STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Recap: (S01E03) Ghosts of Illyria

Avery Kaplan

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The Away Team leaves the Illyrian colony on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Ghosts of Illyria."

Number One and the secrets of the Illyrian take center stage in the third episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Ghosts of Illyria.” The episode was written by Akela Cooper & Bill Wolkoff and directed by Leslie Hope

We open on the USS Enterprise arriving at Hetemit IX, a planet swept by an ion storm. In voiceover, a First Officer’s log recorded by Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) for Stardate 1224.3 notes that the planet is the site of an abandoned Illyrian colony. Una explains that Illyrians are a humanoid species that modified their genetic code to augment their levels of function. The behavior labeled them outcasts among the Federation, which has outlawed the alteration of genes. 

Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Captain Pike (Anson Mount) look out the window of the Illyrian lab on SNW.
Photo Cr: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

The Enterprise has been dispatched to Hetemit IX to investigate what happened to the vanished Illyrian colonists. Thanks to the approaching ion storm, the crew has a limited amount of time on the surface. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) assigns Una the task of leading the away team back to the Enterprise. Meanwhile, he heads off to locate Spock (Ethan Peck), who can’t be reached by communicator.

“Ghosts of Illyria”

Elsewhere, Ensign Lance (Daniel Gravelle) investigates some beakers when Pike calls him. Lance leaves to head to the rendezvous point as the camera lingers on the beakers and portentous music (scored by Nami Melumad) plays.

As the away team attempts to beam back to the Enterprise, Chief Kyle (André Dae Kim) has difficulty getting a lock on them due to the storm. The away team finally beams up, but Kim is losing them. He contacts Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who calmly reroutes energy in order to facilitate transport. 

RELATED: Who’s Who – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Enterprise Crew

Pike locates Spock, but the storm has arrived and it’s too late for them to beam up. Una advises them to find shelter and wait out the storm.

Two teams

Una arrives on the Enterprise bridge. As the ranking officer, she issues orders to the crew to conduct their jobs as usual while they await the return of Pike and Spock. Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) apprises her of the situation: they cannot contact Spock and the Captain on the surface due to the ion storm. There’s nothing to do but wait.

On Deck Fourteen, Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) encounters Lance. He has begun to disrobe and is fixated on a light fixture. A bemused Ortegas dismisses the lower decker (“Whatever tweaks your freak, pal”) and is about to pass him by. But he smashes his head through the pane, causing her to leap to his assistance and call security.

Una is in her quarters, and the light fixtures have begun to catch her attention. She orders the computer to increase illumination and is beginning to really get into it. Then her body glows red. The red light subsides, and Una contacts Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) to inquire about the rest of the away team. He informs her that several have strange symptoms, asking her to report to medical for examination.

Lights On

As Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) examines another away team member, M’Benga updates Una on the situation. Half of them have been burned on sources of illumination, yet they seem to only be calmed by exposure to light.

When asked by M’Benga, Una lies and says she hasn’t experienced any of the same symptoms. She deflects by asking if he’s found any source of contagion. M’Benga notes the transporter biofilters would have caught that. However, he checked anyway (nothing) and only found a deficiency in vitamin D. Una’s vitamin D levels are normal, and M’Benga takes a blood sample from her.

Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) draws blood from Una (Rebecca Romijn) on SNW.
Photo Cr: Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

Una grills Hemmer about the biofilters and the possibility that the ion storm might have affected their efficacy. Hemmer notes that the ship’s recent upgrades mean that the transporters are networked for emergency power. Plus, there are discrete systems that do the same for the biofilters and pattern stabilizers. He nevertheless agrees to run a shipwide level five diagnostic to appease Number One. 

Contracted

Pike finally manages to get a signal through, and Una warms him that the away team may have been exposed to something before they lose the signal. Una heads to the ready room and tells the computer (Alex Kapp) to show files on Illyrian genetic modification. She isolates information pertaining to the original Illyrian settlement on the Valtera Nebula. 

Security Chief La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) enters and asks if Una thinks the situation pertains to the Illyrians. La’an gives voice to one of the reasons cited by the Federation for outlawing genetic engineering: unexpected consequences. That might look like the situation being experienced by the away team. Una cites the Eugenics Wars and observes that La’an must know all about that, considering Khan Noonien-Singh was her ancestor.

La’an says that being made fun of for her last name was the worst thing that happened to her (before Gorn attacked her family). But that’s when La’an begins displaying the light-fixation symptoms. Though she wasn’t part of the landing party, she did come into contact with Lance. M’Benga recommends a full lockdown, and Una issues the order.

Illyrian Storm

On Hetemit IX, Pike and Spock are confined to a library as the storm rages outside. Spock has accessed some of the files and reveals that this particular group of Illyrians wished to join the Federation and were attempting to “de-engineer” themselves in order to join. Outside the library, the pair observes some unfamiliar fire entities.

