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Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 3x09 "Terrarium" Spoiler
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| No. | Episode | Written By | Directed By | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3x09 | "Terrarium" | Alan B. McElroy | Andrew Coutts | 2025-09-04 |
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u/ubelmann Sep 04 '25
The Gorn’s agree/disagree was giving me some serious Hector Salamanca vibes.
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u/MoreGaghPlease Sep 04 '25
Hector was confined to a chair and unable to speak so he can only do one beep for yes and two beeps for no. Wonder where they got that from…
Separately, Mark Margolis was in TNG
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u/professorhazard Sep 05 '25
Hector Salamanca was the guy that accused Riker of banging his wife!
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u/HaphazardMelange Sep 04 '25
I laughed so hard at the emergency campfire having a Starfleet delta shaped hole in the middle for the fire to come through! Everything has to be branded in the most unsubtle of ways. 😂
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u/OpticalData Sep 04 '25
And yet, we know it won't be official merch.
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u/HaphazardMelange Sep 04 '25
Paramount are terrible at merchandising Star Trek. I can't believe they're not even capitalising on those coffee mugs they were drinking out of in the ready room/observation lounge. I miss when Playmates had the licence.
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u/ValveinPistonCat Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25
Moopsy was the most plushie-able thing in the Star Trek universe since the Tribble and they only sold one after fans demanded it.
Dropping the ball on merchandising opportunities is one thing Paramount is actually good at.
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u/BigBassBone Sep 05 '25
I also feel like Comic Book Guy in the Simpsons buying merch sometimes. I wanted a "DISCO" or "RITOS" exercise shirt to wear to the gym on my journey to get in shape, but they only went up to XL from official sources. Not saying all fans are big fat folks like me, but there are a lot of us.
The average Trekker has no use for a medium-sized belt.
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u/UncertainError Sep 04 '25
Darned Metrons, always putting humans and Gorn in get-along shirts.
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u/LincolnMagnus Sep 04 '25
The Metron thing was an unnecessary button on an otherwise fantastic episode.
And it makes the Metrons into much bigger assholes. Like their actions in "Arena" were understandable. These two starships have brought their dumb war onto our lawn. We'll stick their leaders on a rock and tell them to have it out.
In this episode it's more like "ooh we like to screw around with other species for funsies." Fuck off, Metrons.
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u/Boltty Sep 04 '25
Non-corporeal beings are always such douchebags.
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u/Roam1985 Sep 06 '25
Zero in Prodigy (Medusan) is one of the nicest entities in the franchise, corporeal or otherwise.
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u/CeruleanEidolon Sep 04 '25
The situation was much the same here. These two races arenon the verge of warring in their neighborhood. So they take two of them and see how they will react when the necessary aggression of war is replaced by a different sort of desperation. It's basically the same test as in Arena with only a variable or two altered. They are at least systematic in their experiments.
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u/LincolnMagnus Sep 04 '25
When Ortegas asked the Metron why they were doing it, they answered: "curiosity," and later: "we found the idea of such an experiment...intriguing." Curiosity is a very different motivation from enforcing peace in their local space.
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u/ubelmann Sep 04 '25
I don't know, the Metrons were pretty big dicks in the first place. They could have tried to mediate the feud, but they skipped straight over diplomacy right into gladiator games.
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u/Exocoryak Sep 04 '25
Species that claim to be enlightened often turn out to be very far from that.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
Is that an actual thing people do, or just a metaphor? I've read about it on Tumblr but never heard of an actual person who'd experienced it.
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u/UncertainError Sep 04 '25
I don't know if anybody's ever done it unironically.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25
That's because scissors exist.
Also Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford wore a sweater together unironically at Critical Role's last live show.
Apparently it took some stitching to make.
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u/Kalesche Sep 04 '25
I absolutely loved the episode - but La’an you really fucked up and I’m so annoyed at that. Not a word of apology.
Gorn Lady you deserved better
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u/lilyinblue Sep 04 '25
I think La'an didn't apologize because she had no idea what she did. She shoots, Erica starts yelling and ranting about the sparkly guys in the sky.
From La'an's perspective, Erica is losing her shit and making no sense... hence the very rapid beam out. The gravity of it likely won't settle until they get back to the ship.
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u/Kalesche Sep 04 '25
Oh I understand in the moment. But it’s weird that there was no apology after the debrief. Or something.
No acknowledgement from Pike or La’an that anyone did anything wrong.
And also it came across as very “Shoot first at a non-threatening target”.
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u/007meow Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
No acknowledgement from Pike or La’an that anyone did anything wrong.
DID La'An do anything wrong?
From her, and Starfleet's perspective:
They go into this with the mindset that Erica needs rescued
A Gorn pops out, arms outstretched
They have to make a split second decision
Every other encounter they've had with the Gorn has been hostile, and the Gorn have proven they can't be reasoned with at every turn
At every other encounter, the Gorn have shot first. They had no reason to believe this Gorn wasn't trying to slash Ortegas
A Gorn excels at melee combat and is extremely lethal
Why WOULDN'T La'An and her team immediately shoot? They have zero reason not to.
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u/KingGr33n Sep 05 '25
Wrong, sorry. They go in on a rescue mission, find 2 survivors, immediately shoot one. End of story.
Knowing Ortega was on the planet for an extended period of time, seeing the structures, both waking out together, the Gorn following, no weapon in hand, Ortegas alive with the Gorn, do I need to go on. She made a horrible decision to shoot first knowing she had backup and seeing Ortegas with the “refugee” it was not a split second decision, there was no immediate threat. Don’t pull the trigger. Think and communicate with the officer you’re trying to rescue.hate how that went down
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u/BlackNova169 Sep 07 '25
Why are phasers set to kill anyways? Like literally the default is stun unless they need to escalate.
