The New “old” Star Trek show continues
on. This season is focusing more on classic series style “done in one” tales.
However, some continuing character threads come into play. I'm a big fan of the way this show fully embraced how Star Trek has always had episodes across multiple genres, and whether they be serious or crazy they always maintained the dramatic tension and stayed true to the characters throughout.
[I wrote these as
they came out, so any thoughts after the season completed will be in brackets
at the end of each episode.]
“Valles Marineris”
Wow! That was a heck of a way to kick things off! Cowboys, dinosaurs, Martians, bug aliens, massive explosions and extremely questionable, yet still Star Trekky, science- all wrapped up in a stable time loop. Given the end of last season, having a melancholy ending before getting to the uplifting part matched the theme of the show well. Plus, we got a hint of a teaser on La’an’s character arc we’ll be tracking this season. [It did not go in the direction I expected at all. Then again, we still need to find out why she was never mentioned in the Original Series in the upcoming, shortened, season five. My guess, she joins the Department of Temporal Investigations.]
Wow! That was a heck of a way to kick things off! Cowboys, dinosaurs, Martians, bug aliens, massive explosions and extremely questionable, yet still Star Trekky, science- all wrapped up in a stable time loop. Given the end of last season, having a melancholy ending before getting to the uplifting part matched the theme of the show well. Plus, we got a hint of a teaser on La’an’s character arc we’ll be tracking this season. [It did not go in the direction I expected at all. Then again, we still need to find out why she was never mentioned in the Original Series in the upcoming, shortened, season five. My guess, she joins the Department of Temporal Investigations.]
Star Trek veers strongly back to its Original Series EC Horror roots with this one. Whether the ship they found was actually haunted or there will be a technical explanation for driving people crazy remains to be seen. As much as I expect Star Trek to always give us rational (if made up) explanations for things, I’d be on board for a Sector 12 Federation Paranormal Investigations Trek show... or at least a Halloween special anthology. This was straight up terrifying, and the advances of Star Trek medicine made it impossible to guess when we were seeing hallucinations and when we were seeing actual injuries. A few call forwards to the Movie Era for Jim Kirk were nice little extras in the second excellent episode in a row. I think we have the reason Spock goes back to the Vulcan mindset we see him have in the Original Series. Two kinds of downer endings in a row, and given the acceleration of La’an’s arc looking like its going nowhere good, probably not the last of those downers. [Well, we didn’t get an explanation, but we also didn’t get any more downers this season. I incorrectly expected her story to be resolved this season, hence my mentioning her more frequently than others who had just as much character development and screen time.]
“Human Best Friend”
I am a big fan of the fact that, even with the modern limited number of episodes, this series is not afraid of doing the silly ones. They are also excellent at putting great characters moments, and actual suspense into those silly ones. Yes, it is another “Shore Leave” planet, this time following a different tradition where the entire main cast gets hammered. But it also gives us excellent bonding between Erica and Scotty, while providing a back story for both of them. They also used this wild setting for briefly tracking what's going on with La’an, [see?] and an outstanding continuation of growth in the connection between Kirk and Spock. As with the best of the Trek shows, there is action, drama and real stakes amidst the goofiness. [I thought this one would get more call backs. They really are focusing on “done in one” tales.]
I am a big fan of the fact that, even with the modern limited number of episodes, this series is not afraid of doing the silly ones. They are also excellent at putting great characters moments, and actual suspense into those silly ones. Yes, it is another “Shore Leave” planet, this time following a different tradition where the entire main cast gets hammered. But it also gives us excellent bonding between Erica and Scotty, while providing a back story for both of them. They also used this wild setting for briefly tracking what's going on with La’an, [see?] and an outstanding continuation of growth in the connection between Kirk and Spock. As with the best of the Trek shows, there is action, drama and real stakes amidst the goofiness. [I thought this one would get more call backs. They really are focusing on “done in one” tales.]
Casablanca in space!!!! We get to see what the horrors of a Commander Kor run Klingon occupied planet would look like when the citizens aren’t omnipotent energy beings. They also had an in story reason for it being black and white. The science behind it might be even worse than the asteroid belt thing in the first episode, but it was still a reason. The story contained a cool look into Klingons as the bad guys they started out in the franchise as. Plus there were the on ship interactions of the remaining crew members both trying to rescue the landing party and figure out what was going on. Any look into Doctor M’Benga’s shady, special forces based past provides cool moments. There was some nice growths of Uhura working her way to becoming into the competent and unflappable officer we know from later tales. Actually, that happened a great deal this season, as befitting the character who was our point of view into the show when it started. The stand out was Una, who was the main character of this noir story and proved why she's the first officer and belongs on the command track.
