The Star Trek Journal Episode 7: Strange New Worlds Episode 5 Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I've had a pretty busy week this week, so I decided to take the week off from the blogs this week, except for this episode review. Today is a review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Through the Lens of Time". I'm actually amazed that we're already halfway through the third season of SNW. Luckily, we know that we still have two seasons left of the show after this one, so I'm excited to see what the cast and crew have in store for us in those final two seasons. Let's get into the review shall we? Engage!

To be honest, I don't really know what to think about this episode and I really don't have much to say about it. It was okay for what it was, but I honestly feel like the characters were pushed aside for this episode. There were threads that intrigued me, particularly with the new dynamics between Christine and Korby, and La'An and Spock, but they were put aside in favour of the evil ancient species trope that was the focus of the episode.

I have a hard time watching Science Fiction that prefers to just focus on the Science Fiction elements and forgets about the characters. For example, in this season we got introduced to Ensign Dana Gamble, a medical officer, who was assigned to the Enterprise as a replacement for Nurse Chapel while she was away with Korby. He was introduced in "Wedding Bell Blues", but he just kinda popped in and out of the previous two episodes, and now he gets killed at the end of the episode, without us learning anything about him. Which is the biggest complaint I had about Airiam's death in "Project Daedalus" from season 2 of Discovery. The only difference is that they tried to give Airiam a backstory at the beginning of the episode that she died in, but it didn't prevent her death from feeling hollow. Even Tasha Yar's death in "Skin of Evil" from the first season of TNG felt less hollow than Gamble's death, and her's was a senseless, unnecessary, death.

I get that Gamble wasn't a main character, but even with guest characters and supporting characters, in order to feel something when they're killed off, the show's writers have to give the audience a reason to feel it when that character dies. If we hadn't spent years with Spock before he died in The Wrath of Khan, and hadn't seen his friendships with both Kirk and McCoy develop over the course of that time, his death at the end of the movie wouldn't've meant as much, if anything. I know that Goldsman and Myers greenlit the script for this episode, but they didn't write it themselves, and they didn't create the character of Gamble. Kirsten Beyer and David Reed did for "Wedding Bell Blues". But, I think the writers of "Shuttle to Kenfori" and "A Space Adventure Hour" did not do enough with the character to justify killing him off in this episode. There was nothing to it. It may have meant something to M'Benga, but Gamble wasn't in enough episodes to really flesh out his relationship with M'Benga.

I know, I'm being harsh on this episode and harping on this one thing, but between the fact that nothing else really happened in this episode, and the fact that I KNOW this show can do better with character development and earning character deaths, like with Hemmer back in season 1, this episode falls very short when it comes to its quality. Which is fine, since not every episode can be really good. But, even the worst episodes of SNW that aired in the first two seasons I found stuff to talk about. Even if I didn't have very much to say about them. Here, for me, there was nothing. 

Anyway, that's all I have to say about this episode. I'll be back next week with a lot more posts. I also have a less busy week next week, so I'll actually feel up for blogging. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Live long and prosper.

The Star Trek Journal Episode 6: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, Episode 4 Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well. Today at the Star Trek Journal I'm going to be reviewing this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, entitled, "A Space Adventure Hour". There will be spoilers because I can't talk about this episode without them. So, if you're a Star Trek fan who is watching SNW week to week, and you haven't watched this week's episode before reading my review. Engage!

"A Space Adventure Hour" is very much a nod to the holodeck episodes of TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Specifically the holodeck malfunction episodes that all three shows did a few times each in the late '80s and the '90s. And I was here for it. I loved this episode.

Making this a La'An focused episode was awesome. In seasons 1 and 2, La'An focused episodes were very angst ridden and super dramatic, because they involved the Gorn or aspects of her past. So it was fun to have a fun little episode that took place in the holodeck for a change. Christina Chong did such a wonderful job playing a lighter, less burden heavy version of La'An. Her chemistry with Ethan Peck was fantastic. More on that in a bit.

So La'An was ordered by Starfleet Command to test the holodeck to see if Starfleet could eventually incorporate the system into every starship in the fleet. So she tested it with the help of Spock and Scotty and decided to use the Amelia Moon mystery novels as the program to test the new system with. Amelia Moon is like Dixon Hill, Sherlock Holmes, and Bashir's secret agent persona from "Our Man Bashir". The story she created was an original, similar to how Data and Pulaski created an original Holmes mystery for Data to solve in "Elementary, Dear Data", which resulted in the creation of Professor Moriarty. In this case, it created a Spock hologram as the murderer, because La'An is familiar with Spock and she would never suspect him as the murderer.

The story that La'An participates in is about a Sci-Fi television series in the 1960s called The Last Frontier, which is basically the original Star Trek series, and the SNW cast plays the actors and creator/producer of the in universe series. And while Anson Mount plays the producer/creator, TK Bellows, the Gene Roddenberry analogue, he actually looks more like legendary Sci-Fi author, Isaac Asimov, the way he looked in the '60s. Asimov was huge fan of Star Trek and defended it immensely during the time it was on the air. So, to have him honoured in an episode of Star Trek is fitting. And it makes sense for SNW in particular because Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are huge Star Trek fans. Though neither of them wrote this episode, because they're the showrunners for the series, they were involved in developing the story for this episode, and are pretty much in charge of the easter eggs found in SNW.

Now, to the thing I REALLY want to talk about in this episode. Spock and La'An. In "Wedding Bell Blues" La'An was teaching Spock how to dance so he could surprise Chapel with his new ability upon her return to the Enterprise following her fellowship with Korby. But, obviously, she came back with Korby as her new boyfriend, which led into that episode's shenanigans. Even still, they dance together again during the Federation Day celebration at the end of the episode and the whole time I was thinking, "They aren't gonna have Spock and La'An be in a romantic relationship with each other are they? Nah, they couldn't be! Could they?". So when they kissed at the end of this episode I was like, "I was right!". I think this will be an interesting storyline if done correctly.

The thing about any romantic relationship that the writers put Spock into in this show is that none of them can last since Spock needs to be back with T'Pring by the time the events of "Amok Time" occur, so that she can break up with him to be with Stonn. Beyond that though, I was surprised the writers put them together so fast, given it's only been two episodes since they danced together. They took a season and a half to get Spock and Chapel together and they only lasted for four episodes before she dumped him extremely publicly in "Subspace Rhapsody". So maybe they intend Spock and La'An to have a lasting relationship that ends for some reason. As long as that reason isn't La'An's death, I could be all for it. I do not see Spock or La'An going for a casual relationship or a one night stand, so if the writers are putting them together romantically, then they're putting them together for the long haul. We'll see what happens.

Overall, this was a fun episode. I loved the murder mystery. It felt like a single episode mystery from Only Murders in the Building. I also loved the fact that the sound effects people used the original TOS sound effects for scenes depicting The Last Frontier and the fact they used the original TOS title font for the opening and closing credits. 

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back next week with more posts. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Live long and prosper.