Brilliant, beautiful, and more bold – we get another episode about Lt Uhura. Fans of “Children of the Comet” from Season 1, the Discovery episode arc featuring Tilly’s schoolmate May Ahearn, and TNG’s “Night Terrors” will instantly be drawn into the story.
The Enterprise is taking charge to setup a dilithium refinery in a stellar nursery near Gorn space, the “shiniest gas station” that will be the “jumping off point for the next great age of exploration.” They also plan to “rip some donuts through the gas cloud”. The biggest bonus?? HELLO HEMMER!!!!
Yes!!! We have Hemmer back!!! Bruce Horak is back both mentoring Uhura in the form of a video recording to walk her through procedures and as a hallucination. In a brief interaction with the new engineer Peila, Uhura’s close bond with Hemmer, who encouraged her to keep pursuing a Starfleet career, is very evident in her awkwardness with Pelia. To her credit, Pelia with a wisdom of centuries understands why Uhura is not as welcoming, since she lost the officer who was arguably her closest and dearest friend.
Enter Zombie Hemmer!!! Holy space whales, this reviewer hit the roof with the transporter scene. Uhura’s hearing a metallic, other worldly sound and then sees the reanimated corpse of our favourite Aenar. Is it a hallucination like M’Benga thinks due to deuterium poisoning and exhaustion or was he really there? She is the “communications officer who can’t communicate what’s wrong” in her own words.
Conflict and more conflict – the two Kirk brothers are together but are not brotherly as things don’t work well within the family and there is jealously and animosity. Spock and Chapel are trying to find a footing with their relationship and how navigate an interspecies pairing within Starfleet and what that relationship is – the chess scene underscores how in some ways this is as complex and challenging the game. Number One and Pelia continually clash over Number One’s no-nonsense “managerial fervour” and Pelia’s reliance on “feelings and smells”. Number One likes protocol and order and “being the smartest person in the room”, while Pelia has a disregard for all the above, “a space hippie”. The root cause, of course, is again, the death of Hemmer and how Pelia replaced him. It is apparent the Enterprise has a Hemmer shaped hull breach. Uhura tries to explain her that her hallucinations are not what the medical team thinks, only to have nobody listen until she strikes James Kirk by accident and he gives her a fair ear and believes her – even before the saboteur is found.
Bruce Horak plays absolutely brilliantly here, and the makeup work is astounding. He doesn’t speak but like May Ahearn in Discovery, he eventually gets his message through to Uhura. There are creatures who are being hurt, in danger of extinction, and are dying from the efforts of the refinery and the harvesting the Enterprise is doing. To be fair, the Enterprise and Starfleet did not go in deliberately to hurt anybody, just like in the Discovery story arc. The parallels are obvious – a close trusted friend appearing, in this case very damaged, to the one person who has the unique experience and ability to eventually understand and communicate the needs of the many to the crew.
The confrontation scene between Lt. Ramone, who is seeing and experiencing the same symptoms, but a different dead friend, and Ensign Uhura, is well written, acted, and choreographed. Fisticuffs occur, Uhura tries to stop his sabotage, but Ramone is absolutely convinced what he is seeing and hearing is real, while Uhura is still not sure herself. Uhura proves herself fairly competent in a fight, but of course is whisked away by Kirk and a timely transport, even as she protests, while Ramone ends up out the airlock.
Speaking of Kirk, Paul Wesley is more of the Kirk we know in this episode. He and La’an share a moment in the hallway, with of course her having knowledge of their past adventure, but he doesn’t. Kirk talks about his father and how his family was dragged all over as his father was “helping those who need it”, which influenced his career, and La’an reassures him that as one helped by Starfleet it is indeed a worthy cause.
Finally Uhura, in a heartfelt talk with Kirk about death in the line of duty and her inability to accept or process the death of Hemmer, has a breakthrough while later rewatching his tutorial videos. In a bold move, she convinces Pike of what is happening and that the deuterium must be vented and refinery destroyed. This is not a small ask. We again see Hemmer the Zombie watching and silently pleading and encouraging her in this endeavour. Once the refinery is destroyed and the deuterium vented, Hemmer appears as we first saw him, and he communicates all is now well with a smile. The episode concludes Sam trying to make peace with his brother, but James is a little too arrogant, and with a meaningful handshake and meeting between Spock and Kirk as he joins Kirk and Uhura in the lounge.
Overall this was an episode that fans demanded a lot from and it delivered. We are seeing more of Lt Uhura which is a fitting continuation of the character and a sign of deep respect for Nichelle Nichols’ groundbreaking portrayal. We see a young James Kirk becoming more the brash, somewhat arrogant, but still good hearted person we met in TOS. Pelia is again an absolute delight to watch as interacts with Una and Uhura, and shows a lot of heart in how she knows how profoundly the loss of Hemmer affected the crew. Most of all, we had Season 1 favourite Hemmer back, and while he doesn’t say a word, except in the tutorials, he is a powerful presence and it’s an amazing performance by a brilliant actor, and he didn’t just pull a Lazarus and resurrect.
FINAL GRADE A+
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