Warning: SPOILERS For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 9 – “Terrarium”I’m shocked that an unexpected character in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds turns out to be as good an engineer as Scotty (Martin Quinn) in a crisis. Directed by Andrew Coutts and written by Alan B. McElroy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 9, “Terrarium,” strands Lieutenant Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) on a barren planetoid with a Gorn (Warren Scherer).
Lt. Ortegas piloted a shuttle craft through a mysterious wormhole and into an asteroid field orbiting a gas giant. Erica’s shuttle was quickly damaged, and she was forced to perform an emergency crash-landing. Cut off from communications with the USS Enterprise, Ortegas had to tap into all of her resourcefulness to survive.
Thoughout Star Trek, numerous characters have found themselves in similar scenarios, forced to survive on a hostile alien world when their starship crashed. In such a dire predicament, it can be helpful to have a Starfleet engineer present to adapt any handy tech to boost chances of survival and rescue.
However, what happens when a Starfleet Officer crash-lands solo without an engineer? In the case of Lt. Ortegas, Erica was forced to become her own engineer, and if they’d seen her work, Scotty and Commander Pelia (Carol Kane) would have been mightily impressed with Ortegas.
Ortegas Showed Her Engineering Skills In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode 9
Lieutenant Erica Ortegas is the best pilot in Star Trek’s 23rd century, as she repeatedly proves in her primary role as the helmsman of the USS Enterprise, the flagship of the United Federation of Planets. But who knew Erica had such crack engineering skills to rival Scotty?
After crash-landing in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 9, Ortegas kept calm and immediately assessed her survival needs. Taking stock of what resources aboard the shuttle survived the crash, Erica quickly jury-rigged a water condenser. Soon, Ortegas had drinkable water.
Later in “Terrarium,” Lt. Ortegas befriended a Gorn pilot who was previously stranded on the planetoid and saved her life. Erica not only displayed medical training to help the Gorn’s injured leg, but she also identified the need to communicate with the alien reptile for their mutual benefit.
Ingeniously, Erica was able to retrofit her tricorder into a makeshift universal translator so that the Gorn could understand her. Even if the tricorder could only translate the Gorn’s responses to “agree” and “disagree,” what Ortegas accomplished was still a breakthrough, especially for a non-engineer.
Lt. Ortegas must have taken Engineering courses at Starfleet Academy. Erica is also a veteran of the Klingon War, and she likely saw action that required her to apply critical thinking and ingenuity behind enemy lines. It’s simply remarkable what a skilled engineer the Starship Enterprise’s helmsman is, especially since Ortegas never alluded to her abilities before.
Strange New Worlds Has Great Star Trek Engineers
Lieutenant Erica Ortegas may not be counted among the USS Enterprise’s Engineering team, but she would have a place in that division if Erica wanted to quit being a pilot. Originally, the late Lieutenant Hemmer (Bruce Horak) was the Chief Engineer of Captain Christopher Pike’s (Anson Mount) Enterprise.
After his tragic death, Lt. Hemmer was replaced by Commander Pelia. The 5,000-year-old Lanthanite became an engineer late in life, but by the 23rd century, Pelia has mastered engineering to become an instructor at Starfleet Academy. Pelia then finagled her way into becoming the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2’s premiere.
Of course, Lieutenant Montgomery Scott is destined to succeed Commander Pelia, and Scotty (James Doohan) will be the Starship Enterprise’s Chief Engineer in Star Trek: The Original Series.
In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the younger Scotty is talented but still learning and gradually putting the pieces together to become Captain James T. Kirk’s (William Shatner) legendary ‘miracle worker.’
Ortegas In Strange New Worlds Is A Subtle Star Trek: DS9 Callback
Lieutenant Erica Ortegas’ ingenuity in a post-crash-landing scenario in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 9 is a clever and subtle callback to the memorable praise towards Starfleet’s engineers from a Vorta named Keevan (Christopher Shea) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 6, episode 2, “Rocks and Shoals,” Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and members of his crew survived a crash-landing. Several Jem’Hadar soldiers and their Vorta supervisor, Keevan, crashed on the same planet days before.
The injured Keevan negotiated for Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) to treat his injuries as the Vorta secretly plotted to betray his Jem’Hadar soldiers to Starfleet to guarantee his own safety. Keevan also spoke highly of Starfleet’s famous engineers, “who can turn rocks into replicators.”
In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 9, Lt. Erica Ortegas lived up to the high regard Keevan had for Starfleet’s engineers despite not being an engineer herself.
Lt. Erica Ortegas proved that not every Starfleet Officer is cut from the same cloth.
Although Scotty has nothing to worry about in terms of Ortegas wanting his job in Engineering, Lt. Erica Ortegas proved that not every Starfleet Officer is cut from the same cloth, because many of her peers wouldn’t have the ingenuity Erica used to survive in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, episode 9, “Terrarium.”
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
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