Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 3 “Human Best Friend” gives us what the crew has been needing for ages—shore leave! But shore leave episodes in Star Trek have, in the history of the franchise, not always gone as expected. We have so many shenanigans and great character moments to unpack in this episode!
Take a whiff of Dragon Bomb, pass the cookies, touch grass (or houseplants), give your best “formal peachy,” and let’s take a look at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 3, “Human Best Friend.”
An Intoxicating Atmosphere
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 3 “Human Best Friend” lands our crew in desperate need of a break. So what could go wrong with shore leave on a resort where the atmosphere is not only gorgeous, but literally intoxicating? So many things, apparently. The Seznar Grand is intriguing in premise, however, I don’t know that I enjoy the idea of being “delightfully” drunk all the time simply by taking a deep breath before I even put a foot on the resort. However what this does do in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 3 “Human Best Friend” is provide the audience with an abundance of character moments. Some of those moments are sweet. Some are silly, but they are all interesting.
MORE: Catch up with the Strange New Worlds news from SDCC!
An Abundance of Character Moments
One of my favorite things in “Human Best Friend” is the sheer number of character moments we get with our crew. Uhura is perhaps a little uptight and wants to get some work in. What does her shore leave do? Turns her into a free spirit who dresses fabulously and throws wild parties with an awful lot of purple haze.
Pike trades the Captain’s chair for the tattoo chair. Una is now a Number One karaoke star performing an insanely good Klingon version of the late, great Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Nurse Chapel is now a bingo queen, La’an wants to make every club a Fight Club, and Dr. M’Benga will be providing you with many “medicinal” tonics at the bar instead of sick bay.
While much of this is just plain silly and fun, it’s also nice to see our crew loosen up and let their hair down a bit. It shows who they might be if they decided to cut loose once in a while. It’s the character moments that make these kinds of fun and silly Star Trek episodes really work for me. These aren’t all the character moments, though. There are two I’ll focus on more specifically for the purposes of this review.
MORE: Check out our review of Episode 1!
Sibling Sass with Ortegas and Scotty
Lt. Ortegas and Lt. Scott have been grumpy at each other all season long. For me, this is the kind of hilarity I want in my Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry famously intended for there never to be any interpersonal conflict on the bridge of the Enterprise. Roddenberry envisioned a future where humans had evolved past that. However, as wonderful as that might sound, it’s not always realistic. In “Human Best Friend,” the sibling sass between Ortegas and Scotty has reached an all-time high!
If you’ve followed my Strange New Worlds coverage for any length of time, then you know I’m begging for some #Moretegas with every episode! Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 3 “Human Best Friend” gives me plenty of #Moretegas, but also shows a different side of her via her “frenemy” status with Scotty.
It’s one of those situations where it’s easy to tell that they don’t really want to dislike each other, but as siblings do, they just get on each other’s last nerve. Melissa Navia and Martin Quinn are fantastic at portraying this kind of relationship well.
Butting Heads to Make Headway
Scotty, like any true Scotsman of stereotype, is very matter-of-fact. While fairly even-tempered and good-natured, he is also not a man with whom to trifle. So what does my gal, the chaos goblin, Lt. Ortegas do? Poke the bear. Honestly though, I get it. No one particularly enjoys being told what to do, especially when you know that you know what you’re doing. It’s even worse when you know you’re the best in your field. In the case of Lt. Ortegas, Scotty LITERALLY feels like a backseat driver.
Mr. Scott, on the other hand, knows that Lt. Ortegas’ hot-shot fighter pilot techniques are not always the best for the ship. As someone who also tends to run at a problem full tilt, I can appreciate the Ortegas method of all gas, no brakes. And yet, I also appreciate Scotty’s position of needing Erica to slow down just a bit, and punch the gas only sparingly. Especially since he is the one who keeps the Enterprise running smoothly. So how does this dynamic play out between them in “Human Best Friend?” Bumpily.
Worst Group Project EVER
Watching Scotty and Ortegas cope with the frustration of needing to do what is effectively a group project together is a lot of fun in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 “Human Best Friend.” The dialogue is quippy and full of sassy comments, which appeals to my sense of humor.
But the real chef’s kiss in this episode was the two of them using the most drunk person logic ever of finding a bomb, recording their future selves a video so they know what happened, locking that recording in the ship’s computer, and then hiding the key to the ship in Ortegas’ cast. That is clearly the perfect place to put such a thing. All that finished? Good. Let’s go pass out now and promptly forget everything we’ve done.
That’s when The Hangover begins. “Why am I drunk?” asks Scotty. “Why am I NOT drunk?!” asks Erica. Ultimately, their dynamic here, while adversarial at first, becomes much more of a sibling dynamic, with Ortegas taking the older sister role, looking after her drunk kid brother. Add the pressure of needing to find the Captain, the ship, and get back to The Enterprise before the Rudaxian Diplomats show up, and you’ve got the fixings for turning frenemies to full-on enemies. But it could also take that pressure and begin to make those frenemies into a diamond of a friendship. Thankfully, we’ve got the latter in this episode.
