Synopsis: A film documentarian is aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise during a challenging Starfleet mission.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what African-American writer and spiritualist, Luisah Teish, and Native Hawaiian Kahuna and Dianic High Priestess, Leilani Birely, referred to in their book On Holy Ground: Commitment and Devotion to Sacred Lands as “Conquistador Consciousness” born of Western colonialism and arrogance (2013, p. 29). Another similar description of this state of mind has been identified by Euro-American author, Richard Slotkin, as gunslinger mentality, a product of the Myth of the Frontier (1992).
In “What is Starfleet?,” Umberto (Beto) Ortegas created a documentary. In it, he noted that Starfleet is seen as representing duty, honor, and peacekeeping ideals of the quadrant. Then it asked: “But what separates a ‘federation’ from an ‘empire?’ . . . Both colonize. Both impose their laws and doctrines on others” (Lyn et al., 2025, 1:06). It also asserts that Starfleet officers claim to be explorers but look like soldiers and asks what distinguishes starships from warships? Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Enterprise is on a mission to deliver arms to Lutani VII, a planet that is at war with another world. When the crew learns that the cargo is a sentient species, a jikaru, they are hard pressed to follow their mission without question. When they arrive at the location where they are to locate the jikaru, the crew watches as it leaves the surface of the planet and attack a Lutani vessel. The Lutani pilot is beamed into sickbay, where in her dying breath she tells Captain Christopher Pike that what the Lutani have done to the jikaru is wrong. Pike then contacts Starfleet Command and is told that his orders to deliver the jikaru remain unchanged. Lt. Spock observes that the jikaru is not only a weapon, but is also a living creature. Ensign Nyota Uhura pleads to speak to the jikaru, and Spock, Nurse Christine Chapel, and Uhura take a shuttle close to the jikaru, where Spock will try to speak with the creature telepathically. On the shuttle, they learn that the jikaru is female. But a Lutani warship appears and fires, and Spock and Chapel are injured. Uhura maintains that she can communicate with the jikaru, and when she does she learns that the jikaru’s brain was altered so that she only accesses violence and aggression. This causes her pain. The jikaru tells Uhura to fire on her and she will let the Lutani ship go. She wants to die. That is the only way she will find peace. The jikaru is worried for her children. She does not want them to be altered. The jikaru asks to be led to the sun, so that she can end her suffering. Pike promises that Starfleet will not allow her children to be altered. For the documentary, Beto tells Uhura that Starfleet is acting like a colonizing power. Uhura then tells him that he is brave to raise the questions, but that he is biased himself. He blames Starfleet for taking his sister, Lt. Erica Ortegas, away from him. The documentary ends with Commander Una Chin-Riley (Number One) stating Starfleet’s mission is to bring life and hope, and then the narrator asks again – “What is Starfleet? And comes to the conclusion that it is the people.
In this episode, Beto’s documentary asks valid questions about Starfleet’s motives, which from a non-Starfleet perspective can seem to embody both conquistador consciousness and a gunslinger mentality. It is rewarding to see the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds creative team acknowledging that Starfleet is not perfect through this documentary, even if they give Beto a bias based on his resenting Starfleet for separating him and his sister. The creative team releasing this episode can be analogized to when the conscious ego acknowledges its unconscious shadow and begins integrating it into itself, to become stronger and make the psyche more whole.
Reference:
Lyn, K. (Writer), McElroy, A. B. (Writer), & Lewis, S. (Director). (2025, August 21). What is Starfleet? (Season 3, Episode 7) [TV series episode]. In A. Baiers, A. Goldsman, A. Kurtzman, H. A. Myers, D. Perez, E. Roddenberry, T. Roth, F. Siracusa, & J. Weber (Executive Producers), Star trek: Strange new worlds. CBS Television Studios; Roddenberry Entertainment; Secret Hideout.
Slotkin, R. (1992). Gunfighter nation: The myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America. Atheneum.
Teish, L., & Birely, L. (2013). On holy ground: Commitment and devotion to sacred land. Lightning Source Publication.
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