One of the things that’s quickly becoming clear about my critical relationship to Strange New Worlds is that I’m way more likely to handwave away concerns for a comedic episode than a dramatic one. And I don’t think that’s about lowering my standards for one tone over the other. It’s more to do with the fact that—rightly or wrongly—I think of both ’60s and ’90s Star Trek as cheerily buoyant shows that occasionally broke things up with heavier episodes rather than the other way around. So when Strange New Worlds goes goofy, it feels “right” to me in a way that zombies or war documentaries don’t.
Indeed, part of what made the first two seasons of Strange New Worlds so enchanting is that they returned to the “comfort food” vibe that other Alex Kurtzman-era shows like Discovery and Picard didn’t necessarily prioritize. That’s on display in “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans,” which echoes those lighthearted ’90s Trek episodes I used to love as a kid. (Think “Deja Q” or “Civil Defense.”) This season has brought back Trelane, revived the holodeck, and reunited (pre-united?) the Original Series crew, and yet this is the first episode of the season that’s actually made me feel nostalgic for a past era of Star Trek, even if it doesn’t manage to find a payoff as satisfying as its setup.
I’d go so far as to say that “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” all but falls apart in its final act, to the point where I almost wonder if something came up in Patton Oswalt’s schedule that only allowed him to spend a day filming his role as Doug, the Vulcan who wants to be human. While this whole madcap adventure about four humans getting turned into Vulcans feels like it’s building to a climax anchored in a Vulcan who yearns to understand humanity, the finale skips over that thread almost as soon as it’s introduced.
Thankfully, “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” still brushes up against one of my favorite topics: how different actors play Vulcans. This week, Pike, La’An, Chapel, and Uhura find themselves turned into pointy eared logic fiends after a temporary transformation refuses to wear off. It’s hilarious how the episode takes the time to set up a complicated, compelling reason for the away team to change their species (the Vulcans aided a pre-warp planet before founding the Federation/creating the Prime Directive, and now that planet needs technical assistance) only to have the group finish their actual mission in an instant and get stuck as Vulcans while the Enterprise is on shore leave.
That means the episode is really juggling these questions: What makes a Vulcan a Vulcan? And who are Pike, La’An, Chapel, and Uhura at their cores? What of their essence remains even as they get Vulcan anatomy (and hairstyles) and a souped-up dose of Spock’s socialized logic?
While a stronger episode would’ve taken those questions a little more seriously, “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” is mostly just interested in letting Anson Mount, Christina Chong, Jess Bush, and Celia Rose Gooding cut loose. I’ve always maintained that playing a Vulcan is one of the greatest acting challenges there is and only a small handful of actors have actually done it successfully. And here we get to see the full gamut of how Vulcans have been portrayed over the years: Pike is blunt and anal retentive, Chapel is obsessed with science and efficiency, Uhura goes all in on self-betterment, and La’An is (hilariously) just a Romulan. (Serious kudos to whichever writer realized that Pike’s alt universe experience in “A Quality Of Mercy” and La’An’s time travel trip in “Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow” means they both have knowledge about that Vulcan/Romulan connection that the rest of Starfleet won’t learn about until Kirk’s time.)
Gooding comes closest to nailing the true Vulcan essence, with Bush and Chong putting in a solid effort too. Mount, meanwhile, is just doing his own wacky thing per usual. In fact, everything with Pike is as over-the-top as his hair, and this episode certainly isn’t above going hacky with its comedy. But there’s also a pleasant hangout vibe to the whole thing, which makes it different than past Vulcan comedy episodes like “Wedding Bell Blues” or “Charades.” There’s no high-stakes “big event” this is all leading up to, just a lot of small everyday incidents, like Uhura bending Beto to her new Vulcan way of life or Chapel becoming a monastic workaholic.
While you could argue this whole exercise is a bit insulting to Vulcans, the fact that our heroes are weird, scientifically altered hybrids with human katras sort of handwaves that concern for me. (As Spock puts it, Vulcans feel things deeply and it takes a lot of learned effort to keep that in check.) And some of the funniest parts of this episode are just the non-altered crew dealing with the madness of their new Vulcan co-workers. Kirk and Scotty get to develop a bro-y little friendship as they try to stop La’An from taking over the ship. And I love the scene in Pelia’s quarters where the crew begin “lightly plotting” how to convince their friends to switch back instead of choosing to live as Vulcans permanently.