Pike (Anson Mount) wearing a jacket over his uniform and standing in front of the library canisters on the Illyrian colony.
Photo Cr: Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

On the Enterprise, Uhura awakes to her roommates burning themselves on a simulation of the sun. In medical, Chapel notes fifty more crew members are displaying symptoms. Using contact tracing, they can ascertain that certain people contracted the condition from others but cannot explain how Uhura would remain immune. Hemmer arrives in the process of his diagnosis and approaches the emergency medical transporter. This generates protests from M’Benga. 

In the library, Pike and Spock are threatened by one of the fire entities. They move to block the door to prolong their attempts at ingress.

Meanwhile, Una works closely with Uhura to determine that she was in total darkness while sleeping. In medical, she shares her finding with M’Benga: the “infection” travels via light. They concoct a plan to turn off the lights on the Enterprise and keep the “light addicts” sedated.

Investigation

Back in the ready room, Una is accessing files about Illyrian genetic modifications related to disease control, revealing images that bear a striking resemblance to the “red light” reaction she experienced earlier. She’s interrupted by an alert about a blackout override in the transporter room. 

Una finds Hemmer attempting to sate his thirst for light by transporting a ten thousand degree portion of Hetemit IX’s mantle onto the Enterprise. She has to stun him to stop him from succeeding, and she then carries him to medical.

Pike pulls his phaser as Spock continues to read the history of the Illyrians. He deduces that the creatures did not wipe them out, although they did begin to appear as the Illyrians were dying of an unknown disease. The pressure drops and becomes hostile to life as the creatures break into the library and disarm Pike. The creatures then form a protective dome around the two Starfleet officers. When the storm subsides, the creatures leave, and Spock observes that the creatures saved their lives.

Illyrian Immunity

Una arrives in medical and dismisses questions about how she can manage to carry Hemmer. M’Benga and Chapel have contracted the infection as well. Una urges them to use her blood to engineer a cure since she has already fought off the infection and reveals that she is Illyrian. M’Benga explains that her body operates in such a way that he would have needed to be there when she fought off the infection to capitalize on the antibodies. La’an awakens unobserved.

Chapel (Jess Bush) looks concerned while standing in medical on SNW.
Photo Cr: Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

M’Benga observes that it must be hard for Una to have so much faith in Starfleet, considering the prejudice the Federation has against bioengineered individuals. He says he’s indifferent about the artificial boundary, but there’s no way to synthesize the antidote now. Una sedates him.

A warp core containment breach warning alarm alerts Una that La’an has incapacitated Chapel and then vanished. When Una arrives in Engineering, La’an attempts to flood the ship with light by releasing the core from containment. La’an and Una fight one another. As the core breach becomes imminent, both Starfleet officers glow red.

The ghosts revealed

Pike and Spock find they cannot hail the Enterprise. Pike observes that the plasma creatures shielded them. Spock postulates that the creatures may actually be what remains of the Illyrian colonists after bonding with the charged particles in the storm. Apparently, of its own accord, one of the library records activates, and Spock reads that it is an account of the Illyrian colonist’s attempt to renounce their genetic engineering to join the Federation. Spock notes that if they had not reversed their genetic engineering, they would have been able to fight off the infection that killed them.

RELATED: Star Trek: Prodigy – We Don’t Get to See the Future.

M’Benga awakens after Una administers an antidote synthesized from chimeric antibodies created in La’an’s system due to her proximity to Una. In the lounge, Una comes upon La’an, eating strawberries. La’an says that her harsh words during the fight were both her talking and not. Due to her association with Augments, she’s aware of how damaging they were to the Federation.

While the Augments might have used genetic engineering to nefarious ends, Una says that the Illyrians have a different philosophy. They use genetic engineering to adapt their bodies to environments, altering themselves to avoid terraforming. There’s nothing wrong with that, she concludes. La’an asks why Una hides herself if that’s what she believes. Una admits it’s to accomplish her dream: to be a part of Starfleet.

Secrets uncovered

In the ready room, Una admits to Pike that she’s an Illyrian, surrenders her commission and herself for disciplinarian review. Pike rejects this; she’s the best First Officer in the fleet. 

Even though he could face the consequences for harboring an Illyrian, Pike says the events he experienced on Hetemit IX convinced him Illyrians are misunderstood. Una’s simultaneous actions underscored this. Pike says she’s an example to all of them. He’ll worry about what Starfleet might do in the future.

Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) holds a PADD in medical on SNW.
Photo Cr: Grossman/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

In medical, Una approaches M’Benga and says his medical transporter caused the biofilters to allow the infection to slip by. While the newer main transporters have been updated, M’Benga didn’t allow upgrades to the medical transporter in spacedock. He admits he’s keeping his terminally ill daughter in the pattern buffer. He’s using the time suspension possible through the pattern buffer glitch to prolong her life as he searches for a cure.

M’Benga attempts to surrender his commission. Instead, Una provides a dedicated power source directly from the core. M’Benga visits his daughter inside the medical transporter to read her a story. 

In her quarters, Una records a personal log lamenting that she may only be accepted despite her genetic engineering because she is an exemplary officer. She wonders what would have happened if she weren’t a hero: “When will it be enough to just be an Illyrian?” Una deletes the log.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.

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Avery Kaplan

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