Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x05 - "Through the Lens of Time"

[I am not Spock]

pretty solid Trek episode. Alien worlds, possessions, red shirts , this is what i wanna see.

Better than last week's, imo.

I'm leaning towards a 7 or 8.

Maybe similar to some previous episodes of other Trek shows, but it was a serious episode and not another comedy so bonus points for that

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Bioengineering new eyes just like that 100 years before Geordi? Sedatives working on a dead brain?
But it was an interesting adventure and exploration story, even with Indy 3 invisible bridge
Could that being be a pah-wraith?

Well,, regenerated eyes was an option for Spock in Operation Annihilate.

Right?
Right?

 

[tomalak301]

Nice to see the production actually go outside for once! Though, unfortunately it was back to the same quarry they always use in Toronto. But hey, it’s modern Trek’s Bronson Caves.

Didn't they go outside in the Zombie episode?

 

[Rahul]

Good, not great.
As with most things SNW, I like what I see & just wish for a bit more.

Dig a bit deeper into the concept. A bit less technobabble and a bit more plot points. Dig a bit deeper into the relationships. Make the history & technology a bit more believable. Make the characters act a bit smarter. Just - a bit more & deeper. I love what I see, but I think it's all a bit surface level.

Which, in the end, means I'm a big fan of the show. With DIS or PIC I often wasn't happy with what I saw. Here I'm unhappy with what I didn'tsee.

 

[Rahul]

One thing I have to say - I have never been a fan of the "crewmembers being taken over by non-corporal beings taken" - plot.
But it IS a classic Trek staple - so this one is really on me.

Making the alien take-over creepy as fuck with poor Gamble: Great decision.
Have the alien beings be stored in an animated Indiana Jones temple & everyone casually swapping planes of existence: Didn't land so much for me.

 

[kirk55555]

Another crappy episode, mostly focused on a random medic character and Spock relationship drama. Having Spock fuck his way through the Female cast of SNW is still awful, and now its just literally the only thing his character does on the show.

Also, because it has to be said although it has been an issue for several episodes at this point, its weird how Spock and Uhura didn't mention knowing Roger Corby during the episode where he appeared in TOS, its almost like no one on the TOS Enterprise knew Corby except Chapel Then again in TOS Chapel was barely a work acquaintance of Spock and they definitely hadn't screwed, so why bother pretending that SNW is in the same timeline as TOS at all at this point.

Bad episode, but somehow still better then several episodes this season. Hopefully at some point the people making the show realised that they had limited episodes left and stop wasting them on worthless crap. 4/10, and thats with it getting an extra point just by not being as bad as The Wedding or Holodeck episodes from this season.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

One thing I have to say - I have never been a fan of the "crewmembers being taken over by non-corporal beings taken" - plot.
But it IS a classic Trek staple - so this one is really on me.

I am reserving judgement. It's not quite clear what is going on, with just enough of a mystery from various crew reactions. I hope this is more like Neutral Zone, where there is a mystery to be fleshed out later.

 

[Sakonna]

Good, not great.
As with most things SNW, I like what I see & just wish for a bit more.

Dig a bit deeper into the concept. A bit less technobabble and a bit more plot points. Dig a bit deeper into the relationships. Make the history & technology a bit more believable. Make the characters act a bit smarter. Just - a bit more & deeper. I love what I see, but I think it's all a bit surface level.

Which, in the end, means I'm a big fan of the show. With DIS or PIC I often wasn't happy with what I saw. Here I'm unhappy with what I didn'tsee.

God, this is it exactly.

I love that SNW is focused on producing satisfying episodes in the way of "old time" TV, but the real estate of 20-some episodes a year wasn't incidental. That was a key part of that formula.

It does introduce a new dissatisfaction to get only 10 episodes of what feels like a much longer season. It's a bit like watching someone's curated list of a seasons highlights, when you are a completist and want the whole thing. Doing just the highlights leaves everything feeling just a bit rushed. Nothing gets explored to a point of full satisfaction, but it all gets close.

I'm also not sure there's a better way to do it than what SNW does, given current economic realities. They've been using the 10 episodes available to them as cleverly as possible, but there's no totally getting around that this is a form designed for much larger episode orders.

 

[eschaton]

So, thinking about it more now, I think this episode should have been flipped with the last one, for a few reasons.

• People seemed unhappy how we had no further drip-drip last week regarding Batel's condition, which this episode develops on.
• There's supposed to be a theme here of Chapel and Spock getting over their shit and learning to work together, which would be better if it happened prior to Spock and La'an making out.
• The recurring characters here (Gamble, Beto, Korby) were all from Wedding Bell Blues, so following up on them earlier would have made some sense.

Of course, this would mean the opening discussion between La'an and Chapel would have to be rewritten, but that discussion was awful - basically just La'an saying "we're not really in a relationship" and them not acting in any way romantic towards one another for the remainder of it. The episode would have been better if it wasn't included.

 

[thribs]

Yeah because star trek has never ever reused filming locations before

But they usually try to make it look different. This looked identical

 

[eschaton]

God, this is it exactly.

