Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 3

 The third of 5 (well, season 5 will only be 6 episodes though) seasons of the best thing to happen to Star Trek in recent years.

 

And it definitly, definilty wipes away the sour taste of the Discovery monstrosity...

 

But, not everything is perfect, and that has to go for this season as well.  It starts very strong with the conclusion of season 2's cliffhanger, then has some weak episodes, only to pick up again halfway through to a strong finale.

 

After saving the colonists and his missing crew from the Gorn, captured in that season 2 finale, and being allowed to track them "off the record" by Starfleet, they stop a large invasion force, while putting the egg inside Captain Batel dormant.  The season then jumps three months forward, and everyone deals with their pains in their own way, including Spock and Chapel breaking up.  She returns onboard with her new boyfriend, Dr Korby (yep, the one from TOS), but reality seems to shift, only Korby and Spock eventually being aware of the events.

 

When Batel's egg seems to reactivate, they start looking for a cure, searching for the Chimera flower, located on a planet contested with Klingons.  here M'Benga faces the daughter of Dak'Rah, and he admits he killed him in the previous season to her.  Not long after, when a test for the new "holodeck" goes wrong, this technology is put on hold for further finetuning, as it nearly cost La'An her life as safety protocols fail.

 

The Enterprise accompanies dr Korby to a planet for the ruins of a civilization rumoured to have discovered immortality, only to have nurse Gamble infected by an alien consciousness.  This turns out to be the Vezda, an extraterrestial lifeform of pure evil.  Gamble tries to take over the ship, but is killed and the being trapped in the transporter buffer.  And then the weaker part ends, because the next episode is a classic, The Sehlat Who Ate It's tail brings James T. Kirk, whose vessel the Farragut is heavily damaged, in command of that ship, to go and save the Enterprise.  Enterprise has been captured by a huge scavenger ship, and Kirk still struggles with the pressure of command but is supported by Scotty,Spock and Chapel in overcoming his blocks and saves Enterprise, though he remains haunted by his first command decisions.  

 

Beto, Ortegas's brother, joins the Enterprise to make a documentary about Starfleet to show it is not a pure military organisation, and how they aid a space creature that is forced into being a weapon.  When later on Pike, Chapel, Uhura and La'An are stuck in being Vulcans from an away mission, Spock manages to return them to being human, as Batel is offered a high ranking promotion to the Judical Department.  But soon after, Ortegas is stranded on a planet with a Gorn, with whom she has an inherent trauma.  However, they bond, and when they manage to have themselves found the alien is killed by the landing party.  The Metrons reveal themselves, and erase Ortegas memory (and plugging the plothole that Kirk first meets the Gorn in person years later in TOW).

 

As Batel is ready to leave the Enterprise and take up her new role, they discover that the Vezda Gamble has escaped from the buffer.  He traps some of the crew, but when it is revealed Batel is the key in keeping them trapped (timeloop moment), she decides to live out a lifetime with Pike, who didn't get his accident in that alternate reality, before becoming the key on the lock to keep the Vezda in.

 

So a really strong and emotional finale, the first steps of Kirk as captain... and Pelia mentioning her adventures with a time travelling doctor in one of the episodes, after THIS appeared in a blink of an eye in "The Sehlat..." which, well, will look promising for season 4!