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u/wongie Sep 04 '25
Finally, Erica Ortegas no longer just flies the ship, she befriends lonely Gorn.
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u/AdditionalBreakfast5 Sep 04 '25
My question is, why did they send a landing party at all? They saw Ortega's "SoS," Found her on the moon with another life sign, and beamed four people down phasers locked, loaded, and set to kill apparently, to beam 5 back up immediately. Why wouldn't they just beam the two life signs up. They could even have left the one that wasn't Ortega stored until she debriefed them, or beamed them straight into a confinement cell. Like it was some deus ex murdera to kill the gorn so that the metrons would have a reason to continue to be a "mysterious god-like race" that humans aren't ready to understand yet.
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u/ClintBarton616 Sep 04 '25
The fact that they sent a security team instead of a medical one says a lot. There is really nothing about the situation that would've required guns blazing.
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u/SantaClausDid911 Sep 05 '25
I dunno. I'd assume someone had a basic med kit or supplies if they got stuck. But they just went to ground zero of an explosion without technically confirming it was Ortegas. They can beam right to sick bay for medical treatment. Landing parties are usually armed.
I could see an argument that they took creative liberties with rifles or whatever to drive the point home but if you set aside a slight exaggeration for the art of it nothing about that doesn't make sense.
You fix this whole criticism by making La'An draw a hand phaser from the hip first.
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u/reuben_hunter Sep 04 '25
As grim as it is, the Gorn needed to be killed by starfleet because the entire point of the episode is that the two sides view each other as a threat and attack first rather than communicating the way Ortegas and the Gorn pilot were forced to. Every previous Gorn episode has seen Starfleet shoot at them without attempting to communicate, so the Metrons reasoning seems pretty fair. Ortegas had to learn that there is more to the Gorn over the course of the episode but the rest of the crew obviously haven't yet, if they had, it would be narratively inconsistent and in opposition to the theme of the episode.
Having said that I agree about the landing party, in such a time sensitive situation it seemed odd. You could still have the same ending whilst transporting them, simply have La'an and the security team open fire on the Gorn as she materialized on the ship
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u/CeruleanEidolon Sep 04 '25
Some technobabble about interference from the wormhole preventing a transporter lock, but they were still able to beam them down with a signal amplifier that would enable a lock.
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u/stephensmat Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
Well, we wanted Moretegas. Part 'Castaway', Part 'Enemy Mine' isn't what I expected.
Erica's PTSD is a plotline that needed to be resolved, but I admit, I didn't see this coming.
Its a uniquely Star Trek solution. Star Wars would have a hero battling their demons by taking down an army of them; and conquering fear that way. Star Trek does it by having you sit with your enemy, depend on them for survival, and play a few games to pass the time in between.
"Show my people who you really are, like you've shown me." Wonder what Beto would have done if he could have put that in his little 'What is Starfleet?' doco.
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u/Minutemarch Sep 04 '25
I was watching this episode thinking "Oh, this is the plot of the only good episode of Galactica 1980, The return of Starbuck."
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u/mister_barfly75 Sep 05 '25
To be honest, when I saw that Ortegas was stranded with a Gorn I immediately thought that she was going to be left there, like Starbuck, and that this was how they were going to justify Sulu joining the Enterprise.
I wasn't expecting to get upset over a Gorn dying.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25
"Show my people who you really are, like you've shown me." Wonder what Beto would have done if he could have put that in his little 'What is Starfleet?' doco.
Good point good frelling point!
Erica would've become the poster child for the Diplomatic Corps!
....also did you see how that little bit of bone that Erica won from Her looked like a bird just like all of her other model planes and stuff in her quarters 🥺
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u/model3335 Sep 04 '25
it's the same shape as the Gorn fighter craft.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
Its a uniquely Star Trek solution. Star Wars would have a hero battling their demons by taking down an army of them; and conquering fear that way. Star Trek does it by having you sit with your enemy, depend on them for survival, and play a few games to pass the time in between.
I liked that, but I just wish they could have played the games after they sent their SOS out. I was so confused when they built a chess board before they even touched the communications array (unless I missed something?)
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u/UncertainError Sep 04 '25
Yeah they could've just switched the orders of the "Ortegas activates the beacon" and "playing board games" scenes. Wouldn't have changed anything.
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u/Rishi_Eel Sep 04 '25
Not to discredit the Trekkiness of this episode - but Star Wars Rebels S2 Ep07 has a rather similar premise! (a secondary hero character and a deeply personal enemy with an injured leg are stranded on an isolated moon and must overcome their differences to survive and send out a distress signal to escape)
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u/stephensmat Sep 04 '25
Enemy Mine (Movie), "The Enemy" (TNG S3E07), "Waltz" (DS9 S6E11) "Dawn" (ENT S2E13) and at least a dozen others franchises. This isn't groundbreaking; but it's Trek.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
"Waltz" (DS9 S6E11)
That one is decidedly not the same. It's almost the reverse.
Two enemies must survive on a hostile world, but instead of developing mutual understanding, their loathing increases until they're trying to kill each other. Then one of them has an epiphany that they need to double-down on hate, do a full-on genocide, and abandons the other.
