STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: Episode 106: “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach”

In the sixth episode of STRANGE NEW WORLDS, the Enterprise answers a distress call from a shuttlecraft under attack from an alien warship. Enterprise pulverizes the warship and beams the shuttlecraft survivors aboard. The crew rescues a boy designated the “First Servant,” his father Gamal, and Alora, a diplomat. Alora is also Captain Pike’s former girlfriend. Pike agrees to return the human trio to Majalis, a non-Federation human planet full of advanced medicine and a floating city.

In the B-plot, Doctor M’Benga heals the First Servant and Gamal in the medical bay. The First Servant reveals that his people’s medicine far exceeds the capabilities of Federation technology. M’Benga inquires Gamal about Majalis’ advanced technology. Out of curiosity, the First Servant hacks into the sick bay’s unencrypted firewall. He discovers M’Benga’s secret daughter Rukiya, whose illness can’t be treated by Starfleet medicine. The First Servant could have healed the Rukiya then and there. Instead, she gets cured by a deus ex machina in Episode 8. The boy and Rukya bond together, but the boy is summoned back to his home planet.

On Majalis, Captain Pike and Alora catch up on their previous engagement. Alora checks on her bodyguards, but one man tries to assassinate her. The defector kills another guard and flees into the palace grounds. The rogue guard holds Alora hostage. Alora shanks a knife into the man’s chest in self-defense. Later that night, Pike shares his “future doomsday” dreams with Alora. Alora reassures him that the future is in his control. Pike accepts Alora’s invitation to watch the “ascension ceremony” for the First Servant.

In the C-plot, Cadet Uhura grapples with the basics of cyber security. Uhura researches the crashed warship from the opening scene, but discovers it harbors a secret language. Against her better judgment, Uhura ignores Starfleet protocols and scans the wreckage. Back on the bridge, she deciphers that Alora’s people are not as innocent as they seem.

The sixth episode’s downbeat conclusion leaves a lot to be desired. Firstly, Pike is supposed to be a “boy scout.” In previous episodes, he almost sacrificed his life to save his crew mates. This episode’s story would have been more compelling if the ending were more positive and victorious.

“Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” poses a classic philosophical conundrum: At what terrible cost will a society pay to achieve its utopian status? The episode explores Pike’s complicated feelings toward his former girlfriend and his fear for the Enterprise’s future. Captain Pike reinforces his pro-life stance against the death cult of the alien planet. The acting between the Enterprise crew and the aliens in this episode is grippingly spectacular. However, the sixth episode of STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS contains some false alien religion, violence, brief foul language, implied premarital sex. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.