Strange New Worlds: What Is Starfleet?

Because Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a show that cares about continuity, when we were introduced to Ortegas' brother Beto early in season three and told he was making a documentary, it seemed inevitable that at some point we would see the culmination of that. In fact, we wound up getting entire episode presented as that documentary, in "What Is Starfleet?"

Documentary filmmaker Umberto Ortegas has been given unprecedented access to the U.S.S. Enterprise, and now presents the footage of his time aboard the Starfleet flagship: "What Is Starfleet?" In this film, he examines Starfleet's problematic posture as a military organization, by way of one particular mission to escort a space-dwelling life form that inflames tensions in an escalating political conflict.

I don't mind the idea of giving an entire episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to a fictional documentary, for a couple of reasons. The franchise is approaching a staggering 1,000 episodes of content, but I believe has never used this conceit before. And while the mockumentary concept may not be fresh in television at large, it's used almost exclusivity in sitcoms -- so to me it feels like there's still more to be mined in a more dramatic context.

That said, I still didn't find the execution of "What Is Starfleet?" to be as interesting as the concept. Partly, it's because I found myself not believing in the character of Beto or his journey. We've spent a couple of episodes with him now, but this is the first time we're really learning about the depth of his animosity toward Starfleet. The young man we've seen now over a few episodes doesn't seem like the kind of person who could bottle his emotions this long and not betray the fact that he was planning a hatchet job with his documentary. If he hated Starfleet this much, he surely would have let the mask slip before now. Or if he only "sorta" hated Starfleet, I'd have thought his earlier mission to an archaeological dig would have softened his stance more than the e*vents of this episode. 

I feel like the bigger issue, though, is that in focusing on Beto's journey of acceptance, the episode sidesteps other serious issues at play in the story. Or... maybe it is? It's a little hard to tell exactly what's going on with Enterprise's mission, and that's intentional in the writing as they embrace the documentary conceit. If Beto doesn't have access to something, we the audience don't get to know it.

But we are told that Starfleet is backing the more genocidal faction in a two-sided conflict, and we never learn why. It calls to mind the premise of Star Trek: Insurrection -- not a great movie (or even a great Star Trek movie), but at least recognizing that "allying with butchers" is a deeper topic worthy of a longer exploration. I can understand why the writers might not want to fully interrogate an allegory that could be, say, mapped on to the U.S. and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... but to never get any answers seems odd. (At least the "empathy for life, no matter how alien" morals surrounding the space creature are more developed.)

Still, the episode does give good moments for several characters in their "talking head" interviews, voicing the importance of Starfleet to them in ways that a normal episode of Star Trek wouldn't allow them to do. I'm thinking of Ortegas, Spock, and Uhura mainly (in that order) -- but long time Strange New Worlds viewers who know the back stories of Number One and Dr. M'Benga will appreciate the subtle nods to their histories in their interviews as well. And Christopher Pike has a great moment of delivering the most diplomatic and biting form of a "we're done here" response, when he refuses to wax poetic about the deaths under his command.

So while I overall found "What Is Starfleet?" to be a mixed bag, I did nonetheless enjoy the narrative experiment. I give the episode a B.