M’Benga continues to look for a cure for his daughter and inadvertently changes his reality.

You’ve got to admire the confidence of this show. Typically, you’d expect a show to be well established and in at least its second year before it experimented with an alternative/mirror universe story, and yet Strange New Worlds is only on its eighth episode when it enters this territory. And truth be told, while this is never less than fun, it does feel one-note.

Part of the fun of the alternate universe story is seeing favourite characters presented in unfamiliar ways. The blowhards become soft and the underdogs gain power. And so, while it’s cute to see the normally tough La’an as a princess and Pike as a fop, I don’t feel that I know the characters well enough yet to fully appreciate their flip sides. The story is probably the most high concept we’ve seen yet this year, and I suspect that the cast had an absolute blast, the viewer less so.

Verdict: To quote my editor, ‘it’s like Shore Leave, but without the rabbit.’ And your willingness to swallow Trek at its daftest will determine how much you enjoy this lightest of stories. 6/10

Nick Joy