Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 308 “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” Review: To Be, or Not to Be… a Vulcan

Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 8 “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”

In “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans,” the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, director Jordan Canning – now a three-time veteran of this series – delivers a lighthearted and chaotic adventure that revisits a familiar sci-fi trope: characters temporarily changing species. 

Logical Problems, Illogical Solutions

The crew of the Enterprise is ready for some shore leave, and everyone is excited – everyone, that is, except Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn). The first officer is being coy about why she’s staying on the ship while her fellow crew members head to Permentee III, and we’ll soon discover the reason behind her reluctance to leave the Enterprise. 

Before shore leave can officially begin, though, the Enterprise is asked to complete a sensitive mission for the Vulcans. On the nearby planet of Tezaar, a pre-warp civilization is facing a planet-wide nuclear meltdown, and the Vulcans, who already established relations with the Tezaarians, are too far away to offer assistance. Being a pre-warp civilization, the Tezaarians don’t know about humans, and it needs to stay that way.

Four members of the Enterprise crew – Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Nyoto Uhura (Celina Rose Gooding), La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), and Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) – need to not just appear as Vulcans, they need to become Vulcans, lest their humanity be detected by the Tezaarians’ advanced sensor technology. 

Luckily, there’s an easy way to accomplish this metamorphosis. Thanks to scientific discoveries provided by the Kerkhovians back in the Jordan Canning-directed season two episode “Charades,” Chapel can easily create a serum that will temporarily turn the humans into Vulcans. The four humans-turned-Vulcan, along with the hybrid Spock (Ethan Peck), beam down to the planet and accomplish their mission within minutes, presumably thanks to Vulcans’ famous focus on efficiency.

“I wonder if the serum didn’t have an effect on you because you are Lanthanite.”

“Honestly, I had the same problem with LSD in the 1960s… and 1990s… and last July.”

– Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) and Pelia (Carol Kane) on why Pelia did not turn into a Vulcan like the other Enterprise officers upon taking the serum. 

When they beam back to the Enterprise and take the Kerkhovian serum again to change back, it doesn’t work, leaving Pike, Noonien-Singh, Chapel, and Uhura stuck as Vulcans, which soon causes a bit of chuckle-worthy trouble for their ship and their individual relationships – and things get even tenser as the group later decides they want to remain Vulcans permanently. 

Becoming Vulcans

“Four a Half Vulcans” consists of several plotlines that flow together surprisingly well as these new Vulcans make do with their new, highly logical personalities. For Pike, his Vulcan predilection for blunt honesty does not help his girlfriend, Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano), as she seeks to return to work in Starfleet’s judicial department. Batel realizes she can’t captain a starship anytime soon thanks to the lingering recovery she must handle following her infusion of Gorn DNA, so she hopes to at least serve the justice system again, as we saw her do in the exceptional “Ad Astra per Aspera.” 

In trying to convince Vice Admiral Pasalk (Graeme Somerville) of her ability to serve, Pike undermines her and explains how Batel is still recovering, which leads Batel to go off on both Pasalk and Pike. But, as what happens in movies, there’s a happy ending: this aggression leads Batel to getting the job anyway, as she impressed the soon-retiring Pasalk with her honesty. Looks like Batel is heading up the Starfleet judicial department. 

When Uhura becomes a Vulcan, she embraces a new, highly logical daily routine. She stops eating meat, meditates frequently, and focuses on a strict work-life balance. Her newfound sensibilities lead to trouble when her boyfriend, Beto Ortega (Mynor Lüken), visits the Enterprise. In a bizarre attempt to make him a more suitable partner, Uhura performs a mind meld with Beto to fix some perceived defects she sees in him. Once she’s human again, Uhura is horrified by her actions and apologizes, and the two decide to continue their relationship. However, Erica Ortega (Melissa Navia) is furious with the Vulcan version of Uhura for manipulating her brother, a conflict we think may surface again in the future.

Nurse Chapel, meanwhile, is incredibly focused on efficiency, so much so that she tosses away relationships of any kind to focus on her work. As such, poor Roger Korby (Cillian O’Sullivan) gets the boot via Zoom call, and Chapel even informs Spock, her ex-romantic partner, that she doesn’t care to pursue even a friendship anymore, as it would distract her from her work. When Chapel changes back to a human later, she feels terrible that she treated these two men so badly – and to her credit, she respects Spock’s Vulcanism more after being a Vulcan herself. 

La’an’s transformation is unique, as her new Vulcan personality isn’t purely logical – it’s aggressive, secretive, and she craves conquest. Star Trek fans will recognize these traits as distinctly Romulan, the Vulcans’ distant, warlike cousins (a connection the Federation is unaware of at this point in the timeline). Under this influence, La’an attempts to use the Enterprise to start a war in the Alpha Quadrant. Her plot is foiled by James Kirk (Paul Wesley), who is on board for shore leave, and Montgomery Scott (Martin Quinn). Becoming suspicious of La’an’s unusual questions about the ship’s command codes and abilities, Scotty’s quick thinking allows the two men to stop her. As Kirk says to his future crewmate at the end of the episode, the two men do indeed make a great team.

