American film and television director who directed The Serene Squall, the first-season Strange New Worlds episode in which pirates led by Captain Angel seize the Enterprise.
Sydney Freeland, a Navajo film-maker known for independent features and episodic television, directed one episode of Strange New Worlds.
The Serene Squall, the seventh episode of the first season, begins as a relief mission guided by a counsellor named Doctor Aspen. Aspen is revealed to be Angel, captain of the pirate ship Serene Squall, who takes the Enterprise in order to force T'Pring to release a prisoner. Pike stirs up a mutiny among the pirates while Spock and Chapel stage a false romance to defeat the plan.
The closing scene identifies the prisoner as Spock's half-brother Sybok.