I love that SNW is focused on producing satisfying episodes in the way of "old time" TV, but the real estate of 20-some episodes a year wasn't incidental. That was a key part of that formula.

It does introduce a new dissatisfaction to get only 10 episodes of what feels like a much longer season. It's a bit like watching someone's curated list of a seasons highlights, when you are a completist and want the whole thing. Doing just the highlights leaves everything feeling just a bit rushed. Nothing gets explored to a point of full satisfaction, but it all gets close.

I'm also not sure there's a better way to do it than what SNW does, given current economic realities. They've been using the 10 episodes available to them as cleverly as possible, and there's no totally getting around that this is a form designed for much larger episode orders.

I just posted something about this into the general discussion thread, because it's not directly relevant to this episode, but yeah, it feels like the showrunners really, really want to have DS9-length seasons, and feel obligated to somehow shoehorn in 26-episodes worth of (attempted) character development into only ten.

 

[Rahul]

On a similar note:
I think recently SNW does too many different sci-fi concepts at the same time.
Like EITHER do "energy beings possessing humans" OR do "parallel reality shifting dungeons".
If you do both at the same time, they somehow cancel each other out.

Like back in the day, the X-files did "mystical fairytale monsters" OR "alien conspiracy" - but never both on the same episode. Because that would somehow break immersion

 

[Noname Given]

Hi BBSers,

As mentioned in previous episode threads, my family and I like to watch new Star Trek together, but I always check here first to make sure there isn't anything inappropriate for a 10YO (like heavy gore, or upsetting themes like child death- for calibration, the episodes we've skipped are 1.6 [child death], 1.9, 2.8 & 3.3 [distressing gore/themes]).

Could the good folks of the BBS please give me a (spoiler-free) heads up if there's anything too much for this ep- thanks!

The shots of Gamble without his eyes after his injury on the planet throughout the rest the episode is something you may want to see for yourself to decide whether or not you think your 10 year old can handle it.

Other than that, nothing I would find inappropriate for a 10 year old myself.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

it feels like the showrunners really, really want to have DS9-length seasons, and feel obligated to somehow shoehorn in 26-episodes worth of (attempted) character development into only ten.

Something Ronald Moore said in a podcast, not specifically about Star Trek, is that after all the studios tried to become Netflix, they realize there can only be one Netflix. They are all stuck, having destroyed their old successful business model.

I'm not sure they want to go to the 26-episode season. There are probably enough people around who think it was too much of a grind. However, there is a lot of chatter about the problemata of the 10-episode season, some of it which came out during the writers' and actors' strikes: too many shows, but not enough work.

 

[Sakonna]

On a similar note:
I think recently SNW does too many different sci-fi concepts at the same time.
Like EITHER do "energy beings possessing humans" OR do "parallel reality shifting dungeons".
If you do both at the same time, they somehow cancel each other out.

Like back in the day, the X-files did "mystical fairytale monsters" OR "alien conspiracy" - but never both on the same episode. Because that would somehow break immersion

Yes! Also true.

This was my exact complaint last week. The murder mystery and the 60's Trek homage were two good ideas that, as presented, cannibalized and diminished each other. They couldn't fit it all in a single episode.

 

[EmoBorg]

Best episode so far this season. The idea of an ancient malevolent species that even the Gorn saw as a serious threat to be exterminated is very interesting. The malevolent being that took possession of Gamble recognized Pelia's species and the Lanthanites live for thousands of years. Maybe exploring the ancient records can lead to a discovery of who they are ? A Star Trek version of the Goa'uld perhaps.

 

[indranee]

TOS Trek movies had medicine that could regrow kidneys so new eyes should be possible

Very true. Just ONE pill and a pat on the cheek by Dr. McCoy... my dad was so impressed by that... however, the TOS movies are about 15 years ahead of TOS, and this is before TOS. Either way, I'm pretty sure what you say is possible.

 

[26138]

That's the point. Lot of those experiments shouldn't have been anywhere near the warp core.

Reminds me of that one TNG episode where they're testing a phaser rifle aimed in the general direction of the warp core lol.

 

[Gepard]

Making the alien take-over creepy as fuck with poor Gamble: Great decision.
Have the alien beings be stored in an animated Indiana Jones temple & everyone casually swapping planes of existence: Didn't land so much for me.

On a similar note:
I think recently SNW does too many different sci-fi concepts at the same time.
Like EITHER do "energy beings possessing humans" OR do "parallel reality shifting dungeons".
If you do both at the same time, they somehow cancel each other out.

You're pretty much already saying what I was thinking. The Gamble possession was the strongest part of the story, and could have carried an episode by itself. Trek has never done an alien possession quite like this one, to the best of my recollection. Not being able to tell if the person you're talking to is your crewmate or the alien was very effective; Stargate did it all the time but it's new to Trek.

The planet side stuff felt half baked. Again, it could probably have supported an episode by itself but it needed more work.

An okay episode, probably the best of the season but unfortunately that's not saying much. At least it was an actual strange new world....

 

[Fateor]

Heh, they gave one of the dead bodies the giant Collector nose jewelry thing.