Ortegas flies a shuttlecraft into a gravity field, unaware of the danger she’ll find herself in.

I never thought I’d say it, but hurrah for a familiar Star Trek plot rather than a distracting, clever ‘big idea’ that threatens to derail it. This is old-fashioned nuts-and-bolts Star Trek, and all the better for it, thanks in no small part to a great performance from Melissa Navia as Ortegas.

Let’s skip to the story: the Enterprise is on a time-sensitive mission to deliver vaccinations, but they can’t abandon Ortegas who has been sucked through a black hole, which has a contracting aperture. While we never doubt that there’s enough smart people on the Enterprise to work out how to rescue her, how will she survive on the hostile planet surface?

As she fashions a water filter, we’re clearly in The Martian territory, and then there’s the added challenge of a single Gorn – Ortegas still has PTSD from her last encounter with them. Inevitably, the enemies end up working together per Enemy Mine, and as already mined on TNG’s Darmok and The Enemy. But it’s a nice plot, and is helped when Ortegas MacGyvers a basic comms device so that they can communicate.

Verdict: A familiar story that’s elevated by a great central performance and an unexpected ending. 9/10

Nick Joy