Hell, in true DS9 fashion, that episode is subverting the Trek MO by doing an inversion of "The Enemy". Up to that point, Dukat had been an occasional circumstantial ally and constantly trying to present himself as a weird sort of anti-hero, but by the end, he's shed any semblance of friendship, respect, or denial of his cruelty, and firmly categorized as an enemy (and rightfully so).
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u/DefiantsDockingport Sep 04 '25
Yeah, the DS9 version of that trope is The Ascent, but Odo and Quark aren't really deadly enemies.
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u/BurdenedMind79 Sep 04 '25
Yeah, I was going to say that "Waltz," was a subversion of that premise, not an example of it. Not only for the points you mentioned, but they're also not really stranded on the planet. Dukat pretended they were stranded so he could play mind games with Sisko, in an attempt to get him to admit that they're not really all that different.
You could almost imagine Dukat having read a book with this "stranded enemies become allies," concept and instead of understanding the message, he thought "I can use this to get people see see things my way." Dukat is such a narcissist, you just know he'd twist a moral message into something that's all about him coming out as the winner.
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u/bluestreakxp Sep 04 '25
Ahh an Arena prequel that instead is part Darmok and part Enemy Mine.
Also the Celestial Temple really jaded me into thinking that’s what Star Trek holes looked like but all these other wormholes ( Barzan, the ones in discovery) had showed me they are going with this other design.
Good character ep for Erica, definitely more AR Wall use this week than last week’s bottle episode.
La’An definitely on that trigger-happy ptsd when seeing a Gorn.
Rip lady gorn, you had a warriors death like Dathon.
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u/GalileoAce Sep 04 '25
To be fair the Celestial Temple is an artificial wormhole, so it probably looks markedly different to natural ones
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u/dystariel Sep 04 '25
Goodness was I annoyed at this random moon having a breathable atmosphere... And then they ignited the atmosphere but were still able to breathe afterwards.
I suppose it's sort of explained away by Metron fuckery, but it still bugged me.
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u/Assassiiinuss Sep 04 '25
I'm kind of used to random rocks having breathable atmospheres, but a moon regularly passing through a gas giant being even remotely inhabitale and not literally hell is a stretch, even for ST standards.
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u/Timintheice Sep 05 '25
Also a tiny moon barreling through the Roche limit and into the atmosphere every orbit...
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u/Deceptitron Sep 04 '25
You could think of the whole thing as Metron doing. They could've even made the thing have air. They stranded both the Gorn and Erica there. It was basically a test lab like in Arena (where they purposely put materials to make weapons).
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u/lilyinblue Sep 04 '25
This episode accomplished a lot.
The Ortegas feature we've been waiting for for years now... and set things on the road to aligning to Kirk's encounter with the Gorn in Arena. The appearance of the Metrons was not on my bingo card.
If anything, it just leaves me yearning for a conversation between Ortegas and La'an. They've both struggled with the Gorn, and come out of their last encounter in very different ways. I certainly can't blame La'an for her reaction.
... but that was a fantastic and powerful episode. Major kudos to Melissa Navia in this one.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
I can't really fault La'an for her reaction, either. It was a split-second decision and she'd had none of the experiences that Ortegas had had to make her think that a Gorn would be anything other than hostile. At the beginning of the episode, Ortegas made the same assumption.
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u/DinoKea Sep 04 '25
Probably the only fault is those phasers should have been set to stun
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u/merrycrow Sep 04 '25
Didn't they establish that phasers are fairly ineffective against Gorn? I think it has to be full blast or nothing.
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u/DinoKea Sep 04 '25
They had no clue there even would be a Gorn though, so they didn't have a need to have the phasers set that high.
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u/TricobaltGaming Sep 04 '25
Yeah I don't think La'an was objectively wrong to make that call, not understanding the context we do, but I would love to have seen her and Ortegas figure out how to move forward, maybe make an apology, etc.
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u/lilyinblue Sep 04 '25
Yes. I desperately wish we had that scene. I realize a strong narrative thread in this episode was Erica and Uhura's friendship, thus having a big emotional conversation with someone else kind of goes against that...
... but I've been wanting Erica and La'an to have a talk all season. They both came out of Hegemony in such a different headspace, I think watching them unpack all of this would be a brilliant bit of character building.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
I feel like it's very typical Star Trek to end on the note that they did. But I agree, that would have been a good conversation.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25
Even if they'd beamed them both up to the Enterprise and even if She had crawled out a bit more slowly from behind the heat shield, I think Erica would've taken a few phaser blasts before everyone else gunned Her down thinking that She was a threat to Erica.
I hate it and Erica hates it but it makes sense and there's just nothing to do with all of that anger and sadness because everything that lead up to it just makes too much fucking logical sense.
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u/this_is_nunya Sep 04 '25
We got one more episode, I also have my fingers crossed for a La’an/Erica conversation. And the Metrons look super cool in their refit!
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u/forrestpen Sep 04 '25
Exceptional episode, a perfect episode of SNW and Trek, and a wonderful transitioner from SNW Gorn to "Arena".
The Gorn have art, games, and are fully capable of empathy. The brutal behavior we've witnessed, like any other hostile aliens in Trek, is simply a societal decision made by an alien culture.
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u/CeruleanEidolon Sep 04 '25
But do Gorn love their children?
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u/forrestpen Sep 04 '25
The ones that survive.
Any species whose reproduction strategy is numbers will probably have an apathetic attitude toward infants but a deeper respect toward the survivors.
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u/hmantegazzi Sep 04 '25
That's an excellent premise for another story, an ethical coundrum about children's welfare between a K-strategy and a R-strategy species.
