“Human Best Friend”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds centres on the tension between Ortegas and Scotty as they try to reconstruct a night they don’t remember.

The setup is familiar. Star Trek often resolves friction by forcing characters to work together, usually on a hostile planet where survival demands cooperation. Strange New Worlds takes a lighter route by pairing them in a mystery created by the resort’s intoxicating effect. The season already established that they clash, so bringing them together to solve a problem feels natural, but the show’s choice to avoid the usual stranded‑planet formula gives the dynamic a fresher angle.

Comparisons to The Hangover are unavoidable. Scotty and Ortegas wake up with no memory of the night before and have to piece together what happened by following whatever clues they can find. The setup naturally leads to comedy as the missing hours come into focus, and it’s a solid fit for characters discovering what they did while intoxicated. On Star Trek, this kind of uninhibited behaviour is unusual, which is why episodes like The Original Series’ “The Naked Time” and, to a lesser extent, The Next Generation’s “The Naked Now” stand out. The novelty comes from seeing disciplined officers act in ways they normally wouldn’t.

It feels less fresh in Strange New Worlds because the show often finds excuses for the crew to behave out of character. The Elysian Kingdom and A Space Adventure Hour both push the cast into exaggerated roles, even if the latter uses holograms, so this premise lands with a familiarity it might not otherwise have.

Comedy is subjective, and when a show that isn’t built around humour leans heavily on it, the risk is that the jokes overshadow the story. That happened for me here. The sheer volume of comedic beats made it difficult to stay engaged with what the episode was trying to do. Some viewers will enjoy Una belting out power ballads in Klingon, Pike getting tattoos, Chapel lashing out during bingo, La’an leading a gang, or Spock being drunk without behaving any differently. Others won’t, and for them the episode will be a frustrating experience.

Setting aside my lack of engagement with the comedy, the Scotty and Ortegas plot is well handled. Melissa Navia and Martin Quinn carry the episode with performances that track the gradual softening of their resentment. Their chemistry makes the initial hostility believable and gives their eventual understanding enough nuance to feel earned.

The episode builds that shift around a clear idea about the root of anger and how it shapes the way people relate to each other. Dendrew (Dave Foley), the resort’s administrator, talks about how easy it is to look for something to be angry about and how the real work is figuring out what that anger is actually rooted in. It’s a sentiment that fits modern culture, especially online spaces where reactions often feel disproportionate to the trigger. The anger is rarely about the surface issue. It comes from somewhere deeper, and people seldom examine it.

Ortegas reacts strongly to Dendrew’s words because she recognises herself in them. She knows her frustration with Scotty isn’t really about him, and admitting the true source of that anger becomes the first step toward resolving their conflict.

Their conversations about family start nudging them in that direction even before Dendrew’s observation. Scotty mentions having six older brothers, four of them adopted, and repeats his parents’ belief that hearts are infinite. It’s a simple sentiment that makes his point clear: family isn’t defined by blood. He treats all of his brothers the same, which comes through when he talks about being blamed for everything because he’s the youngest. The dynamic doesn’t change because some of them were adopted. It’s a small moment, but it offers a compelling glimpse into how Scotty’s upbringing shaped his worldview and fits neatly within Star Trek’s ethos of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

Ortegas connects with Scotty’s story because she has a younger brother and recognises the dynamic he describes. She admits to blaming Beto for things that weren’t his fault so he would get in trouble, and on some level she knows she’s treating Scotty the same way. The real reflection doesn’t begin until Dendrew’s words force her to reconsider where her frustration is actually coming from.

Her admission that she treated Beto that way out of jealousy sharpens the point. He could master anything, and she reacted by trying to knock him down a peg. Her story about wanting to be an engineer but struggling with it, then discovering she had a natural instinct for piloting, explains why that skill became central to her identity. Scotty’s warnings land as a direct challenge to that identity, so her anger comes from the fear that she might not be as good a pilot as she believes and from Scotty recognising it.

