Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 6 - Lost in Translation

This week focuses on Lieutenant Uhura as she experiences hallucinations that only she can see. There are only 4 more episodes left this season so things will be coming to a close for a while as not only the writers guild of America but also the screen actors guild is in a strike on topics ranging from AI likeness to residuals. It will likely delay things by a year for season 3.

Recap

The Enterprise is sent to Bannon's Nebula on the edge of explored space to where stars are born. It is noted that the refinery is on the edge of Gorn space and claiming the area and setting it up to be a jumping off point for future exploration would help keeping the Gorn in check. They are there to get a new deuterium fuel collector up and running as it has been behind schedule. Upon arriving to the nebula, Uhura starts to hear a droning sound and it is noted she has been low on sleep for the past 10 days. She has her first hallucination, seeing the corpse of Henner and is believed to have a mild case of deuterium poisoning that is causing her to have hallucinations. The USS Faragut has a rendevous with the Enterprise and soon to be First officer James Kirk is introduced to us and formally meets everyone. They explore the refinery and determine that a person, Saul Ramon, has been sabotaging the fuel station. It is later learned he has been having the same hallucinations as Uhura. She and Jim Kirk meet up with his brother, Sam Kirk and come to the conclusion that the hallucinations were a result of communication attempts from extra-dimensional life forms that are being killed when the deuterium is consumed. Captain Pike makes the decision to destroy the refinery.

Uhura Hallucinations

1st hallucination droning signal starts right as Enterprise starts to collect deuterium
2nd hallucination corpse of Henner
3rd hallucination crash site with smoke on planet (later revealed to be the shuttle craft accident where her family dies)
4th hallucination everyone dead on the ship due to Uhura (holding a knife)
5th hallucination cracked screen everyone on bridge pulled into space
6th hallucination (?) in sick bay saul ramon looks at uhura and runs off
7th hallucination (?) with kirk in dark hallway but no hallucination just droning signal
8th hallucination Uhura shown the wreckage of a shuttle craft
9th hallucination did not have the sound effects, shows a corpse of Henner again
10th hallucination did not have the sound effects, shows a happy Henner

Uhura, as language specialist pieces all this together before the 8th hallucination to translate that she is being told that the extra-dimensional life forms are trapped in or through the deuterium and that refining it kills people that are dear to them. After this discovery, the droning sound is no longer heard for her hallucinations which could be due to an intentional signal from the species or if by figuring it out the sound disappears as part of translation.

Interesting tidbits

Scientific theories

Occum's Razor and Schroedinger's cat are both discussed in the bar with Spock.
Deuterium is used in this episode. It is a heavy hydrogen containing and extra neutron as compared with Hyrogen and is used by starships as fuel.

Major Characters of focus in this week's episode

Lt. Nyota Uhura - reveals she saw her parents and brother died in a shuttle accident and had trouble dealing with it and buried it.
Lt. James T. Kirk - Meets Uhura, Spock and La'an for the first time. Her meetings with Uhura and Spock are natural and with La'an feels forced. He ends up at the bar having a scotch when he boards the Enterprise.
George Kirk Sr, First officer of the USS Kelvin - briefly mentioned, James and Sam's father.
Una Chin-Riley, First officer - Has weird tension with Pelia which is later revealed to be due to the loss of Hemmer.
Pelia, Lanthanite, Chief of Engineering - has several lifetimes of real world experience and at least a lifetime's worth of starfleet experience. Una asks her why her rank is not higher if being in Starfleet for so long which seems to bother her.
Spock - shows his adjustment to a possible relationship with Nurse Chapel.
Nurse Chapel - convinces Spock to let the relationship bloom
Captain Pike - strangely steals the spotlight whenever he's in a scene. He truly comes across as a caring father figure for the crew. He is given temporary Fleet command for this episode.
Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh, Chief of Security - takes more of a back seat role in this episode, seems to close the door on a possible relationship with Kirk.

Trivia

The Bannon Nebula was named to honor Melissa Navia's (who plays Erica Ortega) late partner Brian Bannon.

Analysis

An interesting and enjoyable episode. It does its purpose of giving the characters more depth without giving too much time to each other than Uhura who has a good amount of the episode dedicated to her. Nonetheless, we get a sense for the feel of Jim Kirk, Uhura and Spock, as important as they are in Star Trek canon and lesser characters are given less time. Spock and Nurse Chapel's relationship is given a chance to blossom,  La'an and a possible relationship with Kirk appears to fade away. However the story of the Gorn threat still remains.

As of now, the episodes of Season 2 appear to be a bunch of barely related episodes in regards to an over-arching plot As this is closer to the original series and next generation style of writing, this appears to be intentional.

Lingering Plot Lines

• The Gorn attack ship as shown in episode 1
• The time travel episode 3 seemed pretty random, will there be more to it?
• Eventually Spock and Nurse Chapel must break up
• What about Spock's half-brother, Sybok?

Links to other episode reviews

Season 2 Episode 4 - Among the Lotus Eaters
Season 2 Episode 5 - Charades
Season 2 Episode 6 - Lost in Translation
Season 2 Episode 7 - Those Old Scientists
Season 2 Episode 8 - Under the Cloak of War