Strange New Worlds Season 3 Has Some Of The Nastiest Gore In Star Trek History

Watch out, captain! This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3, episode 1, "Hegemony, Part II."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 2 ended with a massive cliffhanger, and "Hegemony, Part II" is tasked with solving things as well as it can. The Gorn are such a powerful threat that Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew can only score a technical knockout — and even then, they have to harness the literal power of the stars to manipulate the Gorn hibernation cycle. As Pike aptly puts it, this merely creates an even bigger problem for someone later down the line.

The heart of "Hegemony, Part II" isn't the danger of a large-scale Gorn attack against the Federation, though. After all, the show's place in the franchise timeline confirms that this threat will be foiled. Instead, the episode's most impactful moments depict the Gorn's effect on individual characters, and the series uses a surprising amount of gore to illustrate the danger.

Indeed, Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Spock's (Ethan Peck) attempts to treat Captain Batel's (Melanie Scrofano) Gorn egg infection are accompanied by a grisly visual of said infestation bubbling away in her back. The fate of Gorn abductees Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannette), Doctor M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), and La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) is no less visceral. Apart from the revelation that the pods they (and the other captives) are trapped in form a sort of massive feeding system, it has already partially digested bits and pieces of them — including a couple of Ortega's fingers. With slime, gore, and grim injuries galore, "Hegemony, Part II" is an eye-opener that makes the viewer wonder just how much the excellent "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 3 intends to embrace such visuals.

In general, "Star Trek" treats its story arcs as puzzle boxes that can be solved with intellect and diplomacy instead of blasting. That's not to say that "Star Trek" shows aren't action-packed, of course — they absolutely are. Still, the action in the various shows and movies is generally of the comparatively family-friendly "space confrontations and fisticuffs" variety, and the primary emphasis is always on finding a peaceful solution.

That being said, the franchise isn't afraid to throw caution in the wind and embrace visual nastiness when the situation calls for it. Part of what makes "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" so effective, after all, is the way it keeps establishing Khan's (Ricardo Montalban) unprecedented viciousness with moments like the bloody remains of the Regula I personnel, Peter Preston's (Ike Eisenmann) fatal burn injuries, and the deliciously unnerving ear-burrowing Ceti eels.

The TV shows aren't exempt from such moments, either. The torture scenes of the "Star Trek: The Original Series" season 3 episode "The Empath" got it banned in the United Kingdom for 30 years. Still, perhaps the most infamous example — which even "Hegemony, Part II" can't touch — is "Star Trek: The Next Generation" season 1, episode 25. Titled "Conspiracy," the episode (which also couldn't get past British censors) revolves around parasites that take over people's bodies after crawling into their mouths. Just about every special effect in this episode is horrifying, but nothing compares to the grand finale where Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) literally explode the host of the mother parasite, Dexter Remmick (Robert Schenkkan), with their phasers. The sequence and its nasty aftermath wouldn't be out of place in a horror movie.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.