“Among the Lotus Eaters” feels like an Original Series episode — not in a “classic Trek, top-ten-memorable moments” sense, but more of a “well, at least they tried something new” sort of way. (Think “For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky,” but with a shorter title.)
 
The Enterprise and Cayuga, Captain Batel’s (Melanie Scrofano) ship, on a joint operation to survey a pair of pulsars, which is a nice opportunity to Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Batel to catch up on some much needed personal time. Batel gifts him an Opelian mariner’s medal, a pendant she picked up on Galt, when their time together is interrupted by professional calls — including a longwinded conversation with Admiral Eldon.
 
It appears that Batel is being punished for Una’s acquittal in “Ad Astra per Aspera,” as she learns othe, with promotions passing her for other candidates. Pike seems to blame himself, and tries to push her away… something Batel doesn’t take well.
 
Thankfully, Starfleet has given Pike a distraction from post-breakup moping: a mission to Rigel VII, site of a disastrous landing party six years ago. Photoreconnaissance of the pre-warp planet has revealed a dangerous anomaly: a Starfleet delta sculpted into gardens surrounding the royal palace. With a likely Prime Directive violation the cause, Pike and the Enterprise must return to the planet to correct their own mistake.
 

It’s an interesting pitch for a plot, and certainly a captivating one, as Pike’s existing melancholy mood over the cultural contamination is a nice character reach back to the brooding captain of “The Cage.”

Pike, La’an (Christina Chong), Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and plucky navigator Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) prep to join the landing party, dressed in culturally-appropriate costuming. Ortegas is excited to finally join an away mission, but her excitement to get out into the field is quickly dashed when her piloting skills are required to keep the Enterprise safe from a nearby asteroid field.

The remaining trio descend to the planet, departing their shuttle on foot towards the palace with only the appropriate technology — only for La’an to inexplicably lose six hours worth of her memories of the journey. It’s very odd, but M’Benga can’t immediately discern a medical cause, and the trio push forward. Arriving at the palace, they find another Starfleet delta on the exterior gates, along with phaser-rifle-carrying guards.

It’s clear sign of technological disruption, but as Pike and the team start to formulate a plan of entry, they’re ambushed by phaser-toting warriors who recognize them as Starfleet personnel.

It’s now M’Benga’s turn to experience memory loss, and when he recovers, the landing party is about to be hauled in front of the “High Lord” of the region, a sovereign who turns out to be Zach (NAME), a member of the Enterprise landing party thought dead during Pike’s last visit to Rigel VII, furious about being left behind.

Zach reveals that Rigel VII “changes people,” as a nearby asteroid — one of which crashed to the planet’s surface nearby — emits a dangerous form of radiation that erases one’s memory completely. While Pike, La’an, and M’Benga forget their identities quickly, the radiation soon begins to affect the Enterprise crew as well as Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) is one of the first aboard ship to experience memory loss.

Back on the surface, an older man called Luq (Reed Burney) approaches Pike in an effort to help the landing party through their “Forgetting.” Pike and La’an attempt to overpower the guards, which goes well until La’an is stabbed. M’Benga tries to help, but she is dying; Luq takes then to his house, where they will be safe for the time being.

There’s something very TOS-esque about the Forgetting, along with the local color-based caste systems, the totems, the four guards in the hats, and the sets where you can clearly see the back wall. (Was this a purposeful homage? Quite possibly? Did it still feel very shallow? Absolutely.)

The acting is great, especially as Pike remembers his emotional connections to La’an, M’Benga, Batel and the ship in orbit, but the storytelling is still closer to the sophistication of “The Apple” than anything with depth. That’s fine, if you can live with that. I think with 50 years of hindsight, I’m struggling a little.

On Enterprise, the memory loss is growing; a third of the crew is down, with more to follow. It appears that Rigel VII is the cause, with exotic radiation emitted from its atmosphere as the culprit. Spock (Ethan Peck) and Ortegas — the last crew left on the bridge –- makes the drastic move of taking the ship into the asteroid belt in the hopes that minerals in the field will protect them.

Back on Rigel VII, Pike argues with Luq about whether or not it is better to save La’an — or let the “forgetting” take her memory from them — which is a grim and very TOS idea in a way. Even the language Luquses feels like a TOS homage, as he talks about leaving behind the burdens of past pains every night. Luq knows he had a family, but they are forgotten and he prefers it that way.

Pike isn’t convinced; he knows must save La’an and get back to whoever gave him that medallion — Batel. This seems to convince Luq; apparently love is an emotion so strong the Forgetting can’t erase it. (How convenient!) M’Benga thinks he can save La’an if he gets his memories back, and the totem in Luq’s home says that the palace contains a casket that holds peoples’ memories — this keeps the king and warriors to keep their memories intact, while those outside the palace walls must forget.

Things have gotten worse on the Enterprise; Spock and Ortegas have forgotten who they are completely, and Ortegas freaks out enough that she runs from the bridge, through a completely mind-wiped crew and back to her cabin. Cowering on the bed, she argues with the ship’s computer about who can save the Enterprise, only to learn that it’s up to her to rescue everyone.

