Review of 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' 1.9

An excellent, powerful episode 1.9 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds up on Paramount Plus this past Thursday, which can only be described as momentous. Here's why:

[Big spoilers ahead ... ]

1. Hemmer sacrifices himself. And though the way that came to be was evocative and soul-wrenching, I'm sorry it happened. He was a great character. Real personality and somehow new in the Star Trek universe, which has given us Andorians before but no one quite like Hemmer. I hope somehow he comes back.

2. La'an is not permanently gone, but she'll be off the show for a while, or at least an episode or two. That's too bad, too -- though her reason makes perfect sense.

3. What Uhura has been through is enough to make her stay on the Enterprise. Ok, that's something I'm unreservedly very happy about.

4. Spock nearly loses control, and Chapel explains to him that that's only human. More important than what she said, they hug. That's only human, too, and good to see.

Stepping back a bit, those Gorn are a nasty species, and certainly causing ours a lot of big trouble in SNW. They did elicit a good phrase from Pike -- "watch your six". The courteous explanation of what that means is watch what's behind you. Watch your ass is more to the point.

But one thing I didn't particularly like: Sam Kirk as jackass. I don't like seeing any Kirk come across like that, but I'm willing to see where SNW goes with that.

See you back here next week with my review of the next episode.