Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 SPOILER Recap: “Human Best Friend”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 rockets ahead with the third episode, “Human Best Friend.” What new adventures await the crew of the Enterprise this time? Who exactly is the “human best friend” of the title? And which member of our beloved ensemble cast will they be best friends with? All this and more will be covered in our full spoiler breakdown of “Human Best Friend.” This is your final warning if you haven’t seen the episode yet, so without further ado, let’s get into it.

What happens in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 “Human Best Friend”?

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

We open on the Enterprise flying through an asteroid field on the way to negotiate a peace treaty meant to end the Rodaxian Civil War. Or should I say attempting to fly through an asteroid field as Ortegas’ freestyle piloting finds itself at odds with Scotty’s need to keep the engines running 100% smoothly at all times. This and the general sense of tension amongst the crew is exacerbated by the fact that while the other two shifts of Enterprise crew members have recently received shore leave, the one our crew is on, Alpha Shift, hasn’t.

In an effort to relieve this tension, Pike arranges for the crew to take a vacation on the resort planet of Sesnar. It’s on their current route to the Rodaxian home world, a few days there still leaves them plenty of time to prep for the peace talks in two weeks, and the naturally intoxicating atmosphere of the planet guarantees relaxation and is supposed to wear off an hour after leaving the planet. As Ortegas lands their shuttle, Uhura and Scotty having snuck in tricorders in violation of the resort’s “tech-free” policy, the screen goes psychedelic as we cut to a hungover Ortegas with a broken arm waking up next to a still drunk Scotty.

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Ortegas is naturally frustrated, as the pitch did not mention anything about hangovers or memory gaps, but the resort owner informs her that negative emotions going into the experience can alter the atmosphere’s effect on a person and that all of this is laid out in the fine print. Furthermore, he needs Ortegas and Scotty to deliver an important note to Captain Pike, since again, no tech. Since they have no idea where Pike could be or where they’ve been all night, they decide to just go door-to-door, starting with Spock.

Spock seems mostly normal but is having visions of James Kirk and playing board games with him. The only clues Spock can give are Ortegas mentioning a dragon of some kind and attending Uhura’s party down the hall. They stop by said party and Uhura is experiencing what can only be described as a “transcendental high,” feeling and acting far more relaxed than she’s ever been and managing to eke out that Ortegas specifically requested her arm not be healed and that Pike is somewhere in the lounge in between long rambles about her “journey.”

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Per Uhura’s advice, Ortegas and Scotty head to the lounge where they find Una singing a Klingon version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” M’Benga tending bar, and finally, thankfully, Pike getting a tattoo that he will undoubtedly regret later. They hand him the note, which states that the Rodaxians are headed their way for the peace talks and they’ll arrive in about two hours. Panicking about the lack of prep time, Ortegas and Scotty head to the docking bay to get their shuttle back only to find it missing the operator chip needed to make it fly.

To make matters worse, the resort owner is completely unhelpful, informing them that they told him not to, under any circumstances, tell them where the operating chip was. Recruiting Spock’s help, they find a plant in the lobby equipped with “photosynthetic technology.” What sounds like a drunken ramble actually turns out to be real, as Spock is able to tap into the plant’s brain and find the location of a security office that will allow them to pinpoint the operating chip’s location. But when they get there and activate the security tracker, they discover that the chip was inside Ortegas’ cast the entire time.

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

With that problem solved, our unlikely duo runs into an entirely new problem: their shuttle has been snatched by bandits in a gang war with an even-scarier-than-usual La’an. Luckily, they quickly manage to get the shuttle and La’an back, gather the rest of the crew, and even drag Chapel away from her bizarre blood feud with some elderly women playing Bingo, returning everyone to the Enterprise in time for the Rodaxian peace talks. Unluckily, the effects of Sesnar’s atmosphere are taking longer than expected to wear off and the crew finds themselves stumbling through the peace talks drunk.

Things go from bad to worse when Scotty and Ortegas discover a bomb on the shuttle and accidentally activate its hyper-sensitive timer by touching it. Now, Scotty is stuck with a bomb in his hands that he can’t let go of, with the only sober individuals, Ortegas and Spock, left to disarm the bomb before it ruins the peace talks even more than Pike’s terrible drunken rambling already has. Also, the drunk Ortegas and Scotty from the night before knew this was happening all along, even leaving a video message for their future selves warning them about a saboteur and to not let the shuttle return to the Enterprise until they fix the problem.

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Thankfully, with a little scientific know-how and teamwork, Spock and the real James Kirk, though Spock still thinks it’s a hallucination for most of the interaction, are able to disarm the bomb, and the Rodaxians, impressed by their camaraderie and bravery, agree to end the war despite their drunken shenanigans. Relaxing at the ship’s bar afterwards, Ortegas finally gets an answer about the one remaining hole in her memory: the dragon. As it turns out, Uhura released a “dragon bomb” of calming, hallucinogenic vapor at her party which Ortegas and Scotty fully inhaled, explaining the memory gaps.

As the episode ends, Scotty and Ortegas’ feud that began with the season premiere seems to come to a close, as Ortegas agrees that she could be more careful when she flies and Scotty modifies the ship’s impulse systems to allow just a little more punch. We then wrap things up with a montage of the crew having fun on Sesnar over the credits as Una serenades us with more of the Klingon version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 “Human Best Friend” worth watching?

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs/Paramount+

I didn’t think “Strange New Worlds meets The Hangover” would ever be something I would need or want in my life, but this is probably my favorite episode of the season so far. Martin Quinn and Melissa Navia play off each other really well as Scotty and Ortegas, and the way their story and the Rodaxian peace talks tie into the central theme of finding unity amidst seemingly polar opposite sides is very effective. Plus, it’s easily one of the funniest episodes of Strange New Worlds, with pretty much every crew member having a unique and fun bit at some point in the episode.

Personally, I probably laughed the hardest at Una’s karaoke, Paul Wesley’s delivery of “Should we order fries?” as Kirk, and Spock’s vision of Ortegas as a talking cactus telling him to “Get it together, man.” I will say that it felt like some of the side plots could’ve been more fleshed out and the “dragon bomb” twist fell kind of flat for me, but this is still a real winner for Strange New Worlds Season 4.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 is now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 3 SPOILER Recap: “Human Best Friend”