So, how do these characters turn back into their human selves? Conveniently, the person who is most knowledgeable about katras – the Vulcan spirit, as it were – and therefore the person who can most likely bring the four Vulcans back to their human selves, is on a nearby planet. The problem is Una, who has been desperately trying to avoid this person due to their complicated past. 

You see, something about Doug (Patton Oswalt) just makes Una go insane in a desirous way. As she admits, she turns into a completely different person, and we see this is indeed the case. It’s a welcome exercise for Rebecca Romijn, who we think hasn’t had a whole lot to do this season. In fact, in what is perhaps the funniest scene in the episode, she even tries to enlist Spock to pretend to be married to help ward off her uncontrollable lust for Doug. Spock, meanwhile, welcomes a discussion with Doug about what it’s like to be half human, something Doug would love to learn more about, and ultimately the stout Vulcan is engendered to help the Enterprise crew restore their katras. 

Why the four Vulcans allow Spock to connect to their katras so he can “show them their true selves,” we’ll never know. What we do know, though, is La’an is resisting Spock’s efforts to recover her true katra. So, Spock journeys into La’an’s mind and confronts the person whom he, let’s remember, is casually romantically involved. The scene that plays out in La’an’s mind features the pair fighting before transitioning into dancing, as the pair often do, and we want to praise the choreographer for the smooth transition from aggressive combat to sensual, flowing movements that reflect the pair’s romance. The passionate twist to their encounter helps La’an emerge from her Romulan influence and back to her human self.

A Deeper Look at the Vulcans

Clearly, “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” is not one of Strange New Worlds’ most serious episodes, and director Jordan Canning brings her recognizable comedic style to the Enterprise in an effective way. There’s quite a bit to juggle in this episode, from the tribulations each of the four Vulcans face, to the overarching plot to get them restored to human form, but the episode flows smoothly. 

Beyond the surface-level comedy, we appreciated how the four Vulcans represented archetypal personalities we’ve come to know from that race over the last 60 years. Pike is bluntly honest, almost to the point of caricature, and Mount plays this character with a clear comedic undertone. Chapel’s strictly efficient personality invokes the ruthless orderliness for which Vulcans are known. La’an clearly represents the side of Vulcans that broke off from their main planet in the ancient past to pursue more aggressive interests. Finally, Uhura represents the part of Vulcans that endeavor to spread logic wherever they go, even if it means changing people (fans of Star Trek: Enterprise might particularly recognize this character trait from the Vulcans). These characters aren’t just a random illustration of Vulcans – they are purposeful representations of Vulcan personalities. 

Interestingly, by stripping them of their human emotions, the episode forces each character to confront what, at least in part, defines them, which leads to consequences. Pike’s dedication to honesty ends up hurting Captain Batel – at least temporarily. Chapel’s need for efficiency strips her of her relationships; Uhura’s desire for order is almost her downfall with Beto, and does at least impact her friendship with Erica; and La’an’s tumultuous inner conflict manifests as the Vulcans’ darker cousins. 

Sure, certain plot points raised our eyebrows due to their convenience. Here are a few: 

• Doug being so close to the Enterprise and Una happening to have a relationship with him?
  
  
• How easy it was to change the four Enterprise crewmembers to Vulcans in the first place?
  
  
• How it’s okay that the people who turn into Vulcans still maintain their positions aboard the ship, with all the responsibilities that entails.
  
  
• Wouldn’t Starfleet take issue with four of the senior staff, including the captain, turning into an alien and continuing their duties as if their judgment and decision-making abilities aren’t in question? Especially once the group decide to stay Vulcan. Spock basically makes this point when he is “plotting” against the other Vulcans with the other Starfleet officers, in that Pike and the others don’t have a sense of self anymore thanks to their Vulcan transition.
  
  
• How it’s okay that Pelia’s quarters have been “technologically modified to avoid detection.” Doesn’t that pose a security risk for the ship or a safety risk for Pelia and whoever else is in her quarters? It seems like the production team just wanted to use the intricate set they built for Pelia’s quarters, even though its inclusion in this episode doesn’t make a lot of sense.

All that aside, this is one of those episodes that you’ll get much more enjoyment from if you don’t let those kinds of things bother you. This episode earns that because it’s funny, elicits unusual performances from the main cast, and offers an appreciated genre twist. We suspect things will get more serious in the final two episodes of the season, so we’ll take the laughs while we can get them. 

Stray Thoughts: 

• In a neat touch, Anson Mount’s narration during the opening credits sequence is in his Vulcan character.
  
  
• Pike and La’an mention to each other that they know about the Vulcans’ connection to the Romulans. Pike knows of this based on the events of the season one finale “A Quality of Mercy,” and La’an knows of this based on the events of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.”
  
  
• This is cool: La’an’s mindscape places her in cetacean ops, the first time we see this department, along with its whale crewmembers, in live action. We previously saw cetacean ops departments in the animated shows Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy.

New episodes stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

---

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Prodigy, and more.

You can follow us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and X.