First Officer Kirk takes this opportunity to suggest a field mission on the planet. What could go wrong? Of course Captain V’Rel denies Kirk’s request. Suddenly there’s an alert from an unknown force just hitting the surface of Helicon Gamma. It creates a seismic disturbance in the planet’s crust. Red Alert, All Hands brace for impact. An uninhabited planet, at least so they thought. 

Kirk wakes on the floor of the Farragut bridge. The navigations officer is checking systems. The ship suffered massive damage and the ship captain’s unconscious. He tries to send a star ship’s version of a 911 call to the Federation. Communications are jammed, and on screen they see why. 

Later, the Enterprise arrives and sees the planet on fire and the Farragut adrift, floating above it. The Enterprise away team led by Commander Spock transports to the Farragut. He’s accompanied by La’an, Nurse Chapel, Ensign Uhura and Lieutenant Scott. They take readings immediately. La’an senses life signs aboard. They cautiously progress down the corridor, and encounter a seriously injured Farragut crewmember. He tells them of something huge that caused this event. Nurse Chapel says she needs to get the crewman to sickbay immediately. Chapel and Scotty are about to separate from the away team, but Uhura stops them. All ship-to-ship and internal comms are still jammed. Spock tells everyone to meet on the bridge as soon as possible. Chapel heads to sickbay with the crewmember and Scotty to engineering to check the warp core. Spock, La’an and Uhura head to the bridge. 

Nurse Chapel finds the Chief Medical Officer dead, but does find Captain V’Rei awake, among many crewmembers there with blunt-force injuries. Commander Kirk is on the bridge working to get the communications system back online. Spock, La’an and Uhura arrive. James is pleased to see them, especially La’an. Spock notices something between La’an and Kirk. Uhura goes to work on their comm system, and has Captain Pike on screen using telemetry. Kirk briefs him on what happened. They are visited by a mystery ship that caused the planetary destruction. It is what’s jamming their comms, and is huge. It attacks the Enterprise. Nurse Chapel attempted to beam Captain V’Rei aboard the Enterprise before it was attacked. The Farragut captain is gone. Commander Kirk is now Farragut's Acting Captain. It is Captain Kirk’s first command, what will he do? 

Where did the mystery ship originate? What aliens command the mystery ship? Where is the Enterprise? Will the Enterprise escape? What’s aldentium and how does it help? How old is Pelia? What does the sehlat who ate its tail even mean?

Highlights:

• Captain James Tiberius Kirk’s Leadership Crisis and Lessons Learned

• What caused the planetary destruction

• Tractor beam emitted from a ship that outclasses any Star Fleet Ship

• Planetary Destruction - Destroyer of Worlds

• Alien Scavengers

• Saving an inhabited planet

• Pelia improvises, creating a ‘new’ Enterprise comm system with Number One, Dr. M’Benga, and Lieutenant Ortegas

• Shocking Ending

If one had the pleasure of watching one or two of those original Star Trek episodes, they would recognize the similarities between Star Trek Strange New Worlds  and OG Star Trek episodes immediately. There’s also lots of action, improvisation, comedic quips, unknown alien ship and a shocking ending. This episode answers questions of how Captain James T. Kirk performed in his first command. Also seen is Kirk’s future command staff crew. This episode has a lot of the OG show infused in it, added to the brilliance of the current Star Trek Strange New Worlds. They created an extraordinary addition to the Star Trek Legacy. It is as entertaining, if not more so than the OG. The skillful work of this Strange New Worlds Team created another memorable and future Binge Worthy episode. This didn’t crash in a huge good way.

Paul Wesley did an impressive job recreating an iconic role finessing it with his own superb interpretation. It worked. Bravo! 

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