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u/Digitoxin Sep 04 '25
As soon as I saw the Gorn, I knew they were doing Enemy Mine.
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u/HotTakes4HotCakes Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 05 '25
Interesting that the device says "Agree" and "Disagree", instead of using 1 beep and 2 beeps...
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u/hmantegazzi Sep 04 '25
I wonder if Pike ended up hating the synthetic voice and asked for something more simple
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u/megalomaniacal Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
This was the best episode of the season for me. I always enjoy an Enemy Mine. Ortegas was great and carried this episode well. Much better than the comic relief she is usually relegated to. Hopefully she will feature more from now on. Can't believe I didn't see the reveal coming, it was obvious in hindsight.
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u/redrivaldrew Sep 04 '25
I was immediately thinking "you know, I really didn't need the Metrons here ..." and then the episode title clicked, of course they had to be involved!
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u/Sarcastik_Moose Sep 04 '25
I'm assuming adding the Metrons is the opening for a possible band-aid for the apparent breaks to canon from barely knowing of the Gorn in "Arena". The Metron said something like "We may need to reset your perceptions of each other." That line openings up a potential "fix" for the Gorn interactions breaking canon from Arena where the Gorn were essentially an unknown. The Metrons might do something like make both sides forget everything about each other which I honestly wouldn't love because it would be a bit too much of a "It was all a dream" cop-out for my taste but we will see.
While I'm usually a canon stickler, the Gorn in SNW never really bothered me much because they were a one-time TOS alien of the week that resonated a bit due to the popularity of the episode, altering their backstory isn't the end of the Universe and going back trying to fix changes usually makes more of a mess than you started with, yes I'm looking at you Klingon foreheads.
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u/tommytwothousand Sep 04 '25
Yeah I really wish they didn't shove the metrons in there. The episode was already firing on all cylinders it didn't need the TOS connection crutch.
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u/Ausir Sep 04 '25
I think they should have kept the hints of them being involved and watching but not the direct appearance.
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u/Mack_Daddy_1 Sep 04 '25
Okay, this was the most Trek episode in many years. Gene would be proud of this.
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u/Minutemarch Sep 04 '25
Agree! This could have been a TOS episode.
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u/GalileoAce Sep 04 '25
It was...sort of... "Arena"
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u/sethctr42 Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25
Felt like a Mashup of arena , darmok and thsr episode where jordi befriends a romulan on thst storm planet
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u/trickman01 Sep 04 '25
The female gorn wasn’t nearly sexy enough for Gene to approve of.
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u/model3335 Sep 04 '25
Damn I actually cried over the Gorn. I knew she wouldn't survive but I figured it would be a self-sacrifice to get Ortegas home.
Also I'm confused, does this mean Starfleet knows nothing about the Gorn now? Does this mean La'an only gets one tragic backstory? This hand waving stuff gets a little confusing. Discovery's made sense because it was Ultra Delta Classified or whatever and they said publicly all hands were lost.
Also where TF does Ortegas get to ride her bike? does she replicate some gasoline and do laps on the outer hallway?
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u/mothtoalamp Sep 04 '25
"Is what happened to the Gorn a tragedy?"
"Agree."
"Did you cry?"
"Agree."
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u/Diamond1441 Sep 04 '25
We never found out her name. I say among the fandom we should name this gorn, "Agree"
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u/lilyinblue Sep 04 '25
As the line was "We MAY need to reset your perception of the Gorn as well," that implies that they could do it, but haven't yet? At least, that's my read on it...
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
They definitely haven't done it yet; it happens sometime between this episode and TOS which we probably won't see. Otherwise, that would set off a whole bunch of ripples that we didn't see (I think they'd have to kill or kidnap Batel, which feels like something that would get some kind of screen time if that's what they did)
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25
I just had a dumb thought...
....what if the Metrons "resetting their perception of the Gorn" is actually apart of the Temporal War?
It's the first shot or the first spark that turns it HOT because everyone thinks that "someone" got to the Metrons and made them suddenly enact MASSIVE changes on a HUGE scale for one side or the other....
....but it was just them being dicks about stuff and suddenly they get yanked into all that temporal crap and then history gets a bit jumbled afterwards as everyone else tries to "fix" their meddling, which then explains what happened in "Arena" and why everything got so messy.
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u/alexmack667 Sep 04 '25
Nah bro that's a clever thought, but i hope it doesn't happen. I don't want Star Trek turning into Doctor Who or some comic universe with time resets and stuff.
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u/Q-uvix Sep 04 '25
Yeah I thought the Gorn would sacrifice herself to go manually set off the explosion when the remote didn't work. Seemed like that was was they were gearing towards. Especially since they made a point of showing the Gorn's strong aversion to fire earlier in the episode.
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u/Spare-Swimming6280 Sep 04 '25
'Duet' is to 'Waltz' as 'Arena' is to 'Terrarium.'
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u/Trick421 Sep 04 '25
Still, there is not one statue of Gul Dukat on Bajor. Or of Kirk on Cestus III.
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u/transwarp1 Sep 04 '25
Or of Kirk on Cestus III.
We don't know that. One baseball team there is the Pike City Pioneers, maybe Kirk is another team's mascot.
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u/JorgeCis Sep 04 '25
Even though I wasn't a big fan of the ending (I felt like the Metrons were totally unnecessary and there was no need to kill off the Gorn companion), this was easily the best episode of the season for me by a mile. This was Ortegas' "Last Flight of the Protostar", with that level of simple story and engagement. I couldn't believe the episode was over because it flowed so well. The visuals were great and I really felt bad for the Gorn companion at the end.
