Retro Recap: STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Recap: (S01E03) Ghosts of Illyria

These recaps were originally published on the dearly defunct Geek Girl Authority. RIP. We are reposting them in honor of the franchise’s 60th anniversary — and beyond  — and as a way to keep some of our past work alive in the era of failing digital archives.

“Ghosts of Illyria” was written by Akela Cooper & Bill Wolkoff and directed by Leslie Hope. 

We open on the USS Enterprise arriving at Hetemit IX, a planet being swept by an ion storm. In voiceover, a First Officer’s log recorded by Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) for Stardate 1224.3 notes that the planet is the site of an abandoned Illyrian colony. Una explains that Illyrians are a humanoid species that modified their genetic code to augment their levels of function, behavior that labeled them outcasts among the Federation, which has outlawed the alteration of genes. 

The Enterprise has been dispatched to Hetemit IX to investigate what happened to the Illyrian colonists there, who have vanished. However, the crew has a limited amount of time on the surface, thanks to the approaching ion storm. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) assigns Una the task of leading the rest of the away team back to the Enterprise as he heads off to locate Spock (Ethan Peck), who they cannot reach by communicator due to the storm.

Elsewhere, Ensign Lance (Daniel Gravelle) is investigating some beakers when he’s called by Pike. Lance leaves to head to the rendezvous point as the camera lingers on the beakers and portentous music (scored by Nami Melumad) plays.

As the away team attempts to beam back to the Enterprise, Chief Kyle (André Dae Kim) has difficulty getting a lock on them due to the storm. The away team finally beams up, but Kim is losing them. He contacted Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak), who calmly reroutes energy in order to facilitate the transport. 

Back on the surface, Pike locates Spock, but the storm has arrived, and it’s too late for them to beam up, no matter how much power Hemmer can provide. Una advises them to find shelter and wait out the storm.

“Ghosts of Illyria”

Una arrives on the Enterprise bridge, and as the ranking officer, issues orders to the crew to conduct their jobs as usual while they await the return of Pike and Spock. Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) aprises her of the situation: due to the ion storm, they cannot contact Spock and the Captain on the surface. There’s nothing to do but wait.

On Deck Fourteen, Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) encounters Lance, who has begun to disrobe and is fixated on a light fixture. A bemused Ortegas dismisses the lower decker (“Whatever tweaks your freak, pal”) and is about to pass him by when he smashes his head through the pane, causing her to leap to his assistance and call security.

Meanwhile, Una is in her quarters, and the light fixtures have begun to catch her attention, as well. She orders the computer to increase illumination twenty-five percent and is beginning to really get into it, even ripping her uniform top Kirk-style, when her body begins to glow red. The red light subsides and Una contacts Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) to inquire about the rest of the away team. He informs her that several of them have strange symptoms, and asks her to report to sick bay for examination.

As Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) examines another member of the away team, M’Benga apprises Una of the situation: half of them have been burned on sources of illumination and yet they seem to only be calmed by exposure to light. When asked by M’Benga, Una lies and says she hasn’t experienced any of the same symptoms, deflecting by asking if he’s found any source of contagion. M’Benga notes the transporter biofilters would have caught that, but he checked anyway (nothing), and only found a deficiency in vitamin D. However, Una’s vitamin D levels are normal, and M’Benga takes a blood sample from her.

In engineering, Una grills Hemmer about the biofilters and the possibility that the ion storm might have affected their efficacy. Hemmer notes that the ship’s upgrades means that not only are the transporters networked for emergency power, there are discrete systems that do the same for the biofilters and pattern stabilizers. He nevertheless agrees to run a shipwide level five diagnostic to appease Number One. 

Pike finally manages to get a signal through and Una warms him that the away team may have been exposed to something before they lose the signal. Una heads to the ready room and tells the computer (Alexa Kapp) to show files pertaining to Illyrian genetic modification related to disease control and to isolate any information pertaining to the original Illyrian settlement on the Valtera Nebula. 

Security Chief La’an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) enters and asks if Una thinks the situation pertains to the Illyrians. La’an gives voice to one of the reasons cited by the Federation for outlawing genetic engineering: it can have unexpected consequences, which might look like the situation being experienced by the away team. Una cites the Eugenics Wars and observes that La’an must know all about that, considering Khan Noonien Singh was her ancestor.

La’an says that being made fun of for her last name was the worst thing that happened to her (before her family was attacked by Gorn). But that’s when La’an begins displaying the light-fixation symptoms, even though she wasn’t part of the landing party… although she did come into contact with Lance. M’Benga recommends a full lockdown, and Una issues the order.

Illyrian Storm

On Hetemit IX, Pike and Spock are confined to a library as the storm rages outside. Spock has accessed some of the files and reveals that this particular group of Illyrians wished to join the Federation and were attempting to “de-engineer” themselves in order to join. Outside the library, the pair observes some unfamiliar fire entities.

