- Directed by Chris Fisher
- Teleplay by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers
- Story by Henry Alonso Myers and Alan B. McElroy
- July 23, 2026
- Paramount+
- Based on Star Trek Created by Gene Roddenberry
Episode Cast
- Captain Christopher Pike-Anson Mount
- Lt. Spock-Ethan Peck
- Nurse Christine Chapel-Jess Bush
- Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh-Christina Chong
- Ensign Nyota Uhura-Celia Rose Gooding
- Lt. Erica Ortegas-Melissa Navia
- Dr. Joseph M’Benga-Babs Olusanmokun
- Lt. Montgomery Scott-Martin Quinn
- Commander Una Chin-Riley-Rebecca Romijn
- Lt. George Samuel ‘Sam’ Kirk-Dan Jeannotte
- USS Enterprise Computer (voice)-Alex Kapp
- Cadet A’Sha-Bianca Nugara
- Admiral Robert April-Adrian Holmes
- Commander Pelia-Carol Kane
- Commander Cassel-Saffron Burrows
- Martian Guard #1-Dane Gulston
- Martian Guard #2-Colby Dean Turner
Pike leads the crew into a stellar storm, sending Enterprise back 65 million years.
Here we are at Season Four of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. When Valles Marineris opens, the crew is quietly aiding a pre-warp civilization by giving them medical supplies. Cannot remember the last time Trek did that without them (Starfleet) causing the issue. In TOS in The Paradise Syndrome the crew of Enterprise was charged with deflecting an asteroid from an unsuspecting planet whose natives were not advanced. Starting in TNG, unless the locals made some kind of request, they (Starfleet) let them die because of ‘destiny.’ I liked the return to the TOS view. But I’m getting off track.
Pike is offered a promotion and is given time to reflect upon it while studying a stellar storm but wouldn’t you know it, the vast amount of energy of the phenomena opens a rift in space/time and flings the crew back 65 million years with the ship working just well enough for vague sensor capabilities.
While a great deal is given to assorted subplots and what I assume will be season long arcs, not much is given to the science like explaining how Spock (Ethan Peck) was able to figure out how far back the ship was. Maybe use the time devoted to learning he has a cowgirl kink or characters getting jokey or decidedly unprofessional while in the field to explain it. Maybe even use ‘quantum dating’ which was used in the earlier set Star Trek: Enterprise. It would thus be a technology available here.
A moral conundrum of what to do is the thrust of the episode’s plot. An insect species called the Dol’drm from a planet between Mars and Jupiter has caused massive devastation for the Martians. You may go “But there is not one” and you are correct. The asteroid belt was once hypothesized to be a planet that those considering this hypothetical world named ‘Phaeton’ that for reasons was torn apart.
The one-off character of Commander Cassel (Saffron Burrows) was underserved. It was once common for single episode characters to show and feel developed. She was pretty two dimensional and strangely uninquisitive. She commands an alien ship that has some technical superiority to Enterprise but is very unimpressed to see species from outside her solar system in a ship type she does recognize. Like Spock, she quickly deduces the time difference between the vessels just by looking at displays and control panels. HOW?!
And this is where the conundrum comes in. She steals an anti-matter pod with plans to use it to commit some old-fashioned genocide by wiping out the alien planet. Does Enterprise stop her thus preventing humanity or allow her to set a record for the most kills in the shortest amount of time that will remain unbroken until the TNG episode The Survivors? It is a great idea but with the focus on events on very ancient Earth and the character moments that do not feed the main story it is a bit dropped in.
The scenes on Earth with the landing party lead by Una (Rebecca Romijn) accompanied by La’an (Christina Chong) and Ortegas (Melissa Navia) are fun and a little goofy as one would expect. It’s what you want when characters are trapped in the past and trying to navigate things. I think their banter gets too silly but I found it did not bother me significantly. La’an punching the dinosaur was quite funny and very WTF.
While SNW has screwed with if not violated continuity, this is one of the more egregious instances because it looks like they just forgot completely about the Voth from the Voyager episode Distant Origin. Long story short these were a saurian species that could trace their existence to Earth having left Earth because of the Chichxulub asteroid impact. No mention by Cassel or spotting of anything abandoned by the landing party.
My other problem with this is the science. Star Trek may be fiction, but it tried to have some rules. The Martian ship does not have warp (or anything comparable it seems) but makes it to the bug planet quickly. The shuttle sent to Earth arrives quickly and I do not think it has warp so which are they closer to? This is early 50s science fiction logic.
Being time travel it had the potential to be great fun or great drama and I think Valles Marineris tries too hard to straddle that. Pick one or the other. Focus on a fun story involving the away team on Earth dealing with dinosaurs. Or focus on the moral complexity of having to allow genocide so history can play out correctly.
I’m not calling it a loss. Pike’s (Anson Mount) handling of the situation was intelligent and very in line with Star Trek. Saffron Burrows was not a mustache twirling, genocidal maniac. She was just a captain desperate to save her people against something that she thought was out to destroy her. And maybe they were. We don’t know. The script does little to expand upon them.
While the episode works when it focuses on the problem-of -the-week, it gets sluggish and clunky when dealing with ongoing plot threads like Pike mourning Batel or what is surely going to be episode padding and that is Ensign Nyota Uhura’s (Celia Rose Gooding) issues dealing with Cadet A’Sha (Bianca Nugara). Nugara, like those making modern Trek, does not understand Vulcans are stiff and not jerks. Unfortunately I think we are going to have multiple elements of her being mean because she is essentially a bigot. Hope I am wrong.
Maybe not a great episode but Valles Marineris was an entertaining episode. It just needed to decide to focus on one thing. A nice start to the season.
Warren Watched A Movie 