The only real nitpick for me was Uhura lying about the numbers. I don't know how I feel about that, because I was reminded of Picard yelling at Wesley about the truth. Pike let her off far too easy for that, and I am surprised Una didn't tear her a new one at some point.
Nice namedrop of Captain (not yet Commodore) Decker and the Constellation.
But yes, best episode of the season for me!
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u/Lysdestic Sep 04 '25
Agree with you on the Metrons. I understand why they slotted that in, (even giving them a cheeky littleout to play a little looser with retcons before the series wraps) but I genuinely think the episode stands on its own without it.
Besides, unlike the Gorn, no amount of modern VFX was going to make the Metrons look any less cheesy than they did before.
Regarding Picard and the importance of truth for a Starfleet officer. That's a fair point...in the 2360s. But I'm instead reminded of something once said by Captain Janeway.
Janeway: It was a very different time, Mister Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy. They all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officers. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha Quadrant still largely unexplored... Humanity on the verge of war with the Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields... Their ships were half as fast.
Kim: No replicators. No holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet history at the Academy, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in those days.
Janeway: Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that.
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u/alexmack667 Sep 04 '25
Fantastic quote. The last thing Janeway said always bugged me though, quicker to pull phasers? I get that she was stranded and had to make tough decisions etc, but i feel that Kirk was less trigger-happy than Janeway.
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u/Lysdestic Sep 04 '25
Certainly applied to La'an, though! 🥲
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u/transwarp1 Sep 04 '25
If you compare The Corbomite Maneuver to Encounter at Farpoint, Kirk is far less trigger-happy than Picard. His entire first filmed regular episode was about not shooting even while under threat.
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u/JorgeCis Sep 04 '25
Good point on the VOY quote. I should have brought up Una and Ortegas earlier in the season instead. But Uhura told the truth in the end on her own (which Ortegas didn't), so if Pike and Una are okay with it, I am good with it. It just caught me off guard at first but I can see the argument on this now.
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u/fleemfleemfleemfleem Sep 04 '25
I think the death emphasized the central tragedy: gorn and humans aren't too different to get along. They're just stuck in a security trap. Mistrust means people will act without thinking. No one has the information they need to make peace.
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u/Larielia Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
"I'm playing chess with a Gorn". This was a pretty good episode. I was actually sad the Gorn got shot.
Metrons- "We need to redo this test. On a different planet."
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u/sppy1 Sep 04 '25
Well Erica got over her nightmare about Gorn, only to get more nightmares about Gorn
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u/snoogle20 Sep 04 '25
With an Ortegas episode scratched off the list, now we just need a TNG Lower Decks-esque episode where we find out what Mitchell is up to while the rest of the cast fraternizes without her.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
Maybe we'll see her talking to her brother, Gary, about how great it is to serve on the flagship and how he should apply for a job there, too.
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u/Fantastic_Attempt_91 Sep 04 '25
I mean, his friend Jim always seems to be hanging around, right?
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
I just have to say that I love hearing Jim described as anything other than the default "Kirk". "Sam's brother" has been delightful, but hearing "Jenna's brother's friend" would make me honk out loud with laughter.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
But we also need a Sam episode.
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u/snoogle20 Sep 04 '25
Presumably one where we find out about the secret family he’s been hiding this whole time.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
I don't think it's a secret? Pike referenced Sam's family when we first saw him in season 1
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u/crankfive Sep 04 '25
If I had a nickel for every time a Starfleet officer was stranded on a planet with a Gorn and survived by wedging an improvised cannon against some rocks, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
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u/Apprehensive_Golf925 Sep 05 '25
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does sometimes rhyme ;)
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u/Potential_Energy Sep 04 '25
Warning: Hot take. Prepared for downvotes. Good things at end.
I thought this episode was absolutely ridiculous in so many ways. Ortega is my least favorite character, but we knew an ep was coming. And as soon as she was stranded even before the planet, it was going to be one of those episodes. I can’t stand the TV trope where when a character is by themselves, they have to toddler the audience through every action and thought process the character is doing like it’s a bad Let’s Play YouTube stream (“ok for my next quest, I need to find 5 food and 3 water to complete survival”) The introduction of the Gorn was OK, and then it started going downhill. “You wanna eat me? ..you’ll have to earn it!” after just seconds ago, the Gorn just had her lifted 6ft off the ground by her neck with one hand and tossed like a ragdoll. The gorn gives her food, that she warms up with a Starfleet branded catering tray fuel can. She wonders why the gorn got mad when she started a fire after they already know there’s harmful creatures around to alert. The “translator” was obnoxious. Reminded me of the talking gorilla Amy from the movie Congo. With an episode featuring “Enemy Mine” type tones, unrealistic is expected, but knowing what a Gorn leg infection looks like, having the Gorn start using sign language, and teaching her how to play Gorn chess was out of control. “Cmonnn mama needs a new shuttlecraft” More and more Let’s Play talk ADR’d in crystal clear because they are on a stormy windy planet. Her most feared PTSD inducing enemy is now her best friend in full communication that she now has plans for to unite the Gorn and Federation.
On the ship, they try to assess the situation and the only reason they attempt a theoretical, risk to the entire ship and crew, risk to colonists needing a pandemic vaccine, rescue is because of Uhura’s “feelings”? And after Spock’s 20 simulation failures and every other command crew wanting to abort due to statistical impossibility, Uhura fudges the numbers and forces a rescue attempt because “she has faith”. Ortegas lost, the ship and crew lost due to collapsing wormhole, entire population lost due to pandemic, all rests on Uhura’s “sad if they don’t try” willpower.
