Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 1 – “Valles Marineris”
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premiered with a familiar guest star. Directed by Chris Fisher and written by Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 kicks off with the USS Enterprise time-traveling 65 million years into Earth’s past.
After the Starship Enterprise answers a distress beacon in an interstellar squall, Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew gradually realize they time-warped to the prehistoric past. Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), and Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) land on a planet filled with dinosaurs and learn they’re on Earth in the Cretaceous era.
Meanwhile, an unidentified starship attempts to hijack the USS Enterprise. Soon, Captain Pike learns that the marauders are from Mars, which was a civilized planet 65 million years ago. Mars is at war with an alien insect race called the Dol’drm, which occupies the heretofore unknown fifth planet in the Sol system between Mars and Jupiter.
When Captain Pike invites the Martian captain aboard the Starship Enterprise under the pretense of showing them their weapons, but really to attempt to negotiate with the Martians, the first major guest star in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 was introduced.
Saffron Burrows Guest Stars As Cassel In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4’s Premiere
Saffron Burrows plays Commander Cassell of Mars in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4‘s premiere. A British actress, Burrows is best known to American audiences for her roles as Dr. Susan McAllister in Deep Blue Sea, Andromache in Troy, Lorraine Weller in Boston Legal, Detective Serena Stevens in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Victoria Hand in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A former fashion model, Saffron Burrows is also 6 feet tall, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere included a joke that Captain Pike, not a small man by any means, is shorter than Cassell expected. Cassell was a challenging ‘guest’ for Captain Pike and his crew, as they tried to extol the virtues of the United Federation of Planets without revealing they are from the future.
Cassell was impressed by the conviction and sincerity of the Starfleet Officers, but she soon learned that Captain Pike withheld the fact that they hail from 65 million years in the future. Cassell also learned that Mars is a dead planet in the 23rd century, confirming the Martians’ worst fears that their war with the Dol’drm will end their world and civilization, as it already did in the Valles Marineris region of Mars.
As Commander Cassell, Saffron Burrows made a powerful impression, balancing caution, curiosity, and respect for the USS Enterprise’s crew and technology, while also carrying the burden of war with the Dol’drms. Cassell made an impossible decision to commit genocide (and suicide) to save her race.
Saffron Burrows’ Martian Ushers In A Massive Star Trek Canon Change
When she learned that the USS Enterprise was from the 23rd century, Cassell decided to steal one of the Federation ship’s antimatter fuel cells to make a weapon of mass destruction. Captain Pike couldn’t stop her, and at the crucial moment when he had to decide whether to prevent the Martians from attacking the Dol’drm planet, Chris did not act because he knew that the Dol’drm or their world are not meant to survive.
Cassell’s Martian guards in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4’s premiere were played by Dane Gulston and Colby Dean Turner.
The blast wave from the Dol’drm homeworld’s explosion destroyed Cassell’s ship, dooming her and her crew. In a jaw-dropping retcon, not only was the present-day asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter revealed to be the remains of the Dol’Drm planet, but one chunk of it impacted Earth, becoming the Chicxulub meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. The Dol’drm planet’s destruction also shifted Mars’ orbit away from the sun, causing it to become the dead planet we know today.
Effectively, the USS Enterprise found itself in a predestination paradox where it was the cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction, which led to mammals and then humanity becoming the dominant species on Earth. Meanwhile, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) deduces that leaning into the blast wave would create the energy needed for the USS Enterprise to time warp back to the 23rd century.
In a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 premiere that turned out to be mind-boggling, Saffron Burrows makes an indelible impression as Cassell, and the Martian commander is as responsible for humanity’s future as Captain Pike and the Starship Enterprise.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2027-00-00
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Henry Alonso Myers, Akiva Goldsman
- Directors
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Dan Liu, Amanda Row, Maja Vrvilo, Akiva Goldsman, Dermott Downs, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Jonathan Frakes, Jordan Canning, Leslie Hope, Valerie Weiss, Sydney Freeland, Christopher J. Byrne, Rachel Leiterman
- Writers
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Onitra Johnson