Strange New Worlds Season 3 has some of the most nasty gores in the story of Star Trek
Be careful, captain! This article contains spoilers For “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” season 3, episode 1, “Hegemony, Part II”.
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” season 2 ended with a massive cliffhanger, and “Hegemony, Part II” is responsible for solving things as well as possible. The Gronn are such a powerful threat that Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew can only mark a technical blow – and even then, they must exploit the literal power of the stars to manipulate the Hibernation Cycle Gorn. As Pike says, it just creates an even greater problem for someone later.
The heart of “hegemony, Part II”, however, is not the danger of a large -scale attack against the Federation. After all, the place of the program in the chronology of the franchise confirms that this threat will be thwarted. Instead, the most impactful moments in the episode describe Gorn’s effect on individual characters, and the series uses a surprising quantity of gore to illustrate the danger.
Indeed, Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Spock’s attempts (Ethan Peck) to treat the egg infection of Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano) are accompanied by a macabre visual of the said infestation bubbling behind her back. The fate of Gorn takes away Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannette), Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and the Noonian Singh (Christina Chong) is no less visceral. In addition to the revelation that the pods they (and other captives) are trapped in the form of a sort of massive food system, it has already digested partially digested pieces – including a few fingers of Ortega. With Slime, Gore and Grim injuries in Gogo, “Hegemony, Part II” is a revelation of the eyes that the spectator wonders how the excellent “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” intends to kiss such visuals.
Star Trek likes to become horrible on occasion
In general, “Star Trek” treats its arcs of history as puzzle boxes that can be resolved with intellect and diplomacy instead of exploding. This does not mean that “Star Trek” shows are not full of action, of course – they are absolutely. However, the action in the various programs and films is generally of the relatively family variety of “confrontations of space and hair”, and the emphasis is always placed on the search for a peaceful solution.
That said, the franchise is not afraid to be cautious in the wind and to embrace visual wickedness when the situation requires. Part of what makes “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” so effective, after all, is the way he continues to establish moments of Khan (Ricardo Montalban), bloody moments of the staff of the Regula I, of the ear burneuse of Peter Preston (Ike Eisenmann).
TV shows are not exempt from such moments either. The torture scenes of the “Star Trek: The Original Series” season 3 of season 3 “The Empath” prohibited it in the United Kingdom for 30 years. However, perhaps the most infamous example – that even “hegemony, part II” cannot touch – is “Star Trek: The Next Generation” season 1, episode 25. Entitled “Conspiracy”, the episode (which could not go beyond British censors) revolves around the parasites that take control of the bodies of people after having crawled in their mouths. About all the special effects of this episode are horrible, but nothing compared to the grand finale where Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) literally explode the host of the Mother Parasite, Dexter Remimick (Robert Schenkkan), with their phasers. The sequence and its unpleasant consequences would not be out of words in a horror film.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” on Thursdays on Paramount +.