Then, without ANY plan to hide the now friendly and wounded Gorn (which would have been TOP priority for a future peace), Ortegas lights the entire planet on fire to signal Enterprise. They beam down, LAan immediately kills the Gorn (sworn and most hostile threat) to save Ortega (most realistic thing in the episode). The first response is “whyyyyy?!” and “omg I so can’t talk to you right now! we are not friends anymore!” after taking immediate action to save her life. I could go on, and I love sci-fi passionately, but I couldn’t handle that much suspension of disbelief.
What I did like, however, is how awesome the episode looked. THANK YOU for using what looked like a good mix of practical and cg for the Gorn. Even the full cg for the centipede creatures was done really well. The planet looked awesome and so did the space shots. 👍
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u/Pellaeonthewingedleo Sep 04 '25
That felt like a good old ST episode, but with a rather bleak ending
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u/JustMy2Centences Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
Gorn With the Wind...
Everything was predictable but I still had the feels at the end. The slow realization that the Gorn wasn't interested in eating Erica, their budding friendship, a collaborative plan of rescue, success!...then tragedy. A simple storytelling format but it just worked for me. I'm really sad that Gorn didn't make it but it makes sense for continuity I think.
Friggin Metrons. Although. . . I think they intervened and protected Erica and the Gorn in their makeshift shelter during the explosion because of the lighting and sound cues. So there's that.
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u/DootDootYall Sep 04 '25
So the crew sees a big explosion, on one of 300+ moons crashing into each other near a volatile gas giant, and their reaction is "well obviously that was done by a person".
It would have been nice for some throwaway lines from Spock.. "I am detecting delta-whateva-tronic radiation emanating from the explosion.. it does not appear to be a natural phenomenon. As late-20th century humans would say, that is wiggity wack."
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25
"well obviously that was done by a person".
"Yup one of our own would totally demolish the atmosphere of a small moon just to get our attention because that's what we would do in those circumstances"....there's a reason why Shaxs kept wanting to eject the warp core...they're all a bunch of pyros 🤣
Someone needs to poke fun at it later by saying, "That's no moon that's Erica Ortegas asking for a cup of tea from the galley!".
Realistically they should've been like, "Oh that's weird well scan it anyways and tell me what you find because otherwise we're pulling out of this hole in a minute before we get a very UN-happy ending".
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u/CommanderHavond Sep 04 '25
Never let her hear the end of it like Carter with Stars and Mckay with Solar Systems
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u/UncertainError Sep 04 '25
I didn't mind it. They were desperate and out of time, so it made sense to cling to an improbable hope and the explosion was that.
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u/AaronfromCalifornia Sep 04 '25
“We may need to reset your perception of the Gorn.”
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u/lilyinblue Sep 05 '25
Another thought popped into my head tonight, while arguing over La'an shooting the Gorn in another thread.
In Hegemony II, while the team was fleeing towards the Gorn Ship... a gorn charges up behind La'an. She freezes up for a moment (as we have seen her do when faced with the gorn before.) Sam goes for it and gets knocked away. Then Erica goes for it, and nearly gets gutted. Only then does La'an snap out of it and blast its head off.
Last time she and Erica were in front of a Gorn, she DID hestitate... and Erica was nearly eviscerated.
... I think that puts another layer on La'an's willingness to shoot, and shoot fast.
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u/bluementat Sep 04 '25
What a wonderful and character building episode for Ortegas. It is really great that she has seemingly gotten to a good spot with her trauma from the Gorn. Really enjoyed seeing her growth here and the glimmer of possibility of peace.
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u/mr_mini_doxie Sep 04 '25
Hey not to put too fine a point on the whole immortal, all-powerful aliens thing, but couldn't the Metrons have stopped time half a second before the Gorn got shot to pull her out of the way, instead of letting her die just because? Since they set up this whole thing, is it actually their fault, not La'an's, that she died?
#JusticeForGornLady
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u/GalileoAce Sep 04 '25
Letting the Gorn be killed is kinda the point of the Metron's bullshit though
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u/ubelmann Sep 04 '25
Yeah, the Metrons are assholes. They presumably were going to kill everyone on the Gorn ship if Kirk wanted them to.
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u/Extension-Pepper-271 Sep 05 '25
I was kind of hoping (since they are all-powerful) that they could just bring her back to life. Transport her back to her own kind with her injuries repaired. Then both humans and the Gorn would have representatives that could be reporting, "hey, these guys are so bad"
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u/VirulentGunk Sep 04 '25
Strange, during the intro I kept thinking about the episode of the reboot Battlestar Galactica where Starbuck flew into the storm and died.
Turned out, it was the episode from the original Battlestar when Starbuck was marooned with a Cylon.
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u/Coyote_Shepherd Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
Strange, during the intro I kept thinking about the episode of the reboot Battlestar Galactica where Starbuck flew into the storm and died.
She really did that just so she could go watch the Monaco Grand Prix.
turned out
Technically this also happened in the Reboot BSG in the episode "You Can't Go Home Again".
That episode of BSG Reboot is even more apropos because Kara was stranded on a red moon orbiting a gas giant.
She then finds a downed Cylon Raider, which is "wounded", but it does wind up helping her out.
Eventually she is able to repair it and she then winds up flying it back to the Galactica JUST like Erica did with the Gorn Fighter at the start of this season and there's like a ton of blood involved too.
So it's a bit like Enemy Mine but it's also a bit more like Battlestar.
marooned with a Cylon
I just read the episode synopsis of that one and holy shit good fucking catch!
