Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 - "A Space Adventure Hour"

[Greg Cox]

So, I guess my expectations are different in that I don't mind Inconsistencies because that's always been apart of my watching experience.

Ditto. Along with TOS, I grew on the original Universal Monster movies, Hammer Horror films, the early Bond movies, Ray Harryhausen SINBAD movies, the Johnny Weissmuller TARZAN movies, etc..

So, yeah, a somewhat laissez-faire approach to continuity, as opposed to the modern obsession with "canon" and "timelines," doesn't strike me as a crime against fandom.

And, honestly, I think there's a case to be made for remembering that STAR TREK is supposed to be fun and exciting as well as high-minded and "cerebral." And for not getting too bent out of shape about "canon."

(Dare I admit that I'm listening to the soundtrack of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad as I type this?)

 

[Racefuel]

He is a documentary maker and, arguably, an expert on Star Trek history. He is an ardent critic of the Kurzman era, and while his criticisms aren't uninformed, he has been a poster child for the Fandom Menace types.

I know the Trek community has always had them...but I dread seeing the kind of abuse that Ahmed Best and such experienced in the SW community

 

[Starflight]

As a kid I hated holodeck episodes because... we're in space! We're in a pulpy adventure setting where anything can happen! The supposed benefit of the holodeck is that you can "go anywhere", but you can already go anywhere in Star Trek just by beaming down to a planet, where you could have a far more interesting adventure than in Dixon Hill!

I don't mind stuff like The Killing Game where the plot is largely external and the holodeck is being used as a creative excuse to bring out some reusable props and costumes, but stuff like The Big Goodbye falls a bit flat for me; it's basically just watching Picard playing a hilariously dangerous, glitchy videogame.

 

[cooleddie74]

We called them continuity errors back then.

Assuming some of us even noticed them.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Assuming some of us even noticed them.

Have you met us?

 

[Yistaan]

As a kid I hated holodeck episodes because... we're in space! We're in a pulpy adventure setting where anything can happen! The supposed benefit of the holodeck is that you can "go anywhere", but you can already go anywhere in Star Trek just by beaming down to a planet, where you could have a far more interesting adventure than in Dixon Hill!

I don't mind stuff like The Killing Game where the plot is largely external and the holodeck is being used as a creative excuse to bring out some reusable props and costumes, but stuff like The Big Goodbye falls a bit flat for me; it's basically just watching Picard playing a hilariously dangerous, glitchy videogame.

I mean holodeck relaxation makes sense in the context of the universe though. To take your narrative, ancient times people would wonder why modern people play video games when they can theoretically fly almost anywhere in the world (which people in ancient times can't do)

 

[Starflight]

It makes sense in the setting, but it doesn't necessarily make for good viewing; I wouldn't want a TV series - set in the present day real world - about a super-spy who goes on globetrotting missions to routinely put out episodes where we just watch them play videogames!

 

[Uhura's Song]

I thought the explanation on the holodeck was good. It malfunctioned so they did not have them on ships.

 

[fireproof78]

Did people argue as back in the 60s about canon as they do now? I don't remember this picking up until a few years into TNG. YMMV.

I just recall my tiny circle of Trek friends who didn't care for TOS compared to TNG and how they didn't work together.

 

[DaveyNY]

Did people argue as back in the 60s about canon as they do now? I don't remember this picking up until a few years into TNG. YMMV.

We obviously didn't have the Internet, but I remember letter writing type discussions in STARLOG magazine and I know I spent hours at many early conventions hashing out the little details in group meetings.
(STARLOG was our 'Internet' from 1976 till about 1998, at least for me)

The first convention I went to after TMP came out, had some raucous conversations about the new Enterprise and the Klingon changes.

 

[DaveyNY]

I just recall my tiny circle of Trek friends who didn't care for TOS compared to TNG and how they didn't work together.

And that was purposely done at the time by Roddenberry himself.
Even though several episodes came right from TOS scripts that he wanted to rehash.

