To me it felt like a load of silly stuff, with a tacked-on cry by Pike. It didn't feel like a cohesive episode at all or an earned emotional beat. YMMV.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 4x07 - "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass"
TOS talked to the computer all of the time.
And how do we know that they didn't have counselors? I'm sure there's most likely a therapist on board as part of the medical team.
Or do you think McCoy, Chapel, and M'Benga are the entire medical staff to handle 420 crew?
He stands ready to assist if someone is injured.
Naaahhh...
He takes the science station in The Search for Spock.
Satisfactory marks. In human terms, a solid...
... [long, dramatic pause] ...
... I'm shocked to be saying this ...
... [stares intensely off into the middle distance at something or other] ...
... I have to give it a 10. This actually is my first 10 of the season. I can't in good conscience give a lower score to an episode that actually, literally made me both laugh and cry.
It's the multiple ways in which they make this work that's really striking. The episode is an affectionate spoof of soap operas, yes; but it also has a statement to make about why they're so weirdly compelling anyway and the real value that all the heightened melodrama can deliver. It ties back into the lost alternate life Pike lived in the season 3 finale in a very interesting way, and it does make sense that the Captain has things to process there.
Trelane's fellow probably-a-Q scorn-watching it and getting reluctantly sucked in is perfect, La'An's sexy subplot with Sybok -- "share your pain!" -- and M'Benga's bout of "space madness" and Chapel having some weird thing with backup brains happen off-screen and just all the Soap Opera Things were well-delivered, with a wink and a nod but also with the commitment that you absolutely have to have to pull this off.
I wasn't expecting too much from this after the puppet episode misfired so badly, if I'm honest. But this whole package, powered by really funny and touching work from Anson Mount in particular, does work for me.
Of course, there are barriers to entry. If you hate soap operas, the fact that this commits so hard on that score is probably going to be a problem. And probably has been for a few of you, I can already see that from the votes. I appreciate referential shenanigans in Trek, but they won't be enough to salvage this for you either if the premise isn't your bag. This is yet another episode where nothing... really happens (except for some emotional processing courtesy of Trelane). And to get the full emotional freight of Pike's dilemma, you have to be directly familiar with an obscure and potentially quite confusing detail from season 3.
So I'm not claiming it's flawless. But I'm very pleased to be in the target demographic for this one, because this is one "gimmick" episode where they actually do justice to the gimmick and have something genuinely interesting to say about it. It connects emotionally, which an episode with this premise had better be capable of doing, and I have to say I think it has a place up there with "Subspace Rhapsody" as a pretty classic "goofy" ep of this series.
... [long, dramatic pause] ...
... I'm shocked to be saying this ...
... [stares intensely off into the middle distance at something or other] ...
... I have to give it a 10. This actually is my first 10 of the season. I can't in good conscience give a lower score to an episode that actually, literally made me both laugh and cry.
It's the multiple ways in which they make this work that's really striking. The episode is an affectionate spoof of soap operas, yes; but it also has a statement to make about why they're so weirdly compelling anyway and the real value that all the heightened melodrama can deliver. It ties back into the lost alternate life Pike lived in the season 3 finale in a very interesting way, and it does make sense that the Captain has things to process there.
Trelane's fellow probably-a-Q scorn-watching it and getting reluctantly sucked in is perfect, La'An's sexy subplot with Sybok -- "share your pain!" -- and M'Benga's bout of "space madness" and Chapel having some weird thing with backup brains happen off-screen and just all the Soap Opera Things were well-delivered, with a wink and a nod but also with the commitment that you absolutely have to have to pull this off.
I wasn't expecting too much from this after the puppet episode misfired so badly, if I'm honest. But this whole package, powered by really funny and touching work from Anson Mount in particular, does work for me.
Of course, there are barriers to entry. If you hate soap operas, the fact that this commits so hard on that score is probably going to be a problem. And probably has been for a few of you, I can already see that from the votes. I appreciate referential shenanigans in Trek, but they won't be enough to salvage this for you either if the premise isn't your bag. This is yet another episode where nothing... really happens (except for some emotional processing courtesy of Trelane). And to get the full emotional freight of Pike's dilemma, you have to be directly familiar with an obscure and potentially quite confusing detail from season 3.
So I'm not claiming it's flawless. But I'm very pleased to be in the target demographic for this one, because this is one "gimmick" episode where they actually do justice to the gimmick and have something genuinely interesting to say about it. It connects emotionally, which an episode with this premise had better be capable of doing, and I have to say I think it has a place up there with "Subspace Rhapsody" as a pretty classic "goofy" ep of this series.
