The following article contains spoilers for “Lost in Translation”
Late last month, I came off my bicycle and smashed the side of my head on the curb in a fairly dramatic accident. It gave me one hell of a concussion, a smashed-up face and a fair amount of memory loss, including everything about the incident itself. Four weeks later, I’m still struggling, and while I’m feeling a little better every day, it’s a slow process to recovery.
It’s appropriate, then, that this week’s Strange New Worlds touches on that relationship with our memories. The episode asks if memory is tied to empathy and if we can only sympathize with others if their pain calls to our own. I might not be entirely lucid all of the time right now but it certainly does feel like the smartest episode of Star Trek I’ve seen in a while.