What do you get if you combine Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and deadpan comedy? It’s a query that this week’s instalment of Strange New Worlds feels hellbent on answering. Entitled “4 and a Half Vulcans”, the episode, written by Dana Horgan and Henry Alonso Myers, sees half the principle forged become Vulcans to finish a harmful mission.
Can the crew’s new Vulcan upgrades assist them full their mission? Will they have the ability to flip again? With all of the stereotypical efficiencies and logical patterns of a Vulcan thoughts, will they even need to? And simply what’s Kirk doing on the Enterprise once more? Discover out the solutions to all of those and extra in my evaluation of this week’s Star Trek journey!
WARNING – Spoilers under for Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3 Episode 8 “4 and a Half Vulcans”
The Serum
It was evident from the promotional footage that this episode featured the uncomfortable clip launched throughout San Diego Comic-Con 2024. I discovered it no much less awkward right here, and the temper lingered all through your entire episode. It’s not simply the monotone, however everybody else overcompensating within the humour division to make up for half the forged being Vulcan.
Take, for example, early on, the place the serum didn’t work on Pelia (Carol Kane). It results in a humorous joke about psychedelics, however there’s one thing about it that’s not Star Trek. As somebody who loves Carol Kane, it’s very in-character for her. It’s as if the episode was preoccupied with making an attempt to be humorous, even when it did sacrifice the picture of even imprecise professionalism that different crews have.
As absurd as their turning into Vulcans is from a storytelling perspective, it’s the selection to remain Vulcans that’s the root of the episode. The place’s the road between identification and a organic actuality? Between appropriating and embracing? The episode feels bored with these questions; nonetheless, it as a substitute focuses instantly on the crew’s efforts to alter them again forcibly.
Extremely Illogical
The actions of the Vulcan crew are weird. Some jokes land, however I didn’t discover the deadpan supply half as humorous because the episode clearly meant. I’m additionally a little bit combined on a easy serum turning them into pointy-eared, logical Vulcans. By way of Spock (Ethan Peck), it’s clear that these are discovered behaviours, however as a substitute, we get a species that’s been with Star Trek since inception diminished to the equal of a sensible drug.
To not point out, their erratic behaviour is disturbing and indicative of an impassive state that even Vulcans don’t possess. Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) brainwashes Beto (Mynor Luken) into being a greater date. Chapel (Jess Bush) breaks up with Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan). Pike tries to rearrange the ship into 14 crew rotations. It’s weird, uncaring, and it seems like they acquired excessive and made a bunch of unhealthy selections.
The lengths the crew goes to floor the Vulcans brings a studying like this some legitimacy. La’an (Christina Chong) actually dances her means out of it, which, even for a dream sequence, was a nasty resolution, however not from the characters. It brings out the tonal whiplash of the episode, how turning the crew again and by no means speaking about this once more is the best-case situation. Whether or not or not the serum made them “actual” Vulcans, it’s simple to see why they by no means used it once more.
Authentic Collection
Maybe it’s on me not studying the credit extra rigorously earlier than leaping in, however I used to be shocked to see Kirk (Paul Wesley) pop up this week. Him being there to easily go to his brother, who’s not even within the episode, isn’t an excuse that passes the pub check. It is a season that’s had no scarcity of Kirk content material, his addition right here reeks of desperation.
That’s, a desperation for establishing what’s to return for all these characters in The Authentic Collection. There’s 2 complete seasons after this one, but simply weeks in the past we had music swell as he was referred to as “Captain Kirk”. Right here, in an episode he has flimsy causes for showing in within the first place, he builds on his relationship with Scotty (Martin Quinn). All of them however winking on the digital camera once they share a drink on the finish was eyeroll inducing.
It’s much more offensive, as a result of anybody paying consideration is aware of this isn’t simply Authentic Collection nostalgia-baiting. The manufacturing staff have made no secret of their want to do a Star Trek: 12 months One collection with Kirk on the Enterprise. Being a little bit over midway via Unusual New Worlds‘ run, it’s a mad sprint to arrange the subsequent collection. Worse but, the blatant setups are more and more SNW‘s detriment.
Comedy
Talking of detriment, it’s this week that the present feels as if it’s having a tonal identification disaster. Simply final week we had been preoccupied with asking what Starfleet is, which in a season affected by precise warfare crimes, was a selection. However right here we’re enjoying informal in conferences, making informal drug use references, and massively overdoing Pike’s hair. A few of it’s humorous, however none of it seems like Star Trek, and it’s sort of alienating.
Additionally uncharacteristic of Star Trek, the episode has a mid-credits scene. It’s a glorified gag reel, however when you may have comedic expertise like Patton Oswalt visitor starring, it’s comprehensible. Spock explaining human tradition and mannerisms to Doug was the form of exterior statement of human behaviour that exhibits about aliens ought to do extra usually. It’s by far, at the very least in my eyes, the funniest a part of the episode.
Spock’s the one alien on the ship, at the very least the one non human-passing one, so giving somebody simply as stoic to play off was superb. Its inclusion throughout the episode’s finish credit nonetheless is a little bit disarming, particularly contemplating the comedy wouldn’t have felt misplaced within the episode itself. If ever there was an episode this scene would have felt at dwelling in, it’s this one.
Conclusion
“4 and a Half Vulcans” is a wierd affair. Coming from a longtime Trek fan, it’s a disarming one as properly. There’s an enormous overemphasis on humour, and a monotone bit that’s not as humorous because the episode appears to suppose. The overreliance and abundance of humour is on the expense of what might have been an actual ethical quandary, that’s as a substitute mounted with a dream sequence dance quantity and a few subpar soup.
It additionally repeats one of many largest sins of the season, in giving extreme display time to Wesley’s Kirk. As an Authentic Collection fan, it hurts to see these relationships arrange with swelling music and the actors all however winking on the digital camera. It’s significantly true this week, with Kirk inserted for the silliest purpose. “4 and a Half Vulcans” is one more entry in some of the middling and weird seasons of Trek in current reminiscence.
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3 premiered on July seventeenth (2025) and can proceed weekly on Paramount+ within the US, UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan. It’s also out there to stream on SkyShowtime within the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Jap Europe.
Extra From Trek Central
📰 – Filming Starts for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4
🔥 – Christopher Pike – The Journey to Strange New Worlds Season 3
🔎️ – Star Trek Online Beams Down New Timeless Legacy Starship Bundle!
Be part of the Star Trek dialog through our social media platforms:
