Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is gathering the crew for another high-stakes mission, though dedicated fans won't necessarily see the location as "new." The Enterprise is shipping out back to Rigel VII, a planet with a history that dates back all the way to the very beginnings of the series. CinemaBlend has a first look at the mission briefing in "Among The Lotus Eaters" and who will be accompanying Anson Mount's Pike on the return trip to the iconic planet.
The scene opens up with Una briefing Pike, Dr. M'Benga, La'an and Ortegas on their botched mission to Rigel VII five years ago. Una is, of course, referring to the mission that occurred a mere two weeks before the events of "The Cage," which took the lives of three crew members and nearly killed Spock as well. Pike explained the mission failed as a result of an ambush by the Kalar, and there wasn't much time for them to evaluate this bronze-age society.
Unfortunately, as Una explained, Starfleet realized during a flyby that there's a distinct delta sigil designed into the landscaping on the planet. With cultural contamination on the table, Pike must go with a small strike crew to the planet to assess the extent of the damage to this pre-warp civilization and work as best as they can to uphold the Prime Directive.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fans should be excited to stream this episode with their Paramount+ subscription, especially those who have complained that Season 2 has been more focused on individual characters thus far rather than the entirety of the crew. Pike's strike team will ensure we'll see at least some of this wonderful crew working together and, of course, trying to figure out the extent of this cultural contamination.
Some readers might remember that a clip from this episode was shown ahead of Season 2, and it's bad news for Erica Ortegas' fans. While Ortegas is in on the mission briefing and chosen to go to Rigel VII, she's ultimately informed by Spock at the last minute she needs to stay behind and fly the Enterprise through a rough patch. Fortunately, the showrunners already assured CinemaBlend they are aware fans want more of Ortegas, so fans shouldn't be too upset by this:
Rigel VII has gotten a few odds outside of its connection to the Star Trek pilot. Captain Kirk sang a song called "Moon Over Rigel VII" in The Final Frontier, and the planet has appeared on screens in select episodes of Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation. Its latest mention came in Season 3 of Picard, where Riker mistakenly thought it was where the crew came up with the Myriad encryption codec.
While it's not exactly a "strange new world," it'll be exciting to see Star Trek take Pike back to Rigel VII and see how this episode may tie to the events that preceded the very first episode of the series. I'm also very excited to see Dr. M'Benga back out in the field, especially after seeing him kick some Klingon ass in the Season 2 premiere. Hopefully he'll get more opportunities to show he's more than a brilliant doctor working in the sick bay. As for La'an, I hope she's up for the challenge after the wild week that brought her face-to-face with the child version of her ancestor Khan. Will she be in top form after all the changes she witnessed that none of the crew know about?
Catch the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' "Among The Lotus Eaters" on Paramount+ Thursday, July 6th. This season has lived up to the hype promised by the cast so far, but can it keep that energy for the remaining six episodes?
