IR TV Review: STAR TREK - STRANGE NEW WORLDS - EPISODE 3 (“Shuttle To Kenfori”)[Paramount+-S3]

The path from contentment to conflict is a harrowed line. In Episode 3 of Season 3 of "Strange New Worlds" entitled "Shuttle To Kenfori", the narrative does take on a more serialized view than past seasons since it is about the saving of one specific crew member. The episode is specified with Captain Pike and Doctor M'Benga which is interesting since pairing off different characters has always created interesting paths in characterization. This was true from the inception of the original series. The reality is that the doctor carries a lot of secrets as we have seen with Nurse Chapel. But that might also be a reason for her distance as it were from Spock.

As we begin with Spock. He is almost an innocent (as it were) while she has seen things that make her keep certain aspects at arms length. You would think after Burnham there would be a residual but he has tried to erase it from his memory. It is an interesting dichotomy. Here the issue is a specific quandary that makes Captain Pike question himself but also lays the groundwork for something else (though we never quite hear about it later). The helmswoman in Ortega also seems to be having a Tom Paris moment for some reason though it seems to be integrated with her interaction with the Gorn. The different elements come down to certain secrets coming about with the crew which (as tight as they are) which might speak to an unraveling in the future. For Pike, it is the concept that he himself cannot fix everything and not everything can be saved. B

By Tim Wassberg