• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

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

Hit it!


  • Total voters
    100
There were lots of potential tie-ins here. Like, the planet they went to in this episode was Vadia XI, which was the original homeworld of "maybe-Trelane" from Wedding Bell Blues.

I don't think the Vedza are supposed to be some kind of "Dark Q" or anything, but I think the implication is the proto-Q, before they transcended, were the ones who trapped them there.


I would be OK with the Wormhole aliens and the Pah-Wraith being some sort of proto Q or side shoot. Some will cry small universe syndrome but I think it could be inriging.
 
Star Wars fits poorly, even with Lucas.


TAS fits with TOS perfectly and that's all it needed to do.

Star wars has much better continuity with all its live action series and film that Star trek does with its. Both written and visual.
 
Last edited:
So I rewatched this one tonight, and I'm not going to reiterate everything everyone has said about it already. On first watch, I did like this episode bc of it's horror elements as well as the advancing character arcs, and after rewatching and before grading it, I have a few points to make:
1) So once Gamble was attacked, Christine and La'an took him outside to be beamed up and then came back. The rest of the landing party was inside. So the only reason N'Jal was killed was because he tried to exit by himself? Okay. Got it. I'd actually missed that during my first bleary-eyed watch early Thursday morning. I kept thinking "how'd they get him out?!"
2) I liked that little look Christine gave La'an and then Spock when they were all talking about the "preservers" theory and La'an said "fascinating!" See, I like those little moments and... er, glances ;) And aww now when I see Gamble in all his fresh-faced innocence breathe "ancient astronauts!!!" my heart weeps a bit. About that, I really don't think we've seen the last of this character. Whether or not they follow up on the last scene, he's too good to let go. But what do I know? I'm just an OG Trekkie who's used to too many great guest characters meet their deaths never to be heard from again.
3) So when N'Jal speaks, he/she speaks in his language and Uhura translates, but when the landing party speak, he/she is able to understand them? I don't see Uhura translating to him. So I take it he either knows Standard, or the UT is translating one way. Okay... just checking here. I am not quite up on how the UT is supposed to work at this point in the Prime Timeline.
4) Gamble's injury/death happened right around 20mins in...
5) When I was first watching it, I remember thinking that when Dr. M'Benga was examining Gamble's fingers and they looked kinda dark blue/gray/black... that that's not a good thing that his extremities seem to have turned darker. I now realize that meant he had already died by that point. *shivers* the horror/horrific moments on this show were really, SNEAKILY well done.
6) Spock has read Alice in Wonderland... I now want to rewatch Shore Leave LOL.
7) How did an unbroken sentient sphere get into engineering? Who brought it aboard? I must have missed that part.
8) I understand a lot of folks did like the previous episode. I did not. THIS episode is precisely the reason why I did not like that one. To a writer like me, little things can mean a lot. This episode adds to the lore of TOS. It gets Spock back on his perceptive yet logical feet and able to establish a solid, tensile working bond with Christine; it shows why without Christine Chapel's ability to restrain Dr. Korby's innate curiosity for the unknown, he made such a life-changing error. And we now realize that Dr. M'Benga may have had an increasingly difficult emotional journey as the CMO aboard the Enterprise... something that may have led him on to a different path altogether. ALL that is meat & potatoes to an O Trekkie like me, and though I am still unsure as to whether SNW is Prime Timeline, as the series progresses, I am sure that this particular episode may well be considered part of the stream that seats SNW firmly inside the Prime Timeline.
8) As an OG Phile (original X-Files fan), I always loved the MOTWs (Monster-of-the-week) episodes more and gave them a lot of rewatches over the years. My Trek journey has been very different, but when Trek makes a true horror (and at times horrific) episode, I am there every step of the way.
Grade: 10
 
I took screenshots of them both last night so I could compare them, once I get off work today I'll maybe see about getting the episode 5 screenshot hosted somewhere so I can post it here too.

Edited to add the screenshots I took:

RIOrygo.jpeg


uqvg6iL.jpeg

Maybe it's HIS version of the Vezda. His particular boogeyman. Something the 10-year old Spock saw when Sarek showed him an old Vulcan horror classic. ;)
 