Some Days, You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb
I suppose if one is stuck in the conundrum that the great philosopher Adam West as Batman describes in Batman: The Movie back in 1966, “Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb,” but you somehow manage to get rid of said bomb, it’s hard not to become friends. I must give props to my brilliant cohost on We Are Starfleet, Mike Slamer, for pointing out that Scotty blowing off his finger with the bomb is perhaps a nod to Jimmy Doohan, the original Montgomery Scott. Jimmy Doohan lost a finger during his service in World War II. It’s a small thing, but it’s the little details like that that make me happy.
MORE: Read our review of Episode 2!
“Human” Best Friend
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Human Best Friend” gets its title from a line that Spock speaks to what may or may not be an imaginary James T. Kirk. Spock, who is clearly inebriated, spends his shore leave playing chess and chatting with Kirk. He later elaborates in the episode that he’s never had a “human best friend,” and by that he means someone he can share his thoughts, feelings, and emotions with.
It sounds silly and sweetly naive at first, but think about it. Spock grew up on Vulcan as a biracial person—half-human and half-Vulcan. Surrounded by Vulcans who frown upon anything that isn’t logic has left a young Spock feeling bereft of an external outlet for processing information. That’s got to be incredibly lonely and isolating. As a verbal processor myself, I feel like I will literally explode if I don’t get the chance to talk out what I’m feeling with my besties. Having a “human best friend” matters.
Spock’s sudden realization that Jim is not a figment of his imagination via slap across the face (a theme that will carry over into TOS) is perfection. Their bond via mind meld in the season 3 finale has been effectively a speed run of their friendship. They already know everything about each other, but even if you know a person inside and out, it’s not like you stop talking. That friendship allows you to keep learning about each other and growing together. What we have here is the beginnings of the friendship we all have come to know and love in Star Trek: The Original Series.
MORE: Watch our interview with Ethan Peck, Christina Chong, and Paul Wesley HERE!
Final Thoughts
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 “Human Best Friend” is directed by Yana Gorskaya. Gorskaya directed 22 episodes of What We Do in the Shadows. While I’ve only seen a few episodes of that series, it’s enough to know she’s the perfect director for this episode. She’s got a good eye for absurdist humor, and it shows up in spades here. I must give props to the writers of this episode, Skylar Ojeda and Dana Horgan, for the hilarious banter in the script, delivered expertly by our cast.
As someone who works as a DJ/Trivia/Karaoke/Music Bingo host, I must say that much of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 episode 3 “Human Best Friend” is my lived work experience. I have had many a drunk person sign up for multiple karaoke songs in a row, but rarely have I ever had someone with the talent of Rebecca Romijn want to do a whole set! I’d count that a win! Bingo might be thought of as a “sport” for retirees, but Chapel’s reaction to winning Bingo is true to life. Also, I NEED to get my own Scotty Hawaiian shirt to wear when I DJ my next pool party, or I’ll riot! I need a surfing mugato on a shirt, stat! It has a deep earth meaning for me!
MORE: Rebecca Romijn chats singing in Klingon and more, along with Anson Mount and Carol Kane in this roundtable interview!
Boldly Going Where No Trek Has Genre-Hopped Before
We’re pretty much 3-for-3 this season with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds doing an homage to another type of media. We’ve had A Princess of Mars and Jurassic Park in episode one. As I said in my review, episode two is effectively Star Trek: Event Horizon. Of all the things on my Strange New Worlds bingo card, Star Trek: The Hangover did not make the list. Frankly, if you’d told me we would EVER have an episode of Star Trek that spoofed The Hangover, I’d have told you that you were the one having a hangover! And yet, here we are!
Further, I would never have expected it to be my favorite episode thus far of season 4. To me, this feels like a Strange New Worlds crackfic come to life in the best way possible. Yes, it is very silly, but it’s silly with a purpose. Demonstrating play as a method to work through conflict in relationships is the message that might get lost in the shenanigans. That bit makes the episode hit home.
The crux of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Human Best Friend” comes from Scotty. Scotty quotes his mother when he says, “Hearts are infinite so we should make use of that space.” That line evokes a generosity of spirit not often exhibited by many people. It’s telling of the kind of atmosphere Scotty grew up in. It is also aspirational to those of us in the viewing audience. Make use of the space in your heart by letting more people in. You’ll never know when you’ll make a new “Human Best Friend.”
What do you think of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 “Human Best Friend”? Leave me a comment and let’s talk Trek.
The next episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will air on August 13, 2026, on Paramount+.
