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

[Starflight]

From what I gather scenes with Peck and Chong give off some sort of "energy." A spark or something.

Interesting, I'd never picked up on it - the only big scene I recall them having together was the mind meld in Momento Mori, which felt to me much more like deep platonic trust than something romantically-charged.

Chong and Peck are definitely capable of selling a plot like this but I dunno, it feels like a lot more writing groundwork needs to be done to make it work.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Interesting, I'd never picked up on it - the only big scene I recall them having together was the mind meld in Momento Mori, which felt to me much more like deep platonic trust than something romantically-charged.

Chong and Peck are definitely capable of selling a plot like this but I dunno, it feels like a lot more writing groundwork needs to be done to make it work.

If SNW had been done as they had during the 60s, 80s, 90s, 00s, the writers probably would have gone with Spock-La'an from season 1. With 26 episodes, writers were just ahead of the production, and viewing dailies was used to adjust scripts that were just getting ready to film. In today's television, most of the ten episodes would already be banked, and it would be difficult to make adjustments.

 

[Sakonna]

The more I think about this one, the more frustrated I am with it. The locked-room-mystery was so at odds with the rest of it!

It's such a disappointing missed opportunity to introduce the entire cast all at once as all the wacky characters. The fun of this is usually in the gradual reveal of who is going to pop up in which role next. It's comparatively quite tedious to just lay it out in one big info-dump.

And with a setting like this, what you really want to see is La'an's investigation winding its way through the production itself. Once they were doing a murder mystery with the cast & crew of a 60's Trek show, they really should have found a way for La'an to be on set and in the production offices while the shoot is ongoing, looking for clues and interrogating suspects.

Meanwhile, they couldn't maximize the story possibilities of a locked-room mystery either, because they kept just having to stop that plot to do some bit of 60's homage. It was such a frustrating rhythm. They could not get the plots to feed each other, we just alternated beats from one with beats from the other.

One thing worth mentioning is one of the cowriters of this episode is Kathryn Lyn. She came into Trek after doing the fantastic second season episode of Lower Decks wej Duj. She clearly has great comedic chops, and is also extremely fannish (T'lyn was essentially based upon a cosplay character she did at conventions). Lower Decks hired her for Season 2, and she was a cowriter on both Charades and Those Old Scientists. Farce is pretty clearly her wheelhouse, and I expect that Episode 7 (What is Starfleet?) will also be a pretty comedic outing as a result.

Wow, I am so obsessed with T'Lyn and "wej Duj." That makes this episodes being so mid for me hurt all the more!

 

[indranee]

Rebooting what? The EU? That was only ever a small percentage of overall Star Wars fans. I bet most moviegoers didn't even know it existed. And I love the EU.

That was pretty much me. I had no idea about the EU bc I was never a SW fan.

 

[indranee]

She green lit the production. Herb Solow had a lot more to do with it. Lucy's involvement in Star Trek is greatly exaggerated.

In the bathroom. Let's just say there's another biological imperative that strikes Vulcans every seven years that has to be dealt with Right the Fuck Now when it comes on...

Yes, but in Amok Time Spock mentioned to Kirk that he'd hoped to have avoided that. To me that sounded like he'd never been through it until Amok Time.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

From what I gather scenes with Peck and Chong give off some sort of "energy." A spark or something.

They do? I'm honestly hard pressed to recall many interactions they've had before the tango lessons.

 

[indranee]

From what I gather scenes with Peck and Chong give off some sort of "energy." A spark or something.

Must be me. I don't see it. They have nothing in common. I think there was way more chemistry btw Jess and Ethan.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Nancy Drew? Seems more Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher.

They're Young Adult novels according to La'an.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Must be me. I don't see it. They have nothing in common. I think there was way more chemistry btw Jess and Ethan.

I agree.

However, for me, I was invested in La'an and Kirk. Kirk and Carol Marcus are doomed after all.

 

[Charles Phipps]

So this episode implies that the "Rec Room" of the Animated Series is the Re-Creation room and not the recreation room?

Or did the programmers make the name as a pun?

 

[Nerys Myk]

So this episode implies that the "Rec Room" of the Animated Series is the Re-Creation room and not the recreation room?

Or did the programmers make the name as a pun?

Yes

 

[Phoenix219]

... in your particular headcanon.

Unfortunately for you, that doesn't apply to the actual circumstances that the creators of the show have indicated for everyone else.

Sucks to be you I guess.

The creators of the show made it very obvious when they changed the timeline in tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

It's not my head Canon, it's what the show tells us every week.

No, it doesn't suck to be me, but it must suck for so many people to be so obtuse.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

The creators of the show made it very obvious when they changed the timeline in tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

It's not my head Canon, it's what the show tells us every week.

No, it doesn't suck to be me, but it must suck for so many people to be so obtuse.

They also stated outright that the timeline wasnt impacted at all by the shuffling of the Eugenics War, as a fixed point in time no matter what it always happens and no matter when it happens nothing changes, World War 3 and first contact will always follow when they are set to.

Give the episode a rewatch.

