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This is a standalone episode in classic Star Trek: The Original Series style, but a bit grittier. In fact, it’s a rehash of the episode “Arena” (ST:TOS s1e18), which is the Gorn episode. It gets us back on track for the Gorn story arc, which disappeared for most of the season. We’ll see where the final episode this season takes us.
The usual Star Trek tropes fall in place to set the stage: there’s a gravimetric anomaly, Erica (Melissa Navaro) flies a shuttle which should be safe, but then a wormhole pops up and she gets sucked through and all comms are disrupted. Surprise!
She crashes on a planet that will soon be destroyed. Then? She discovers a crashed Gorn ship with a Gorn pilot. Erica hates the Gorn, more than most, because of the war. But the Gorn saves her life from giant space centipedes. The Gorn shares food and some trust-building happens. When the Gorn gets injured saving Erica’s life a second time, she treats its wound. Or I should say “her” wound. The Gorn pilot is female. The two female pilots bond and become friends.
See where Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ranks in our top 100 shows to watch now.
The parallels with Kirk’s encounter with the Gorn 58 years in Arena ago are obvious. The Original episode is about the two primitive species – a Human and a Gorn – fighting each other to the death at the behest of the Metrons, who are yet-another space god race that wants to judge humanity. Instead of a fight, this episode (Terrarium) is about a Human and a Gorn working together to survive and escape. The episode largely works, but the climax and resolution, while understandable, is also disappointing. We’ve seen ST:SNW try to “humanize” the Gorn here and there, and this was the episode to do that.
I haven’t spoiled any of the two twists in the plot and it is a classic Star Trek episode structurally, so worth a watch for fans of NuTrek and OriginalTrek.
The writers are not doing a good job working their way out of the corner they’ve written themselves into which makes the Gorn a confusing adversary. If the Federation has had a bloody war with the Gorn and everyone on the Enterprise knows about the Gorn – including Spock and Uhura, maybe even Scotty – why does no one recognize them later when Kirk and the Enterprise encounter them? Will everyone forget that Erica built one-way translator for English to Gorn?
NerdScore
6.5/10
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s3e09) Terrarium Review
Terrarium channels the spirit of classic Trek with a grittier twist, pairing a human and a Gorn in an unlikely survival story. It expands the Gorn arc with intriguing parallels, though the ending leaves some questions unresolved.
Episode 9 of Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, continuing the adventures of Captain Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise as they navigate new frontiers.
IMDb
7.6/10
Metacritic
NA/100
Rotten Tomatoes
NA
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck (Actors)
- Chris Fisher (Director) - Davy Perez (Writer) - Alex Kurtzman (Producer)
1 Comment
I really enjoyed this episode! I have been annoyed with Erica recently because of how precious she is with her bro and the cocky pilot stuff, so this episode was great for giving her more depth. Thanks for the insights into TOS, which is my least watched Star Trek series.