The Starfleet Academy and War College cadets are on a training mission to a derelict Starfleet ship when a team is captured by dangerous marauders known as the Furies. Out of options to stage a rescue, Admiral Vance and Chancellor Ake turn to Nus Braka for help. His history with the Furies could prove decisive, though the price for his help may be too high. But maybe the newly-forged telepathic link between Caleb and Tarima will offer a way out of the crisis.
This was a very carefully crafted machine of an episode that really used the characters in just the right ways. The problems our heroes faced aboard the Miyazaki were constructed in such a way to give nearly every main character a role in the story and a moment to rise to the occasion. And while some of it may have been laced with a tinge of contrivance (Sam's ability to talk to the ship's communicator being both helpful and not too helpful), the situation felt effectively tense overall.
Some of that was the alien design of the Furies, whose weird phasing in and out felt like a fun way to "not show the monster" in an age where visual effects allow you to credibly show the monster. But I think more of it had to do with another page from the horror movie playbook: racking up a body count. Star Trek has always used dying redshirts to heighten the danger (to diminishing effects as it became a cliche), but there's something next level about the implied ripping apart of the cadets' teacher and tossing him into space for a bunch more cadets to see. And... bigger spoilers!... that danger is borne out when not only do the Furies claim the life of B'Avi, a character we've now spent a few episodes with, but also, defeating them winds up putting another character, Tarima, in a coma.
But while the bulk of the cast were thrown into this action-adventure stand-off, Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti sat apart in a one-on-one character drama that let the two skilled actors simply trade barbs with one another. The odd stillness and serious of Nahla Ake, rather at odds with the free-spirited whimsy she displays most of the time, was a strong signal to the audience that Nus Braka is a threat to take seriously. And Nus Braka? Well, Paul Giamatti made another delicious meal out of every over-the-top line he was given.
Nus Braka's "wheels-within-wheels" scheming wasn't exactly hard to see coming, but there are more ways to make a villain shine than making him smarter than anyone else. (Though, aside from the audience, I guess he was that here also.) A great villain bends the arc of the story to them, as Giamatti's character did here. And as fun as all of his boisterous grandstanding was throughout the episode, I found the best moment for both actor and character to be his final scene, where he dropped all the bluster to explain his core hatred for the Federation. I don't actually agree with his Reagan-esque suspicion of "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you," but this is absolutely a recognizable type of attitude that resonates today. When governments fall down on the job, as they did in this Star Trek future after the Burn, people like Nus Braka are ascendant.
I find myself hoping that this villain lasts more than just one season, because I find him a great asset for the show... that I also don't want to be too overused by having him appear too frequently. In any case, I felt he was a big part of what made this one of the stronger Starfleet Academy episodes so far. I give "Come, Let's Away" a B+.
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