Warning! The next comprises spoilers from the Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds episode “New Life and New Civilizations.” Stream the episode with a Paramount+ subscription and skim at your individual threat!
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds closed the curtain on Captain Pike and Batel’s relationship, together with her in the end sacrificing herself to forestall the Vezda from escaping into the better universe. The excellent news is that they obtained to stay out an entire lifetime collectively in a pocket actuality, however does this battle with Pike’s eventual ending in The Authentic Collection?
It is a query I needed to ask, after being relieved the Trek collection did not carry again the physique horror parts with the Vezda. Thankfully, co-showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers had the solutions about why they pursued a romance storyline for Pike with Batel, and The Subsequent Era episode they appeared to for inspiration to tug it off.
Why Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Did not Fear About Pike’s Future With Vina
Captain Pike would possibly’ve spent the previous three seasons of Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds in a romantic relationship with Captain Batel, however that is not who he finally ends up with in his restricted appearances within the authentic collection. As followers know, Pike undergoes a horrific coaching accident after handing the Enterprise over to James T. Kirk, and is left with restricted capabilities, confined to a machine, and unable to talk.
In “The Menagerie,” Spock helps his former Captain and delivers him to Talos IV, remembering the planet from their go to within the authentic pilot for Star Trek, “The Cage.” There, Pike could be free from his bodily physique and stay a standard life alongside his love curiosity, Vina, whom he met once they initially visited the planet.
The difficulty now’s that Unusual New Worlds takes place between “The Cage” and “The Menagerie.” As such, it is exhausting to think about Pike is so thrilled about residing out the remainder of his days alongside a girl he had an off-the-cuff fling with as soon as, after residing out a whole lifetime with Batel between these conferences. Akiva Goldsman understood what I used to be getting at and had the next to say relating to why they weren’t too involved with Vina when establishing the Batel storyline for Pike:
I believe the Vina factor is fascinating and it’s clearly architectural by way of canon, though, it’s completely different with the Pike of The Cage and the Pike of The Menagerie. The precise reuse of footage begins to fuck with canon, to be sincere with you. Let’s assume that there’s a lifetime of the thoughts out there for Christopher Pike, after he loses a few of his extra typical perform. If that is the case, we’re not gonna get quite a lot of time to discover that, whether or not it’s Vina or whether or not Vina seems to then be Batel …there are lots of methods one may think about ones oneself into that future, however it’s not one we’re gonna work with.
It is exhausting to argue with that logic, and Goldsman makes a great level. If we will complain about canon, maybe we should always begin with the truth that Star Trek characters are watching footage from a Star Trek episode inside its personal world in “The Menagerie.”
Moreover, with Unusual New Worlds set to finish with Season 5, it does not sound as if the collection will get the prospect to recreate Pike’s ending or change what’s established in TOS (even with a by-product). As such, they opted to work on what they might management, which was a romance established and concluded inside the confines of their present.
Unusual New Worlds Sought Inspiration From The Internal Gentle For Season 3 Finale
Even when Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds wasn’t involved with getting Vina again, it nonetheless needed to play out and resolve the Batel storyline in a approach that did not have her nonetheless round when the unique collection began. So, why even have her within the collection in any respect? Akiva Goldsman defined why the present introduced her into the story, and the way they appeared to The Subsequent Era in an try to shut out the arc between her and Pike:
We, who’re the present stewards of Chris Pike’s expertise, wished him to have real love, and we knew that we did not have a real-time risk of it. In order Henry would say, we, we relied on ‘The Internal Gentle’ construction to provide us a chance to complement him after which, as we’re wont to do, snatch it away from his clinging fingers.
For many who have not seen it, “The Internal Gentle” is mostly thought of among the best episodes of Star Trek: The Subsequent Era. After being put right into a coma by an alien probe, Jean-Luc lives a whole lifetime as a farmer named Kamin, experiencing what life would possibly’ve been like had he by no means been concerned with Starfleet.
It is easy to see how the identical idea was utilized in “New Life and New Civilizations” during which Batel and Pike had been in a position to stay out a lifetime collectively regardless of having little time handed in any respect in the actual world. One would possibly see it merciless, displaying Pike a life he by no means truly had, and would by no means have.
One other would possibly see it as a present, given his destiny is sealed and he would by no means have that life anyway. Even when this encounter with the Vezda by no means occurred, there was by no means a assure that Batel and Pike would final till the fateful day of his life-changing accident. In hindsight, perhaps this was a blessing and an opportunity for him to stay a life he by no means would’ve had in any other case, much like the TNG traditional.
With that episode, Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds remains to be doing post-production on Season 4, and in line with Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, filming on Season 5 is ready to start in late September. For the foreseeable future, the forged and crew have their foot on the gasoline till the collection is completed, so this is hoping they get an opportunity to breathe in between days of capturing and modifying.
Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds Season 3 is now out there to stream in its entirety on Paramount+. This is hoping the look forward to the brand new season does not final too lengthy, and that by this time subsequent 12 months we’re having fun with new episodes of the upcoming Trek season.