“Level Five Transporter Accident”
I will say again, the fact that they so unashamedly embrace ideas that out-crazy most of the rest of the franchise in this show, even with shorter seasons, warms my heart. This was insane and hilarious, and (thanks to the Henson Creature Shop) technically amazing. While the entire crew, except Spock, turned into puppets, with all the ridiculousness that entails, there was still drama and character development in the episode, keeping it from being (pardon the pun) a fluff piece. People in three generations of my family have agreed that the whole thing really happened and T’pring said it was a dream as payback for being involved in more “hijinks.’ [I still maintain this is accurate and do not care one bit that they have refused to provide a shred on screen evidence of this.]
“Off-Hour”
More explanation about how Starfleet shifts work and why we always see the same people on duty. Woo! They’re really swinging that tone pendulum back and forth this season aren’t they? Once more the time constraint combined with miraculous Federation medicine means we can have real suspense about which of the catastrophic injuries the characters experience will have long term effects. Streaming makes me forget they can get away with showing those injuries in their full gory glory on this retro show… until they happen. Gah! A very intense edge of the seat story that understood the characters well, and built connections between them. It was an interesting idea to bring back the likeable Doctor from the original Pilot, and turn the audience against him immediately. A great showcase for Nurse Chapel in this one. Meanwhile, Pelia manages to be just as goofy as ever, while remaining profound and wise in this darker episode, where we get to see how she helped transform Scotty in to the miracle worker we know him to be. The “real time” aspect was handled well, and for a second time gave us a better episode than Doctor Who’s “42.”
"Like Chronitons Through the
Hourglass"
Another extremely silly episode, brilliantly spoofing classic soap operas, shows some of the deepest and most powerful emotional moments for the main characters, in call backs to events of previous seasons. Confirmations are presented that, yes we did meet Trelane last season and, yes he is a Q. Using some more Original Series sound effects for him was a cool touch. As always, the cast knows how to throw themselves into the wild situations and have a lot of fun, while still staying true to the core of their characters. The older serieses didn’t have this high percentage of goofy episodes, but they tended to be the most famous and often most popular ones, so its nice this series leans into having the same number of them, without sacrificing the space drama.
“Orders of Magnitude”
The thrills and drama are back. Another focus on on Kirk’s path to command. And in the tradition the Original Series, a Startfleet higher up being an emotionally unstable jerk. (With an outstanding guest performance by Joe Morton… with his Blues Brothers 2000 experience, they could have used him on the singing one.) Once more a welcome peek into Doctor M/Benga’s shady past. Also, a welcome peek into the relationship between Jim and Sam Kirk. Sam's a fantastic character on this show, and every time we see the intelligent, fun and responsible guy he is, it makes me sadder about "Operation Annihilate." Here's hoping they confirm this is an alternate timeline before it ends. This story is good, old fashioned, high stakes Star Trek, where morality must do battle with mission. The story was split like many Treks are between the ship and away team actions. The split was more balanced than usual, and instead of spending minimal time with those trapped below, it gave us some great moments for Uhura demonstrating her intelligence, compassion and combat training against an interesting squad of Andorian Pirates, that leads to her promotion.
Once Upon La’an Time
I"m going to repeat myself- I am very happy to see that the creative team had a big pile crazy ideas for so many stories where wild things happened and the cast got to play other characters, and when they knew the show was going to end, decided to do ALL of them anyway. Star Trek has always had fun ones, and, yes, there are a lot of them here, but they are the most memorable of any series, I say go for it.Sad to see Pelia go, but she left on her own terms, with Princess Bride references and hilariously. We don’t get much explanation of why this episode on a space ship that looks like a flat planet happened at all and that’s fine. It’s like the realized they could have done a lot more with the first season “Fairy Tale” episode if they really went for it, so they did! Woo! The cast, set designers, effects team and wardrobe department freakin' RAN WITH IT!. La’an’s season long character development comes to a head, but I wonder what the reason she’s not in the original series will be. I’m worried that everyone else’s exits will not be as pleasant as Carol Kane’s. We got Uhura's performer bringing everything to being the Evil Queen, having more fun than the considerable amount the rest of the cast was. I was happy to see the Star Trek tradition of identical doubles being immediately detected remained true. Plus there was a werewolf AND a dragon!! Woo Hoo!
I will say again, the fact that they so unashamedly embrace ideas that out-crazy most of the rest of the franchise in this show, even with shorter seasons, warms my heart. This was insane and hilarious, and (thanks to the Henson Creature Shop) technically amazing. While the entire crew, except Spock, turned into puppets, with all the ridiculousness that entails, there was still drama and character development in the episode, keeping it from being (pardon the pun) a fluff piece. People in three generations of my family have agreed that the whole thing really happened and T’pring said it was a dream as payback for being involved in more “hijinks.’ [I still maintain this is accurate and do not care one bit that they have refused to provide a shred on screen evidence of this.]