She’s the pilot: she flies the ship! Apparently that’s so important to Ortegas that she can never really forget it, which is great – especially for the rest of the crew — as she returns to the bridge in triumph to dramatically fly the ship out of danger.

Planetside, M’Benga and Pike attack the palace, breaking past warriors and mind-wiped alike to get into the main chamber. Pike bars the door and overpowers Zach, demanding access to the memory casket. Zach only laughs, explaining that the whole thing is a myth: in reality, it’s the ore used in the palace walls and the guards’ helmets that protect their memories. Just by entering the palace, Pike’s will return… but not in time to save La’an.

Pike doesn’t believe him, as the captain beats and nearly shoots Zack in anger before his memory returns just in time, realizing what lengths his protectiveness for his crew push him to. “Rigel VII doesn’t change you,” says Pike, “it just shows you who you really are.”

(Apparently, for Zach, that’s a slightly mad despot who hasn’t changed his shirt in six years. Ew.)

Pike, seemingly horrified at what he was about to do, promises that Zach will be punished for what he’s done — but not until they save La’an, an easy task when Pike finds the cache of Starfleet equipment in Zach’s throne room. Luq also gains his memories back in a bittersweet moment of remembrance, as he weeps in memory of his wife and son. Remembering people is better than shoving it down and ignoring it, folks. You heard it here first!

All is restored on the Enterprise too, thanks to Ortegas’ flying and an alteration of shield harmonics. She saved the day, but it would have been nice if she had gotten some more character depth in the process.

Pike also reconciles with Batel; the experience of losing and re-gaining his memory has made it very clear that no matter what, their relationship is too important to be discounted. It’s a nice roundup to the episode: Pike’s arc from Season 1 — overcoming the shadow of his dark future — has been closed, and now his interpersonal relationships have value beyond the temporary. It’s a well-rounded character arc for the episode, and a nice way to push Pike and Batel’s relationship forward.

CAMP NONSENSE OF THE WEEK

This week’s camp nonsense award (sadly missed, I’m sure, from last week’s review) goes to Ortegas in the native hat she wears in preparation for landing party duty. It’s a good hat, Erica, I promise. No idea what the others are on about.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• The Starfleet delta seen on the surface of Rigel VII is based upon the design introduced in Star Trek: Discovery, apt for a planetary visit from six years prior to the episode.
• Mentions of Spock’s injuries is consistent with “The Cage,” where the Vulcan sports bandages and a limp from the Enterprise’s first visit to Rigel VII.
• The mentions of Spock’s injuries are another nod to the script and background of The Cage – Spock, in fact, still has a limp and some dressings on him during the Cage itself!
• Batel found the Opelian mariner’s medal on the farming colony of Gault, where Worf grew up after his adoptive parents rescued him from the Khitomer attack.
• Pike and Batel share a bottle of Chateau Picard (vintage 2221); a version of the same bottle was released last year through Star Trek Wines.

“Among the Lotus Eaters” has some interesting ideas, and the concept of a caste society built around memory is unique and intriguing. It’s well acted, certainly, and Mount makes the most of his first big episode of the season, but the plot is somewhat lacking. Following up on the Rigel VII incident — the inciting prelude to “The Cage” — is absolutely the perfect thing for Strange New Worlds to do, but it just felt undercooked.

I’d have liked more focus on the people Pike left behind — especially Zach — and what that meant, over the whole “memory loss-regain” thing that, while intriguing, was still very stretched out. I think the focus on what is important to Pike (his love for his crew, and for Batel) is a great piece of closed storytelling, but I think I would have liked a bit more sophistication from a ten-episodes-per-season show.

The visuals were also dampened by prodigious usage of the AR wall soundstage, which certainly gave the whole thing an claustrophobic Original Series-esque “planet of the week soundstage”, something that I thought we’d left behind.

I think my biggest criticism, however, is the handling of Erica Ortegas’ character, one for whom fans have been clamoring for focus since the series debuted last summer. Last season, we got virtually zero development for the Enterprise pilot, and nearly halfway through Season 2, we’re up to… “I fly the ship.” Remembering how exciting and important your passions are can be is good, but this is not character depth; this is a job description.

This isn’t like the Star Trek: Discovery bridge crew, where the four or five extra bodies on that set occasionally get some lines or small spotlight moments; Melissa Navia’s part of the credited main cast and she plays Ortegas brilliantly — but there’s almost no depth to work with, something that annoys me greatly.

We learnet more about Sulu in the first aired episode of TOS than we have about Ortegas in the last fourteen episodes, and that is increasingly irritating, especially if this was the expected Season 2 “Ortegas episode” viewers had been hoping for.

Hopefully it won’t take until Season 3 for fans to spend some more personal time with her.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns with “Charades” on Thursday, July 13 on Paramount+ in the U.S, the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.