 

[UssGlenn]

They also stated outright that the timeline wasnt impacted at all by the shuffling of the Eugenics War, as a fixed point in time no matter what it always happens and no matter when it happens nothing changes, World War 3 and first contact will always follow when they are set to.

Give the episode a rewatch.

The episode is not explicit about it at all. all we get is:

So many people have tried to influence these events, you know, to delay them or stop them.
I mean, whole temporal wars have been fought over them. And it's almost as if time itself is pushing back, and events reinsert themselves.
And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992, and I've been trapped here for 30 years trying to get my shot at him.

Nothing about things happening at exactly the same time, though I agree over a long enough period things would line up again eventually.

 

[Commander Troi]

I enjoyed this episode immensely. I laughed at the opening. I loved Scotty. I do wish the murder mystery made sense. Anson was lovely. Celia was fun. As @Greg Cox said though, this was All About La'an and her journey as a character and Christina nailed it.

 

[Pauln6]

So well-observed with so much lore and well-known history weaved into the characters.

It is interesting that it seems to have divided opinion, with many people taking a very superficial scrape of what was onscreen, rather than appreciating the blatant multiple layers to the story within a story within a legend.

Parts I loved:

- Wesley's Shatner impression as if to say, yes, I COULD do it, if I wanted to.
- The leading lady first officer devolving into the glamour puss yeoman and delivering classic lines like, "Taking our brain cells? We need it!" Or as Grace herself said, the yeomen were 'cute and not very bright'.
- Tongue in cheek representations of Lucille Ball, and was that a hybrid of Harlan Ellison and Brannon Braga?
- Frakes directing a disastrous Riker Manoeuvre.
- Navia's hideous Mary Tyler Moore wig (an homage to the long-suffering of poor Gates McFadden?)
- A nod to Shatner's notorious line-stealing.

Stuff I liked less:
- Scotty still seems to have a very long way to go to get to TOS Scotty. At least Chin-Riley called him out.
- Gamma Rays travel at the speed of light, so I have no idea why they would need to sit close enough for them to be a threat or why they would want to sit on the same plane as any probable bursts.
- Gooding's speech was a bit too on the nose but I appreciate the sentiment.
- More Spock romance?

Overall, it was a love letter to the whole Star Trek franchise, warts and all, and I loved it.

 

[Tuskin38]

the E's in the credits aren't rounded 0/10 /s

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

I never realized until now, when I took the screenshots to compare the #StarTrekTOS season 2 opening credits ⬇️ with the "The Last Frontier" opening credits in #StarTrekSNW "A Space Adventure Hour"⬆️, that William Shatner's name was written larger than that of his co-stars. 🙈

bsky.app

The planet and stars the same ones from the TOS Remastered Seasons 2-3 opening

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

In case you were wondering about the very familiar planet in the "The Last Frontier" opening credits in #StarTrekSNW's "A Space Adventure Hour"⬆️: it's the exact same planet seen in the remastered version of the #StarTrekTOS season 2+3 opening credits ⬇️! They used the same assets! :-)

bsky.app

 

[Trekker4747]

I enjoyed this episode immensely. I laughed at the opening. I loved Scotty. I do wish the murder mystery made sense. Anson was lovely. Celia was fun. As @Greg Cox said though, this was All About La'an and her journey as a character and Christina nailed it.

This I can agree with and Holo-Spock surprised me as the solution. The whole stuff with a this level of holodeck existing is a thorn. That they have a handful of episodes to work with and they're already reaching for a holodeck? Ehhh. I dunno it's irking but I ended up enjoying the episode.

 

[Greg Cox]

It's the bowling alley we want to see.

Teaser: the bowling alley appears in my next TOS novel.

Honestly, this is a real bucket-list item. I've been wanting to work the bowling alley into a Trek book for ages, but it never seemed to fit into the plot -- until now.

Finally got there!

 

[Ssosmcin]

Well, rumor is the Board said they could do either Mission Impossible or STAR TREK - not both due to the financial strain it would cause - and their vote was for Mission Impossible because the TV series Man From U.N.C.L.E. was doing very well; James Bond films were very popular too - to the point other studios were doing Spy themed films such as In Like Flint and Matt Helm.

So yeah, the Head of the Studio overruling her Board of Directors to also get STAR TREK approved for production (if she didn't, they wouldn't have done it) is hardly 'exaggerated'.

Sure it is, she didn't even know really what Star Trek was. That "USO series" she was reportedly quoted as saying. Again, she trusted Herb Solow, that was her sound choice. She said "yes" and that's pretty much it. Solow's name needs to be mentioned a LOT more than Lucy's,

Imagine you're at work slaving over getting projects approved. You created elaborate presentations, worked weeks on it, and presented them to the board for approval. The board isn't thrilled to spend the money on both, but the president believes in you and says go for it. You're still the genius who made it worth the risk, not the president of the company. It's not like she mortgaged her house to bankroll the series. She believed in Solow not necessarily Star Trek.

Charlie Bluhdorn gave Harve Bennett the authority to do what he wanted to for Star Trek II, which in the end revived the franchise. Yet you never hear his name. Why? Because he is the guy who said yes. He didn't do the legwork.