In Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (S3 – EP8) Four-and-a-Half Vulcans

Synopsis: In Four-and-a-Half Vulcans, a mission transforms crew members into Vulcans, and chaos ensues as they struggle to return to human form.

The Story

This episode was featured in the initial promotional materials for the third season. The storyline follows the Enterprise crew as they lend aid to a neighboring planet of Vulcan, which has not yet achieved interstellar flight, meaning the Prime Directive applies. To comply, Pike, La’an, Chapel, and Uhura are injected with a serum that transforms them at a molecular level into Vulcans. Trouble arises when the Doctor attempts to reverse the process with another serum, which fails.

Some comedic chaos ensues as the Vulcan versions of the crew embrace logic to an extreme degree. Pike changes crew shift rotations to every 40 minutes, while La’an begins overhauling various ship systems in preparation for a war against practically everyone.

Acting

The episode features some fun acting performances. I was particularly impressed with Christina Chong’s portrayal of La’an as a Vulcan, which, to me, leaned a touch more Romulan than Vulcan—a point briefly referenced in the episode. Ultimately, La’an’s behavior is explained as stemming from her lineage to the original Augments and Khan. Personally, I think it would have been even more interesting if she had been a Romulan, given their shared ancestry with Vulcans.

Celia Rose Gooding’s Uhura also shines, delivering amusing moments such as using a mind meld to manipulate Beto into her ideal vision of a boyfriend. The episode also features a memorable guest appearance by Patton Oswalt as a quirky Vulcan who is fascinated with humanity and an expert on Vulcan Katra. To top it off, he is revealed to be the ex of Una-Chin Riley, aka Number One, adding another layer of fun to the episode.

Overall

Although this was a fun episode with some comedic moments, it didn’t feel like a particularly strong Star Trek installment. The science behind the serum was largely glossed over, and when it failed to affect La’an, the explanation was simply that she was a Lanthanite—no further reasoning was provided. The episode also leaned a little too heavily into the idea that Vulcans could be dicks. While this is humorous at times, it risks reducing Vulcans back to the caricature seen in the early days of Enterprise.

As mentioned, La’an’s storyline is intriguing, but another highlight comes when Spock tries to persuade her to take the modified serum to return to human form. La’an initially resists and physically struggles with Spock, culminating in a fantastic sequence that showcases Christina Chong’s skills as both a trained martial artist and dancer. The choreography is brilliant and truly captivating, making this one of the episode’s standout moments.

Overall, while this episode was fun and had some genuinely funny moments, it didn’t really feel very Star Trek.