Pike and M’Benga get locked contained in the deserted outpost, sieged by a horde of zombies making an attempt to get inside. One of many Klingons searching the pair is swarmed by the zombies, torn aside, and devoured. (I am unable to think about the Klingons take into account that an honorable strategy to go.)
Ever since George Romero’s “Night time of the Dwelling Lifeless” turned zombies into go-to film monsters, their onscreen portrayals have diverse. The Kenfori-zombies are the fast-moving type, not lumbering dullards. Tying their origin to vegetation additionally feels pulled from “The Final of Us.” In that online game/TV collection, the zombies aren’t truly undead. As a substitute, the story suggests what would occur if the actual cordyceps fungus developed from possessing ants to possessing human beings. The set for the deserted outpost on Kenfori, full of plant growths containing half-devoured human stays, resembles each “The Final of Us” and Alex Garland’s sci-fi movie “Annihilation.”
The existence of films in the way forward for “Star Trek” is contentious. By the twenty fourth century, cinema seems to have misplaced any cultural relevance in favor of the holodeck’s interactive storytelling.
Given Pike and M’Benga’s familiarity with “the Z-word,” one has to imagine that zombie films (or at the very least books) nonetheless exist within the twenty third century, although. “Star Trek: Enterprise” confirmed that, on the very least, people are nonetheless watching James Whale’s “Frankenstein” films within the twenty second century. Are they nonetheless watching George Romero photos within the twenty third?
Wherever Pike and M’Benga realized about zombies, it wasn’t from their “actual” world. Sure, someway, “Star Trek” has by no means accomplished correct, undead zombies earlier than. The franchise has accomplished vampires, witches (“Catspaw”), and even devils (“Satan’s Due”), however not zombies. The closest factor to zombies in “Star Trek” earlier than “Shuttle to Kenfori” was within the “Enterprise” episode “Impulse.” In that episode, the Enterprise NX-01 crew comes throughout a wrecked Vulcan ship, the Seleya. The ship found a mineral, trellium-D, that’s poisonous to Vulcans, making them much less clever and violent. When the Enterprise will get to the Seleya, the crew have degenerated into an unrelenting horde.
Like how “Shuttle to Kenfori” appears influenced by “The Final of Us,” “Impulse” (which aired in 2003) nods to the then-recent “28 Days Later” with its quick zombies that are not truly zombies, simply folks contaminated by a “rage virus.” “Star Trek” has and all the time can be set sooner or later, however it connects its viewers to the longer term by drawing on their current. You possibly can observe that by which films which “Star Trek” collection chooses to homage.
“Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds” is streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes of the continued third season premiering on Thursdays.
