They had to tap dance around amnesia, i.e., "the forgetting", something fierce by stating that rudimentary skills remain intact, but more complicated abilities are lost, not to mention memories of yore, necessitating a "living in the moment". There was lots to explore here, and by rights there should've been more meat on the pseudo-Alzheimer bones, but the episode itself was serviceable in execution. I liked the bookend breakup to makeup scenes, the callback to a disastrous early visit, and as said, the superficial exploration of dwelling on the past versus living in the moment. Emotions being a trigger for a call to action was an interesting take as well. I had flashes of Kirk Fu in some of Pike's pugilistic moves, and of Kirk getting angry to remember shed off the spores as adrenaline prompts Ortegas to remember how to pilot the ship. Finally, there were the welcome, requisite light and breezy quips, like Spock's "cranial discomfort". I think the episode was tightly directed, but unable to decide between action scenes and psychological exploration... the latter merited more attention, IMO. I'll give it a low 9.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2x04 - "Among the Lotus Eaters"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I gave the episode a 6. It was ok. I won't go into any detail why. I just did not find it all that enjoyable or engaging. I did like that Ortega's got something to do though. She's an interesting character.
But overall just mediocre for me. But I'm getting old and it's harder to hold my interest nowadays. So that could be part of it..lol
But overall just mediocre for me. But I'm getting old and it's harder to hold my interest nowadays. So that could be part of it..lol
I think they could have reasonably shaved five minutes off the runtime and made it an even better episode. Not complaining, though. Most of the time I feel like episodic TV runtimes have gotten far too short.
After lumbering through entire seasons of the adventures of Michael Burnham and Jean-Luc Picard and feeling like the stories were slowed down to the bare minimum I'm finding even SNW episodes like this compact, breezy and refreshing in their pace, though this one did feel more drawn out and less satisfying than most thus far.
It was okay. The premise was fine. The performances were great. I just didn't see why this had to be Rigel VII. There was really no bearing at all to the plot. This could have been any planet where a mission went bad previously and Pike left someone behind who turned out to be alive.
Thing is, Zac didn't even figure into the story so much either. I feel like those were wasted points. I don't think they HURT the story any but there was no story benefit to revisiting the planet in this way. I also was perplexed that nobody seemed to notice 4 workers were missing for the bulk of the episode and there was no chase sequence. I guess they forgot...
Also, in The Cage, The Kaylar felt like the name of the big guy who fought Pike, not the name of the people. And I was waiting for Pike to mention Vina or some passing reference to "the last time I was here it was an illusion." In other words, I expected more to this happening on Rigel VII than we actually got. So in that respect, I was disappointed and would have liked this a bit more if this were another planet entirely. This felt like fan service without benefit to the story. Prior Federation missions contaminating planets were a staple of the original series, I just didn't think anything was gained by connecting it to that planet. But YMMV.
I loved the old dude who helped them. Fantastic performance. Pike nearly killing the Yeoman was a great look into his psyche.
Thing is, Zac didn't even figure into the story so much either. I feel like those were wasted points. I don't think they HURT the story any but there was no story benefit to revisiting the planet in this way. I also was perplexed that nobody seemed to notice 4 workers were missing for the bulk of the episode and there was no chase sequence. I guess they forgot...
Also, in The Cage, The Kaylar felt like the name of the big guy who fought Pike, not the name of the people. And I was waiting for Pike to mention Vina or some passing reference to "the last time I was here it was an illusion." In other words, I expected more to this happening on Rigel VII than we actually got. So in that respect, I was disappointed and would have liked this a bit more if this were another planet entirely. This felt like fan service without benefit to the story. Prior Federation missions contaminating planets were a staple of the original series, I just didn't think anything was gained by connecting it to that planet. But YMMV.
I loved the old dude who helped them. Fantastic performance. Pike nearly killing the Yeoman was a great look into his psyche.
Yeoman Nguyen didn't seem to have much motivation other than generic Starfleet officer goes bad that we've seen so many times. Even if he somehow blamed Pike for his exile, he should've known Joseph M'Benga and La'an had nothing to do with that and let them stay in the palace under house arrest or something.
I will say thanks to the episode for teaching me what a ‘lotus eater’ is. Interesting.
Nguyen didn't seem like an idiot. It was very clear that whoever accompanied Pike on this Away Mission would have been an at least more than decent fighter, after everything that went down the last time Pike visited the planet. Having them in the castle would be extremely risky and Zacks chances were clearly better with them losing their memories as well
Yeah, I guess considering his fate was basically court martial he can't risk La'an or M'Benga getting free. They're probably not going to join him as rulers of Rigel 7 anyway even if they are spared being thrown out into the forgetting like Pike.
Several obnoxious nitpickers
not a big fan of the Odyssey, I guess?
First time in Star Trek fandom?
Spock: Our experience was like that of the island of the lotus eaters in the Odyssey.
Pelia: Oh, I've been there, and I still remember sharing my experiences of that island with Odysseus! Yes I can testify that those lotus roots do a nasty number on the mind!
Pike:
This episode would have been way better without all the idiot-ball plotting.
So much of this episode (particularly the B plot) relies upon the characters doing stupid things, which IMHO is fine as long as the stupid things are driven by characterization. But here the stupid things are driven by the needs of the plot to happen.
So much of this episode (particularly the B plot) relies upon the characters doing stupid things, which IMHO is fine as long as the stupid things are driven by characterization. But here the stupid things are driven by the needs of the plot to happen.
See also Jeff Hunter's Pike harnessing his anger and aggression to overcome the Talosians' telepathy in "The Cage."
We've seen this angry, violent side of Pike before.
It actually took me 3 tries to finish this episode. It just didn't hold my attention. The last 15 minutes improved things a bit. One positive thing is my opinion about Ortegas is improving. I never cared for her at all. Worse haircut than T'Pol's at the beginning of Enterprise. I'm glad the writers are improving her character, at least in my opinion.
I'll give this one a 6/10.
I'll give this one a 6/10.
A haircut makes or breaks a character? Interesting.
I enjoyed it, albeit rather undemanding. I loved the callback to Rigel VI in the Cage and we finally get to see a yeoman!
Pike and Ortegas quarters are on Deck 6 and are quite large. I suppose senior officers get the quarters with windows and junior officers get smaller quarters on the inner ring and enlisted sleep in hammocks in the Jeffries Tubes. Presumably they only have 200 ish crew at this point so quarters are larger than in TOS. That would also explain why they quickly ran out of people to man stations.
Pike and Ortegas quarters are on Deck 6 and are quite large. I suppose senior officers get the quarters with windows and junior officers get smaller quarters on the inner ring and enlisted sleep in hammocks in the Jeffries Tubes. Presumably they only have 200 ish crew at this point so quarters are larger than in TOS. That would also explain why they quickly ran out of people to man stations.
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