Scotty’s frustration comes from the same place. He sees in Ortegas a natural instinct for piloting that he never had, and it stirs the same insecurity she feels when her abilities are questioned. Engineering became the space where he could feel capable, so watching her excel at something he struggled with makes it easy for him to bristle. Their resentment grows out of that shared fear of being exposed, and the performances make the parallel feel genuine rather than forced.

Ortegas’ line about them being “a couple of screwups who found our callings” is a strong capstone. It marks the point where they start meeting in the middle and recognise that their extremes aren’t sustainable. As resolutions go, it’s solid and satisfying.

The character arc wraps up cleanly, but the episode adds one last plot beat that doesn’t help it. The bomb threat is unnecessary because it makes the situation far more dramatic than it needs to be. The character work is already complete, and the emotional resolution lands without any added stakes. Ortegas’ “I think we’d be friends” followed by Scotty’s “I think we already are” works on its own, but placing that exchange while he’s holding a bomb that might explode turns a subtle moment into a clumsy reinforcement of something the episode had already established with far more sophistication.

Another reason the bomb plot doesn’t work is that the peace treaty negotiation isn’t developed enough to support it. It’s mentioned early on and adds some urgency when Pike moves up the timeline in his intoxicated state, but the episode never establishes what’s actually at stake. Without clear political tension, the bomb feels disconnected and ultimately meaningless.

The explosion then tries to create political consequences the story hasn’t prepared for. Its fallout is brushed aside with a single line, and the attempt at humour, where the blast somehow turns a disastrous negotiation into a successful one, has no narrative weight. For that joke to work, the treaty itself would need far more definition and clarity about what is at risk.

Scotty and Ortegas aren’t the only characters who grow closer. Spock and Kirk do as well, although Spock assumes Kirk is a hallucination for most of the episode and the audience is given no reason to think otherwise until very late on. The idea of them bonding works, but Spock’s behaviour doesn’t track with what happened in the previous episode. He dealt with a far less friendly manifestation on the Griffin, so it would make sense for him to be wary of another hallucination rather than accepting Kirk’s presence so easily. This may be a consequence of the airing order, but it still stands out that two consecutive episodes hinge on Spock believing he’s hallucinating and the earlier, traumatic experience has no impact on him here. It’s a missed opportunity for a small piece of continuity that would have strengthened the connection between the episodes.

There’s also a real opportunity to explore the beginnings of the iconic Kirk and Spock friendship, but Strange New Worlds seems reluctant to give it any meaningful time. They mind melded in last season’s finale, which should have created an intimate connection, yet the only evidence of it was a brief exchange of dialogue. Something similar happens here. Spock talks about never having a best friend and wanting someone he feels comfortable opening up to, but he believes Kirk is a hallucination and treats the moment as an outlet for his subconscious. When he learns Kirk was real, he is embarrassed, and Kirk’s reassurance that his secrets are safe is a nice beat.

The performances sell the material, but there’s no real substance to the Kirk and Spock plot. The bonding happens off screen, and Spock’s vulnerability is described rather than shown. The episode sets up a chance for them to share meaningful time together and develop their connection organically, yet the show keeps sidestepping it. It’s a squandered opportunity and increasingly frustrating.

The episode’s uneven focus becomes even clearer when returning to Pike, whose grief arc sits alongside all of this but never quite connects to it. Based on the opening of the episode, it seems that the closest this season has to an ongoing arc is Pike overworking the crew. The need for shore leave is frontloaded through Ortegas and Scotty’s log entries and Una’s reminder that everyone, including Pike, badly needs a break. The idea began in the season premiere and continues here with the clear implication that Pike is avoiding his grief by throwing himself into work, and that avoidance is pushing the crew toward burnout.

It’s a solid foundation for a character arc that could explore how grief affects those around you, but so far, it has only being mentioned rather than developed. If the show committed to it, there’s real potential for conflict as the crew grow resentful of Pike’s inability to recognise the fatigue caused by his leadership.

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Verdict

An episode with real potential, weakened by comedy that consistently undercuts the story it’s trying to tell.

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