6 Ups And 3 Downs From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3.6 — The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail

With Commander/Captain Kirk front and centre (seat) this week, the whales have a lot to do. There is no bigger reference in Star Trek, but then, that observation rather speaks for itself. Let's move on instead to another, one fairly well-known from the title.

"Quadrupedal beast," or just a "fat teddy bear," the sehlat was a creature native to Vulcan, often domesticated. Both Spock and T'Pol had one as a pet. Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, was the first to mention the sehlat on screen in Journey to Babel, followed immediately after by Doctor McCoy. His pronunciation was oddly different, but it seems to have (also) stuck. The sehlat's first on screen appearance was in animated form in Yesteryear. Later, a CGI sehlat featured briefly in The Forge.

For those (quite rightly) obsessed with ships, please see Seán's breakdown of the history of the USS Farragut. The ultimate fate, the ultimate actions, of the descendants of those who left Earth in the mid-21st century were a reminder of something Quark said to Nog in The Siege of AR-558:

[Humans are] a wonderful, friendly people as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time, and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon.

In the cold-open of The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail, Commander Kirk notes to Captain V'rel that, "Starfleet could have sent a probe, but instead they sent us because some things you need to see for yourself to truly understand…" That is almost word-for-word what Captain Archer said to T'Pol in Civilisation: "Starfleet could've sent a probe out here to make maps and take pictures, but they didn't. They sent us so we could explore with our own senses". In both cases, the debate was about 'boots on the ground'.

If in doubt, depressurise/decompress. Una got her turn like Commander Riker before her in Cause and Effect, and Commander Chakotay in Scorpion, Part II. Also, by the by, did the scavenger suits remind anyone of those worn by the Vanir (aka the Asgard) in the Stargate: Atlantis episodes First Contact and The Lost Tribe?