This is a good and proper bit of plain and simple Star Trek: No courtroom, no time travel, and no finale to start out the season. This is simply a test of humanity and a highlight of what happens when we lose ourselves. This episode is written by “Momento Mori” and “All Those Who Wander” writer Davy Perez and Discovery and Short Trek writer as well as Picard co-creator Kirsten Beyer.

I’m going to stop saying Onitra Johnson is a staff writer, she’s on that duty all season long. “Among the Lotus Eaters” is also directed by Cuban-born Eduardo Sánchez, co-writer and co-director for The Blair Witch Project.

More complicated than previous episodes in terms of setup, we need to go back to the unaired (until the 80s) pilot of TOS and the conversation between Boyce and Pike. Pike tells Boyce: “My own yeoman and two others dead, seven injured […] I should have smelled trouble when I saw the swords and the armor. Instead of that, I let myself get trapped in that deserted fortress and attacked by one of their warriors. I’m tired of being responsible for two hundred and three lives. I’m tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn’t, and who’s going on the landing party and who doesn’t, and who lives and who dies.”

This isn’t really an episode about Pike and his future delta radiation paralysis, even if it is about his relationship with Captain Batel (Una’s prosecution) being affected following “Ad Astra Per Aspera.” After a light breakup with Batel, Pike is ordered by Starfleet to fix the problem he created last time he was on Rigel VII 5 years prior. The problem was a landing party where three ended up KIA (Spock almost dying as well) in the retreat leaving behind the dead and as a result Starfleet tech. In the gardens of the palace, someone made a hedge into the Starfleet delta.

Originally set to be four in the landing party, Ortegas flies the ship. She’s disappointed and angry that she’s left to pilot the Enterprise through the Stecora debris field. It is up to Pike, La’an, and M’Benga to go to the planet of tinnitus and memory loss. I say it is that as if there isn’t something else like a previously thought-dead crewman playing despot king for the day. As I said, it is a longer setup than I’ve been able to do before but one that is absolutely worth giving as much as I have.

Admittedly, the first time I sat to watch “Among the Lotus Eaters,” I wasn’t the biggest fan but I understood it on a baseline conceptual level. It was after some research and a rewatch that it clicked into place. The episode is almost backward to how most TV is written now, though it uses that simple language from those early years. Once we’re properly into the episode, gone are grand ideals of our future in the stars and we’re deep into simple language and vagueness that can sometimes make it difficult for an episode to land well with me.

It isn’t an episode about Pike even though it is The Pike Show (Strange New Worlds), it isn’t about the crew, nor is it about the ship. Maybe I am doing as the great earth philosopher Martin Crane (and my dad) said a lot about his son, “you are reading too much into it.” Though, it is 100% an episode about Melissa Navia as much as it is about Erica Ortegas. It may be by complete accident that such an episode was filmed sometime between mid-March and early April, months after Navia’s partner Brian quickly passed from Leukemia in December 2021.

Let me explain that. Sure, the one with the most screen time is Pike, but almost everything the landing party does is to set up for what is effectively the B plot of Erica having to fly the ship. The landing party has tinnitus and the time shifting first. They have their first “forgetting” before the ship, they have a large number of revelations of what is going on, and most importantly, they are the ones talking about loss. They talk about losing and trying to hold on to love and loved ones. Or, in Luq’s case, forgetting about them because it is painful.

Then we get that line, “I’m Erica Ortegas. I fly the ship.” It is a simple line, just a statement of fact, but once it is repeated like a mantra it feels like a statement someone has to tell themselves to climb out of their grief. After they’ve forgotten themselves to the despair. Though it isn’t Ortegas that feels any personal loss, it refocuses the entire episode not on Pike trying to bring his memory back to correct his breakup with Batel, but onto Erica as she rediscovers herself. That simple line is both heartbreaking and hopeful all at the same time.

It is difficult to shift gears from something like that, but we need to talk about some of the missteps in the writing for the landing party. Though it does become very simple, using uncomplicated but vague language, I think we lose something important in all of that. In fact, I came to the same conclusion as Spock very early on that it may have been the radiation of the planet causing the landing party (then later the ship) to have these symptoms. No, it is the asteroid that is vaguely mentioned here or there, but it isn’t made clear till the end.

If there was maybe a line or two just to clean it up or give us something direct, I think most people would instantly say: “Sod the prime directive, get that asteroid to fu—.” As it stands, you can get that once you realize it, but it isn’t the obvious jump in logic to say, “Yes, that end bit is connected.” There is the moment of throwing the asteroid into the void of space (maybe we’ll see it again?) but I think setting that moment up and giving the people of Rigel VII their memories and lives back could have been greatly fixed with just a line to connect the dots.

While I might kick some of the writing for being underdone in one spot, I think I need to praise direction, acting, and possibly some writing for the fight with La’an. Previously I’ve said that her fight with Una felt off, either from it being two actors that aren’t typical to that role or the director not really giving us an anchor point to understand how impactful these hits are. Sánchez, Chong’s double Kaanchana Kerr, and whoever it was from the stunt team (presumably) that worked on that fight by the work area made her look good. The fight with the time-traveling Romulan last time also looked decent, but this stood out for me.

I think I even liked Spock in this episode, as he handed out info pads to everyone. It is literally a simple jump in logic to say, “You are losing your memory, so here are the details. Read it when you forget.” Then it is slightly twisted as the asteroid takes away the ability to read, which I’m mostly okay with. If reading isn’t something innate, then why does Pike have so much aggression and proficiency with weapons? How do we walk or talk? There is a line in an attempt to hand-wave this question away, but I think we need clarity on that or we’ll revisit Pike’s aggression.

This solid episode might lose you if you don’t typically enjoy some vagueness, but it is a standout performance if you know the behind-the-scenes details that make it heartbreaking. “Among the Lotus Eaters” might stumble here or there in sections and even take a moment (and slightly retcon it) from the original series that a good portion might not have known about. However, it is full of heart and an absolute delight to watch. Ultimately, she is Melissa Navia, she is the heart of this episode and everything that is Strange New Worlds.

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SNW "Among the Lotus Eaters"

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• She is Erica Ortegas, she flies the ship.
• La'an's fight feels big and impactful.
• I agree with Spock? What?

Cons

• The asteroid setup could have been a touch clearer.