STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: Episode 1.4: “Memento Mori”
Miracles, sacrifice, and suspense make this episode worth watching.
Should You Watch It?
This is one of the best and most family-friendly episodes of STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS, according to the source review. It combines suspense and fantastic action with a redemptive worldview that values peace, life, courage, sacrifice, and duty.
The episode has no lewd content, no attacks on religion, and no uncomfortable political-correctness commentary. It does include intense violence and peril, including bloody wounds, dangerous spaceship battles, and ruthless aliens who are said to eat humans. There is also one mild “h” word.
If your older children can handle intense science-fiction peril, this is a strong choice; for younger children, parents should use discernment. The practical answer: watch it with older children and adults, while screening it carefully for sensitive viewers.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESThe Enterprise arrives at a Federation colony to deliver a powerful air filter, only to discover that the colonists have been attacked. Security Officer La’an Noonien-Singh recognizes the work of the Gorn, a mysterious and ruthless alien race.
When Gorn ships damage the Enterprise, Captain Pike leads the crew into a dangerous gas cloud surrounding a dying star tethered to a black hole. There, the crew may have a chance to face an enemy with superior technology.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this episode delivers excellent entertainment. The source review praises its suspense, intense action, and fantastic space battles. It calls the episode one of the best and most family-friendly episodes of STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS.
The story also gives its action a strong moral center. Its characters honor sacrifice and duty, and its danger is tied to courage, teamwork, and the effort to protect others.
The Worldview
The episode presents a strong redemptive, moral, and heroic worldview. It values peace, life, courage, sacrifice, and duty. A subplot honors people in uniform as well as civilians who sacrifice their lives in service to the community. Brief dialogue also emphasizes purpose, meaning, life, and hope.
The episode includes biblical allusions and positive references to miracles. Captain Pike says, “The best miracles are born from truth,” and also says, “Get a crew to believe in miracles, and they just might give you one.” The source review connects the first statement to the Christian understanding that the miracles of Jesus Christ, especially His physical resurrection, took place in history and were witnessed and remembered across the centuries.
The episode does not attack religion, and its moral vision aligns with biblical ideas about sacrifice, service, courage, and giving one’s life for others. Its science-fiction setting does not present a complete Christian worldview, but its central respect for truth, duty, and sacrificial service points toward biblical moral convictions.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong redemptive, moral, heroic worldview with brief talk about purpose giving meaning, brief dialogue extols life, sacrifice and duty arev extolled, a rescued character says, “Thank God,” and with biblical allusions and references to hope and miracles, including one where the lead hero says, “Get a crew to believe in miracles, and they just might give you one,” and one where he says, “The best miracles are born from truth,” plus program has a subplot where people in uniform honor other people in uniform and civilians who sacrificed their lives in service to the community, which values peace, life, courage, sacrifice, and duty
Foul Language
One “h” word and no profanities
Violence
Strong, sometimes intense action violence includes intense spaceship battles between the good guys and a race of mysterious and ruthless aliens who are said to eat their prey (including humans), an attack has left streaks of blood in a town square, a ship’s officer has a few bloody stomach wounds, nurse sews up a wound, image of a dead body, a weapon blasts a deep space tunnel connecting two spaceships, a barking dog suddenly appears against a window and startles several people, a ship implodes, one crewman sacrifices himself for another crewman, and people are wounded and treated in a futuristic medical facility
Sex
No sex
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Villains set a trap for the good guys for evil purposes, and a character says he doesn’t like working in teams, but that is rebuked and eventually refuted.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Captain Pike says, “The best miracles are born from truth.” Why does truth matter when we talk about God’s miracles?
John 14:6 · 1 Corinthians 15:3–8The crew faces danger through courage, sacrifice, and duty. What does it mean to serve others when you are afraid?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4One character dislikes working in teams, but that attitude is rebuked and refuted. When is teamwork difficult, and how can humility help?
Romans 12:4–5 · Philippians 2:3The episode honors people who sacrifice themselves in service to their community. How should Christians honor faithful service while remembering the One who gave Himself for us?
Galatians 2:20 · Hebrews 6:10The Final Word
“Memento Mori” offers older viewers great suspense, fantastic action, and a hopeful moral vision centered on truth, sacrifice, duty, and miracles. Its intense violence and peril call for parental discernment with younger viewers. For older children and adults, the answer is WORTH WATCHING — OLDER CHILDREN AND ADULTS.