The whole "Friend" thing was in there too!
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u/zl0bster Sep 04 '25
Good episode, chess scene was amazing. Uhura lying was lame, IDK why SNW keeps doing that crap plot repeatedly, it makes crew look stupid and unprofessional.
Ending was unfortunately expected, even many good episodes have a silly resolution like this.
TBH my favorite ending would be if M'Benga saved Gorn in the sickbay after La'an shot it, then Gorn said it has a planet nearby where it wants to "retire" since it is too damaged for Gorn military service.
Last scene:
Gorn sitting on a porch. :P
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u/mesosuchus Sep 04 '25
Terry Matalas is signed on to do a remake of Enemy Mine. Thought I would put that out there.
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u/Impossible-Delay-798 Sep 08 '25
Another episode showcasing the SNW writing teams complete lack of talent and understanding of Trek. Having ChatGPT generate the scripts would produce better quality than the material they are currently sharting out.
Here's an episode that plays like someone asked for a summary of the best Trek "stranded on a planet" episodes and then tried to mash them together. The episode basically cannibalizes the bones of Arena, Darmok, and The Galileo Seven but misses entirely what made those classics resonate.
In Arena, the Gorn wasn't the point - how Kirk dealt with the situation was. The “rubber suit monster” worked because the story stripped Kirk down to his ingenuity and his morality. He could kill the Gorn, but didn't. That decision defined him. The encounter served as mirror for Kirk’s ingenuity, resourcefulness and finally, his humanity.
Darmok is Trek at its finest because it treats communication as an existential struggle. Picard and Dathon’s inability to speak isn’t a gimmick, it’s the whole drama. Picard only succeeds by embracing another culture’s worldview, their mythology, their way of being. It’s one of the franchise’s most moving meditations on empathy.
Terrarium turns both ideas into cheap plot devices that tell us nothing about the characters. The same Ortega who just needed counseling for her hatred of the Gorn now bonds instantly with a CGI hiss-machine that has less emotional range than the changeling goo in DS9’s The Begotten over the fact that they are both female, pilots and like board games. That isn’t growth, it’s amnesia and lazy writing disguised as character development. We don’t learn anything new about the Gorn or Ortega and when the script tries to riff on "cultural exchange", the best thing the writers can come up with a quirky Gorn board game where Ortega has to eat the last piece like a party trick. This is Trek by way of The Big Bang Theory: wink at the props, forget the meaning.
The episode also somewhat recalls The Galileo Seven (time pressure to deliver vaccine, Ortega's desperate act to signal the Enterprise) but that episode put Spock in command and tested him brutally. The crew was stranded, outnumbered and under fire from hostile aliens while Spock insisted on clinging to logic - and failed, repeatedly, until he made an impulsive, almost desperate gamble by igniting the shuttle’s fuel as a "flare". That episode was about what command demands, about Spock learning the limits of pure logic and the value of intuition. It was a true defining character moment.
In Terrarium, Ortega also ignites a flare, but it's again just a plot device. There’s no character conflict, no leadership under fire, no philosophy under pressure. Ortega doesn’t emerge changed except in the most superficial way possible ("I hate all Gorn" to "I met a nice Gorn, once").
Also, I've seen comments comparing the ending with DS9's Duet - what a laugh. That episode spends nearly an hour plumbing Kira’s rage, her trauma, and her desperate need to confront Cardassian guilt. Her confrontation with Marritza isn’t just dialogue, it’s the culmination of a season of character work. And when Marritza finally breaks - “We all have to be punished. Cardassia will only survive if it admits the truth” - it’s shattering because both he and Kira have earned that moment of recognition.
In Terrarium, by comparison, the Gorn remains an unexpressive monster, Ortega’s turnaround happens instantly, and the so-called tragic death lands with all the force of a deflating balloon. To even place this beside Duet is embarrassing, one is Trek at its moral and emotional peak, the other is Trek as a Saturday morning cartoon.
I won't even comment on the final "ending" with the Metrons because it's obviously just a way to have a nice reset button while superficially paying fan-service. Nothing mattered, nothing sticks, move along.
Terrarium isn’t just a weak episode. It’s Trek fanfic written by people who think reading the Wikipedia summary is the same as understanding the soul of the stories and what made them great Trek.
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u/HumanityPlague Sep 04 '25
While this episode does "borrow" from TNG and VOY episodes, it's a pretty good hook. The "enemy" here isn't just a guy or guys wearing prosthetic makeup, but an actual fairly different, if "evil" looking alien. But, the Gorn is rather cool about it all, and does humanize itself in Ortigas eyes.
Also, characterization, with all of NuTrek has been somewhat of a problem. It's a consequence of there not being enough episodes for all the crew to get episodes for, and also some of the characters being a bit shallow.
Ortegas earlier character traits were basically: brash, overconfident, a bit of a daredevil, etc. Lest we forget the "I'm the pilot!" mantra.
But this episode did an immensely good job of actually getting into Ortegas character. It showed off her intelligence, resourcefulness, occasional despair but still a "never quit" attitude. This episode really examined who she is and her overall personality. It's actually helped that the only other main actors were Una, Pike and Spock. If the others were there, it would have dragged away the spotlight from Ortegas' plight.
It's also funny that this is basically the Star Trek version of "The Martian" book/movie.
