Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Four, "Valles Marineris" opens with Pike, M'Benga and La'An on horseback on an alien world. They've apparently covertly delivered needed medication to the planet's populace. Before returning to Enterprise, they enjoy a good horseback ride. Number One notes that the number of missions has served to distract Pike from the loss of Batel.
Admiral April arrives with word that Captain Pike is up for promotion. He has until after the next mission to decide. The next mission is observing a phenomenon. The interstellar storm that Enterprise is observing has a distress buoy inside it. They investigate. In a burst of energy, they find themselves damaged and adrift on impulse alone and in need or iridium.
Number One, La'An and Ortegas take a shuttle to a nearby Class M planet to recover some available iridium. Spock discovers that they have been (65) Sixty-Five Million Years into the past. The planet that the away team is recovering the iridium from is Earth. They also encounter a Martian ship. The ship's captain comes aboard Enterprise. The Martians have been at war with an insect race from another nearby planet in the Earth solar system.
The visuals and graphics are simply eye-candy. The story is well thought out. The distress signal Enterprise investigates is its own. SPOILER ALERT! The Martian ship captain sacrifices herself and her crew to destroy the insect race and home world. A meteor from the planet ends the dinosaur age on Earth. Another result of the destruction is the change in Mars. It no longer supports life. However, M'Benga's DNA scans reveal that Martians managed to survive and live on in other races and cultures.
As a fan of science fiction and comic books, the Martian angle is... "fascinating". Marvin the Martian; J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter; and My Favorite Martian. Let's not forget The Martian Chronicles. To this day, we are fascinated by Mars.
Valles Marineris, translated Mariner Valleys, is an excellent launch of Season Four!
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