Carol Kane gets some killer line deliveries this week. (I’m still laughing about the joke about LSD.) And it’s fun to see Marie as one of the gang, especially since this episode finally remembers she has an actual Starfleet career of her own too. (She’s not fit to return to captain’s duties yet, but she does get a promotion at the Starfleet Judicial Department after yelling at her Vulcan boss.) It’s also quite sweet that Spock finally gets to commiserate with his human pals about how judgmental and cold Vulcans can be and that he gets to meet a Vulcan who looks up to his unique Vulcan-human experience rather than treating him as “not enough.”
While not all the jokes land, the overall comedic rhythm of the first half feels right, which only makes it more frustrating that the episode drops the ball in the second. Though I was excited for a more Una-focused story, the episode unfortunately just falls back on the lazy sight gag of a hot woman fawning over an average-looking guy, without adding any specificity or nuance to her actual relationship with Doug and what draws them together. (Rebecca Romijn has some good comedic impulses, but there’s just nothing lived-in for her to play.)
And I’m still not sure what to make of the fact that this whole thing ultimately resolves with Spock and La’An doing a sexy fight-dance in her mind palace. (Love the Beluga whales in the windows though.) If this is all meant to be a Spock/La’An story, the episode really doesn’t do a good job of centering their dynamic. We end with La’An still freaking out that Spock left a pair of socks in a drawer in her quarters, even though it felt like the dance was meant to prove their compatibility. If anything, it would’ve been far more interesting to give her a sexy dance with Kirk to emphasize the love-triangle aspect this episode leans into.
It was during Spock and La’An’s So You Think You Can Dance entry that I really started to wonder if they couldn’t get Oswalt for as long as they wanted and had to rewrite the episode at the last minute or something. Apparently they were a day away from filming the first episode of the season when the writers’ strike began in May 2023. They didn’t resume production until the strike ended, so maybe there really were logistical problems or scheduling issues they didn’t anticipate when they originally crafted their slate of scripts.
In fact, I’m starting to wonder if the strike explains why so many of this season’s episodes have felt underbaked in various ways. Perhaps the delay impacted the flow of production or how many passes the writers were able to do on scripts. At the very least, it’s one more piece of the puzzle to consider as we near the end of this uneven season.
Still, for all its flaws, there’s something about “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” I found heartening too. When Strange New Worlds began, it used the charisma and chemistry of its ensemble to paper over some of its storytelling weaknesses. And I really felt that charisma and chemistry return in full force this week. Little moments like Ortegas yelling about her “chaos family” or Kirk and Scotty celebrating over a glass of Scotch or everybody chilling on Pelia’s curved sofa (I love that set!) recapture a vibe that feels distinct to this show—all while evoking a long legacy of Star Trek comedy episodes in the process. “Four-And-A-Half Vulcans” may not be the most logical episode of Strange New Worlds, but its heart is in the right place.
Stray observations
- • It’s cute that they have Anson Mount do the opening credits narration in his Vulcan voice.
- • It’s becoming conspicuous how little this season is using Sam, given that Kirk keeps mentioning him but then not sharing scenes with him. On the other hand, my ‘shipper heart is very pleased by how excited Kirk was to hang out with La’An instead.
- • I’m guessing the joke about officers switching out every 42 minutes is supposed to be a nod to network TV episode lengths?
- • Chapel continues to be as psychotic as ever as she invites Spock and Korby over for a joint apology dinner. What are you doing, girl? Why are you forcing your boyfriend and your ex to be friends?!
- • Again, not to age shame Paul Wesley, but this is another episode where a 43-year-old playing a mid-20s character is confusing. Are Kirk and Scotty supposed to be contemporaries here? Or is Kirk taking a younger engineer under his wing? It doesn’t help that Martin Quinn is 12 years younger than Wesley, but James Doohan was 11 years older than William Shatner on The Original Series.
