“Previously On …†intros serve a dual purpose, both reminding viewers of what’s been going on in the series they’re about to watch and providing a hint of what’s immediately to come by the clips they choose to show. But they can also be a bit deceptive. The “Previously On …†for “Lost in Translation†suggests this is going to be an episode with major repercussions for some ongoing storylines, thanks to clips of Spock and Chapel’s recent kiss and a similar moment between Kirk and La’an that’s been erased, for all but La’an, by the restoration of the proper timeline. Will this mark the return of the Department of Temporal Investigations? Will Spock and Chapel have to make some choices? And what’s the deal with Hemmer showing up, a crew member whose loss the Enterprise still feels?
“Lost in Translation†connects to all those storylines, but it’s not really about any of them. Instead, it’s another first contact episode, one that puts Uhura at the center as the Enterprise heads to a stellar nursery that’s also the site of a deuterium refinery; one made all the more urgent by its placement at the edge of known space. That makes it a convenient jumping-off point for further missions — which Pike attempts to make the centerpiece of an inspiring speech — but also a strategic spot when dealing with the mounting threat of the Gorn. (Yes, that’s still a thing, even if we haven’t heard much about them for a while.)
It should be an easy stop: Pike gets a moment to be a fleet commander, the station gets up and running, and everyone refuels and calls it a win. But it’s not that simple, even if only one crew member initially suspects this. Someone, or something, is sending signals only Uhura can hear. To figure out what’s going on, Uhura heads to engineering, where she watches a YouTube how-to video she made with Hemmer illustrating how to recalibrate the communications array. This annoys Pelia at first, then makes her wax nostalgic about Hemmer once she realizes what’s going on. It seems like business as usual until, after hearing that strange noise again, Uhura receives a terrifying vision of an undead (and pretty gross-looking) Hemmer on the turbo-lift.
What’s up with that? M’Benga doesn’t have an answer, but he does note that Uhura might have a mild case of deuterium poisoning but also hasn’t been sleeping. His prescription: sleep. But this only makes matters worse, or at least more intense, as Uhura starts getting glimpses of a vision whose full scope will only be realized later.
While she sorts through this, the Enterprise gets a visitor named James T. Kirk, whose reunion with his brother Sam is fraught with tension. Jim has some big news — he’s soon to become the first officer of the Farragut. As they drink in the Enterprise lounge, talking about Jim’s achievement stirs some old resentments in Sam, who feels that Jim doesn’t respect his choice to pursue xenoanthropology and that his brother’s overachieving ways can be traced back to their dad, who also doesn’t respect Sam’s career choices. It’s a really intense family dynamic.
That’s not the only tension in the lounge, although the other is of a different sort. As they play four-dimensional chess, Spock and Chapel attempt to discuss their relationship. Does what they’re doing need to be reported to Starfleet? Is there a relationship? Chapel likens human relationships to Schrödinger’s cat suggesting their own is currently in an undefined quantum state that might not survive someone else observing and defining it. And with that interaction, sealed with a wink from Chapel, we learn all we’re going to learn about Spock and Chapel in this episode. That cat remains safely in the box.
Whatever’s going on between them, the two are not particularly helpful to an increasingly frustrated Uhura, who attempts to find some solace with some Saurian brandy but quickly finds herself annoyed by a chatty Jim. Annoyed and not wanting to be hit on, she tries to give him the brush-off. Things don’t go much better when Jim insists he wasn’t hitting on her (which doesn’t entirely check out, given the character), prompting Uhura to flee. But instead of an escape, Uhura walks into a horrific vision of crew members’ corpses strewn about the corridor and begins fighting with a doppelgänger. When she snaps out of it, she discovers she’s decked Jim.
Jim’s not thrilled with this but senses that Uhura’s going through something he might be able to help her with. When he leaves her alone to consult with the Farragut’s doctor (with medicine, it’s always good to get a second opinion), she has another awful vision in which she sees the Enterprise destroyed. While she talks it over with Pike, Jim returns, making this, after his introduction to Uhura, the second of three historic meetings within the episode.
