Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3’s episode “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” exhibits a dark and serious tone for the majority of the story, but there comes a time in the show in which Pelia (Carol Kane) cuts through the tension a bit with a hilarious telephone — yes, telephone — sequence. While James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) feels the pressure of trying to save those on both the USS Enterprise and the USS Farragut, Pelia solves the internal communications issue by using a collection of old phones to ensure the officers can maintain contact during the crisis.
The task for the episode’s director, Valerie Weiss, was trying to balance the seriousness of the episode with the absurdity of Pelia using archaic technology to restore communications between those aboard the starship. Weiss addressed the seesawing of tones in an interview via the website TrekMovie.com. Weiss said, “We have a very comedic subplot with Carol Kane and the telephones and wiring the Enterprise."
"And so, my first thought was, how do I marry these so it feels very cohesive? Because the last thing I’d want is to do a disservice to this very important Kirk story and have the other one feel frivolous or trivial compared to the rest of it," Weiss elaborated. "But luckily, that’s my favorite thing to do is mix genre. And so to me, that was a really fun challenge.”
Weiss, who previously directed the Strange New Worlds season 2 episode “Ad Astra Per Aspera” continued by saying, “And I think the answer for that was just grounding it. Like the stakes of what’s going on with the Carol Kane side of things have to be real. Like we really need to understand why they need to be communicating, and the actors have to just sell that. So, I was very happy with how they accomplished that.”
In the end, Pelia's telephone scheme pays off. Meanwhile, Kirk is able to pull off one of his many (future) no-win scenarios. Plus, the episode gives fans a chance to see Kirk and Mr. Spock (Ethan Peck) have a truly emotional moments. Young Kirk isn't quite the captain he will be, so it's up to Spock to inspire “Captain” Kirk to rise up and take command of the Farragut.
So, do you agree with Weiss? Did you appreciate the mixture of drama and comedy “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” had to offer? Despite the criticism Strange New Worlds season 3 has faced, this episode was undoubtedly one of the stronger entries. Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.