6 Ups & 4 Downs From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.3 — Shuttle To Kenfori

3. DOWN — 28 Winks Later

The Frontier — final or former farming — is already a lawless place, we understand. Three episodes in, two missions have been "completely off the books". This is dangerous territory of 'tired refrain'. Hegemony, Part II did well to break down dichotomies between legal/illegal, between inside and beyond the line. Shuttle to Kenfori pushed the boundaries, and violation thereof, too far.

No-fly zone? No problem! Multiple treaties? Zero worries, so long as they can get that blossom. Don't tell Starfleet! If breaching restricted space to save a life were the only wink at the rules in Shuttle to Kenfori, it would be understandable. If a zombie's not a zombie, however, then a spade is a spade is still an accessory to murder.

"I don't have any report to file" is too easy an excuse for Pike, too easy an absolution for Doctor M'Benga. Hypotheticals are also just that, for the moment, since no one else had to hear the story. Like for Una at the end of season one, lies, even the more virtuous, may still come back to bite.