‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Gets Melodramatic in Soap Opera Episode

This week, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds turns into a soap opera. While the first ten minutes or so were funny, ultimately… it’s a lot of melodrama.

As “Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass” kicks off, Pike wakes in sickbay with a bandage on his head. The lights are brighter and everything looks a bit hazy. Dr. M’Benga is waiting there for him and tells him he was in a terrible accident. The last thing Pike remembers is hosting a Captain’s Table over two weeks ago. Dr. M’Benga is horrified—it’s much worse than he feared. Pike has… cosmic amnesia!

Pike hears background music and worries they’re back in the musical . Chapel joins them, and tells Pike that Spock suffered severe blunt force trauma in the accident and they had to put him in an induced coma. They need to conduct an experimental living heart transplant on him. Pike glances over at Spock, who is lying on a bed nearby.

Pike is overwhelmed; this isn’t the behavior he’s used to from the crew. They’re being overdramatic, taking long pauses, and staring off into space. He checks with the computer to see if he’s in a simulation. Nope. Dr. M’Benga says Pike is relieved of duty until the ship’s counselor, Dr. Chivers, clears him, and then sends him off.

In his room, Pike scans for any known anomalies. Dr. Chivers (Deidre Hall—who happens to be a star on Days of Our Lives ) comes in. Pike asks about why someone might act melodramatic. Dr. Chivers is instantly annoyed, wanting him to “focus on these tests” because he could be permanently removed from duty.

Suddenly, we cut away and see Pike and Dr. Chivers from different angles on different screens. Someone is watching—and enjoying—every second of it.

Uhura visits Chapel and offers to be a transplant for Spock. She’s not a match, but her DNA did reveal something else. (But see, in the world of soap operas, they don’t tell you right away because they want you to stick around as long as possible.)

Instead, we switch to La’An on a shuttle, returning to the USS Enterprise with the donor for Spock. She removes the black hood from the donor and reveals a man who looks identical to Spock, who is delighting in being part of a fantastic prison break. La’An slaps him and reveals him to be Spock’s half-brother, Sybok.

Meanwhile, Pike is annoyed that Dr. Chivers keeps asking about the short timetable between missions. The ship reports back on Pike’s earlier inquiry and tells him that there are zero anomalous entities. He gets up and heads toward the door when he’s interrupted by Uhura, who says she has to talk to him immediately. “I’m your daughter!” she exclaims. “This is not happening,” Pike bemoans.

Chapel tells Dr. M’Benga that La’An has the donor. Dr. M’Benga is thrilled and tries to prepare, but his hand is shaking fiercely. He takes off before Chapel can notice.

Pike is impatient with Uhura’s admission and wants to know how he could be her father; Uhura lost her family in a shuttle accident years ago. Uhura says she was adopted and never knew her birth parents. All she had was this old recipe book, left with her at the orphanage. She’s convinced that Pike wrote it out for her.

Dr. Chivers invites Uhura to sit and join them.