Stardate: 2344.2
Original Air Date: August 10, 2023
Writer: Henry Alonso Myers
Director: Maja Vrvilo
“Sometimes, hope is a choice.”
The final episode of season 2 of SNW begins with an uncharacteristic captain’s log from Captain Marie Batel of the U.S.S. Cayuga. Presently, The Cayuga is situated just outside Federation space in orbit around Parnassus Beta, a colony planet which has been designed to look like an old Midwestern town in the United States. The crew of the Cayuga has been tasked with helping the colonists with several challenges –stabilizing their agricultural crops and providing necessary vaccinations. Nurse Chapel has been assisting with healthcare efforts at the colony. Once complete, she beams back aboard the Cayuga. Batel has a brief flirty conversation with Captain Pike when suddenly a giant ship arrives in the planet’s atmosphere and communications go down. It is revealed to be a surprise attack by the Gorn (i.e. a “Gorn hegemony”). Why? How? Answers are never really given.
When the Enterprise receives an encrypted message from Batel who is trapped on the surface of Parnassus Beta (how is this possible if communications are down?), Pike leads the Enterprise to quickly offer help while trying to avoid a full-scale war with the Gorn. Upon arrival, the Enterprise discovers the planet is emanating a forcefield blocking communications, scans, and transportation. They also find a heavily damaged Cayuga as well as significant debris from the Cayuga floating in orbit. The Gorn has issued a message to Starfleet outlining a demarcation line –a threat to Starfleet not to come any closer. Nevertheless, Pike outfits the crew with specialized weapons, and gathers a landing party. In a shuttle, they disguise themselves amidst the floating debris of the Cayuga in order to avoid Gorn sensors –“an old zombie trick.” They make their way to the planet surface in search of survivors. Meanwhile, Spock, Una, Uhura and the others aboard the Enterprise fear that Nurse Chapel has died since the Cayuga has been mostly destroyed. Spock leads a risky mission in a life suit over to the Cayuga where he narrowly rescues Chapel, battles a Gorn, and plants several rockets on the damaged Cayuga which is sent crashing down to the planet below, destroying the point at which the forcefield prevention is emanating from.
Pike and the Enterprise landing party encounter a young junior grade lieutenant named Montgomery Scott (he is from the Stardiver, a solar research vessel monitoring solar flare activity before being surprise-attacked by the Gorn). He has been running a fake life signal in order to lure Gorn into a trap. Scott leads them back to the rest of the surviving Cayuga crew, including Batel, and explains to them that he built a makeshift Gorn transponder (apparently, the Gorn are sensitive to subdued light conditions). They encounter bands of hungry roaming Gorn younglings that are strangely gathering with one another. The crash of the Cayuga caused by Spock disrupts the Gorn forcefield and comms are suddenly back up and running. The survivors, Spock, and Chapel are all beamed back aboard the Enterprise, however Batel has been impregnated with Gorn eggs, and many of the survivors and colonists on the planet have been captured by the Gorn before the Enterprise can beam them aboard.
With war against the Gorn imminent, this episode ends on a cliffhanger: “to be continued…”
My Thoughts on “Hegemony”
A cinematic, rollicking action-adventure episode, the end of Season 2 revisits some familiar horror tropes last touched upon in Season 1, and it ends on a nail-biting cliffhanger. Nothing was particularly shocking or new for me in this episode –”Hegemony” is about what I expected for the season finale. We see the return of the Xenomorph-esque Gorn, Spock rescues Chapel, Pike rescues Batel, and we are given a new TOS nostalgic cameo (Scotty). There are a few interesting allusions to Alien III in this episode –such as the notion that the Gorn will not attack someone like Batel if she is impregnated with Gorn eggs– but there was nothing particularly new or surprising in this episode. This episode concludes a mixed bag of a season in my view. At least there were a couple solid episodes like “Ad Astra per Aspera” and “Under the Cloak of War.”
Star Trek Trivia:
- A young Scotty appears in this episode, played by Scottish actor Martin Quinn.
- Scotty was previously aboard the Stardiver, a solar research vessel monitoring solar flare activity before being surprise-attacked by the Gorn
- In this episode we learn that Scotty was one of Pelia’s best students, which is where he got the nickname “Scotty.”
- Dr. Korby is mentioned again in this episode (a nod to the TOS episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”).
- This episode features some new weapons-grade technology to fight the Gorn.
- This episode retcons the idea that the Gorn can survive in the vacuum of space. They are triggered by flares the same way locusts are triggered with a swarming instinct.
- The debris field ploy in this episode is somewhat reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- The arrival of the Gorn ship on the Parnassus Beta colony is a clear nod to the film Independence Day.
Interesting how SNW gives us so much more to learn about the Gorn. Martin Quinn makes a very good Scotty. Thank you for your review and trivia.