RECAP | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 310 - 'New Life and New Civilizations'

In of , when Lieutenant Ortegas crash lands on a deadly toxic moon, where the chances of survival are slim to none, she finds herself stranded and forced to challenge her most closely held beliefs in order to survive alongside a Gorn.

Now, in the Season 3 finale, Episode 10, "," when an ancient, evil alien force that we've faced before — the Vezda — reemerges, Captain Pike must make one of the hardest decisions of his life to stop the evil from spreading.

Captain Marie Batel beams aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, having been cleared to return to active duty as the new Director of the Starfleet Judge Advocate General's Office. Captain Christopher Pike brings her to his cabin, where the rest of the crew joins in a celebration of Batel's promotion. Lt. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott walks into his first captain's table dinner dressed in formal wear and a kilt, eliciting laughs from his friends.

The Enterprise is ferrying Batel back to Earth for her promotion ceremony. Nurse Christine Chapel excuses herself for an incoming communication from Dr. Roger Korby, who is on an expedition in the distant Ba-Dates System. Lt. Spock brings up Cali-Katchna, a phrase the Vezda spoke during its battle with Batel, as it is nearly identical to the name of the city that Korby is visiting on Skygowan.

Built on the belief that the Vezda were gods, the Skygowan city boasts spiritual High Chambers floating above its surface. After establishing trust with High Cleric Zeperez, Korby transports to a chamber's upper level in a bid to understand what he encountered on Vadia IX, as well as the Vezda's so-called immortality.

In the Enterprise's Sickbay, Scotty prepares to shut down the medical transporter so he can run a diagnostic sweep, but he notices odd residual pattern geometries. On Skygowan, the High Cleric states that Zeperez has come to deliver them to the gods. Back in Sickbay, a human pattern belonging to Ensign Dana Gamble — reconstructed from emergency backups — is discovered to have left the ship. In the High Chamber, Zeperez turns to reveal that he has taken Gamble's form!

Pike's senior officers converse in the Ready Room, where they assume the activation of Korby's emergency transponder is connected to the Vezda's whereabouts. Skygowan trades with the Orions and has a population largely hostile to the Federation, so Pike plans to dispatch a covert tactical landing party. Given her negative reaction to the Vezda, Batel feels the need to be on the mission, sensing that she is being pulled towards her destiny.

Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley and Dr. Joseph M'Benga distract the guards at the chamber entrance on Skygowan so Lt. La'An Noonien-Singh can incapacitate them with a . In the Science Lab, Spock and Scotty consult with Commander Pelia and Lt. George "Sam" Kirk about the Vezda's exploitation of inter-dimensional space, which allegedly folds along ley lines — including one that leads right to Skygowan. Scotty surmises these lanes could be "bus routes" for inter-dimensional travel. If true, the Vezda could access the Vadia IX prison from across deep space and unleash its brethren on Skygowan.

Korby reunites with Chapel in the High Chamber, explaining that some of the people on the planet worship the Vezda as if he's a god. The Vezda's followers assemble in the city, voluntarily stabbing their eyes in his name. As Lt. Commander James T. Kirk contacts Pike to inform him that the U.S.S. Farragut is on its way to assist the Enterprise, Ensign Nyota Uhura suggests that away team try to trap the Vezda in one of the orbs from Vadia IX. Korby thinks more containment orbs exist behind the altar, which shockingly displays a verse in Swahili that describes M'Benga's past.

Since M'Benga delivered Gamble to the Vezda that took his body, the doctor theorizes that being here is his destiny. The altar scans M'Benga's face and opens before him, but the Vezda leaps out and takes the doctor through the portal to the Vadia IX prison. The Vezda lashes out at the Beholder — the statuesque figure which has kept the inmates from escaping — but Batel reacts to the strike while still on the Enterprise. Her eyes glowing, Batel's lifesigns are identical to the bio-scan taken of the Beholder, indicating that she is the statue. On Vadia IX, M'Benga realizes that the Vezda needs him alive to get out of the prison, and a quick struggle results in the Vezda falling into another doorway.

