Within the “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” episode “By way of the Lens of Time,” Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and her new boyfriend Roger Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan) have found an impossibly historical temple hidden beneath the rocks of a distant world. The know-how within the temple remains to be energetic after numerous unhallowed centuries, and it requires a drop of blood to enter. Every little thing is frightening and mysterious. Inside, the crew of the Enterprise discover a collection of glowing orbs that include … one thing. In addition they discover that they’ll go by uncommon stone passageways and step into totally different planes of existence. The six crew members are all in the identical room, however they can not see each other as a result of they’re out of section. It is like a haunted home or an deserted asylum.
When the ship’s new nurse Ensign Gamble (Chris Myers) picks up one of many mysterious orbs, it explodes in his hand. The flying glass and bolts of eldritch energies instantly destroy his eyeballs(!). Fortunately, that is “Star Trek,” so the medical instruments exist to develop him some new ones.
There’s an issue, although. The eyeball re-grower does not appear to work. There’s something else in Ensign Gamble’s physique. He begins to see into folks’s heads and fish out their unhappiest recollections. He mocks folks for his or her failings. One thing has clearly possessed him. The crew will finally uncover that the orb contained an evil, noncorporeal entity of unknown origin. The crew involves the conclusion, by decoding historical alien glyphs, that these entities have been intentionally imprisoned within the temple beneath.
Even Pelia (Carol Kane), who’s herself many millennia outdated, admits that taking a look at these demonic aliens offers her the heebie-jeebies. They’re scary, and evoke the scariest components of films like “Occasion Horizon” and “Prometheus.”
The aliens are additionally, maybe, the primary wholly unique villain within the annals of “Unusual New Worlds.” That is very thrilling for us Trekkies.
Star Trek has a brand new demonic villain: the Vezda
Whereas “Star Trek” does not usually take care of ethical absolutes, there are many characters and/or species that followers nonetheless contemplate to be “villains.” The depraved Cardassian Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo), as an example, is pushed by army ambition and a way of superiority, whereas possessing a smug streak of cruelty. He is a whole character, and an attention-grabbing one, however he is additionally villainous by most measures. Ditto, the Borg, a species of non-thinking cyborgs that seize each ship they encounter and strip it for components. The Borg assimilate folks into their collective and proceed to develop. They might finally be given a Queen and a voice, expressing their uncaring philosophy of perfection, and are additionally seen as “villains.”
“Unusual New Worlds” has, in fact, had loads of monstrous villains. The present has already featured a number of tales with the Gorn, a lizard-like species that reproduces just like the xenomorphs in “Alien” (in that they implant different beings’ our bodies with their eggs). The “Unusual New Worlds” model of the Gorn is a dramatic re-imagining of the slow-moving lizard-masked monsters seen within the unique “Star Trek.” “Unusual New Worlds” has additionally featured a number of episodes whereby Klingons are villains, often in a wartime context. There was additionally lately an episode whereby a Klingon aimed to engaged in hand-to-hand fight in the midst of a zombie outbreak.
However the brand new noncorporeal entities in “By way of the Lens of Time?” Those that may possess an individual after destroying their eyeballs? Eek. That is a scary new wrinkle for “Unusual New Worlds.” These entities — known as the Vezda Lifeforms on a pc monitor — are a brand new risk altogether.
Pah Wraiths, however higher
The tendency of the Vezda Lifeforms to learn minds and mock others for his or her previous errors is paying homage to the demons seen in Paul W.S. Anderson’s terrifying sci-fi horror film “Occasion Horizon,” a 1997 movie a couple of starship that unintentionally passes by Hell. They’re kind of demons, made all of the extra terrifying by their inconceivable ancientness. A number of the “Unusual New Worlds” characters are satisfied that the Vezda Lifeforms are, with out pretense, evil. Maybe they’re so historical, these beings are the originators of the idea of evil. “Star Trek” is at all times finest when coping with large, long-form, cosmic mysteries of this type.
After all, the Vezda Lifeforms aren’t the primary time “Star Trek” handled demonic entities that may take possession of individuals. Followers of “Star Trek: Deep House 9” will recall (often with dismay) the Pah-wraiths, a noncorporeal entity that was locked in a rivalry with the equally noncorporeal Prophets who lived inside a secure wormhole. The Bajorans referred to the wraiths as “false prophets,” and the ghostly demons had a means of creeping into our universe and occupying the minds of the corporeal beings they encountered. The wraiths first appeared within the episode “The Project” (October 28, 1996), however would play a big half within the present’s later seasons.
The Pah-wraiths are, I ought to hasten so as to add, broadly disliked by Trekkies who bristle on the “magical” nature of their existence. Evil demons that possess folks strays very removed from a number of “Star Trek’s” extra historically scientific considering. They really feel cartoony in a nasty means.
The Vezda Lifeforms, nevertheless, really feel somewhat extra sensible (effectively, as sensible as noncorporeal evil entities can). They appear to have passions, objectives, and unknown missions. And, most chilling, they survived the occasions of “By way of the Lens of Time.” We had been simply launched, however maybe we’ll see extra of them sooner or later.
