Warning: SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “Lost in Translation” are ahead!
The long-awaited crossover between Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks may have arrived earlier than anticipated to Paramount+ subscribers, but there’s still plenty to think about from the episode of the former show that aired just two days earlier, “Lost in Translation.” Strange New Worlds Season 2’s sixth episode saw Celia Rose Gooding’s Nytota Uhura experiencing strange visions and sounds while the Enterprise and fellow Federation ship Farragut were mining deuterium in a nebula. In the midst of this frightening experience, Uhura met Paul Wesley’s James T. Kirk, and Gooding explained to CinemaBlend why he was so necessary for for their character’s latest arc.
Although Wesley had appeared in two prior Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episodes (including “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” which delivered a big Khan surprise), “Lost in Translation” marked the actor’s first time playing the James Kirk from the main Star Trek timeline. Stopping by the Enterprise to see his brother Sam in the midst of this mining mission, Kirk saw that Uhura wasn’t dealing with something unusual and offered his assistance in figuring out what it was. On the subject of what it was like working with Wesley, Gooding had this to say to me during our interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike:
He’s great! I’m a fan of everyone I’ve worked with. I’m so incredibly lucky to be working with titans in this industry, but I’ve been a fan of Paul’s for a while. And so to play opposite him was such a joy for me. Especially his Kirk in this moment for Uhura is really a point person and a beacon of levity and joy and a little bit of comedy, and he’s the person who keeps her from going entirely off the deep end, in that spiral into madness. To be playing that with an actor who I have such great respect for was really a lovely experience for me. It’s something I’m going to carry with me forever. I really just enjoyed having him there to keep my character light and joyous, because I took the intenseness and deep emotional work that she’s doing very seriously, and that headspace stayed with me for longer than I need it to.
Among the sights that only Uhura witnessed in her mind was the return of Bruce Horak’s Hemmer, the Enterprise’s former chief engineer who died in “All Those Who Wander.” However, initially Hemmer was shown as an aggressive, zombie-like monstrosity, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Uhura also re-experienced the trauma of losing her parents and brother at a young age. However, she and Kirk soon realized she wasn’t the only one experiencing these kinds of symptoms; a Farragut crew member named Saul Ramon had them, but he’d descended into full madness, to the point that he tried to sabotage both the mining facility and the Enterprise, and was ultimately blown into space. Without Kirk by her side, Uhura might have suffered a similar fate.
Fortunately, Uhura and James Kirk, along with Sam’s help, realized that these visions and sounds were the work of extradimensional lifeforms that lived within the nebula that were trying to communicate to her that the deuterium mining process was killing them. Since the mining facility couldn’t be shut down, Captain Pike ordered it to be blown up, which did the trick. So it could be argued this was one of the darker Strange New Worlds episodes, but as Celia Rose Gooding laid out, Paul Wesley’s James T. Kirk infused the story with some lighter elements so that it wasn’t fully-blown dreary affair. Gooding already being a fan of Wesley’s prior to working together was a bonus. The actor continued:
Without Paul Wesley and without Kirk for Uhura, I think it would have been a really dark, intense episode. Which is warranted, especially when we’re talking about what we’re talking about, and we’re talking about death and mourning and how the legacy of loved ones lives within you, what that means and what that looks like. So to have someone to remind my character to stay present and to stay hopeful was really wonderful. And he also didn’t sugarcoat it. Kirk was very candid with Uhura at explaining how Starfleet officers do what they do, and that, in this moment, reminded me a little bit of how Hemmer speaks to Uhura, because I don’t think she responds well to sugarcoats and sweet bright words. So yeah, it was wonderful to have him there for so many reasons.
Dealing with death comes with the territory of being a Starfleet officer, and while Nyota Uhura certainly isn’t a newbie anymore when it comes to her work, in this particular area, James Kirk was more experienced. So it was fortunate that these two crossed paths, and we know they’ll go on to do more great things together once Kirk takes over as the Enterprise’s captain in the Original Series era. Speaking of which, the Nyota/Kirk wasn’t the only momentous meeting in “Lost in Translation,” as the former introduced the latter to Ethan Peck’s Spock at the end of the episode.
There are just three episodes left to go in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2’s run, with Episode 9, titled “Subspace Rhapsody,” being a musical. As for what other small screen entertainment is coming up, our 2023 TV schedule contains that information.
