Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 8 Review

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 8, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 delivers its first missfire, with an illogical Vulcan episode that has some fun moments, but ultimately feels like a letdown. Strange New Worlds has taken some pretty big swings throughout its tenure on Paramount+, and most of them have paid off with flying colors.

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 8, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” isn’t bad, it feels like a step down from the earlier episodes of the season, especially after the excellent documentary episode, “What Is Starfleet?.” “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” begins when the Enterprise receives a request for assistance from the Vulcan High Command.

To aid the Vulcans with a mission to the pre-warp civilization on Tezaar, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and several of his crew members turn into Vulcans. This process requires a serum made by the Kerkhovians from Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, “Charades,” which saw Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) turned into a human.

In many ways, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” feels like a spiritual successor to “Charades,” as it features a similar plot full of Vulcan hijinks. However, the humor of “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” didn’t land quite as well for me, and I found myself asking questions the episode never addressed.

Captain Pike & His Crew Make Fascinating (& Illogical?) Vulcans

La'an (Christina Chong), Spock (Ethan Peck), Pike (Anson Mount), Chapel (Jess Bush), and Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) as Vulcans stride down the hallway Strange New Worlds

Captain Pike, Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), and Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) all take the serum to become full Vulcans. It doesn’t work on Commander Pelia (Carol Kane), much to her disappointment. Spock accompanies Pike and the landing party, and they complete the mission to Tezaar in record time.

As the viewer, we don’t get to see any of the mission to Tezaar, which is slightly disappointing, but when the landing party returns, the serum meant to convert them back to humans doesn’t work. Stuck as Vulcans, Pike, La’an, Chapel, and Uhura navigate their lives with their newfound logic, leading to numerous complications.

Pike sabotages Captain Batel’s (Melanie Scrofano) meeting with Admiral Pasalk (Graeme Somerville), Chapel cuts herself off from everyone and devotes herself to research, Uhura minds melds with Beto Ortegas (Mynor Luken), and La’an tries to start a intergalactic war. While some of these Vulcan attributes make sense for the characters, it doesn’t fully track that turning into Vulcans would alter them in this way.

The Vulcans we have seen throughout Star Trek do not act like this. “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” sort of explains this by saying that Pike and his crew members’ katras are still human, but it all feels, quite frankly, illogical. While the episode has some funny moments, it sometimes feels like it’s making fun of Vulcans (and thus of Spock), which doesn’t sit right.

Kirk & Scotty Make A Great Team

Scotty and Kirk staring at Vulcan La'an in confusion in Star Trek Strange New Worlds Four and a half Vulcans

Perhaps the best team-up of the episode comes when Lt. Commander James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) visits the Enterprise and reconnects with Lt. Scotty (Martin Quinn). Upon his arrival via the transporter, Kirk greets Scotty, telling his future Chief Engineer to refer to him as Jim, considering their shared near-death experience in “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail.”

Kirk and Scotty then sit down for a drink with Vulcan La’an, who has developed an obsession with making the Enterprise as formidable as possible. La’an eventually decides she wants to start a war between all of the major powers in the galaxy, and Kirk and Scotty must find a way to stop her.

Kirk and Scotty’s interactions lead to some of the best scenes in the episode, as they quickly develop a rapport that bodes well for the pair’s future. Paul Wesley, Martin Quinn, and the rest of the cast do a great job as usual, and the newly Vulcanized cast members give it their all and are clearly having a lot of fun.

Uhura and Beto are adorable as always, and Vulcan Chapel’s decision to cut everyone off makes perfect sense for her character. Pike and Batel are fine, but their storyline feels like a rehash of things the show has already covered, although it’s nice to see Batel is feeling better after her Gorn scare a few episodes ago.

Number One Has A Vulcan Ex Named… Doug?

Patton Oswalt as Vulcan Doug in Star Trek Strange New Worlds Four and a half Vulcans

When Pike, La’an, Chapel, and Uhura decide they wish to remain Vulcan, Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock meet with the rest of the senior officers to discuss their next steps. Una eventually reveals that she has a spiritualist Vulcan ex named Doug (Patton Oswalt), who is a katra expert.

While it’s always great to see Patton Oswalt, his storyline with Una feels like something out of a 1990s comedy. The tall, beautiful Illyrian and the short, average-looking Vulcan have “too much” chemistry, making it impossible for them to focus on anything else in one another’s presence. Una has often been relegated to the background this season, and I wish she had gotten a better story than this one.

Spock discusses the situation with Doug, and he apparently shows Spock how to connect with his crew members’ katras, but we don’t get to see any of that. Instead, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” skips straight to sickbay, where Pike, Chapel, and Uhura all return to their human selves, horrified by their behavior as Vulcans.

Spock then forms a connection with La’an inside her head, where a fist-fight between the two turns into a passionate dance that brings La’an back to herself. While Strange New Worlds season 3 has emphasized La’an’s love of dancing, this instance feels out of place, and the scene glosses over La’an’s connection with infamous augment dictator Khan Noonien Singh.

Overall, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” is a weird episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that didn’t work for me as well as this season’s other comedic episodes. It delivers some genuine laughs and will likely be fun for many fans, but with only ten episodes per season, I wish we’d gotten something with a bit more depth.