Welcome back to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Fangirlish Trek Fam! Strange New Worlds is back and it looks like we may be visiting a strange new world in our Star Trek this week! Maybe? Let’s discuss. We’re off to a solid start for the season with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris.”
Golden Age Science Fiction Tropes
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” opens with a Western motif, which is perfect for a few reasons. First is that canonically, Captain Pike is a cowboy out of time, as Una says in the Star Trek: Short Trek “Q&A,” “…he is utterly unsentimental except when it comes to horses.” Pike the gets the opportunity to dress in western gear and play cowboy on an away mission? Of course, he’s taking point on that one.
Second, opening the season with what feels like a throwback to an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series is absolute perfection. There are several episodes of TOS where the planet they landed on was based around what sets were available. Thinking in particular of episodes like, “Spectre of the Gun,” where our crew finds themselves on an old west planet and “A Piece of the Action” where they land on a gangster planet. But considering that Star Trek’s elevator pitch was “Wagon Train to the stars,” opening this season with a western planet just feels right. It’s a callback to not only the era of TOS, but it is the perfect one-two punch when paired with the episode’s premise.
Which Came First?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” gives viewers a golden age sci-fi type episode. Everything from the streamlined look of the Martian costumes and ship to the world-ending cataclysmic stakes, makes “Valles Marineris” feel like something that could’ve been straight out of the best of pulp science fiction. Cassell, played by Saffron Burrows, does a phenomenal job of playing a leader who is firm, utterly unintimidated by Captain Pike, but also not uncompassionate. She walks tall, and well, is tall. “You are short,” she says to Pike, which is absolutely hysterical to me, since Anson Mount is just shy of 6 feet tall and Saffron Burrows is a half inch taller than him. All that to say, she knows she holds the power, perhaps wants to trust Pike, but is understandably skittish. Her confusion at “You’re benevolent until that no longer works and only then are you hostile?” is telling of her lived reality with her planet under threat.
This makes her choices all the more understandable when she calls Pike for not speaking with her candidly about where and when The Federation is from. You understand why Cassell does what she does, but you also understand why Pike does what he does. It’s also a tragedy which ultimately results in the loss of two planets, but yet causes the birth of another. More on that in a minute.
Following through on that nod to classic sci-fi is the inclusion of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” is a modern iteration of a golden era sci-fi story, which makes it sit comfortably among the TOS era. But let’s circle back to the birth of a new planet.
Ouroboros
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” leans into another golden age sci-fi trope—which came first? Who caused what? As my girl, Lt. Erica Ortegas says, “We exist because of something we did? We exist because of something we didn’t do. We were never in any danger of changing time?!” Yeah, it makes my head spin too! To quote the great philosopher Captain Janeway, “Time travel gives me a headache.” As highlighted in the finale of Star Trek: Prodigy season 2, the Enterprise crew seems to be caught in an “Ouroboros,” a paradox that cannot be adequately explained.
If that wasn’t confusing enough, earlier in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris”, Captain Cassell notes that the Dol’Drm made the crater on Mars and she must stop them, “before they turn it all into a “red wasteland.” The irony of what her planet will become is a near self-fulling prophecy. Similarly, Pike didn’t know in the moment that he made the call that Cassell’s destruction of the Dol’Drm planet would trigger the loss of her own, but also create what would become the Earth that would beget humanity and thus the Federation. It not only forces Pike, but the view to wrestle with the question of fate and free will. It’s one way may never agree upon, as Pike says, we must, “Find a way to make peace with both.” The cinematography here, closing the scene with a shot of Pike and his reflection on the table is chef’s kiss. Massive kudos to the cinematography department for that one.
Now, speaking of the Earth, let’s get into the B-plot of the episode of finding the iridium on a yet-to-be-identified planet Earth.
Clever Girls’ Trip
I’m always down for a girls’ trip in my Star Trek, but Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” gives us what I’ve affectionately called, a “Clever Girls’ Trip” with Una, La’an, and Erica. They have spared no expense and have done much to bring us Jurassic Park, no wait, it’s just Earth. The gals have put on their super cool away team jackets and have taken a shuttle to find the iridium.
Of all the things I anticipated seeing in my Strange New Worlds this season (prior to seeing the season 4 trailer), dinosaurs were not on the list. Consequently, I neither anticipated having to stun a dinosaur with a phaser nor did I ever imagine I’d see La’an punch a dinosaur square in the nose. I literally shouted in unison with Erica when she exclaimed at La’an for landing a solid right hook in a raptor’s face. More on this in a minute.
The Dol’Drm ship where they find the iridium actually reminded me quite a bit visually of what would later be called, “The Engineer’s” ship in Alien and Prometheus. And while we never get a very clear look at the Dol’Drm, the insect-like appearance clocks several different science fiction stories for me, like Xenomorphs from Alien franchise, the “Buggers” in Ender’s Game, or even the Xindi-insectoids in Star Trek: Enterprise or the Clickets in Star Trek: Lower Decks. But like a classic golden era sci-fi story, their insect-like appearance is meant to frighten, and also signal “other.” Not human, therefore discardable. Erica clocks this immediately and pushes back against the default prejudice saying, “They wanted to live too.” Would we all remember that, no matter who we encounter.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris” is a very solid opener. This feels like a return to form with its echoing of Star Trek: The Original Series and other golden era science fiction stories and self-contained storytelling. Massive props to the visual effects team. The look of the stellar storm, as well as the Martian ship design, and the dinosaurs are superb. The sharp and colorful visuals really make this an incredible show to watch on the highest quality TV available.
It’s the Silly Little Things
Aside from the excellent visuals and thoughtful storytelling, we have a lot of great character moments in this episode. Pelia all but says she was a Doctor’s companion, traveling in a telephone box. Or was she just hanging out with Bill and Ted? Strange things are afoot on Strange New Worlds! We have a new Vulcan cadet, Cadet A’Sha, who should add another interesting layer of storytelling to the show. I very much enjoy the banter between Mr. Scott and Lt. Ortegas. I have dear Scottish friends whose accents I adore, and they all cringe when I offer my best attempts to imitate it. Anytime I want to bug them, I do just that, so Ortegas doing her best Scotty is fantastic. Scotty hollering, “You cannae hurry up with that iridium?!” had me laughing out loud. It’s not just for the banter, but the actual use of Scottish dialect. More of this, please!
It’s the Somber Little Things
Aside from these fun character moments, there are some more serious and even somber ones as well. The Martian universal translator detected the nuance of the word “alone,” in Pike’s inflection and interpreted it as “widower.” Pike has been running from the silence left by Captain Batel’s passing into infinity in the finale of season 3, thus the crew not having had any down time.
“I broke my hand and I don’t feel any pain,” says La’an after she instinctually punches a dinosaur. She also notes that her body feels more attuned, but mind is confused. La’an is frightened of who or what she might become because of her augmented DNA passed down from Khan. It’s going to be something to watch for this season, I would expect. And finally, we now have Commander Una Chin-Riley. Congrats to Una on her new rank and title. It’s more than earned. I have but one tiny beef with this episode. It’s silly, but as an aficionado of the art of bartending, PUT THE GUINNESS IN THE RIGHT GLASS. It would make me feel so much better.
What do you think of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 1 “Valles Marineris”? Leave me a comment and let’s talk Trek.
The next episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will air on July 30, 2026, on Paramount+.
