Star Trek traded phasers for fear this week, and Starfleet rules for desperation. In “Shuttle to Kenfori” the crew risks everything for one person, and what they run into is a threat more terrifying than war.
This is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 3, episode 3, “Shuttle to Kenfori,” and it pulls no punches. Pike, M’Benga, a dangerous cure, Klingon vengeance, and some of the creepiest visuals the show has ever given us.
A Captain Who Isn’t Thinking Like One
The episode opens with Pike and M’Benga flying into forbidden Klingon space, alone, in a shuttle, on an unsanctioned mission. Because Strange New Worlds.
No, I actually really dug this opening. It’s very Star Trek, in that there’s a situation and they have to go solve it. The situation is Batel. Her Gorn cells are coming back, they’re coming back stronger than ever, and somebody has to figure out a solution. So what do they do? They find out there’s this rare flower that maybe, potentially, has all of the answers they need, and they have to go get it for her if she’s going to survive.
Yeah. What could possibly go wrong.
Right off the bat we see Pike at his most personal. This is about her. It’s about Batel. He’s risking war, his command and his own life for her, and it’s love and guilt wrapped into actions. Pike’s romanticism is usually idealistic, but here it comes across as reckless. He’s thinking like someone who’s scared of watching the person he loves die, and you don’t get much more personal than that.
Trek Meets Aliens
While they’re dodging asteroids, there’s a Klingon signature that isn’t supposed to be there. It turns out to be some sort of communications buoy. It could also be a warning, specifically about space mines, a holdover from the war, that kind of thing.
So they land near an abandoned research station and we quickly realize something’s wrong. The team that used to be here, they’re dead, which we already knew, they should be gone. Some are partially decomposed. Some of them are still twitching inside the base.
That’s when things get really grim, fast. The walls are scorched, the supplies are looted, and there’s a whole lot of evidence of something moss based that seems to be infecting everyone, causing extreme hunger and madness. This is where the horror tone kicks in. This is Trek meets Aliens. No transporters, no scans, and worst of all, no one knows that they’re there.
Then there’s the reveal, and for me this was the actual deep part. The station was experimenting with genetically engineered moss in order to feed populations. Sounds reasonable. It backfired and caused neurological collapse. Klingons, humans and other species infected with the moss became ravenous, aggressive, and ultimately brain dead. Hence no life signs.
M’Benga diagnoses the infection while he’s bleeding himself, and he discovers that these reanimated beings don’t register as life forms. Classic Trek loophole, total horror twist. The zombies don’t ping on sensors, which explains why no rescue ever came.
Biological fungus zombies feels like a nod to The Last of Us. It’s a completely practical idea that The Last of Us uses to great advantage, and Trek does a pretty good job of co-opting that storyline. But the lift is noticeable. Either way, this is pure nightmare fuel.
The Past Shows Up With a Knife
As if that wasn’t enough, a rogue Klingon team arrives, and their leader is Bytha. Yeah. Daughter of Ambassador Dak’Rah, the Klingon killed by M’Benga in season 2.
Oh yeah, it’s her. The moment she appears, the tension shifts. Her grievance is deeply personal, and no amount of zombies is going to keep her from her revenge. Bytha blames M’Benga for a betrayal of honor. It’s a callback to the trauma he’s been carrying in silence since season 2, and now that past has arrived with a d’k tahg. That’s the Klingon knifey thing.
Trapped, wounded and now surrounded, the survivors hunker down in the old research facility. Specifically, they have to get up onto the roof, because that’s where there’s a communications array they may be able to use to signal the Enterprise, or potentially Bytha’s shuttle. That’s also where the duel has to happen. Right in the middle of all this zombie fighting, there’s a duel.
Do We Have Time for This
So what happens when you’re stuck on a roof surrounded by zombies? Well, of course, Bytha demands Mauk-to’Vor, which is trial by combat.
“Joseph, don’t do this.” “Find your way off this forsaken planet and get the flower to Batel.” “There has to be another way.” “Enough. It is time for one of us to die.” “I am ready to face my destiny. Are you?”
But what else are you going to do? It’s one of the tensest knife fights I think we’ve had in Trek. It’s very raw, personal, and ultimately fueled by pain.
It’s also one of the goofiest “do we have time for this” moments I think I’ve ever seen in a show. The whole time I’m watching this thing I’m going, we’re going to do this? Like, this is what we’re doing? Seriously? Okay.
M’Benga wins. And what does he do? He spares her life.
“No, you cannot forfeit.” “Too late. I do not need the monster today.”
That moment lands. Bytha expects death. Instead she gets compassion. True honor. She doesn’t see it that way, but this is M’Benga’s turning point. He finally stops hiding behind the past and acts on his own code. That mercy speaks louder than any strike. Or as he says, I don’t need the monster today.
Ortegas Is Not Okay
Back in orbit, Ortegas is insubordinate. That’s the nice, polite way of saying it. But brilliant. She proposes an atmospheric warp maneuver to beam them out. Number One had gone a different route, but Ortegas gave her no choice and forced her hand, provoking her into having to act. Number One is, suffice it to say, furious.
This is the second time Ortegas has taken wild risks for the people she loves. She’s not okay, especially after the Gorn, and that’s going to come back. This was a mini character arc for her. We’re watching her bend protocol more and more, and eventually she’s going to snap. I’m convinced we’re going to lose her eventually, which would ultimately pave the way for Sulu.
A Betrayal Dressed as Love
The scene with Batel and Pike at the very end, when they’re talking, is the emotional gut punch. Pike saved her life, but he didn’t trust her choice. It’s a betrayal dressed as love.
And I’ve got a theory about where it goes. This is exactly how I believe we eventually get the human hybrid that we see later in TOS. Oh yeah, mark my words. Something’s going to happen. It’s a continuing thread, and what we’re going to end up seeing is Batel having to go full hybrid. Whether she leaves, steals a shuttle (because that’s a thing that happens in Star Trek all the time) and goes off to Gorn space to become a new Gorn hybrid queen, who knows.
The Verdict
Strange New Worlds “Shuttle to Kenfori” lands at an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
It’s top tier horror. Absolutely emotionally complex, gorgeously shot. The episode asks big questions, but Batel’s perspective could have had more weight throughout as far as I’m concerned, especially given the show’s runtime. So for me, that puts it square at an eight and a half.
Your turn. Was Pike right to do whatever it took to save Batel, or did he cross a line? Should she have thought better of it? Do you see this going where I think it’s going? And did you notice how Scotty got a little bit of runtime all by himself, because Pelia doesn’t like meetings, so she left him to it? Yeah, so did I. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
