Stardate 1630.1: A joint mission involving the Enterprise and the Cayuga gives Captains Pike and Batel fleeting opportunities for alone time, but the fallout from the recent trial of Pike’s first officer may have permanently damaged their relationship. The Enterprise is called away to Rigel VII, a planet visited by Pike and a landing party five years ago, resulting the deaths of three members of his crew. Recent imagery from an uncrewed probe’s flyby indicates that there may have been some cultural contamination of the warlike local culture, and to put it succinctly, Pike is ordered to clean up his own mess. He hand-picks a small team – La’an and M’Benga – for their ability to handle themselves in close combat without energy weapons, which seems like a good way to blend in until they’re accosted by locals with energy weapons. Pike, La’an and M’Benga are taken to the warriors’ palace, where they find that Pike’s former yeoman – presumed killed in action during that fateful previous mission – is not only alive, but has turned himself into the local warlord. He orders the landing party to be held captive while the planet’s radiation takes effect, robbing them of their inhibitions and eventually their memory.
The same effect is gradually being felt aboard the Enterprise as well, and before long a third of the crew is out of commission, including Uhura and Number One. Spock directs Ortegas to raise the Enterprise‘s orbit to avoid the radiation causing the rampant neurological degradation, unaware that this will only put the ship and crew further into harm’s way. On Rigel VII, a jailbreak leaves La’an critically injured, and while M’Benga can perform basic first aid without thinking, his memory of how to stabilize La’an has left him. With help from one of the locals, Pike sets out to retrieve everyone’s memories at any cost.
written by Kirsten Beyer & Davy Perez
directed by Eduardo Sanchez
music by Nami Melumad
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds main theme by Jeff Russo
Cast: Anson Mount (Captain Christopher Pike), Ethan Peck (Lt. Spock), Jess Bush (Nurse Christine Chapel), Christina Chong (Lt. La’an Noonien Singh), Celia Rose Gooding (Ensign Uhura), Melissa Navia (Lt. Erica Ortegas), Babs Olusanmokun (Dr. M’Benga), Rebecca Romijn (Commander Una Chin-Riley), Reed Birney (Luq), David Huynk (Zac Nguyen), Melanie Scrofano (Captain Batel), Trevor Coll (Afraid Crewmember), Tarek Gader (Shirtless Crewmember), Alex Kapp (USS Enterprise Computer), Noah Lamanna (Chief Jay), Emeka Menakaya (Tiko), Simon Northwood (Rak)
Notes: The events on Rigel VII took place shortly before The Cage (1964), and were the cause of a crisis of self-confidence on Captain Pike’s part in that story, leading him to have thoughts of resigning from Starfleet; previously unrevealed until this episode was that Spock was also critically wounded during that mission. The bronze-age outfits and weaponry (other than the phaser rifles accidentally left behind by the previous Enterprise landing party) all tally with the warrior Pike faced during a Talosian-incuded illusion in The Cage.
LogBook entry by Earl Green