So I rewatched this one tonight, and I'm not going to reiterate everything everyone has said about it already. On first watch, I did like this episode bc of it's horror elements as well as the advancing character arcs, and after rewatching and before grading it, I have a few points to make:
1) So once Gamble was attacked, Christine and La'an took him outside to be beamed up and then came back. The rest of the landing party was inside. So the only reason N'Jal was killed was because he tried to exit by himself? Okay. Got it. I'd actually missed that during my first bleary-eyed watch early Thursday morning. I kept thinking "how'd they get him out?!"
2) I liked that little look Christine gave La'an and then Spock when they were all talking about the "preservers" theory and La'an said "fascinating!" See, I like those little moments and... er, glances ;) And aww now when I see Gamble in all his fresh-faced innocence breathe "ancient astronauts!!!" my heart weeps a bit. About that, I really don't think we've seen the last of this character. Whether or not they follow up on the last scene, he's too good to let go. But what do I know? I'm just an OG Trekkie who's used to too many great guest characters meet their deaths never to be heard from again.
3) So when N'Jal speaks, he/she speaks in his language and Uhura translates, but when the landing party speak, he/she is able to understand them? I don't see Uhura translating to him. So I take it he either knows Standard, or the UT is translating one way. Okay... just checking here. I am not quite up on how the UT is supposed to work at this point in the Prime Timeline.
4) Gamble's injury/death happened right around 20mins in...
5) When I was first watching it, I remember thinking that when Dr. M'Benga was examining Gamble's fingers and they looked kinda dark blue/gray/black... that that's not a good thing that his extremities seem to have turned darker. I now realize that meant he had already died by that point. *shivers* the horror/horrific moments on this show were really, SNEAKILY well done.
6) Spock has read Alice in Wonderland... I now want to rewatch Shore Leave LOL.
7) How did an unbroken sentient sphere get into engineering? Who brought it aboard? I must have missed that part.
8) I understand a lot of folks did like the previous episode. I did not. THIS episode is precisely the reason why I did not like that one. To a writer like me, little things can mean a lot. This episode adds to the lore of TOS. It gets Spock back on his perceptive yet logical feet and able to establish a solid, tensile working bond with Christine; it shows why without Christine Chapel's ability to restrain Dr. Korby's innate curiosity for the unknown, he made such a life-changing error. And we now realize that Dr. M'Benga may have had an increasingly difficult emotional journey as the CMO aboard the Enterprise... something that may have led him on to a different path altogether. ALL that is meat & potatoes to an O Trekkie like me, and though I am still unsure as to whether SNW is Prime Timeline, as the series progresses, I am sure that this particular episode may well be considered part of the stream that seats SNW firmly inside the Prime Timeline.
8) As an OG Phile (original X-Files fan), I always loved the MOTWs (Monster-of-the-week) episodes more and gave them a lot of rewatches over the years. My Trek journey has been very different, but when Trek makes a true horror (and at times horrific) episode, I am there every step of the way.
Grade: 10
With respect to the Sphere they used to capture the entity; when they were talking about and the scans of the Spere, they had the remains of it on board, so I assume Scotty and Pelia found a way to repair it; because even though it was never stated by her openly, she probably thought they would need it.
 
Star wars has much better continuity with all its live action series and film that Star trek does with its. Both written and visual.
Star Wars also has a lot less overall hours of films and episodes produced to date; and while visually I will agree with you, on the written end no, sorry, even with the limited number of hours Star Wars written continuity isn't better than Star Trek's.

Fans love to claim this but it's just not true and I've already listed plenty of examples previously when others have tried to compare Star Wars written continuity with Star Trek.
 
Star Wars never really gave a satisfactory answer as to how Darth Maul survived Naboo, nor how Gregor survived being blown up. They even lampshaded it in a future episode with Gregor quipping that he was blown up once, but never explaining it.
 
McCoy's miracle pill that can regrow kidneys.
Well, that's later and a comedy. All sorts of stupidity was tossed into TVH for the sake of "it's a romp." :rommie: Having said that....

I've gotten to the point of ignoring all of that stuff, especially when it comes to TOS and modern Trek because the original series was a 60's TV show trying to find its way. Nobody was world building to support a franchise lasting 60+ years. So I let things go now like Spock's first command in "The Galileo Seven" (which was iffy even then) or the first time Spock performed a mind meld in front of a non Vulcan was in "Dagger of the Mind" or regrowing eyes and limbs when we had a guy with a half masked face in "The Conscience of the King." And the very real implication that Spock and Chapel never had a relationship. If an episode of SNW doesn't land for me, then it's based whether I like the story or the delivery. TOS was the original and my favorite but I'm past expecting an official production to adhere to 60's standards. And Paramount can say this is canon all they want, I'll either accept it or I won't. It's all fiction so it's meaningless, none of it actually happened. TOS is a passion of mine. The rest are all spinoffs that I either like or don't, accept or don't. I will say I accept sequels faster than prequels for my own reasons.

This episode really landed for me. It wasn't stunningly original but it hit the right notes. I don't like Carol Kane in anything, but even her weirdly timed end of the episode joke worked because it called back to the inappropriate jokes at the end of episodes where like a star system was destroyed or 7 guys died just minutes earlier.
 
Star Wars also has a lot less overall hours of films and episodes produced to date; and while visually I will agree with you, on the written end no, sorry, even with the limited number of hours Star Wars written continuity isn't better than Star Trek's.

Fans love to claim this but it's just not true and I've already listed plenty of examples previously when others have tried to compare Star Wars written continuity with Star Trek.

Less Overall hours yes. But with today's technology it's easy to research this stuff then ever before. Writers have a virtual encyclopedia at their fingertips. But They are probably intentionally breaking continuity.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top