WHY WE LIKE IT: Finally an Ortegas episode!
WHY WE DON'T: Too much of a TOS rip-off.
REVIEW: It was reported that Melissa Navia didn't have a schedule that allowed Ortegas to get her own spotlight episode, but that doesn't seem to be a problem this season. And happily, her big spotlight, Terrarium, is actually quite good! Sure, it's derivative of both Enemy Mine and Arena, but it's a better version of the former than TNG's The Enemy. In that episode, Geordi just didn't have as much skin in the game as Ortegas does here. Worf did have a racist moment with a different Romulan (which felt forced), but it was the ROMULAN who "arced" more than open-minded Geordi. Here, Ortegas has no such feelings towards the Gorn (nicely played by a practical creature, not an ugly CG one), her bugbear since the season opener. (It will be La'an who has the Worf moment, killing a friendly Gorn on sight, as we knew she had to to preserve Trek's already fragile continuity.)
Navia is in an unenviable position. Her shuttle crashes on the other side of a wormhole, on a deadly moon about to go toxic when its orbit enters its gas giant's atmosphere. And even after she finds another castaway, it's a non-verbal Gorn that a makeshift universal translator can only translate as saying Agree and Disagree (I really love that, actually). So she has to talk to herself. A lot. And makes it all seem very natural. As "survival fiction", there's also a lot to like, from early on when she has to simply make water to survive, to later almost impossible problems, like losing the shuttle or signalling the Enterprise (which has its own problems) by igniting the atmosphere. We'll discover that someone has been manipulating events, making things worse and worse for her, forcing her to either die fighting the Gorn or make an unusual friend, but it would have worked without the Metron, honestly.
The Metrons setting up a FIRST Human-Gorn meeting to test their savagery near their space is incredibly derivative of a TOS episode, and a bit of a let-down. It's a lot like this season's own Wedding Bell Blues using Trelaine. Fans of TOS narrow their eyes and endure convoluted elements like the Metrons "adjusting" perceptions and memories (so why even explain themselves to her? I do like that she forces the meeting through force of will) and then setting up a NEW test in the future (Arena, but does that make sense when Ortegas and the Lady Gorn actually proved the two species could be friends?). So big meh at the finish line. But the growing friendship between the two pilots is actually quite strong. And it's nice to see the Gorn be PEOPLE and have a CULTURE. To date, they've been ravenous monsters. In Star Trek, we much eventually befriend the alien, and it's kind of sad that the lessons learned here are not/cannot be retained. It's rather heart-breaking that after all that effort, Ortegas can't save her.
It's also a strong episode for Uhura, one of Ortegas' best friends on the show (Chapel should be impacted, too, but she's absent). The Enterprise has to fly a life-saving vaccine to a rendezvous or else a pandemic will kill thousands, so there's a time limit on how long the ship can stick around to find Ortegas. It'll take some fancy flying through a wormhole, etc., but more importantly, Uhura not giving up on her. She's so desperate to save her friend that she lies to Pike about her computer simulation's success rating. It's a great moment when Pike reveals he knew all along, but was as invested as she was in Ortegas' survival. You know, maybe the Metrons would have pulled her out at the last minute anyway, but they don't move an ethereal finger to save the Gorn, so probably not. It all makes for a very tense episode, at least until the godlike aliens show up (which isn't even really a surprise given the episode's title).
SECONDARY WATCHING: Instead of namechecking Arena again, let me use this space to discuss SNW's love affair, this season, with Doctor Who. I'm mentioned it several times now, and didn't think this episode deserved it, but then I noticed Ortegas' mention of "Division 12" as a Starfleet(?) department that investigates the strange and unexplained, like a Starfleet X-Files, or... UNIT? I raced to the Wikis and found no mention of a prior reference to Division 12 in any other Star Trek franchise or piece of extra-canon. Lower Decks gave us Division 14, which handled "mysterious science- or medical-related problems afflicting its personnel" (Much Ado About Boimler), but no 12. They do seem similar, and being introduced here, in this region of space where weird stuff happens (a Metron playground?) might be a tease for future episodes (so the Doctor Who weirdness/supernatural stylings are here to stay), or for an entire new series (if you thought the Section 31 movie felt removed from proper Trek...). It's odd, anyway.
LESSON: Pilots of a feather... light the candle together.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Had they not undermined the story by stealing a little too much for The Original Series, I would have given Terrarium full marks. It's still probably the best (and most "Star Trek") episode of the season.
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