Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Terrarium" | Season 3, Episode 9
Almost great
Last week, I talked about losing faith in an episode ten minutes in. This week, we have an episode that held my attention (and interest) almost until the end; if it weren’t for an extremely bad twist at the story’s climax, I would’ve considered this one a minor classic. “Terrarium” doesn’t do anything particularly innovative or fresh at any point in its runtime, but after so many annoying gimmick-centric hours this season, I was grateful for some well-done, well-acted, meat-and-potatoes Star Trek. A crewmember (Ortegas) is stranded in a hostile environment and has to make friends with an enemy (a Gorn, naturally) in order to survive long enough to be rescued by her friends. It’s an old set-up, but a good one. Pity about that twist.
Before we get to that, though, I’d like to spend at least a little time being positive. So: for all its faults, the season has done a good job slow-burning the fallout from Ortegas’ initial encounter with the Gorn. It’s been a lingering presence since the first episode, and a great example of how letting an audience sit with an idea for a while is a great way to create tension without belaboring the point. I know I criticized at least one episode for how it handled the character’s PTSD, but even if the individual beats weren’t as nuanced as I would’ve liked, I really appreciate how long we waited for the payoff on this one.
