Star Trek: Strange New Worlds changes the format again with season 3 episode 7, “What is Starfleet?” A story already discussing ethics and Starfleet’s actions takes on a new feel by being presented as if it were filmed for a documentary. This allows viewers to get a new connection to Beto and the crew itself.
We open with an announcement that the footage we’re about to see has been declassified by Starfleet. The episode then moves to a fancy intro about space narrated by Beto about how Starfleet is meant to exemplify honor.
“Warship” Enterprise
Footage is shown of the Enterprise in some sort of conflict with explosions, as Beto’s narration continues, “Both colonize, both impose their laws and doctrines on others.” Footage is shown, making the Enterprise crew look more like soldiers. This leads to a shorter title sequence, pushing the “warship” Enterprise.
A set of interviews takes place with Ortegas, who provides no comment, while Spock discusses how Vulcans suppress emotions and how he’s been an outcast for his half-human side, including running away and attempting to cut himself.
Ortegas defends using weapons while La’an runs over her long list of injuries, showing her fighting prowess. She defends using lethal force but hesitates when Beto discusses the Gorn. Una states her job is maintaining Starfleet’s orders, while Uhura relates that sometimes they have no idea what their mission is until they arrive.
In this case, the planet Lutani VII is attacked by its neighboring world, Kasar, with millions of Lutani already dead. The Enterprise is ordered to send classified cargo to Lutani, with Ortegas noting that Lutani once worked for the Klingons. Spock adds that the cargo includes the Jikaru, “which is technically livestock,” to drop off, with Pike emphasizing the mission is classified.
Ortegas makes it clear she can't share more with Beto before the ship picks up the Jikaru, which is, in essence, a massive space whale made of light. A Lutani ship arrives to fire at the Jikaru, which unleashes a massive sonic scream that shakes the Enterprise. Pike orders the camera off as Pike has the survivors beamed on board.
A tricky ethical dilemma
The cameras are back on to catch Spock telling Uhura how he’d felt a blast of telepathic aggression from the creature. M’Benga and Chapel are trying to help the Lutani captain, who is affected by a radiation blast, while gasping out not to use the Jikaru. She dies before she can explain more. M’Benga talks of having killed in the past, as Beto shares how his file is filled with “redacted” notices, and M’Benga plays coy about wiping medbay records.
Uhura talks of how Starfleet fills a gap in her life and of a good friend at the Academy who she didn’t know was killed in a Gorn attack. The cameras catch Pike talking to Starfleet, with that side of the conversation muted as “redacted” flashed on the screen. Pike is worried about the Jikaru and the danger it poses while being ordered to continue his mission.
A red alert brings Pike to the bridge to learn that the Jikaru had freed itself from its tractor beam and was moving on its own power as basically a weapon. Pike decides to treat the creature like a horse to herd while telling Beto how breaking any orders “was classified.”
Unable to control the Jikaru, the Enterprise follows it while both sending out warnings and a plan to possibly destroy it before the Klingons get hold of it. La’an has an interview where she is hit by Beto, asking her how it felt to kill someone.
Spock and Chapel are in the science bay with Spock confessing how he is still affected by the Jikaru, who had broken free of a “shock collar” the Lutani had put on it. Uhura sardonically suggests that maybe the Lutani should have tried talking to the creature rather than enslaving it, sharing its singing.
Chapel is worried that Spock trying to mind meld with the creature could overwhelm and kill him, with Pike and Una shown discussing delivering this living weapon and having to follow orders they hated.
Said orders are to use a new neural damper on the Jikaru, with Uhura suggesting communicating with it. Pike snaps that they have to obey orders to capture the creature, firing off the dampener only for the torpedoes to be driven off. The Jikaru unleash another sonic scream that rocked the ship, losing shield power as Beto is ordered off the bridge.
Reaching out to the “weapon”
The bridge camera shows the crew trying to get away as the Jikaru seems ready to attack again. An earlier video showed Ortegas building a device before Uhura talked to Beto, who couldn’t understand Starfleet bringing a weapon of war to another planet: “These are the actions of a colonizer.”
Uhura realizes this entire documentary is nothing but a hit piece on Starfleet and coldly tells Beto not to come back to the bridge.
Beto’s drones catch the crew’s plans to use an amplifier on board a shuttle to help Spock mind-meld with the creature, recognizing the risk. Security cameras on the shuttle have Spock using the amplifier to connect to the creature, only for a Lutani warship to drop in, its captain saying he doesn't trust Starfleet.
The warship gets between the shuttle and the Jikaru as it lets out another scream. Pike talks of seeing people die as an injured Spock and Chapel are whisked to Sickbay. Uhura tells Pike that she feels they were bonding with the creature before the attack. M’Benga relates that the Jakaru is surgically engineered to feel hate and aggression. Uhura volunteers to use the device herself, pointing out that it may not affect her as much.
Uhura uses the amplifier, humming along with the creature to realize it wanted to be attacked and use that aggression to get the ship to lead it to a nearby sun, amounting to suicide. Pike and Una briefly talk about duty versus doing what is right, with Pike making his choice. He has La’an fire a low-level burst to get the Jikaru’s attention before leading it toward the sun. Uhura relates that the Jikaura is worried about its children on the home world, with Pike promising to keep them safe.
Uhura’s interview notes her friend dying, doing what she believed in, and that she’d do it too. She and Beto talk in sickbay, with Uhura surmising that Beto went into this wanting to blame Starfleet for nearly losing his sister and had an agenda. Uhura points out that she and Ortega made a choice to be here, and Beto has to accept that.
Pike tells the Lutani captain that they are helping the creature die and making their home world a sanctuary planet. When the Lutani threatens him, Pike coldly tells him, "You do not want the Federation as an enemy.”
The crew watches as the Jikaru fly into the sun, ending its pain in a glorious show of light that had the ship enraptured while Uhura cried. Ortegas lets out how afraid she was of nearly dying against the Gorn, and the crew gives her hope. A montage shows the crew getting along, from training together to a dinner party, as each discusses how much Starfleet means to them.
Beto wraps up the conversation by admitting he didn’t expect this side of Starfleet and answers his earlier question by saying what separated a Federation from an Empire was the people, with Uhura closing it out with, “We make Starfleet what it is, not the other way around.” The credits then play with the classic Trek theme over a shot of the glowing sun.
The story may be a bit trite, but having it all shot like a documentary gives Strange New Worlds a new energy. It is intriguing how Beto’s entire arc is about wanting to make Starfleet look bad, only to come around to how important they are.
One could wish the episode covers more on the ethics of Starfleet, yet it serves as a reminder of how important they are to the galaxy. It shows, once more, how Strange New Worlds can play with the formula for a unique story.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 streams new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.