 

[cooleddie74]

Have you met us?

I'm ten of our sorry carcasses rolled into one.

 

[Mr Awe]

Have Trek expectations changed?

To be fair, my biggest criticisms about this episode do not relate to canon or the timeline. That aspect is fine.

 

[Tuskin38]

I think this episode was better than "Our Man Bashir"

 

[I am not Spock]

i'm losing patience for the silly, gimmicky episodes. We only have 22 episodes left of the entire show, including this week's episode 5. And we know there are at least 2 more silly comedies to come (everyone becomes a Vulcan, and muppets).

By its third season, even Orville took itself more seriously than SNW does

 

[Tuskin38]

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

Diodes being an integral part of the holodeck (#StarTrekSNW's "A Space Adventure Hour"⬆️) goes all the way back to the 1991 #StarTrekTNG (Writers') Technical Manual ⬅️. The diodes were then later mentioned in "Ship in a Bottle"➡️ and "The Chase"⬇️ (tricorder modified for a holographic projection).

bsky.app

i'm losing patience for the silly, gimmicky episodes.

This episode wasn't really either of those things.

 

[Nerys Myk]

i'm losing patience for the silly, gimmicky episodes. We only have 22 episodes left of the entire show, including this week's episode 5. And we know there are at least 2 more silly comedies to come (everyone becomes a Vulcan, and muppets).

By its third season, even Orville took itself more seriously than SNW does

So what? The silly, gimmicky episodes are usually impactful from the character arc perspective. And Trek is about people more that the "crisis" on Allegorica Prime or Metaphorican Nebula.

 

[Starflight]

And Trek is about people more that the "crisis" on Allegorica Prime or Metaphorican Nebula.

Sci-fi/adventure plots are key too, though. The Doomsday Machine is the story of Matt Decker (whose story is tied entirely to the episode rather than part of a wider arc) but it's also just an exciting thriller story in which Kirk kamikazes a big space turd. Stories like A Taste of Armageddon are overwhelmingly just about imagining a fictional society rather than giving the recurring characters any discernable arc or growth.

I think part of peoples' complaints arise from the way in which SNW engages with science fiction - it's often either a thinly-drawn device to enable some relatively mundane character beat (eg the aliens who force Chapel to say she loves Spock in S2), or is treated entirely as a joke to enable a gimmick episode. Both approaches are fine in isolation and common throughout Star Trek, but you can see why they start to wear on people when they come to define the entire show, especially with 10-episode seasons.

 

[TRON JA307020]

i'm losing patience for the silly, gimmicky episodes. We only have 22 episodes left of the entire show, including this week's episode 5. And we know there are at least 2 more silly comedies to come (everyone becomes a Vulcan, and muppets).

By its third season, even Orville took itself more seriously than SNW does

Yeah. We really didnt need a holodeck episode. I also find it strange that starfleet held holodeck technology back for a century after it was invented. That's like the personal computer being invented in 1874 and being held back until 1974 or the gasoline powered car being invented in 1785 and held back until 1885. They should have left it as it was. In tng it was touted as a new technology. It should have stayed that way.

 

[Tallguy]

Sure, they're something of a Trek cliche these days,

As much as I was left wanting by the episode it took me a bit to realize that this was very consciously the point. I may groan and say "Another holodeck episode!" but there are a lot of people where this is a beloved kind of Star Trek. And this one actually leaned into all of the tropes of a holodeck episode as tropes. To some fans (many? I don't know) seeing the holodeck break down while the cast gets to ham it up in different costumes is as much a part of Star Trek as a "leaving spacedock" scene or "He's dead, Jim."

I've always been baffled by the reaction to "The Naked Now" as if the writers were trying to pull a fast one. I mean, they called it "The Naked NOW". They knew what they were doing. They were intentionally copying the template and showing off the new characters. You might not like the episode but it was hardly creatively bankrupt.

Same here. They're not out of ideas. They're just doing a Star Trek trope that I don't care for.

This was literally "The One with the Holodeck".