US EditionStar Trek Strange New Worlds S 3 E 8 Four And A Half Vulcans Recap
Four human crew members transformed into Vulcans face challenges including adopting Vulcan traits and interpersonal conflicts during a mission to aid a pre-warp civilization, highlighting ethical dilemmas.
- Season 3's 'Four-and-a-Half Vulcans' turns Captain Christopher Pike, Nurse Christine Chapel, La'an Noonien-Singh and Nyota Uhura into full Vulcans using a Kerkhovian serum, but the antidote soon fails and they elect to remain Vulcan.
- Faced with a pre-warp crisis on Tezaar, the ship needed Vulcan identities to avoid detection by Tezaarians and not violate the Prime Directive during the reactor repair mission.
- Under their Vulcan personas, relationships frayed and ship safety suffered as the newly Vulcanized crew adopted superiority, repeatedly demeaning half-Vulcan Spock; Doug and Spock intervened using psychic techniques while Scotty stopped La'an's war plot.
- Echoing Voyager's 'Tuvix,' the episode rekindles ethical debates about identity and bodily autonomy, while fans and critics reacted mixedly online to scenes of Vulcan superiority and perceived racism toward Spock.
- By asking what defines Vulcans, the episode links their traits to Romulan ancestry and Star Trek franchise history, while director Jordan Canning adopts a sitcom-style comedic tone.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds makes Voyager's darkest episode even more monstrous
Every season of Star Trek: Strange New Worldshas exactly one very silly Vulcan-focused episode. Spock (Ethan Peck) and his fiancé accidentally swap bodies after doing a mind-meld ceremony in season 1’s “Spock Amok.” Highly advanced aliens turn Spock into a human in season 2’s “Charades.” The season 3 episode “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” instead turns four of the Enterprise's human crew members into Vulcans, and the measures the crew takes to remedy…
What Is A Vulcan? 61 Years Later, Star Trek Reboots A Central Question
The Legacy Collection/THA/ShutterstockWhen Captain Pike is transformed into a Vulcan in the latest Strange New Worlds Season 3 episode, he suddenly becomes a man who shouts. Indeed, the opening narration of “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” features Pike, as his new Vulcan self, speaking in a halted, shouty voice. Is this what Vulcans sound like? Are Vulcans, as Spock admits in the new episode, sometimes pushy, arrogant “jerks”? While the overall tone o…
Strange New Worlds S3E8: Four-and-a-Half Vulcans
Well this one was just dumb. The Enterprise has to come to the aid of a civilization that hasn’t yet discovered spaceflight. The Prime Directive forbids them from interfering, but the Vulcans had already visited the planet before the Prime Directive was written. So they’re aware of Vulcans, and nothing else about the galaxy. Because the only Vulcan nearby is Spock, any of the crew who help him have to appear to be Vulcan. However, the Tezaar hav…
Oh Dear, ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’
At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Paramount teased our very first look at Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘ third season with a clip that proved to be rather baffling. A contextless gag that saw Pike, Chapel, La’an, and Uhura seemingly permanently transformed into Vulcans, the clip immediately sparked discussion about the Vulcan crew’s sudden racially prejudiced treatment of Spock as, well, the extra half-Vulcan among them. What did Strange New Worlds t…
“Am I slightly forgiven now?” — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”
Movies & TV Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Am I slightly forgiven now?” — Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” There’s a new contender for “worst episode ever”… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on August 28, 2025 Credit: Paramount+ Comment 29 Share New Share Credit: Paramount+ Before I say anything else about this awful episode of SNW, let me say this: don’t stop it when the credits start, as there is a post-credits …
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