Summary
- Sybok's absence in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 needs addressing in season 3.
- Sybok and Captain Angel's story should be continued for character development and plot progression.
- Sybok's return offers potential for new challenges and insights into Spock's past.
To paraphrase Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, if I may be so bold, it was a mistake for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 not to include Sybok. I need Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 to fix this mistake. Strange New Worlds season 3 must fully introduce Sybok, the Vulcan half-brother of Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), and bring back Sybok's partner, Captain Angel (Jesse James Keitel), as well. Sybok is a disruptive element Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could benefit from.
Sybok appeared in the shocking final moments of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1, episode 7, "The Serene Squall", when Spock admitted he has a brother to Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). Further, Sybok is a prisoner of the Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan Criminal Rehabilitation Center under his pseudonym, Xaverius. Captain Angel posed as a United Federation of Planets scientist named Dr. Aspen to hijack the USS Enterprise to ransom the starship and Spock for Sybok's release. Angel's gambit failed, but they eluded capture while Sybok remained imprisoned. But there was no mention at all of Sybok or Captain Angel in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2.
The Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan Criminal Rehabilitation Center is run by Spock's fiancée, T'Pring (Gia Sandhu), who may be unaware her prisoner, Xaverius, is Spock's brother.
Sybok Has To Be In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 To Fix Season 2's Mistake
Sybok and Captain Angel's story needs a continuation.
The lack of Sybok is my only issue with the wondrous Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2. Strange New Worlds has proven to be meticulous in how it develops characters and stories, threading arcs across multiple episodes and seasons with copious attention to detail. Star Trek's first-ever musical episode, "Subspace Rhapsody", proves how well Strange New Worlds pays off the ongoing inter-character developments aboard the Starship Enterprise. This is why Strange New Worlds leaving Sybok and Captain Angel's story unresolved and untouched since season 1 is so glaring.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, "Charades" brought back T'Pring, Spock's mother Amanda Grayson (Mia Kirshner), and T'Pring's parents, but Sybok was never mentioned.
Once Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's episodes were laid out, it's understandable that there was no space in those 10 hours to continue Sybok's story. From Number One's (Rebecca Romijn) trial to Spock and T'Pring's break up, to flashing back to Nurse Chapel and Dr. Joseph M'Benga's (Babs Olusanmokun) trauma in Star Trek: Discovery's Klingon War, to a crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds season 2 was wildly successful. But it also meant Sybok was backburnered for a whole season, and it's time for both Sybok and Captain Angel's comebacks in Strange New Worlds season 3.
Sybok Can Be The Star Trek Villain Strange New Worlds Needs
Captain Pike's Starship Enterprise is moving away from the Gorn.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3's premiere brings back the Gorn for their latest outing as adversaries to Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) Starship Enterprise. The Gorn have been Strange New Worlds' big bad since season 1, but it may be time to move past the man-eating alien lizards. With Sybok in Strange New Worlds' back pocket, season 3 is prime time to unleash Spock's felonious older sibling. Captain Angel finally liberating Sybok from Vulcan prison would give Star Trek: Strange New Worlds a pair of villains who can challenge the USS Enterprise in a wholly different and personally deleterious way than the Gorn.
Sybok's return has unlimited potential.
Sybok is a Vulcan criminal who abandoned logic for emotion and uses his Vulcan telepathy to "share others' pain" to convert them to his cause. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Sybok could be a plague on the USS Enterprise crew, tapping into their deepest fears and possibly even (temporarily) recruiting traumatized Starfleet Officers like Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), Lt. Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia), or maybe even Captain Pike himself. Sybok could shed light on Spock's early years, and vice versa, while Captain Angel has a grudge against Spock and Chapel. Sybok's return has unlimited potential, and I hope Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 finally brings the Vulcan disruptor back.
