The reason for all that is messy in predictably Star Trek style. Apparently, all of the tried medical therapies meant to avoid wasting Batel’s life—Una’s Illyrian blood, Gorn DNA, and the Chimera Blossom—have someway mixed to make her one thing larger than she was earlier than, a near-mythical being referred to as the Beholder whose sole function is to guard the universe from pure evil that’s the Vezda. (Don’t ask how Batel is Marie, herself, and in addition the statue on Vadia IX; the concept of interdimensionality apparently covers a mess of sins.) That she is each now and apparently has at all times been the Beholder is a little bit of timey-wimey gobbledygook worthy of that franchise that includes the time-traveling Physician that Pelia as soon as frolicked with, but it surely offers her sacrifice the form of cosmic and fated scope that feels of a chunk with Pike’s.
Her precise face-off with Vezda Gamble is pretty anticlimactic, involving little greater than glowing extremities and beams of sunshine conquering swirls of darkness. What’s extra fascinating is the episode’s center section, a filmstrip model of the life that Pike and Batel might need been in a position to have collectively in a distinct world. We see them have a good time anniversaries, get a canine, and have a daughter. Pike’s disfigurement is magically averted, and the pair develop previous collectively, internet hosting household dinners and celebrating their daughter’s engagement. Very like the season 1 episode “A High quality of Mercy,” it’s one other bittersweet glimpse at a life not lived, as a result of Unusual New Worlds loves dangling the prospect of Pike someway getting the second probability we’re all so determined to provide him in entrance of us. Though right here, the alternate actuality is absolutely meant for Marie, a reminder of the love and risk of the universe she’s about to sacrifice herself to avoid wasting.
There’s one thing virtually painfully romantic in the concept Pike and Batel are each slaves to destinies they didn’t select and may’t management, and that any happiness they’ve managed to steal—together with the time-bending common life they get the prospect to spend collectively within the second earlier than Batel imprisons the Vezda carrying Gamble’s physique—is all of the sweeter for it. I’ve had my justifiable share of points with the best way this relationship has been introduced onscreen, however Unusual New Worlds manages to make the pair appear positively star-crossed right here, and I’m not ashamed to confess that I’m extraordinarily into it. (Plus, whilst an previous man in an imagined actuality, Pike nonetheless has nice hair!) It doesn’t harm that Anson Mount sells the heck out of Pike’s layered devastation; no different character is as geared up to know why Marie has to do what she has to do, or to know what it’s costing her to embrace her destiny. In a season the place he actually hasn’t had as a lot to do as many people (learn: me) doubtless hoped, it’s a really satisfying reminder of why each Mount’s Pike is the beating coronary heart of this collection.
Fortunately, not all the things about “New Life and New Civilizations” is doom and gloom, and the hour balances Batel’s sacrifice and Pike’s grief by centering one other relationship: The bromance of Kirk and Spock. An enormous chunk of season 3 has revealed within the act of placing the longer term Enterprise bridge crew from Star Trek: The Authentic Sequence collectively as usually as attainable, however has, fortunately, had a surprisingly deft contact in terms of constructing the foundations for Kirk and Spock’s friendship. This episode is much less delicate about their connection, stuffed with apparent metaphors involving thoughts melds, piloting two ships in excellent concord, and taking part in chess, however fortunately, Paul Wesley and Ethan Peck’s plausible chemistry and simple banter imply that it’s charming as a substitute of annoying.
The episode ends on an optimistic be aware, with the Enterprise as soon as extra heading off to hunt, you guessed it, “New Life and New Civilizations” in uncharted areas of house. It’s a extra bittersweet conclusion than earlier seasons have supplied, as a visibly dejected Pike displays on reminiscence, grief and the concept the folks we love by no means actually go away us. (He can’t even deliver himself to say hsi well-known “Hit it” catchphrase.) However as his bridge crew comes collectively to bolster him for his or her subsequent journey, it’s a surprisingly beautiful second of neighborhood and affection, a reminder that none of us goes by way of the worst issues that occur to us alone. And it’s exhausting to think about a extra Star Trek-appropriate lesson than that. Onward to season 4.