More explanation about how Starfleet shifts work and why we always see the same people on duty. Woo! They’re really swinging that tone pendulum back and forth this season aren’t they? Once more the time constraint combined with miraculous Federation medicine means we can have real suspense about which of the catastrophic injuries the characters experience will have long term effects. Streaming makes me forget they can get away with showing those injuries in their full gory glory on this retro show… until they happen. Gah! A very intense edge of the seat story that understood the characters well, and built connections between them. It was an interesting idea to bring back the likeable Doctor from the original Pilot, and turn the audience against him immediately. A great showcase for Nurse Chapel in this one. Meanwhile, Pelia manages to be just as goofy as ever, while remaining profound and wise in this darker episode, where we get to see how she helped transform Scotty in to the miracle worker we know him to be. The “real time” aspect was handled well, and for a second time gave us a better episode than Doctor Who’s “42.”
Another extremely silly episode, brilliantly spoofing classic soap operas, shows some of the deepest and most powerful emotional moments for the main characters, in call backs to events of previous seasons. Confirmations are presented that, yes we did meet Trelane last season and, yes he is a Q. Using some more Original Series sound effects for him was a cool touch. As always, the cast knows how to throw themselves into the wild situations and have a lot of fun, while still staying true to the core of their characters. The older serieses didn’t have this high percentage of goofy episodes, but they tended to be the most famous and often most popular ones, so its nice this series leans into having the same number of them, without sacrificing the space drama.
The thrills and drama are back. Another focus on on Kirk’s path to command. And in the tradition the Original Series, a Startfleet higher up being an emotionally unstable jerk. (With an outstanding guest performance by Joe Morton… with his Blues Brothers 2000 experience, they could have used him on the singing one.) Once more a welcome peek into Doctor M/Benga’s shady past. Also, a welcome peek into the relationship between Jim and Sam Kirk. Sam's a fantastic character on this show, and every time we see the intelligent, fun and responsible guy he is, it makes me sadder about "Operation Annihilate." Here's hoping they confirm this is an alternate timeline before it ends. This story is good, old fashioned, high stakes Star Trek, where morality must do battle with mission. The story was split like many Treks are between the ship and away team actions. The split was more balanced than usual, and instead of spending minimal time with those trapped below, it gave us some great moments for Uhura demonstrating her intelligence, compassion and combat training against an interesting squad of Andorian Pirates, that leads to her promotion.
I"m going to repeat myself- I am very happy to see that the creative team had a big pile crazy ideas for so many stories where wild things happened and the cast got to play other characters, and when they knew the show was going to end, decided to do ALL of them anyway. Star Trek has always had fun ones, and, yes, there are a lot of them here, but they are the most memorable of any series, I say go for it.Sad to see Pelia go, but she left on her own terms, with Princess Bride references and hilariously. We don’t get much explanation of why this episode on a space ship that looks like a flat planet happened at all and that’s fine. It’s like the realized they could have done a lot more with the first season “Fairy Tale” episode if they really went for it, so they did! Woo! The cast, set designers, effects team and wardrobe department freakin' RAN WITH IT!. La’an’s season long character development comes to a head, but I wonder what the reason she’s not in the original series will be. I’m worried that everyone else’s exits will not be as pleasant as Carol Kane’s. We got Uhura's performer bringing everything to being the Evil Queen, having more fun than the considerable amount the rest of the cast was. I was happy to see the Star Trek tradition of identical doubles being immediately detected remained true. Plus there was a werewolf AND a dragon!! Woo Hoo!
Tomorrow's Enterprise
With the exception of the season two cliff hanger when they knew the show was continuing, every season of this show has been excellent at finishing on an episode that could close out the entire series. This one book-ended a focus on Uhura at the start, and gave a glimpse of what could have been in the follow up Star Trek Year One show we're sadly not going to get, because they are fools. FOOLS I SAY!!! It was pure Star Trek. It had crazy time travel ideas, real danger, thrills, and the bridge crew immediately figuring out when one of their friends wasn't the version they're used to. The call fowards to Animated Series characters and the look of the Original Series hairstyles, uniforms and make up were perfectly executed. (Loving Spock's eyeshadow.) The foreshadowing of the uncomfortable Uhura and Scotty moments in Star Trek V... also happened. But I feel like those were much more "OK" than they were in that movie. Probably because, while they capture the core of the characters, they're very different people. Also, Scotty as a bumblingly cute young engineer connecting with an fast rising communications lieutenant didn't have the baggage of it coming out of nowhere after they were friends for 40 years.
Last thought- Anyone else get a "Prophets in the Wormhole" vibe from the midwives inside the connected black and white holes working on the "Space Baby?" Was the Enterprise anywhere near Bajor? Did we just witness the birth of "The Sisko's" mother?
Season Five will be shorter in length, and after this finale will feel more like an encore or a victory lap.
[Crewmembers of concern summary- Pelia got a happy farewell we saw, Erica will make Captain and work at the academy as shown in the time jump. (WOO!), Absolutely no information about Una, and some worrying looks when La'an was mentioned in the future. I'm sticking with my Sector 31 guess... or maybe Sectior 12?]
Click for Season 5 whenever it comes out.
No comments:
Post a Comment