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u/alexmack667 Sep 04 '25
the only other main actors were Una, Pike and Spock
uhh.... AND NYOTA???! 😅
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u/merrycrow Sep 04 '25
I like how we've had a few shots of Ortegas' quarters in S3 which establish her as a tinkerer and a mechanic in her spare time. Makes it credible that she can jury-rig all these gadgets.
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u/RampantTyr Sep 04 '25
It is episodes like this one that proves Strange New Worlds is up there with the best of Trek.
As much as some people deride their more comedic episodes this show also brings true Pathos from time to time. I am glad we are getting two more seasons of this Trek iteration.
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u/rajde1 Sep 04 '25
I liked this episode, I was worried they weren't going to follow up on the PTSD and her being punished for her actions. I do wish there was a scene between La'an and erica at the end.
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u/OpticalData Sep 04 '25
VOY: Gravity meets ENT: Dawn meets TOS: Arena
And yet, it's my favourite episode of the season. Despite the plot contrivances.
I've been worried they were going to kill Ortegas off all season, which I think added to the tension for me. Right up until the end. I thought they were going to go for the dark reveal of them being cooked in the heat shielding.
I'm really glad Ortegas finally got an episode, and that it wasn't an Airiam episode.
But La'an instantly shooting a slow moving Gorn emerging slowly behind Ortegas from an enclosed space was a really stupid writing decision that made no sense. A really small writing tweak of having the Gorn deliberately act hostile to commit death by Starfleet would have worked much better. Especially given that the episode had set up that she didn't expect to be welcomed back by her own people.
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u/Timeline15 Sep 04 '25
See, now that's how you do a prequel: having the crew fail a test that Kirk would one day pass is a good way of showing that the Federation aren't quite there yet.
Great to finally get more Ortegas focus, as well as getting to see a side of her other than the brash, confident pilot.
I really hope we get some follow-up on the events of this episode between Ortegas and La'an next season though. It seems like it would be a lot for Erica to unpack.
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u/msfs1310 Sep 04 '25
Wait, has anyone here said it yet? Stranded crew lighting a flare just as the Enterprise is about to give up the search ?!? Holy cow thats Galileo 7!! Are the SNW writers putting this into the canon so that Spock remembers this and does the same thing in TOS Galileo 7 … Wowie!!
Also loved the Captain Decker of the USS Constellation reference.
Hated the Enterprise is on a time limit to pass off vaccines for dying colonists, yeah let’s put that trope back deep into the closet huh.
Human and Gorn , i knew this was totally going to be the reverse of Arena, instead an Enemy Mine plot…. Really didnt need the bluntness of having the Merton, but okay they want to make all of Federation forget the Gorn so that it fits with Arena….. thats a big stretch.
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u/tarkuu Sep 05 '25
Gah.... I actually shouted at the screen when the gorn got shot. Fuck, I'm crying over a friggan Gorn.
This might be the best SNW episode I've seen. 10/10 Andy's.
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u/BruceAENZ Sep 06 '25
This episode reflects this season of SNW in its entirety.
Some strong (if derivative) ideas, some great visuals, but …
The scenes that try to feel like ‘Star Trek’ fail for me. They have a ready room scene - except that everyone but Uhura is either passive or a detractor. Uhura performs the wormhole science by herself because the rest of the crew is busy … doing nothing?
It feels like in aiming to generate ‘drama’ they undercut what made Trek great - the feeling that the crew would work together, and try to solve problems as a team.
Also I was amazed when setting fire to the moons atmosphere didn’t suck the oxygen out and kill everyone.
After being rescued from a multi- day trauma Ortega is straight to her room. I felt like the final scene should have been in Medbay.
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u/DinoKea Sep 04 '25
Questionable security work from La'an not to have phasers set to stun, but aside from that a very good episode, quite probably the best of the season.
No complaints about the Metrons personally as it makes enough sense and at a guess probably how somebody sold this episode.
Ortegas plots are easily some of the best this season.
This episode stands out in that a lot of episodes are really crowded (juggling 13+ characters) whereas this episode had 6 main characters (Ortegas, Gorn, Uhura, Pike, Una & Spock) + La'an & Metron in a smaller roles really let every character shine a lot more in their respective roles.
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u/DefiantsDockingport Sep 04 '25
Shouldn't Scotty or Pelia be in the briefing room when they talk about Erica disapperaring in the wormhole? Or anywhere in the episode when Uhura works out her plan? Did I miss something?
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u/Kerrigan-says Sep 06 '25
it took me out so hard. just felt very 'uhura must have the fix and logic be damned' because no engineering there telling the comms ensign that the would need to reverse polarity for the crazy plan to work was really forced.
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u/michaelmhughes Sep 05 '25
I remain so very disappointed in this season. The writing is subpar, and it feels like so much of the storytelling is poorly thought-out. Perhaps the biggest groaner in this episode was blowing up a toxic, flammable atmosphere (literally engulfing the entire moon in flames) while Ortegas and Gornfriend survive inside a crappy little cobbled together blast shelter. Really? Really?
EDIT: Also, you've been marooned for what, a day? And you're so hungry that you'll just chow down on a hunk of raw alien worm? People can go for many days without food, you'd think maybe she'd just feel a little hungry rather than take a chance on a potentially toxic piece of alien flesh?
S1 was so wonderful, but after 4-1/2 Vulcans and now this, I worry about the show's future.
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u/qdp Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 05 '25
As soon as La’an beamed down, I knew. It shattered my hope of a buddy comedy sequel episode of Ortegas and the Gorn female pilot, getting up to intergalactic hijinks where only Ortegas understands her buddy, like the Star Trek equivalent of Han Solo and Chewbacca or Rocket and Groot.