Over at the refinery, Una and Pelia try to get the refinery up and running with a combination of scientific know-how and managerial skills. It doesn’t go well, at least at first. Pelia’s not great at following orders, which turns out to be a good thing when she discovers evidence of sabotage. This puts Una and Pelia on the trail of the saboteur, a Starfleet officer named Ramon (Michael Reventar), who seems to be in the grips of the same delusions as Uhura. When he’s taken to the Enterprise’s sick bay, he appears to be even further gone than Uhura, attacking the crew and then fleeing.
In the search that follows, Jim is briefly reunited (if that’s the right word) with La’an, but it’s Uhura who ultimately finds the fugitive. It’s good timing, too: Ramon is in the process of trying to sabotage the Enterprise. She tries to talk him down by sharing personal details with him, but it’s no good. They fight, Jim shows up to rescue Uhura, and Ramon goes out the airlock.
In the aftermath, Jim and La’an get a little more time together, during which she (correctly) surmises he’s the type of person who can’t pass up someone in trouble without trying to help. This puts Jim in a reflective mode, thinking back to his childhood and the father who dragged them around the galaxy, traveling from one place he might be of service to the next. Annoyed as a child, he understands this better as an adult, and as someone whose life was saved by Starfleet, La’an expresses gratitude for Jim’s dad and those like him. They share a moment, but when Jim attempts to take her up on her previous offer of a drink, La’an walks away without replying. And as with Spock and Chapel, that’s as much as this episode does with that could-be romance.
Jim’s pretty busy anyway. He listens to Uhura’s story of her parents’ shuttle-accident death, the ways it’s shaken her, and the ways Hemmer’s death has compounded her doubts and fears. Then he replies with a classic (not-yet) Captain Kirk inspiring speech that prompts her to revisit Hemmer’s video and come to a realization: something is trying to communicate with her. This sends Uhura and Jim to Sam’s lab, where the other Kirk’s expertise proves invaluable. With the Kirks’ help, Uhura cracks it: Her visions are a code from a species being destroyed by Starfleet’s deuterium mining. The refinery must never be allowed to power up!
Unfortunately, the refinery has already been powered up. What’s more, it can’t be shut down. In the desperate rush that follows, Uhura receives a vision that forces her to confront her parents’ death before being able to tell Pike what she’s figured out and that, if they can’t shut down the refinery, they have to destroy it. Rather than dismissing this as a crazy theory, Pike takes her advice, evacuates the refinery, and blows it out of the sky, repercussions be damned. And with that, the deuterium people, or whatever they are, are safe, a development confirmed by one final vision: a smiling Hemmer who nods in approval.
And with that, Uhura can sleep again, which she’s presumably done before the episode’s final scene, which finds Uhura hanging out with one future crewmate whom she introduces to a current crewmate: Spock. It looks like a trio that could work together well as a team.
Hit It!
• Written by the team of Onitra Johnson and David Reed and directed by Dan Liu, this is another fine spotlight episode for Uhura (and Celia Rose Gooding), who continues in some ways to be a surrogate character for viewers since she’s still a relative newcomer figuring out how the Enterprise works.
• Hemmer looms over this episode even when he’s not showing up as an alien-created vision. He’s much missed, and Pelia has felt just how missed he is by the way others treat her. Uhura’s avoided her and Una outright dislikes her for her sloppy ways (fair enough) and because Pelia gave her a C at the academy (seems a little petty), but mostly, as Pelia surmises, because she’s not Hemmer. Recognizing that is the first step to a better relationship.
No longer a cadet, Uhura’s been upgraded to better quarters. In the process, she’s apparently lost the previously established need to sleep in absolute darkness.
• It would be really annoying to play chess with Spock, but at least the game would move along quickly.
• Another example of why Pike’s a great captain: the way he asks Uhura if she’s 100 percent sure and then asks no further questions. He trusts his crew and even says he’ll take the rap if anyone objects to his decision.
• Sam and Jim come this close to resolving their differences before the episode ends, before Jim blows it by refusing to apologize. Paul Wesley doesn’t particularly look like William Shatner, but it’s moments like these that drive home how much this younger James Kirk and the Kirk we already know have in common.
• If Jim was hitting on Uhura at first, he abandons that plan pretty quickly. They end up friends who respect each other, laying the groundwork for the decades of history to come.