I wouldn't call it a full out comedy it was lighthearted but the story was just blah. They were trying to write around the fact that no one should know who Trelane is that is why he was interrupted when he said his name....so the story suffered from barely any interaction with Trelane. I wish they would have revealed more about Trelanes race. Like what they are called...
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It was an okay episode. The ending hit me hard though. I can’t imagine having a lifetime with my daughter, only to have it all disappear.
Like a darker version of “Inner Light”.
Like a darker version of “Inner Light”.
That is a low bar to clear since TNG. Wedding bell blues out shines most Q episodes.
That was a Trelane episode. Not a Q episode. Why does everyone keep thinking Trelane is a Q??
Or "The Family Man."
Because Q is training him, at this point I think they forgot and just made him a Q. Does it matter, this show can't keep anything straight.
This episode was tragic - and unfortunately feels like a return to one of SNW’s worst habits: letting the gimmick overwhelm the emotional and storytelling core.
What makes it especially disappointing is that last week showed exactly how well SNW can do this. It balanced its central theme and genre conceit with a genuinely strong Star Trek story. This week feels almost like the inverse: a showcase of everything that goes wrong when SNW puts the gimmick first.
Yet again, there was a genuinely compelling episode here about Pike confronting Marie, the life he might have had, and the impossible knowledge of the life he actually has to live. That’s enough. More than enough, frankly.
Instead we get Trelane, whose role feels like an elaborate prop to facilitate the soap-opera mechanics. Another excuse for the cast to play silly. Sybok gets dragged in for an evil-twin subplot of dubious relevance. Uhura is suddenly Pike’s daughter. And for what?
Why couldn’t the episode simply have stayed with Pike?
There were countless ways to build out that emotional premise without bolting increasingly elaborate genre gimmicks onto it. Pike could have inhabited different versions of his life, confronted different choices, seen different futures - all while keeping the story firmly centred on the one thing that actually mattered in this episode.
Instead, once again, SNW shoehorns a genre exercise into a Star Trek story and then leaves the actual Star Trek part feeling undernourished.
And that’s the real frustration: the central idea was strong enough to carry the episode. It didn’t need Trelane. It didn’t need an evil twin/Sybok plot. It didn’t need Uhura as Pike’s daughter. It didn’t need faux soap opera theatrics.
It needed Pike.
Last week demonstrated that SNW can balance theme, experimentation and Star Trek beautifully. This week demonstrates what happens when that balance disappears.
Disappointing. Anson Mount deserved more.
What makes it especially disappointing is that last week showed exactly how well SNW can do this. It balanced its central theme and genre conceit with a genuinely strong Star Trek story. This week feels almost like the inverse: a showcase of everything that goes wrong when SNW puts the gimmick first.
Yet again, there was a genuinely compelling episode here about Pike confronting Marie, the life he might have had, and the impossible knowledge of the life he actually has to live. That’s enough. More than enough, frankly.
Instead we get Trelane, whose role feels like an elaborate prop to facilitate the soap-opera mechanics. Another excuse for the cast to play silly. Sybok gets dragged in for an evil-twin subplot of dubious relevance. Uhura is suddenly Pike’s daughter. And for what?
Why couldn’t the episode simply have stayed with Pike?
There were countless ways to build out that emotional premise without bolting increasingly elaborate genre gimmicks onto it. Pike could have inhabited different versions of his life, confronted different choices, seen different futures - all while keeping the story firmly centred on the one thing that actually mattered in this episode.
Instead, once again, SNW shoehorns a genre exercise into a Star Trek story and then leaves the actual Star Trek part feeling undernourished.
And that’s the real frustration: the central idea was strong enough to carry the episode. It didn’t need Trelane. It didn’t need an evil twin/Sybok plot. It didn’t need Uhura as Pike’s daughter. It didn’t need faux soap opera theatrics.
It needed Pike.
Last week demonstrated that SNW can balance theme, experimentation and Star Trek beautifully. This week demonstrates what happens when that balance disappears.
Disappointing. Anson Mount deserved more.
Q episode is generic for omnipotent type being I think now.
Really? Talk to any parent who’s lost a child.
Pike had a full life in the pocket dimension (or whatever). He didn’t lose anything. The ending scene was really really unearned. So she’s gone now (as is Marie BTW, he just forgot her and said “ok”. ). After a full life and considering what could be - losing a child at a young age - this is not such a blow.
His father was voiced by de Lancie last time out.
That's not a clue. It's a considered choice.
Trelane is a Q.
Doesn't matter what the TOS writers intended.
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