HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

I am admittedly always excited for an Uhura-centric episode, given that she was one of the most under-utilized characters in the franchise. As such, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds second season’s sixth episode “Lost in Translation” didn’t disappoint, but while I loved the emphasis on communication, I was not expecting it with a side meditation on the nature of grief and how it affects us. Strange New Worlds has been fantastic about incorporating these side statements into the overarching story, and I’m finding it to be an effective combination. “Lost in Translation” is a great example of what SNW can do with storytelling.

Plot Ahoy!

Captain Pike has orders to take the Enterprise to a new deuterium refinery that Starfleet has set up in a specific nebula near Gorn space. Unfortunately, the refinery has been plagued with difficulties, and the team assigned to the refinery has not been able to address all of them. Pike dispatches Pelia and Una with an engineering team to bring the refinery online. As Una and Pelia work, Una displays an increasing irritation with Pelia whose own patience begins to fray. However, Pelia does find evidence that the refinery has been sabotaged.

Aboard the Enterprise, Uhura has been hearing a strange sound and hallucinating images of Hemmer as a zombie, as well as other incredibly disturbing things. She goes to Sickbay, and Dr. M’Benga informs her that she has a mild case of deuterium poisoning. Uhura begins to doubt the diagnosis as the hallucinations intensify, leading her to punch newly promoted Second Officer James Kirk. Despite their rough introduction, Kirk resolves to help Uhura as much as he can.

Una and Pelia track the saboteur and ultimately find him, cowering in a darkened area of the refinery. They beam him aboard the Enterprise where M’Benga discovers that the man has serious damage to the speech and language centers of his brain. Due to the circumstances, Pike secures Starfleet’s permission to view his logs, and it turns out that the man has been experiencing the same hallucinations and sounds that Uhura has. Uhura rapidly concludes that what happened to him could happen to her. Meanwhile, the saboteur escapes Sickbay, leading to a massive manhunt through the ship. They find him in Engineering, trying to vent the deuterium, but he blows out one of the bulkheads instead, killing himself while securing his objective.

Uhura and Kirk discuss the situation, and Uhura suddenly makes an inspired guess. The sound is an attempt by a new form of life trying to communicate; the deuterium harvesting is killing the aliens. Uhura finds Pike and explains this to him, so he orders the refinery to shut down. As that is impossible, he orders everyone off the refinery and destroys it. Uhura sees an apparition of Hemmer, smiling and nodding, indicating that the aliens are safe.

As Una and Pelia return to the Enterprise, Una confronts Pelia for giving her a C in one of her Academy classes. Pelia fires back that Una deserved the C, but she understands that Una’s hostility is not related to an old grade. Rather, Una resents Pelia because she’s taken the place of her friend, Hemmer. She also tells Una that she plans on telling anyone who asks that the resentment is due to the grade. They return to the ship in silence.

Analysis

Obviously, this story is about communication, at least in part. The saboteur loses his ability to speak, and Uhura discovers that she’s experiencing a very different lifeform’s attempt at communication. I love that SNW allows for Uhura to experience something inherently alien. While I understand that Star Trek is a show that’s filmed on Earth by humans and that the show has to tell its story, I often find myself thinking about how different a truly alien species would be. Would we even have the same concepts to communicate, much less similar enough biology and culture to use speech and language in the same way? I don’t know, and that’s not a question Star Trek explores often. It’s nice to see it touched upon here.

However, the big story here is about grief. While yes, the aliens are using images of Uhura’s loss to communicate the gravity of their situation, and it still dredges up all of the pain that Uhura chose to set aside rather than explore. That was easier for her, and it’s easier for us when we’re experiencing intense losses. Even deeper, though, is a reflection on how grief renders us often unable to communicate clearly. Grief is one of the most intensely personal experiences one can have. The truth is that no one will experience grief the way you do, and each time you grieve, that experience will be different from the one before. That’s partially why it’s so difficult to provide support to someone who is grieving; we simply don’t know what to do because the territory is new every single time. Our saboteur, whose name I cannot recall, loses the ability to speak and understand language, isolating him from everyone around him. His isolation serves as a metaphor for the loneliness that often accompanies grief.

Unlike the saboteur, however, Uhura chooses to experience her sadness and ultimately reaches out. The connection with Kirk not only allows her to process her own losses—her family and Hemmer—but also gives her space for the eureka moment that drives the whole episode. The ultimate message, therefore, is that yes, we must sit with our emotions but that our community is a necessary part of recovery. That’s Pelia’s point, too. Una has internalized her loss and refuses to acknowledge it, but Pelia recognizes it for what it is. That recognition gives rise to the space for Una to put a name to what she’s feeling and hopefully start on her journey through grief.

Perhaps most importantly, the episode never promises that our grief journey will end. Instead, it’s a process, but it’s a process for which we’ll need support and help along the way.

Rating:

Four time crystals

Stray Thoughts From the Couch

1. I kind of love the rivalry between the Kirk siblings, but I wish we’d get to see more of Sam Kirk being competent. The man is on the flagship for a reason, ostensibly.
2. I’m also not sure why this episode needed to feature James Kirk; I’m not complaining as I think Wesley’s Kirk is certainly coming along, but I don’t quite see why he needed to be there.
3. It was really nice to see Bruce Horak again, even if the zombie Andorian is going to haunt my nightmares forever.
4. I adore how Pike listened to Uhura and didn’t balk at destroying the refinery. The faith and respect he demonstrates here is just incredible, and it’s so important to see that in a leader.