Star Trek Strange New Worlds: A Space Adventure Hour

"You told me you needed a challenge. You're welcome."

We're certainly getting a lot of variety this season. Alien monsters, a visit from Q, zombies... the holodeck?

I know they're not everyone's favorite, but I enjoyed the Next Gen holodeck episodes. It is certainly true that long range missions in space would make recreation more important. And I liked the cheat explanation for how we got the holodeck prototype so early. Soooo many in-jokes. La'an telling the computer to create a real challenge for her was the original Moriarty screw-up. Making it an "Amelia Moon" mystery was a callback to Picard and Dixon Hill.

But what I thought really worked was setting the mystery in 1969 Hollywood, where The Last Frontier, i.e. Star Trek, was killed too soon for all the wrong reasons. Joni the power agent's whole speech about kids being inspired to make space a career, giving fans a positive vision of the future to believe in no matter who they are or where they came from, was the raison d'être of Star Trek. "But you can't do any of that without a season two!" If the fans hadn't demanded a third season, Star Trek would have become a footnote in history back in 1968.

Letting the SNW cast play new characters gave them a chance to ham it up. (Good explanation that the computer had to create characters using existing pattern buffers.) I liked The Last Frontier a bit more than the mystery mansion scenes that seemed to go a bit long. While everyone was fun, I especially enjoyed Anson Mount as "TK Bellows" with big glasses, a curly wig and potbelly, and an annoying high voice, and Celia Rose Gooding as Joni/Uhura, who had the best lines in the episode.

But both were left in the shade by Paul Wesley's over the top Shatner impression. It was one for the ages.

(Interesting that they're still giving James Kirk distance from the crew. He's not the captain yet. Note that this episode had current and future captains Pike and Kirk, as TK Bellows and Maxwell Saint, arguing a lot.)

There were so many fun references to the original series: the miniskirts, the lack of seat belts, the "space phone." Woods said that Holodeck Spock was wearing pajamas. I absolutely adored Zipnop of the Triathic Agonyan Empire with her eyeballs on sticks. Even better was the closing credits recreation of the famous Star Trek blooper reels, with the actors walking into the doors.

Okay. I must admit that I guessed Spock wasn't real from the moment La'an entered the holodeck. Ethan Peck was projecting detachment a bit too well. But I didn't know that he was the killer until it became obvious. Let's admit it, folks. The holodeck, or the Enterprise computer as the holodeck, just played matchmaker and made La'an and Spock a couple because it knew her very well and guessed what she needed. A future dating app extraordinaire.

I'm good with La'an and Spock as a romantic pair. They're both very serious people with an unexpected fun side, and they tango like they were made to be together. And La'an isn't a legacy character, so it could go pretty much anywhere. I don't know how far they could have gone with Nurse Chapel before it became a monster continuity issue.

The "real world" plot was brief, but it also had good stuff. Una reinstated Ortegas, and Ortegas promptly saved the ship. And it's fun to see Scotty before he got his reputation as a miracle-worker. I particularly loved his "hypothetical communications problem" discussion with Uhura, as well as him going undercover on the holodeck in a striped polo shirt.

Bits:

— I didn't catch a stardate. This week, it was La'an's personal log. We went to 1969 Hollywood as well as the Blootar Nebula with the crew of the USS Adventure from the Alliance of Outer Space Planets.

— The original name of the holodeck was the "Re-Creation Room." Not the snappiest of titles.

— There was a little homage to The Outer Limits, with the wave on the wall and the look of Zipnop the alien.

— Pelia is still on leave. I wonder if Carol Kane is coming back at all?

— This episode was directed by the very best of all Star Trek directors, our own Number One, Jonathan Frakes.

Quotes:

Zipnop: "All worship to us, small pathetic human food-piles."
Captain: "We scanned an unusual level of radiation in the Blootar Nebula. Even though this is outside of your empire's... jurisdiction."
Zipnop: "That is a lie! Spread by pathetic but delicious humans."

Christine/Number One: "We can't give them our brain cells. We need it for many science reasons."
Christine got to play Number One. There's something twisted about that, since Majel Barrett originated the characters of both Number One and Christine.

Kirk/Captain: "First... we find the Agonyans... retrieve our brain cells. And then... we get back our joy."

Kirk/Captain: "Galaxies. The Last Frontier. This is the tale of the USS Adventure on its 84-month mission as it treks across the furthest reaches of the universe, striving to find unknown life, unexplained phenomena, and new space destinations. To go forward, to go beyond, to go further and bolder than anyone ever before."

Spock: "Well, as my ancestor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, would write, 'The game is afoot'."

Kirk/Saint: "Lee! Is she... dead?"
Ortegas/Woods: "You know I'm an actor, not a doctor, right?"
A little tribute to Bones.

La'an/Amelia: "Detective Spock doesn't watch television."
Pike/Bellows: "So he's a communist?"

Uhura/Joni: "Canceling The Last Frontier is the stupidest thing Tony's ever done. Do you realize how rare a show like this is? TK wanted to give audiences a digestible reflection of their own world through the lens of fantasy. Social commentary with rubber masks and buried metaphors. You know, science fiction."

La'an: "While holodeck technology certainly holds promise, the risks outweigh the potential benefits. We do not recommend the device be installed on active ships... at this time."
Pike: "How about we recommend that it be locked in a box deep underground somewhere?"

I'm interested in what you all thought of this one. Three out of four sets of pajamas,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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