Meanwhile, in Sickbay, Batel presumes that her encounters with the Gorn embryos, Una's Illyrian blood, and the Chimera blossom altered her. Factoring in the idea that the Vezda are evil incarnate and the nature of epigenetic responses, Batel submits that — by hybridizing her — she has taken on the adaptive characteristics of the races that have faced such evil. Since inter-dimensional space can place effect before cause, Batel could be the Beholder that has stood sentry for millennia. If true, Batel must defeat the Vezda then stay behind to guard the Vadia IX prison.

A power equivalent to Earth's sun is required to open the Skygowan portal, but a starship's focused phaser blast can only generate half of that. Two ships firing phaser streams of antiprotons in perfect synchronicity will be necessary, so Spock meets with James T. Kirk in the Port Galley. Two pilots must operate together, and Spock wishes to conduct a Vulcan mind meld that will allow he and Kirk to share a consciousness.* Kirk requests Spock not judge a memory involving Orion's second moon, inviting the Vulcan to call him Jim.**

Spock initiates the mind meld, linking himself and Kirk together at the helms of the Enterprise and Farragut, respectively. The starships coordinate their target lock, striking the Skygowan altar and opening its portal.

Batel and Pike enter, stepping onto Vadia IX just as the Vezda breaks out of its doorway and attacks. As Pike looks on, Batel’s hands glow… and suddenly, the two captains are celebrating their two-year anniversary in Pike’s home on Earth. Batel gifts her fiance a “Chef Pike” apron, but a knock at the door reminds Pike that Admiral Robert April wants to talk him into training cadets at Starfleet Academy.

In the next moment, the couple is married with a daughter, readying for Pike's assignment to the Lucas, a Class-J training vessel that they expect will be the scene of his long-awaited accident.*** Another knock, and Batel now finds Pike returning from the training exercise, as the baffle plate never ruptured to inflict any injuries upon him. Batel explains that the thought of losing Pike gave her the power to open the fabric of space and time to fight the Vezda, and perhaps that "reset" everything.

Pike sees a shooting star as another knock rings out, and the captains' next experience involves their adult daughter, Juliet, bringing a guest from the Daystrom Institute to dinner that turns out to be Admiral April's son, Elijah.**** Juliet credits her success to advice from "Uncle Sock," but the young couple is actually there to get Batel and Pike's blessings for their engagement. Another knock, and an elderly Pike sits by Batel's bedside in her final moments, assuring him that she'll always be with him as another shooting star traverses the sky.

Batel states that this lifetime has been a gift, as she needed to have this experience in order to say goodbye.***** Pike heads to answer the door… and finds himself back in the present on Vadia IX. The Vezda frees his brethren, but Batel draws upon her inner light and the love she feels to imprison the Vezda and his comrades once again. Batel transforms into the Beholder statue, assuming her watch over the inmates.

As the people of Skygowan recover from the Vezda's influence, Chapel bids farewell to Korby in the Transporter Room. Korby hands her a scan containing star maps of areas the Federation has never explored.

Spock and James T. Kirk play three-dimensional chess in the Port Galley, sharing information they learned during the mind meld and agreeing to continue their game until the day comes when they might end up serving on the same ship. Spock leaves for a dance lesson with La'An, so Sam takes a seat with his brother.

Number One commiserates with Pike in his quarters, and the captain glances at his cooking apron. As his crew goes about their duties and finds joy in each other's company, Pike hypothesizes that memory is as real as the present and no one we have ever loved is truly gone.

Pike returns to the Bridge, and Spock relays that Korby's Skygowan research has revealed a large number of uncharted planets — enough for a five-year mission. Pike glimpses a shooting star like those he saw in his lifetime with Batel on the viewscreen. Remarking that this is a new future filled with whatever kind of adventure they want, Pike allows Lt. Erica Ortegas to set a course and warp away as fast as she’d like to go.

* "Spectre of the Gun" — Kirk endured another mind meld with Spock in this episode along with another one with Sarek in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, as well as others.

** — Upon his resurrection in the crew's third theatrical outing, Spock remembers that Kirk's name is Jim. In , Kirk insists that Spock used to call him "Jim."

*** "The Menagerie" and "Through the Valley of Shadows" — Captain Pike's future was explored in the Original Series two-parter and .

**** "The Ultimate Computer" — The Daystrom Institute's namesake is Richard Daystrom, who appeared in this Original Series episode.

***** "The Inner Light" — In this classic, Captain Picard endured his own unique experience with an alternate life.