Logline
Spock, La’An and Kirk board a lost Federation ship, where an old mystery becomes a survival crisis.
Written by: Robbie Thompson
Directed by: Axelle Carolyn
Well, saw the episode. But all the going for shock and eek and ick didn’t really impress, especially when the story basically has no resolution other than “beats us shrug”.
In today’s episode of UNHOLSTER YOUR FUCKING SIDEARM.
Just like the 1st episode, I’m of two minds with this one.
It’s like all the bits are good, but the whole is lacking.
Spooky? Yes. Trek? Maybe the shit kind. 1/10
Added nothing to my life.
That was a crazy episode, super strong start to the season
“The Enterprise crew encounters a phenomenon that forces them to face their innermost fears” is very well-trodden ground for this series, but this is probably one of the best examples. It coasts on a very well-executed horror story, and I thought it did a very good job in not tipping its hand as to which characters were real, and which were hallucinations.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the stories of our two main characters were advanced much, if it all. La’An is still afraid there’s a monster within her, and Spock still has issues with his duality, though this episode could mark the shift of his return to a more “Vulcan” way of being.
I thought the episode handled Kirk really well, though. From the moment they acknowledged that David was going to play a role in the series going forward, I had pretty high hopes - there are a lot of blanks to be filled in, since he was retconned into Kirk’s backstory in 1982. Kirk’s fears of being an absentee father, and of dying in some forgotten corner of space, feel very real, and I think they would feel real even if you didn’t know how it’s all going to turn out for him.
I thought the scene between Kirk and Uhura at the end was very…interesting. Not sure what to say about it, but it was interesting.
Uhura’s doing what Pike recognised her ability for in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody” - a sort of soothing presence that helps the crew communicate together and holds it together. The character’s always been a naturally empathetic person. Kirk’s realising that more clearly now.
Annotations for 4x02 are up at: https://startrek.website/post/42835945
I’m a little disappointed whatever was going on wasn’t explained with some kind of technobabble at the end. That doesn’t seem very Star Trekkie to me.
Yeah, in the last few minutes of the episode, I kept thinking how in TNG they would have discovered it was an anaphasic lifeform or some kind of telepathic residue or something, and here we don’t get any explanation. Maybe they’re trying to spin off Section 12 as some kind of “X-Files in space”.
Yeah my immediate thought was oh we’re getting a Division 12 spinoff set up. Would be hilarious if it was like X-files but through a Lower Decks lens though. “Yeah yeah yeah temporal wars the Xindi will rule the galaxy. Go to processing C-15.”
I suppose it may also be part of this season’s overarching storyline. Perhaps it’ll be revealed in a later episode.
Every character who “died” isn’t on the NCC-1701 by the time Kirk is in command in TOS episode 2. Noonien-Singh is still such a rivaled name 70 years later that Data has to be created on some remote outpost. Not to say La’an is the reason for that, but it almost certainly will be a season arc.
