Typically you simply know. As quickly because the Borg confirmed up within the second season of “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology”, it was clear they had been a foe in contrast to anything we would encountered on the ultimate frontier. Certain, they dressed like they’d simply stepped out of a PG-friendly fetish membership, however their utilitarian cubic ships, all-for-one hive thoughts, and superior arsenal ensured that — inside the house of a single episode (“Q Who”) — they’d catapulted themselves into the A-list of Trek’s rogues’ gallery. They did not even must say or do very a lot to get there.
A 12 months later, they assimilated Jean-Luc Picard in “The Best of Both Worlds” and greater than justified the hype to grow to be the Enterprise’s strongest and chilling enemy. It was a standing they retained till they had been downgraded into villains-for-hire in “Voyager”.
“Trek” has produced some memorable antagonists since, in fact — the Dominion had been worthy adversaries for the Federation all through “Deep Space Nine“, Annorax’s timeline tinkering made “12 months of Hell” certainly one of “Voyager”‘s best ever stories, and evil Mirror Universe doppelganger Captain Lorca introduced unlikely ranges of villainy to “Discovery”‘s bridge. However has anybody — or factor — had the potential to relax the blood (purple, inexperienced or in any other case) fairly just like the so-called “Vezda lifeform” in “By means of the Lens of Time”, the jobs & education episode of “Unusual New Worlds”?
Pike’s Enterprise has already had some memorable skirmishes with the “Gorn“, who’d been “Unusual New Worlds”‘ most formidable unhealthy guys up to now. However, regardless of their spectacular computer-generated makeover — together with prehensile tails and a gory, “Alien”-inspired reproductive cycle — they’ve sure limitations.
It isn’t their fault, simply the truth that present canon means they’re destined to cross paths with Captain Kirk within the Authentic Collection episode “Enviornment”. There, the Enterprise crew will probably be unusually unaware of an enemy that had induced Starfleet no finish of trouble only a few years earlier. That is presumably why season 3 opener “Hegemony, Half 2” put the troublesome reptiles into indefinite hibernation, side-stepping any subsequent fan-bothering contradictions.
There will be no such downside with “Unusual New Worlds”‘ jobs & education antagonists, nevertheless. This extra-terrestrial creature fulfills the little bit of the Starfleet mission transient about looking for out new life, they usually’re a radical departure from the Federation’s conventional “people with one thing caught to their brow” foes. Actually, we do not but know what they actually seem like, past amorphous, non-corporeal fuel. Nonetheless, it is clear that they are harmful sufficient for an historical alien race to assemble a jail of such devious complexity that it is piqued the curiosity of interstellar archaeology nerd Roger Korby.
The as-yet-nameless Vezda lifeform would not be a lot cop as baddies if their jail — the place dimensions cross over, and regular ideas of trigger and impact are turned the other way up — was sufficient to carry them. Their escape plan is predicated round that outdated cliché of focusing on the rookie on his first away mission. So when enthusiastic Ensign Gamble inadvertently opens the sentient Poké Ball of Doom (our description), a strong burst of power burns out his eyes, leaving him with ugly empty sockets, and an undesirable visitor in his mind.
This demon, for need of a greater phrase, appears to relish tormenting individuals. Dr M’Benga’s efforts to regenerate Gamble’s eyes show fruitless, as he is left to guess how a lot of his protégé’s persona stays. There are early hints that the younger officer’s unconscious could also be preventing again, however when Captain Batel — supercharged with feral Gorn DNA — battles the Gamble entity, it is clear that the interloper in his thoughts is profitable.
And by the point M’Benga confirms that Gamble’s mind is lifeless, it is clear any echoes of the person he was are merely an phantasm, that his “favourite ensign”‘s physique is simply the puppet of a malign pressure — albeit a puppet that is developed a penchant for studying minds, homicide, and strolling by means of forcefields.
Chief engineer Pelia in the end has little choice however to blast Gamble with a phaser, realizing that Scotty is poised to recapture the escaping entity within the aforementioned Poké Ball, earlier than imprisoning it within the transporter sample buffer. They’re effectively conscious that their undesirable visitor is hellbent on taking on the Enterprise to free its brethren from the planet under.
The monsters are undeniably spinoff, from the “Dice”-meets-“Hellraiser” nature of their jail to the lifeform tormenting M’Benga as if it was Pazuzu toying with a priest in “The Exorcist”. An excellent clearer affect is “Physician Who”‘s “The Unattainable Planet” / “The Devil Pit” two-parter, by which an imprisoned facsimile of the satan tried to make use of thoughts management to interrupt itself out of jail.
“Star Trek” would not historically dabble within the supernatural, nevertheless, and the newcomers in “By means of the Lens of Time” provide a uncommon alternative to discover the character of excellent and evil. Because the centuries-old Pelia places it, “This factor is older than something I’ve ever seen. I’ve no scientific approach of placing this, however no matter it’s, it provides me the heebie-jeebies.” [Cue scary music.]
The Vezda lifeform is a fantastical supernatural creature constructed on strong sci-fi foundations, and this creepy crossover with darkish “magic” has the ability to scare in a approach alien spacecraft firing phasers typically cannot. Certainly, the Borg’s legendary standing has at all times owed as a lot to their zombie-like starvation to rob the assimilated of their individuality as their superior technological may. It is horror in sci-fi clothes.
The excellent news for “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” — if not a lot the crew — is that Gamble’s loss of life is unlikely to imply the top for this new menace. Simply as Picard’s realization that the Borg “will probably be coming” left a lingering sense of unease on the finish of “Q Who”, a last shot of a flickering Enterprise pc panel suggests a ghost stays within the machine.
That stated, if this really is unfinished enterprise, Pike and co are working out of time to cope with “Star Trek”‘s jobs & education boogeymen — with no file of the lifeform’s existence in any of the franchise’s earlier mission logs, the “Unusual New Worlds” crew should get this file closed earlier than they make their last voyage on the finish of season 5.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” debut on Paramount+ on Thursdays. “The Subsequent Technology” episodes “Q Who” and “The Better of Each Worlds” can be found on Paramount+ within the US, and Paramount+ and Netflix within the UK.