Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review: Spock Amok (Season 1 Episode 5)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 5, “Spock Amok,” reminded us all of one of the most core aspects of the franchise, although something that is sometimes forgotten: it is fun. It understands the importance of having a good time along with a kind of earnestness.
There’s this pervasive idea that creating something dark and serious is somehow more difficult than something light and funny, which is as bullheaded as it is wrong. Too often, episodes that set out to be overtly enjoyable or frothy are seen as lesser than grittiness.
Even within Star Trek, it’s bold at this point to have an episode that is so distinctly silly but never for a moment strays into being a filler episode. This is merely a show that has a finely tuned sense of fun.
The big running theme of the episode — which would be cheap if it weren’t so well earned — is varying kinds of empathy. That’s another thing that’s always laid at the heart of Star Trek. It’s the valuation and skill of looking at someone, seeing where they’re coming from and where they’re going and gaining strength from that.
This concept of radical empathy, as Captain Pike calls it at one point, is a common thread that runs through the entire episode. It’s the convergence point for virtually every plot and character. Most notably and strongly, it is found with the titular Spock and his fiancé, T’Pring, attempting to find common ground with one another and accidentally body-swapping.
As far as goofy plot machinations go, this is an example use of the Vulcan’s telepathy and is a twist on it that we’ve rarely seen before. This is taking empathy and making it explicitly text.
It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that “Spock Amok” makes the case that for true empathy to occur, you have to meet someone where they’re at, be that emotionally or mentally. Every plotline from this episode involves characters needing to empathize or understand others and doing that by putting themselves in their shoes.
With Spock and T’Pring, that is very a literal and physical thing. They actually have to see and experience where the other person is coming from. T’Pring needs to fully appreciate Spock’s steadfast dedication to Starfleet and his duties within even at the expense of his logic.
Una and La’an attempt to understand the crew at large, something they are unable — and, most times, unwilling — to do by virtue of their authoritative positions on the ship. They set out humorously to play Enterprise Bingo as a way of figuring out the crew.
The same occurs for Pike, who really drives home this lesson on empathy, by trying to figure out the motivations of the R’ongovians, an alien species that they’re trying to negotiate with. That’s where this plotline is the very embodiment of empathy because what this species is. You could also say that they’re just responding purely to vibes.
What did you think of this episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds airs Thursdays on Paramount+.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.