The explanation for all this is messy in predictably Star Trek fashion. Apparently, all the attempted medical treatments meant to save Batel\u2019s life\u2014Una\u2019s Illyrian blood, Gorn DNA, and the Chimera Blossom\u2014have somehow combined to make her something greater than she was before, a near-mythical being known as the Beholder whose sole purpose is to protect the universe from pure evil that is the Vezda. (Don\u2019t ask how Batel is Marie, herself, and also the statue on Vadia IX; the idea of interdimensionality apparently covers a multitude of sins.) That she is both now and apparently has always been the Beholder is a bit of timey-wimey gobbledygook worthy of that franchise featuring the time-traveling Doctor that Pelia once hung out with, but it gives her sacrifice the sort of cosmic and fated scope that feels of a piece with Pike\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her actual face-off with Vezda Gamble is fairly anticlimactic, involving little more than glowing extremities and beams of light conquering swirls of darkness. What\u2019s more interesting is the episode\u2019s middle segment, a filmstrip version of the life that Pike and Batel might have been able to have together in a different world. We see them celebrate anniversaries, get a dog, and have a daughter. Pike\u2019s disfigurement is magically averted, and the pair grow old together, hosting family dinners and celebrating their daughter\u2019s engagement. Much like the season 1 episode \u201cA Quality of Mercy,\u201d<\/a> it\u2019s another bittersweet glimpse at a life not lived, because Strange New Worlds loves dangling the prospect of Pike somehow getting the second chance we\u2019re all so desperate to give him in front of us. Although here, the alternate reality is really meant for Marie, a reminder of the love and possibility of the universe she\u2019s about to sacrifice herself to save.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something almost painfully romantic in the idea that Pike and Batel are both slaves to destinies they didn\u2019t choose and can\u2019t control, and that any happiness they\u2019ve managed to steal\u2014including the time-bending regular life they get the chance to spend together in the moment before Batel imprisons the Vezda wearing Gamble\u2019s body\u2014is all the sweeter for it. I\u2019ve had my fair share of issues with the way this relationship has been presented onscreen, but Strange New Worlds manages to make the pair seem positively star-crossed here, and I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that I am extremely into it. (Plus, even as an old man in an imagined reality, Pike still has great hair!) It doesn\u2019t hurt that Anson Mount sells the heck out of Pike\u2019s layered devastation; no other character is as equipped to know why Marie has to do what she has to do, or to understand what it\u2019s costing her to embrace her fate. In a season where he really hasn\u2019t had as much to do as many of us (read: me) likely hoped, it\u2019s a very satisfying reminder of why both Mount\u2019s Pike is the beating heart of this series.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thankfully, not everything about \u201cNew Life and New Civilizations\u201d is doom and gloom, and the hour balances Batel\u2019s sacrifice and Pike\u2019s grief by centering another relationship: The bromance of Kirk and Spock. A big chunk of season 3 has revealed in the act of putting the future Enterprise bridge crew from Star Trek: The Original Series together as often as possible, but has, thankfully, had a surprisingly deft touch when it comes to building the foundations for Kirk and Spock\u2019s friendship. This episode is less subtle about their connection, full of obvious metaphors involving mind melds, piloting two ships in perfect harmony, and playing chess, but thankfully, Paul Wesley and Ethan Peck\u2019s believable chemistry and easy banter mean that it\u2019s charming instead of annoying.\u00a0<\/p>\n The episode ends on an optimistic note, with the Enterprise once more heading off to seek, you guessed it, \u201cNew Life and New Civilizations\u201d in uncharted regions of space. It\u2019s a more bittersweet conclusion than previous seasons have offered, as a visibly dejected Pike reflects on memory, grief and the idea that the people we love never really leave us. (He can\u2019t even bring himself to say hsi famous \u201cHit it\u201d catchphrase.) But as his bridge crew comes together to bolster him for their next adventure, it\u2019s a surprisingly lovely moment of community and affection, a reminder that none of us goes through the worst things that happen to us alone. And it\u2019s hard to think of a more Star Trek-appropriate lesson than that. Onward to season 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The explanation for all this is messy in predictably Star Trek fashion. Apparently, all the attempted medical treatments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-10572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}