Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One Episode 4: Momento Mori

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season One
Episode 4: Momento Mori

Momento Mori

Starfleet Remembrance Day is a cool idea for a Starfleet day of celebration.  Also the memorial pins worn by the crew are kinda neat.  The massacre aftermath on the planet is quite bloody, but no more graphic than other modern trek.  The Enterprise connects to the colony ship with a docking tube.  A similar one was seen in Discovery season 2.  This episode introduces the Gorn as the "big baddie" of this series, which is interesting but also questionable as far as keeping with established canon.  We get to see a lot of the Enterprise in combat in this episode, essentially for the entire episode.  Uhura and Hemmer trapped in engineering gives the opportunity for plenty of character growth for both characters.  The strategizing by the crew, the "hide and seek" submarine warfare in the gas giant and later the black hole between the Enterprise and the Gorn is reminiscent of TOS "Balance of Terror".  The shuttlecraft being the Galileo NCC-1701/7 is a nice nod to TOS.  Also we get to see a Vulcan mind meld for the first time in this series, and we the mind meld from the inside.  Cool.  Pike's voice when he thought he'd lost Hemmer and Uhura and palpable relief on his face when Uhura responded over the comm channel-wow!  Great acting from Anson Mount.  Overall, the acting, story, and emotion: a great episode.