Last week on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we had a horror tale; this week, we have a wacky, silly episode that runs like The Hangover. Apparently they’re hitting all the big genres this year. What will we get next week? A western? A cartoon? And when is that puppet episode coming?
Season four, episode three, “Human Best Friend,” opens with voice-over from both Ortegas and Scotty, essentially talking about how much they dislike each other. But in a way that seems kind of “professional”—you know, “I don’t want to complain,” that type of thing. In fact, Pike has noticed that everyone seems a little bit stressed, a bit on edge. So he announces that alpha ship is taking shore leave. He plays a video for a resort called the Cesnar Grand. It is a tech-free zone, and there is an “intoxicating atmosphere” that kicks in on the planet, allowing each patron to experience the resort differently. Uhura and Scotty are both worried about work, but Chapel and Ortegas are certainly not. They have negotiations scheduled with the Rodaxians to help negotiate a civil war on their planet, but that’s not for two weeks. They can go enjoy a vacation, come back, and still have a week to prepare for the negotiations. The shuttle heads down to the planet, though not without some backseat driving from Scotty, which drives Ortegas crazy. The atmospheric drug starts kicking in before they even land. It’s like they’re tripping: wacky colors and distorted camera angles.
