Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns tonight with “What Is Starfleet?“. This week’s affair was directed by Sharon Lewis and written by Kathryn Lyn and Adam B. McElroy. Like many from the show’s past, it’s got a gimmick thrown in to test the limits of the show’s format. This week utilises a documentary format, allowing us to get closer to the characters than ever. But when the Enterprise finds itself embroiled in war, is now the right time to for Beto (Mynor Luken) to finish his movie?
I’ve been a little critical of the political messaging of previous weeks, so it’ll be nice to sit with and interrogate these characters a little. If not to justify, then to at least hold a mirror up to Starfleet’s idealism against what it does in practice. There are numerous ways this can become a classic, much like the many documentary-style episodes of sci-fi series from the past.
WARNING – Massive spoilers below for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 7 “What Is Starfleet?”.
Documentary Filmmaking
It’s an unavoidable fact that the episode is shot like a documentary. It’s a gimmick, and one that gets old quite quickly. The choices of camera angles are just plain weird. Each station on the bridge has a camera angled right into the user’s nostrils. The security camera angles are otherwise on the ceiling, which, besides the impracticality from security, also means we feel terribly far away from the action for a lot of the episode.
The interview segments, which I’ll get into the meat of later, are also questionable. Constantly changing camera angles, never letting the emotional weight of anything the interviewees are saying, really set in. It’s a documentary film that’s desperate to hold the attention of sci-fi genre fans. In the process, it turns away just about every rule in the filmmaker’s toolbox.
Finally, while I acknowledge his presence as a recurring character, using Beto as the filmmaker is a strange choice. Interviewing his own sister almost definitely crosses lines about journalistic ethics. Not only that, but as a storyteller, he feels the need to insert himself into the story to drive the plot forward. It’s a shame, given the relative accuracy and care of other gimmicks, that this episode has thrown caution to the wind.
Classified
The documentary opens with a message that it includes redacted materials from the Starfleet Archives, made available by a Freedom of Information Act request for said materials. Putting aside the AI sound to the voice, it’s an unexpected bit that grounds it in journalistic practice. It’s a shame that the reasons why the Enterprise is helping the Lutani to begin with, is redacted in half a video call.
Further into the classified nature of everything, Beto’s probing as to whether or not the crew had ever killed or broken orders was a rather one-note affair. The first that jumps to mind is the interview with Dr M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), where just about everything he’s done prior to the show’s beginning being classified. They’re the same vague points repeated in the hope that it builds on his character at all, which it doesn’t.
Though the worst example of the episode redacting classified footage is when it switches to some slightly more annoying angles. Through the big action sequences, the camera always feels too far away from the shot’s subject. While there are glimpses of a normal Strange New Worlds episode toward the end, handwaved away by being “drone” footage, they only feel more out of place in what evolves into a found footage movie.
Here There Be Dragons
The episode’s main feature story is a fairly simple one, and by far the least offensive of the season so far. It’s a shame then that it takes a backseat to the episode’s presentation, desperately trying to dull out the mass murder of last week’s episode. Most all this story amounts to is an inversion of the Horta’s “No Kill I” from “Devil in the Dark”. The Jikaru dragon was subject to experiments, stripping it of its natural impulses.
The Lutani are hellbent on turning these impulses into a weapon, but at the cost of a feeling, sentient being. One of the best parts of the episode was the euthanasia debate about the fate of the Jikaru. It’s a somber, thought-provoking plot point. Why it’s wrapped up in a story that spends an awfully long time as a Starfleet recruitment drive is beyond me.
Whilst a sad affair, the last flight of the Jikaru is a great scene. A victim of experiments, it is a new life form, which we see throw itself into the sun. Using the same sun as the first shots, and rolling the end credits over it later, was a lovely way to tie everything together. It’s a shame that the rest of the story wasn’t as clean as this, dragging down the meat of genuinely good Star Trek storytelling.
Doing My Part
The end of the episode sees Beto change his mind about Starfleet. He starts by questioning them as a warfaring, colonial empire. Probing intentions of Starfleet’s manifest destiny, complete with allusions to war crimes. It’s something that makes the episode all the more baffling, that such serious doubts are waylaid by a simple conversation about what Starfleet means to the crew.
Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) does a lovely job talking about her old friend’s death in service. Or how Erica (Melissa Navia) found meaning and discipline in Star Trek. The idea that she died for what she believed in, that Uhura and the rest of the senior officers all serve for much the same reason. A great scene, and the camaraderie really shows through the ending montage.
The big glaring problem is that people being friendly with one another doesn’t negate the crimes they commit together. It’s a nice emotional beat, but it doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny. In finding a positive, agenda-serving message for the end of the film, it’s no surprise that the end of this episode feels more like a Starfleet recruitment drive than a film.
Conclusion
The opening of this episode seems to promise a more critical portrait of Starfleet, especially in wartime. However, the episode ends up feeling content in the status quo, praising Starfleet through a by-the-numbers alien story. The messaging is so all over the place it feels like a military recruitment ad. It’s a disappointing moral turn for the series, one I’m increasingly unsure they’ll manage to dig themselves out of.
We’re now barrelling toward the end of the season with the eighth episode “Four and a Half Vulcans” airing next week. It’s almost a given with the title that this is the episode we saw that special look clip from. Shifting to a more comedic tone after this week is a lot of variety. Although, as has been proven too many times this season, you need to do more than stand out, the episode also needs to be good. Heading to the finale, I’m hopeful.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 premiered on July 17th (2025) and will continue weekly on Paramount+ in the US, UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Japan. It is also available to stream on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe.
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