On the Enterprise, Uhura awakes to her roommates burning themselves on a simulation of the sun. In medical, Chapel notes fifty more crew members are displaying symptoms. Using contact tracing, they can ascertain that certain people contracted the condition from others, but cannot explain how Uhura would remain immune. Hemmer arrives in the process of his diagnostic and approaches the emergency medical transporter, which generates protests from M’Benga. 

In the library, Pike and Spock are threatened by one of the fire entities. They move to block the door to prolong their attempts at ingress.

Back on the Enterprise, Una works closely with Uhura to determine that she was in total darkness while sleeping. In medical, she shares her finding with M’Benga: the “infection” travels via light. They concoct a plan to turn off the lights on the Enterprise and keep the “light addicts” in medical under control using sedation.

Back in the ready room, Una is accessing files about Illyrian genetic modifications related to disease control, revealing images that bear a striking resemblance to the “red light” reaction she experienced earlier. She’s interrupted by an alert about a blackout override in the transporter room and has to leave in order to investigate. 

Una finds Hemmer attempting to sate his thirst for light by transporting a ten thousand degree portion of Hetemit IX’s mantle onto the Enterprise. She has to stun him in order to stop him from succeeding, and she then carries him to medical.

In the library in Hetemit IX, Pike pulls his weapon as Spock continues to read the history of the Illyrians. He deduces that the creatures did not wipe them out, although they did begin to appear as the Illyrians were dying of an unknown disease. The pressure drops and becomes hostile to life as the creatures break into the library and disarm Pike. The creatures then form a protective dome around the two Starfleet officers. When the storm subsides, the creatures leave, and Spock observes that the creatures saved their lives.

On the Enterprise, Una arrives in medical and dismisses questions about how she can manage to carry Hemmer. Both M’Benga and Chapel have contracted the infection as well. Una urges them to use her blood to engineer a cure, since she already fought off the infection, and reveals that she is Illyrian. However, M’Benga explains that her body operates in such a way that he would have needed to be there when she fought off the infection in order to capitalize on the antibodies. La’an awakens, unobserved by M’Benga or Una.

M’Benga observes that it must be hard for Una to have so much faith in Starfleet, considering the prejudice the Federation has against bioengineered individuals. However, M’Benga says he’s indifferent about the artificial boundary, but there’s nothing to be done. Una sedates him before he succumbs to the infection.

A warp core containment breach warning alarm alerts Una to the fact that La’an has incapacitated Chapel and vanished. When Una arrives in Engineering, La’an is attempting to flood the ship with light by releasing the core from containment. La’an and Una fight one another. As the core breach becomes imminent, both Starfleet officers glow red.

In the library, Pike and Spock find they cannot hail the Enterprise. Pike observes that the plasma creatures shielded them, and Spock postulates that the creatures may actually be what remains of the Illyrian colonists after bonding with the charged particles in the storm. Apparently of its own accord, one of the library records activates, and Spock reads that it is an account of the Illyrian colonists’ attempt to renounce their genetic engineering in order to join the Federation. Spock notes that if they had not reversed their genetic engineering, they would have been able to fight off the infection that killed them.

On the Enterprise, M’Benga awakens after Una administers an antidote that was synthesized from chimeric antibodies created in La’an’s system due to her proximity to Una. In the lounge, Una comes upon La’an eating strawberries. La’an says that her harsh words during the fight were both her talking and not: due to her association with Augments, she’s aware of how damaging they were to the Federation.

But Una says that while the Augments might have used genetic engineering to nefarious ends, the Illyrians have a different philosophy. They use genetic engineering to adapt their bodies to natural environments, altering themselves so that the environment need not be terraformed, and there’s nothing wrong with that. La’an asks why Una hides herself if that’s what she believes, and Una admits it's so she can accomplish her dream: to be a part of Starfleet.

In the ready room, Una admits to Pike that she’s an Illyrian, surrenders her commission and herself for disciplinarian review. Pike rejects this; she's the best First Officer in the fleet. 

Even though he could face consequences for harboring an Illyrian, Pike says the events he experienced on Hetemit IX convinced him Illyrians are misunderstood, and her simultaneous actions underscored this. Pike says she’s an example to all of them, and to let him worry about what Starfleet might do in the future.

In medical, Una approaches M’Benga and says it was his medical transporter that caused the biofilters to allow the infection to slip by, since the newer main transporters have the biofilters power update. M’Benga reveals that he didn’t allow them to upgrade the medical transporter when they were in spacedock because he’s keeping his daughter in the pattern buffer. She has a terminal disease, and he’s using the time extension possible only through the pattern buffer glitch to prolong her life as he searches for a cure.

M’Benga attempts to surrender his commission, but Una says she’ll provide a dedicated power source directly from the core. M’Benga visits his daughter inside the medical transporter to read her a story. 

In her quarters, Una records a personal log lamenting that she may only be accepted in spite of her genetic engineering because she is an exemplary officer, and wonders what would have happened if she weren’t a hero: “When will it be enough to just be an Illyrian?” Una deletes the log.