Ad Astra Per Aspera

Strange New Worlds, the latest manifestation in the Star Trek franchise adds Una Chin-Riley to the menagerie of USS Enterprise Commanders to face court-martial.

The bar is high when it comes to these right of passage episodes, indeed, they may be the measure of success of any Trek series, so this one had to reach for the stars and boy does it get there. The only disappointment is I can't score it more than 10.

Not a phaser fired, a warp drive engaged, or a new alien encountered - yet this will surely be rated as one of THE greatest Trek episodes of all time.

Outstanding writing, clever plot, and a brilliant understanding of Trek law. Starfleet may not be perfect, but this episode probably is.

I agree with the decision to not open with this episode as it is 100% talking and the general audience does need a more action oriented episode to start off the season with.

With this episode we get to see the core philosophies of Gene Roddenberry's world questioned and held up against itself.

There is a danger in allowing oneself to come to the belief that the reasons for your decisions are absolute and shouldn't be requestioned, that's exactly what this episode brought to the modern iteration of Star Trek in a way that Discovery constantly faltered.

The question every Starfleet officer should ask themselves is are my actions in line with the intent of the law, not just the word of it.

It was wordy, but within those words was a well thought out story that hit to the core of what many of us believe Star Trek is.

Have watched Star Trek since the TOS in the 60's. Loved it , also TNG and DS9 in particular.

Loved the "Measure of the Man" with Data story in TNG. The court case in the Menagerie was also a brilliant episode (2) .

This is a really good episode , personally I always like a good courtroom drama. Good storyline and acting. All the ensemble contributes well and overall I would rate it a very strong episode.

I've read some negative reviews , which being honest puzzle me. I hate all the negativity , not really sure what people expect.

I really prefer New Worlds to Star Trek Discovery and am looking forward to the next few episodes.

Pike's first introduction to Star Trek was in the famous courtroom episode Menagerie so it's appropriate that SNW should do a standout courtroom episode of its own.

This was really written in the style of a lawyer show, with a lawyer depicted as being smart and eloquent in defending her client, even if she has misgivings about said client.

The details of the case seem plausible as an example of future jurisprudence. I was a bit skeptical that the Vulcan admiral would really be allowed to ask the defendant a question to implicate someone else (Pike). Shouldn't that be done in an independent investigation outside the courtroom? But that was the only questionable detail.

I also appreciated that Uhura actually refused to go along with an illegal command. Imagine that, crew members behaving professionally! But mainly this episode stood out for depicting how this crew has jelled as a team, as friends, and as a family,

However, I don't think the theme of "genetic modifications are perfectly okay" is going to stand up too long. Even in DS9's time, long after SNW, it was still a taboo. So I figure there's another shoe that's going to drop, maybe not till next season.

Up to this episode I was not a great fan of that franchise, though I like Pike very much, he is just the person I would have appreciated much more as the Captain of the Enterprise in TOS than Kirk, 40 years ago, when I was young.

However, this is for me the first grown-up episode, and it isn't an accident that "The Orville" had a similar intriguing episode about gender identity in its 3rd season (completing a story arc that begun in season one with a failed trial).

Here, everything is laid out in a very easy setting and, since court cases are a big part of everyday's life in the U. S., it is made with the uttermost diligence in pacing and dialogue. Not a minute was wasted as a filler or surplus backstory.

Very impressive, I must say, and the only point that I have against it, is what someone here wrote in a review. Technically, the right approach for defence would be that the violated law itself is not only against Federation's principles and "bad", but indeed unconstitutional, and therefore void.

8 Stars for a very good and mature episode.

As an afterword to all fellow reviewers who are complaining about wokeness - please change your mind or stop watching Star Trek before you can manage to progress into a sentiment that agrees with what Star Trek stands for. If anything, diversity is one of the core agreements in this universe, and Roddenberry himself introduced it with the famous Uhura kiss half a century before.